Caelus Ven had the look of someone life had already chewed through.
Lean but not fit. Pale, with restless eyes that flicked too quickly between shadows, always half-expecting bad news. His dark hair hung uneven over his brow, like he'd cut it himself in a mirror he didn't trust. There was no glow of confidence or fire of ambition left in him. He looked like a man who had waited too long for something good to happen and eventually forgot what he was waiting for.
Even now, standing in a void that wasn't real, wearing a body that didn't breathe, he still looked tired.
He remembered the truck. The weight. The brief moment of shock before the world blinked out. But now he stood in silence, faced with an open door glowing faintly in the dark.
Somewhere behind it, something screamed.
And he remembered the message.
Welcome back, Reader.
His hand twitched at the memory. That word. Reader. Like this was a book. Like he was a character in someone else's outline.
"What the hell is this?" he muttered, not expecting an answer.
He got one anyway.
[System Notice: You are currently in Tutorial Phase 1]Objective: Survive until extraction or scenario completionClass Assigned: ARCHIVIST (UNRANKED)Unique Trait Activated: Death ImprintYou may record echoes from nearby mortal deaths. Memory Archive is empty.Warning: No spectator alignment. No starter package assigned. No safety protocols available.
A long pause. Then one last line appeared.
Begin.
The light in the doorway pulsed, almost like it was breathing.
Caelus approached slowly. The ground beneath him felt like nothing at all. No resistance, no texture, no gravity. And yet his steps carried him forward. His fingers curled slightly as he reached out.
He hesitated.
Then stepped through.
The darkness peeled away like wet paper.
He dropped onto hard stone. Heat and light hit him all at once.
Caelus landed in a narrow canyon surrounded by jagged cliffs. The air was hot, dry, buzzing faintly with some invisible energy. Red dust swirled at his feet. Alien vines crawled up the sides of the rock walls, pulsing gently as if they were alive.
In the distance, he could already hear movement. Voices. Not human.
He looked down. His clothes had changed. Some kind of worn tactical gear, faded black, with fingerless gloves and lightweight boots. No weapons. No inventory. No HUD.
Just the voice in his head and the ache of a death that hadn't stuck.
[First Trial: Initiate's Hunt]Participants: 314Survivors Required to Progress: 100Time Limit: 2 Hours
He let out a breath, slow and even. It didn't fog. He wasn't breathing, technically. But the motion helped.
Above him, the red sky flickered like a simulation glitching at the edge of a screen. Somewhere beyond it, Caelus knew, someone was watching.
Watching him.
He wasn't supposed to be here. No one had picked him. No sponsor. No gifts. No lucky breaks. Just a glitch in the code.
A dead man with no right to exist.
But still he stood.
And still he read.
Caelus stepped forward into the canyon, where echoes of others had already begun to die.