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Chapter 1
Truck-kun, a Cursed Roulette, and a Universe Far Too Dangerous
The afternoon was gray.
Not the poetic gray of movies. No, this was the dull, heavy kind that smothered the city like a wet, moldy blanket.
Thick clouds choked the sky, and a lazy drizzle tapped endlessly against the dark asphalt.
Cars hissed past, trailing sheets of water, while pedestrians shuffled along the sidewalks, shoulders hunched under umbrellas.
Among them walked a sixteen-year-old boy with his hands jammed in his pockets and a permanently tired expression.
Light-colored hair fell messily across his forehead. His dark eyes carried the quiet, chronic disappointment of someone who'd already seen how the world really worked.
His school uniform was slightly wrinkled, the jacket hanging open to reveal a plain black T-shirt underneath.
In one hand, his phone glowed with a gacha game.
He squinted at the banner.
Rare character.
Abysmal drop rates.
Wallet-destroyer special.
"Come on…" he muttered, his voice flat. "Just once."
He tapped the button.
Golden lights flared, followed by explosions and a dramatic orchestral sting.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Hm."
The animation ended.
Result: trash. Again.
He stared at the screen in dead silence for several long seconds before sighing.
"Gacha games are garbage."
He slipped the phone into his pocket and kept walking down the rain-slick street.
Puddles splashed under tires, and the neon from traffic lights streaked across the wet pavement.
For a moment, everything felt painfully ordinary.
Then someone screamed.
"WATCH OUT!"
The boy snapped his head up.
Time seemed to stutter.
A truck careened around the corner. Far too fast.
Tires skidded on the slick asphalt as the driver wrestled the wheel in a panic. The massive vehicle fishtailed toward the sidewalk.
Straight at him.
He blinked.
"Ah."
His brain caught up a half-second too late.
Truck.
Fast.
Coming right for me.
He tried to jump aside, but his foot came down on a plastic bottle that he was certain hadn't been there a second ago.
He slipped.
Balance gone, the world tilted.
As he fell backward, only one thought cut through the adrenaline.
This is way too cliché.
The truck slammed into him.
A dull, brutal thud.
Then black.
---
"…Shit."
The first thing he noticed was the silence.
Not ordinary silence, but the suffocating, absolute quiet of a place that shouldn't exist.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Everything was white.
No sky.
No ground.
No horizon.
Just endless, pale nothing in every direction.
He lay there for a few seconds, staring into the void.
"Okay," he said, his voice echoing strangely. "I'm dead."
"Correct."
The voice came from nearby. Calm. Almost bored.
He lifted his head to see a man floating a few meters away.
He wore an impeccable suit and gave off corporate-drone vibes.
But instead of a head, a miniature galaxy spun slowly where his face should be.
The boy stared.
"ROB, right?"
The entity gave a lazy thumbs-up.
"Correct."
"Random Omnipotent Being?"
"Exactly."
The boy sat up slowly and sighed, rubbing his face.
"Great. Okay, quick question."
He looked up.
"Why am I dead?"
"My mistake," ROB said casually.
The boy frowned.
"Your mistake?"
ROB shrugged.
"I was bored. I pushed a truck. It ran you over."
Silence.
The boy stared blankly.
"You… pushed a truck? Out of boredom?"
"Yes."
He covered his face with one hand and exhaled hard.
"Incredible. I died because an omnipotent being was bored?"
"More or less."
The boy lowered his hand.
"You're an idiot."
ROB shrugged again.
"I don't really care what you think, kid. I'm just having fun while following the rules."
He lifted one finger.
"I'm not allowed to kill humans directly."
Another finger.
"But accidents… those are perfectly fine."
"So technically," the boy said, eyes narrowing, "you didn't kill me."
"Exactly."
ROB smiled faintly.
"I merely… nudged the truck."
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
"This is ridiculous."
ROB clapped once.
"But relax. Since your death was technically my fault, I'll compensate you."
He raised three fingers.
"Reincarnation."
"Powers."
"And a system."
"A system?" the boy said, eyes sharpening.
"Let's see it."
ROB snapped his fingers.
The white void rippled.
Something enormous materialized.
A gigantic, gleaming metallic wheel divided into countless shifting sections that flickered with images of entire universes.
The boy stared at it.
Then slowly turned to ROB.
"Is this a joke?"
"No."
"That's literally a gacha wheel."
"Yes."
The boy clenched his teeth.
"I hate gachas."
ROB yawned.
"Three pulls. That's all you get."
"My luck is absolute garbage," the boy muttered.
He grabbed the lever.
"…I'll be fine. Probably."
The wheel loomed like a skyscraper as sections blurred past.
Solo Leveling.
Berserk.
Mass Effect.
And dozens more.
He yanked the lever.
The wheel spun faster and faster.
Then finally slowed.
CLACK.
Selected Universe: Invincible
He blinked.
"…The ultra-violent superhero world?"
ROB gave another thumbs-up.
"Yes."
The boy clutched his head.
"THERE ARE VILTRUMITES THERE! THEY DESTROY PLANETS!"
ROB shrugged.
"You still have two more pulls."
Second pull.
A System.
Blue windows. Quests. Stats. A path to grow stronger, provided he didn't die first.
"At least I got a system," he muttered, exhaling in relief.
Third pull.
A character template.
[Shō Kusakabe]
His eyes widened.
He whipped toward ROB.
"WAIT! THIS SAYS SHŌ KUSAKABE!"
He pointed wildly at the screen.
"THAT Shō?! THE ONE WHO STOPS TIME?!"
ROB clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"What a nuisance…"
He crossed his arms.
"You already got a system. Couldn't you roll something actually useless for once?"
The boy ignored him completely.
A wicked grin slowly spread across his face.
ROB sighed and snapped his fingers.
"Alright, that's enough."
He waved lazily.
"Good luck, Sho."
"Don't worry about your identity or housing. I've already handled it."
He paused.
"And try not to make things too boring for me."
Before the boy could reply, the void swallowed him whole.
---
He opened his eyes.
A bed beneath him.
A faint, strange heat burned in his chest.
Outside the window, the city sprawled.
An ocean of concrete, steel, and distant lights.
A blue window materialized in front of him.
---
STATUS
Name: Sho Kusakabe
Level: 1
HP: 100
ADOLLA: 20
STR: 5
DEX: 5
VIT: 5
INT: 5
WIS: 5
---
"Okay," he whispered, inhaling slowly.
"New world."
White flames ignited in his palms.
The air warped around his hands.
Outside, raindrops froze mid-fall.
Color bled from reality like an old, desaturated photograph.
Time stopped.
Only he could move.
But not for long.
A crushing weakness slammed into him, as if every ounce of his strength was being siphoned away at once.
He dropped to his knees.
Sweat rolled down his face.
Yet his smile only grew wider.
"This could actually be… really fun."
Far away in the night sky, an alien ship erupted in flames as a caped figure tore through its hull like a living missile.
Omni-Man.
Sho's smile froze for a fraction of a second.
Then he let out a quiet, dark laugh.
"Yeah."
"I definitely ended up in the right universe."
And so began the new life of Sho Kusakabe.
A life with powers.
A system that would get him into delicious amounts of trouble.
And endless opportunities to take whatever—or whoever—he wanted.
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