Chapter 1: The Day the Tutorial Opened
The first time the world ended, it didn't feel dramatic.
No trumpet. No sky splitting open. Just a notification sound from my phone, a bitter coffee aftertaste, and fluorescent lights in the office buzzing with steady irritation.
Then the elevator doors opened on the twenty-second floor and a man walked out with a sword.
At first my brain tried to make it make sense. This building had a private security contractor on rotation for the executive suites. Usually it was guys with earpieces and a holster. Not this.
Not a cosplay sword or a decorative wall hanger. The blade looked too heavy to be real, too clean to have been carried through the lobby, and too casual in his hand for anyone sane.
He had a badge clipped to his belt, but his eyes didn't match the calm office world around him. He looked focused, alert, and oddly comfortable.
I stared at him. He looked around, saw the security camera, and waved at it with a smile.
A second later, the hallway windows went black.
Not dark or tinted. Black. The glass swallowed the light.
And then the first Gate opened.
A thin vertical slit appeared in the middle of the hallway, floating a few feet above the carpet between the elevators and the break area. It was an impossible cut in the air. The space around it bent, as if pressure pressed down on reality.
People screamed. Someone dropped a tray of pastries and the cinnamon smell flashed through the air before panic drowned it out.
I didn't scream.
A cold certainty settled in my gut.
Because I had seen it before.
Not in a dream. Not in a story.
In my death.
Seven years after that first Gate, I died in an underground station with my ribs broken, my hands frozen, and my name reduced to a tag on a corpse list. By then the world was safe zones and monster corridors, guild banners and ration cards, and people smiling with knives behind their teeth.
And I wasn't special.
I was the guy who survived by being useful. The guy who learned to shut up in meetings. The guy who carried water, tracked supplies, patched armor, and smiled through fear.
I lasted longer than most.
Then a Rank B creature tore through our line, and I learned what it means to be forgettable.
I remember the taste of blood. I remember the sound my friend Juno made when she realized she couldn't lift her shield anymore. I remember thinking, very clearly, that it was unfair.
And right before the dark took me, I saw something I wasn't supposed to.
A translucent panel hanging in the air.
Not a game HUD. Not a hallucination. It felt official.
It said:
END OF TUTORIAL
I didn't even have time to be angry.
Now I was back in the office hallway seven years earlier, staring at the first Gate as the building's fire alarm started blaring.
A coworker, Darren, grabbed my sleeve. His eyes were wild.
"Nate, what the hell is that?"
My mouth opened, and for a second I almost told him the truth.
I almost said, We're already dead. We just haven't caught up to it yet.
Instead I swallowed and forced my voice steady.
"Get away from the windows," I said.
Darren blinked. "Why?"
Because the first creatures always come through the nearest opening. Because the first deaths are always people who stand still and stare. Because curiosity gets punished fast.
I didn't say any of that.
The sword man moved first. He stepped toward the Gate and raised the blade.
I yanked Darren back as the Gate widened with a soft tearing sound.
A hand came through.
Gray skin. Long fingers. Nails like glass.
Then the rest of it squeezed out and unfolded into the hallway. It stood up straight, hit its head on the ceiling tiles, then tilted its skull and stared at us.
Somewhere behind me, someone sobbed.
A thin chime sounded.
Not from my phone. Not from the office intercom.
From inside my head.
My vision shimmered and a panel appeared.
Clean text, simple borders.
TUTORIAL HAS BEGUN
Objective: Survive (00:59:59)
Rewards: Awakening Chance, Basic Skill Selection, Starter Item
People around me didn't react.
My heart thudded so hard it hurt. I tried to keep my face neutral, because the most dangerous thing in the first hour wasn't the monster.
It was other people realizing you were different.
The creature took a step forward. Its foot sank slightly into the carpet, leaving a patch of frost.
Cold-type. Low to mid Rank F, maybe. The first wave was always low.
In my first life, I panicked here. I ran with the crowd, got separated, and spent the first night locked in a bathroom with three strangers.
Not this time.
I turned and sprinted toward the stairwell.
Darren shouted my name, but I didn't stop. I grabbed his sleeve again and dragged him with me, because he had survived in my first life too, for a while. Not because he was strong, but because he listened.
"Stairs," I snapped. "Move!"
We slammed into the stairwell. The door shut behind us. This space was enclosed and defensible.
For now.
Darren ripped his arm free, panting. "Nate, what's going on? Why are you acting like you knew that thing was coming?"
I stared at him.
In the first life, Darren died on Day Two because he tried to be a hero with a stapler.
I could save him. Maybe.
But saving people was expensive. It cost time and attention, and attention was always scarce after the world changed.
"I'll explain later," I said. "Right now we have less than an hour."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but another scream echoed through the stairwell door, followed by a wet crunch.
Darren went pale.
"Jesus," he whispered.
I didn't correct him.
I checked the panel again.
Objective: Survive (00:57:41)
In my first life, the tutorial ended after one hour no matter what, and those who lived got a random Awakening with a random skill.
Random meant most people got garbage.
Minor Heat Resistance. Clean Hands. Improved Eyelash Growth. I once met a guy who awakened Better Parking Sense, and he cried for two days.
But I learned something in Year Five, whispered in a backroom where guild leaders traded secrets.
The tutorial wasn't random.
Not fully.
There were triggers. Hidden conditions. Choices.
