The blue glow of the monitor was the only sign of life in the room. It was a cramped space, more of a suffocating warehouse than a human dwelling.
The air was heavy, thick with the stale stench of trapped cigarette smoke. On the desk, an ashtray was long lost, buried under a mountain of butts that spilled onto the floor.
[WORLD RANK #1: LEO_ZERO]
Those words stood arrogantly on the screen. Leo exhaled, releasing a final puff of smoke from lungs that felt dry and scorched. He had just broken a world record, but his body felt like a piece of junk forced to run one last mile.
Ding!
[Incoming Transfer: $150.00]
Leo glanced at his phone with hollow eyes. "A hundred and fifty," he rasped. "Enough for a month's supply of nicotine and caffeine."
He pushed himself up from a gaming chair whose leather was peeling like dead skin. His head throbbed—the price of three days without sleep. As his feet hit the floor, crunching over instant noodle wrappers, the world suddenly spun.
His blood pressure plummeted, but his ego remained high. He needed coffee. He needed a smoke. And he needed them now.
Leo grabbed a musty black hoodie and stepped outside. The late afternoon sun hit his face like a thousand needles stabbing his eyes. On the sidewalk, Leo walked like a ghost among "normal" people. To them, he was just societal trash. To him, they were nothing more than meaningless NPCs.
At the convenience store, he spent his money recklessly. The moment he stepped out, his hands trembled as he tore open a fresh pack. He tucked a cigarette between his dry, cracked lips.
Crossing the street, his fingers fumbled in his pocket for a lighter, his mind already miles away, back in the game, calculating strategies for next week's tournament.
TIIIIIIIIIIT—!
A long, deafening horn shattered his thoughts. Leo turned, but all he saw was a giant wall of steel hurtling toward him at full speed.
CRASH!
The world flipped upside down. Leo didn't feel pain; he only felt... empty. His shopping bags burst, coffee bottles shattered against the asphalt, and the dark liquid mingled with the thick crimson pooling from his head.
The money he had just withdrawn fluttered away in the wind, as if mocking his tragic end. The last thing he saw was a single cigarette lying in a puddle of blood. Dead before it could even be lit.
"Damn it... I didn't even... get a puff..."
[SOUL SYNCHRONIZATION SUCCESSFUL]
[WELCOME, PLAYER 001]
Leo gasped. He drew in a breath so deep his chest burned. His lungs felt strange—too clean. Instead of acrid smoke, he smelled the sharp scent of wet grass.
As he tried to sit up, his joints felt stiff. In front of him, a golden holographic window flickered into existence.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Leo (Level 1)
Strength: 2 (Trash Tier; Nicotine Contaminated)
Intelligence: 99 (Strategic Mind)
Condition: [Severe Withdrawal!]
(Penalty: -50% to Physical Coordination)
"What kind of status is this?" Leo cursed. His physical stats were absolute garbage.
Before he could process the situation, a boar with glowing tusks burst from the bushes.
[Ignis Boar - Level 5]
As the beast charged, a silver blur intervened. "Holy Slash!"
BOOM! An explosion rocked the ground, but the attack missed entirely. A female knight in gleaming armor tumbled over, her massive sword stuck deep in a tree root.
"Hey, Amateur Knight!" Leo shouted instinctively. "Stop pulling with raw strength! Press the locking lever at the base of the hilt and shift your left foot! You're staring right at its blind spot!"
The girl gasped, but her instincts moved to his sharp command. CLINK! The sword freed itself. With one precise pivot, she took the boar's head clean off.
The knight—Aera—approached Leo, panting heavily. "How... how did you know that technique?"
Leo didn't answer. He reached into the pouch at Aera's waist, grabbed a handful of raw coffee beans, and chewed them without hesitation. The explosion of bitterness jolted his nerves back to life.
"Name's Leo," he said, leaning against a tree. "I'm the guy who's going to turn you into a legend in this world. But on one condition: carry me to town. I'm too lazy to walk."
Aera gaped, her face turning bright red. "What? Are you serious? I can't possibly carry you all that way!"
"You want to die like a fool when the second boar shows up?" Leo stared at her with cold, calculating eyes. "Carry me, or we both end up as carcasses."
Upon reaching the City of Ouroboros, Leo headed straight for a tavern called The Rusty Barrel. Amidst the rowdy crowd, Leo marched toward a gambling table.
Before Aera could stop him, Leo snatched the short sword from her waist and slammed it onto the table. THUD!
"Leo! What are you doing?!"
"I'm placing a bet," Leo said calmly to the gamblers. "One round. If I win, the coins on this table are mine. If I lose, take the knight's sword."
With 99 Intelligence, reading the dealer's cheats was as easy as reading a children's book. His hands shook from withdrawal, but his eyes were unerring.
"Your left hand," Leo said coldly. "Drop the card in your sleeve now, or I'll have the knight behind me take the hand instead."
The dealer trembled, sensing Aera's sudden, sharp aura. He dropped the hidden card, and Leo swept the pot with a perfect 21. Leo gathered the silver coins and paid for a black coffee at the bar.
Ding!
[Withdrawal Penalty reduced to 30%]
"Ah... now I finally feel alive."
Right at that moment, an old man in a tattered robe approached their table. His aura was so heavy that the tavern's rowdy noise seemed to vanish instantly.
"Interesting instincts, Player 001," the old man said, his voice echoing directly inside Leo's mind.
Leo set his glass down. His eyes sharpened, locking onto the mysterious figure. "Who the hell are you?"