Kyne found himself in a place that was not a place. A total darkness, but not a threatening one.
A void without temperature, without sound, without sensations. He still existed, or at least his consciousness existed.
But there was no body to feel, no eyes to see, and no ears to hear.
For how long? There was no way to measure. A second? Or hours?
Until a light appeared. It came from nowhere, it simply was there. And with it, the same translucent screen, brighter now, as if the darkness made it stand out more.
[You died from being stabbed.]
[You received: Slash Resistance F-]
[You will resurrect in 3…]
A number appeared, glowing in gold.
[2…]
The light pulsed.
[1…]
…
Kyne woke up drawing in the largest amount of air he could, like a swimmer who had nearly drowned and finally reached the surface.
His lungs burned with the sudden intake of oxygen.
He was lying on his back on the floor of his apartment. The rain was still hitting the window. The faint light of the city was still coming in through the glass.
With frantic movements, he pressed a hand against his chest, searching for the knife, the hole, the blood.
He found only a hole in his shirt.
A clean tear in the fabric. Exactly where the blade had entered. But his skin… his skin was intact. No wound, no scar, not even a red mark.
He sat up quickly, almost falling to the side again from the sudden movement. On the floor beside him was the knife. The blue handle was stained dark red, and the blade gleamed wet under the light.
It was real. It had really happened.
Before he could fully process it, before euphoria or terror could take hold, the metallic sound emerged once more in his mind.
'Ding!'
[The Immortal Adaptation System has been successfully implanted.]
Kyne looked around, expecting another message, some instruction, anything. The screen appeared again, but the words this time were different.
[Current world incompatible with the System]
[Forced Transmigration initiated]
"Wait, wh—" were the only words Kyne managed to form.
But there was no waiting. There was no explanation.
Everything around him. The apartment, the rain on the window, the knife on the floor, the dry bread on the table. Everything began to come apart before his eyes.
Not as if it were being destroyed, but as if he himself were being erased, part by part, from reality.
Kyne tried to get up, but his body did not respond. He was paralyzed, watching as his world disappeared, leaving only the void he had experienced moments earlier.
Then the pain came.
Not the pain of a knife in the chest, but something infinitely worse.
It was as if every atom of his body was being pulled in different directions.
He felt himself being stretched, compressed, twisted, and undone all at once. There was no specific point of pain, it was everything, everywhere, almost at a fundamental level of his existence.
It was the pressure of space between spaces. The friction of reality being crossed.
His bones, or the idea of his bones, disintegrated first. Then his muscles separated into individual fibers. His skin came apart like wet paper.
His organs dissolved into a mist of basic matter.
Kyne died again. This time, without a knife, without drama, simply dismantled by the brutal physics of transmigration.
In the last microsecond before his consciousness went dark, he had time for a single thought, and it was not fear but pure fascination.
'Interesting.'
…
[You died from spatial pressure.]
[You received: Dimensional Pressure Resistance A-]
[New world located: Elyria]
[You will resurrect in 3…]
[2…]
[1…]
Three seconds passed.
Kyne awoke from the darkness, feeling the impact first. His naked body hitting something soft and wet. He opened his eyes and saw the sky.
But not the sky he knew, the one he was already accustomed to.
Two suns shone above him. One large and golden-yellow, the other smaller and orange, both in a completely blue, cloudless sky. The light was strange, with double shadows crossing on the ground.
Before he could process the sight, his breathing failed.
The air entered his lungs, but it was like breathing liquid cement.
It was not a lack of air, it was something worse. It was as if the air itself were hostile, toxic, refusing to be metabolized by his body.
Kyne choked, sitting up suddenly, his hands instinctively going to his throat.
His lungs burned. Not like fire, but as if thousands of ice needles were expanding inside his chest. Every attempt to inhale pulled more of that strange substance into him, and his body reacted as if it were being poisoned.
He fell onto his side in the grass, blue grass, he noticed distractedly, as convulsions began to ripple through his body.
His vision blurred, spots appeared in his sight. The two suns above seemed to pulse, alternating between brightness and darkness.
Kyne tried to scream, but only a hoarse sound came out of his constricted throat. His muscles locked, arching his back in an unnatural way.
The pain was different from anything he had experienced, neither sharp like the knife nor violent like the dimensional pressure. It was a systemic pain, as if every cell in his body were screaming in protest against the world itself.
'What the hell… is happening?' Kyne thought, his mind struggling to maintain consciousness.
Then understanding came, in a flash of clarity before the final darkness.
The system had said something about an "incompatible world."
Perhaps Earth had not been compatible with the system, just as he probably was not compatible with this new world. Perhaps the air here was different. Poisonous to someone from Earth.
The last attempt to breathe failed. His chest began to still. His heart, already in a chaotic rhythm, gave one final irregular beat.
And then, darkness.
…
[You died due to incompatibility with the ambient Mana.]
[You received: Mana Affinity F-]
[You will resurrect in 3… 2… 1…]