The city felt alive with red and blue lights covering everywhere and everything along with the stench of decay in a place where even the moonlight refused to shine.
Seth Gertrude staggered down a narrow alley, his breathing shallow with stink of trash bins and gasoline filling his lungs. His shirt was torn, stained partly with someone else's blood, though he hadn't noticed when it got there.
Clop! Clop! Clop!
The click of expensive shoes echoed behind him. A sound too neat, too clean for a place this filthy.
"Gertrude."
The voice was oily, smooth, and carried the weight of a man used to obedience. Seth didn't need to look back. He knew exactly who it belonged to—the boss. The man who owned half the city's crime rings and the other half's politicians.
Seth turned anyway, forcing a crooked smile despite the bruises swelling his cheek. Four men in dark suits flanked the boss, each with iron tucked casually under their jackets.
"You've got the wrong idea," Seth said, raising his hands. "I didn't flirt with her."
The boss tilted his head. In the faint alley light, his gold ring gleamed as he flexed his fingers. "One of my women said you smiled at her. That's all the proof I need."
Seth barked a laugh, harsh and bitter. "A smile? Really? She was bagging my groceries. What was I supposed to do, glare at her and ask for paper instead of plastic?"
"Haha..." The boss's men chuckled, but their fingers didn't leave their triggers.
"That was funny." The boss, though, didn't smile. He stepped closer, the tip of his polished shoe grinding into a puddle.
"You think you're funny, Gertrude? You think you can mock me in my own city?"
"I don't think I can," Seth said, his grin widening, "I think I just did."
The boss's hand flashed, a fist adorned with gold and fury.
Bang!
Pain blossomed across Seth's jaw as he crashed against the wall. His teeth rattled, copper filling his mouth. The taste of his own blood.
Still, he laughed. "If this is about your woman, maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe the problem's that she looked twice."
The alley went silent.
The boss's face twisted, veins pulsing at his temple. A gun was drawn—not by him, but by one of his men. The cold muzzle pressed against Seth's temple, and suddenly the night seemed sharper, crueler, final.
Seth closed his eyes. His chest rose and fell once. Just once.
He wasn't ready to die. Not like this. He hadn't done half the things he dreamed of. Travel. Love. Adventure. A life that meant something.
But if this was it, he wasn't going out begging. Boss Hugo loved to torment beggars more than anything and he wasn't one for torture.
"Hehehehe..." Seth had no idea when he started laughing but it continued. "Hahahaha..."
When the gunshot cracked, the last sound Seth heard was his own defiant laughter.
Bang!
Silence.
Then… light.
Seth opened his eyes to a sky that wasn't a sky. It was fractured, broken into shards like glass suspended in infinity.
Islands of stone and soil floated weightlessly, each tethered to glowing chains of light. Mountains rose upside-down. Rivers streamed into the void, dissolving into mist before they fell too far.
He lay on smooth white ground, cool beneath his fingers, like marble kissed by snow. Slowly, painfully, he sat up.
"…I'm… not dead?"
His voice echoed strangely, as if the world itself hadn't yet decided how sound should behave in respect to his question.
Seth staggered to his feet. His body felt whole again—no gunshot wound, no broken ribs, no ache in his jaw. He flexed his hands, marveled at the lack of pain.
"Okay… either I'm in heaven, or someone slipped me the strongest drugs in history. Something not recorded in the books of history I suppose." As how spoke, he looked around to confirm he wasn't really hallucinating.
The air seemed to taste different. Clean. Pure. Almost sweet. He inhaled again and again, desperate to burn it into his lungs. For the first time in years, he felt alive.
"Where the hell is this…?"
He wandered forward, each step echoing across the empty expanse. The platform stretched endlessly, curving into the void, until the horizon bent like glass. He stopped at the edge and peered down. No ground. Only darkness, swallowing stars like an endless ocean.
"Uhm... this isn't heaven." He forced a laugh. "Neither is this Hell. Hell's too cheap for views like this."
A faint hum stirred the ground and everything around him. Seth frowned, glancing around. The sound grew sharper, clearer—until it became words scribbled onto his vision.
[System initializing…]
Seth blinked. "Oh, no. No, no, no. Don't tell me—"
[Welcome, Host: Seth Gertrude.]
[World: The Shattered Realms.]
[System successfully bound.]
Floating text appeared in midair, glowing gold. Seth swiped at it instinctively, but his hand passed through like mist.
"…I've seen this anime," he muttered. "This is where I get superpowers, a harem, and probably a dragon egg or something."
The text pulsed again.
[System Perks unlocked.]
[Double EXP when missions are completed by bound companions.]
[Earn Points from missions to strengthen yourself and your companions.]
[Access to System Shop.]
[Mission Available!]
Seth raised a brow. "Not bad. Let's see what my heroic debut looks like."
[Mission: Avoid women for 24 hours.]
[Reward: 100 Points.]
[Failure: System penalty.]
Seth stared.
"…What?"
He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and read it again. "Avoid women? That's my first mission? Not kill monsters, not conquer dungeons, not rescue royalty—but avoid women?"
The text didn't change.
Seth threw his hands in the air. "You've got to be kidding me! Back home, I get killed for not flirting, and now I'm supposed to keep away from women? Is this some cosmic joke?"
He paced, muttering to himself. "Whatever. Fine. Easy mode. I'll hide out, take a nap, and cash in my reward. What's the worst that could happen?"
The air chimed, and the glowing letters shifted.
[Mission Time: 23:59:59]
Seth groaned and dragged his hands through his hair. "Alright, no women. Easy. I wasn't exactly a ladies' man anyway."
But as the timer ticked, and the endless expanse of the Shattered Realms stretched before him, he couldn't shake the feeling that this "easy" mission was about to be anything but easy.
The ground beneath Seth's boots shimmered faintly, as though light itself had been woven into the stone. He walked carefully, half-expecting it to dissolve under his feet. Every step echoed, magnified by the emptiness of the Shattered Realms.
The platform stretched onward, curving to meet a sky broken into pieces. He paused, squinting. In the distance, perched atop a floating island, stood… a settlement. Human-made structures—roofs, walls, a gate. Actual people, moving like ants among the crooked streets.
Seth's chest swelled. "Finally. Civilization. Actual human beings. Maybe they can explain what the hell is going on."
The closer he got, the stranger it seemed. The village clung to the island's edge at odd angles, houses built sideways or upside-down, yet still somehow upright to those walking on them.
Seth shivered. "Okay… so it's a little… Tim Burton-y. But humans are humans, right?"
At the gate, he spotted her. A young woman with a bucket balanced on her hip, dark hair spilling past her shoulders. She was ordinary compared to the bizarre geometry around her—and that alone made her beautiful.
Seth hesitated. The mission's warning flashed in the back of his head: Avoid women for 24 hours.
"…Pfft. She's just a person. I'll ask for directions, grab some food, then hide away. Easy."
He cleared his throat, raising a hand in greeting. "Uh, hey! Sorry to bother you, but can you tell me where I am?"