The hospital room smelled of antiseptic and stale air. Machines hummed and beeped in a steady, monotonous rhythm, each sound a countdown to the inevitable. Fluorescent lights cast a cold, clinical glow over the room, making it feel more like a morgue than a place of healing.
Nathan Reyes lay on the hospital bed, his body a shell of what it once was. The man in the mirror was barely recognizable—sunken cheeks, hollow eyes, and skin stretched thin over bones. Stage 4 cancer had taken everything from him. His muscles had withered away, and even the simple act of breathing felt like a herculean task.
A nurse entered, offering a polite, practiced smile. "How are you feeling today, Mr. Reyes?"
"Same as yesterday," Nathan rasped, his voice brittle as dry leaves. "Like death warmed over."
The nurse adjusted the IV drip, not meeting his eyes. "If you need anything, just press the button."
"Sure," Nathan muttered as she walked out. "Maybe a new body while you're at it."
His gaze drifted to the ceiling, eyes unfocused. Memories flickered behind his eyelids—his college graduation, that summer he backpacked through Europe, the time he proposed to Mira under a meteor shower. Moments that once felt infinite now seemed to slip through his fingers like grains of sand.
Mira. The thought of her twisted the knife in his chest. She had been his everything—their laughter, their quiet mornings, the plans they made. They had dreams of traveling the world, of starting a family. But when the diagnosis came, Mira couldn't handle it. The woman who had vowed to stay by his side had left when his body started to fail. Nathan couldn't blame her. He was already a ghost of the man she fell in love with.
His best friend, Jamie, had stopped visiting too. It was as though people couldn't bear to see him wasting away. As though his sickness was a reminder of their own mortality. Everyone moved on. Everyone but him.
He clenched his fists weakly. It wasn't fair. Twenty-seven years old. He was supposed to have decades ahead of him. He was supposed to have a life, a family, a legacy.
But fate had other plans.
"If I could just..." he whispered to the ceiling. "If I could live forever, I would. Doesn't matter what form. Just... let me live. Let me do it right this time."
The machines hummed. The room was silent.
A single tear slipped down his cheek as his eyes grew heavy. And somewhere, in the darkness that swallowed him whole, a voice echoed—a mechanical, almost ethereal voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere.
"Wish registered. Initializing Reincarnation Protocol."
The last thing Nathan heard was the sound of his heart monitor flatlining.
Nathan awoke to darkness.
But it wasn't the darkness of a hospital room or the endless void he had expected after death. This was a tangible, suffocating blackness, pressing down on him like a heavy blanket. The air was cold, dry, and silent. No beeping machines, no shuffling nurses, just the eerie stillness of a void.
"Am I dead?" he thought, his voice echoing within his mind.
Then he tried to move and heard it—the unmistakable clatter of bones striking stone.
Nathan's heart should have pounded in his chest, but there was no heartbeat. No breath. No flesh.
"What... what the hell?"
His vision flickered, like a screen booting up, and information flooded his mind.
[Initialization Complete]
[Welcome, User: Nathan Reyes]
[Scanning... Establishing Parameters...]
[Error: Organic Form Not Detected]
[Revised Form: Skeletal Undead – Classification: Low-Tier]
[Activating System Interface...]
A translucent blue screen hovered before his eyes, words and numbers scrolling down faster than he could process. A chill ran through him—or it would have, if he had skin.
He slowly raised a hand, and a bony finger came into view. Then another. And another. Clattering, skeletal digits moved at his command.
"What... the... hell... happened to me?!"
The screen beeped, and a new notification popped up.
[Welcome to the Eternum System. You have been granted a second chance at life. Current Form: Skeletal Undead. Remaining Lifespan: Indefinite. Status: Level 1.]
Nathan stared at the screen, a mixture of horror and disbelief swirling in his mind. He was alive. Or... something close to it.
But as he took a single, staggering step forward, bones clattering with every movement, he knew one thing for sure.
This was not the kind of second chance he had wished for.
Nathan's vision stabilized, and the darkness peeled away like a shroud. He found himself lying flat on his back on a cold, stone slab. The air was damp, and the scent of mold and decaying wood filled his nonexistent nostrils. He sat up, bones clattering against the stone, and took in his surroundings.
