Chapter 1: Death Comes With a Loading Screen

Cassian Vale knew he was dead when the subway ceiling came down—he just didn’t expect the afterlife to ask him to choose a difficulty setting.

WELCOME, UNREGISTERED SOUL.

You have died outside sanctioned parameters.

Please select your preferred initiation difficulty:

[Mercy] Recommended for civilians, children, poets, minor nobles, and livestock-adjacent intelligences.

[Standard] Recommended for warriors, tradesmen, criminals, and individuals with moderate pain tolerance.

[Heroic] Recommended for champions, oathbound knights, failed demigods, and those with unresolved arrogance.

[Mythic] Warning: Selecting this option may result in immediate soul dissolution.

Cassian lay on his back in wet grass that smelled like copper and stormwater, staring up at words made of pale blue fire. Beyond them stretched a sky the color of an open wound.

For three long seconds, his mind refused to process anything beyond the fact that there was sky. Not concrete. Not rebar. Not the crushed black maw of the downtown subway tunnel. Sky.

Red clouds crawled across it like bruises beneath skin, lit from within by slow veins of gold lightning. Something enormous floated far above—an island, maybe, or the broken lower jaw of a continent—trailing waterfalls that vanished into mist before they hit the ground. Two moons hung on opposite horizons, one cracked clean down the middle, the other ringed in black fire.

Cassian blinked.

The glowing menu blinked back.

“No,” he said.

His voice came out hoarse, scraped raw by dust and screaming. He remembered screaming. Not his at first. The woman in the yellow scarf. The squeal of brakes. The train shuddering dead between stations. People cursing, phones raised, emergency lights flashing red along tiled walls. Then the ceiling groaned like some ancient beast waking up hungry.

He remembered seeing her trapped near the cracked pillar, ankle caught beneath a fallen bench, eyes wide as the tunnel shed gravel and dust. He remembered thinking, with perfect stupid clarity, I am not paid enough for this.

Then he had run anyway.

Because Cassian Vale had spent twenty-nine years making terrible financial decisions, dodging parking tickets, disappointing landlords, and eating gas station burritos over trash cans between deliveries, but apparently he drew the line at watching a stranger get pancaked by the city’s neglected infrastructure.

He had gotten her loose. He had shoved her toward the emergency door. She had grabbed his sleeve and shouted something he couldn’t hear over the roar.

Then the world became stone.

Cassian sat up too fast. Pain detonated through his skull.

“Okay,” he rasped, clutching his head. “Bad idea. Sitting is advanced content.”

His hands were shaking. They were also not crushed. He flexed his fingers, stared at them, turned them over. Dirt beneath the nails. Scratches across the knuckles. No blood except a smear on his right wrist that flaked away when he rubbed it.

His delivery jacket was gone. His jeans were gone. His cheap sneakers, phone, wallet, keys, all gone. He wore rough gray trousers tied with cord, a sleeveless tunic the texture of burlap’s angrier cousin, and boots stiff enough to qualify as ankle prisons.

“Great,” he muttered. “I died and got mugged by community theater.”

The menu followed his gaze as if nailed to the inside of his eyeballs.

Please select your preferred initiation difficulty.

Time remaining: 00:59

“Of course there’s a timer.”

He pushed himself to his feet, swayed, and nearly fell back into the grass. The meadow rolled away in every direction, but meadow was too gentle a word for it. The grass was waist-high, dark green at the roots and red at the tips, each blade beaded with dew that looked disturbingly like blood. Black stone teeth jutted from the earth in crooked rows. Farther off, a forest of bone-white trees rattled in a wind he couldn’t feel.

And beyond the forest rose a wall.

No. A rib cage.

Colossal bones arched from the ground miles away, each one taller than a skyscraper, curving inward over a ruined city half swallowed by vines. Towers leaned between them. Lights flickered in windows. Something winged circled the highest rib and screamed.

Cassian took one step backward.

“This is a concussion dream,” he said. “A very high-budget concussion dream.”

Time remaining: 00:42

He looked at the options again. Mercy sounded good. Mercy sounded like warm blankets, soup, and not being in whatever death RPG had kidnapped him.

His finger hovered over the glowing word.

The instant he focused on it, smaller text unfolded beneath.

