"Hey, Fool, don't get crushed under that table and die!"
The shout echoed through the classroom.
Reyan Sen tightened his grip on the side of the heavy metal desk. His skinny arms shook as he lifted it. His black hair fell over his eyes, hiding the disappointment on his face.
Again…
Behind him, a girl laughed. "Look at him. He looks pathetic. No powers, no muscle, and he still comes to school every day. Doesn't he know we all go to the military after this? How will he even survive the academy?"
A boy with short golden hair leaned back in his chair and grinned. His name was Kaisav. He was tall, fit, and always surrounded by people.
"That's why I call him the Fool," Kaisav said. "Right, Reyan? You're our little powerless mascot."
The others giggled.
Reyan's arms were burning now. The desk felt like it weighed a ton. Sweat rolled down the side of his face.
He could have ignored it like always. Pretend he didn't hear. Pretend it didn't matter.
But it did.
It always did.
My whole life I've done nothing but take this crap… he thought. My parents go missing. I end up alone. No ability. No money. And they still act like it's my fault.
The desk slipped a little in his hands and hit the floor with a loud clang.
Everyone turned to look.
Kaisav smirked. "Careful, Fool. You'll break your neck one day. Or maybe that's a good thing. One less useless body for the army to feed."
Something snapped inside Reyan.
He pushed his messy hair back from his eyes and stared straight at Kaisav.
"That's enough," Reyan said.
The room went quiet for a moment.
Kaisav raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Did the Fool just talk back to me?"
Reyan took a step forward. His heart was beating fast, but his voice stayed steady.
"You like reading minds, right?" Reyan said. "Kaisav, why don't you use your psychic power and see what I'm thinking right now?"
The girl next to Kaisav snorted. "What, you even have thoughts, Reyan?"
Some of the students laughed again, but Kaisav's grin widened.
"Alright," he said. "Let's see what's inside that empty head."
He stood up and walked closer until he was right in front of Reyan.
Kaisav lifted his hand and placed two fingers on his own temple. His eyes became unfocused for a second.
Reyan didn't look away.
He thought clearly, word by word, image by image.
I'm thinking about taking an iron fork… and ramming it straight up your ass.
The moment the image formed in Reyan's mind, Kaisav's expression changed.
His eye twitched.
The veins on his forehead appeared.
The class went silent again.
"What… did you just think?" Kaisav whispered.
Reyan didn't flinch. "You saw it."
The girl beside Kaisav's face twisted in disgust. "What the hell, Reyan, you're disgusting."
Kaisav's fingers curled into a fist. His lips trembled with anger.
"How dare you," he said.
A pressure spread through the air. It felt like the whole classroom grew heavier. Some of the weaker students stepped back.
Kaisav grabbed Reyan by the collar with one hand.
"You really think you can joke with me?" he said.
Reyan tried to pull his hands up to push him away, but Kaisav's grip was too strong. Reyan's thin body felt like a ragdoll.
"Kaisav, relax," one of the boys muttered nervously. "He's not worth it."
But it was too late.
Kaisav's eyes glowed faintly, a dull violet color.
Reyan felt something push at the inside of his skull, like invisible fingers pressing against his brain.
"Agh—" Reyan groaned.
His knees almost gave out, but Kaisav didn't let him fall. He held him up by the collar, then pulled his other fist back.
"Let's see how many thoughts you have left after this," Kaisav hissed.
The punch came fast.
Reyan tried to block with his arm, but his body was too slow, too weak. The fist smashed into his nose.
There was a crack.
Pain exploded across his face.
Blood sprayed out like a burst pipe, splattering the floor and the side of the nearby desk.
Some students flinched and looked away.
Reyan's ears rang. He felt warm liquid running down his lips. His eyes watered.
Before he could process anything, Kaisav yanked his head forward and slammed it against the corner of a table.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each hit was harder than the last. Reyan's vision blurred. He could barely hear anything. It was like the world was slipping away from him.
"Stop, Kaisav!" someone shouted. "He'll die!"
But the pressure in Kaisav's head was still there. The insult was still burned into his mind. His rage kept pushing him.
Reyan tasted blood and something else, something metallic and thick in his mouth.
So this is it...? Reyan thought numbly. I'm going to die on a classroom floor. Because I made one stupid joke.
His head hit the table one more time.
A sharp pain cut through his skull.
Then nothing.
His body went limp in Kaisav's hands.
The psychic pressure in the air faded.
Kaisav froze.
"Hey… Reyan?" he called.
Reyan's arms dangled down. His eyes were half-open, empty. Blood slowly dripped from his nose and a cut on his forehead.
The girl covered her mouth. "Kaisav… he's not moving."
An uneasy silence settled over the room.
One of the boys hurried over and placed his fingers on Reyan's neck.
He kept them there for a few seconds.
"H–He has no pulse," the boy said. His voice trembled. "He's… he's dead."
The word hung in the air like a weight.
Dead.
Kaisav's hands started to shake. He let go, and Reyan's body dropped onto the floor with a dull thud.
"No," Kaisav muttered. "No, he just passed out. He's faking. He always acts weak. He's just—"
"He's not breathing," the boy said again. His face had turned pale.
The girl stepped back, panic rising. "Oh my god, Kaisav, what did you do? You killed him!"
A few other students looked toward the classroom door.
"If someone sees this—"
"We're screwed."
"My parents will kill me if I get involved in a murder case…"
Kaisav grit his teeth. Sweat rolled down his temple.
"This wasn't my fault," he said. "He pissed me off. He—"
That excuse sounded weak even to him.
