The world began to change at 3:47 AM.
Kael woke to the sound of reality tearing like wet fabric. Outside his apartment window, the Seattle skyline warped and twisted as the Nexus integration took hold. Buildings stretched impossibly tall, their surfaces rippling like disturbed water. Streets folded into geometric patterns that hurt to look at directly.
The corrupted system interface blazed to life across his vision:
[INTEGRATION EVENT: ACTIVE]
[REALITY MERGER: 23% COMPLETE]
[TUTORIAL ZONES: INITIALIZING]
[WARNING: DIMENSIONAL INSTABILITY DETECTED]
He rolled out of bed and grabbed the tactical knife from his nightstand. The stolen Combat Mastery skill made the weapon feel like a natural extension of his arm. Energy Manipulation hummed through his body, responding to the chaotic forces reshaping the world.
His phone rang once, then died as the electrical grid collapsed. Emergency sirens wailed in the distance, growing fainter as the city transformed around them. Through his window, Kael watched cars flip and tumble as the streets beneath them shifted into impossible angles.
A scream cut through the morning air.
Kael dressed quickly and moved to his fire escape. The metal steps groaned under his weight, but held. Below, Pioneer Square had become a maze of twisted architecture and floating debris. People ran through the chaos, some already clutching glowing weapons that marked them as early system users.
And there, stumbling out of an overturned coffee cart, was exactly what Kael had been waiting for.
The looter was a thin man in his thirties, wearing a torn business suit and clutching a Nexus-spawned dagger. His eyes held the wild look of someone who had received power without wisdom. In the original timeline, this same man had killed five people during the first day of integration before anyone learned to fight back.
The looter spotted a woman trapped under fallen debris and moved toward her with predatory intent. His dagger glowed with electrical energy, marking him as one of the lucky few who had received offensive capabilities in their initial system allocation.
Kael dropped from the fire escape, landing silently behind his target. The stolen skills made his movements fluid and precise. Combat Mastery whispered the optimal attack angles. Energy Manipulation showed him the weak points in the looter's hastily formed armor.
"Hey," Kael called softly.
The looter spun around, raising his electrified dagger. "Stay back! I'm armed!"
"So am I."
Kael's tactical knife slid between the man's ribs with surgical precision. The looter's eyes went wide with shock, then empty as his health bar drained to zero. His body dissolved into light particles, leaving behind a small pile of loot and a floating notification only Kael could see:
[TARGET ELIMINATED]
[+89 EXP]
[LOOT ACQUIRED: Basic Dagger, Health Potion, 47 Credits]
[ASSIMILATION PROTOCOL: ACTIVE]
[ABSORBING: Electrical Manipulation (Basic)]
[ABSORBING: Threat Assessment (Novice)]
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
Power flowed into Kael like liquid fire. New knowledge settled into his mind, how to channel electricity through weapons, how to read an opponent's intentions from their stance and breathing. The corrupted system pulsed with satisfaction as his corruption meter ticked upward.
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 8%]
The trapped woman stared at him with wide eyes. "You… you killed him."
"He was going to kill you."
Kael helped pull the debris off her legs, his enhanced strength making the work easy. "Stay low, stay quiet, and find a safe place to hide. The merge isn't finished yet."
She nodded frantically and limped away toward a partially collapsed building. Kael watched her go, then turned his attention to the chaos spreading through the city.
More screams echoed from the financial district. Nexus monsters had begun spawning in the areas of highest dimensional instability. In the original timeline, the first wave had killed hundreds before people learned to adapt.
But Kael was not people anymore. He was something else, something the system recognized as an anomaly. And anomalies, by definition, played by different rules.
His phone, somehow still functional despite the electrical chaos, buzzed with an incoming call. Dorian's name flashed on the cracked screen.
"Kael? Jesus Christ, are you seeing this?"
"I'm seeing it."
"The whole city's going insane! Buildings are moving, people are disappearing, and I swear to God I just saw a dragon fly over downtown."
In the original timeline, Dorian had called with the same panicked energy. But listening carefully now, Kael caught something underneath the fear, excitement. Anticipation. As if this chaos was exactly what his friend had been waiting for.
"Where are you?" Kael asked.
"My apartment building. It's… it's not an apartment building anymore. The whole thing stretched up like taffy, and there are these glowing doorways that lead to other places."
Tutorial zones. The Nexus created pocket dimensions where new users could learn basic survival skills without immediate death. In the original timeline, Kael and Dorian had entered one together, beginning their partnership in earnest.
"I'll come find you," Kael lied.
"Hurry. I think something's hunting me."
The line went dead. Through the chaos of the transforming city, Kael could see other figures moving with purpose instead of panic. Early adapters who had received combat-oriented systems, or people who had somehow known this was coming.
People like Dorian.
A new system alert flashed across his vision, red text pulsing with urgent warning:
[ALERT: HIGH-VALUE TARGET DETECTED IN PROXIMITY]
[ANALYZING…]
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: NEXUS USER [CLASSIFIED]]
[RECOMMENDATION: ELIMINATE FOR MAXIMUM ABSORPTION POTENTIAL]
[WARNING: TARGET POSSESSES UNKNOWN CAPABILITIES]