The last thing I remembered was the screech of tires and the blinding glare of headlights. Then, nothing. A void of silence and non-existence.
So, the first thing that registered was pain.
A deep, throbbing ache pulsed in my skull, a rhythmic drumbeat of agony. My body felt like a used punching bag—bruised, broken, and utterly spent. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth, and each ragged breath I drew scraped against my ribs like sandpaper.
What… happened? Where am I?
I forced my eyes open, a Herculean effort that sent fresh spikes of pain through my head. Blurry shapes swam into focus. A grimy, cobblestone alley. The stench of rotting garbage and stagnant water. A dark, purple-tinged sky overhead, illuminated by two small moons.
Two moons.
Panic, cold and sharp, lanced through the pain. This wasn't right. This wasn't my world.
Memories that weren't mine flooded my mind in a dizzying torrent. A young man, also in pain, running, fear choking him. A sneering laugh. A flash of green energy. An impact. Then… me.
I know this…
The memories clicked into place with horrifying clarity. The alley. The attack. The two moons. This was the opening chapter of Aether's Fall, the web novel I'd been binge-reading before the truck hit me. And the body I was now wearing… it belonged to Zane Valthor. A nobody. A background character whose sole purpose was to be found dead in an alley to demonstrate the villain's cruelty.
I was a footnote. A statistic. An extra.
Despair threatened to swallow me whole. I had been reborn into a brutal, magical world, only to die again in the first five minutes.
Just as the thought finished, a sound echoed in the deep recesses of my mind. It was a soft, crystalline chime, utterly alien and out of place in this filthy alley.
[Aetherial Resonance System initializing...]
A transparent, blue-hued screen materialized before my eyes, hovering in the air. The text was clean, serif, and glowed with a soft internal light.
[Host consciousness stabilized.]
[Soul integration complete: 100%.] [Welcome, Zane Valthor.]
I stared, my pain forgotten for a single, heart-stopping moment. A system? I had a system?
[Initial scan complete.]
[Host Status: Critical.]
[Aetherial Core: Dormant. Unawakened.] [Resonant Rank: 0 (Mortal).]
The screen flickered, and a new prompt appeared, simple and devastating.
[Aetherial Anomaly detected: Minor Void-Touched Lurker (Rank 1 Monster) approaching.]
[Estimated Time to Host Termination: 120 seconds.]
A guttural, chittering sound echoed from the end of the alley. I slowly, painfully, turned my head. A creature emerged from the shadows. It was the size of a large dog, its form a shifting, oily blackness that seemed to drink the light. Multiple glowing red eyes fixed on me. It had long, needle-like claws that scraped against the stone as it scuttled forward.
The Minor Void-Touched Lurker. The very thing that was supposed to clean up the original Zane's corpse.
Fear, pure and primal, seized me. This was it. My second chance at life was about to be shorter than my first.
No. NO! I screamed inwardly. I just got here! I read 2000 chapters of this damn story! I can't die like this!
As if responding to my desperate, mental shout, the system screen changed.
[Host's will to survive recognized.] [Emergency protocol activated.]
[Aetherial Shop Module unlocking... 25%... 50%...]
The Lurker crept closer, its chittering growing louder, hungrier.
[75%...]
I could smell its odor now—ozone and decay.
[100%. Aetherial Shop is now available.] [Welcome Bonus: 100 Aether Crystals granted.]
The screen transformed. The status messages vanished, replaced by a simple, menu-driven interface. It looked like a minimalist online store. At the top, it read:
[Available Currency: 100 Aether Crystals]
The Lurker tensed, its haunches coiling to pounce.
I didn't have time to think, to question, to wonder. My mind, screaming in panic, focused on one thing: Weapons!
The menu instantly populated. My eyes, blurred with pain and terror, locked onto the first and cheapest entry.
[Novice's Aether-Iron Dagger] Rank: 1 A simple blade, lightly infused with Aether. Capable of harming low-tier spectral entities. Cost: 50 Aether Crystals.
The Lurker launched itself through the air, a blur of darkness and death, its maw opening wide to reveal a void deeper than the night.
With the last of my strength and a final mental scream, I selected the dagger.
[Purchase confirmed.
Balance: 50 Aether Crystals.]
There was no flash of light, no grand spectacle. The weight of cold, solid iron simply appeared in my right hand. My fingers, acting on an instinct I didn't know I had, closed around the grip.
The creature was mid-pounce, its claws reaching for my throat.
I couldn't swing. I couldn't fight. All I could do was hold the dagger up in a pathetic, desperate guard.
The Lurker impaled itself on the blade.
A horrific shriek, the sound of tearing reality, erupted from the creature. Where the Aether-Iron dagger met its shadowy flesh, sizzling white light erupted. The oily darkness dissolved into wisps of black smoke. The creature thrashed once, twice, then collapsed on top of me, its form dissipating entirely until nothing was left but a faint, acrid smell and a single, pea-sized, softly glowing black crystal lying on my chest.
I lay there, gasping, the dagger still clutched in my trembling hand. The weight of the monster was gone. The immediate threat was over.
[Combat concluded.]
[Experience gained.]
[Aetherial Core awakening triggered...]
A new, different pain erupted in my stomach—a burning, twisting sensation as if something were igniting deep within me. Energy, raw and wild, flooded my veins, washing away the worst of my injuries in a wave of fire and ice. The pain in my skull receded to a dull ache.
The system screen updated once more.
[Host: Zane Valthor]
[Aetherial Core: Awakened. Rank 1 - Aether-Sensed (Low Stage)]
[New Currency Acquired: Void Crystal (Rank 1) - Convert to 10 Aether Crystals?]
I stared at the crystal on my chest, then at the glowing screen, then at the dirty alley around me. The two moons looked down, indifferent.
The truck was gone. My old life was gone. Zane Valthor, the extra, was supposed to be gone.
But I was here. I had a system. And I had just killed my first monster.
Taking a shuddering breath, I made my first conscious choice in this new world.
Convert it.
[Conversion complete.]
[Current Balance: 60 Aether Crystals.]
I had survived the first page. The story of Zane Valthor was no longer a footnote. It was just beginning.