The world was still pixelating when I realized something had gone terribly wrong.
Normally, in every proper reincarnation story, the system greets you politely — maybe with a robotic "Welcome, Player!" or a divine-sounding "Chosen One, arise!"
Mine?
> [SYSTEM ERROR: USER DATA CORRUPTED. RECALIBRATING SOUL SIGNATURE...]
I blinked. "Corrupted? Excuse me, I literally just died."
No response. Just a faint ringing in my head and a loading bar that refused to move past 9%.
> [Reconstructing environment...]
A loud thud cut through the silence as I landed — face-first — on wet dirt. My knees buckled, my forehead hit a suspiciously muddy patch, and before I could even curse, the system beeped again.
> [Environment: Unverified]
[Host Species: Unknown]
[Estimated Probability of Survival: 11%]
"Oh, fantastic. Eleven percent. So I'm basically a very polite corpse."
I pushed myself up, groaning. The air smelled like rain, smoke, and something metallic. Around me stretched a half-ruined village — houses burned, trees twisted, and weirdly enough, the sky was split down the middle: one half night, one half blazing dawn.
"Okay," I muttered, brushing off the mud. "I've seen enough isekai to know this is either hell or a tutorial zone."
> [Tutorial Zone Not Found]
[Error: Tutorial Deleted]
"Oh, come on!"
---
I stumbled through the wreckage, trying to figure out if I was supposed to be human, demon, or some unfortunate crossbreed of the two. My reflection in a broken mirror didn't help — my hair was faintly silver, my pupils were ringed by a flickering blue light, and there was a faint symbol glowing on my collarbone: a cracked circle with three dots.
It pulsed once. The ground responded.
A tremor rolled under my feet, and several pebbles floated up, defying gravity for a second before clattering back down.
"Okay. That's… new."
> [Skill Identified: Undefined Phenomenon Detected]
[Would you like to name your ability?]
I grinned. "Finally, some progress."
> [Please input name.]
"How about—" I paused dramatically, "—Limitless Devourer of the Cosmos."
> [Invalid input. Too cringe.]
"…Excuse me?"
> [Try again.]
"Fine. Call it Echo Pulse."
> [Name accepted.]
[Skill: Echo Pulse — Function Unknown]
"Function unknown? You're my system! You're supposed to know things!"
> [System also doesn't know what you are. Please be patient.]
---
I sighed, rubbing my temples. "This is gonna be a long afterlife."
Something rustled behind me. I turned just in time to see a figure dart between the broken walls — a woman, tall, cloaked, and carrying something like a staff made of bones.
I raised a hand cautiously. "Hey, excuse me! Quick question — where am I?"
She froze. Slowly, she turned her head. Her eyes glowed crimson.
Ah. Wrong person to ask.
With a hiss, she flung her staff toward me. The air warped — actual space twisted, pulling the ground like fabric.
"Wait—wait! I don't even know the controls yet!" I shouted.
Instinctively, I threw my arm forward. My chest symbol flashed.
> [Echo Pulse Activated]
A shockwave of black-blue energy rippled out. Her attack stopped midair — then shattered like glass.
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.
She blinked at me. I blinked at her.
"Uh… truce?"
She didn't answer. She just turned and ran.
---
I stared after her, heart pounding. "Okay. So, note to self: whatever I just did scares people."
> [Skill Progress: 0.01%]
"…Seriously? That's it?"
> [Advice: Try not to vaporize every tutorial NPC you meet.]
"You deleted the tutorial!"
---
I walked for hours — or maybe minutes; time seemed weirdly inconsistent here — until I found the edge of the village. There, sitting beside a fallen signpost, was an oddly normal-looking man wearing spectacles and sipping from a chipped mug.
He looked up. "Ah. You must be the new anomaly."
I froze. "You—what?"
He smiled faintly, setting down his cup. "The system's newest problem child. We've been expecting you."
That… didn't sound good.
> [Warning: Unknown Entity detected.]
"Oh great. You too?" I muttered.
The man chuckled softly, like someone hearing a joke from an old friend. "Tell me, stranger—do you remember your death?"
I hesitated. "Not… exactly. Just a sound. Like glass breaking."
"Then it's true," he said quietly. "Death logged out… and you logged in."
My mouth went dry. "What does that mean?"
He stood up slowly, and for the first time I noticed that his shadow didn't move with him. It just… stayed.
"It means," he said, his eyes now pure white, "that the system didn't reincarnate you."
He stepped closer, voice soft as wind through bone.
"It replaced something else—with you."
> [System Alert: Entity not compatible with current world structure.]
[Stabilization failing...]
[Please remain calm.]
"Remain calm?!" I yelled, backing away. "I don't even know where the exit button is!"
The man smiled wider, stretching impossibly across his face. "There is no exit. Only transfer."
The ground fractured beneath me, glowing like broken circuits. The world started collapsing inward — walls bending, air melting into ribbons of light.
> [System transferring consciousness...]
[Destination: ???]
Everything froze for a split second.
Then — nothing.
Not blackness. Not void.
Just... absence.
> [Welcome, User_0.0 — World Initialization Complete.]
[Please enjoy your stay.]
---
And that's when I realized two things.
First: I wasn't dead.
Second: Someone else was now dying in my place.