The sensation of dying was far less dramatic than the manga suggested. There was no runaway truck, no blinding flash of light—only the sudden, jarring silence of a heart that had simply decided its work was done. Then came the cold. A cold so absolute it felt like being submerged in an ocean of liquid nitrogen.
Breathe.
The command didn't come from his mind. It felt like a line of code executed by a program he didn't know he was running.
"Ken! If you drop that crate, I'm docking your copper for a week! Move it!"
The roar of a human voice shattered the silence. Ken's eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw wasn't a heavenly gate, but a pair of boots—thick, mud-caked leather reinforced with rusted iron. His vision was swimming with blue digital static, flickering like a dying television screen. He was on his knees on a cold stone floor, his lungs burning.
"I... I'm sorry?" Ken stammered.
His voice sounded different. It was higher, the cracking tenor of a thirteen-year-old. He looked down at his hands. These weren't the hands of a man who spent his life behind a desk or in a college lecture hall. They were small, calloused, and stained with the grey dust of a training hall.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
[98%... 99%... 100%]
[Welcome, Traveler. Life Synchronization Complete.]
A translucent blue window floated in the air, tracking his eye movement with haunting precision.
> Name: Bō, Ken
> Level: 1
> Class: Vanguard Trainee (F-Rank)
> Title: Reborn Soul (Hidden)
> Health (HP): 100/100
> Mana (MP): 250/250 (Anomaly Detected)
> Affinity: >
> * Aqua (Lvl 1): The grace of the tide.
> * Thunder (Lvl 1): The wrath of the sky.
"Bōken..." he whispered to himself. In his old life, he had been fascinated by his Japanese heritage; his name literally meant Adventure. It felt like a cruel irony. He wasn't a hero. He was a delivery boy for a guild that looked like it was one missed payment away from being turned into a stable.
"Don't 'Bōken' me! Get that gear to the Rift Gate!"
The man shouting was a giant. Standing nearly seven feet tall with a beard like a bramble bush, he wore a dented chestplate with a fading crest: a shield and a broken spear. This was the Vanguard Guild. Once the legendary protectors of the realm, now a laughingstock of the capital.
Ken stood up, his legs wobbling. He hoisted a heavy wooden crate filled with "Iron-Bark" potions. As he moved, he felt a strange, dual thrumming in his chest. One side felt cool and fluid, like mountain water. The other felt sharp and jittery, like a high-voltage wire.
Aqua and Thunder. Most people in this world were born with a single "Mana Circuit." Having two was mathematically impossible—a glitch in the very fabric of the Aether System.
The Gate of Trials
The "Rift" was a jagged tear in reality located in the center of the Guild's courtyard. It glowed with a sickly green light, swirling like a drain.
"Alright, listen up, recruits!" Captain Grog roared. "This is a Green-Rank Slime Cave. It's the easiest dungeon in the kingdom. If you die here, you deserve to be buried in the dirt. We go in, we harvest the Essence Crystals, and we get out. Clear?"
"Yes, Captain!" twelve voices shouted.
Ken stood at the back. He noticed his squadmates: three warriors with dull swords, a mage who could barely light a candle, and a scout who looked like he wanted to vomit. They were the bottom of the barrel.
As they stepped through the shimmering veil of the Rift, the world shifted. The sun disappeared, replaced by the damp, mossy ceiling of a cavern.
[LOCATION: SLIME CAVE (GREEN-RANK)]
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: COLLECT 20 ESSENCE CRYSTALS]
Ken watched the others engage. The Slimes were translucent green blobs, slow and predictable. The warriors hacked at them, and the creatures popped, leaving behind glowing shards.
This is too easy, Ken thought. Where is the 'Adventure' in this?
He experimented. He held out his left hand, thinking of a stream. A small trickle of water spiraled around his fingers. Then, his right hand—a spark. A tiny, yellow arc of electricity hissed between his thumb and forefinger.
[NEW SKILL LEARNED: HYDRO-CONDUCT]
Suddenly, the temperature in the cave dropped. The green light of the Rift turned a violent, bruised purple.
"What's happening?" the scout screamed.
The walls began to groan. The harmless green slimes didn't pop anymore. They began to merge, turning black, their surfaces hardening into obsidian-like scales.
[SYSTEM ALERT: CORRUPTION DETECTED]
[RANK SHIFT: GREEN -> RED (DEATH-RANK)]
"Fall back! The entrance is sealed!" Grog yelled, drawing a massive claymore. A wall of black, pulsing veins had grown over the portal.
A massive creature rose from the center of the cavern. It was a "Corrupted Slime King," Level 25. Its eyes were red voids, and its body was filled with the skeletons of previous adventurers.
"We're going to die," the mage whimpered. "The Level gap... we can't pierce its armor!"
Grog charged, swinging his blade. The sword hit the obsidian hide and shattered. The Slime King let out a roar, its massive arm swinging toward Grog like a wrecking ball.
Ken didn't think. He saw the "Logic" of the monster. It was liquid, but its armor was solid. If he could bridge the gap, he could bypass the defense.
He sprinted forward, sliding under the monster's swing.
"Ken! Get back!" Grog yelled.
Ken ignored him. He placed both hands on the monster's foot.
"Aqua..."
A massive burst of water exploded from his palms, drenching the entire creature. It roared, the water seeping into the cracks of its armor.
"Now... THUNDER!"
Ken didn't just release a spark. He opened
the floodgates of that jittery energy in his chest. He visualized a lightning rod in a storm.
A blinding flash of yellow light filled the cavern. The sound was like a mountain splitting. Because the monster was drenched in Ken's water, the electricity traveled through every cell of its body.
[COMBO TRIGGERED: HYDRO-STATIC SHOCK]
[INTERNAL DAMAGE: 1,500 (CRITICAL!)]
[XP GAINED: 5,000]
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP!...]
The Corrupted Slime King evaporated. The obsidian armor turned to dust. Silence returned to the cave.
[NEW LEVEL: 12]
Ken stood there, his clothes smoking. He looked back at his squad. They weren't cheering. They were staring at him with terror. An F-Rank trainee had just deleted a Red-Rank boss in a single move.
High above, in a castle made of shadows, Mo Zan sat on a throne of bone. He felt the ripple in the system—the "Glitch" had appeared.
"Bō Ken," the man whispered. "Show me if you are worth the price of my existence."
Mo Zan smiled. The game had finally begun.
[CHAPTER 1 END]