I floated in absolute nothing.
No up, no down. No light, no sound. Just this vast, crushing pressure that pressed in from every direction, like the deepest trench of an ocean where even the fish had given up and died.
My thoughts drifted, sluggish and heavy, as if the darkness itself was trying to swallow them whole.
[What... am I doing here?]
And a response came instantly, crisp and mechanical, echoing straight inside my skull like a voice from an old desktop speaker.
{Answer: The individual known as Shirogane Shogo has just perished. This is the cross road between two realms.}
The words hit me like a slap.
[Huh...? Died... Me?]
Then pain bloomed immediately; a sharp, throbbing spreading through what I guessed were my limbs, my chest, my head.
It felt like every muscle had been twisted and every bone cracked open.
I tried to curl up, to grit my teeth against it, but... there was no body to move. Just the sensation, raw and unrelenting.
[Ugh... my body... is in pain...]
{Noted: Acquiring a body that can feel no physical pain.}
The agony cut off mid-breath... if I even had breath.
But one second it was tearing through me; the next, it was gone.
Like someone had flipped a switch. I should have felt relief, but the sudden absence left me disoriented, floating in that same heavy void.
My head still throbbed, though.
A deep, pulsing ache right behind my eyes, as if something massive had slammed into my skull.
My head hurts... did something hit me hard?
{Understood: Acquiring a body that cannot be harmed by physical attacks... Integrating Mental Attack Resistance...}
The headache eased, fading into a dull echo before vanishing completely.
I waited for it to come back, but nothing happened at all.
Then emptiness gnawed at me next, a hollow sinking in my core that made everything feel wrong and incomplete.
This emptiness I feel... Is it hunger?
{Parsed: Initiating a body that can feel no hunger.}
And the gnawing stopped just like that. No more phantom stomach twisting itself into knots.
But... that emptiness was not hunger...
Temperature came next.
Was I burning up? Or was I freezing? I couldn't understand.
But the discomfort crawled over my skin—or what should have been skin—like invisible flames and ice trading blows.
I can't tell what's happening, but It's hella uncomfortable.
{Noted: Initiating into the body... temperature fluctuations have no more power over the individual Shirogane Shogo.}
The sensation bled away, leaving only the endless dark press of the ocean-depth void.
Wait... What the hell is even this buzzing computer lady voice...?
And her reply was immediate in its precision.
{Answer: I am the Special Skill of Shirogane Shogo, [Gabriel].}
Special Skill...?
I tried to process that.
Special Skill, like in those games I never had time to play properly.
Those light novels I'd glance at on my phone during rare lunch breaks, back when I still pretended I had a life outside the office.
[Ah... I remember now... I was in the convenience store...]
The memory slammed into me then, vivid and merciless, pulling me back through the dark.
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