The platform dissolved without warning.
No light.No transition.
One second, we were standing among bloodstained stone and half-burned corpses. The next, gravity shifted, and the sky snapped back into something resembling reality.
We reappeared in a wide concrete plaza surrounded by towering digital screens.
Seven of us.
That was all that remained.
The screens flickered to life, displaying the same message from every angle.
TUTORIAL INSTANCE 1 COMPLETESURVIVAL RATE: 16.7%
No applause.No congratulations.
Just a number that made it clear how disposable we had been.
No one spoke at first.
Claire Matthews was the first to break the silence. She hugged her arms tightly around herself, her medic icon still glowing faintly near her shoulder.
"Where are we?" she asked.
A man in tactical armor scanned the surroundings, rifle raised. "Doesn't matter. What matters is whether there's another wave coming."
I opened Logic View.
The plaza wasn't a battlefield. No spawn timers. No aggro zones. This was a staging area.
A lobby.
Before I could say anything, a voice cut through the air.
"Hey."
Daniel Reyes.
The Assault Specialist.
He pointed his rifle—not directly at me, but close enough that the message was clear.
"You didn't fight."
Several heads turned.
"I watched you," he continued. "Everyone else was shooting, casting, running. You just… moved. And nothing touched you."
The silence thickened.
Claire frowned. "That's true. I didn't see you get hit once."
Another survivor, a woman with short hair and a scout emblem, crossed her arms. "What's your class again?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Because I could already see where this was going.
People needed a reason they were alive.
And they needed someone to blame for everyone else being dead.
"Observer," Daniel said for me, his tone sharp. "Non-combat role."
He scoffed. "So what, you just hid while the rest of us fought?"
"I didn't hide," I replied calmly.
I could feel eyes on me now. Suspicion. Fear. The kind that turned quickly into violence when left unchecked.
"I moved where the monsters wouldn't prioritize," I continued. "That's all."
The scout narrowed her eyes. "How would you know that?"
I shrugged. "Pattern recognition."
Daniel laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You expect us to believe that?"
Before I could respond, the screens around the plaza shifted.
A new interface unfolded, larger than the last.
GLOBAL UPDATEPLAYER STATUS UNLOCKED
A pulse ran through the air.
New windows popped open in front of each of us.
Player NameLevelSurvival ScoreContribution Rating
Numbers filled in one by one.
Daniel exhaled sharply. "Level 3 already."
Claire looked relieved. "I gained support bonuses."
Then my screen updated.
Name: Aaron ColeProfession: ObserverLevel: 1Contribution Rating: N/A
A murmur spread.
Daniel's eyes flicked to my display. His expression darkened.
"Level one?" he said. "After all that?"
I nodded. "I didn't deal damage."
"That's convenient," the scout said flatly.
Before anyone could escalate further, the system spoke.
NOTICE:Additional evaluation in progress.
That line shouldn't have been public.
But it was.
Logic View lit up like a warning siren.
Data streams spiked. Conditional checks looped. Something inside the system was running comparisons it hadn't prepared for.
The screens flickered.
Then, for the first time, a message appeared that every single human on Earth could see.
Not just us.
WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT
Cities across the globe went silent as the same words burned into the sky.
First Tutorial Phase Complete.Global Survival Rate: 18.4%
Panic erupted instantly.
Social media feeds flooded. Emergency broadcasts cut in mid-sentence. Governments lost control of the narrative before they even understood it.
The system didn't wait.
Next Phase Unlocking.
The plaza trembled.
A massive leaderboard unfolded above us, stretching far into the artificial sky.
Names appeared.
Countries. Regions. Rankings.
At the very bottom, highlighted in neutral gray, was a category most people ignored.
SPECIAL ROLES
Only one name was listed.
Observer — Aaron Cole
Every survivor turned to look at me.
Daniel lowered his rifle—slowly this time.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I survived," I said.
That wasn't enough.
The system wasn't finished.
A final line appeared beneath the leaderboard, visible only to me.
System Note:Observer classification exceeds expected variance.Monitoring initiated.
I felt it then.
Not a physical sensation.
More like pressure.
Like something vast had adjusted its focus and decided I was worth watching.
Around us, new portals began to form—each one marked with difficulty ratings, resource indicators, and survival odds.
The next phase.
Claire swallowed. "Are we… supposed to pick one?"
Daniel looked at me again. This time, there was no accusation in his eyes.
Only calculation.
"You're coming with us," he said. "Whatever you're doing—it works."
I shook my head.
"No," I replied.
They stared.
"I don't need to be protected," I continued. "And you don't want the system paying more attention to you than it already is."
The truth was simpler than that.
The system had already chosen its variable.
And variables didn't join teams.
They broke them.
As I stepped toward a portal marked UNKNOWN CONDITIONS, Logic View flared one last time.
Warning:System intervention probability increasing.
I smiled faintly.
Good.
Let it watch.