PART 2: "Congratulations, You're Screwed"
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There was no light.
Then, too much of it.
Kazuki's eyes flew open—not that he had eyelids anymore, apparently—and was immediately blinded by a white so white it felt smug about it. The kind of white that made dentists jealous. Sterile. Endless. Empty.
He was floating. Or standing. Or lying down. He couldn't tell.
He blinked, except he wasn't sure if blinking worked here. "Okay," he said to no one. "So, I'm dead."
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
A clean chime rang out like a startup jingle for some fancy VR device he could never afford. In front of him, a blue holographic panel faded into existence.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
"Welcome, Kazuki Saito!"
"You have been selected as a candidate for the Elite Sports Universe: Hyper Evolution Program!"
"Please stand by for character initialization."
Kazuki stared.
Then tilted his head. "…The what now?"
A second panel floated up beside the first.
[CAUSE OF DEATH: VENDING MACHINE]
"Unfortunate. Also: statistically more common than shark attacks."
"…Cool. I've always wanted to be a cautionary tale," he muttered, deadpan.
A new message blinked into place:
[DESTINATION LOADING: EARTH-11X – SPORTS EVOLUTION VARIANT]
[PRIMARY MODE: FOOTBALL]
[GENETIC CONFIGURATION: RETAINED]
[STARTING LOCATION: JAPAN – FUJISAWA PREFECTURE]
"No. Nope. Stop," Kazuki said quickly, raising his hand. "There's been a mistake. I don't do sports. I failed P.E. six years in a row. I fake injuries. I have asthma—or at least I think I do when running happens."
The system, unmoved, responded:
[PHYSICAL CONDITION: NEGLIGIBLE. COMPENSATING THROUGH SYSTEM SUPPORT MODULES.]
"That's not reassuring!"
[INSTALLING: PROFICIENCY FUSION INTERFACE (BETA)]
[WARNING: SUBJECT PROFILE FLAGGED – 'RELUCTANT.' Applying adaptive trait modifiers.]
More screens started appearing around him like he was inside the world's most judgmental app store.
He spun in place, waving his hands. "Is there a skip button?!"
[NO.]
"Unsubscribe?"
[NO.]
"Customer service??"
[LAUGHING EMOJI.]
Kazuki let out the longest, saddest groan of his entire afterlife.
And then the floor dropped out.
Literally.
The white void beneath his feet vanished. A sudden, lurching pull—like gravity finally remembered he existed—yanked him downward.
Kazuki screamed.
Not an action-hero scream. A real, pathetic, flailing, "why-is-this-happening-to-me" kind of scream.
The white faded. The world rebuilt itself pixel by pixel, brick by brick. And when it stopped—
—
He was standing in the middle of a crowded train station.
But it wasn't his Tokyo.
It was… off.
The architecture was familiar but cartoonishly heightened. Holograms of athletes ran across skyscrapers. Digital billboards showed slow-motion replays of bicycle kicks that left trails of lightning. Kids as young as ten were juggling flaming footballs.
A group of middle-schoolers walked past him in matching jerseys, each with gravity-defying anime hair and abs that made gym instructors cry. One of them laughed and casually kicked a soccer ball straight through a concrete wall.
Kazuki flinched.
The wall repaired itself automatically.
"What in the Dragon Ball FIFA is this place…"
[SYSTEM MODULE ONLINE]
A robotic voice echoed directly into his brain:
"Welcome to Earth-11X. In this world, football is not a game. It is religion. Culture. War. Ascension."
"Through the Profusion System, you will adapt by merging the skills of real athletes, anime physics, and other sports."
"You may now proceed to your assigned school."
Kazuki turned slowly.
A rusty school sign loomed ahead:
"FUJISAWA PREFECTURAL HIGH SCHOOL – GO, BUMBLERS!"
The "GO" was missing a bulb. A crow was nesting in the "B."
Kazuki squinted. "…This feels targeted."
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END OF PART 2.
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Kazuki is now in the new world. He's landed in Fujisawa, the perfect trash-tier school to coast in—he thinks. But the System has other plans.