Rain whispered against the glass, slow and steady like it was trying to sing the world to sleep. Gray clouds hung low over the Saint Estelle Medical Center, their bellies swollen with grief. The sun had forgotten this place weeks ago.
Room 903 buzzed quietly.
Fluorescent lights flickered above a hospital bed where a young man lay, tangled in thin sheets and silence. Liam Long. Age: twenty. Diagnosis: unknown. Prognosis: terminal.
His thumb trembled as it dragged across the cracked screen of his phone.
Not from the cold.
Not from fear.
From exhaustion.
His body had begun breaking down months ago, cell by cell. Doctors called it a "genetic anomaly" with enough syllables to sound intelligent but not enough answers to offer hope. His muscles had weakened. His appetite vanished. Blood tests blurred into numbers that meant nothing. He couldn't even grip a pencil anymore.
But somehow, he could still scroll.
So that's what he did.
Read another chapter. One more. Maybe two, if the pain meds numbed his ribs long enough to let him breathe like a person.
[System Overgod Slaughterer]
Chapter 7: The MC had just wiped out a sect leader with a single look.
Ten cheat abilities. Triple affinity bloodline. A divine beauty on each arm.
Liam coughed.
A dry one—sharp enough to rattle his lungs but not strong enough to bother the machines.
"Ten cheats by chapter seven," he rasped. "I can't even convince the nurse to bring me a second pudding cup."
His voice barely escaped his lips.
Still, it was better than silence. Silence reminded him that he hadn't had a visitor in a week. That his parents didn't know how to talk to him anymore without crying. That his best friend had stopped replying after the third update ended with "might not make it to summer."
And God—he didn't blame any of them.
He just hated that being forgotten hurt worse than dying.
Liam's gaze drifted toward the window. The raindrops looked tired. Like, even the sky had been crying too long.
"I'm not ready," he whispered. "There's stuff I haven't done. I wanted to graduate. Travel. Fall in love. Hell, just once… not die a virgin."
He blinked hard.
The room didn't blink back.
A soft alarm beeped in the hallway. Not his. Someone else. A stranger is still fighting.
Liam exhaled slowly. The pain dulled, melting into something loose and cold beneath his skin.
He reached for the next chapter. The phone slipped slightly in his grip. His fingers twitched, and he tried to catch it.
Missed.
It landed facedown on the blanket.
"Guess that's where the MC levels up again without trying," he murmured.
His heartbeat flickered—just once.
The machines kept humming. But his chest stopped moving.
No gasp.
No call button.
Just stillness.
Darkspace
There was no color.
No gravity.
Nobody.
Just… Liam.
He floated—or maybe hovered. Maybe curled. Or maybe he was nothing at all.
There was no shape to grief here. No ceiling to press against. No machines to tell him he was failing.
Only emptiness. And awareness.
He tried to speak. Couldn't.
Tried to feel his face. Couldn't.
But he could think.
So this is death.
Honestly thought there'd be more fire. Or trumpets. Or something.
He waited.
Nothing waited back.
He thought about the unread chapters.
About the girl he never asked out.
About the way his parents' hands shook when they signed the consent forms.
Bitterness tasted sharp even here.
All those novels promised I'd get reborn. Get a system. Come back stronger. Not… this.
His thoughts curled inward.
Maybe this was the end.
Maybe not.
But then—
Something blinked.
Not light. Not warmth.
Presence.
A cosmic pressure folded inward, stretching across the void like it had been looking for someone who forgot to exist correctly.
[Chaos Pulse: Soul-Scan Complete]
Scanning complete: 127.8 trillion soul-threads analyzed
Searching for Host: Volatile, memory-anchored, emotionally defiant
Match found…
[Subject]: Liam Long
[Origin]: Earth-Realm 03A-LowSpiritualDensity
[Death]: Internal collapse due to dormant chaotic resonance
Constructing Interface...
Reference template: Host subconscious (Narrative Interfaces > Progression > Web Novel schema)
◆ Talent Acquired: [Hidden System]
◆ Grade: ???
◆ Soul-Binding: Complete
◆ Interface Visibility: Suppressed
This system shall not bind to any other soul. Format is uniquely shaped by the host's worldview and regrets.
A weight settled into him.
Or maybe around him.
Like a story being rewritten, but starting from the last page.
For the first time since dying, he felt a pull.
A thread. Gentle. Patient. Unstoppable.
You're not done.
He didn't hear the words.
He understood them.
Deeply. Instinctively.
He wasn't being erased.
He was being prepared.
And somewhere far away—across reality, breath, and blood—
A baby opened his eyes in a foreign world.
And smiled, faintly, like he remembered rain on glass.
End of Chapter 1