A faint wind rustled through the broken trees.
ASH jolted awake, gasping. His head throbbed like a dropped boulder, lungs burning as if he'd been drowning. For a moment, he just lay there, staring at the sky—gray, lifeless, and full of flickering cracks like a broken monitor.
ASH (panting): …I'm… still alive?
He sat up slowly, brushing dirt off his jacket. The parachute string dangled uselessly beside him, half-burnt from the fall.
ASH (grinning weakly): Heh… Guess dying isn't in my job description yet.
Then — click.
A faint chime echoed inside his head.
[System Reboot Complete.]
Welcome back, User: James Ash.
The familiar blue interface flickered into view — his System Menu floating midair.
Tabs blinked across the screen:
User Stats
Store
Achievements
Inventory
Skill Cards
Ash rubbed his eyes, scrolling through each one lazily.
ASH (mumbling): Let's see… stats, trash. Skills, trash. Coins… oh hey, I've still got a few silvers left. Guess dying's not all bad.
He swiped over to the Skill Cards tab.
Only one glowed faintly in the darkness — a cracked, black-edged card.
[Skill Card: Grave Digger]
Rarity: Uncommon
Effect: Locate precious items on corpses.
Bonus: Revive spirits of the dead by touch.
Great for battlefield looting.
Can evolve upon reaching specific conditions.
Ash squinted at it, unimpressed.
ASH: …So basically, I'm a glorified grave robber. Awesome.
He sighed and dropped the card back into his inventory. His stomach growled loudly in protest.
ASH: Right. Guess immortality doesn't come with snacks, huh?
He looks up.
Hey, Mainey — don't we, uh, get food here?
The voice of MAINEY, calm and mechanical as always, chimed through his head.
MAINEY: Would you like to access your allocated food supply?
ASH (eagerly): Yes! Finally!
A small brown sack materialized with a pop beside him.
He dove into it — and froze.
Inside were three raw potatoes and a chunk of moldy bread so green it glowed.
ASH (staring in disbelief): …You're kidding me.
MAINEY: Your weekly rations are determined by your current level.
You are Level 1.
Ash dropped the bread and sighed again.
ASH: So, the weaker I am, the hungrier I stay.
Nice.
He pokes the bread with a stick.
This thing's probably sentient by now.
He leaned back against a tree trunk, tired, hungry, but still breathing — the air thick with the hum of distant monsters and static skies.
ASH (quietly): …Grave Digger, huh?
Maybe that's exactly what I'll have to become to survive this place.
Wind passes through the trees. The screen flickers.
[Quest Unlocked: "Find your first Grave."]
Ash's eyes narrow.
ASH (grim smile): Guess dinner's not the only thing I'll be digging up tonight.
The trees whispered.
Every branch swayed like something alive, and the wind carried the stench of metal and blood.
ASH trudged through the shadows, rubbing the back of his neck.
He'd been walking for hours, stomach half-empty, map unreadable.
ASH (grumbling): Level 2 danger zone, huh? Sounds fun already… Marajong Forest—what kind of name is that anyway?
He pushed through a curtain of thick vines—
—and froze.
Before him stretched a clearing filled with corpses.
Bodies—some fresh, some long turned to bone—littered the ground.
Weapons cracked. Armor split. Dried blood painted the rocks black.
ASH (quietly): …What the hell went on here?
A familiar ping flickered across his vision.
[ALERT: Treasure Detected.]
Three (3) Gold Coins located — corpse, five feet ahead.]
Ash blinked, then grinned.
ASH: Ooooh… interesting. Guess you do work, Grave Digger.
He crouched beside the body, hand glowing faintly as the coins materialized into his inventory.
One by one, he started scavenging.
A wooden shield, a silver Lv-1 sword, leather armor, even a handful of throwing knives.
Each item was a tiny victory.
Ash spun the sword in his hand like a kid on Christmas morning.
ASH (laughing): Look at me—basically a knight now. If knights smelled like mud and trauma.
But then—
another ping.
[ALERT: High-value items detected — deeper within the cave system ahead.]
Warning: Elevated danger levels.]
Ash stared toward the dark opening at the base of a cliff.
The cave looked like something out of a nightmare—blood trails, cracked helmets, and bones scattered near the entrance.
He hesitated.
ASH: This… is not the best idea.
(beat)
But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
He stepped inside.
INT. MARAJONG CAVE – NIGHT
The deeper he went, the stronger the stench became—
a rotting mix of flesh and wet iron.
Drops of blood echoed as they fell from stalactites above.
