The fever comes quietly.
No dramatic collapse. No warning pain. Just heat—deep, invasive, settling into my bones like it's always belonged there. I wake soaked in sweat, breath shallow, heart beating too fast for a body this small.
'Great,' I think hazily. 'Day five. I've unlocked the Deluxe Illness DLC.'
The room spins when I try to sit up. My vision fractures into dim shapes and shadows. Someone is speaking—my mother, I think—but the words smear together, soft and panicked.
"Kairo… Kairo, stay with me."
I try. I really do.
But the heat keeps climbing.
From the outside, Lyra Veylan knows this look.
She's seen it on neighbors' children. On friends who stopped smiling too early. The skin too warm. The eyes unfocused. The breath coming shallow and fast, like the body is sprinting away from something it can't outrun.
'Not him,' she thinks desperately. 'Please. Anyone but him.'
She presses a cool cloth to my forehead and whispers prayers she doesn't fully believe in anymore. Darius stands uselessly by the wall, fists clenched, because there's nothing a laborer can punch to fix this.
Lio watches silently, eyes sharp, memorizing everything.
'Something is wrong,' he thinks. 'This isn't just sickness.'
Inside, I'm sinking.
The pressure I've felt since waking in this world is no longer distant. It's here. Pressing inward from every direction, squeezing thought and breath alike. Mana floods my awareness, no longer content to be ignored.
'Okay,' I think, trying to stay calm. 'This feels… bad.'
My chest tightens. The heat spikes again, and something in me gives—not breaks, but yields, like a door finally opening after being leaned on for too long.
For an instant, everything goes dark.
Then—
Something answers.
[Genesis System – Initialization]
[Host Detected: Kairo Veylan]
[Status: Critical]
[Condition: Systemic Failure Imminent]
[Assessing Compatibility…]
The words aren't spoken.
They exist, carved into my awareness with brutal clarity.
'Oh,' I think weakly. 'So now you show up.'
[Compatibility Confirmed]
[Genesis Protocol: Awakening]
[Primary Directive: Preservation Through Optimization]
The pressure snaps.
Not outward—inward. Mana that was drowning me reorganizes, snapping into channels I didn't know existed. The heat doesn't vanish, but it stops escalating, contained like a storm forced into a bottle.
I gasp, lungs dragging in air that suddenly feels heavier—and cleaner.
'That's… better,' I think. 'Still awful. But better.'
In the room, my mother startles.
"Kairo?" she whispers.
My skin is still hot, but the fever's frantic edge dulls. My breathing steadies. The cloth on my forehead stops steaming faintly in her hand.
Darius takes a step forward, eyes wide. "Lyra…?"
She nods, tears already forming. "He—he stopped shaking."
Lio doesn't relax.
'Something changed,' he thinks. 'I felt it.'
Inside my head, the system continues without ceremony.
[System Synchronization: In Progress]
[Establishing Baseline Parameters]
[Warning: Host Body Underdeveloped]
[Warning: Mana Channels Unstable]
[Adaptive Measures: Enabled]
'You don't say,' I think. 'I'm nine and broke.'
Images flash—numbers, concepts, relationships. Not knowledge being downloaded, but measured. Like someone taking my dimensions before tailoring a suit I'll have to grow into.
[Name: Kairo Veylan. ]
[Rank: F (Entry ) ]
[Status: Stable / Strained / Injured ]
[STR: 5]
[AGI: 6]
[END: 5]
[INT: 13]
[WIS: 2]
[MANA: 10]
[REC: 1.0 /min]
[Active Runes: ]
[
[Condition Notes:]
[
'Those numbers mean something,' I think. 'They feel… uncomfortably accurate.'
The fever recedes another notch.
Pain dulls into soreness. My thoughts stop slipping. For the first time since this started, I feel present in my own body.
I try to move.
My fingers twitch.
'Nice,' I think. 'Ten out of ten, would twitch again.'
[Notice]
[Genesis System does not grant power]
[Growth is conditional]
[Failure to adapt may result in irreversible damage]
I pause.
'Ah,' I think. 'You're one of those systems.'
The realization lands slowly.
This isn't a miracle.
It's a ledger.
A record. A mirror that refuses to lie.
No free strength. No heroic boosts. Just a relentless accounting of what I am—and what I could become, if I survive long enough to earn it.
'Fair,' I think. 'Honestly? That tracks.'
My mother finally notices my eyes focusing.
"Kairo," she breathes. "Can you hear me?"
I nod weakly. It takes more effort than it should.
"I'm… still here," I manage.
She laughs and cries at the same time, pulling me into a hug that hurts and comforts in equal measure.
Darius exhales like he's been holding his breath for days.
Lio steps closer, studying me with unsettling intensity.
'He crossed something,' he thinks. 'I don't know what. But he did.'
Night passes in fragments.
I drift in and out of sleep, the system's presence steady and watchful but mercifully quiet. No more messages. No more warnings. Just… there.
When morning light creeps through the window, I wake to a body that feels fragile—but intact.
Alive.
'Still poor,' I think. 'Still hungry. Still in Matra.'
But something fundamental has shifted.
I sit up slowly, testing my limits.
No dizziness. No fire in my veins. Just soreness and a faint, persistent awareness—like I can feel the outline of myself for the first time.
The system stirs once, gently.
[Status: Stabilized]
[Next Phase: Dormant Observation]
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
"So," I whisper, "you're not going to explain anything."
[No Response]
I smile faintly.
'Of course not.'
Outside, Matra wakes as it always does—loud, indifferent, relentless. Nothing about the city has changed.
But I have.
Not stronger.
Not safer.
Just… acknowledged.
'Genesis,' I think. 'That's a big name for a very patient accountant.'
The presence doesn't argue.
I lie back down, staring at the ceiling.
'Okay,' I think. 'Round two.'
This time, when I make my promise, it feels different.
'I won't die quietly again.'
Not from exhaustion.
Not from poverty.
Not from waiting too long.
Somewhere deep inside me, the system records the thought.
And does not disagree.