[Mercy]

Experience gain reduced by 90%.

Loot quality reduced by 95%.

Class evolution disabled until Level 50.

Protection period: 24 hours.

Estimated survival beyond protection: 3.2%

Cassian stared.

“That is not mercy. That is a slow-motion mugging.”

He checked Standard.

[Standard]

Experience gain normal.

Loot quality normal.

Class evolution available.

Protection period: 1 hour.

Estimated survival beyond protection: 18.7%

“Still rude.”

Heroic spilled its details in shimmering lines.

[Heroic]

Experience gain increased by 150%.

Loot quality increased by 100%.

Rare encounter chance increased.

Elite predator attention increased.

Protection period: 10 minutes.

Estimated survival beyond protection: 0.8%

Cassian swallowed.

“There it is. The ‘punch me for prizes’ option.”

Mythic’s warning pulsed like a hazard sign.

[Mythic]

Experience gain increased by 500%.

Loot quality increased by 400%.

Legendary encounter chance unlocked.

Divine observation enabled.

Protection period: None.

Estimated survival: Error.

Do not select this option.

Cassian laughed once. It sounded brittle and wrong in the open air.

“Nice try. Reverse psychology only works if I have health insurance.”

The timer dropped under twenty seconds.

He rubbed his face. He needed to think. He was good at thinking under pressure, provided the pressure involved double-parked trucks, customers who refused to answer their phones, and restaurants that marked orders ready twenty minutes before they were. This was just another delivery problem. Unknown address. Hostile environment. No vehicle. Probably no tip.

Goal one: don’t die again.

Mercy crippled him. Standard gave him an hour, but if this world was as awful as it looked, “normal” was just a polite word for bait. Heroic was suicidal, but rewards mattered. Games rewarded risk. Systems had rules. Rules had loopholes.

Cassian’s whole adult life had been built in loopholes. Which gas stations let you use the bathroom without buying anything. Which apartment mailrooms had broken locks. Which delivery apps paid surge in overlapping zones if you accepted at exactly the right second. Where a man could park for eleven minutes in a seven-minute loading zone before the meter maid looped back around.

He had never been strong. He had never been lucky. But he could squeeze a dollar out of a disaster and call it dinner.

Time remaining: 00:08

“If this kills me,” Cassian told the sky, “I’m leaving a one-star review.”

He jabbed [Heroic].

The world rang like struck glass.

INITIATION DIFFICULTY SELECTED: HEROIC.

Welcome to the Shattered Realms.

May your climb amuse the heavens.

Heat poured through his veins. Cassian doubled over, teeth clenched, as invisible hooks sank into his bones and pulled. White symbols flashed across his skin. His heart slammed once, twice, then found a new rhythm, harder and faster, like an engine forced to start in winter.

Numbers scrolled past his vision too quickly to read.

Soul registration incomplete.

Origin: Unindexed Worldline 771-E “Earth”

Prior Class: None

Prior Achievements: Debt Accumulation III, Vehicular Evasion II, Caffeine Dependency IV, Minor Heroism I

Cause of Death: Structural collapse / voluntary intervention

Karmic Adjustment: +1

“Minor?” Cassian wheezed. “I died.”

Assessing compatible classes…

Laborer… rejected.

Courier… rejected.

Street Rat… rejected.

Improviser… unstable.

Scavenger… partial compatibility.

Thief… partial compatibility.

Martyr… insufficient sincerity.

“Excuse me?”

The blue text flickered. For a heartbeat, it bled gold. Not the clean gold of sunlight, but old, hungry gold, like coins pried from a king’s grave.

The grass around Cassian flattened outward.

A whisper slid through the air.

Not in English. Not in any language he knew. Yet his teeth ached with meaning.

Mine.

The System window stuttered.

ERROR.

Forbidden class fragment detected.

Source: [REDACTED]

Integrity: 3.7%

Compatibility: 98.9%

Quarantine protocol failed.

Class assignment overridden.

Cassian straightened slowly.

“That sounds bad.”

CLASS ACQUIRED: ???

Class identity damaged.

Restoring accessible designation…

CLASS ACQUIRED: Loot God Fragment

Tier: Glitch

Status: Forbidden / Incomplete / Hunted

The air went silent.

