The classroom reeked of pencil shavings, cheap jasmine perfume, and end-of-day boredom.
The clock ticked above the blackboard—slow, stubborn, each second dragging behind the last like a lame mule. Kai slouched at his desk, one leg kicked out, cheek buried in his palm. His eyes followed nothing. Not the chalk dancing in Ms. Ramirez's fingers. Not the cracked sunlight slanting through dusty windows. Not even the Treaty of Versailles, which the teacher recited as if it were scripture instead of historical punishment.
He floated in that strange middle ground: half-dream, half-dull consciousness, where daydreams congeal like honey in a cold jar.
Then the air shifted.
Not a breeze, not a sound—but a shiver in reality. Like the temperature dropped without warning, pulled down by invisible hands. Kai blinked. His skin tingled.
A flicker—soundless, stark.
Every screen in the room, from scratched-up tablets to the dusty projector, snapped to life with a jagged wash of blue. Overlays of glowing circuitry rippled across the glass. Symbols moved like living code.
Ms. Ramirez froze. Her hand trembled, and the chalk snapped with a piercing scree, its broken tip bouncing off the linoleum floor.
Then came the message:
[System Notification: Universal Ability Integration Protocol Initiated. All sentient beings will receive an Ability in 1 minute.]
Silence took the room by the throat.
Someone in the back row exhaled a strangled, "What the hell—?"
A girl with a tight ponytail and furrowed brows elbowed her friend. "It's a prank, right? This has to be a prank." Her laugh was thin, brittle, already cracking.
All around the room, phones buzzed in eerie synchrony. The scent of ozone licked the air, like lightning about to kiss the earth. The air had weight now—metallic, pressing down on their lungs.
Kai blinked again.
The message hovered directly before him, untouched by the world. Like it was painted on the back of his eyelids, impossible to unsee.
[59…58…57…]
To his left, Anthony leaned forward, eyes alight, grin wide. "This is straight-up anime sh*t, bro. Where's my slime evolution arc?"
Kai huffed out a dry laugh, but his fingers began to twitch against the wood of his desk. He could feel it now—an itch under the skin. A whisper crawling up the spine.
Power.It was close. Closer than breath. It pulsed like a second heartbeat.
[42…41…40…]
Someone was filming. Another kid whispered a prayer. The tension was no longer simmering—it boiled. Laughter clashed with hyperventilation. Some students huddled, others stood and paced. The room fractured into panic and disbelief.
[15…14…13…]
The lights dimmed.
Not because they were turned off, but because something outside the classroom windows had blotted out the sun. Shadows slithered across the floor, rippling like black ink poured into water.
[5…4…3…2…1]
Everything shattered.
The classroom—gone. The building, the students, the world—all ripped away like fragile wallpaper.
Kai hovered in a weightless black void. No sound. No air. Just endless dark. And then, emerging from that abyss: a radiant lattice of blue light, a vast grid of code suspended in the nothing.
[Ability Assignment: Calculation Complete. Integrating—]
But before the process could finish, something else arrived.
It didn't enter. It violated.
A monstrous eye, the size of a city, tore through the dark. Red and gold, lidless, with a vertical slit that shimmered like molten glass. The sclera churned, a sea of fleshy crimson veined with lightning. The iris dilated as it focused, unblinking, on Kai.
Then the System—pristine, logical, synthetic—snapped.
[CORRUPTION DETECTED.]
[UNSCHEDULED INTRUSION.]
[YOU—WORM—YOU FILTHY—]
The voice, once flat and clinical, cracked into a thousand layered screams. Some sounded ancient. Some like crying children. Some weren't human at all.
The eye pressed closer. Kai's limbs spasmed. The pressure was unbearable. Like he was being dissected by sight alone. It wasn't looking at him—it was peeling him.
Black cracks spidered across his arms and chest, glowing at the edges like molten obsidian. His bones vibrated. His blood boiled. His mouth opened, but no scream came—only a rush of ash and ice and silence.
The grid of the System buckled. The eye pulsed with greedy malice.
[YOU WILL NOT—ERROR—OVERRIDE—YOU CANNOT—]
[INTEGRATION—INTERRUPTED—]
Reality convulsed.
Then—
Snap.
He landed, violently, in his own body.
The classroom was back—but twisted.
The fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered. Shadows clung to the walls like wet vines. A smell filled the room, thick and cloying—rot, smoke, and something meaty.
Students screamed. Desks lay overturned. One kid was sobbing into their hoodie. Another had collapsed to the floor, convulsing.
Kai gasped. His vision blurred—then sharpened with unnatural clarity. Across his eyes, glowing panels unfolded like holograms.
[STATUS]
Name: Kai
Age: 17
Level: 1
EXP: 0/300
STATS
Strength: 13
Agility: 14
Defense: 7
Offense: 18
Stamina: 100'100
Mana: 100/100
Luck: 9
ABILITIES
??? (System Template Creation) [Cooldown: 1 week]
Z-Class: Partial Shapeshifting (Transform body parts into any form previously seen)
He stared at the display, chest rising and falling with sharp, shallow breaths. His skin buzzed with residual heat. His hands trembled—but not from fear.
No. Something else had settled inside him now. Something darker. More curious.
He licked his lips.
Outside the window, the sky writhed with unnatural green light. From the treeline, small, hunched figures sprinted forward on clawed feet. Their eyes glowed like coals—goblins. Behind them staggered larger shapes: stiff, rotting, jawless things that once had names.
Undead.
A girl screamed again. Another student hurled a chair at the window.
Kai's eyes never left the HUD. The abilities blinked with quiet promise. He could feel his body waiting. Hungry.
And for the first time in his life, he wasn't scared.
He was awake.