Kai stared blankly at the flickering words, his chest tightening as reality sank in. Soulless. The word gnawed at him, hollowing out what little hope he'd been holding onto. He had fought, he had bled, but this—this was the final verdict.
He could barely feel the cold metal of the Obsidian Edge in his hand, the weapon that had once promised salvation, now nothing more than a cruel reminder of his failure. It was supposed to mean something—victory, triumph, ascension—but now, it was as empty as the title the system had branded him with.
"Soulless?" Kai whispered, his voice almost lost in the vast, silent room. He felt a rush of anger begin to stir, but it quickly faded, leaving only a gnawing void. This wasn't what he'd expected. None of it was.
He had come to this world with a purpose. To escape his old life. To be something more than just... what he had been before. To find strength. But now? It all felt like a twisted joke. A system meant to guide him had instead led him to this—to be stripped of something he never even knew he had.
The massive room, once imposing and grand, now felt like a prison. The walls were closing in, the torches flickering as if mocking his every step, casting long shadows over the stone floor. The statue of the fallen Champion lay in ruins before him, reduced to rubble by his hand, but it was he who felt defeated.
Kai lowered the Obsidian Edge, the weight of it pulling at his arm. Every part of him ached—not just from the battle, but from the gnawing sense of loss that he couldn't quite put into words. What was the point of fighting if this was the outcome? The wind howled through the cracked walls of the temple, a hollow sound that seemed like screams.
Kai stood frozen, his mind racing but coming up blank, like a void swallowing every thought, every hope he had clung to. No soul. The very foundation of existence in this world. Without it, he was worse than powerless—he was invisible, a walking corpse in a world that revolved around Souls.
He had spent years understanding this game, unraveling its secrets, studying every hidden corner of its lore. But none of that mattered now. Everything—every ability, every bit of power, every chance at survival—was tied to the Soul. Without it, Kai was nothing more than a glitch, a fragment in a system that should have discarded him long ago.
He felt the sting of his own nails digging into his palms as his fists clenched tighter, the pain a welcome distraction from the storm of emotions crashing inside him. His body ached from the battle, his mind spun from the realization, but the worst was the emptiness that gnawed at his core.
There were no exceptions to this rule of life. Everyone had a Soul. Everyone.
So why didn't he?
The question tore through his thoughts like a blade. Why him? Why had the system singled him out, branded him with this curse? Was it something he had done? Some hidden aspect of his character, his very being? Or was this world—this game—just as cruel as the one he'd tried so desperately to leave behind?
He could still feel the weight of the Obsidian Edge at his side, the weapon that was supposed to be his ticket to power, to victory. Now, it felt almost laughable. What was the point of having the sharpest blade, the strongest weapon, when the one wielding it was hollow?
Years of playing this game, of grinding through endless quests, collecting rare items, outsmarting stronger enemies. He knew the mechanics, the lore, the paths to follow. But all that knowledge was useless if the system didn't recognize him as part of its world. Without a Soul, he was a nobody.
Kai stared down at his hands, covered in dirt and blood. His knuckles were bruised from gripping the Obsidian Edge during the fight. And yet, despite everything, he was still standing. His heart was still beating. His breath, though shallow, still filled his lungs.
That had to mean something, right?
He wanted to scream, to demand answers from the system that had played him for a fool, but the words wouldn't come. No Soul. It was a death sentence, a rejection from the very fabric of the world he was trapped in.
Kai's gaze drifted back to the ruins around him, the ancient temple now silent, a tomb for his ambitions. The torches along the walls flickered, casting long shadows that seemed to mock him. What now? What was he supposed to do without the one thing that defined everything here?
He sank to his knees, the weight of his own existence crashing down on him. This world had taken everything. The chance at redemption, the hope for something more—gone in an instant.
"Why am I even here?" Kai muttered under his breath, his voice raw with frustration. "What's the point if I don't even have a Soul?"
The silence that followed was deafening. The system gave no response, no answers to his questions. Just the cold, unyielding truth: CHARACTER: SOULESS.
Kai closed his eyes, taking in a slow, deep breath. The world he had known, the world he had sought to conquer, felt like it was slipping away. He had nothing. No power. No strength. No magic. And now, it seemed, no future.
But as the quiet settled over him, something else stirred—a flicker of defiance, buried beneath the crushing despair. It was small, almost imperceptible, but it was there.
He wasn't dead yet.
There had to be a reason for this. The system wasn't just broken. It was too deliberate, too cruel for this to be a simple glitch. There was something behind it—something he didn't understand yet. And maybe, just maybe, there was a way to change it.
