A foot away from the door, a slight rasping shake in my throat as I breathe, "What the heck," I mutter, staring at the game screen floating in front of me. That shocked me more than being bound.
Being bound kinda made sense—seeing as how I died, guess I've got too many attachments to this place? But that… that's not normal.
But oh my god, that's actually so freaking cool! "Now that's what I'm talking about!" So this is what the Aesir were talking about. They basically gave us systems, and if this goes how I think it will, then everyone who loves games or comics is about to dominate this world.
"Ooooo, does this mean I have one? System on!" Or is it a thinking thing? But as soon as I said that, this magical yellow screen appeared right in front of me.
Name: blank.
"Hmm," I tap my chin, "Guess I can name myself. Cool. Never liked the name my sperm donor gave me anyway."
What about Noah? The name's tied to rebirth and survival—and seeing as I'm a bound soul right now, yeah, that fits. Maybe if I cultivate or fight other souls, I'll grow stronger, maybe even reenter the living world someday.
That'd be cool. Let's see if I can say it aloud.
"I want my name to be Noah."
[Name Acquired: Noah]
Nice! Speech-to-text works. Now, let's see the rest of my status.
[System Status]
Name: Noah
Race: Whole | Human
Spiritual Pressure: 1
Strength: 0
Endurance: 0
Agility: 5
There's no description for anything, just the numbers. But three of them are a no-brainer. The only one that actually matters to me right now is Spiritual Pressure.
Sigh… with stats like these, even a ghost toddler could probably vaporize me. Let's not run into any other bad spirits for a while, please.
Skills, huh? Okay, I like this. Still, some things feel missing. Maybe I have to fulfill requirements to unlock the rest. Yeah, that's probably it. Makes sense in a game-world kind of way.
[Passive] Soul Link (Lv.1): Maintains connection to consciousness post-death. Prevents immediate soul disintegration.
[Passive] Echo Sense (Lv.1): Detects faint distortions in spiritual fields within a short range.
[System Protocol] H9""92 -2-@2!8!(: Locked — requires Corruption threshold ≥ 25%.
[System Protocol] !8(-'$ Resonance: Locked — requires Enlightenment threshold ≥ 25%.
Okay… starting to piece things together. The Aesir gave us powers based on desire. Guess I died dramatically and wished life was like an anime—add a plot, cue the MC saving the day.
Which means… wanting to be saved by... Ok a little embarrassing. But Damn, I just finished that arc too! So my "wish" tied my system to that concept. And since in Bleach, when a human dies they become a soul—a Whole—I basically loopholed death.
Wait…
"HAHAHAHAHA!!! I tricked death! Heck yeah!!"
Knowing my situation now made everything easier to accept. Honestly, it'd be cool if I were a soul in that world. Well… maybe not. But I'd at least get to go to the Soul Society if a Shinigami found me.
But this isn't an anime. We don't have them here. Guess we've got Valhalla instead. Still, I haven't ascended. Didn't die a valiant death, and Hel hasn't dragged me off for a shameful one.
Guess I just gotta figure this out myself—
[Chains of Fate have detested you in disgust and hungrily devour at the root of your soul...]
"Huh?"
Looking down, the chains ripped and twisted, bleeding into metal, sprouting mouths.
"What the freakidy helafuc-!"
After a second of screaming panic, I calmed down enough to actually look. They were… gross. Not scary, just wrong.
Mouths. On metal. Tongues swinging out, biting into nothing. Pain bloomed in my chest, but I could bear it. [+1 Soul Corruption]. So they're eating away at my soul, huh? Lovely.
Walking to the counter, I spot an arm—mine, apparently—resting there like a bad decoration. I slump beside it, leaning. "At this point I'm gonna become a Hollow soon. How the hell am I supposed to get enlightened? I'm too freaking weak… and I can't fight for crap."
Do I just wait? Or try ghost tricks, maybe possess something?
"Eh… why not. Nothing better to do before I hollowfy, right? Hahaha. Yeah…"
— — — The Seventh Night — — —
Seven days as a ghost. Seven nights of talking to walls, drifting through hallways, and praying not to see whatever's crawling in the dark corners.
I tried everything—floating, phasing, whispering to the living survivors—but they never heard me. Tried haunting birds, even a cat who wandered by. Didn't work.
By the third night, I learned to feel the weight of the world pressing against me, like invisible waves of static.
By the fifth, I learned to avoid the places where the static grew too thick—dark halls that looked normal at first, until you stared too long and the shadows stared back.
Sometimes, I swore I saw shapes moving inside them—tall, long-limbed things dragging masks across the walls, whispering names I couldn't make out.
And now… the seventh night.
I can't tell if I've slept. My thoughts loop and twist. The air hums with something—like a pulse, like my heartbeat, only deeper, darker. My chains rattle with every exhale. They're hungry.
I think… I'm cracking.
The world's gone silent, and I can hear my soul screaming beneath the surface. My vision fades to black and white, and every heartbeat feels like it's tearing something loose.
My voice trembles, "Heh… guess this is it. My 'hollowfication arc,' huh?"
The system flickers.
[Corruption Threshold: 25%… 40%… 65%...]
[Hollow Path: Activated.]
My body convulses. The black substance pouring out of my chest writhes, crawling up my neck, swallowing my face in a blur of shadow. I fall to my knees, bones cracking, skin splitting like glass.
The world burns white, then black again.
Then silence.
Something heavy drips from me—me—as my human outline melts away. A dark, beastly shape rises from the floor, shoulders broad, arms too long, claws dragging across the cracked tile.
From the front of my skull, two horns grow outward, curling upward like the remains of a crown. The bone mask forms across my face—smooth and angular, with narrow eye slits glowing faint amber beneath.
The chain on my chest snaps with a final clang, and I breathe—no, snarl—for the first time.
[Hollow System: True Initialization Complete]
User Designation: Noah, The Hollowborn.