Darkness. Then… a cold breeze. And then pain.
Arashi Kuroda gasped as his lungs pulled in air for the first time… again. His eyes snapped open. Above him: a sky unfamiliar. Pale grey, choked with drifting ash. Below: cracked concrete, rusted metal... and bones. He sat up fast—his heart thudding.
"Where the hell am I?"
A flicker appeared before his eyes.
▓▓▓ [SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
▓▓▓ [HOST IDENTITY: Arashi Kuroda – Transfer Complete]
▓▓▓ [BODY SYNC: 94%]
▓▓▓ [New Timeline: Earth-3490]
▓▓▓ [WARNING: Apocalypse-Level Environment Detected]
▓▓▓ [Mutated Virus Presence: ACTIVE]
"Earth… 3490?"
He staggered to his feet, staring at his reflection in a broken glass shard nearby.
Different face. Taller frame..Tattoo-like runes glowing faintly on his arms. "They really threw me into a new body…"
Suddenly SCREEEEECH!!
A screech echoed in the distance. Then another. And then… footsteps. Not human. Not even close. He turned. Down the ruined street came a twisted creature half-rotting woman, half-mechanical spider, with blades for legs and no eyes, only sonar implants stitched into her skull.
"Z-Zombie?"
No. This wasn't just undead. It was evolved. And it was charging straight at him.
His instincts kicked in. He rolled sideways, grabbing a rusted pipe nearby. The moment he moved, his system glitched alive again:
🔹 [Skill Slot 1: Inactive]
🔹 [Combat Module: Manual Mode ON]
⚠️ [Weapon Unregistered – Host Vulnerable]
"No weapon. No skills. Just vibes. Great."
The creature leapt. Arashi ducked and jammed the pipe into its jaw sparks flew as the thing shrieked, slamming him against a wrecked car. His back cracked the windshield. "System, any freaking help now would be nice!"
And then—
⚡ [Emergency Protocol Engaged: Temporary Skill Granted]
➤ Skill Unlocked: [Gravepiercer – Lv. 1]
Type: Adaptive | Duration: 20 seconds
The pipe in his hands morphed metal melting into a glowing black spear with etchings of flames and bones spiraling across its shaft. "Now we're talking."
He lunged.The creature screamed.
SPLAATT!!!
The Gravepiercer tore through her throat energy bursting through her core as she collapsed in a violent tremor of sparks and blood. Silence returned. Ash fell again. And Arashi stood, panting, blade in hand.
He looked around the city. Desolate. Twisted. Familiar... but not. A hybrid of tech and ruin. Civilization's corpse wearing a digital mask. "This world's gone to hell."
He wiped the blood from his cheek. "Good thing… I brought my demons with me."
Arashi stood still for a moment, letting the weight of silence settle around him. The Gravepiercer dissolved into black sparks, fading into dust like it was never real. "Temporary skill… twenty seconds of power. That's it?"
The system blinked again.
▓▓ [Skill Expired]
▓▓ [Core Stability: 17%]
▓▓ [System Syncing: 94.7%]
▓▓ [WARNING: External Contaminants Detected Nearby]
His eyes narrowed. He wasn't alone. From behind a crushed armored truck, he heard the subtle shifting of gravel. The sound of breath erratic, scared… human."Come out."
Silence. He took a step forward and the moment his foot crunched the bones scattered across the road, a small figure darted out, holding a rusty revolver with trembling hands.
A girl. Maybe 14. Clothes torn, eyes wild, face smeared with blood and dirt. "D-Don't move!" she barked.
"I'll shoot you!"
Arashi didn't flinch. "Your safety's off."
She blinked, then quickly corrected it hand still shaking. "Who… who are you? You're not from any of the sectors."
Arashi's voice was low, calm. "No. I'm not." "Then how'd you kill a Screecher alone? Those things eat whole squads!"
He glanced back at the twitching corpse, already melting into the road as if the world itself didn't want to remember it. "I got lucky." The girl narrowed her eyes. "There's no such thing as luck anymore."
Before he could reply, the system beeped again.
