My head throbbed like a war drum; each beat sending a sharp pain through my skull. I groaned, forcing my eyes open, but I was met with nothing. Just darkness.
Not the kind you get when you wake up in the middle of the night and your eyes haven't adjusted. No, this was something else entirely. A void. Empty. Cold. Endless.
I pushed myself up, my body sluggish, aching like I had fought for days without rest. I tried to focus, but there was no ground beneath me. No air, no sound, just me, suspended in this abyss.
"Where am I?"
My voice barely made a sound, swallowed by the nothingness around me.
Then, something shifted.
A presence. A whisper.
"System, Is he really The chosen one?"
[Yes, Master, he's the one... The one with a bug in his System]
A chuckle, low and amused, echoed through the void. It came from everywhere and nowhere, slipping beneath my skin like ice.
"A bug, huh?"
The voice mused, deep and smooth, carrying an edge of something unreadable.
"How… interesting"
I tried to move, to shift, to see something. Anything, but the darkness remained absolute.
My heartbeat pounded in my ears.
"Who's there?"
Silence.
Then, a soft hum, thoughtful.
"You are not what you were supposed to be"
The voice finally answered.
"And yet, here you are"
Something unseen brushed against me, weightless yet suffocating, like shadows pressing into my very being.
"The others, the chosen ones, who are spread throughout this universe... Receive their blessings smoothly... Only you are a little bit problematic"
[Master, Should we take action to fix the bugs in his system?]
A pause. A lingering silence that made my skin crawl.
"Hmm~ let it be... This seems interesting"
Then, a slow, deliberate chuckle rippled through the void, amusement laced with something darker, something ancient.
"Ah, but tell me, little chosen one… Do you understand what you are?"
The voice coiled around me, unseen yet suffocating. My fingers curled into fists, nails digging into my palms.
"I don't care what you think I am"
I spat, forcing steel into my voice despite the unshakable pressure bearing down on me.
"I just want to know where I am and who the hell you are"
Silence.
Then-
"Who am I?"
The voice turned contemplative, almost amused at the question, as if the very thought was entertaining.
"You are not ready for that answer"
Something shifted. The void rippled.
[Warning: Unstable anomaly detected]
The mechanical tone of the System rang in my mind, colder than usual.
[Calculating… Error. Unknown presence interfering]
The darkness around me twisted, pulsing like a living thing.
"You're the last player, The last chosen one, and yet You are different from the others"
The voice continued, unfazed.
"A stray thread in the grand design. A chosen one that should not have been"
The pressure intensified. My breath hitched. It wasn't just words, it was a truth pressing into me, trying to force its way into my very core.
But I refused to break.
I gritted my teeth, forcing my body to move, to push back against whatever this was.
A chuckle.
"Interesting"
And then-
Light.
A single crack in the abyss, golden and blinding.
A surge of warmth rushed through me, burning away the suffocating cold.
The voice sighed, almost disappointed.
"It seems… Our time is about to end... Mikail, when the time comes, let us meet again"
After that, The void trembled. The weight lifted.
A sharp pull, a force dragging me upward.
And then.
I woke up.
Gasping.
Drenched in sweat.
Staring at a familiar ceiling.
His own room.
--------
"... What the fuck is that?"
Mikail said, lying frozen in his bed, his breath ragged, his mind racing. The lingering chill of that endless void clung to his skin, despite the warmth of his room. His heart pounded in his chest, the echoes of that voice still whispering in his ears.
His eyes darted around, scanning the familiar space.
Everything looked normal. Ordinary.
And yet…
Mikail sat up, gripping his sheets as if grounding himself in reality. His body still ached, exhaustion weighing on his limbs like he had fought something beyond comprehension.
"... And why I could end up here... The last thing I remember was I was in the middle of fighting that shadow figure, after that..."
Mikail said, he still remembered what he did last night, those Shadow Creatures, a creature that used his father's face, he almost died, until the moment when something inside him woke up, after that...
"... What happens after that?"
Mikail clenched his jaw, frustration gnawing at him. His memories were fragmented, slipping through his fingers like sand.
He knew he had been fighting, no, surviving against those shadow creatures. One of them had worn his father's face, twisting it into something monstrous.
And then…
Something woke up inside him.
His fingers trembled slightly as he touched his chest, feeling the steady thrum of his heartbeat. That power. It wasn't something he understood, but in that moment, when he had been on the brink of death, it had erupted from within him.
But now?
Nothing. No System notifications. No status screen. No sign that anything had changed.
A cold realization settled over him.
He remembered the voice in the void had called him a "bug" a "stray thread in the grand design"
The System itself had recognized an unknown presence interfering.
Mikail exhaled sharply, forcing himself to focus. He couldn't afford to panic.
Swinging his legs over the edge of his bed, he stood up, his muscles stiff and aching.
His room still felt the same, but he didn't. There was a weight pressing against his skin, an unnatural stillness in the air as if something unseen was watching him.
"First thing's first… I need to check"
Said Mikail, then with a little hesitation, Mikail said again.
"... System?"
Silence.
No response.
His heart sank, but then-
A familiar blue interface appeared before him.
Seeing that the system was still there, Mikail breathed a sigh of relief.
"... Thank God it's still there"
Mikail said. He wanted to check if there was any change in his system, but before he could do anything, his ears caught noise from outside as if several people were talking.
Mikail tilted his head at this, feeling a little confused.
'... Is there anyone in this house besides my Grandn-"
'GRANDMA?!!'
A sudden realization hit him, Mikail remembered last night's events, and none of his memories showed his grandmother inside.
Mikail's heart felt like it had stopped beating, and his face turned pale at the thought that these shadow creatures might have done something to his grandmother.
With all these bad thoughts in his mind, Mikail stood up, ran towards his room door, and rushed out.
"GRANDMA! WHERE'S ARE YOU?!"
With that shout, Mikail ran with all his might toward the source of the noise he heard, the living room.
Mikail's feet barely touched the ground as he sprinted down the hallway. His breath came in ragged gasps, his heart hammering against his ribs. The shadows of last night's battle still clung to his mind, but right now, only one thought consumed him, his grandmother.
Bursting into the living room, he skidded to a stop.
His pulse roared in his ears as his eyes darted around the room.
There, his grandmother sat on the worn-out couch, her wrinkled hands resting on her lap. There's another person talking with her, but Mikail ignores that because his main focus now is his Grandmother.
Mikail rushed to his grandmother, he knelt in front of her and then grabbed her grandmother's hands.
With a worried look and a voice that reflected his feelings, Mikail said.
"... Grandma, are you okay? You're not hurt, right? How's your feeling? You don't feel anything weird, right?"
"Huh?"
Mikail's Grandmother tilted her head at his Grandson's behavior.
"... Why are you asking me such a strange question, Kail?"
"Just answer my questions, Grandma"
"... I'm fine... Did you just have a nightmare, Kail?"
"Nightmare?"
Mikail repeated, thinking back to last night's events; it was indeed a nightmare; he hoped that it wasn't real; however, everything that happened last night was all really real.
"... Last night, I... I was-"
"*Ukhum!* "
Mikail's words were interrupted by the sound of someone coughing, so Mikail finally realized that there was someone else in the house besides himself and his grandmother.
Mikail then turned his head and found a familiar face.
"... Grandpa, Lisa and... Huh?... Moona?! You're Moona, right?"
....
...
..
.