"Today's the day I finally—"
Honk!
A truck horn split the air.
The young man blinked, still clutching his bag of takeout noodles. He'd just stepped off the curb, headphones blasting anime openings, completely oblivious to the half-ton metal beast barreling toward him.
He turned just in time to see a bumper glinting in the sunlight.
"Oh shi—"
BAM!
The impact wasn't cinematic. It wasn't graceful. One second he was there, the next he was airborne, his noodles flying higher than him like confetti at a farewell party.
The last thing he saw on Earth was the truck driver's horrified face—and the sesame oil stain spreading across his favorite anime t-shirt.
"Damn… not even a dramatic death? Just Truck-kun, seriously?" he muttered as darkness rushed in. "Guess I really am the main character after all…"
He tried to laugh, but no sound came out.
His body was broken. His mind began to scatter.
And yet, just as the last flicker of consciousness started to fade, something incredible happened.
A rift tore open in the void around him unnoticeable to everyone.
From that rift, a fragment of light streaked toward him, blinding, vast, heavy with a weight older than time itself. Alongside it came threads of shadow and chaos, wrapped together into something far beyond human comprehension.
Before anyone notice or before he could even scream, the light slammed into him.
His chest burned. His soul convulsed.
Artifact detected… anchoring essence.
Host compatibility… acceptable.
And then he was gone.
He drifted through endless darkness.
Sometimes it felt like he was floating in a river. Sometimes it felt like he was falling endlessly into a pit. He couldn't tell if seconds were passing… or centuries.
Then silence.
A mass of ball, ancient and glowing, filled with symbols that bled with power. Chains of light wrapped around it.
It pulsed once.
And it swallowed him whole.
When his eyes snapped open again, he wasn't lying on a city street.
He was in a bed.
A bed far too luxurious for him, with silk sheets and a canopy overhead embroidered with golden dragons.
For a moment, he thought he was dreaming. Then the pain hit him. His chest burned like someone had carved into his soul with molten iron. His head pounded with a weight of memories that weren't his.
He clutched his head and groaned.
"Ugh… Where the hell am I? Did Truck-kun send me to… a palace?"
His voice was higher than he remembered. Softer.
He staggered to his feet, caught sight of himself in a bronze mirror across the room—
And froze.
Staring back at him was a boy. Thin, pale, with dark eyes and black hair falling across his forehead. Fifteen years old, at most.
"What the—"
Before he could finish, a flood of memories tore through him.
A clan. A vast estate.
A boy with talent beneath that of trash, abandaned by heavens,
A boy who had, only hours ago, collapsed from another exhaustion… only this time, it claimed his life.
His body swayed as the memories tangled with his own.
"I… I'm him? No, I'm me—wait…" He pressed his temples, groaning. "This is insane. I died on Earth, and now… now I'm in this kid's body?"
The room spun. He dropped back onto the bed, clutching his chest.
Immortal Sign-In Codex initialized.
Synchronization incomplete.
Beginning Synchronization...
His breath caught. "What the hell is this? A… system?"
There was no reply. Only the faint pulse of the Codex, like a heartbeat deep inside him, which he cannot see.
He stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Truck-kun sends me to another world, I get a noble brat's body, and now I've got a… cheat system? Did I seriously just become a cultivation novel cliché?"
He was speechless at the turn of events - especially at the grudging fact that he died right before his promotion at office, for which he fought and toiled for years.
"Great. Years of unpaid overtime, sacrificed weekends, and all I get is reincarnated as a weakling. My boss would be enjoying my corner office right now."
"Well I atleast got a cheat..."
While he is in his thoughts, somewhere, deep within in the light ball, a whisper stirred.
Not yet words. Not yet a voice. But a presence. Watching. Waiting.
For now, it would remain hidden.
But one day, he would know: the Codex aka system didn't just belong to him.
It carried the remnants of the strongest man who once stood at the pinnacle of all heavens.
And one day… that man would speak.