Where am I...? What... What is this?
My body is cold. A deep ice spreads through every cell, as if the very heat of life had been ripped from me without warning. There is an emptiness in my chest, a terrifying absence, as if something essential had been forcefully removed. I try to move my fingers, a simple instinctive reaction, but nothing happens. No sensation. No reflex. Just the crushing weight of the darkness around me, wrapping me like an invisible shroud.
The silence is absolute. There is no rustling of the wind, no sound of a heartbeat. There is no pain... and that is what frightens me the most. A body without pain is not a living body.
Then, like a bolt of lightning slicing through the darkness, memories return.
Blurred images flash before my eyes, shaky and unstable, like an old film projected on a dirty screen. I see narrow streets illuminated by the glow of neon signs, their vibrant colors reflecting in the puddles of rain scattered across the cracked asphalt. The smell of tobacco mingles with gasoline and wet concrete. Firm fingers hold a cigarette between the lips, releasing a spiral of smoke that vanishes into the night.
There are voices. Whispers. Betrayal hidden in every dragged syllable.
I see alleys submerged in shadows, hear careful footsteps echoing between the stained brick walls. The tension in the air is palpable, like a blade waiting for the right moment to strike. Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.
And then, the cold gleam of steel cuts through the scene.
A blade glistens under the pale light of the moon. Fast. Precise. Relentless.
The dull thud of my body hitting the ground echoes in my mind like distant thunder. The warmth of blood flowing, spreading across the concrete, painting the night with dark red hues. My blood.
My breath falters. My muscles tremble. My eyes rise, searching for the faces of those who had been by my side for years. Trenchmates. Brothers in oath.
But all I find are empty expressions. Eyes that once carried respect now reflect only indifference.
What... what does this mean?
The answer comes like a brutal slap: They betrayed me.
The shock quickly dissolves into something much worse. Something primal. A burning fury erupts inside me like a waking volcano.
These bastards! Did they really do this to me?!
I gave everything for this family. My loyalty was unquestionable. How many nights did I spend covered in blood that wasn't mine? How many times did I swallow my conscience and do what was necessary? I was a ghost. A name feared in the whispers of the night. A legend among assassins.
And in the end, what was my reward?
A clean cut to the throat and a dirty death in a dark alley. Like a dog without an owner. Like a piece of meat tossed on the ground.
Damn Yakuza...
They knew. They knew how much I sacrificed. The lives I carried in my hands, the secrets I protected with my own life. And the moment I ceased to be useful... they discarded me. Like a dull blade. Like a broken tool.
They just kill me and throw me away like they do with traitors?!
But I never betrayed them. Never.
In the Yakuza game, there are no friends. Only pieces. Pawns on a board where blood and power are the only currencies.
And now, I am just a lifeless body. A dead weight rotting in the dark.
Ah.
So, this is it. Now I am dead.
The anger fades, flowing slowly like the tide receding after a violent storm. In its place, a strange relief settles in my chest. Cold. Almost serene.
The game is over.
No more orders whispered by voices in the darkness. No more urgent missions that tear pieces of the soul away. No more shadows to chase or be chased by.
Death, in the end, didn't come with pain. It didn't come with the hell that so many feared. Just silence. A heavy silence, dense as fog, enveloping everything around me. An endless, gloomy valley stretches before me, an empty space where even time seems to hesitate to move forward.
A tired smile escapes my lips.
Well... My name is Kei Uzuki. I'm 20 years old.
I'm a former assassin of the Yakuza... and now I wander through the valley of death.
And now?
The question echoes in my mind like a hollow thud. There is no answer. Just the emptiness stretching infinitely. Maybe that's it. Maybe I just have to wander here for eternity.
My gaze scans the inhospitable landscape around me. There is no horizon, no sky, no tangible ground. Just this vast, dark, and foggy expanse, with no reference point, no destination.
Then, something changes.
My thoughts cease as I notice a distortion ahead. An anomaly in the very fabric of this place.
A strange cloud floats amid the darkness, wavering and flickering like a broken image on a cracked screen. It's a glitch—there is no other way to describe it. Its edges vibrate with unstable pixels, colors flickering between black, white, and unreal shades of blue and purple. It shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here.
It's my size. A silent, pulsating presence.
And before I can react, we touch.
An absurd pain explodes inside my skull. Like my head is being torn in half by invisible claws.
