Jaren kicked a pebble down the empty street, "It's weird, isn't it?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"What's weird?" Mira asked, adjusting her cloak against the wind.
"This… all of this. How the world ended up as it did. The powers, the divisions… people always talking about THE GLARE, THE BOX, magic, machines…"
Mira chuckled softly, her eyes glinting with amusement. "Ah, so you've finally started asking questions."
"You know, right, I am the biggest hater of history in this world, anyway."
"It's time to tell you the story. How it all began, and why things are the way they are right now."
Jaren was amused, intrigued. "I'm listening."
"Alright," Mira said, a small smile tugging at her lips. "It all started centuries ago, when the world split into two… and from that split, every choice, every trial, every power came into being.
In the year 102711 AD,some people gained powers which were divided into two streams. On one side, people gained robotic powers, including advanced robotic armour, weapons that morph to their will, and an inventory that store powerful items and tools, who were known as TRONICS. On the other hand, some people gained powers of witchcraft and dark magic, who were known as MAGIERS. Soon after, society fractured as Magiers formed sinister organizations—The Black Rite of Razhgoroth, The Ashen Maw, and others—each devoted to domination. These dark cults operated under the guidance of Rhazgoroth, a malevolent deity whose whispers promised power to those willing to embrace the shadows.. Their ambition? To create a world ruled by fear and dark magic, where they can subjugate humanity under their tyrannical reign.Well,the first person to gain powers was Azeroth x*x*x*x*(unknown) and after researching, he found that when a person faces a near-death experience and chooses not to flee, they are transported to a mysterious realm known as The Glare. Here, they must confront a series of challenges in a trial called The Box. A Box that punished loudly and rewarded cleanly.There are three trials held by the box. Surviving these trials grants them immense powers and subsequent ressurection on Earth, but failure leads to death. As you know, Tronics clear Ruins—abandoned technological sites and remnants of ancient civilisations. These Ruins are filled with dangerous traps, malfunctioning robotic sentinels, and remnants of lost technology that can be salvaged or repurposed.There are Six Grades for Ruins
Depth 0 – Threshold Ruin
Depth 1 – Shallow Ruin
Depth 2 – Sunken Ruin
Depth 3 – Abyssal Ruin
Depth 4 – Lost Ruin
Depth 5 – Null Ruin (no records exist)
There are many kinds of Tronics, each for different purposes.
Assault Tronic — High-output frontline combat unit
Vital Tronic — Rapid recovery and life support
Guardian Tronic — Maximum defense and damage mitigation
Tactic Tronic — Battlefield control and tactical manipulation
Void Tronic — Existence-altering, reality-defying entity that violates natural laws
They say the world had seen only two Void Tronics… and both had changed history."
Jaren nodded, absorbing the information. "So, basically, we're the world's most overqualified janitors. With guns."
Mira grinned, "That's the gist. But there's a bit more glory to it. Each Tronic mission has a purpose. Some are for exploration—mapping out the insides of the Ruins, identifying the weird stuff that's too dangerous to poke alone. Some missions are pure salvage. You know, bringing back old tech or resources. The engineers love that."
"Like a cosmic fish market," Jaren said, "only everything is boogy-trapped and liable to explode."
"Exactly. And then there's the combat runs. Those are—" Mira paused, raising her brow. "Well, those are for the nutcases."
"Ha. So what does that make us?"
"I like to think we're… somewhere in the healthy center."
All of this was being listened by a broke, homeless and orphan man Friego Ashborne. "Huh! Another one talking about the Glare, the Box, Tronics, Magier—blah, blah, blah," he muttered, staring at the ground. Legends didn't feed the hungry. He wanted to say this is mind but he shouted,"I JUST WANT A BREADDDDD!!!". Then he looked at the dustbin and guess what,he found a bread,yay."Finally,"he breathed.The sweetness of the dusty bread hit him like like an angel giving him a bliss.
