Kang Min-joon hated Mondays more than goblins.
He sat hunched over his desk in the cramped Seoul office, eyes burning from another all-nighter debugging code for a game that would never credit him. Twenty-four years old, zero savings, zero girlfriend, and a boss who treated him like a coffee-fetching NPC. The only thing keeping him sane was the thought of logging into his favorite VR game after work and pretending he wasn't a loser.
The clock hit 11:47 a.m.
Then the sky screamed.
A deafening crack split the air like reality itself had been torn open. Every screen in the office flickered once, twice, then exploded into static. Min-joon's monitor died mid-keystroke. Outside the window, the clear blue Seoul sky fractured into glowing red lines—like shattered glass hanging in mid-air.
People screamed.
Cars slammed into each other on the street below. Someone in the hallway yelled, "Earthquake!" but the floor wasn't shaking. The sky was.
[WARNING: GLOBAL SYSTEM INITIALIZATION IN PROGRESS]
The blue box appeared directly in Min-joon's vision, floating like augmented reality. He blinked hard. It didn't vanish.
[ALL LIVING BEINGS WILL RECEIVE THE NEXUS ACTION SYSTEM IN 3… 2… 1…]
A blinding white light swallowed the office. Min-joon felt his body lock up, every muscle frozen as invisible blades of data sliced into his brain. Pain exploded behind his eyes. He dropped to his knees, clutching his head.
When the light faded, the world had changed.
The office walls were cracked. Half the ceiling had collapsed. His co-workers lay sprawled across the floor—some groaning, some not moving at all. Through the broken window he saw monsters pouring out of glowing rifts in the street. Green-skinned goblins with rusty knives. A massive wolf-like creature already tearing into a delivery truck.
Min-joon's hands shook. "What the hell is this…?"
[CONGRATULATIONS, PLAYER KANG MIN-JOON. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE NEXUS ACTION SYSTEM.]
A new window slammed open in front of him.
**Status Window**
Name: Kang Min-joon
Level: 1
Class: None
Title: None
HP: 120 / 120
MP: 80 / 80
Strength: 8
Agility: 7
Vitality: 9
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 6
Luck: 4
**Skills:**
- None
**Unallocated Points:** 0
Min-joon stared. His stats were trash. Even the office intern who played games all day had better numbers when the System first hit the news feed last month—no, that was a different world. This was real. This was happening.
A goblin smashed through the broken window, landing on a desk two meters away. Its yellow eyes locked on him. It grinned, showing jagged teeth, and raised a crude iron dagger.
Min-joon's heart hammered. "Shit—"
The goblin lunged.
He threw himself sideways. The blade sliced through the air where his neck had been. He crashed into a filing cabinet, pain flaring in his shoulder. The goblin screeched and charged again.
[Quest Generated: Survive the First Wave]
Reward: 50 EXP + Basic Starter Weapon
Failure: Death
Min-joon grabbed the nearest thing—a broken metal monitor stand—and swung it like a baseball bat. The stand connected with the goblin's skull. A sickening crack echoed. The creature stumbled, but didn't fall.
-12 HP
The System helpfully displayed the damage.
The goblin roared and slashed. Fire exploded across Min-joon's arm. Blood sprayed.
-34 HP
He screamed, more in rage than pain, and brought the stand down again. And again. And again. Each hit landed harder than the last. The goblin's head caved in on the fifth swing. It collapsed in a twitching heap.
[You have killed a Level 3 Goblin Scout!]
[You have gained 45 EXP!]
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 2!]
[You have gained 5 Unallocated Points.]
Min-joon dropped the bloody stand and stared at his trembling hands. Blood—his own and the goblin's—dripped from his fingers. The pain in his arm was already fading. The System was healing him? He checked his status again.
HP: 98 / 140 (after level-up increase)
Strength: 8 → 9 (after point allocation? No—he hadn't spent points yet.)
The System was giving him power just for surviving.
A cold laugh escaped his lips. "So that's how it works… turn the world into a game and watch us slaughter each other for levels."
He quickly dumped all five points into Strength. No hesitation. He wasn't going to be weak anymore.
**Strength: 14**
Power surged through his muscles like electricity. He felt stronger. Faster. Alive.
More screams came from the hallway. Another goblin pack was tearing through the cubicles, chasing the few survivors. Min-joon's eyes narrowed. He picked up the dead goblin's rusty dagger. It felt light in his new grip.
[Hidden Condition Detected!]
[You have killed your first monster without a class or weapon.]
[Analyzing…]
[Error. Anomaly detected in Player Kang Min-joon's soul signature.]
[Accessing locked protocol…]
The blue boxes started glitching. Red warning symbols flashed across his vision.
[PROTOCOL OVERRIDE INITIATED]
[Congratulations, Player Kang Min-joon.]
[You have awakened the hidden authority: NEXUS OVERLORD.]
[All other System users will now register you as a threat.]
[First Overlord Skill Unlocked: Dimensional Theft (Lv.1)]
[Effect: Steal one skill or title from any defeated player or monster once per day. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
Min-joon's breath caught. The words glowed brighter than any other message.
He wasn't just a player.
He was something the System itself feared.
A massive roar shook the entire building. Through the shattered window he saw it—a ten-meter-tall orc warlord stepping out of a newly formed red portal in the middle of the street. Level 25. Red name tag. Boss monster.
It pointed a massive axe straight at the office tower.
[World Boss "Grom the Butcher" has marked this location as hunting ground.]
[All players inside will receive triple EXP for the next hour… or die trying.]
Min-joon gripped the bloody dagger tighter. His lips curled into a savage smile for the first time in years.
"Fine," he whispered, voice low and cold. "Come and try to kill me."
He stepped over the dead goblin and walked toward the broken window, the new red authority burning like fire in his chest.
The System had made a mistake.
It had given the weakest man in Seoul the power to break the game.
And Min-joon was going to make the entire multiverse pay for every year he had spent at the bottom.