Kai's life had never quite matched the expectations set for him. It wasn't a life defined by failures so much as one shaped by mediocrity. At 24, he still lived at home, coasting through the day-to-day with a degree in chemistry that had gathered more dust than any professional use. The degree had been hard-earned, though he couldn't say he was particularly proud of it. It just sat there, framed in his bedroom, a reminder that he had once tried to be someone.

Now, mornings for Kai were as routine as they were hollow. He sat at the kitchen table, slouched over a bowl of soggy cornflakes, eyes unfocused as he absently stirred the cereal with his spoon. Across the room, his mother stood with her arms crossed, an all-too-familiar look of disappointment etched into her features.

"You're such a disappointment," she said, her voice cutting through the quiet kitchen like a knife.

Kai didn't react right away. The words stung less with each passing day, a dull ache rather than a sharp pain. He almost found comfort in the predictability of it.

"Good morning to you too," he muttered, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. It tasted like cardboard, but he barely noticed.

His mother sighed, as if the weight of his existence was exhausting her. "You're 24, Kai. Twenty-four. And what do you have to show for it? A degree in chemistry that you're doing absolutely nothing with. I thought you'd be working by now."

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "I'm figuring things out."

"Figuring things out?" Her tone was incredulous. "You've been 'figuring things out' for two years. Sitting here, playing video games, wasting time, while everyone else your age is out there living their lives."

He wanted to argue, but the truth was, he didn't have much of a defense. What could he say? That he didn't know what he wanted? That the thought of getting stuck in a soul-crushing job made him want to crawl back into bed and sleep for a decade? He had tried. Tried to care. Tried to live up to the expectations everyone had for him. But somewhere along the way, he'd lost the energy to keep pretending.

"It's not like I'm completely useless," he mumbled. "I've got a degree, I've got plans—"

His mother cut him off, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Plans? What plans, Kai? Sitting in your room playing video games isn't a plan. It's an excuse. At least try to get a job today. I'm not asking for much. Just a little effort."

Effort. The word clung to the air, heavy and accusatory. Kai hadn't felt much of that in a long time. Not since the degree that had led nowhere. Not since his father had—

"Ever since your father died..." Her voice softened, and Kai's grip tightened around his spoon. There it was. The line that always came when the conversation turned serious. The unspoken excuse she thought explained everything.

"Don't," he muttered, his voice low but sharp.

She pressed on, oblivious or uncaring of the reaction. "Ever since then, you've been stuck. I don't think you've ever really dealt with it."

Kai's jaw clenched. "This isn't about Dad."

"I think it is," she said quietly, the frustration gone, replaced with concern. "You stopped caring about everything after he was gone. It's like you gave up."

"I didn't give up," he snapped, louder than he intended. "I'm just… figuring things out, okay? Like everyone else my age."

But even as the words left his mouth, they felt hollow. He knew it, and she knew it too. Her silence confirmed that.

Kai stood abruptly, pushing his chair back with more force than necessary. He grabbed his keys from the counter, his frustration bubbling just beneath the surface. "I'm going out."

"Kai—"

He didn't wait for her to finish. He left, slamming the door behind him.

Outside, the air was crisp, and the sunlight seemed too bright for his mood. Kai shoved his earbuds in, hoping to drown out the lingering echo of the argument. A motivational podcast blared in his ears—something about chasing your dreams and achieving financial success. The kind of nonsense that was supposed to light a fire under you but just made him feel more… stuck.

He walked without direction, thoughts swirling in his head. Maybe he was stuck. Maybe his mother was right, and he hadn't moved on from his father's death. But that didn't mean he wanted to hear it. Didn't mean it excused her constant nagging.

Kai stepped into the street, too lost in his own mind to notice much around him. The world outside felt distant, like he was watching it all happen from behind a screen. He focused on the podcast, some middle-aged guy bragging about making six figures from "just following his passion."

Maybe things would change. Maybe tomorrow he'd wake up and everything would make sense. Maybe something exciting was just around the corner.

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It turns out, something was.

But not the kind of excitement he was hoping for.

He was halfway across the street when the sound of screeching tires cut through his thoughts. It was distant at first, a noise he'd heard a thousand times on busy roads. But this time, it got louder. Closer. Fast.

Kai looked up just in time to see the truck barreling toward him. Full speed. No time to react.

And in that final, absurd moment, the only thought that crossed his mind was: Well, I guess I have a lot of chemistry with trucks. Pun intended.

Then—bam.

Everything went black.

For a moment, there was nothing. Not the peaceful fade-to-black like in movies, where time slips away in a gentle whisper. No. This was more like getting yanked out of reality and dumped into… well, nothing.

Kai didn't feel anything. No pain, no ground beneath his feet. He couldn't even tell if he still had a body. It was like his entire existence had hit pause, and now he was floating in some endless void, stuck between somewhere and nowhere.

No thoughts of the truck, no last regrets. Just silence.

