The promotion letter was still warm in my hands.
Head of a department. FBI. After years of sleepless nights, cold coffee, and crime scenes that never quite washed out of my skin, I'd finally made it. Detective no more.
Administrator.
Leader.
I stepped out of the building with the future sitting heavy and golden in my chest. Rain had just passed. The street smelled clean. The city felt new.
That was when my foot slipped.
A stupid, half-crushed plastic water bottle.
My balance vanished. The world tilted violently as I stumbled forward. A horn blared — loud, panicked — too close.
Truck headlights.
White.
Sound.
Darkness.
…and then nothing.
I woke up standing.
Not in a hospital bed. Not in some cold morgue drawer.
I stood in a vast black space, like the inside of a thought that never ended.
No walls. No ceiling. No floor. Just… infinity.
A blue light flickered in front of me, hovering like a hologram.
[WELCOME, MULTIVERSE TRAVELER]
I frowned. "I'm dead, aren't I?"
[YOU HAVE DIED][HOWEVER — YOUR STORY HAS NOT ENDED]
The blue light shifted, forming words like they were being typed directly into reality.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…][MULTIVERSE DETECTIVE SYSTEM — ONLINE]
My heartbeat shouldn't have existed.
But it did.
[YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO INVESTIGATE CRIMES ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE][REWARDS WILL BE ISSUED FOR CASE RESOLUTION]
"…So I'm a ghost detective in a comic book universe."
[CORRECT]
I exhaled slowly. Steadier than I felt.
Of course I was.
"You said something about rewards."
The blue light flickered brighter.
[STARTER PACK AVAILABLE][OPEN? — YES / NO]
I didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
Light exploded in front of me.
Words wrapped around my vision like chains.
[REWARD ACQUIRED]• L Lawliet — Intelligence and Knowledge
Information slammed into my mind.
Strategies. Logical frameworks. Deductive structures so sharp it felt like my brain had been reshaped into a blade.
My thoughts became… faster. Clearer.
[REWARD ACQUIRED]• L Lawliet — Information Network
Something shifted beyond my sight.
Power. Influence.
My mind touched systems of authority — like threads I could now pull.
Police.
FBI.
Databases.
Contacts.
Money.
Corporate webs.
They were suddenly… mine.
Not ownership.
Control.
[REWARD ACQUIRED]• Watari — Operational Support
A presence appeared in my mind. Calm. Organized. Loyal.
A man who had spent decades preparing a boy-genius to change the world.
Now his focus was me.
I laughed quietly.
Of course.
Of all people.
"Welcome aboard," I whispered.
[WORLD SELECTION COMPLETE][DESTINATION: DC UNIVERSE — PRIME EARTH]
The endless void peeled away like paper being torn.
I felt gravity return.
Air.
Smell.
Sound.
And when I opened my eyes…
I was no longer dead.
I was in Gotham City.
And my first case was about to begin.