The higher you fly, the harder the fall will be.
As gravity dragged him down, Zayn remembered his mother’s warning. Regret piled inside his chest. Not because he had not taken her advice seriously; he more or less regretted the fact that he failed that dive.
He swore he had it, though—the picture-perfect jump, the impeccable triple flip, just like how Helldiver did it in the movies. He would have surely gotten the final three followers, even a couple of hundred followers...if he had gone viral.
But the whirlpool of stars dragging him down didn’t care for his feelings. At the same velocity, it dragged him down towards his inevitable death.
The day he had ridden a motorcycle for the first time, He’d joked with his best friend that he’d die cracking a bone or two. That when he fell to his death, he’d joke about it too.
But what was funny about the skies being wrung like wet clothes? Or falling at the same velocity for what felt like an eternity…
Contestant Zayn H. King is outside the designated zones. The assigned Tutorial has been terminated.
Feat [I’m a gamer] unlocked!
A game screen? Tutorial? Feat? None of that made much sense to him.
He attributed all of this to his brain making up things to ease the moment of his death. Closing his eyes, he braced for the impact of the eventual fall…
But it never came.
Instead, fragmented memories kept flickering in front of his eyes, like worn-out pictures spilling out of an old, abandoned album.
He grinned.
Somewhere, he’d heard that the human brain replayed its best memories when death knocked at its door. But if these were his best memories, he had lived a really, really shitty life.
When he’d almost given up and thought this was his personal hell, he came crashing down with a sickening crack.
Warning! Health under 30%!
A pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced before assaulted his nervous system. His ribs tore into his lungs, spine snapped like a twig, and a deep ringing replaced all sound in existence.
He felt himself fading. His vision turned deep red—the red of death.
Warning! Critical health!
He clawed at the ground. To die of a failed stunt…was the worst way to die. He hadn’t even fixed Raka… yet. And…most importantly, he didn’t want to die…dirt poor, like this!
He held his breath to cage the oxygen inside his shredded lungs. Tried to hold his blood from leaving. Latched onto a thread of his unravelling sanity. But the terrifying numbness invaded him.
It wormed into his skin… his flesh and bones…even his soul.
He felt himself fading.
When the world almost turned black… and all the pain started to recede into a terrifying numbness…the screen in front of him changed again.
Level Up! x 3
Feat [I’m a gamer] in effect!
A weird burning energy pulled him back into existence. His spine snapped together into a single whole. Pain slithered up his bones and muscles and ripped a sharp bite at his brain.
They said once you reached past a certain threshold of pain, it blurred and could no longer be felt. How wrong they were. Zayn was submerged in an endless wave of pain. As if someone was continuously peeling the layers off his body, only to stitch him back whole.
After an eternity of pain and passing out from it and then returning to consciousness, he felt the world settle down. His muscles writhed like screaming ghosts as he forced himself upright.
He heaved a painful, long breath, and pieces of debris and dust rained down from his clothes.
Rock?
He stared down. Numerous pebbles lay scattered across the ground densely near the area he’d fallen on. Suddenly, words erupted in his vision.
Stone golem - LV 9 (Neutralized)
He craned his neck to look at the sky with great difficulty, and then down at the pile of rubble again.
A stone golem?
What was a stone golem?
Well…fuck, he knew what a stone golem was. He wasn’t a noob. He just didn’t know why things like that could logically exist here. On top of that...a game screen was telling him that he had fallen down nearly a thousand feet and crushed it, then lived to tell about it?!
He would’ve laughed if he didn’t know that it’d cause a fresh wave of pain.
Whenever he walked past tall buildings and places, he always feared something would fall on his head and crush him to death. Just the absolute worst way to go.
Funny. He had become the very thing he once feared.
“No.” He hadn’t actually fallen down the entire thousand feet.
After those weird voice announcements, he hadn’t felt the gravitational pull increase as it should have. Instead, it was as if he was suspended in the void for an infinitely long time before he fell down.