"If the teachers find out you used your psychic power on him like that and then hit him…" the girl whispered. "The academy… the military… Everything is over for you."
Kaisav's breathing grew heavier.
He wasn't scared of Reyan. He wasn't scared of killing.
He was scared of losing his future.
"We can't let anyone know," he said finally.
The others stared at him.
"What?" the girl said. "What are you saying?"
"We hide it," Kaisav said. "We make it look like an accident. No cameras work properly in this old building. No one saw clearly how it started. We just say we saw him after school."
"You're insane," one of the boys muttered. But he was already glancing toward the doorway, checking if a teacher was nearby.
"Do you want to go to prison?" Kaisav snapped. "Because I'm not going alone."
The room fell quiet.
After a tense moment, the boy who had checked Reyan's pulse swallowed and nodded.
"What… what do we do?" he asked.
Kaisav looked down at Reyan's thin body.
"His house is close," he said. "We drag him there. Make it look like something fell on him. A home accident. He lives alone."
The girl hesitated. "Are you sure no one will see us?"
"Last day of school," Kaisav said. "Most students already left. Teachers are in meetings. We move fast."
He bent down and grabbed Reyan under the arms.
The boy took his legs.
Reyan's head rolled to the side, limp, leaving a small streak of blood on the floor.
No one bothered to wipe it.
They just wanted to get out of there.
---
The walk to Reyan's place felt longer than usual.
The sun was bright outside the school walls, almost too bright. It made the streaks of dried blood on Reyan's face look darker.
A few people passed them on the street, but no one questioned it. Two students carrying a third. It looked like a drunk or someone who fainted. It wasn't unusual in a world where military training started as a teenager.
Posters lined the walls of the buildings:
"JOIN THE FRONTLINE FORCES."
"THE VARGAI RESPECT ONLY STRENGTH."
"OUR ABILITIES ARE HUMANITY'S HOPE."
A giant billboard showed an armored soldier with glowing eyes, one hand raised, energy swirling around his fingers.
Under it, small text read:
All academy graduates are required to serve.
Reyan had stared at that exact billboard so many times before, wondering how a weak, ability-less body like his was supposed to fight aliens.
Now, his dead eyes saw nothing.
They reached his building—an old, gray government apartment block.
Kaisav knew the way. Everyone knew Reyan lived alone in a cheap unit given to orphans. He had no parents to complain or protect him.
They climbed the stairs, breathing hard not from guilt, but from the weight of the body and the heat.
Kaisav kicked open the slightly broken door with his foot.
The inside was small. A single room that was supposed to be a living area, bedroom, and kitchen. A small table with one crooked leg stood near the center. A basic wall-screen TV was mounted on the far wall, playing some news channel on low volume.
They laid Reyan's body down on the floor near the table.
"Okay," Kaisav said, trying to keep his voice steady. "We break the table. Make it fall. Bruise on his head… they'll think he hit it and died."
The boy with him nodded, his face expressionless now, like he had turned off his emotions.
He kicked the table's weak leg. It snapped, and the table crashed to the ground, landing partly over Reyan's side.
It looked messy. It looked ugly.
But it looked like an accident.
The girl stood by the door, still shaking. "This is crazy," she whispered. "What if someone checks the school cameras?"
"They won't see anything clear," Kaisav said quickly. "Everyone uses their powers during spar drills. The teachers always say we must learn to control it. It will look like just another argument. And here…"
He gestured at the room.
"He lives alone. No parents. No neighbors who care. The report will say: 'Orphan with a weak body died in home accident.' They'll move on fast. No one investigates nobodies."
His words came out cold.
But that was how their world worked.
The governments only truly cared about those with strong abilities. The ones who could fight the Vargai.
The news on the TV in the background changed to the usual topic.
"It has now been ninety years since the Vargai first attacked our outer colonies," the news anchor said. "And seven years since the historic peace treaty was signed. But many ask… is this peace real? Or are they simply preparing for a bigger war?"
Images of tall, scaled figures with reptile-like tails flashed on the screen. Vargai soldiers standing beside human officers in a tense handshake.
The anchor continued, "Military academies have reported a record high enrollment this year as the government continues to train more ability users. Regardless of peace, one thing is clear: we must always be ready."
Kaisav glanced at the screen, then back at Reyan.
"If he couldn't even handle a school fight," Kaisav muttered, half to himself, "he would've died in the first week of military service anyway."
The words didn't make him feel better.
They just made it easier to walk away.
"Let's go," he said.
The three of them stepped out of the room, leaving the door slightly open. The TV kept playing, filling the empty air with useless words.
They walked down the stairs, out of the building, and disappeared into the busy street.
---
The room went quiet.
The only sound was the TV.
Reyan's body lay under the fallen table, one arm outstretched, fingers half-curled. Blood had dried on his face and in his hair.
His glasses were broken completely, lying nearby.
The light outside began to dim as the sun shifted toward late afternoon.
Minutes passed.
Then an hour.
Nothing moved.
Then, suddenly—
A sound echoed inside Reyan's mind.
It wasn't a voice from outside. It wasn't from the TV.
It was clear, mechanical, and calm.
[Congratulations.]
[You have met the requirements for the awakening of the Vetala System.]
[You have successfully become an Undead.]
The words cut through the darkness like a knife.
Reyan's body jerked.
His fingers twitched.
His chest rose slightly as if pulling in air for the first time.
His eyes snapped open.
The once dark brown pupils were now ringed with a faint, eerie glow.
Reyan stared up at the broken table above him, the dried blood on his own hand… and the ceiling of his tiny apartment.
He had been dead.
But now…
Something else was inside him.
And his second life had just begun.