Adrian Vale had been in this world for five years.
When he first arrived, he was nothing special—just an ordinary high school kid living an ordinary, exhausting routine: apartment, school, and the convenience store where he worked part-time to survive.
His parents had died early. He was poor. Life was harsh.
He could endure all of it.
In his old world or this new one—it didn't matter. As long as he could keep his head down and live quietly, he didn't ask for anything else.
But no matter what world you live in, there's never a shortage of trash.
Adrian Vale had heard of school bullying before.
He just never imagined it would one day land squarely on him.
An orphan with no one to protect him was an easy target. The class thugs latched onto him like wolves.
And Adrian Vale wasn't the kind of person who fought back.
He thought that if he endured quietly—if he stayed silent and swallowed everything—then the painful days would eventually pass.
He was naïve.
His silence didn't buy him mercy.
It taught them he was safe to hurt.
So they escalated.
For Adrian Vale, they did whatever they pleased. Petty humiliation became routine. Cruelty became entertainment.
And even then, day after day, he endured.
But everyone has a limit.
Everyone breaks.
Even a cornered rabbit will bite.
And Adrian Vale was no rabbit.
The day he finally exploded, it didn't matter.
A body starved for years—sleep, nutrition, dignity—couldn't compete with tall, well-fed boys who lived for violence.
They toyed with him. They beat him like it was a game.
And as always, they reached for the thing he valued most—
His hard-earned wages from the convenience store.
That was when the rage and humiliation inside him—something he'd buried for far too long—finally got an answer.
After two years of silence, the system in his mind awakened.
[Ding.]
[Host's mental state has shifted. Activating the God-Tier Roleplay System.]
[Bound Role: Ken Kaneki.]
In the next instant, something inhuman surged out of him.
A pressure—cold, overwhelming—exploded from Adrian Vale's body like a predator stepping out of a cage.
His black hair began to drain of color, turning pale… then white.
And his left eye—
His left eye flooded with a sick, feral transformation: the sclera turning black, the iris burning a deep, blood-red.
"I've… had enough."
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
The bullies stared at him as if they'd suddenly realized what they'd been poking with a stick.
Their faces went white.
Fear hit them so hard it looked like it physically shoved them backward.
They ran.
They didn't even pretend to be tough anymore—just turned and fled, scrambling in blind panic.
But Adrian Vale—no, the thing he was becoming—didn't let them go.
"You pieces of filth…"
His lips curved slightly.
"Where do you think you're going?"
He moved.
A blur. A crack of air.
In the time it took them to gasp, they were on the ground, crushed under a strength that didn't belong to a human body.
And then—
A tearing sound.
From his lower back, crimson appendages erupted like the hands of a demon. They unfurled in a heartbeat—wet, sharp, alive.
A kagune.
It stabbed forward.
One after another, the bullies were pinned through, skewered and locked in place, unable to move—unable to even scream properly as blood spilled onto the floor in thick, spreading pools.
Adrian Vale looked down at them with a face carved from ice.
"This isn't my fault…"
His ghoul eye gleamed like something that had crawled out of hell.
"I'm not wrong."
His smile sharpened.
"The world is wrong."
One of them sobbed, voice breaking.
"W-what are you?! A demon?!"
"A monster… you're a monster!"
Adrian Vale tilted his head, as if genuinely considering it.
Then he spoke softly—almost conversationally.
"Hey."
He leaned closer.
"Let me ask you something…"
A pause.
"What's 1000 minus 7?"
He lifted his hand.
He snapped his fingers.
The kagune twitched—then tightened like a vise.
Bones popped. The sobbing stopped.
Three years had passed since that day.
Three years since Adrian Vale began "playing" the role of Ken Kaneki—and found that the role didn't stay a role.
His personality changed. His face changed.
The boy with short black hair was gone.
In his place was someone with hair as white as ash, and a left eye that sometimes—without warning—shifted into that black-and-red nightmare.
To hide it, he wore a white eyepatch year-round.
He didn't go to school anymore.
He didn't go back to the convenience store.
After becoming a ghoul, Adrian Vale discovered something worse than power—
He discovered growth.
After he devoured those pieces of trash, his strength increased.
Noticeably.
But it seemed to work only with one kind of food.
Humans.
He could still eat normal human food, technically.
But it tasted like chewing wax—dry, bland, meaningless.
And it gave him nothing.
No strength. No relief. No satisfaction.
Even after crossing the line and becoming something else… Adrian Vale, at his core, was still someone who didn't want to hurt the innocent.
He couldn't bring himself to hunt ordinary people just to become stronger.
So he starved.
Day after day, he starved.
Every time he walked down the street and saw pedestrians, his instincts twisted them into something else—living, breathing meat that moved on its own.
He clenched his jaw and forced it down. Forced it down like he forced everything down.
Until the day the world itself spoke.
A voice rang out inside his head—and not just his.
People all around him froze, eyes widening as they heard it too.
[To ensure the planet's continued survival, the Will of the Blue Star will open the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone in 30 minutes.]
[A survival competition will be held between the world's nations.]
[From this moment forward, global resource distribution will be frozen. A new redistribution will begin.]
[Two competitors will be randomly selected from each nation.]
[Upon entry, competitors will be bound to their nation.]
[All resources obtained inside the Forbidden Zone will manifest in the real world at 100× value for the bound nation.]
[This event will be livestreamed worldwide. Viewers may follow their nation's competitors.]
Adrian Vale didn't speak.
Neither did most people.
For half a second, the street was dead silent—like the whole city forgot how to breathe.
Then the panic hit.
"What the hell?! The Will of Blue Star?!"
"Divine Domain—Forbidden Zone?! Nation-binding?! Hundred-times manifestation?!"
"Is this because Blue Star's running out of resources?!"
"Two people represent the whole country?! Randomly?!"
Before the chaos could swell any further, the voice returned—cold and absolute.
[Key Rules for the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone:]
[1. If a nation's competitors die, that nation's resources will be halved.]
[2. Competitors may plunder one another.]
[3. Survive.]
[Countdown: 30 minutes. Beginning now.]
[29:59]
[29:58]
Adrian Vale stared ahead, expression unreadable.
His stomach twisted.
Not from hunger this time—
From the feeling that the world had just opened its mouth…
…and decided to swallow everyone whole.
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