Wary, he looked around.
Despite the pale red haze still clouding his vision, he could make out the forest.
The second strange thing he noticed was that it was suddenly day again.
Rays of morning sun pierced through the towering trees, their gnarled trunks spiraling skyward into a dense, interwoven canopy. Fresh air rushed into his one unclogged nose, jolting him awake.
A scattered, disbelieving laugh escaped his lips. Had he gone mad? Or maybe the world did—because none of this made any sense.
Moments ago, he'd jumped across the gaps of two mountains, trying a near-impossible stunt in the middle of a moonlit night. Next moment, the stars cried, and the sun shone upon him again.
Had he been kidnapped and drugged to hell by someone? Perhaps everything was a hallucination made up by his brain before his death?
He took a numb, painful step forward, making his wet boots squelch. He blinked, finally noticing something. When he closed his eyes, a blue ball tinkled in the corner of his eyes like a lone star in the void.
As soon as he put his attention to it, it spread like a screen of liquid glass.
Status
Zayn H. King, Level - 4
Race: Human (Low)
Class: Unavailable.
Affiliation: Human (Earth)
He scoffed in disbelief, realization dawning on him. This was like the RPG games he’d seen his classmates play as a kid.
Feats : [Undying cockroach] [Fall damage...what’s that?], [Bloodthirsty], [I’m a gamer].
He remembered getting [I’m a gamer], but when had the rest happened?
He clicked on the first one.
Undying Cockroach! (Legacy Feat fragment 1 of 3)
A gambler dares. A cockroach lives. Few would dare to jump across worlds during integration. Fewer would survive the fall. This is a Feat of someone who has a death wish, as well as an indomitable will to live.
Primary Effect: Whenever you’re under 30% of your maximum health, your fortitude increases by 100%. For every additional 5% health lost, it scales by an additional 30%, capping at a total of 250%.
Secondary effect: Locked. Unlocks when fragment ‘Death’s Gambit’ is unlocked.
Tertiary effect: Locked. Unlocks when fragment ‘Atop the peak’ is unlocked.
A legacy Feat fragment? What does that mean? He stared at the effects and then took a quick look at his stats, which were just below.
Stats
Strength: 7
Constitution: 9
Vitality: 6
Dexterity: 7
Fortitude: 13 (+13)
Intelligence: 4
Free points: 03
“A bit skewed.” Zayn stared at his fortitude stat and darted his eyes at [Undying cockroach] again. His foggy brain made it so that he had to count a few more times to be sure.
Primary Effect: Whenever you’re under 30% of your maximum health, your fortitude increases by 100%. For every additional 5% health lost, it scales by an additional 30%, capping at a total of 250%.
Then the realization dawned on him—he was just a hair away from death.
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But somehow, it didn’t feel that serious?
He had been injured before, but things felt strange right now. Pain was muted and distant from him. As though he was piloting a body that wasn't his own. What was most surprising was that...his body, torn and bloodied, was kept together by some kind of invisible force when it already should’ve collapsed. Thankfully, that same force allowed him to keep moving, even if he should’ve arguably been dead from the actual injuries he’d sustained.
But even more infuriating than him being on the brink of death was his intelligence stat.
He’d never considered himself a genius, but he was not that stupid.
Bugged. That's what this damn system was. Like every live-service game ever at launch.
Hobbling on his swollen ankles, he headed deeper inside the jungle. His torn muscles made walking a chore, but he kept his legs moving despite the terrible pain. After a while, he finally spotted a hint of something in the corner of his eyes.
A river blue silhouette lay fallen between the patches of grass. He lurched towards it, heart pounding. But once he got a closer look, his steps froze.
Raka lay on the ground, bent and scattered into many small parts. Its blue tank was dented like a kicked-in soda can, while its brakes sat a few feet apart from its body. The exhaust pipe had buried itself into the ground, abandoned by the rest.
“No no no no!” He rushed down onto his knees, whispering and rubbing its broken body.