Every few steps, his Grave Digger skill pulsed with new alerts:
[Item Acquired: Silver Armor (Lv 2)]
[Item Acquired: Silver Sword (Lv 2)]
[Item Acquired: 500 Gold Coins]
[Item Acquired: Ancient Legendary Chip (???) ]
Ash's eyes gleamed in the dim light.
ASH: Jackpot! Who even dies with this much loot? Not that I'm complaining…
He stuffed the chip into his inventory, still half-laughing, half-nervous.
[Skill Progress: 19 / 20 Items collected to evolve 'Grave Digger.']
ASH (grinning): One more… just one more, and this card levels up.
He tightened his grip on his sword, stepping deeper into the darkness,
heart pounding with equal parts fear and greed.
ASH (whispering): Like candy on a string… just one more bite…
The flickering light of Ash's torch casts long, twisted shadows against the cave walls.
He steps over broken weapons, tattered armor — then trips.
ASH (yelling): Agh—!
He tumbles, landing hard on a pile of cold corpses.
ASH (grimacing): Eeeew—!
(snickers awkwardly) Sorry, guys… didn't mean to drop in like that.
Silence.
Then — a faint whisper.
Ash freezes.
A dim blue glow flickers above the corpses. The air chills.
A figure rises — translucent, old, dressed in striped pajamas, beard down to his chest.
ASH (screaming): AAAAAHH! A GHOST!!!
GHOST (screaming back): AAAAAHH! A HUMAN!!!
Both keep screaming until they run out of breath.
Ash finally stops, panting.
ASH: …Why the hell are you screaming?!
GHOST: Because you screamed! I thought it was some sort of game we were playing!
ASH: What the—?! How are you even here? Who are you?!
The ghost scratches his head, floating cross-legged.
GHOST: Hmm… not sure. One minute I was in the void, then I heard you say "sorry, guys," whatever that means, and poof—here I am! Don't really remember who I was before dying though…
Ash blinks, realization dawning.
ASH: Wait. Mainey said something about the Grave Digger card being able to summon ghosts by touching and speaking to their corpses…
He sighs, brushing dirt off his pants.
ASH: Great. Necromancy wasn't exactly on my to-do list.
Anyway—fun talk, spooky grandpa, but I'm leaving before whatever did this comes back.
He starts walking toward the exit.
The ghost drifts after him.
GHOST: Don't you want to defeat the cave boss?
ASH: Nope.
These guys look like professional monster hunters, and they all died.
What do you think I'm gonna do—throw sarcasm at it?
Ash reaches the mouth of the cave—
—or what should be the mouth of the cave.
It's gone.
Sealed by a pulsating wall of dark energy.
ASH (panicking): Huh?! I—I could've sworn this was the exit!
GHOST (grinning darkly): You can't leave until you defeat the boss of the cave.
ASH: …You've got to be kidding me.
GHOST: Nope. That's how Marajong dungeons work!
Oh, and by the way—if you walk sixteen feet away from my corpse, I disappear.
ASH: Why are you even telling me this?!
GHOST: Because I can tell you how to beat the boss… if you take me with you when you leave!
(tears up) I don't wanna die again!
ASH (under his breath): You're already dead…
ASH (aloud): Fine. Deal. How do I beat it?
The ghost smiles… wickedly.
GHOST: You can't.
ASH: WHAT?!
GHOST (matter-of-factly): Not with those stats, kiddo.
Gregory's Bear won't be defeated by someone of your caliber.
Its skin's impenetrable — only one weak spot.
ASH (gulping): …Let me guess. The mouth?
GHOST (nodding): The mouth.
The ground starts to tremble.
A deep, thunderous growl rolls through the cavern.
ASH (wide-eyed): …Please tell me that's your stomach.
GHOST: Nope.
(ominously)
It's about time it woke up.
The cave shakes violently. Dust and rocks rain down from above.
Two glowing red eyes pierce through the darkness — each the size of Ash's head.
From the shadows, a colossal beast lumbers forward — fur matted with blood, claws longer than swords.
ASH (horrified whisper): That's… that's not a bear. That's a walking apocalypse.
The monster roars — the sound splitting the cave like thunder.
ASH (yelling): I'M GONNA DIE!!!
The ground trembled as if the earth itself feared what was coming.
Dust cascaded from the ceiling of the Marajong cave, and Ash — trembling, sword in hand — pointed it toward the shadows. His knees wobbled like half-boiled noodles. The air grew thick, foul with the stench of iron and decay.
Then — it emerged.
