Kent Eldridge stared at the flickering screen in front of him, the glow casting harsh shadows across his cluttered desk. The office hummed with the usual monotony—keyboards clacking, muffled conversations drifting from cubicles, and the distant whir of the coffee machine that always seemed on the verge of breaking down. Neo-Seoul's skyline loomed outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, a jagged silhouette of steel and glass pierced by the occasional shimmer of a rift barrier. It was just another Thursday in 2047, or so he thought.
At twenty-two, Kent had mastered the art of blending in. His job at Nexus Corp's data entry division paid the bills, barely, and kept him out of the headlines. No one here talked about the rifts unless they had to—the unpredictable portals that had upended the world two decades ago. They leaked ancient energies, spawning Resonants: twisted creatures that clawed their way into reality, hungry for whatever aura they could siphon from the living. Governments threw up barriers, corporations profited from the chaos, and people like Kent? They just tried to ignore it all.
He rubbed his temples, fighting off the familiar ache. Last night's dreams had been vivid again—vast voids swirling with stars that weren't stars, whispers of power he couldn't grasp. Probably stress, he told himself. Or the cheap takeout. Pushing the thought aside, he focused on the spreadsheet. Numbers blurred into meaninglessness: rift incident reports, aura yield projections. Boring, safe work. That's what he needed after losing his parents in a rift collapse when he was twelve. No risks, no attachments beyond the superficial.
A low rumble shook the building. Kent paused, fingers hovering over the keys. Earthquake? No, the alarms didn't blare. Then came the crack—a sound like glass shattering on a cosmic scale. Screams erupted from the lobby.
"Rift breach!" someone yelled. "Evacuate!"
Kent's heart slammed against his ribs. He bolted from his chair, joining the stampede toward the emergency stairs. But the hallway twisted unnaturally, the air thickening with a metallic tang. A rift had torn open right in the atrium, a jagged tear in space pulsing with ethereal light. Resonants poured out: hulking forms with crystalline hides and tendrils that whipped like living shadows, their eyes glowing with stolen aura.
The security drones activated, buzzing overhead and firing suppression rounds. One Resonant shattered a drone mid-air, its fragments raining down. People scattered, some frozen in terror. Kent shoved past a coworker, his mind racing. The exits—blocked. The rift expanded, swallowing desks and chairs into its maw.
"Get to the sub-levels!" a manager barked over the intercom, voice cracking.
Kent darted for the stairwell, but a tendril lashed out, coiling around his ankle. Pain exploded as it yanked him backward. He hit the floor hard, the wind knocked out of him. The Resonant loomed, a quadrupedal beast with jagged spines, its aura radiating like heat from a forge. It leaned in, sniffing, as if sensing something beneath his skin.
Panic surged. Kent grabbed a fallen chair leg, swinging it wildly. It cracked against the creature's hide, splintering on impact. Useless. The Resonant roared, its maw opening to reveal rows of shimmering teeth. This was it—the end he'd always half-expected in this rift-riddled world.
But as its claws descended, a strange calm washed over him. Time slowed. In his mind's eye, those dream voids flickered again, a distant echo urging him forward. He rolled aside, the claws embedding in the carpet where his head had been. Adrenaline pumped, sharper than ever. He scrambled up, spotting a loose cable from a downed drone. Without thinking, he grabbed it, jamming the sparking end into the Resonant's eye.
The beast convulsed, aura flaring wildly. Electricity arced through its body, and it collapsed in a heap, smoke rising from its form. Kent staggered back, chest heaving. Had he just... killed it?
A sharp ping echoed in his head—not from the chaos around him, but inside. Like a notification in his brain.
[Primordial System Activated.]
What? Kent blinked, vision blurring. Text materialized in his sight, overlaying reality like a holographic interface.
[User: Kent Eldridge]
[Level: 1]
[Stats:]
- Strength: 10
- Agility: 10
- Vitality: 10
- Intellect: 10
- Aura Resonance: 10
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Skills: None]
[Echo Harvest Unlocked: Absorb residual aura from defeated entities to gain experience.]
The words hung there, insistent. Was this a hallucination? Rift exposure could mess with your head—stories of people seeing ghosts or hearing voices after close calls. But this felt real, tangible. The dying Resonant's body shimmered, a faint glow seeping from its core.
[Harvest available. Proceed? Y/N]
Kent's hand trembled as he mentally selected 'Y'. A warmth flooded him, the glow coiling into his palm like smoke drawn to a vacuum. Energy surged through his veins, invigorating, almost addictive.
[Experience Gained: +50]
[Level Up! Level 2 Reached.]
[Attribute Points: +5]
The interface updated seamlessly. Strength ticked to 11 as he allocated a point experimentally. His muscles tightened, a subtle shift, but undeniable. He flexed his fingers—stronger, somehow.
Around him, the rift still raged. More Resonants emerged, smaller ones skittering like insects. Security teams fired back, but they were outnumbered. Kent's mind raced. This system—whatever it was—could be his edge. Or a delusion that got him killed.
A woman burst from a side office, clutching a datapad. Mid-twenties, with sharp features and hair tied back in a practical knot. She dodged a tendril, her movements precise, like someone who'd trained for this. "Over here!" she called to a trapped group, directing them to a service elevator.
Their eyes met briefly. Hers widened—recognition? No, couldn't be. But in that instant, Kent felt a pull, an unspoken urgency.
Another Resonant charged him, this one sleeker, with blade-like appendages. Emboldened by the system, Kent sidestepped, agility point kicking in. He grabbed a shard from the beast's fallen kin, using it as an improvised dagger. The clash was brutal—claws raking his arm, drawing blood—but he struck true, piercing its underbelly.
[Harvest available.]
He absorbed again, the rush intensifying.
[Experience Gained: +30]
The wound on his arm stung less, vitality mending it subtly. But exhaustion crept in; this wasn't infinite.
The rift pulsed violently, expanding. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling. "It's destabilizing!" the woman shouted, now closer. "We need to seal it or get out!"
Kent nodded, words failing him. Together, they herded survivors toward the elevator. A final Resonant blocked the way—a hulking alpha, aura thick enough to distort the air.
No time for doubt. Kent charged, system guiding his strikes. He weaved between swipes, landing blows that cracked its armor. The woman—Elara, her ID badge read—flanked it, hurling a fire extinguisher that exploded in a chemical cloud, disorienting the beast.
Kent delivered the killing thrust.
[Harvest available.]
[Level Up! Level 3 Reached.]
[Attribute Points: +5]
The rift shuddered, contracting as if the alpha's death weakened it. Alarms blared anew—reinforcements arriving. Kent and Elara piled into the elevator with the others, doors sealing just as debris rained down.
In the dim light, she turned to him. "That was... impossible. You fought like you've done this before."
Kent managed a weak smile, hiding the system's glow in his vision. "First time, actually."
She eyed him skeptically, but there was a spark—curiosity, maybe respect. As the elevator descended, Kent allocated his points: more into agility and aura resonance. Questions swirled: What was this system? Why him?
Outside, sirens wailed. The world hadn't changed, but Kent had. And deep down, those dream voids whispered promises of more.