A pain rose in the back of his throat and crushed his heart, overpowering the pain of his body.
Dragging on his knees, he hauled out the exhaust pipe with a grunt, then the brakes, putting them together one by one. His hands trembled, heartbeats roaring in his ear as he kept trying to piece it back into one piece.
However, things weren’t fixed as easily as they were broken.
The more he tried to fix it, the more disorganized it became. Eventually, he sat on the ground, just staring at it with all thoughts frozen.
Whoosh
Out of nowhere, air whipped past his ears like a swift knife. A sharp crack of wood splitting rang out from behind. He mechanically lifted his neck to look in front of him.
Stone Golem, Lv 7
It stood around four feet tall, squat and broad, built like a jacked bodybuilder who’d never missed any leg days. On its stony torso were innumerable cracks—like dried farmland in summer.
With every step it took, pebbles rained down.
As soon as it raised its thick and stubby arm, Zayn broke out of the trance.
He lunged away. He was too late, however. The stone shard still sliced past his calf, opening a gaping hole. He scrambled behind the nearest tree, hiding himself.
Thump
Loud, dull footsteps closed onto him, echoing his pounding heart. He leaped again, and the air swayed behind him once more.
This was all real. Or at least, to him, it was. Perhaps he had truly gone crazy, but right now he could feel that thing chasing him—feel the blood pumping in his heart and the burning sensations flowing through his body.
It did not matter if this was all a hallucination; if he’d gone crazy, he may as well act it.
But he wasn’t going to just roll over and die.
He stared at the broken Raka sitting tens of yards away, and his eyes slowly turned resolute.
Picking some stones off the ground, he shot them into the distance. It worked better than he expected. The four-foot menace lumbered to where the rock fell.
When it found nothing, it even shot a shard in frustration.
Zayn crouched towards the remnant of Raka. Staring at it, pain bloomed in him like a river of rage. He put his hand inside the remains of his broken motorcycle, and with a pull-drawing strength he didn’t know he had in him, he tore Raka’s chain and fork out.
He could run. The golem was slow and dull, just like a zombie.
He could lose it, easily.
But he did not believe that was going to be the most serious of the threats here—not by a long shot. If things really were like a game, then there would be other monsters. Stronger ones. Gripping the cold, hard steel of the fork and the chain, he hid himself within the shadows of the trees.
Fuck running away.
He wasn’t the kind who was good at running in the first place.
He slowly made his way towards it. Just when he was about to sneak up on it, it turned around with a startling dexterity, its stubby arm shooting a shard at him.
Warning! Health under 10%!
‘Undying Cockroach’ grows stronger!
“Screw you!” Sliding down on his knees, he slammed the fork at the golem’s knee with every ounce of his remaining strength.
He braced for the rebound of steel against rock, but instead, its knee shattered with a satisfying crunch. Made of broken stone and mud, it was brittle and easy to break.
It fell with a whine.
Rising back, he intended to land the finishing blow without delay, but the next attack was already at him.
Pebbles the size of fingernails pincered out of its torso, aiming for everything in the vicinity. Its sharp projectiles tore many small wounds on him as they shot past him like an exploding rock grenade.
Warning! Critical health!
[Undying Cockroach] effect maxed.
The world bled red. Madness held him in a chokehold. Ignoring all sensations, he drove the pipe down its rocky head again and again until a notification rose.
Level up!
[I'm a Gamer] in effect!
10% Max health restored!
He heaved deep breaths as an unfamiliar heat coursed through him again. It spread up to his entire body, every bone and muscle. The wobbly joints in his skeleton creaked and healed, shifting and returning to place.
“I win,” he proclaimed to the dead monster and then collapsed on the ground, staring at the sky.
There were two suns in the sky. Just another of those things that made him wonder if he had gone really mad. One of them was normal, while the other burned in the sky like an untended wound. Blood red.
Curiosity welled inside him. Just what had happened to his world? To Earth? Had everything really become like a game all of a sudden?
