A group of police officers and special squads, with bulletproof vests on and fully armed, approached a warehouse located near the dock cautiously. They made the lowest sounds possible, their guns ready at their hands.
"You sure they are all inside?" asked a middle-aged man with a bushy mustache to the young man beside him.
"Positive, Chief," Joe, the young man with black hair and amber eyes, answered with a confident tone. His eyes were scanning the surrounding area, finding any possible movements from inside the building. But there was none.
"Aight. Joe, go check inside. We'll back you up," the chief commanded, his eyes focused on the open door of the warehouse. Joe glanced at him for a few moments, thinking why would he be the one to go first, but then he nodded without replying back.
He hunched over, passing the wooden crates staked outside the warehouse. With the gun in his hand, he sprinted towards the open door.
Placing his back against the wall, he peeked inside. All he saw were rows of wooden crates stacked neatly on both sides of the inner building.
'Strange… there were guards here few hours ago…' he thought, turning his head back to his chief and teammates. They were watching him, but Joe felt something was off. They were smiling widely, a cunning, sinister smile.
Joe blinked, and wasn't sure what he just saw. And yes, they were not smiling anymore. The chief flicked his head, pointing it to the door, signaling him to go inside.
'...Just my imagination...' Joe thought, then turned his head again to the inner side of the warehouse.
Joe and his team, backed by police support, were set to ambush the location, suspected to be a key base for drug dealers. Not just that, these individuals were highly suspected of being involved in orchestrating terrorist acts over the past few months.
These were supposed to be an easy, routine mission, he had done it countless times during his five years with the federal agency, transferred from the Operational Technology Division, and now three years tasked to help the Criminal Investigative Division. But this time, he had a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong.
He took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, trying to shake off the nagging feeling. Then he stepped inside, with his eyes sweeping the area.
The warehouse was quiet even though it was in the afternoon. He checked thoroughly, and confirmed that no one was there.
'Did I get the wrong info…?' he thought, while stepping a bit to the middle of the warehouse, intended to send a signal to his team. But his informant was one of the trusted ones, and he had connections with him for years.
He glanced at where the team was supposed to be, yet they weren't even in their spot, not even the police. Thinking that they were good at hiding themselves, he still gave the signal, waving his hand toward them.
BANGG!! BANNGGG!!!
Suddenly a few gunshots were heard, and those bullets were aimed at him. Countless bullets tore through his body, making him go limb, and fell to the floor, lifeless in an instant.
*******
Joe, whose body was lying dead, watched the blood pooling beneath his body with horror.
'Fuck… I'm cooked…' His thought echoed softly around his ethereal form. Then he saw movements from the door entrance.
But when he thought that the drug dealers who sent him to die, expecting that they would emerge from the door with their guns pointed at him, felt the shock once more. It wasn't the dealers who shot the bullet. It was his teammates.
"Good job, Chief!" Garret, the one who always looked at him in disdain, at his achievements, spoke. The others were laughing around his dead body.
The chief was laughing while putting his gun on his waist pant, his bushy mustache dancing above his lips. "This fucker ain't gonna hinder our money anymore," he said, followed by the others' laughs.
Joe's eyes widened. That was the reason they did this to him. He was the only one who was persistent in never wanting to do the dirty 'side job' of this department, after being transferred three years ago.
This was absurd, for the sake of money, they killed their own teammate.
"You all son of a bitch!!" He yelled furiously, though his voice only hovering around his own space, his own realm. He tried to move his ghostly body to the chief, assuming he was the main culprit of his killing, yet the body didn't move.
He tried to reach the chief, and yelled as loud as possible, until a voice came chiming into his space.
[Welcome to the Sin System.]
It was a woman's voice, a deep, soothing voice. A kind of voice that would lull you into a fantasy world with her.
'...Who…?'
[Host: Joe Sheba.]
[Current Status: REVENANT.]
[Host life force depleted. Initiating transition to Carja.]
[Preparing to synchronize the host interface…]
[Loading the Sin System's features…]
Bewildered, Joe searched the voice source, but couldn't find the woman, forgetting his previous intention to choke the chief.
[Initializing… 39%.]
"Who talking?"
[50%.]
"Show yourself!!" He shouted, felt so frustrated after all he had been through. But there was only silence, no one answering, until her voice spoke up again, announcing words that sounded like laboratory technician's reports.
[75%.]
"..."
[100%.]
[Transporting Host to Carja.]
[Three.]
[Two.]
[One.]
Suddenly, a brilliant, flat and circular shape materialized before him. He covered his face with his arm, blinded by the intense white light.
Then, the white light sucked him without him being able to resist. The suction was incredibly powerful, akin to being pulled into a massive vacuum, making his ghostly form become a blur of light.
Before he knew it, before he even took the form of a curse word in his mind, Joe felt he was slammed to the ground with tremendous power.
He groaned and coughed, feeling his body throbbed from the impact. After his head stopped throbbing, he opened his eyes, to see a canopy of towering moss-covered trees above him. As his vision cleared, he could see the sunlight filtering through the dense foliages.
He sat up, only to see a city with wooden huts and stone homes sprawling before him. In the distance, a formidable stone fortress with towering spires stood at the center of it.
"Where am I…?" He muttered, his eyes darting around with a mix of awe and bewilderment.
As if sensing his thoughts, the female voice he heard before, spoke up again.
[Welcome to Carja.]
[The host has been successfully transported into the vessel body.]
[Conducting vital scan…]
[Host body integrity: 97%. Minor ethereal adaptation symptoms detected—self-resolving.]
[Memory synchronization in progress…]
As the voice finished its last sentence, Joe felt a jolt of pain shot through his head. The agony was unlike anything he had ever known. It was like his brain was being stabbed by countless razor-sharp knives.
Joe screamed, clutching his head, his fingers tearing at his hair as if trying to rip the pain out, but the stabbing sensations continued to assault him relentlessly.
When the pain subsided, he hunched over, catching his ragged breath, with his elbows on the ground.