Then, out of the void, came a voice.

"SYSTEM ERROR. TUTORIAL INCOMPLETE."

Kai's consciousness snapped back into place.

What the…? His mind raced, trying to make sense of what was happening. He blinked—or at least, he thought he blinked. It was hard to tell when there was nothing to blink at.

The voice boomed again, robotic and indifferent, like it had no clue it was speaking to a guy who just got flattened by a truck.

"REBOOTING SYSTEM."

Kai couldn't tell if he should be concerned or entertained. "System? Tutorial?" None of this made sense, and yet, somehow, it felt eerily familiar. Like the opening sequence of every video game he'd ever played.

A bright light suddenly sliced through the darkness, pulling Kai out of the void with a jolt. For a split second, he wondered if this was the afterlife, but it didn't feel like heaven—or hell. If anything, it felt more like… a loading screen.

Shapes started to take form around him, shifting and morphing as the bright light filled in the details. The colors were too sharp, too vivid, like someone had cranked the saturation way past normal. The ground beneath his feet solidified, and suddenly, he was standing—fully conscious and weirdly calm—in what looked like the starting area of a video game.

Right in front of him, floating text appeared midair:

WELCOME TO INFERNO: BATTLE OF LEGENDS.

Kai stared at the message, trying to process what he was seeing.

Wait… Inferno? The name rattled around in his head until it clicked.

His favorite game. The one he'd sunk hours into—grinding, leveling up, perfecting strategies. But this? This wasn't just the game's interface. This was real. Or at least, as real as things could feel in this bizarre reality.

Before he could wrap his head around it, the ground shifted beneath him, and a booming voice from above declared, "Choose your class, hero!"

Kai's heart dropped.

He wasn't just in any game.

He'd been reincarnated in his favorite one.

His heart raced, pounding so loudly in his chest it almost drowned out the words. He wasn't just dreaming. He wasn't hallucinating. He had been reincarnated in his favorite game.

For a moment, excitement surged through him. This was it. This was his chance—the ultimate dream of every gamer, the chance to start fresh in the world he'd spent years mastering. He could become the most powerful being in existence, an SSS-ranker, with untold abilities at his disposal. His fingers twitched in anticipation as a selection screen materialized in front of him, a holographic display hovering in the air.

"Please select your class from the following options!"

The familiar options gleamed before him: Warrior, Mage, Assassin, Paladin, Necromancer. Kai grinned. The choices were endless, but he already knew what he wanted—something epic, something no one could rival. He moved to select Necromancer, his father's favorite class.

But just as his hand reached out to confirm the choice, the screen flickered, the letters blurring.

"ERROR. CHARACTER ALREADY CHOSEN."

Kai blinked, his hand hovering mid-air. "Wait, what?"

He tried again, pressing the option harder this time, as if that would make a difference. The same message blared in front of him:

"ERROR. CHARACTER ALREADY CHOSEN."

Frustration began bubbling up. "No, no, no. I just got here! I'm supposed to pick!"

Desperation made him scroll through the other classes. Mage? ERROR. Paladin? ERROR. He furiously tapped at Assassin, then tried Warrior. ERROR. CHARACTER ALREADY CHOSEN.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Kai groaned, pressing the button more frantically, but the screen flickered and glitched.

"Let me pick a class!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the empty space around him. "What's the point of all this if I don't even get to choose?"

As if in response to his complaint, the ground beneath him began to tremble violently. Before Kai could react, the selection screen vanished, and the familiar voice returned.

"CHARACTER ALREADY ASSIGNED. GOOD LUCK, HERO!"

"What do you mean, already assigned?!" Kai huffed up at the system message, raising his middle finger towards it. His heart pounded as he tried to make sense of what was happening. "I didn't even get to customize anything! What kind of lame, second-hand, E ranked system is this?!"

Suddenly, the world beneath him gave caved in. Kai's stomach lurched as he realized the ground wasn't just shaking—it was collapsing. A gust of wind roared past him, and before he could scream, he was hurled downward, falling at breakneck speed through the sky.

"Wait, wait, wait—NO! STOP!" Kai flailed helplessly as the ground rushed toward him, the clouds whipping past like a blur of white and gray. The wind howled in his ears, and his body plummeted faster than he could process, spinning uncontrollably.

Far below, he could make out the tiny outline of what looked like a village, getting larger and larger with every passing second. His heart raced, his mind scrambled, but no matter how much he tried to will himself to stop falling, nothing worked.

"Why does it always have to be like this?!" Kai screamed at the heavens, fists clenched. "At least give me a soft landing!"

But the system was merciless, and the village loomed closer. The ground was speeding up, and for a brief, terrifying moment, Kai wondered if he was about to die for a second time—this time from the impact of being plummeted from 100km high.

Just before impact, a final notification flashed before his eyes:

WELCOME TO INFERNO. CURRENT LEVEL: 0.

And then, everything went black. Again.