The river carried him.
He no longer had the strength to flop or resist. His body, still smoking from the meteor crash, drifted on the broken current. Pieces of ice and dragon scale floated past, clinking like shattered glass. The taste of ash clung to the water.
Slowly, the current pulled him downward.
Down, down, into the dark.
His last memory was of a tamer's greedy laughter, echoing somewhere above. Then the world narrowed to silence, and he sank into blackness.
Maybe this is it, he thought dimly. Finally dead for real.
But death didn't come.
Instead, a strange warmth filled his mind.
A light—distant at first, then closer—blinked inside the darkness. It wasn't sight, not in the usual sense. More like words branded directly into his brain.
[System initializing…]
His sluggish thoughts stumbled. "What… what is this?"
The light pulsed again, as if answering.
[Host detected. Species: Koi. Status: Alive. Condition: Critical.]
"Alive?" he thought weakly. His body felt limp, broken. "Barely."
[System Awakening… Reason: Host has slain a Legendary Creature: White Dragon.]
The words rang with mechanical certainty, like an eternal truth written into the world.
The koi's little brain froze. Wait. I killed that dragon?
Images returned in fragments—the roar, the storm, the impossible leap into the sky, then falling like a meteor. He remembered the crash, the silence afterward. Somehow, some way, his ridiculous bounce had brought down that monster.
[Because Host has accomplished the impossible, System has been partially awakened.]
"Partially?"
[Yes. System requires immense power to activate fully. Killing the White Dragon provided sufficient energy to initialize.]
The koi floated in stunned silence, as though listening to a teacher scolding him after class.
Then the next line appeared, glowing brighter than the rest.
[Announcement: Host is the only being in this world with a Negative Level System.]
He blinked. His brain lagged. "…Negative?"
[Affirmative. While most creatures begin at Level 1, the Host has been judged as the weakest in existence. Therefore, starting Level: -100.]
A pause.
Then, as though out of pity, the System elaborated:
[No one else in this world is so weak as to begin below zero. You are the exception. The anomaly. The lowest of the low.]
"…You didn't have to say it like that," he muttered, or tried to. Only bubbles escaped his fish mouth.
[Host is currently Level -100. Available skill: Bounce.]
The koi stared into the void of his own mind. "…Bounce?"
[Skill: Bounce]
Type: Passive/Active
Description: Instinctive dodge maneuver.
Effect: Increases chance of avoiding attacks. Efficiency increases depending on desperation.
"So that's why I kept flopping around like a maniac…"
[Correct. Host's survival was due to Bounce activating under lethal conditions.]
A bitter laugh rose in his chest, though no sound came out. He was dead weight, a useless carp, and yet the only thing he had was bouncing. Dodge or die. That was his great destiny.
"What's the point?" he thought dully. "Even if I survived one dragon, I'll just get eaten by the next. I'm just a fish."
The System's response came colder, like a blade pressed against his mind.
[Death is not applicable.]
His thoughts stumbled. "…What?"
[As the sole koi in the Dragon World, Host is classified as a mystical existence. Therefore, permanent death is impossible.]
The koi's fins twitched. "…That doesn't make sense."
[Correction: You can still fall. When Host's body is destroyed, consciousness will enter long sleep until revival condition is met.]
"Long sleep?"
[Yes. Host will drift in timeless slumber. Upon revival, Host will resume from current level and state of progress.]
"So… I can't die?"
[Affirmative. However, weakness remains. Host is still at Level -100. Skills: Bounce. Strength: Minimal. Offense: None. Probability of immediate suffering upon revival: 99.9%.]
He groaned in his head. "…So basically, I'll just get beat down over and over, wake up again, and repeat?"
[Correct.]
"Great. Fantastic. Eternal suffering. What a wonderful prize."
Yet even as sarcasm filled his thoughts, something heavy shifted in his chest.
Eternal suffering. Eternal revival. Eternal bouncing.
It was better than permanent nothingness, wasn't it?
Still, he couldn't shake the absurdity of it all. His classmates, his bullies—if they saw him now, would they laugh harder than ever? A boy who died, reincarnated not as a hero, not as a dragon, not even as a worm—but as a koi fish doomed to flop forever.
"System," he asked hesitantly, "why me?"
[No data.]
The blunt answer cut deep. There was no reason. No grand destiny. Just cosmic cruelty.
He let silence settle. The current tugged him deeper.
Then, just as his thoughts began to drift, another faint line of text appeared—so faint he almost thought he imagined it.
[Note: While Host begins with only one skill, Bounce, potential exists for new skills to emerge under extreme conditions.]
He froze. "…New skills?"
[Possibility detected. Probability: Extremely low. Requirements: Unknown.]
"So you're saying… maybe?"
[Affirmative. Maybe.]
The koi laughed weakly in his mind. Maybe. That was all he got. Not a promise, not a guarantee. Just a cruel dangling carrot. But even that tiny spark made something stir in him.
Maybe he wasn't doomed to flop forever.
Maybe there was more.
The System's glow dimmed, as if retreating.
[Do not worry, Host. You will not feel death. You will only sleep. And sleep. And sleep.]
He shivered, even without skin to sweat.
A fish that couldn't die, doomed to bounce through an endless world of dragons. But maybe… just maybe… something else could come of it.
"Fine," he whispered into the void. "Then let's bounce."
And deeper he sank, into darkness, into sleep.