Kai slowly opened his eyes, his jaw tightening with newfound resolve. If this world had decided he was soulless, if it had stripped him of everything that made him human, then he would find a way to beat it. To tear down the rules that bound him and rewrite them.
If the system thought he was soulless, then he would prove it wrong.
As the silence in the temple settled over Kai, the system's cold message lingered in the air, heavy and oppressive. He clenched his fists tighter, refusing to accept the grim fate it had assigned him. He would fight against this; he had to. But first, he needed to get out of this cursed place.
Suddenly, another message appeared in his vision, flickering and hazy as if the system itself was uncertain:
[SYSTEM ALERT: WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXIT THE TUTORIAL?]
[PROGRESS CANNOT BE SAVED.]
Kai stared at the words, his mind swimming with a mix of relief and hesitation. No progress saved? Everything he had done here—the fight, the wounds, the Obsidian Edge—would be erased like it never happened.
Part of him hesitated. The Obsidian Edge was his only real gain from this nightmare. And yet… what good was it to hold on to a weapon in a world that deemed him soulless?
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The temple walls felt like they were closing in around him, the weight of his defeat pressing harder with each passing second. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much he wanted to cling to the last shred of his progress, he knew the truth.
This was just a tutorial.
His jaw tightened with a mix of defiance and bitterness. There would be other weapons, other opportunities to grow stronger. If he stayed here, trapped in this broken trial, he would be no better than a prisoner.
He took a deep breath and focused on the decision in front of him.
[YES]
As soon as he made the choice, the air around him shimmered and warped. The temple walls flickered and dissolved, the ancient stone crumbling into nothingness. His body felt weightless for a moment, caught in a strange limbo between the tutorial and the real world.
Light exploded in around him, the familiar painful tinge of electricity coursing through his body. And then—darkness
When Kai opened his eyes, the world was different. The brutal, suffocating grip of the mountains and the temple was gone. He was back in the forest, but something had changed.
Dawn's first light filtered through the canopy above, casting golden rays across the forest floor. Birds chirped softly, welcoming the new day, and the scent of dew-kissed earth filled the air. The harsh wind of the mountains had been replaced with a gentle breeze that carried the fresh scent of pine and damp leaves.
It was serene. Peaceful.
Too peaceful.
His wounds throbbed, a painful reminder that the system had taken everything except the damage.
Kai winced as he stood, forcing himself to move despite the pain. As he turned, his gaze fell on the girl. She sat in the clearing, quietly braiding flowers, her presence serene against the backdrop of the forest.
He winced, trying to push the pain down, but every breath felt like fire.
As he approached the girl, still sitting in the clearing, braiding flowers, the contrast between them felt jarring. Her presence seemed too calm, too soft for a world that had just declared him soulless.
Kai opened his mouth to speak but faltered, his voice escaping as a rasped breath. The girl turned, her eyes widening as she took in his battered form, her hands freezing mid-braid.
"Oh my—you're hurt!" she exclaimed, her calm demeanor instantly evaporating as she dropped the flowers and rushed to her feet. Her eyes swept over him, quickly assessing the severity of his injuries.
Kai blinked, startled by her sudden panic. "It's fine," he muttered through gritted teeth, his body screaming in protest at every movement. "I'll survive."
"No, you're bleeding," she said, her voice trembling slightly as she stepped closer. "You—you're really hurt." Her hands hovered near his wounds as though she wanted to help but didn't know where to start.
Kai groaned and sat down on the nearest rock, clutching his side where the shadow-beast had slashed him. "It's not as bad as it looks," he tried to reassure her, though even he wasn't convinced. His vision swam, and the edges of his mind threatened to darken again.
But the girl wasn't listening. Her panic had turned into focused determination as she knelt down beside him. "I can save you," she murmured under her breath, more to herself than to Kai. Her hands trembled slightly as they hovered over his wounds, a faint golden light starting to emanate from her fingertips.
Kai's eyes widened. "Wait… What are you—?"
Before he could finish, her hands glowed brighter, and the warmth of her magic flowed into him. His body stiffened at the sensation, but the searing pain in his chest began to dull. The bleeding slowed, his muscles relaxed, and his skin started to knit back together under the soft golden glow of her power.
Kai stared at her, dumbfounded. He'd never seen healing magic this powerful—not in all his years playing the game. The warmth of it surged through him, and the sensation was almost overwhelming. It wasn't just a healing spell—this was something far more potent, something only an incredibly skilled magic user could wield.
As the light faded, the girl let out a soft sigh of relief, her hands dropping to her sides as though the magic had drained her.
