Kaine had always hated Tuesdays.
Something about the way the universe aligned on that one particular day of the week ensured he was either late, broke, or failing at something critical. And today? Today had all three.
I was sprinting across campus like a lunatic, heart pounding, lungs already begging for mercy. Dodging students, leaping over a forgotten burger box, praying no one noticed the ungodly amount of sweat staining my shirt.
My bag bounced behind me like it wanted out of this life too. Inside, a four-day-late assignment flopped around—a Frankenstein mess of barely-credible research and caffeine-induced rage.
"All I needed was ten more minutes," I muttered under my breath. "Just ten—"
BOOM.
It wasn't a normal explosion. More like the sky had hiccuped and reality forgot how to function. The pressure wave picked me up and slammed me to the pavement. Hard.
Air? Gone.
Thoughts? Scrambled.
I blinked against the sunlight—or what was left of it—and my vision was full of smoke and blood and a ringing silence.
Then the screams started.
I forced myself to look. I wish I hadn't. Craters. Fire. People on the ground, unmoving. What the hell just happened?
Then—
[SYSTEM INITIATED.]Loading Interface…ERROR: Data Corruption Detected.Recalibrating. Please Wait…
Wait. What?
A glowing HUD appeared in my vision—like some bootleg Iron Man heads-up display. Except this one was inside my actual eyeballs. A blue light flickered in the corner of his vision. No—inside his vision. Like an overlay on a screen he didn't own.
"What the hell…"
Welcome, Kaine Vihana.Status: Civilian (Unranked)System: [X_Divergence_Core] – Stability: 13%Main Objective: Survive.
"Survive? What kind of twisted video game logic is this?"
Another explosion cut my sarcasm short.
Then: nothing.
I didn't feel myself black out.
But when I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere else.
The sky wasn't blue. It was violet—deep and endless, like staring into a bruise on the universe. The stars... they moved. Not twinkled—moved. Pulsing, like they were alive. I sat up slowly, every bone creaking like a bad joke.
This wasn't Earth.
The city around me was... wrong. Too big. Too clean in a way that felt artificial. Buildings stretched like silver bones into the sky, laced with glowing lines of alien language. Ads floated in midair—some offering robotic limbs, some selling mana-based weapons, one disturbingly cheerful about "resurrective potions" with a dancing skeleton mascot.
"Okay, okay… this is a dream, right? Maybe I hit my head and this is just a panic-induced hallucination."
Nope.
"System Glitch in District 9—48 fatalities, including two Ascendants. Error remains under investigation."
Kaine blinked."What the fuck is an Ascendant?"
"System Overseer - You are in the high nexus dimension of the omniverse creator. This is the world of forge of all authors , dreams and ideas and ideal dimension of all human collectiveness. Called by many names - But you can call us The NEXUS , THE DATABASE or more explanatory THE CREATOR or SWANNS PROPOSAL "
"I will now send you to another space while the other reincarnate to the other"
Kaine stared baffled but realized what is happening now.
"Wait."
WHOSSSH.
"What the heck is wrong with this kaleidoscopic tunneling !"
[System Diagnostic: ERROR // FILES MISSING]Warning: You are currently classified as Level 0. System Core is malfunctioning. Auto-Integration Failed.
Abilities: None.Perks: None.Allies: None.Location: Outer Ring – Slum District X77.
"Great. No cheat codes. No tutorial. No Obi-Wan ghost. Just me and a broken UI from hell."
[Voice Recognition: Affirmative. Statement logged as mental instability. Sanity score reduced by 2%.]
"…Seriously? That counts?! You penalize sanity for sarcasm?!"
[New Quest Generated: Learn the Rules or Die Trying]Time Limit: 24 HoursFailure Penalty: Forced System Shutdown.
"Okay, now I'm listening."
I spent the rest of the day stumbling through chaos. Apparently, I'd landed in a city called Neo Elandra—a reality governed entirely by a god-tier AI called the System. People were born into its control. Strength determined status. You leveled up or you died.
I wasn't born here. I wasn't even registered.
"I'm not a player. I'm not a citizen. I'm not even a damn bug. I'm a ghost in the code."
People called me a glitch—and not the cute kind from cartoons. The dangerous kind. The hunted kind.
The guy with chrome eyes , angelic wings and no patience had made that very clear when he pinned me to the wall like I owed him credits.
"No Class? A Human in Neo Nexus ? No Affiliation? You're lucky I don't rip your spine out now and sell it for scrap, runt."
I ran. I didn't stop until my legs gave out.
'This is a dimension for systems...What the heck is going on !'
'Should I be reincarnated safely like any other souls I will offer a thousand sacrifice to any GOD!'
I stared at the white platform over the sky as millions of white souls are passed through the gates of reincarnation.
By nightfall, I was shivering under some tarp behind a dumpster that smelled like despair and burned rubber.
I hated this place.
I hated being scared.
I hated how badly I wanted to go home, even though home hadn't exactly loved me back.
"Why me?" I whispered into the cold. "I'm not special. I'm not a hero. I didn't even pass thermodynamics."
Then—
[Emergency Trigger – System Path Recalibrated]Error: Core Activation Sequence UnstableDo you wish to manually override? [Y/N]
My breath caught. The letters hovered in front of me, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"What do I have to lose?"
I tapped the 'Y'.
And the world shattered.
Fire. Ice. Electricity. It ripped through my veins like my body had been plugged into a dying star.
I couldn't move. Couldn't scream. Just—became.
The ground around me lit up with glowing glyphs, spiraling around my chest like hungry circuitry. My skin shimmered—no, burned—with something alien and divine.
Then—I was flinged across the space as i crashed into a white shining door.
[Override Accepted.]Divergence Core Temporarily Stabilized.Title Gained: The Errant LinePerk Gained: "Last Chance Algorithm" – When fatal damage is taken, there is a 10% chance to reverse time by 3 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours.
"That's it? Three seconds?""...Screw it. I'll take it."
The world... cracked.
He felt it.
A jolt surged through his body—fire, ice, and electricity all at once. His heart seized, then roared back to life with a vengeance.
The ground beneath him glowed. Symbols spun around his chest. His skin shimmered as though soaked in starlight.
Then… silence.
Didn't work.
Tiny gold runes still floated across my sleeves. I tried to rub them off. Didn't work.
People noticed. One group of augmented thugs looked me over like I was on sale. I slipped away before they decided how much I was worth.
And then I saw him.
A man in a white suit, standing at the edge of a rooftop like he owned the skyline. Golden-rimmed glasses. Perfect hair. Smugness weaponized into facial expression.
Next to him stood a mountain of a man—muscles on muscles, face hidden behind a black respirator and jagged armor.
"The hell? Is that DC's Bane with a software update?"
The man in white looked down at me.
He didn't speak loudly. But I heard it, clear as crystal.
He turned confused.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to cry.
My voice cracked out of me, half a whisper, half a warcry:
"Dammit… I am seriously fucked."
But this time?
I smiled when I said it.