"Fuck you! Even if you kill me, once I respawn, I'll hunt down your guild members until they start quitting the game."
Aiden spat the words at the person in front of him, one of the top players, flanked by ten elite members of his guild.
The man only smirked and replied, "Aiden, no matter what you try, you'll never be able to get revenge on me. Not in this game… and not in real life."
He raised a dagger-like artifact and added, "And I'll make sure your account ends here."
Aiden's eyes widened the moment he recognized the artifact. His heartbeat spiked, hard, painful. 'That's… that's the one. The rumored artifact that can completely destroy a player's account.'
No way, he thought, panic rising. 'There's no way he actually has it. No one even knows if that thing is real… it's just a rumor.'
The man laughed, loud and smug. "Haha! Finally, I can see fear on your face. Confused about why I have this? …My guild just became the top five guild. And they gifted me this."
He didn't even give Aiden a chance to speak. The moment he finished talking, he activated the artifact.
Aiden braced himself. 'This is the end. Mom… Dad… I tried my best to take revenge.'
He waited for the game to force him out, expecting to open his eyes inside his capsule.
But instead… he heard crickets.
Aiden opened his eyes, and found himself in a cemetery.
Aiden pushed himself up from the ground, groaning in pain. "Ugh… did I die for real? My whole body feels like it will crumble."
Before he could gather his thoughts, a transparent screen suddenly appeared in front of him. At the same time, a cold, mechanical voice echoed inside his skull.
[Integrating the host's soul with the current body]
Aiden's eyes widened, then a sharp spike of pain stabbed through his head. His vision went white, and he immediately blacked out.
When he opened his eyes again, sunlight was already warming his face. Morning had come.
And then memories. Memories that weren't his squeezed their way into his mind, rushing through like a raging river. He gasped and held his head, trying to endure the flood.
This body belonged to a young master of the Golden Sun Ji Clan… a clan that had been completely destroyed by an alliance of rival families. This boy had survived the slaughter… only to die here, alone in this cemetery.
"So that's it," Aiden muttered under his breath. "He lived through his clan's downfall, only to end up dying anyway."
He took a shaky breath, looking around. "What about the system…?"
As if responding to his question, another screen popped up.
[Error. System is still updating to assist the host in this new world.]
Aiden frowned. He had a thought and tried it.
Status.
The screen flickered and changed.
[Name: Aiden (Level: 1)]
Class: Necromancer (Death God — Locked)
Basic-Grade Summon: 0
Bronze-Grade Summon: 0
Iron-Grade Summon: 0
Silver-Grade Summon: 0
Gold-Grade Summon: 0
Legendary-Grade Summon: 0
Mythical-Grade Summon: 0
Skills: 0
Aiden stared, stunned speechless.
"No way… this is my character's status from the game New World, a necromancer. It… it came with me? I was actually reincarnated… and my character's abilities followed me here?"
He had a thousand questions swirling in his head, but he couldn't think about them now. His ears picked up voices… a group of people heading his way.
His pulse quickened.
Without hesitation, he crawled toward the biggest tombstone he could find, trying to hide himself from whoever, or whatever was coming.
Before long, five figures stepped into the cemetery. All of them wore the kind of traditional outfits Aiden had only seen in those old martial world novels.
He whispered to himself, "Seriously? These guys are straight out of the stories I used to read?"
The man in front clearly the captain clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Damn it. Where's the body? The young miss will kill us if we don't bring back that bastard's head."
One of the others grumbled, glaring at his companion. "It's your fault. You stopped me from cutting his head off yesterday."
"Shut up," the accused man snapped. "There's no way he survived. We stabbed him straight through the heart. A beast must've dragged his corpse away overnight."
The captain gave the area one more annoyed look before waving his hand.
"Spread out. We search ahead."
Once the men left the area, Aiden slowly pushed himself up. His body still ached all over, but compared to last night, he felt far better at least he could move.
He began testing things out, trying every command he could remember from the game. When he opened his inventory, his heart dropped.
Empty.
"Damn it… all my items from the game are gone," he muttered, clenching his fists. All the weapons, potions, rare drops, years of grinding and effort vanished just like that.
He then switched over to his skill menu. Being level one, most of his skills were locked. Only the basic Necromancer functions were available. But something new caught his eye.
In the game, he should've been able to get a skill that summon a skeleton minion. Yet that skill wasn't there. Instead, a brand-new ability had replaced it:
[Lord of the Dead
Raise the remains of the fallen to create undead servants. Each corpse allows for only three attempts.
(Current Limit: 2)]
Aiden stared at it, eyebrows raised.
"A basic summon? There's much more worse than a bronze-grade undead?" he said.
Still… it was better than nothing.
He unlocked the skill.
"Let's see how this works…" Aiden whispered.
He activated the skill in his mind.
The world shifted instantly. His vision darkened, but not in a bad way. He could suddenly see little black orbs floating above several gravestones, flickering like dying flames.
He blinked. "So… I just pick one of these guys?"
He reached out to the orb closest to him. The moment his fingers brushed against it, the orb shot straight into his chest, disappearing inside him like smoke being inhaled.
A notification appeared in front of his eyes:
[Basic Undead Obtained]
The eerie vision faded, and the world returned to normal.
Aiden exhaled, steeling himself. "Alright… come out."