"200 MILLION! 200 MILLION??! I JUST FINISHED PAYING BACK MY STUDENT LOAN ONLY TO GET PULLED UP BY THIS CRAP!!"
"[HOST PLEASE CALM DOWN]"
WHO THE HELL CALMS DOWN WHEN THEY ARE BURIED IN DEBT??
WHY DOES THIS 'DEADBEAT' EVEN HAVE AN APARTMENT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY WHEN HE IS NECK DEEP IN DEBT??!
YES!
'That's right!'
LETS JUST SELL EVERYTHING I CAN FIND HERE!
-'Surely there must be a lot of things to sell at a princes house.'
1 hour later
"NOTHING?!-
WHY IS THERE NOTHING WORTH SELLING IN THIS HUGE APARTMENT??"
"[WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT 'KAELEN VALERIUS DUSKBANE' FOR 10 AFFINITY COINS]."
"You didn't tell me everything for the 30 coins?"
"[ NO HOST > - < ]"
Ah...and on top of that I'm stuck with a scammer.
This must be karma for bullying my little sister. If i knew this would happen I'd have only eaten half her snacks.
"Use it"
"[ KAELEN VALERIUS DUSKBANE WAS KICKED OUT OF THE ROYAL PALACE YESTERDAY FOR FAILING TO UPHELD THE DIGNITY OF A PRINCE AND WAS GIVEN THE JOB AS INSTRUCTOR AS THE FINAL GRACE FOR HIS ROYAL BLOOD . THIS APARTMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE ACADEMY FOR FACULTY. TODAY IS HIS FIRST DAY AT WORK]
So the guy doesn't have money or the prince status? The only thing he has is a bad reputation?!
'… This really is the worst.'
[DING! YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE FIRST CHAPTER OF 'LEVELING WITH THE SYSTEM'. WOULD YOU LIKE TO VIEW IT?]
"Yes!"
[ Chapter One: Ashes of Yesterday
The sky burned.
Not with sunlight or storm, but with fire—unnatural, malevolent, red as blood. Smoke billowed through the air like mourning shrouds, suffocating the screams before they could reach the heavens. The village of Raventhorn , once a quiet place tucked between woods and rivers, was now nothing but scorched earth.
And in the middle of it all, a boy knelt.
His hands were covered in soot and blood.
His knees dug into the cracked dirt where his home used to be. Around him, corpses lay like discarded dolls—neighbours, friends, family.
All gone.
The boy's name was Rein Varion. Twelve years old. He had never held a sword, never cast a spell.
Now he stared at the charred remains of his little sister's ribbon in his hand, and something in him broke.
It wasn't loud, the way grief sometimes is. It didn't come with howls or tears. It came quietly, like a whisper in the back of his mind—sharp and cold.
He would remember the faces of those who did this.
And he would never forgive them.
"Do you wish for power?"
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Smooth. Mechanical. Inhuman. Rein blinked. The world around him stilled, as if time itself held its breath.
A flickering blue screen blinked into existence before him, suspended in the air.
[ [System Initialization Complete.]
Welcome, Chosen User: Rein Varion.
You have been selected by the ******* System.
Calculating grudge level…
Hatred: 97%
Despair: 91%
Hope: 1%
You qualify. Would you like to begin your path of revenge and salvation?
[Yes][No] ]
Rein stared at the glowing text, his breath shallow. He should have questioned it. Feared it. Doubted his sanity. But something inside him whispered:
This is the only way.
He reached out and touched [Yes].
[System Bound. ]
[begins now.]
[Quest Initialized: save the world from ??????
Rewards: ??????]
[Objective 1: Survive.]
The sound of footsteps got closer to him.
Their blurry noises of relief of having found a survivor reaching his ears.
[Completed]
[Reward: basic knowledge]
The blue light surged through his body like lightning. His vision blurred, and a torrent of information flooded his mind—combat forms, mana circuits, spell structures. The pain was blinding. The knowledge was infinite.
When it ended, Rein collapsed to the ground, gasping. But he was no longer the same boy.
His hands still shook, but now they held purpose.
His heart still bled, but now it beat with vengeance.
The ashes of yesterday still clung to his skin, but the fire in his eyes burned brighter.
He would rise through the ranks.
Make allies. Face enemies.
And when the time came, he would find the ones who turned his world to ash—
—and burn theirs to the ground. ]