The glow of the monitor sliced through the darkness of the room. Kaito's fingers flew over the mechanical keyboard, a rhythmic dance of clicks marking the tempo of his life.
"Just a little more..." he muttered. The boss's health bar flickered in an agonizing red.
His character, "Ryuu Oboro," a max-level assassin, moved across the screen like a lethal ink stain. He was everything Kaito was not: powerful, agile, respected. In real life, Kaito was an invisible salaryman. In Eternal Online, he was a myth.
Thunder shook the building. The windows vibrated violently.
Kaito ignored the roar. The boss was at 1%.
"Die!"
His index finger descended for the final strike.
The world turned white. There was no time for pain. An electric snap, a metallic smell of ozone, and then, absolute emptiness.
Wet earth. The sweet stench of rotting leaves.
Kaito coughed, expelling blood that burned his throat. He tried to stand, but his arms trembled and gave way. They weighed too much.
He opened his eyes.
Colossal trees with black bark twisted toward a lead-gray sky. The forest seemed alive, watching him in silence.
"Where...?"
His voice came out high-pitched. Fragile.
He looked at his hands. They were small. Pale as marble. Long, thin fingers stained with mud. He brought his hands to his face and felt his hair: long and silky, now tangled with tree leaves.
He stood up, swaying. Perspective was distorted. The ground was too close. He felt light, yet every step was an ordeal of weakness.
He dragged his feet toward a pool of stagnant water. The reflection gazed back at him—an eight-year-old boy. His skin was so translucent that bluish veins were visible beneath the surface. His eyes, dark and sunken, gave him a ghostly air.
"This is me..." he whispered.
It was his avatar. The childhood version of his character before becoming a legend.
"There's the rat!"
A shout broke the calm of the forest.
Three figures emerged from the brush. They wore dark kimonos, tightened with cords to avoid hindering their movements. On the sleeves, patterns of silver threads stood out.
"We found him." The one in the center stepped forward. His cloth mask hid his face, but the contempt in his voice was sharp. "The young coward chose the worst place to hide."
Kaito backed away, his back hitting the cold bark of a tree.
Fear.
It wasn't his own feeling. It was an intrusive memory engraved in his soul.
The icy gaze of his Father, the Leader. The disappointed whispers of Grandmother. Mother's cruel smile. Everyone expected him to be a weapon, but he was just a child who cried at the sight of a dagger.
The original owner of this body, the third heir of the Oboro Clan, was a failure. He had fled out of terror of the training, running until his heart gave out under the rain. And Kaito had awakened in his warm corpse.
"The Leader will have no mercy this time," another man said, pulling out a rope.
"Let's take him quickly. Grandfather is curious to see how long he'll last before he breaks."
Before Kaito could utter a word, the tracker in the center blurred in a burst of speed.
A sharp blow to the back of his neck switched off his consciousness.
Agony ripped Kaito out of oblivion.
"Gah!"
His scream bounced off the damp stone walls.
He was suspended by his wrists. Rusted iron chains bit into his skin, leaving his body hanging just inches from the floor. In front of him, a broad-shouldered executioner wiped a black leather whip with a white cloth, focused on his task.
"Awake at last, Young Master Ryuu," the man commented without looking at him.
Kaito opened one eye; the other was swollen shut. He was in the bowels of the Oboro Clan mansion. A private torture chamber.
"It hurts..." he moaned. His eight-year-old body had no resistance whatsoever.
"Pain is the only truth in our family," the executioner said, approaching. "Your Father has ordered a 'Reality Lesson.' His exact words were: 'If he doesn't have the stomach to kill, let him have the body to suffer.'"
The whip tore through the air.
CRACK!
The leather sliced a line of fire across his back.
Kaito howled, his vision turning white. There was no health bar to slowly tick down. It was pure, raw pain that threatened to shatter his mind.
"I am not him!" he shouted, spitting saliva and blood.
"Still hallucinating." The executioner raised his arm again. "You should have died in that forest if you were going to be so pathetic."
CRACK!
The second impact hit his leg. Kaito felt his consciousness fragmenting. He was going to die. He was going to disappear in this forgotten basement before he could take a single step.
"Please..." he whispered.
"You dishonor our lineage."
The executioner raised his hand for the third blow. Kaito gritted his teeth, waiting for the final darkness.
Ding.
A crystalline sound, like the tolling of a bell, vibrated in his brain. An electric blue interface emerged from nowhere, floating in the stale air of the dungeon.
[Player System activated]
[Welcome, User: Ryuu Oboro]
[Status: Critical Damage. Body integrity: 12%][Detecting risk of severe nervous collapse.]
Kaito opened his eyes. The world moved in slow motion. The whip descended as if it were a feather falling.
"System?" he croaked.
[You have received a Welcome Bonus.][Balance: 1000 Karma Points.][Do you wish to access the Emergency Store?][YES / NO]
"YES!" the shout came from his gut, charged with rage.
The executioner paused, confused by the child's intensity.
A list unfolded in his mind. Skills, items, traits. But one option glowed in a warning red.
[Pain Nullification (Level 1)] - Cost: 1000 Karma Points.Effect: Disconnects the brain's pain centers. Allows full physical awareness without the signal of suffering.
"Buy! Buy it now!"
[Purchase successful.][Activating: Pain Nullification.]
As if someone had flipped a switch, the agony stopped.
The burning in his back, the throbbing in his leg, the pressure of the chains... The mental noise vanished. The wounds were still there, blood still flowed warm over his skin, but the suffering had evaporated.
Ryuu let out a long sigh, his shoulders sagging heavily.
The executioner blinked, surprised by the child's sudden calm.
"Have you already lost your mind?" he growled, and lashed the whip with all his strength.
CRACK!
The blow erupted against his chest, throwing a spray of blood onto the stone floor.
Ryuu's body shook violently from the physical impact.
But there was no scream. No whimper. Not a single tear.
He made an effort and raised his head.
His black hair, soaked in sweat and blood, hid half of his face. But a dark, cold, and calculating eye locked onto the executioner with an inhuman steadiness. The look of the cowardly child was gone forever.
A thin and terrifying smile appeared on his pale lips.
"Is that all?" Ryuu asked. His voice was an icy whisper that froze the man's blood.
The executioner took a step back, dropping the whip by accident. For the first time in his life, he felt that that crying eight-year-old boy had become an elite assassin by the coldness of his look.
Ryuu glanced at the blue notification flashing at the side of his vision.
[Mission Generated: Survive the "Blood Lesson".][Reward: 500 Karma Points.]