Back then it was too late for me. I didn't have access, leverage, or even the right starting location.
Now I did.
I took Darren upward, two steps at a time. He wheezed behind me, but he kept moving.
We hit the twenty-third floor landing, where the stairwell window gave a partial view of the city.
Outside, Gates were opening across streets, parks, and rooftops. Some were small. Some were already widening.
People ran. Cars crashed. A bus slammed into a divider and the driver's door flew open.
The sky looked normal.
That was the worst part. The sky was still blue.
The panel in my vision flickered once.
A second line appeared beneath the timer.
Optional Objective Discovered: Claim a Safe Room
My throat tightened.
There it was.
A trigger.
In my first life, I spent the tutorial hiding. Not claiming, not choosing, not doing anything except staying alive.
The system didn't reward survival. It rewarded control.
I scanned the stairwell. Concrete walls. Metal railings. A door leading back to the floor. Another door leading up toward roof access, one level above.
A safe room needed three things: a defensible entry, limited angles, and a way to establish authority. In the early days, authority could be as simple as being the only one with the key.
But the system didn't care about morality.
It cared about outcomes.
Darren leaned against the railing, sweating. "We should go down, right? Get outside?"
Outside was death without cover. Inside was death with walls.
Walls mattered.
"We go up," I said.
He stared at me. "Up? Why?"
"Roof access," I said. "One door. Better visibility."
"And then what?" His voice cracked. "We wait?"
No.
We choose.
By the time we hit the roof access door, the building no longer sounded like an office. There was pounding, glass breaking, and a scream that cut off mid-note.
I pressed my ear to the roof door.
Nothing.
Good.
I pulled the handle. It didn't budge.
Locked.
In my first life I would have panicked. Now I felt relief, because some things still worked the same way.
I looked around and spotted a red emergency box mounted to the wall. A key inside, behind glass.
Darren swallowed. "Isn't that... illegal?"
"I don't think that matters much anymore," I said.
I punched the glass with my elbow. Pain flared and I welcomed it. It meant I was here. It meant this was real.
I grabbed the key, jammed it into the roof lock, and twisted.
The door opened.
Cold air rushed in, carrying exhaust and a faint metallic tang.
We stepped onto the roof.
The city spread out below in chaos.
Gates hovered above streets. Creatures spilled out in bursts, some crawling, some flying, and some lumbering. People scattered, screaming and running in every direction.
And above it all, higher than the buildings, something flickered across the sky. Too large to be a Gate. Too smooth.
A translucent veil hung over the city.
The tutorial zone.
My panel pulsed.
Safe Room Candidate Detected: Rooftop Access
Claim Conditions:
Seal Entry
Establish Authority
Survive Until Timer Ends
My mouth went dry.
I could do this. I could claim it. I could force the system to recognize this roof as mine, at least for the tutorial.
And if I did, I wouldn't get a random Awakening.
I'd get a choice.
A real one.
A gust of wind hit and Darren edged closer to the door, ready to retreat into the stairwell.
Then I saw movement at the far end of the roof.
Not a monster.
A person.
A woman in a hoodie crouched behind an HVAC unit, clutching a backpack to her chest. She stared at us with wide eyes, one hand over her mouth.
In my first life, I never met her.
Which meant she either died early, or she was part of something that changed the timeline.
Darren lifted a trembling hand. "Hey, are you okay?"
The woman flinched.
Then the roof access door behind us slammed shut.
Not the wind.
Force.
I spun, heart jumping.
A man stood there, blocking the door. Mid thirties. Office casual, except his eyes were wrong for the outfit. Too calm and too sharp, like he'd been waiting for a specific moment.
He held a fire axe, the kind mounted in stairwells, and rested it on his shoulder.
He smiled.
"Perfect," he said. "You two made it up here fast. Saves me time."
Darren's voice shook. "What are you doing?"
The man's smile widened, and something deep in my memory flinched.
I knew that face.
Not from this building.
From Year Six.
He had been a guild recruiter then. Cheerful, helpful, offering soup and safety. He brought people into a camp that later turned out to be a farm for mana crystals.
He died before I could do anything about him.
Apparently not.
He tapped the axe against the roof door. Once, then again. "We're claiming this spot," he said. "Safe Room. Only way to get a good Awakening. I'm not sharing it with twelve idiots who panic and drag the reward down."
Darren took a step back. "Reward?"
The man's gaze slid to me. It sharpened, like he'd just noticed the only person up here who wasn't confused.
"You," he said softly. "You can see it too."
My blood went cold.
So it wasn't just me.
Monsters could smell fear.
Humans could smell advantage.
My panel flickered again. A new prompt appeared, one I had never seen before.
Hidden Option Available: Territorial Claim (SSS)
Warning: This path marks you as a Tutorial Owner.
Consequence: Observers may take interest.
Proceed? (Y/N)
The man with the axe stepped forward, still smiling.
"Hand over your phone," he said, even though it had nothing to do with anything. "And don't make this harder than it has to be."
Darren looked at me like I had answers.
The woman behind the HVAC unit was silently crying.
Below us, the city screamed.
And inside my vision, the timer kept ticking down.
00:42:19
I exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of the choice settle onto my shoulders.
In my first life, I survived by being useful.
In my second, I was done surviving.
I stared at the prompt.
Then I whispered, so quietly nobody else heard, "Yes."
And I hit Y.
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