The sky cracked open.
What was once a soft blue canvas above Elian's apartment now shimmered with jagged streaks of static. Birds froze mid-flight, their bodies twitching in place before vanishing and reappearing on rooftops like glitched-out NPCs. A low, grinding hum filled the air—like the sound of servers overheating in an overclocked basement.
Then, a line of floating text appeared before Elian's eyes.
[Welcome, User #000000031. You have been successfully logged in.]
Elian flinched backward, nearly toppling his chair. No screen, no headset—just glowing letters suspended in midair, translucent and pulsing. His brain scrambled for a logical explanation: hologram? prank? some weird VR overlay?
But the next line killed that thought.
[Initializing Base Attributes...][Synchronization Complete.][Error: Undetected Privileges—Granting Temporary Admin Interface.]
The room dimmed. His apartment lights flickered, the air itself felt denser—as if the atmosphere had suddenly been filled with invisible code. Elian's heartbeat thundered. Then, another message appeared in red:
[Admin Interface Unlocked.][Welcome, Administrator.]
He staggered back against his bookshelf, knocking over an old stack of survival manga. Was this some elaborate game update? A delusion? No. This felt too real.
Across the city, chaos bloomed like fire.
Cars screeched and flipped as rifts split the roads. Traffic lights exploded into sparks. Spires of silver code erupted from sidewalks and ceilings. Where people once stood, now remained only flickering silhouettes or strange floating prompts.
In the middle of it all, a girl stood calmly atop a crumbling rooftop.
She wore a dirt-smeared school uniform and a long, dark cloak draped over her shoulders. Her black hair caught in the wind like a ribbon, and her eyes—violet, sharp—tracked the glowing lines crisscrossing the skyline.
She did not panic.
She had seen this before.
Her name was Kalith. And unlike Elian, she was not surprised.
"They gave the Admin key... to a sleeper?" she muttered, watching the data signature pulse across the city. "A wildcard... interesting."
Back in his apartment, Elian's screen blinked again.
[Emergency Quest: Dungeon Breach Detected – Tier 1][Objective: Survive 3 Hours. Reward: Base Skill Token]
"What?! Survive?" he said aloud, running to the window. His building trembled. Across the street, something massive broke through a glowing rift—chitinous limbs, beetle-like armor, a mouth of gnashing steel.
"Nope. Nope nope nope—"
The beast shrieked and turned its head, as if seeing him through layers of broken code.
Then, a blinking cursor appeared on the interface again.
[Admin Override Available: Execute Command?]
Elian hesitated.
Could I really…?
His fingers trembled as he whispered, "spawn item: improvised blade."
A short blade materialized in his hand—rusted metal wrapped in cloth. He gasped, the weight pulling him back into the moment. It was real.
And the monster was coming.
[Combat Tutorial: You Are Now a Target.]
The chittering shriek drew closer. Elian barely ducked in time. He rolled, slashed blindly—and somehow struck the beast's throat.
Critical Hit.
The creature shattered into fractured code, exploding into light and mist.
Elian stood frozen, chest heaving.
"I… I just killed a monster."
He stared at his trembling hands. Then, at the interface. And finally, at the glowing word Administrator still blinking beside his name.
On the rooftop, Kalith smiled faintly.
"So, that's your instinct… Not bad."
She turned and walked away as the sun flickered behind broken clouds. Her sword dissolved back into the light.
"The real game has begun."