The first thing he felt was cold.
Not the kind that stung the skin, but the kind that burrowed deep, gnawing at his very core.
Then came the pain.
A burning heat spread through his veins, searing like molten metal. His body convulsed, breath catching in his throat as an unseen force invaded him.
[Awakening Detected.]
The voice wasn't human. It wasn't spoken—it was simply there. A weight pressing against his skull, forcing itself into his mind.
He gasped, his fingers clawing at the cracked stone beneath him. Dust filled his lungs as he struggled to move.
Where was he?
The room was massive—ruined pillars, shattered murals, a sky full of stars visible through a broken ceiling. Moonlight bathed the destruction in silver, casting eerie shadows across the walls.
[Welcome to the System.]
[Initializing Status…]
His vision pulsed, shifting between clarity and darkness. His muscles tensed as information flooded his mind—numbers, abilities, words he had never learned yet suddenly understood.
This was an Awakening.
But something was wrong.
It wasn't supposed to feel like this.
He had grown up hearing stories of the Awakening—tales of ordinary people touching the System and becoming more. Their status screens would appear, their skills would manifest, and the world would open before them.
This wasn't opening. This was consuming.
The System pushed deeper.
A notification flashed in his mind, the text searing itself into his vision.
[Class: ERROR]
His breath hitched. Error?
The System was absolute. It had never failed, never malfunctioned. To have an error during an Awakening was impossible.
And yet, the words remained.
The world around him twisted, shadows curling at the edges of his vision. The ground felt unsteady, as if the very fabric of reality was being rewritten beneath him.
Then—
A voice.
It didn't belong to the System.
It was something else. Something older.
"You were not meant to survive this."
The words slithered into his mind, laced with something inhuman.
His heartbeat thundered in his chest. Who was speaking?
Then, in the distance, something moved.
A shape, shifting in the ruins. Watching.
The System should have guided him. It should have granted him strength, knowledge, purpose.
Instead, it had abandoned him.
And something else had taken its place.
His Awakening wasn't over.
It had only just begun.