My whole body burns. Every muscle, every cell screams in agony, as if flames were consuming my flesh from the inside. My knees give way, and I fall face-first into the nothingness surrounding me. I tremble. I try to breathe—if I still need to.
Damn it! What is this?!
I grab my own body, trying to contain the unbearable sensation, but it's useless. The burning continues, intense, inescapable. The fire devours my essence, my being, until—
Silence.
Everything disappears.
I kneel, gasping, my mind spinning chaotically. The pain is gone, but something inside me has changed. Something deep.
Then, before my eyes, a black screen appears, floating in the void.
Words, numbers, and symbols begin to appear, written in a soft purple color that glows with a spectral shine.
==========================
Complete calibration!
The Gacha system has been integrated!
==========================
What...?
My mouth opens, but no words come out.
Blinking a few times seems to be the only thing my brain can command. My heart—or whatever is in my chest now—accelerates. Something tells me that nothing will be the same as before.
I try to process. I try to understand. I even try to deny.
But I can't.
What the hell was that?
==========================
You have developed an unknown ability that granted you a second chance. Now, you will be able to resume your life in another world.
The Gacha will decide your new life.
==========================
Silence.
I felt the weight of those words crushing me like a concrete block. A new world? A new life? This meant that I was really dead. And now, a completely arbitrary system was going to decide my fate?
Shit… Gacha was the last thing I needed right now.
If there was one thing I learned throughout my life, it was that Gacha was the embodiment of chaos, the source of all frustrations and disillusionments. The ruin of any thinking being. A bottomless abyss where dreams, hopes, and even sanity were consumed by a single desire: to get something valuable.
And what did you usually get?
A handful of useless rewards.
It all depended on luck.
And if there was one thing I never had… it was luck.
==========================
You have acquired 3 Random Tickets.
==========================
Ah… I can already imagine where this is going. But just in case...
==========================
Explanation of Tickets:
Tickets allow you to roll the gacha, and their category determines the type of reward received. The Random category has no rarity restrictions, and can grant anything – from items, skills, powers, or summons.
World transfer will occur after all Tickets are used.
==========================
My gaze stayed fixed on the screen for a long moment. My body didn't feel tired, but still, a strange sensation of weight spread across my mind, as if reality was trying to pull me down, drowning me in the weirdness of it all.
My mind worked quickly, formulating two hypotheses for the surreal situation I found myself in.
First possibility: somehow, against all logic and reason, I had acquired a gacha system that would revive me in another world, granting me certain benefits beforehand. Absurd.
Second possibility: I was in a hospital, completely drugged, maybe in a coma, and my brain was trying to entertain me with this madness before I finally blacked out.
The second option seemed far more plausible.
Because, let's be honest, this was a literal delirium scenario. Should I just accept that a random cosmic system decided to turn me into the protagonist of an isekai story?
Please.
But then... what if it was true?
What if, by some twist of fate, I was really about to be thrown into an unknown world?
==========================
Explanation of the World:
You will be sent to a random world – which could be from a game, anime, comic, or manga.
==========================
A random world?
Holy shit. The worst part of this is the categories involved. Games. My mind turned to Warhammer 40k, then to anime, Berserk and Attack on Titan flashed through my mind.
Please, tell me this is impossible.
==========================
No.
==========================
Alright... If this happens, I'm screwed. At this point, it doesn't matter. This agreement wasn't a field of roses under the bright sun, so if I didn't get something good in the Gacha, I'm screwed. So I need a lot of luck, a lot.
But what choice do I have, other than rolling these dice? My life contract depended on it, this unpredictable life, a roll of dice that would decide the fate. This was a mess.
Well, since you want it this way.
I will play your game.
Let the dice roll!
_______________________________________________
AUTHOR NOTE:
I'm trying something new. I've never tried anything like this to be honest, so it probably won't turn out very well. That's why I'm going to take some stories from Webnovel for inspiration. To be clear, it's not generic. The system used by the protagonist is similar to the one developed by Bronz_Deck and his My Hero Academia book, which also uses the Gacha System. In fact, he was the main inspiration for this story. I thank him.
I used his system as a basis for mine. Unfortunately, mine is still under development, but the idea is complete. I'm just putting it in a document so I don't forget. When I put the whole idea in the document, I'll post it in Volume 0.
Oh, there's still one more chapter of this story today, since Chapter 1 is shorter than I imagined.