[1st POV]
I died.
And no, I didn't mean that in-game.
I died.
Literally.
My blood stopped moving. My heart stuttered, then quit. My nerves twitched like cut wires, sending shocks of pain. I felt the warmth drain from my body, fingers stiffening, skin turning cold and pale.
I felt every pain known to man and then nothing.
After that, memories flashed through my mind like a slideshow. As if God were reading every second of my life, and I was with him.
My name was Kairos, but that was barely relevant. Online, I went by ReignScale, a name that, for a while, actually meant something in the MLBB world. At least it was way more relevant than my real name.
Not to brag, but I wasn't your average ranked grinder. I wasn't spamming Layla in Classic or getting flamed for stealing buffs. I was not a prisoner of Epic and Legend hell, and even in my worst days, I was not contributing to the Dark System.
I was a pro player. An EXP lane specialist who could dabble as a mage to confuse the enemy team. I was one of the youngest players ever to qualify for the World Championships, the Kairi of exp, or so they called me.
Before my eventual death, I lived a life built entirely on pixels, patches, and ping. And if I'm being honest… I have no regrets.
I grew up with Mobile Legends. Literally.
When it first came out, most people called it a joke. A cheap, bootleg League of Legends clone for broke teens with trash phones. Even I thought it looked scuffed. The graphics were meh, the controls were clunky, and the toxicity in solo queue? Biblical.
But there was something oddly addictive about this game. Perhaps I even related to this infamous game, saw myself in it. League of Legends was for the kids who lucked out in life, fortunate kids from first-world countries who could actually afford a proper PC and stable internet.
On the other hand, MLBB was a cheap knockoff. Perfect for the poor kid in the Philippines with a third-hand phone (Father - Elder Brother - Me) and a Wifi-Fi that worked only at a specific time of the day.
The game might be trash, but hey, it ran on low-end Androids and was just enough for me.
I started slow and played for fun. The game was a great escape from reality at times when things got too stressful. But as time passed, the game stopped being an escape and became my reality.
I began grinding AI matches to get better because I got outplayed by Chou and got recall-spammed in Classic. I uninstalled the game more times than I could count, only to install it again two hours later.
And somewhere along the way, I stopped playing like a casual. I got obsessed. I learned the mechanics, studied matchups, lived on forums, and tier lists. I wasn't just trying to win. I wanted to understand the game and master it.
It started from wanting to be the best player in my class, then my school, then my city, the whole region, the country, and finally, I wanted to be the best in the world.
People used to tell me that I was a fool for wasting my time and effort on a mobile game. They didn't understand my obsession, and they mocked my achievements.
Perhaps those words were true for other kids, but not for me. Because my work did not betray me and I was able to turn it into a career.
By the time I was fifteen, I was climbing global leaderboards with fighters and mages - Martis, Arlott, Yu Zhong, Gatotkaca, Kadita, Alice, Odette - heroes that lived in the chaos of the battle. I love those heroes.
It was not long before I got noticed and recruited. My IGN started popping up in tourney lobbies and esports channels. Not bad for a kid who started on a cracked phone with a charger that only worked at a weird angle.
But other than my raw skills, my team was everything.
We weren't big names, just five grinders who were delusional enough to believe we would win on our first Championship run. We were all skilled in our roles but more than that, we played together in a way that you wouldn't believe.
And somehow, against all odds, we made it to the M6 Finals. Perhaps we were not so delusional after all.
We were in Manila when it happened. The day before our big match, heading to the stadium for scrims. The van was full of energy. Rex was trash-talking the enemy jungler on social media. Yuri was laser-focused on replays. Asuna was humming anime intros with zero shame. I was the quiet one, mentally calculating item builds that would work well against the enemy's exp laner.
Our opponent was ONIC ID, a legendary team known throughout the world. Our jungler, although talking shit, had nothing on Kairi. Asuna, our roamer, was not going to outshine Kiboy, and I would bet my kidney that Yuri was not going to outplay SANZ, no matter how many times he watched those replies.
So if we wanted to win this, it had to start from the side lanes. It had to start with me. So the pressure was very real for me at the moment.
But I was not nervous or stressed. I felt like I was in the zone. It was going to be my moment, I just knew it. I was going to outshine SANFORD and cement myself as the best EXP laner in MLBB.
And then... the crash.
I didn't even see it. Just the screech of tires, the sound of metal folding in on itself, glass exploding, and then...
Darkness.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Shit.
More fuck.
And then a little more shit.
Why could I not remember curse words when I really wanted to say them?
Fucking shit.
....
[System Initializing...]
Huh?
[Welcome to the Mobile Legends System]
The what now?
[Binding soul signature…
→ User detected: ReignScale
→ Status: Deceased
→ Condition: Stable for synchronization]
[Linking consciousness…]
[Selecting compatible world…]
[Complete!!]
[Adjusting hero balance, scaling items, recalibrating the power level to fit the designated world]
[System buffed, contents nerfed to fit the power limit of the designated universe]
[Synchronization in progress: 93%… 97%… 100%]
[System calibration complete]
[Five minutes till the host reaches the designated world]
[Tutorial skipped due to the host's experience and knowledge. Opening reward....]
[Hero Spin obtained!! x1]
[Hero Spin : Host can spin the legendary wheel to get any hero in MBLL for free!! Would you like to spin the wheel?]
I was still processing what the fuck was going on, but I answered yes.
[Congratulations!! You got an S-rank hero, Yu Zhong!!]
I mentally celebrated. I was dead, but I was filled with unimaginable joy since I got Yu Zhong, who was one of my main heroes in Mobile Legends. I knew the hero better than I knew myself at times.
[Hero name : Yu Zhong
Titles : The Black Dragon, Devourer of Light, God Slayer, The Last Son of Dragon...etc
Power Level : Multi-Country
...more details]
Welp, that looked like Yu Zhong alright.
[Integrating Host with the Black Dragon!! New Body construction is no longer required!! Sending Host into the new world immediately using Yu Zhong's body as a base]
Yay?
[Good luck!!]
...
From the darkness came light.
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