The creature stepped into the faint light, its hulking form scraping against the jagged roof. Fur black as midnight, fangs glinting red from the blood of fallen adventurers — the Gregory's Bear towered like a nightmare made flesh. Its growl wasn't sound, it was pressure, rumbling through the walls, through Ash's chest, through the bones of every corpse scattered around.
Ash tightened his grip. You've got this, he lied to himself.
The beast lunged.
He rolled aside, narrowly escaping its claws — a wall of muscle and rage sweeping past him. Sparks flew as his sword clashed against unyielding hide, blow after desperate blow bouncing off as if he were striking a mountain.
Ghost (panicked): Kid, watch out—!
The warning came too late.
The bear's claw smashed into Ash's chest — armor shattered like glass, the shockwave flinging him across the cave like a ragdoll. He hit the wall with a sickening crack, a wet gasp torn from his lungs.
He slid down, half-conscious, vision blurred.
He was going to die.
He'd felt this before — this helplessness.
That same crushing weight he'd carried as a boy — cornered in alleys, fists bruising his ribs while he begged them to stop. Back then, no one helped him. Back then, he'd sworn if he ever got a second chance at life, he wouldn't die on his knees again.
And now —
he remembered.
Not again. Not this time.
With a trembling hand, Ash wiped the blood from his lips and forced himself upright. His breath came ragged but steady. His sword arm shook — not from fear now, but fury.
A faint chime broke through the chaos:
"Treasure nearby."
Ash blinked. Behind the bear — a glint of gold.
A ring, half-buried on a corpse.
He glanced at his HUD. "19 out of 20 loots for skill evolution."
His eyes widened. "If I just… one more."
The beast roared and charged again.
Ash bolted forward, weaving through rubble, sliding beneath its colossal legs, dust rising in his wake. He reached out, snatching the ring as the claws barely missed his face.
DING!
'Grave Digger has evolved to Unholy Death Card.'
But he didn't have a second to read the perks.
The bear's jaws clamped down on his left arm. Crunch. Pain exploded through him — blinding, consuming. His scream echoed through the cave, raw and animalistic. Blood sprayed across the rocks. The beast slammed him against the wall again, leaving a crimson smear.
Ash's world was fading.
His body was failing.
He could feel his life leaking out of him, slow and cruel.
ASH (thoughts): I'm not the hero… I'm not the chosen one. I'm just… me.
And I'm going to die.
He began to limp — broken, shattered — away from the monster that was toying with him.
The ghost hovered, eyes wide with terror, but then — a flicker. A vision.
GHOST (yelling): SWALLOW THE CHIP! NOW!!
Ash barely heard him through the ringing in his ears. He stumbled, coughing blood, then reached into his inventory. The ancient legendary chip gleamed faintly between his shaking fingers.
ASH (weakly): What… do I have to lose?
He swallowed it.
A heartbeat later, fire tore through his insides — as though molten metal was flooding his veins. He collapsed, clutching his stomach, gasping. His body convulsed. The bear approached slowly, savoring the moment — the way a predator toys with prey just before the final bite.
The world tilted.
The screen in front of him flickered.
[ACTIVATE DEMON CHEAT CODE?]
Yes / No
ASH (barely whispering): Y… yes…
[Are you sure?]
YES.
[Confirm soul override?]
YES.
[Warning: irreversible corruption.]
YES.
Each confirmation snapped into place faster than thought, his blood mixing with data, his screams turning to static. Then —
Silence.
A pulse of darkness rippled outward. The torches extinguished. The cave trembled as an explosion of crimson aura surged from his body, painting the walls in light that looked alive.
The bear froze mid-step, its growl dying in its throat. It felt it — the presence of something older, deeper, darker than death.
Ash's body twitched.
Then rose.
His eyes snapped open — glowing yellow, slit like a demon's. His veins glowed red, black smoke curling from his skin like shadows trying to escape.
ASH (low, distorted voice): …Boom.
He clenched his fist. Light swelled within it — blinding, furious, divine and infernal all at once.
He opened his hand.
BOOOOM!!!
The explosion was cataclysmic — a blinding surge of demonic power vaporizing the bear, the corpses, the cave, everything within a one-mile radius. The shockwave tore through the forest above, flattening trees, silencing birds.
When the dust settled, nothing remained but a crater — and in its center, Ash stood alone, shirt in tatters, eyes still glowing faintly.
He exhaled slowly.
Then smiled — an unfamiliar, dangerous smile it all faded away as he regained consciousness.
ASH: What just happened? As he fainted in his little mess.