Even the bone trees stopped rattling.

Cassian looked left. Looked right.

“Hunted by who?”

The answer arrived as a thunderclap of crimson text that filled half the sky.

REALM ALERT

An unauthorized forbidden class has manifested in Tutorial Zone 9,441: Gravegrass Expanse.

Designation: Error Soul

Bounty Issued: 10,000 System Marks / Rare Class Token / Divine Favor Shard

Valid claimants: All registered beings Level 1-100.

Objective: Kill or capture.

Time until location disclosure: 10 minutes.

Cassian’s mouth went dry.

“Ah,” he said. “By everyone.”

A second window popped up, almost apologetic.

Heroic Protection Period: 10 minutes

Conflict detected with bounty protocol.

Protection period reduced.

Remaining Protection: 00:03:00

“No. No, no, you don’t get to sell me ten minutes and deliver three.” He stabbed his finger through the floating message. It rippled, intangible. “I want to speak to a manager.”

Manager unavailable.

“Coward.”

Another window unfolded, smaller and sharper.

Status

Name: Cassian Vale

Level: 1

Class: Loot God Fragment

HP: 40/40

MP: 10/10

Stamina: 55/55

Strength: 6

Agility: 8

Vitality: 7

Intellect: 9

Will: 11

Luck: ERROR

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Skills: [Prey Before Death] Lv.1, [Junk Appraisal] Lv.1

Cassian barely read it before a sound rolled through the meadow.

A low, wet growl.

His body reacted before his brain caught up. He turned, fists rising in the universal fighting stance of men who had never won a fight but had watched enough movies to embarrass themselves with confidence.

The grass parted thirty feet away.

A wolf stepped out.

Except wolves had fur. This thing wore scraps of rotten hide stretched over a skeleton too long and too lean. Its ribs jutted like cage bars. Its skull was exposed from snout to brow, bone stained brown at the teeth. Blue corpse-fire burned in its eye sockets. Its paws ended in black talons that sank into the soil with soft clicks.

Another emerged to its left.

Then another.

Then four more.

Cassian took a slow step back.

“Nice doggies.”

The lead wolf opened its jaw. Its tongue was a strip of gray meat crawling with tiny white beetles.

Tutorial Encounter Initiated.

Enemies: Gravebone Wolves x7

Average Level: 3

Recommended Party Size: 4

Participant Count: 1

Calculating survival odds…

Survival odds: 0.6%

Cassian stared at the number.

“Round up, at least.”

The wolves charged.

He ran.

There was no heroic decision, no clenched-jaw stand, no inner flame of courage. Cassian spun and bolted through the blood-tipped grass so hard his new boots tore divots from the damp earth. Behind him came the clatter of bone paws, the snap of jaws, the chorus of hungry growls.

The meadow blurred. Cold air knifed into his lungs. His legs felt stronger than they should have, but terror had always been an excellent performance enhancer. He hurdled a fallen stone slab, landed badly, recovered by windmilling both arms, and kept going.

“Tutorial!” he shouted between gasps. “Where’s the tutorial part? Explain controls! Give me a stick! Give me a motivational goblin!”

A wolf lunged at his right side.

Cassian saw the flicker of bone in the corner of his eye and threw himself left. Teeth snapped shut where his calf had been. The wolf skidded past, claws furrowing mud. Another came in low. Cassian kicked blindly and felt his boot connect with something hard.

Pain shot up his leg.

The wolf yelped. Its skull cracked against a stone tooth.

Damage dealt: 3

“Three?” Cassian barked. “I pay more than that in ATM fees!”

The injured wolf shook itself and turned, blue eyes flaring brighter.

A cluster of black stones rose ahead, half buried in the meadow. Beyond them, the ground dipped into a dry creek bed choked with pale reeds. Cassian angled toward it. Wolves were fast on open ground. He needed obstacles. Bottlenecks. Something. Anything.

A delivery driver survived by knowing routes. Alleys. Service corridors. Stairwells. The shortest line was rarely the fastest. The safest path was never marked.

The lead wolf gained on him. Its breath hit his back, cold and foul. Cassian snatched a fist-sized rock from atop a stone as he passed and hurled it over his shoulder.

