Ishiki opened his eyes and peered into absolute nothingness.
Not black. Not empty. Just the absence of something that should have existed—like staring at a hole in reality itself.
It made his eyes hurt, the same way staring at static for too long would make brain itch. A color that didn't have a name because it wasn't really a color at all.
Then he shot upright, gasping.
'Where am I? What... what happened after—'
He forced himself to look around.
Endless grass stretched to every horizon, each blade swaying in wind that didn't exist. The ground felt solid under his palms but also somehow not quite there—like standing on the surface of a dream that might dissolve if he thought about it too hard.
'This place again.' He grimaced. 'What was it called... Nexus Chamber? Right.'
Ishiki stood, testing his weight on both legs. Then froze.
Both legs.
He looked down at his hands, flexed the fingers of his right hand, the one the shinobi had severed so perfectly it hadn't even bled properly.
He was... reborn. That was the only word that fit.
"Feels good to be whole again," he said aloud, voice sounding strange in the infinite silence. "Never thought I'd say something like that."
Then he looked down at himself properly and his face went hot.
He was naked.
'Hey... at least give me some clothes! It's freezing here!'
No reply came. The system—or whatever it was, stayed silent. And that silence sent shivers crawling down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
He was alone. Completely, utterly alone in an endless field under an impossible void.
'Sounds Absurd.'
He sighed... he was all alone, he had survived the trial as instructed, then why wasn't he on Earth now? The system promised rewards, what rewards would that be? where did the Admins go? he had a barrage of questions. But no one to answer.
Standing straight despite his nakedness and the absurdity of everything, Ishiki yawned. Then another more important question formed, how long has it been since he completed the trial? No... How long has it been since the start of it all?
He gritted his teeth, and then kicked at the grass.
Suddenly a screen popped up in front of him and a voice echoed from the heavens—or from wherever system voices came from.
[Congratulations you have Completed your First Trial]
Then another golden window appeared.
[Calculating Results...]
'Oh. So it's actually over.' Relief hit him like a wave. 'Thank god. Or thank whoever. I would've gone insane if that lasted any longer.'
As the words settled into reality, something strange happened.
A stream of information flooded his mind—like someone had cracked his skull open and poured knowledge directly into his brain without asking permission.
'Agh... what the hell!'
Ishiki shuddered and gasped. falling to his knees, he clutched his head and as swiftly as it had come, the information settled into his very memories, like he had known it ever since he was born.
He lingered for a moment and then silently sat down, trying to comprehend the new facts.
'So everything has ranks now?' He scowled at the grass. 'Of course it does. Why would anything be simple?'
The knowledge sat in his head, perfectly organized: Common. Rare. Epic. Legendary. Mythical.
Five ranks to assess the value of everything from weapons to skills to probably toilet paper in this new world order.
And from Common to Mythical, items got exponentially stronger and more resilient. Basic video game logic applied to actual life.
'Fantastic and horrifying...'
[Trial assessment complete]
As soon as the window appeared, Ishiki's breath hitched, heart beginning to pound harder.
[Enemies slain : 1x Innate Shinobi, 1x Xenon, 1x Elite Shinobi]
[You have received 22,700 NC]
[You have received 10,080 Data Fragments]
[Congratulations You have leveled up]
[Special Achievements Detected...]
[Epic Achievement: Blood hound - Killed an Elite Enemy]
[Epic Achievement: Kinslayer - Slayed blood relative for survival]
Ishiki's eyes stopped at the message, his jaw dropping. 'Kinslayer?' his heart shuddered. 'The shinobi?... he was related to me?'
Memories flashed through his mind... something clicked into place. how the shinobi had never once used an honorific or acknowledged Ishiki as anything more than cargo to be delivered.
'That bastard never addressed me with any kind of title, did he?'
That was one of the reasons he had suspected him, other being the reason that he knew that the monk and the maiden were preparing some medicine that would put him to sleep probably...
The pieces clicked together with sickening clarity. The shinobi had probably been his half-brother. Another son of the Emperor. One of the six legitimate ones, maybe.
'But what does it matter?' He tried to convince himself. 'He wasn't real. None of it was real.'
Suddenly, something very strange happened.
Ishiki felt as if he was being pulled by something, he turned around and looked at the familiar two towers, protruding out of the ground and between them... Ishiki's eyes widened.
'Wait...what in the hell is this?'
Earlier, the towers had emitted eerie black energy that condensed and formed a sphere of darkness suspended between them. But now that sphere looked like it had burst open—all the darkness inside being pulled toward a single pinpoint at the center, spiraling inward with increasing speed.
As the darkness circled and fell into that impossible point, it looked... stunningly beautiful.
Just like how black holes were described in books. Except this wasn't destroying anything, it was transforming. Creating something new from the compressed void.
Suddenly it all vanished and then it exploded in a mass of golden and purple energy that mixed like oil paints swirling in water. The colors danced, neither dominating, just coexisting in perfect balance.
The energy swirled faster, forming an incarnate sphere. Purple and gold chasing each other in an eternal spiral, beautiful enough to hurt looking at.
Ishiki stood speechless, witnessing the surreal transformation with his mouth hanging open like an idiot.
Then a platinum colored window appeared in front of him... burning brighter than anything else.
Ishiki looked at it with utter disbelief... he might have fainted if he already wasn't, which was just a guess...
The voice from the heavens announced his victory... and the reward.
[You have been granted a Mythical Title]
'My...mythical! That's the highest rank...' His gamer mind ran calculations and he was bewildered by results.
There were less than, 0.00001% chances of getting something Mythical. If not entirely impossible, which could have been the case if he didn't get it.
More windows followed in the same lustrous platinum hue.
[Analyzing Trial Actions...]
[Analyzing Survival Methods...]
[Analyzing Synth Reactor core Nature...]
[Title Determined]
The void above him cracked.
Not visibly—there was nothing to crack. But Ishiki felt it, he felt as if his soul itself was breaking apart and then coming together from the crumbling pieces, in a slightly different configuration.
He gasped, dropping to his knees again. The sensation was overwhelming—not pain or pleasure, but something he couldn't even express in words.
Then the Final words appeared, massive and undeniable:
[Title: MEMORY REAPER]
[Rank: Mythical]
And despite everything, despite the horror, the questions, the fear and much more complex emotions burning inside of him, he found himself grinning from ear to ear.
Because he'd survived.
And survival, in the end, was the only thing that truly mattered.
[Initiating Transfer to Earth]