The trophy was still warm in my hands. Global Champion – SpectreZero. I'd done it. I beat Nyx. The queen of chaos. The glitch in human form. And now I was officially undefeated.
The chat was still going wild.
"SpectreZero for president!"
"Nyx got humbled."
"Co-op arc incoming???"
I closed the game. The screen faded to black. Silence.
--Back to Reality--
My apartment was quiet. Pizza crusts on the desk. Energy drink cans stacked like trophies of their own. I stretched, cracked my neck, and grabbed my hoodie.
I needed air. Not victory air. Just… normal air. I took the alley behind my building. It was faster. Quieter. And smelled like old noodles and regret.
I walked past the dumpster, phone in hand, scrolling through memes about my win. Nyx had already posted a clip of her moonwalking through my drone strike. Caption: "Still cooler"
I chuckled. "She's never gonna let that go."
Then I heard it. A creak. A snap. A scream.
I looked up. A chunk of metal—maybe part of a broken AC unit—was falling. Fast. Straight toward me.
I didn't even have time to react. No dodge roll. No respawn.
Just— "BOOM" - CRACK.
Everything went black. No loading screen. No "Game Over." Just… nothing.
Then I felt it. Pain. Real pain. Not the "controller vibrates" kind. The "my ribs are shattered and I can't breathe" kind.
I gasped. Coughed. Opened my eyes.
I wasn't in my apartment. I wasn't in BubbleCore Arena. I wasn't even in my world.
I lay on rocky ground. My body was bruised, bleeding, barely holding together. My vision blurred. My breath shallow. Is this a New World?
I tried to sit up. Failed.
Voices echoed nearby.
"He's still alive?""Barely. Just leave him.""He's useless. We need real strength."
Footsteps walked away. Armor clanked. Swords sheathed.
I blinked. My fingers twitched.
-The Hero They Abandoned
I wasn't in a tomb. I wasn't chosen. I was thrown away.
This body I woke up in? It belonged to a hero. Technically. But he was weak. Too weak to help his team. Too weak to fight. Too weak to matter.
They left him to die. And now I was him.
No Glory, Just Grit
I checked my surroundings. No magic scrolls. No glowing swords. Just a broken blade beside me and a torn cloak.
I crawled to a tree. Collapsed against it. My chest burned. My stomach growled. My pride? Already shattered.
I looked at my hands. Thin. Scarred. This wasn't SpectreZero. This was… nobody.
But I wasn't nobody. Not really.
I had reflexes. Strategy. Instinct.
I'd beaten Nyx. I'd survived BubbleCore. I could survive this.
Even if the world didn't know who I was… Even if my team left me to rot… I'd rise again.
I stared at the sky. No stars. Just clouds swirling like smoke.
I'd gone from gaming champion… To reincarnated weakling… To abandoned hero.
And this world? It didn't care about trophies. It cared about grit.
"Let's see if I'm truly undefeated," I whispered again. "Even here."