Consciousness returned not with a gentle fade-in, but with the violent, gasping start of a player respawning after a hardcore death.
Kenji's eyes flew open, his body lurching upward. A strangled cry caught in his throat, the phantom pain of the knife still a cold echo in his nerves. He expected to see the damp, neon-stained asphalt of the alley. He expected the smell of rain and city grime.
Instead, a canopy of immense, emerald leaves greeted him, filtering sunlight into dappled, golden pools. The air was thick, humid, and carried the rich, clean scents of damp earth, pine, and blooming flowers. It was utterly, profoundly silent, save for the distant chirp of unknown birds and the rustle of leaves in a gentle breeze.
What…?
His mind, a precision instrument honed on logic and game mechanics, scrambled to process the sensory overload. This wasn't right. This wasn't his room. This wasn't a hospital.
He looked down at his hands, the movement feeling strangely light. His breath hitched.
They were wrong.
These were not his hands. His hands were calloused from years on a keyboard, with a faint scar across the knuckle from a childhood accident. These hands were smaller, paler, softer. The fingers were slender, almost delicate. He patted his own chest, his arms. He was thinner. Younger. Dressed in simple, rough-spun clothes that felt alien against his skin.
A cold dread, colder than the alley rain, began to seep into his bones. This was no dream. The clarity was too sharp, the details too vivid.
VR? Some kind of full-dive tech? Did they… did they put me in a simulation?
He pushed himself to his feet, his new body feeling awkward and uncoordinated, like piloting a low-level character with terrible stats. The dizziness returned, a wave of weakness that made him stagger and brace himself against the rough bark of a nearby tree.
Status. I need to see my status. It was a gamer's first instinct. He focused his will, the way he'd mentally command a HUD to appear.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, a spike of panic rising in his throat. Menu! Options! Log out!
Silence. Only the sounds of the forest answered him. There was no interface. No comforting blue screens. No way out.
The reality of his situation crashed down on him with the force of a raid boss's enraged slam. The alley. The knife. The wish. The light…
Oh, god.
He was here. Really here. And "here" was…
His eyes, wide with dawning horror, scanned the surroundings with new purpose. The towering trees with their silver-barked trunks. The unique, bioluminescent moss clinging to the north side of the rocks. The faint, almost imperceptible hum of magical energy that made the hair on his arms stand up.
He knew this place. He knew it better than his own neighborhood.
This was the Whispering Woods. The starting zone for the Human faction in World's End: Ignition. It was exactly as the artists had designed it. Beautiful. Serene. And incredibly dangerous for anyone below level 5.
A raw, disbelieving laugh escaped his lips, sounding too young and too scared in the vast quiet of the forest. He had gotten his wish. His stupid, desperate, final wish for another chance. A new game+.
And he had spawned as a Level 1 Noob.
The pro-gamer in him shoved the rising tide of panic and existential terror into a small, locked box. There would be time for a mental breakdown later. Right now, the priority was survival. This wasn't a game anymore. There were no respawns. His HP was down to one, and the world was full of aggressive mobs.
His stomach clenched, not with fear, but with a sharp, gnawing hunger. Right. Survival 101. Food. Water. Shelter.
He had nothing. No starter pack. No beginner's sword. No currency. Just the clothes on his back and the knowledge in his head.
He pushed away from the tree, forcing his new, weak body to move. He needed to find water. Following the slope of the land downward, he used his knowledge of the game's terrain, remembering where the streams usually generated.
Every rustle of leaves made him freeze, his heart hammering. A Crackleboar could charge out of the underbrush and end him in seconds. A pack of Timber Wolves could easily hunt down a lone, unarmed player.
After what felt like an eternity, he heard it: the gentle gurgle of running water. Relief, sweet and potent, washed over him. He stumbled into a small clearing where a crystal-clear stream cut through the rocks. He fell to his knees, cupping the cold water in his hands and drinking greedily.
It was then he saw it. A movement on the other side of the stream. A rabbit with fur the colour of moss and eyes that glowed faintly amber—a Forest Skitterer. Level 2. Common mob. 2 XP. Dropped: Skitterer Meat (Poor Quality).
Food.
Acting on pure instinct, Kenji's hand closed around a smooth, heavy stone from the stream bed. This was a classic beginner's grind. His mind calculated the range, the trajectory, the lead needed. He stood, arm pulled back, and threw with all the strength his new body could muster.
The throw was pathetic. The stone flew wide, clattering harmlessly against a tree trunk several feet from the rabbit. The Skitterer perked up, gave him a dismissive flick of its ear, and hopped away into the bushes.
Frustration, hot and familiar, boiled up in him. He knew exactly how to make that shot. His mind had executed the perfect throw. But this body, this weak, untrained, low-Strength-stat body, couldn't execute the command.
Angry and starving, he stumbled after it, grabbing another stone. The rabbit was faster, disappearing into the thicker brush. Kenji tripped on an exposed root, the world tilting. He threw out his hands to break his fall, the stone still clutched in his right hand.
The impact with the ground was jarring. It rattled his teeth and sent a jolt of pain through his wrists. But beneath the pain, something else happened. A strange, warm sensation bloomed in his core, a faint thrum of energy that hadn't been there a second before. It was subtle, like a single bar of mana refilling.
What was that?
He pushed himself up, staring at his hands. The energy faded as quickly as it came. He shook his head. Probably just the adrenaline.
He needed a better plan. He remembered a developer note about Skitterers having a predictable pathing loop near berry bushes. He circled around, moving as quietly as he could, and found a cluster of bluebell bushes. Hiding behind a thick tree, he waited, the heavy stone cold in his palm.
Minutes stretched. The hunger pang intensified. Just as he was about to give up, the Skitterer emerged, nibbling on a fallen berry.
Now.
He stepped out, arm swinging. This time, he didn't just throw. He poured all his frustration, all his hunger, all his desperate need to win into the motion. As his arm whipped forward, he focused on that strange, fleeting warmth in his gut, and willed it out. He willed it into the stone.
A faint, almost invisible shimmer of pale blue energy flickered around the rock for a nanosecond.
It tore through the air with a sound that wasn't natural—a sharp crack that split the forest silence.
It didn't just hit the rabbit.
It obliterated it.
Where the Level 2 Forest Skitterer had been was now a red smear and a few tufts of fur against a tree trunk. The stone itself was embedded deep in the wood, surrounded by a spiderweb of cracks.
Kenji stood frozen, arm still extended, his breath caught in his lungs. The smell of copper and something ozone-like hung in the air.
The forest was dead silent again.
He slowly lowered his arm, staring at the devastation. His heart wasn't hammering from fear anymore. It was pounding with a terrifying, exhilarating revelation.
The glitching light. The data-stream. It hadn't been a dream.
[SOUL-FRAGMENT GRANTED: KINETIC ECHO PROTOCOL.]
A slow, wide grin spread across Kenji's face, the first real one since he'd awoken here. It was the grin of Spxrrow, the ranked champion. The grin of a player who had just discovered a game-breaking exploit.
He looked down at his hands—the soft, weak, noob hands—and then back at the shattered tree.
He had no levels. He had no gear. He had no stats.
But he had a power that could turn a simple stone into a high-velocity projectile.
The game had just changed.