Then,SNATCH
A cat just took the bread from his hands." Even a cat is better than me,"he sighed with sorrow.With no choice remaining, he had to go to his usual source of food-the beside the cave where people dump their food.When he got there he muttered, "What a Place!It just feels like home." in sarcasm. Coincidentally,he found the same cat which snatched the only piece of bread he had.Friego eyed the cat. The cat eyed him back, impaling him on its gaze, its mouth glistening with bread crumbs. "Are you kidding me," Friego said, "Even the rats here have more dignity." The cat licked its paw, then—perhaps just to taunt him—flicked its tail and darted into the cave.
Friego gave chase, shouting, "Give it back, you furry bread bandit!" He ducked into the cave mouth after the cat, old shoes slapping against uneven concrete. The passage was a foul tunnel, reeking of rotten food and sewage, but at least it was warmer than sleeping in the open. The cat disappeared into the darkness. Friego tripped over a busted pipe and slammed his shin, cursing.
Friego, despite all his prior decisions, followed.
As he crossed the cave's threshold, the world shifted. A blue, digital shimmer flickered overhead: [ANCIENT RUINS: THE LABYRINTH OF VERTEX]. He blinked, nearly tripping over a jutting pipeline. "Are you kidding me? Even the cave has Wi-Fi?"
A cracked Stratum Indexer lay half-buried in the dust nearby, its dim display flickering once before stabilizing.
[DEPTH: 0 — ENTRY STRATUM]
"Depth zero… heh, that's cute," he said, eyes scanning the Stratum Indexer.
The floor hummed.
Some structures collapsed.
Walls shifted, rotated, forming a complex puzzle.
ROBOTIC GAURDIANS AROSE.
Out of nowhere,the cat appeared.a Robotic Guardian approached it.The cat was frightened.Seeing it's frightened face Friego said"Fuck!MF!Shit!!!".For a brief second, he remembered his father's words—
Stand up when fear tells you to kneel.
Stand up when the world wants you to look away.
Stand up when the world says don't.
Friego didn't even flinch.
He stepped forward, calm and deliberate, drawing the machine's attention just long enough. The Guardian's optics shifted, tracking him instead. In that moment, the cat bolted down the alley and vanished into the shadows.
Friego ran as fast as he can and even loose the Robotic Guardian but got trapped in the puzzle. On the other hand,he Guardian gave signal to every Guardian.
An open place came, Friego rested for a moment,but when he looks up,he froze— shaking eyes wide with terror."
Is this… the end?
So this is how I die?
Was this all I was meant to be?
He stepped forward, calm and deliberate and stopped in front of them, motionless, as if he had already accepted whatever came next.
The Robotic Guardians stuttered, their movements jerking unnaturally, like a broken recording. For a heartbeat, the world flickered, as if reality itself had glitched.
Friego's eyes caught it first: the Stratum Indexer sputtered violently, numbers scrambling—0 → 5 — NULL STRATUM.
Something had changed. Something wrong.
The Guardians… were no longer ordinary—they had shifted into forms that should not exist, metal fused with shadows, optics bleeding red into the void.
Even the air around him seemed to weigh more, dense with threat.
The Oblivions stepped forward, their metal limbs clanking with deadly precision. Their sensors locked onto him, cold and unyielding, as if calculating every inch of his fate.
The first strike tore through his side, sending a shock of pain up his spine. He gasped, stumbling, but he didn't fall. Another blade slammed into his shoulder, grinding bone beneath steel. His breath came in ragged bursts, hot blood filling his mouth."I've come this far just to save a cat who stole my bread,Hehe."he smiled with bloody lips.
The Oblivions were relentless, circling, striking with mechanical perfection. Limbs shattered, ribs cracked, and yet Friego remained upright.
"Oh Yeahh, your name is Ash."
As the final strike came, darkness swirled at the edges of his vision. Blood dripped from his torn body, life bleeding fast, but a faint, bitter smile touched his lips.
Stand up… even now.
A miracle happened," I… I am alive," he said.,He was in a place with stars all around, like standing on void.He was in THE GLARE.