I was falling.
Dragged through the tearing cracks of space, my body or whatever form I had. plummeted into a place I couldn't comprehend. The endless pull stopped as suddenly as it began, and I crashed down onto solid ground.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a world stripped bare.
No clouds. No trees. No mountains. Not even the smallest sign of life.
The land stretched endlessly, flat and gray like a corpse of a planet. The silence was suffocating.
I staggered to my feet, staring at the lifeless horizon. The others, the radiant beings, the monsters, the chosen hosts from before, they were gone. None of them had fallen with me.
"I'm… alone." My voice echoed weakly, swallowed by the dead air. "Alone in this… dead planet."
I tilted my faceless head upward and froze. The sky above was not the one I remembered. Dozens of moons hung like watchful eyes, their pale light cold and merciless. In the distance, I could see broken planets, worlds shattered, their remains drifting like corpses through space.
I touched my chest where the crown had pierced me back in the void.
Nothing.
No pain. No change. No transformation.
"The crown merged with me… but nothing happened," I muttered. "Not even pain after the fall…"
Confusion gnawed at me, but I walked. It was all I could do.
Days passed. Or maybe weeks. Time was meaningless in this empty world. I walked in circles, endlessly venturing across the plain, searching for anything, any sign of life, of hope. Each step felt heavier than the last. Still, I pressed on.
But slowly, inevitably, despair crept into me.
Am I doomed to wander here forever? Forgotten, unwanted?
And yet… I noticed something.
I never grew tired. My faceless body never weakened. My legs never ached.
Something was wrong with me.
Instead of continuing my futile wandering, I stopped. For the first time, I turned my focus inward.
Why can I see, without eyes? Why can I speak, without a mouth? Why can I hear, without ears? Why can I breathe, without a nose?
I tried to understand myself, but there was no answer. No explanation.
Then—
A sudden sting burned across my face.
A blue light flickered.
I gasped and collapsed to the ground. "Wha—what the hell!?"
Before me, glowing words formed out of thin air. Letters floated in the air, bright and shimmering like fragments of magic.
Character Sheet
Title: [None]
Name: [None]
Level: 1
Status: ?
Core Stats
Strength – Physical power.
Physical Attack: Damage from weapons or fists.
Physical Armor: Defense against physical attacks.
Intelligence – Mental or magical power.
Ability Attack: Damage from skills or magic.
Ability Armor: Defense against skills or magic.
Agility – Speed and reflexes.
Movement Speed: How fast the character can move.
Skills
Skill Set: Normal skills the character learns.
Passive Skills: Always-active effects.
Exclusive Skills: Unique powers only this character has.
Inventory [0/∞]
Items the character carries or owns.
My faceless head tilted in shock. My hands trembled as I reached for the glowing text, though I knew I couldn't touch it.
"This… this is…" My words failed me. My head throbbed painfully again, the same as when I tried to remember my name before. "Arghhh! Damn it—forget it. Just focus… focus on what's in front of me."
I forced myself to study the words carefully.
A… system.
That was the only way I could describe it. Like rules written into reality itself.
My gaze lingered at the top of the sheet.
"Title… none. Name… none. Level… 1?"
My thoughts drifted back to the dragon-man from before, who had transformed into a godlike beast when his crown chose him. Is that what I am? A demi-god?
But unlike him… nothing about me had changed.
I scrolled down the glowing text, reading everything I could, committing it to memory. When I reached the bottom, I frowned, then went back up again, rereading.
"This is strange… I can understand the words, but… what is this really?"
The blue light pulsed.
A single word burned into my mind:
SYSTEM.
The light dimmed. My faceless head lowered. So… the crown that chose me wasn't a crown at all. It was this.
My system.
I stared again at the top of the sheet. My "Name" field remained empty. My "Level" was 1.
"No name. No level worth mentioning…" My hollow voice echoed. "Forget it. Forget the name. Focus on the system. Learn it."
I explored its features, but the rules were vague, confusing. I understood little, but then—,the system itself gave me a clue.
Words appeared before my eyes:
"Devour the Demi-Gods and Ascend."
The words sank into me like a whisper from something ancient.
"…Devour."
At that instant, something stirred inside me.
A slit tore open across my blank face, stretching into a jagged, unnatural shape. A mouth.
And then—
I smiled.
"So… that's the key."