**Volume 1: The True Mode Awakens**
**Chapter 1: The Last Ranked Match**
The timer ticked down—three seconds, two, one.
"Match start!" flashed across the screen in a burst of pixelated light.
Kaede Tachibana's fingers flew over his mechanical keyboard, the keys clicking in a rhythm only he could hear. His eyes didn't blink. His breath was steady. On his monitor, a futuristic battlefield unfolded—chrome towers, neon barricades, and a storm of digital debris swirling through the air.
"Left flank," he murmured.
His teammates followed instinctively. He didn't need to shout commands. They trusted him—their ace, their shot-caller, their secret weapon.
Kaede's avatar, a sleek cyber-assassin named *VoidLancer*, sprinted through the shadows, blades gleaming. The enemy team had clustered around the capture point. Amateurs.
"Now."
He blinked once—and *VoidLancer* blinked forward, slicing through two enemies before they even turned. The rest fell like dominos.
"Ace!" the announcer's voice roared.
Victory. Another ranked match, another flawless performance.
Kaede leaned back in his chair. The glow of the monitor lit his tired face. Sweat dotted his brow, even though the room was cold.
Then the screen flickered.
Just for a second.
The HUD glitched—his stats warped, his avatar twisted, and then everything turned black.
A single message appeared:
> Congratulations, Player Kaede. You've unlocked the True Mode.
He frowned. There hadn't been a patch update. Was this a bug?
Then, the light in his room blinked out.
His heart skipped.
The screen pulsed again.
> Do you accept?
>
> [Y/N]
He reached for the power button—this was weird, way too weird—but his hand wouldn't move.
His finger hovered over the keyboard.
Click.
He pressed Y.
The world disappeared.
----
**Chapter 2: Welcome to True Mode**
Kaede woke up in silence.
Not the silence of a powered-down PC or a nighttime city—but real silence. There was no chair under him. No keyboard. No desk.
Just... earth?
He blinked. Above him, clouds swirled across a copper-colored sky. The air smelled like ozone and metal.
He sat up.
He was still *VoidLancer*. The avatar. The armor. The blades. All of it.
But this wasn't a game.
He felt the weight of his weapons. The wind against his face. The thrum of his heartbeat in his ears. Painfully real.
He stood, cautious. A HUD appeared—familiar, but different. More vivid. Floating in his field of vision, almost like a contact lens overlay.
> Zone: Ashlands Beta
> Objective: Survive
Footsteps echoed behind him.
He turned—blades drawn.
A girl stood there. Short, sharp hair. Sleek armor. Her name tag flickered above her: **Riko [Lv. 19]**
"You're new," she said.
Kaede narrowed his eyes. "Where are we?"
"True Mode," she replied. "Welcome to the real game."
---
Kaede kept his stance low, his virtual blades humming with tension.
"What is real game," he said, narrowing his eyes.
Riko didn't answer right away. Instead, she slowly holstered her twin pistols and stepped forward, boots crunching over shattered pixels embedded in the dirt. The world around them shimmered like an unfinished painting—fragmented terrain, floating geometry, flickering sky textures.
"Your body is here," she said. "Your instincts, too. That's what separates True Mode from everything you've ever played. No assists. No checkpoints. No rage-quits. If you mess up here…"
She snapped her fingers.
"…you bleed."
As if to prove her point, a massive explosion cracked the horizon. Something in the distance roared—deep, metallic, and furious. Kaede turned his head sharply. His HUD spiked with warnings.
[Environmental Threat Detected: CODE BEAST — "Nullhound"]
Estimated Level: 22
Proximity: 1.6 km
Advice: RUN.
Kaede's voice was calm, but laced with adrenaline. "How did I get here?"
"Same as everyone," Riko replied, crossing her arms. "You pushed too far. Broke the system. Played so well the game decided to test you for real."
Kaede scowled. "That's not an explanation. That's a story."
She raised an eyebrow. "Still here, aren't you?"
He didn't respond. He scanned the horizon instead. Fragments of ruined data structures jutted from the ground like tombstones. In the sky, an ominous shape floated—half satellite, half server tower—its core glowing with unstable code.
"So what now?" he asked. "I survive this place until I find a logout button?"
Riko tilted her head. "There is no logout. Only leveling up."
Before he could argue, his HUD flashed.
[Incoming Hostiles]
Entity: GLITCHWOLVES x6
Level: 11–13
Formation: Pack
Status: Aggressive
Shapes burst from the nearby trees—feral, corrupted beasts made of shredded code and steel. Their eyes burned crimson. Their bodies flickered like broken sprites.
Kaede didn't wait for instruction.
He moved.
A flawless dodge-roll. Blades drawn mid-motion. His instincts surged. The first wolf lunged. Kaede's blade met it in mid-air, carving through its skull in a single, elegant slash.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[Enemy Downed – EXP +150]
The remaining wolves howled.
Riko drew her pistols and joined him, back-to-back. "Not bad, rookie."
Kaede smirked. "I'm not a rookie."
"Good. Then keep up."
The battle ignited. Sparks flew. Glitches screamed. And Kaede—for the first time since waking up in this strange new world—felt alive.