When the darkness faded and the pain of his last life ebbed away, Nathan awoke not as the person he remembered, but as someone new. His mind was sharp with the memories of two lives: the mundane, familiar world he'd known, and the sixteen years of a stranger's youth spent in a place where magic and monsters were woven into the very fabric of reality.
He stared up at a sky painted with two suns and a swirling violet aurora. His body felt both foreign and familiar — leaner, stronger, but heavy with the aches of wounds earned during last night's chaos. He remembered the attack: monstrous, twisted creatures had burst through the village's wooden palisade, their shrieks echoing as flames devoured homes. He'd fought with desperate courage, and at the moment of death, a voice had whispered, "Rebooting system… Welcome, User."
Now, the whisper was in his head again. A faint blue window appeared before his eyes:
[Welcome, Arlen Drayke. Synchronization: Complete. Skill Matrix: Locked. Status: Injured.]
Nathan—or Arlen, as he now was—blinked, and the screen faded. The System. He could feel it, a presence in his mind, ready to answer questions, provide information, even guide his growth. All he had to do was ask. But every advantage came with risk in a world where the strong ruled without consequence.