The glowing screen hovering in front of his face wasn't going away.
Ethan scrambled backward, hitting the tub with a thud. The interface followed, text floating in his vision like a heads-up display in a video game.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Counted to ten. Opened them.
Still there.
Wealth Point: 0
QUEST: FIRST BREATH — Time Remaining: 23:47:33
"Okay. Okay." His voice sounded too loud in the small bathroom. "Either I had a psychotic break, or—or—"
Or a God just gave him a second chance.
He looked down at his wrist. The skin was smooth, no trace of the gash that should have killed him. But his sleeve was still soaked with drying blood, the tile floor still sticky with it. The Rusted Fang lay where it had fallen, red coating the cheap steel.
Evidence. Proof. It happened.
Ethan's hands trembled as he reached for the interface. His fingers passed through the golden text, but when he focused, really focused—a menu expanded.
WEALTH SYSTEM
- STATUS
- QUESTS
- SHOP
He mentally selected SHOP.
The bathroom filled with light as hundreds of items materialized in a scrolling list. Weapons. Armor. Potions. Each with a name, description, and price tag in WP.
Basic Health Potion — 50 WP
Restores minor injuries. Tastes like pennies.
Iron Shortsword — 200 WP
Better than what you've got.
Leather Armor Set — 300 WP
Won't stop much, but it's something.
Steel Fang Dagger — 200 WP
Actually sharp.
Ethan scrolled faster. The prices climbed. Hundreds. Thousands. Items labeled RARE and EPIC with costs in the tens of thousands.
At the very bottom, grayed out and locked:
??? — 1,000,000 WP
INSUFFICIENT COURAGE RANK
"A million," he breathed. "What the hell costs a million?"
"Figure it out yourself, coward."
Ethan yelped, spinning around. The bathroom was empty. But the voice—Chrysos's voice—echoed in his head, amused and distant.
"Or die trying. Your choice. I've got better things to do than hold your hand."
Then silence. The presence was gone, leaving only the golden interface and Ethan's racing heartbeat.
He looked back at the screen. At his Wealth Points: 0. At the quest timer: 23:43:12.
Don't kill yourself for twenty-four hours. That was the challenge. The bar was so low it was underground, and yet—
His eyes drifted to the dagger on the floor.
How easy would it be?
"No." Ethan said it out loud, firm. "No. Not again."
The system chimed.
QUEST PROGRESS: 1 minute survived.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up his throat. "You've got to be kidding me. I get points for existing?"
The interface didn't answer. Just kept that timer counting down, indifferent to his existential crisis.
Ethan pulled himself to his feet, legs shaky. He caught his reflection in the mirror—hollow eyes, pale skin, blood-stained hoodie. He looked like a corpse that forgot to stay dead.
Maybe that's what I am.
He tossed the ruined hoodie aside and wiped the blood away, numb and automatic.
His mind spun.
A God gave me a system. A VIDEO GAME system. In real life.
Hunters borrowed power from Gods, everyone knew that. S-ranks got weapons and abilities directly from their divine patrons. But this?
This was different. No borrowed power. No mana channeling. Just... points and a shop.
Wealth Points.
"Show courage, earn points, buy gear," Ethan muttered, scrubbing at a stubborn bloodstain. "It's a transaction. Chrysos isn't giving me power. He's making me purchase it."
The thought should have bothered him. Instead, it felt oddly fair. No divine favoritism. No genetic lottery of mana capacity. Just him, his choices, and their consequences.
He finished cleaning and checked his phone.
Same date. Same time. Same problems. Only he had changed.
And the glowing quest notification in his vision.
23:38:55
Ethan opened the system again, navigating to STATUS.
HOST: Ethan Reed
AGE: 19
RANK: E (Mana Capacity: 0.7 units)
WEALTH POINTS: 0
COURAGE RANK: F
TITLES: None
ACTIVE QUESTS: 1
"Courage Rank F," he read aloud. "Great. I'm failing at bravery too."
He switched to QUESTS. The first one was still there. But below it, a second notification had appeared:
NEW QUEST AVAILABLE
COWARD'S FIRST STEP
Clear Conditions: Enter a portal alone. Kill 1 monster.
Reward: 500 WP, Courage Rank increase
Time Limit: 24 hours after FIRST BREATH completion
Penalty: None (You're already pathetic)
"Enter a portal. Alone." Ethan's stomach dropped. "Kill a monster."
The last time he'd killed something was three weeks ago. A Giant Rat in an F-grade dungeon, and even that had taken him twenty minutes of running and screaming before he'd gotten a lucky stab. Jake and the others had mocked him for days.
You took twenty minutes to kill a RAT, Reed. My grandma could do better.
His phone lay on the bathroom sink, screen dark. He knew what waited inside, the RaidFinder app, the hunter job board, the portal listings.
He hadn't opened any of them in three days. Not since the Direwolf incident. Not since he'd decided dying was easier than living.
Ethan's hand hovered over the phone.
I can't.
The thought came automatically. He couldn't go back into a portal. Couldn't face the monsters, the fear, the certainty that he'd die screaming while everyone else survived.
But—
He glanced at the shop interface. The Basic Health Potion. The Steel Fang Dagger. Tools that could make him slightly less useless.
100 WP for surviving. 500 for entering a portal.
600 total.
Enough for a real weapon. Enough to stop being a joke.
"Courage or death," Chrysos had said.
Ethan picked up the phone. His thumb shook over the RaidFinder icon.
I'm going to die in there.
Probably. But he was going to die anyway—from hunger, eviction, homelessness, or another hunter using him as bait. What difference did it make?
At least this way, I choose it.
The thought was bitter. Bleak. And strangely liberating.
He opened the app.
A map of Seattle loaded, dotted with portal markers. Most were claimed by guilds. But in the Crater District, a cluster of green icons blinked.
F-GRADE PORTAL: RAT WARREN
Threat Level: Minimal
Entry Fee: $200
Status: Open Access
Two hundred dollars. Ethan checked his account.
$47.
His chest tightened. "Of course."
Then he froze.
The cash. The eviction money. Three hundred dollars hidden in his desk drawer, meant for rent he'd never pay.
Because he was supposed to be dead.
Ethan laughed, thin and unsteady. "Guess I'll use my death savings to die again."
The quest timer hovered in his vision.
23:29:41
Twenty-three hours to survive without killing himself. Then one more day to enter a portal.
Not impossible. Just terrifying.
He pulled on his jacket, checked his pockets. His hunter license was there, cheap plastic, E-rank stamped beneath his photo. Weak, but legal.
Even the weakest hunter was still a hunter.
Ethan sat on his mattress and stared at the quest.
FIRST BREATH — 23:27:18
Just exist. One day.
"Easiest quest in the world," he whispered.
Sirens wailed outside—another portal, another disaster. He lay back and watched the timer tick down.
Twenty-three hours.
Then a portal.
Then courage.... or death.