At exactly 4:17 PM, the sky cracked.
Not metaphorically.
Not in imagination.
It literally cracked.
Like glass.
A jagged silver line tore across the blue sky, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other. At first, people thought it was lightning — some rare atmospheric phenomenon.
Then the sky started bleeding.
Not blood.
But numbers.
Floating numbers.
[GLOBAL SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
Every phone died instantly.
Every satellite shut down.
Every plane dropped from the sky.
And every human on Earth heard the same voice inside their head.
"Congratulations. Your world has been selected."
A boy named Aarav Verma was in the middle of his physics coaching class when it happened.
(He hated physics.)
One second, his teacher was shouting about projectile motion, and the next—
[STRENGTH: 5]
[AGILITY: 4]
[INTELLIGENCE: 7]
[VITALITY: 3]
A glowing blue screen appeared in front of his eyes.
He blinked.
It didn't disappear.
Someone screamed.
Then another.
Outside the classroom window, the sky cracked open wider — like a door being forced open from the other side.
And something… moved inside it.
"Tutorial begins in 60 seconds."
The voice returned.
Calm.
Emotionless.
Inhuman.
Aarav felt his throat go dry.
"What… tutorial?"
No one answered.
Because suddenly—
The walls of the classroom melted.
Not broke.
Not collapsed.
They melted into black dust, dissolving into nothingness as the floor beneath his feet transformed into cold grey stone.
Within seconds, the entire coaching institute was gone.
In its place was a massive circular arena.
Hundreds of students stood scattered around him, all equally terrified.
Above them—
A gigantic digital timer ticked down.
00:00:59
00:00:58
00:00:57
And then—
A second message appeared.
KILL TO SURVIVE
The ground trembled.
Aarav turned slowly—
Just in time to see a creature crawl out of the shadows.
It was tall.
Too tall.
Its arms dragged across the floor like broken branches, its face completely smooth — no eyes, no nose, no mouth — just skin stretched over bone.
And yet—
He could feel it looking at him.
[TUTORIAL MONSTER – LEVEL 1]
Someone laughed nervously.
"Level 1? That's it? It's just a game—"
The creature moved.
Faster than anyone could react.
In a blink—
The laughing boy was gone.
Not dead.
Gone.
Like he had never existed.
No blood.
No body.
Just empty air.
And a new notification.
Player Eliminated.
The timer hit zero.
Tutorial has begun.
The arena doors slammed shut.
And suddenly—
Aarav's stats changed.
[UNIQUE SKILL UNLOCKED]
LIMIT BREAKER
You grow stronger every time you survive death.
Aarav froze.
"Every time I survive… death?"
Behind him—
Something growled.
And in that moment—
He realized.
This wasn't a tutorial.
It was a selection process.
And Earth had just become a battlefield.