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Darkness.
Kaida felt unconscious—floating aimlessly in the abyss. There was no weight, no form, only the sensation of being without truly existing.
Then, something shifted.
His mind stirred, but his body remained distant, unresponsive. He tried to breathe but felt no air in his lungs. He attempted to speak, to call out, but no words formed.
Only silence.
His thoughts came to him in broken fragments, sluggish and distant. Am I awake? Where am I?
There was no answer. No sound but the faint echo of his own mind.
Panic crept in. He tried to move—to flex his fingers, to shift his legs—anything. But his body refused to respond. Was he paralyzed? Or was there simply nothing left of him?
Am I… dead?
A sharp, dragging pull cut through the void. Like an unseen force grabbing hold of him, yanking him downward. Sensation rushed back—his fingers twitched, his chest tightened as air flooded his lungs. His heartbeat pounded, rapid and uneven.
Then—
He landed.
The impact wasn’t harsh, but it was real. Solid. He felt something beneath him—a platform? A surface? Cold and smooth, yet it made no sound when he touched it.
Kaida gasped, inhaling deeply as his body reawakened, his nerves buzzing. He reached out instinctively, but when he looked around—there was nothing. Just endless, unbroken darkness stretching in every direction.
“What… the hell?” His voice echoed unnaturally, the sound bouncing endlessly through the void.
Then—
A soft, melodic ding.
Kaida flinched as glowing blue text materialized before his eyes, floating in the air like a screen from a game.
PLAYER: KAIDA TATSUYA
LEVEL: 1
RACE: HUMAN
CLASS: UNASSIGNED
CHARACTER LOADING…
His breath caught in his throat. He blinked, rubbed his eyes. But the text remained. Floating. Pulsing softly.
A cold dread settled in his gut.
“No… No way.” His voice was barely a whisper. “This—this isn’t real.”
The glowing text didn’t respond. It simply hovered there, waiting.
Kaida took a shaky step back, his mind scrambling for explanations. A dream? A hallucination?
Before he could process it, a deep, resonant voice echoed through the void.
It wasn’t coming from the text. It wasn’t coming from anywhere. It simply existed, woven into the fabric of reality itself.
“I expect great things from you… my little avatar.”
Kaida froze.
His breath hitched, a shiver crawling down his spine.
“Who’s there?!” He spun around wildly, searching for the source of the voice.
Nothing.
No figure. No presence. Just the suffocating abyss.
“Answer me!” His voice wavered despite his attempt to sound strong. “Where am I?! What is this?! Who are you?!”
The void remained silent.
The text pulsed again, shifting.
WORLD INITIALIZATION… COMPLETE.
TRANSPORTING PLAYER TO DESIGNATED LOCATION.
Kaida’s gut twisted.
“Wait—what?” He barely had time to react before the ground beneath him vanished.
Gravity—something he hadn’t even felt until now—suddenly remembered him.
He was falling.
His stomach lurched as he plummeted into the void, the blackness swallowing him whole. Wind roared in his ears, his limbs flailing as he tried to grasp onto anything, but there was nothing to hold.
The darkness shifted.
A blinding white light erupted from below, consuming him.
The void disappeared—
And then—
He felt solid ground beneath him once more.
Cold. Hard. Smooth.
Stone?
His body ached as if he had been thrown across the sky and crash-landed, but when he opened his eyes, the darkness was gone. A soft glow illuminated the space around him, casting eerie shadows along unfamiliar walls.
Before he could gather his thoughts, a voice echoed above him.
Calm. Commanding.
“Welcome, young hero.”
