Kai Reyes sat in the back of the police van, his wet hoodie plastered to his skin. The rain hammered against the metal roof like angry fists. Sirens screamed outside. Lights flashed across the puddled streets, reflecting off his soaked hair and bloodied gloves.
He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream that he didn't do it. That the dead hunter wasn't his fault. That the knife wasn't his. But his voice felt like a toy in a hurricane—meaningless, small, swallowed by chaos.
And then it happened.
A soft vibration under his palm. His phone had been buried somewhere in the folds of his hoodie. It lit up, glowing unnaturally. He peeled it out with trembling hands. The screen was blank. Then, golden letters blinked into existence, floating above the surface as if written in fire:
USER NOT FOUND.
CREATE TEMPORARY EXISTENCE?
"What… what the hell?" Kai whispered.
The van lurched around a corner. The lights from outside flickered violently. For a moment, it felt as though the world itself had paused, holding its breath.
ACCESS REQUESTED.
ADMINISTRATOR MODE: TEMPORARY.
Kai's fingers hovered over the phone. He had no idea what it meant. Admin. The word sounded heavy, dangerous. For a brief moment, logic screamed at him to drop the phone, throw it into the rain, and pretend none of this existed. But logic had abandoned him a long time ago.
He pressed ACCEPT.
The van shuddered violently. The walls vibrated as if some invisible force clawed at the metal, testing it. Kai's vision warped. Colors bled across his eyes. The world around him—police officers, wet asphalt, flashing lights—distorted into jagged, shimmering fragments.
And then: silence.
Complete, suffocating silence.
The van door opened. No one said a word. The officers were gone. Outside, the city existed in a muted twilight. Buildings were jagged, their edges flickering as though reality itself hadn't finished constructing them. Rain still fell—but no droplets hit him. The sound of it had vanished.
Kai's phone buzzed again. This time, the text scrolled across the screen as if alive:
YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM.
TEMPORARY EXISTENCE CREATED.
He looked down at his hands. Wet. Shaking. But… he felt different. No fear. No panic. Just a cold, almost mechanical clarity.
"Okay…" he whispered. "What the hell does this mean?"
He stood, stepping out of the van. Each step felt heavier and lighter at the same time, as though gravity had forgotten him in this strange, liminal space. The van disappeared behind him, vanishing into thin air.
Ahead, a glowing doorway hovered midair—a shimmering rectangle of deep blue energy. Jagged cracks like shattered glass ran through it. The air above the door flickered like static on a broken TV.
Kai's instincts screamed at him. Step back. Run. Never touch it.
But curiosity… stronger than survival… moved his legs forward.
He reached out. His fingers brushed the light. And the world exploded.
White. Blinding. Hot. Cold. Everything all at once.
He felt his body stretch and twist, then collapse into nothingness. Time no longer existed. Pain, fear, and the police, the rain, the city—they all vanished in an instant.
And then, a throne.
Massive. Ancient. Made of bone, iron, and jagged crystal that shimmered faintly with golden veins. Chains hung from the ceiling above, swaying without wind. The air smelled like rust, metal, and… power.
Kai fell to his knees instinctively. Every instinct screamed that he had walked into a domain older than the city, older than humanity.
A voice slid into his mind. Soft. Malevolent. And ancient.
"Finally."
Kai froze. "Who… what are you?"
"I am the authority you were never meant to meet. The System… fears you."
Kai's mind raced. System? Fear him?
"Do you accept it? Or do you reject it?"
"Accept… what?" he managed to ask.
"ADMINISTRATOR MODE. You are now beyond rules. Beyond detection. Beyond existence itself. But every choice comes at a cost."
A glowing menu appeared before him, hovering in midair. Options scrolled endlessly:
EDIT REALITY
DELETE LIMITS
OBSERVE HUMANITY
SELF-MODIFY
Kai's heartbeat thundered in his ears. He tried to speak. His throat went dry. Logic and fear fought against curiosity and the faint spark of… power.
"Choose wisely," the voice said. "Once accepted, there is no undo. Only… evolution."
Kai's mind flashed to the police van. To the reporters. To the dead hunter. To his mother's unpaid rent. To every moment in his life where he had been ignored, crushed, stepped over.
And then he pressed ACCEPT.
The moment his thumb touched the holographic button, a shockwave rolled outward. The throne's chains rattled. The golden veins across the room flared. Every corner of the space rippled as though reality itself was being rewritten.
Kai's senses exploded. He could see threads of possibility stretching across the world. Colors he had never seen, sounds he had never heard, and movements invisible to normal humans. Every monster in the city, every hunter, every civilian—even the laws of physics—now existed as code before him.
A message appeared, floating above his head:
UNKNOWN ADMIN HAS JOINED THE SERVER.
SYSTEM ALERT: ERROR.
For the first time in his life, Kai smiled.
Not out of joy. Not relief. Not fear.
He smiled because for the first time… he was untouchable.
And the world… would bend to him.
Rain fell again. Somewhere above the city, lights flickered. But Kai no longer belonged to that world. He had stepped outside the System.
And the first test would come sooner than he thought.
A sound, deep and resonant, echoed through the empty halls. Chains clanged. A massive figure stepped into the room, skeletal, impossible, towering over the throne.
"Welcome… to Floor One."
Kai's smile widened. The air itself seemed to recoil.
THE GAME HAS BEGUN.