The light changed to red, but the truck didn't stop.
Kai was already halfway across the crosswalk, a plastic bag swinging against his thigh, the city's midnight hum spilling around him like static. He'd just left the little game shop on 4th and Mercer—a cracked neon sign, a clerk half-asleep behind the counter, and a single copy left in stock.
Erebos Online: Director's Cut.
The clerk had handed him the box as if it were contraband, whispering, You're lucky. Last one in the city. Kai had laughed, cradling it like treasure. Three years of waiting for this release. The permadeath patch. The ultimate run.
He never saw the grille.
A burst of light. A sound like tearing metal. Then the world folded in on itself.
The impact came too fast for pain. He was a ragdoll in a flash of red and white, the controller dropped mid-game. His phone skittered across the asphalt. The bag ripped. The case burst open, and the disc spun away—glinting once under the streetlight before shattering into silence.
His last thought wasn't fear.
It was, I didn't even install it.
[SYSTEM LOG — 00:00:00]
[The Player has died.]
[Cause: Collision. External. Data unsaved.]
[System data corruption detected.]
[Deleting player file…]
[Error 404: File not found.]
[Unknown anomaly detected.]
[Player System — terminated.]
[New unidentified system requesting permission.]
Darkness.
No sound. No breath. Just a single line of text suspended in the void:
[YES / NO]
He tried to say no. His throat didn't exist.
[User input unavailable.]
[System override — permission granted.]
Then everything split open.
Code poured through him—not words, not numbers, but feeling: electricity, memory, pain, the echo of all the things he'd ever touched. It filled him until there was no room left to scream.
[Initializing new core system…]
[10% … 27% … 46% … 73% … 99%]
[Initialization complete.]
A single chime echoed—that same soft note that played when Erebos Online first booted up.
[The Afterlife System has been successfully activated.]
[Special Skill: "Death's Return" acquired.]
[Skill: "Death's Return" — fully synchronized.]
[END OF CHAPTER 1]