Aldric Morlph walked down the street with Eira, his younger sister, and Thane, his best friend. They had just left the supermarket when the city sirens began to wail.
At first, Aldric thought it was just another blackout warning—the kind the city blasted whenever the power grid was about to fail. Blackouts were so common in the neighborhood that no one paid much attention to the alarms anymore.
But something felt different. Normally, when the sirens rang, the city tower cast sweeping beams of light across the skyline. Tonight, however, the sound didn't come from the towers at all. Instead, it echoed down from the sky.
Then all of a sudden the night sky cracked open. Strange green and golden light blazed across the dark sky, jagged and sharp, spreading in straight lines like cracks in broken glass.
Aldric froze. The plastic bag of noodles he was holding slipped from his hands and fell to the ground. His mouth hung open as he stared upward, shock rooting him to the spot.
"What the hell is that?" Thane asked. He was taller, stronger, and usually the brave one. But even his voice shook as he stared at the sky.
"I… I don't know," Aldric muttered, his throat dry. "It looks like… some kind of code."
Both of them stared upward, their eyes fixed on the glowing cracks in the sky. Then, as if the heavens were a giant screen, huge glowing letters burned into the sky:
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING]
The calm city exploded into panic. People screamed. Some rushed indoors and slammed their doors shut. Others fell to their knees in the street, crying and praying.
Aldric couldn't move. His feet felt stuck to the pavement, the fear from the scene locked his body in place. Behind him, Eira tugged on his black leather jacket with shaking hands.
"Aldric… I'm scared," she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.
Hearing Eira's trembling voice, Aldric forced himself to look away from the sky. He pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"Don't worry," he said softly, trying to sound calm. "It's probably just some big light show. Nothing to be afraid of."
But even as the words left his lips, he knew he was lying.
Then, without warning, something appeared in his vision. A glowing blue box hovered in midair—floating just inches right in front of his face. It looked like the same strange screens flickering across the sky, only smaller.
The words shone brightly:
[WELCOME TO THE GAMING SYSTEM]
[YOUR WORLD HAS BEEN CHOSEN FOR LIFE GAMING]
[ASSIGNING CLASS AND POWER LEVEL…]
Aldric's heart pounded in his chest. His breath caught. What the hell is going on?
"Don't tell me you see this too," Thane muttered, his voice cracking. Aldric turned and saw a blue box floating in front of his friend as well.
They weren't the only ones. Dozens of people nearby had the same blue screen hovering in front of them. Some screamed and tried to swat it away, but the floating box stayed in front of their eyes no matter where they turned.
"Assigning class? What does that even mean?" Aldric muttered, reading the words glowing on the floating box out loud.
[YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED: CLASS – SCAVENGER]
[POWER LEVEL: LV 1]
The text blinked in bright, burning letters. Aldric felt his stomach twist into knots.
"Class… Scavenger?" he whispered. "What's that even supposed to mean?"
Suddenly Thane leaned over his shoulder, squinting at Aldric's floating box. When he saw the words, his face fell.
"No way," Thane said. "You got the weakest class there is."
Aldric snapped his head toward him. "What do you mean weakest? how the hell do you even know that?"
Thane pointed upward. Aldric followed his finger—and realized the massive box in the sky had changed again. Now it listed all the classes. Their ranks. Their duties.
Some were written in shimmering gold, each tied to powerful levels. Others shone in silver or bronze, still ranked high. But at the very bottom, in dull letters, was Aldric's class: Scavenger.
Compared to the glowing names above, it looked pitiful.
Aldric's chest tightened. His fists curled. He hadn't even started this so called "life gaming," and already he was at the bottom.
His eyes slide to Thane's floating screen. His chest sank when he saw the glowing letters:
[CLASS – WARRIOR]
The word shone in bright gold. Thane had been assigned one of the highest-ranked classes.
According to the giant screen in the sky, the Warrior class was a frontline fighter—strong stats, powerful weapons, the backbone of any battle.
Meanwhile, Aldric's own class—Scavenger—mocked him in pale, lifeless letters. which was refer as Trash-picker in the gaming world.
All around them, people shouted:
"Class: Mage!" one man shouted in awe.
"Archer! I got Archer!" another called, fists pumping with excitement.
Groans echoed from those assigned to lower classes, but none of them looked as devastated as Aldric felt.
He clenched his fists until his knuckles ached. Rage and despair churned in his chest.
"This has to be a mistake," he growled under his breath." why the hell did I get the lowest class of all?"
Before Thane could reply, a piercing scream ripped through the night. It was so loud, that everyone froze and turned toward the sound.
What they saw made the blood drain from their faces.
At the end of the street, something clawed its way out of the shadows. Its body was… wrong. Twisted. Too many legs bent at a weird angles, and it's face had glowing yellow eyes, far more than anyone could count. It might once have been a dog, but now it was stretched, warped, oozing black fluid as if its flesh itself was rotting.
Gasps spread through the crowd. Then a cold, mechanical voice thundered from the sky:
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
[FIRST WAVE: MONSTERS RELEASED]
[DEFEAT ALL MONSTERS… OR BE KILLED BY THEM]
The words struck like a death sentence.
Chaos erupted. People ran and shoved each other, screaming In terror. But more of the twisted creatures slithered out from the shadows, crawling and stumbling into the crowd.