▓▓ [Alert: Incoming Entity — Class: Unknown]
▓▓ [Energy Signature Detected: ⚠️ ANOMALY]
▓▓ [Recommendation: Evade Immediately]
"Another one already?"
The wind suddenly died. A strange static filled the air as if reality was… glitching. And then, it appeared. Not a zombie. Not even close.
It hovered three meters tall, featureless, wrapped in glitching layers of digital code and cracked reality. Like someone had tried to erase it, but it refused to disappear. "What… the hell is that?" the girl whispered.
Arashi stepped forward, his instincts screaming. The entity turned its faceless gaze toward him and in that moment, the world froze.
His system went haywire.
▓▓ [ERROR: Temporal Sync Failure]
▓▓ [Host Data Recognized by Entity]
▓▓ [Initiating… forced memory extraction attempt]
Arashi clutched his head flashes from his past, from the old world, the rift, the fall, his death it was trying to rip it all out. But Arashi gritted his teeth. "No one… takes my past… but me!"
Suddenly, a surge of black lightning erupted from his chest.
⚡ [Hidden Trait Activated: Soul Lock - Tier 0]
➤ Passive Effect: Memory Shield – Triggered
The glitch-entity recoiled, shrieking in silent rage the area trembled as reality corrected itself and the creature faded into static. The girl stared at him in shock. "What… what are you?"
He didn't answer. He looked at his palm.
Still trembling with residual lightning. "Something this world hasn't met yet."
The glitch-entity had vanished.
But its presence lingered like poison in the air. Arashi could still feel it in his veins cold static, whispering echoes, fragments of code trying to latch onto his memories.
▓▓ [System Update: Entity Rejected]
🔒 Memory Lock Engaged
🔹 Trait 'Soul Lock' now permanently active
He looked at his hand again still trembling, still charged. Behind him, the girl finally lowered her gun. "You're not normal, are you?"
He turned his eyes toward her, those deep eyes filled with too many wars. "I died once.
Now I'm here to make sure this world doesn't die with me."
She didn't reply for a second. Just looked around at the broken city."You're the first person I've seen fight… and win. Everyone else just runs. Or dies."
"Running doesn't fix anything," Arashi said.
"And I've done enough dying already."
A moment of silence passed between them..Then the girl spoke, almost reluctantly. "...My name's Kira. I'm from Sector 12 — or what's left of it.".
"Arashi," he replied, "And I'm not from any sector."
Kira gave a weak smile."No kidding." They stood together for a moment in the silence. The ashes fell like snow. The city moaned under its own ruin.
Then
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
Heavy footsteps. From the far end of the ruined highway, a convoy appeared half-track armored vehicles covered in blood-stained steel and makeshift sigils.
Soldiers. But not government. "Scavenger guild," Kira whispered. "They don't save people. They trade them."
Arashi's eyes narrowed..His system flickered again.
▓▓ [Threat Level: Moderate to High]
▓▓ [Host Weapon: Unarmed]
⚠️ Suggested Action: Conceal Power
He looked at Kira. "Stick close. Don't talk. Don't run." "Why?"
"Because monsters wear faces too."
The convoy halted. A tall man stepped out. Bald head, cybernetic arm, one red lens for an eye. "Well, well... what do we have here?" he sneered. "A stray brat and her shiny new pet."
Arashi stayed silent. The man approached, eye scanning him. "You're not tagged. Not registered. Not infected. That makes you one thing, boy…""Valuable."
He reached for Arashi's arm. Wrong move. In one smooth motion, Arashi twisted his wrist, grabbed the man's throat, and lifted him clean off the ground. "You talk too much."
He tossed him back like trash.
The soldiers raised weapons. Kira gasped. But before they could fire Arashi simply turned around.
System: Threat Avoidance Protocol Activated
➤ New Skill Triggered: [Ghost Pulse Lv. 1]
A pulse of energy rippled out silently. Every weapon jammed. Every soldier froze. "I'm not here to be bought," Arashi said quietly, walking past them. "I'm here to rewrite the end."
He didn't look back. Because behind him lay the old rules. And ahead of him... a war bigger than he could ever imagine.