Despite the terrible pain, for some reason, all he felt as his heart pounded in his chest was a strange feeling of wonder. He wanted to see more. To find out just what else was out there now.
A message buzzed in his vision.
“Hello there, new contestants. I am Borus, System Administrator Rank 001.”
A bored, almost sleepy voice droned, and a screen flashed in front of him. Zayn sat up and looked in surprise. Judging from the voice, he expected to see a lazy office bum. But an unusually tidy grey wolf with pointy ears sat behind the screen, rubbing his eyes as he’d just been woken up.
He wore a royal golden robe adorned with thin violet linings, and a diagonal scar grizzled his face. Despite that, the rimmed glasses he just put on added a touch of refined grace to his aura of nonchalance.
Wolf? A Nerd Lycanthrope, of all things?
“I’m aware you are all very confused and frightened at this moment. For that, you have my heartfelt apologies. Spare those feelings for later, alright? You’ll have plenty of time for that, I promise. And before I begin, let’s ensure we’re all on the same page.”
Borus yawned as he explained, wiping his glasses with his robe. After that, his stare turned sharp like a sword, raising a cold chill in Zayn’s spine.
"Your world as you knew it has ended. Apocalypse, cataclysm, armageddon, or ragnarok—whatever you guys want to call it. It’s done and dusted, never to return. The land you currently stand on is known as Eldera, situated at the outskirts of the Arkana system.”
With a flash of his hand, an image of Earth flashed in front of him. Zayn gaped, watching all the buildings and architecture fall as the sea churned and rose—swallowing it all. In the end, Earth became submerged under water.
Zayn felt a deep disbelief.
All of the progress humanity had made in the past thousands of years meant nothing in that moment. An unfeeling power had ripped it all apart in an instant, returning mankind to the primal.
Just like that.
But why did this display feel so oddly familiar?
“Relax. I bring good news too. The first good news I have is—you are not alone. You were all quite curious about that for some reason. So, Congratulations! Six other planets of the Milky Way galaxy were integrated alongside you. Each teeming with intelligent life.”
Images of seven planets floated in front of Borus, who’d been turning more energetic with each line he spat out of his mouth. Zayn only recognized Earth. As soon as Borus zoomed onto the first planet, the feeling of familiarity clicked.
“First, let’s get started with Planet Econ, housed by the people of Baratha.”
This is just a PowerPoint presentation!
Scowling, he watched as Borus gave a brief description of the planets, alongside a cutshot of each major intelligent species right before the integration. A small planet with hairy humanoids was the first, seemingly still in the Stone Age. Upon close inspection, he found they had catlike ears and tails!
"Thundercats!"
The next planet had a single, titanic tree sticking out of its surface—like a gigantic arm. Upon it, elves, orcs, and other monster races knelt side by side—prostrating towards the sky with devotion in their eyes.
“Lore-inaccurate Lord of the Rings! What’s next? Transformers? The freaking Imperium of men?!”
Hearing thick footsteps get closer towards him, Zayn cursed, quickly hiding himself among the trees. He didn’t want to get skewered by one of these bodybuilder golems while he was listening to a crazy wolf talk.
His brain raced for answers.
Why were all the elves and orcs kneeling? Who were they kneeling to? To the system? To some God of the greater universe? Either way, these fantasy weirdos clearly knew of the apocalypse beforehand. The coincidence would be too strange otherwise.
The Third Planet hosted a race of two-legged, angry lizards who seemed to wear suits, just like humans. They stared up at the sky in unparalleled anger—akin to someone who’d been woken at four in the night.
Understandable reaction.
Humans came fourth, looking like the introvert at parties: confused and terribly out of place. Zayn saw the presentation with mild interest, but it was everything he already knew.
Next were blue-skinned giants—who breathed out fog—wearing what looked a lot like power armor and populated the flying sci-fi-looking cities of the fifth planet, which seemed to have no atmosphere and resembled a moon more than a planet.
