I stood before the basin, staring at my reflection in the mirror. My pale skin, brown eyes, and messy black hair—full of unruly spikes—carried a haunted look.
But the most striking feature? The dark bags under my eyes. A testament to my prolonged lack of sleep. I looked like a walking corpse.
Reaching out, I opened the mirror cabinet above the sink and grabbed a small bottle of pills. With a sigh, I shut the cabinet and turned on the tap, filling a glass with water.
I unscrewed the bottle and poured out five times the prescribed dosage of sleeping pills.
The label clearly stated: "Use only as directed by a physician."
Screw it.
I wasn't trying to kill myself—I just wanted to take a nap.
Sleeping pills had worked before. But over time, their effect faded, forcing me to double the dosage.
Eventually, even that wasn't enough.
It had been nearly two months since I last had a full night's sleep. Relentless insomnia had turned my nights into a living hell.
Exhaustion forced my body into brief, restless dozes—never more than a few minutes at a time. Never enough.
My head buzzed constantly, sharp pain frequently stabbing through my skull as if steel needles were piercing my brain.
This has to work. With this amount, I should finally be able to sleep.
Without hesitation, I swallowed the pills and washed them down with water. Then, I stumbled back to my bedroom, collapsed onto the bed, and shut my eyes.
At first, drowsiness set in. But then—a sudden, searing pain erupted in my chest. My throat burned. I couldn't breathe. Foam bubbled from my mouth as my body convulsed violently.
But strangely… there was no fear. No panic. Instead, a satisfied smile tugged at my lips. Aleast I had finally achieved my goal.
I wasn't even sure if I'd wake up after this.
---
I did.
My eyes shot open.
Pain racked my entire body, as if I had been beaten black and blue. I found myself lying on the floor, staring up at the cracked ceiling.
"Wait… what the hell? How did I fall off the bed?"
Slowly, I pushed myself up. My balance was off. My vision swayed, and I nearly collapsed again before steadying myself. My body felt weak—my stomach empty, my throat painfully dry.
Then, my breath hitched.
The entire bedroom was in ruins.
It looked like an earthquake had struck.
The floor was cracked. Furniture lay shattered. Gaping holes littered the ceiling. My bed was completely crushed beneath a massive object that had fallen from the second floor.
My heart pounded.
"Shit… I could've died in my sleep."
Despite the destruction around me, I was… unscathed. Not just from the debris—but from the overdose as well.
For the first time in my life, I felt lucky.
Then—
"Kaaaahhh!"
A chilling, inhuman roar echoed from outside.
A shiver ran down my spine. Instinctively, I crept forward, following the sound. Moving past the kitchen, I reached the living room and approached the window. Carefully, I parted the curtains.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
Two grotesque creatures stood in the garden.
They were small—only about three feet tall—but their gray skin was covered in green spots. Their glowing red eyes gleamed with hunger. Jagged yellow teeth protruded from their mouths, smeared with blood.
Small horns jutted from their heads. Sharp claws extended from their fingers.
And they were devouring a corpse.
The body belonged to a middle-aged man. His face was frozen in an expression of sheer terror. His eyes had nearly popped out of their sockets before death.
My stomach churned.
I recognized him.
The building owner.
The creatures snarled at each other, fighting over scraps of flesh.
I swallowed hard, yanked the curtains shut, and ducked down, my mind racing.
Then—
Ding!
A soft chime rang in my ears. Suddenly, a transparent purple screen materialized in front of me.
---
[Welcome to the New Era.]
[You have been given 100 Coins.]
[Your Unique Skill has been awakened.]
[To survive and upgrade your skill, collect more coins.]
[Methods: Kill monsters.]
---
Ding!
More notifications popped up before I could even process the first one.
---
[You have met the hidden condition for your skill: Super Upgradation.]
[Your skill has upgraded from F-Grade to S-Grade.]
[You have unlocked the S-Grade Skill: Sleep.]
[As a first-time awakened player, your Status Window will automatically appear. You may summon it manually later.]
---
[Status Window]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: 〘Zane Somnus〙
Level: ⟨ 0 ⟩ ⟦ 0 / 1000 EXP ⟧
Title: ???
Race: 〘Human〙
Class: ???
Coins: 100
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
───[ Stats ]───
❖ Strength: ⟨ 10 ⟩
❖ Agility: ⟨ 10 ⟩
❖ Stamina: ⟨ 9 ⟩
❖ Perception: ⟨ 11 ⟩
❖ Health: ⟨ 10 ⟩
❖ Mana: ⟨ 100 ⟩
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
───[ Skills ]───
☾ [ Sleep ] (S-Grade) ⟦ Upgrade ⟧
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
───[ Shop ]───
---
I was stunned.
I stared at the floating screen, my mind struggling to comprehend what was happening.
"Am I hallucinating? Did I go insane after overdosing?"
I had read web novels and light novels before—fantasies of systems and awakenings—but this…
This was real.
A short, breathy laugh escaped my lips before I immediately covered my mouth with both hands.
I had made a mistake.
I hurried to my bedroom, picking up my phone from where it had fallen near a collapsed wardrobe.
The screen was cracked, but the device still worked. I checked the date.
04/11/2030.
My heart nearly stopped.
"Wait… I was asleep for three days?!"
Before I could process anything—
THUD!
A loud bang echoed through the apartment.
I froze.
THUD! THUD!
Something was slamming against the door.
A shrill, guttural screech followed.
My blood ran cold. The monsters had heard me. The banging intensified.The wooden door wouldn't hold for long.
"Shit."
I cursed under my breath, realizing my mistake. My brief laughter had alerted the monsters outside, and now they were banging on my door, eager for fresh meat.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to stay calm. My hands trembled slightly, but I willed them to steady.
"Think, Zane. Think."
I summoned the status window again, my eyes scanning over the list of skills.