He missed the wolf entirely.

The rock struck a jutting slab with a sharp crack, ricocheted, and smacked another wolf in the face.

Damage dealt: 2

Improvised Attack registered.

“I meant to do that!”

He plunged into the creek bed.

The drop was steeper than expected. His foot slid on loose gravel, and he went down hard, shoulder slamming into packed dirt. The impact punched the air from his lungs. He rolled as jaws snapped above him. A wolf overshot, crashed into the opposite bank, and tumbled in a clatter of bones.

Cassian scrambled backward on hands and heels. The creek bed formed a shallow trench, six feet across, its banks too narrow for all the wolves to attack at once. Pale reeds rattled around him like dry fingers.

His gaze darted everywhere. Stones. Reeds. Mud. A cracked length of branch, bleached white, half buried near the bank.

He grabbed it.

Item acquired: Brittle Femur

Quality: Trash

Damage: 2-4 Blunt

Durability: 5/5

Description: Someone needed this once.

Cassian froze for a fraction of a second.

“This is a leg.”

The first wolf leapt down.

Cassian swung the femur with both hands. It cracked against the wolf’s skull with a hollow bong. The force jarred his arms numb.

Damage dealt: 4

The wolf staggered but didn’t fall. Its jaws snapped at his thigh. Cassian jerked back, felt teeth scrape cloth, and smashed the femur down again. This time the bone club splintered across the creature’s muzzle.

Damage dealt: 3

Durability: 2/5

Two more wolves dropped into the trench behind the first, blocked by its body. Their talons scratched furiously at dirt. The lead wolf lunged.

Cassian thrust the broken femur crosswise into its mouth.

The wolf bit down. Bone shattered. Splinters flew. One sliced Cassian’s cheek.

Item destroyed.

“That was rented!”

He drove his knee into the wolf’s chest. The creature barely moved. Its weight slammed into him, knocking him onto his back. Dead jaws gaped inches from his face. Blue fire reflected in its teeth.

Cassian shoved one forearm under its throat, holding it off as claws raked his side.

Damage taken: 7

HP: 33/40

Pain flared hot and immediate. Not game pain. Not abstract numbers. Real ripping agony across his ribs.

“Okay,” he snarled, panic turning sharp in his chest. “Okay, you ugly calcium bastard.”

A skill icon pulsed in the corner of his vision.

[Prey Before Death].

He focused on it because there was nothing else to focus on except the wolf trying to chew through his arm.

[Prey Before Death] Lv.1

Glitch-tier active skill.

Cost: 5 MP

Effect: Attempt to forcibly extract one eligible drop from a living enemy below 25% HP or destabilized by direct contact.

Warning: Unauthorized looting violates standard death sequence.

Below 25% HP? Cassian didn’t have a health bar for the wolf. Direct contact? The thing was practically on top of him.

“Fine,” he grunted. “Loot.”

Nothing happened.

The wolf’s teeth sank closer.

“Loot! Activate! Steal! Yoink! Whatever the magic word is!”

The old gold whisper returned, coiling around his spine.

Take.

Cassian’s right hand shot up and clamped around the wolf’s exposed rib cage.

Golden cracks spread from his fingers.

The wolf convulsed. Its blue eyes flared. Something tore loose inside it—not flesh, not bone, but a knot of pale light ripped out through its ribs and into Cassian’s palm.

[Prey Before Death] activated.

MP: 5/10

Stolen Drop: Cracked Gravefang Dagger

A jagged dagger made from a curved black tooth appeared in Cassian’s hand.

For half a second, both he and the wolf seemed equally surprised.

Then Cassian screamed and jammed the dagger upward into the creature’s skull.

The blade punched through bone with a wet crunch. Blue fire burst from the wolf’s eye sockets. It collapsed on top of him in a heap of rattling bones and rotten hide.

Critical Hit!

Damage dealt: 18

Gravebone Wolf slain.

Experience gained: 45 (+150% Heroic Bonus)

Cassian shoved the corpse off, gasping.

“Ha!” He pointed the dagger at the other wolves, his hand shaking violently. “Who’s trash damage now?”

The remaining six wolves did not seem emotionally wounded.

They surged forward.