Dragons in suits. And Frost Giants with big fuckoff magitech. Zayn lampooned, now numb to the absurdity. Already, he knew these people weren’t going to look each other in the eye. He hoped the last two were more normal—at least more like the cat people.
Proving him wrong, the last two planets had Centaurs with spider legs and giant fuzzballs that squirmed like worms. Pursing his lips, he quickly cut both off from his list of potential allies.
Yet, his heart drummed as if preparing for war. He had spent years as a child—daydreaming about dragons and monsters of myths—searching for evidence. Desperate to prove that they were all real.
He had burnt his dreams later, submerging in the throes of reality.
But this…this was not a dream. This was as real as the blood raging through his veins. Or he had gone completely mad.
“Our administrators have already evacuated most of you into the safe zones, where you’ll be given a choice to undergo a tutorial. For those rare few stuck outside, you have my apologies. We are working on a compensation package, which should be dispatched soon. Do your best to survive until then!”
Zayn scowled. Of course, he was one of those lucky people who hadn’t been evacuated. This wasn’t even new anymore.
“And now that the boring stuff is over with, we’re at the meaty, juicy parts.” Borus smiled, completely shaking off the earlier nonchalance.
“First, Feats. In simple words, Feats are determined by your actions. Brevity, cowardice, madness—whatever you do, your Feats will follow. They are like your lifeblood. The [Titles] you earn, the [Class] you unlock, and the [Path] you tread will all depend upon them.”
In terms of Feats, he should be ahead of the curve. He had a few, and one legacy Feat fragment at that. Surely that had to count for something? He hoped he’d get some decent class choices.
“Second, Benefactors—they are the countless inhabitants of the greater universe, some of whom, by your standards, can be considered gods. They are watching, and they will aid you in your path if you can prove your worth.”
Zayn felt his mind racing. What did he mean they are watching? Was this Hunger Games in real life? Was he being watched right now?
He rushed to find his helmet, to hide his face just in case, only to find a golem tinkering with Rakas's remains. Sensing his footsteps, it turned towards him.
Stone golem - Lv 8
The two just stared at each other in surprise. Then, the golem lifted its arm upwards.
“Shit,” he cursed, ducking. The stone shard grazed past his forearm—cutting almost a centimeter deep. Hissing, he rose to his knees.
“The Doomsday clock is ticking. There is less than half a year left until the second phase of integration, Consolidation, begins. And I have only one word of advice for you—FIGHT!”
Ignoring the pain, Zayn readied himself with the fork. This murderhobo golem had attacked without a shred of hesitation, as if that’s all the instinct it had.
To kill was all its intent.
Zayn’s face broke into a grin.
After dealing with fake people his entire life, he felt refreshed at the change. He charged at it.
***
New contestant detected!
[Reversal] has been activated!
Inside a large chamber, atop a broken throne sat a lone figure—a man made of stone. His body, which was once strong enough to hold the heavens was now full of cracks and his archaic figure bore deep weariness.
The eyelids that had been closed for ages opened once more, revealing an abyssal pair of eyeballs.
The 1327th contestant has arrived! 567 moons have passed since the last contestant!
He gazed tiredly, watching the man struggle to fight the weakest of golems. “Why is he…so weak?”
The contestant has been directly teleported to the dungeon through a remnant spatial node on his planet, right during the integration.
Staring at the dim light flashing on his face, he remained silent. Wasted. He’d wasted another [Reversal]. On his crack-laden body, another few cracks would be added, the badges of his failure.
Must he fail? Was fate truly written in stone? He had waited an insurmountable number of years. He could wait, hold on until the next contestant, and then next, next, until an eternity passed. But what would it change?
He had reversed his consciousness enough times. He was through more than a thousand candidates. He had seen the strongest walk in and still fail.
In an irony of fate…the weakest of them all had just walked in here, thrown in right after the apocalypse. He stared at the man once more. Fine. So be it.
He might as well give him a chance.
“Observe his actions. And don’t kill him off…too early.”
Concurred!
Creating quests!
