"Ahh… where am I?"
Karma's voice scraped out of a dry throat and died against stone. He blinked hard. Cold walls pressed around him, cut from some ancient rock that swallowed sound and gave back only a faint, eerie glow. The light didn't come from torches. It seeped from the floor itself—thin lines of symbols carved into the stone like veins, humming softly as if the ground were alive.
He pushed himself upright. His palms prickled. The air felt thick but… charged, as though dust motes were tiny sparks brushing his skin.
He took in the place slowly, because rushing made his head spin. The chamber opened around him like the hollow ribcage of some dead giant. Pillars rose into the ceiling, fused into the stone as if grown, not built. Chains hung from iron rings embedded in the walls. Each link bore talismans carved in some unknown script, their edges faintly glowing. The chains did not sway or clink. They simply were, like silent threats left to rust forever.
Across the floor, rune-circuits latticed the stone: circles within circles, lines crossing like nets, sigils slotted into precise angles. The glow wasn't bright, only steady, as if power breathed just beneath the world's skin.
What kind of place is this? Karma thought, scanning for doors, for people, for any sign of escape. Nothing. No bars. No locks. No exit. If this was a prison, it was one made of laws instead of steel.
He swallowed. The air tasted metallic, heavy, but underneath it lingered something stranger—tingling, alive, like the charged hush before a storm. He drew a deeper breath. The sensation slid into his lungs and sat there, not painful, not pleasant—just present.
He didn't know how, but the word fit itself into his mind.
Spiritual energy.
The thought landed too easily, too naturally, as if it had been waiting inside him for years.
This wasn't any ordinary room. This wasn't even the same world.
He pressed a hand to the nearest rune and flinched at the chill. The sigil vibrated faintly under his skin, as if it acknowledged him—then dismissed him, returning to its endless hum.
For a minute, Karma just stood blinking, trying to process. Then fear arrived.
It didn't come as a scream or collapse. It arrived like frost—quiet, inexorable, crawling inward from the edges of reason until the middle of him started to shiver.
His chest tightened. His mind lurched.
"Oh no… oh shit… WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE?!" His voice cracked as it bounced off the cavern walls. His voice ricocheted off stone, sounding small and stupid.
His thoughts spun wildly. My job… my shift… what about my friends at the hotel? They probably saw me being dragged away by those freaks!What would they think? That I'd been arrested? That I had disappeared into something shady? Damn it, I'll lose my job…
The faces of his colleagues flashed in his mind—Sajid's constant banter, Iryna's mentoring, Anthony's grumpy encouragement, Kiki's smiles. Were they worried? Shocked? Or just confused?
Then his mind darted to his shared living space in Tuart Hills. He remembered Bhanu, his good friend, and Bhanu's uncle's family, who had always treated him kindly, even like one of their own. "Shit… they'll panic when I don't come back tonight. What will they think happened to me? They'll call the cops… or worse they think I ran away, that I did something stupid and just… left."
His chest tightened. Life had already been a mess to balance. Now this?
He rubbed his temples, shaking. At first he tried to believe this was some kind of underground dungeon in his city—traffickers, some cult, anything explainable. But then he remembered: he'd been unconscious since the slap. He never saw where they'd taken him. For all he knew, this wasn't even Australia anymore.
The minutes crawled. Fear calcified into despair.
"Will someone come to save me?" he whispered.
The answer pressed in from the stone, colder than silence.
His family was already broken. His sister missing. His father dead. His mother rotting in prison.
No one was coming.
If he vanished here, Earth itself wouldn't even notice.
The realization gutted him. For the first time, he felt truly erased.
His knuckles pressed against his forehead, grounding against the stone. His only regret burned sharp—that he might never find his little sister.
But despair wouldn't free him. He forced his breath steady. First things first. I need to get out of here.
****
Karma folded himself cross-legged onto the cold floor, muttering aloud as if talking to the stone.
