The city of "Astoria" glistened with a sickening brilliance. Above, the "Dimensional Heart" anchored itself like a merciless fiery disc, pouring down an eternal golden light that made even shadows look pale. There was no summer or winter—only a stagnant, suffocating heat and humidity. In this world, sleep was a "commodity"; the rich possessed "Dusk Powder" to buy hours of artificial darkness, while the poor lived in a state of perpetual stupor, their bodies refused to collapse thanks to the light's energy, but their minds were slowly eroding.
Inside a narrow alley, Leon stood behind the counter of his new shop, the "Dimensional Experience Center." He was still trying to process his reality; only two days ago, he was a history student. Now, a system resided in his head, proclaiming him the "Harbinger of the Forbidden Arcana."
"System, are you sure anyone will enter this desolate alley?" Leon asked, wiping sweat from his brow. The shop was air-conditioned with a strange chill provided by the system—a coldness that made him feel both comforted and intimidated.
[Answer your doubt with labor, Host. The first customers are those closest to despair,] the mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
Suddenly, a massive man pushed the door open. It was Rakan. He wore worn-out leather armor, smelling of dust and iron. His eyes were hauntingly bloodshot, and his neck muscles were taut like bowstrings. Rakan looked around in shock; the cold inside the shop hit him like a mountain blizzard.
"Owner..." Rakan said in a rasping voice, looking at Leon, who appeared utterly ordinary compared to the city's warriors. "What is this place? Do you sell ice magic? I haven't felt this cold since I was a child in the Northern Mountains."
Leon's heart hammered. This was his first time facing a true warrior with battle-scarred hands. "I... I don't sell magic. I sell an experience. Ten magic stones for one hour in this device, and you will gain more than just the cold."
Rakan hesitated. Ten stones was a steep price, but the headache ravaging his skull from the "Eternal Light" was unbearable. He tossed the stones on the table and sat in the metal capsule. As Leon lowered the helmet onto Rakan's head, he felt a surge of nerves. I hope his head doesn't explode, Leon thought anxiously, pressing the start button.
The moment Leon pressed start, Rakan felt a violent tug on his consciousness, as if his soul were being ripped from his body and hurled into a deep abyss. The shop's chill faded, and Leon's image vanished, replaced by a profound silence he had never known.
Rakan opened his eyes, but he didn't find the golden glow of Astoria. He found himself lying on cold, damp stone tiles in a cramped cell smelling of mold and rusted iron. Above, a small crack in the ceiling leaked a faint, dreary grey light.
"What is this?" Rakan whispered, trying to stand. He was shocked; his body, once proud of its strength and the explosive "Wolf Bloodline" energy, felt frail, draped in tattered rags. The game had stripped him of everything except his will.
A corpse fell through the ceiling opening, clutching an ancient key in its stiffened grip. Rakan picked it up, mesmerized; the touch of the cold metal felt terrifyingly real. He unlocked the door and stepped into the corridor, encountering his first "Hollow." It was a distorted creature, staggering slowly with a broken sword.
Rakan lunged with a warrior's instinct, attempting a strike with his bare hands, but the monster parried coldly and stabbed him in the shoulder.
"AAARGH!" Rakan's scream shook the cell walls. The pain was sharp and searing—not a magical illusion, but a nerve-shredding agony. He stumbled back, clutching his bleeding shoulder in disbelief. "I'm hurting... I'm actually bleeding!"
But he noticed something strange; with every gasp of pain, a refreshing coolness surged through his real mind lying in the shop. The chronic headache caused by "Astoria's Light" began to fade, as if the pain in the game was the price he paid to buy peace in reality.
The Asylum Demon: A Brutal Lesson
After bitter struggles with the corridor husks, Rakan reached a vast courtyard roofed with shattered glass. Suddenly, the ground shook. From a high balcony, a gargantuan beast leaped down—a terrifying mass of ulcerated grey flesh, wielding a Great Hammer three times Rakan's size.
It was the Asylum Demon.
The beast gave Rakan no time to think. It swung its massive hammer in a swift horizontal arc. Rakan tried to dive away, but the sheer air pressure from the blow sent him crashing into the stone wall. His ribs shattered, and he felt blood fill his lungs. Before he could catch his breath, the hammer descended like an inescapable fate, crushing his body entirely.
[YOU DIED]
Vision faded into pitch black, and the blood-red words appeared before his consciousness. Rakan snapped awake at the Bonfire. He was shaking violently, touching his chest and head to ensure he was still alive.
"I died... I certainly died!" he shouted, gasping. Yet, strangely, he didn't feel weak. Instead, he felt his real body in the shop absorbing incredibly pure energy. The "ash" left by his death in the game had transformed into "Insight" in reality.
Rakan rushed toward the arena a second time, a third, and a tenth. Each time he met his end, his mind recorded the beast's movements with precision: "Don't stand in front of him," "Wait for the hammer lift," "Timing is everything."
On his final attempt before the hour expired, Rakan managed to roll behind the beast and plunge his blade deep into its leg. The monster's roar and the surge of dark energy made Rakan feel a battle-high he had never experienced under the "Dimensional Heart."
The hour ended, and the capsule hissed open. Rakan emerged breathing like a drowning man who had just reached the shore, but his eyes shone with a frightening sharpness. He stood before Leon, who was watching him with anxious curiosity, and gripped his hand firmly.
"Owner..." Rakan said, his voice trembling with emotion. "That hammer crushed me repeatedly, but now... I feel like I can see the world more clearly. My spiritual energy, which was stagnant because of the heat, has begun to flow like a waterfall!"
Rakan wiped the sweat from his brow and looked at Leon with newfound reverence. "That cold... that death... it is the best medicine Astoria has ever known."
Leon smiled with relief. He realized now that the system's "Forbidden Arcana" was already working its magic