"That's more than just 'a little healing magic,'" Kai said, his voice low. "I've seen what real healing looks like. This is something else."
The girl looked down, her face flushing slightly. "I… I didn't mean to startle you. I just… couldn't let you stay hurt. You looked like you were going to pass out."
Kai stared at her, trying to piece it all together. The system had branded him soulless. He had no strength, no magic, no future. And yet, here was this girl, wielding power so effortlessly, so instinctively. Her magic had felt like the sun itself, burning away the pain and leaving him whole again. Only someone with an incredibly powerful soul could possess that level of skill.
"What's your name?" Kai asked, his voice soft but curious.
She hesitated, her fingers twisting in her lap, as if she wasn't used to people asking about her directly. "My name's... Lyra," she finally said, her voice quiet but sincere. "I've been training for a while. Healing, I mean. It's all I'm really good at."
Kai's mind raced. Lyra. He had heard that name before. This was why this girl felt awful familiar, she was supposed to accompany the PLAYER as a side character. She was the best healer in the three realms, if you completed her side story, it would later be revealed that she was a descendant from a Light Elf. Creatures awfully similar to angels. What the fuck. Nowhere on inferno's lore was her past mentioned. And no way in hell would've Kai guessed she used to live in a shit village like this one.
Kai's voice felt foreign to him as he introduced himself, the name falling from his lips with an emptiness that echoed in his chest. "I'm Kai." But what did that name even mean anymore? He wasn't who he thought he was—who he had wanted to become. His mind churned as he struggled to make sense of Lyra's appearance, of the role she was supposed to play in this world, but even those thoughts felt distant, dulled. He had a plan, sure—get to the Capital, find out if there was a PLAYER, secure the artifact.
But deep down, he knew it didn't matter.
What was the point? He had no magic. He had no power. Just the stats assigned to a body that wasn't even his. He had spent years grinding, believing there was a path to greatness, a chance to be something more, but that chance had vanished the moment the system branded him with the mark of nothingness.
He glanced at Lyra, the girl supposed to play a role in the grand scheme of this game, someone who would aid a PLAYER—someone who actually mattered. But he wasn't a PLAYER. He wasn't the hero of this story. He was just... Kai. And what could he offer? What could he possibly do when every path, every door, was closed off to him?
The crushing realization weighed him down. He had tried so hard to break free from the chains of his old life, from the failures that had haunted him back there. But here, it was no different. No matter how much he fought, no matter how far he ran, it always led back to this—emptiness. Futility.
He had dreamed once—dreamed of becoming an SSS-ranker, of mastering this world and proving something, to himself, to his father, to the universe. That hope had fueled him, kept him going through the grueling trials and endless grind. But now? Now it all seemed like a child's delusion, a naïve wish that was never meant to be.
His fists clenched weakly by his side, but there was no strength left to grip the anger that once simmered beneath the surface. He had thought if he just tried harder, if he just pushed beyond his limits, that he could rewrite his fate. But life had a way of reminding him, over and over, that sometimes trying wasn't enough.
The memories of his past began to creep in, unbidden, like shadows lurking in the corners of his mind. His father—stern, disappointed, watching him fail over and over. That last night, before everything fell apart, the way his father had looked at him, like he was already lost. Like he was already gone.
And maybe that's what he had always been. Lost. Gone. Empty.
Kai stared into the forest, its quiet serenity a stark contrast to the turmoil roiling inside him. Lyra was talking, her voice soft, concerned, but her words washed over him like the wind—unnoticed, unimportant. Nothing she said could change what he had come to accept.
There was no magic in him. No strength. No soul.
He had tried to run from that truth for so long, convinced that if he fought hard enough, he could outrun it. But it was here, staring him in the face, undeniable. And for the first time, he couldn't bring himself to push back. He couldn't fight anymore.
Some things just didn't change, no matter how hard you tried.
Maybe that's why, as the night deepened and the world faded into shadow, Kai finally decided to give up. Not in a dramatic, desperate way, but in the quiet, resigned manner of someone who had exhausted every last bit of hope. He didn't have the strength to chase something that had never been within his grasp.
That night, as sleep claimed him, Kai dreamed of his father. He saw the man standing in the doorway, arms crossed, his face impassive but his eyes heavy with that familiar weight—disappointment, resignation, goodbye. It was the same dream he had always feared, but this time, it felt like closure. Like the final, proper farewell to a dream that was never meant to be.
---
Name: (Kai) Mikhail (Orphaned)
Age: 15
Class: [Unassigned]
Level:0
Health: 50/50
Stamina: 30/30
Mana: 10/10
---