He was in a crypt. The walls were lined with alcoves filled with skeletal remains, each more weathered and fragile than his own. Some had been laid to rest with armor still clinging to their bones, rusted swords grasped in bony fingers.
"Well... at least I fit in," Nathan muttered, his voice echoing as a dry rasp.
A screen flickered into view.
[Location: Underground Crypt – Level 1][Objective: Survive]
"Survive? That's comforting," Nathan muttered. He stood up, wobbling unsteadily. It was like learning to walk all over again, except now he was more stick than man.
Step. Clatter. Step. Clatter. Each movement was a cacophony of bone against bone.
"Okay, okay. Let's get our bearings," he said, staggering toward the stone archway leading out of the crypt.
Outside, a vast forest stretched as far as he could see. Massive, ancient trees loomed overhead, their twisted branches blotting out most of the light. Strange, bird-like creatures flitted between the branches, squawking and chirping in alien tones. A rabbit-like creature hopped by, except it had four eyes and a tail covered in scales.
"Yeah, definitely not Earth," Nathan said, his jaw clacking as he tried to grin. "Guess I should do some exploring."
He wandered through the underbrush, marveling at the bizarre flora and fauna. Every few minutes, the AI pinged in his mind with new discoveries.
[New Entry: Whisker Hare – Herbivore, Low Threat][New Entry: Slime Fern – Medicinal Properties Detected]
"Okay, not so bad. Maybe I can—"
A low, guttural growl echoed behind him. Nathan turned, his empty eye sockets widening.
It was a wolf. No. A dire wolf. Twice the size of any wolf he'd ever seen, with fur black as night and eyes that glowed a menacing red.
"Oh crap."
The wolf lunged. Nathan yelped, throwing his bony arms up to shield himself.
CRACK! The wolf's jaws closed around his arm, snapping it clean off. Nathan's arm clattered to the ground.
"My arm! That was my arm!"
The wolf's massive paw swiped, and Nathan's skull detached from his neck, rolling across the ground like a macabre bowling ball.
Everything went black.
[You have died. Respawn in 30 seconds...]
Nathan blinked. He was back in the crypt, staring at the ceiling.
"Okay, so that happened," he muttered. "But hey, I'm still here."
He staggered out again, finding the wolf in the same spot, gnawing on his own arm bone.
"Hey! That's mine!"
The wolf's ears perked up. It growled, leaped—
CRUNCH.
Nathan's ribcage shattered under the weight of the wolf's jaws.
[You have died. Respawn in 45 seconds...]
"Oh, come on!"
And so it went.
Death after death. Each time, Nathan tried a new tactic. Hide in a bush? The wolf sniffed him out. Climb a tree? The wolf knocked it down. Throw a rock? The wolf bit his head off.
By the tenth death, the respawn timer was at a grueling 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Nathan lay sprawled in the crypt, his skull clattering against the stone floor.
"Okay, okay. Think, Nate. Think," he said, fingers drumming against his ribcage like a nervous habit.
"If I can't fight it, maybe I can trick it."
He stood up, bones clacking, and headed out. The wolf was still there, pacing back and forth, growling and snarling.
"Hey, Fluffy!" Nathan shouted, waving his arm bone like a stick. "Fetch!"
The wolf snarled and charged. Nathan ran, sprinting toward a cliff he'd noticed on his last run.
The wolf lunged, jaws snapping inches from his skull. Nathan sprinted to the edge, then stopped abruptly.
"Oh no! I'm cornered! Whatever will I do?!" he wailed, dramatically flinging his hands up.
The wolf, too focused on its prey, didn't notice the drop until it was too late. It skidded on the loose dirt, howling as it fell over the edge, disappearing into the ravine below.
A notification pinged in his mind.
[Dire Wolf Defeated – Level Up!][You may select one of the following rewards:]
+15 Strength
Skill: Bone Throw – Hurl a detachable bone as a ranged attack.
Item: Lesser Healing Elixir
Nathan fell to his knees, head thrown back as he laughed, a haunting, echoing sound in the silent forest.
"I did it. I actually did it!"
He paused, looking down at his own skeletal hands.
"Now... where's my arm?"