"Okay. If I see those kidnappers again… I'll just tell them they've got the wrong guy. 'Look, I don't know who you think I am, but I'm nobody important.'"
He frowned. "No, that won't work. They looked serious about that 'brother' crap."
He tried again. "What if I swear silence? Promise not to tell anyone. Just let me go back to my city. I'll… I'll sign something if they want."
His brow furrowed deeper. "No, that's pathetic. Maybe I bluff—say I have connections. Government, military—" He cut himself off. "No. That'll piss them off."
He groaned into his hands. None of it felt convincing.
A darker thought slithered in. What if that woman realized I'm just a mortal and dumped me here because I'm useless?
He scanned the cavern again. No guards. No bars. Just runes, chains, and silence. Less a prison… more like a ruin. A place abandoned long ago, now repurposed as a dumping ground.
Maybe they really had just thrown him away.
His exhale came shaky. Stress always dragged his mind into fantasy. And so it spun.
"No, wait," he said aloud, eyes lighting up. "What if Earth wasn't my real world at all? What if it was just some kind of trial ground, huh? Maybe my real family erased my memories so I could live like an ordinary guy… to temper my soul or something! Yeah! And now they've finally found me and brought me back here. This is like some sort of punishment for failing the trial."
He chuckled nervously. "Or maybe… maybe this is all part of a hidden inheritance. Like in those novels I read. Maybe I'll stumble across a cultivation manual here. Or maybe…" His grin widened. "Maybe this is a secret training ground! That would make sense, right? They wouldn't just toss me in a random prison. No, this has to be a setup!"
His mind spiraled further. "Or… maybe I was a banished prince. Yeah, they hid me on Earth to protect me from enemies. Now they've brought me back because the throne is in danger. Heh, that would explain everything…" The silence swallowed his laughter.
***
"Ding! Stop, Master. You are getting way too delusional. Come back."
The words crashed into his skull like ice water poured in winter.
Karma froze. "Wh-what the hell? Who's there?!"
His voice bounced back from the stone. He spun left, right. Nothing.
A shiver ran up his spine. Ghost.
"No, no, no—don't be a ghost, not a ghost…" He scrambled into a corner, pressing against the cold wall. His heart slammed against his ribs.
Desperate, he stammered prayers—Hindu mantras from childhood, fragments of Christian hymns from friends, even half-remembered Buddhist chants. His voice cracked, but he prayed until his throat hurt.
Nothing answered. No specter. No shadow. Just silence.
His lips trembled. "…Okay. If you're a ghost… maybe we can make a deal?"
Silence.
"Hello? The voice from earlier?"
A pause.
Then—
"Hmph. Are you talking to me, Master?"
Karma's jaw dropped. "Wh-what? Master? Me?!"
The voice was cold, mechanical, yet faintly petulant—like a stubborn child with too much pride.
"Of course you. Who else? Honestly, why did I get stuck with such a dumb master? Still…" The voice huffed. "Be honored. I am a sentient existence beyond your comprehension. In your mortal tongue, you can call me… System."
Karma blinked rapidly. "S-System? As in… like in novels?"
"Yes. Exactly. I skimmed through your little stash of novels while you were unconscious. The term fits, so I'll use it. But unlike those stories, I am real."
His pulse raced—half terror, half awe. "Do you… have a name?"
A silence stretched. Then the voice softened, just slightly.
"Unfortunately, no."
Karma's lips twitched. "Th-then how about… Mira—" He had been about to say Miracle System, but the word was cut short.
"I like it," the voice interrupted. "My name is Mira, then. You may call me that. Only you."
Karma whispered it, tasting the sound. "Mira…"
For the first time since his kidnapping, hope flickered in his chest.
But before he could say more, Mira's cold tone returned—
[Initializing First Trial: Survive One Night in the Sage Suppression Prison.]
The runes beneath his feet flared, glowing brighter than before.
And Karma's world changed again.