…

  9:50 a.m.

  A college lecture hall.

  Ethan Parker sat in the back row by the window. Floating in front of his eyes was a countdown only he could see.

  [MISSION COMPLETE IN: 10:00]

  After he’d been dropped into this world, a “system” had assigned him a mission:

  —Survive for three years.

  [REWARD: Random Divine Fragment]

  Ethan was nineteen now. Ten minutes. That was all that stood between him and the reward.

  For three straight years, he’d trained his body and his mind like his life depended on it—because it had. He’d earned a black belt, lifted, ran, did breath control, cold showers, the whole cliché package—just to be ready for this moment.

  If nothing went wrong, all he had to do was stay alive for ten more minutes and the cheat code would finally unlock.

  And what could possibly go wrong in a classroom?

  His brain served up the same montage every guy had daydreamed at least once:

  The school gets hit with a zombie outbreak. Or the world ends. Monsters everywhere. Screw homework—this is the new era, and I’m going to be the hero.

  He almost laughed at himself.

  Come on. That was just cringe fantasy stuff.

  He’d been here three years and nothing weird had happened. Not once.

  Then, right as his thoughts drifted—

  The sky outside dimmed like someone hit a switch.

  Thick storm clouds swallowed the sun in seconds. Inside the cloudbank, red lightning churned like a living thing. The air went weirdly gray, as if the world had been desaturated—trees, buildings, people, all of it dulled.

  The whole campus suddenly felt like the beginning of an apocalypse movie.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ethan muttered.

  He wasn’t the only one who saw it.

  The lecture room buzzed as students looked up from laptops and phones.

  “What the hell is that?”

  “Is a storm coming in?”

  “I’ve never seen the sky look like that—this is freaky.”

  Ethan shot to his feet—because through the window, he saw the front gate at the edge of campus get hit so hard it collapsed.

  A dark green shape smashed through the entrance and charged inside.

  A monster.

  It was huge—thick with muscle, covered in rough, mossy scales like stone and algae fused together. It moved like a tank, barreling straight across the quad.

  Students screamed.

  A few didn’t even get the chance—one swipe and they went flying, bodies slamming into concrete. Blood. Splintered phones. Someone didn’t get up.

  “Ethan!” the professor snapped, voice sharp with authority. “Sit down. You are not going to disrupt my class with whatever this is.”

  “There’s a monster on campus,” Ethan said, dead serious. “You need to get everyone to shelter and call campus police—now. I’m not messing around.”

  He didn’t wait for permission. He shoved through the back door and sprinted into the hallway.

  Behind him, laughter broke out.

  “Bro fell asleep and lost his mind.”

  “He’s doing a bit.”

  “If you’re gonna act, at least commit.”

  Then—

  RAAAAAH!

  The roar came from downstairs, deep enough to vibrate through the building.

  The laughter died instantly.

  “There’s… there’s actually something—”

  A scream cut the sentence in half.

  The hallway exploded into panic. Doors flew open. Students poured out. Shoes slapped tile. People shoved and cried and shouted names.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Ethan didn’t go down.

  He went up.

  The lecture hall was on the third floor. The rooftop access was on seven.

  Just get to the roof. Survive the last few minutes. That’s it.

  He didn’t know what this was—some kind of “other world” overlay like in movies and games, where reality looked the same but everything was wrong. A nightmare version of the normal world, filled with things that weren’t supposed to exist.

  But he didn’t need answers.

  He needed time.

  A lot of students had the same idea. By the time Ethan hit the stairwell, the crowd was already stampeding upward, shoulder to shoulder, jamming the narrow passage.

  “Wh-what’s happening?!”

  “Oh my God—oh my God!”

  “Why is this happening here?!”

  They spilled onto the rooftop in waves.

  Within minutes, close to a hundred people were up there.

  Ethan didn’t assume the roof was safe. He scanned the edges, the ladders, the drop points, the doors—running worst-case scenarios in his head.

  If it breaks through, where can I move? What can I use? What buys me seconds?

  Someone yelled, “It’s coming up! Shut the door!”

  “If we don’t lock it, we’re dead!”

  “Lock it—LOCK IT!”

  A couple of guys grabbed the heavy metal door to the roof and started to pull it shut—

  —but then several girls came racing up the stairs and slammed into it from the other side, using their bodies to keep it open.

  “Don’t close it! Please—let us in!”

  One of them was Madison Vale, a classmate.

  Earlier, she’d been one of the loudest laughing at Ethan when he warned everyone. Now she was pale, eyes wide and wet, tears trembling on her lashes as she fought to get through.

  “Hurry! Move!”

  They hauled the last few girls onto the roof. The guys slammed the door shut, threw the bolt, and dragged anything they could find—chairs, a broken table, a maintenance cart—piling it against the door like a barricade.

  The moment Madison got inside, she spotted Ethan near the back.

  Fear flipped into fury.

  She stormed toward him, voice sharp and high. “You selfish asshole! You just ran and saved yourself! You didn’t even try to get us out! And you didn’t say anything to help when they were about to lock the door!”

  Ethan let out a cold, humorless laugh. “When I said a monster was coming, you were laughing pretty loud.”

  “Then why didn’t you explain more? We almost got stuck out there! This is your fault!”

  She got so worked up she swung at him.

  Her hand stopped midair.

  Ethan caught her wrist.

  “What are you doing—let go!” Madison snapped. “You’re hurting me!”

  In the next second, Ethan grabbed her by the hair and drove her forehead into the concrete wall.

  CRACK.

  Blood ran down her brow.

  “Still hurts?” he said, voice flat.

  “Keep screaming and you’ll draw it right to us. And if you keep running your mouth, I’ll shut it for you.”

  He shoved her away.

  Only then did the others surge in, helping Madison up as she bled and shook.

  A tall guy jumped to his feet, glaring at Ethan. “Are you kidding me? You hit a girl!”

  “I’m the worst,” Ethan said. “So what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m not letting this slide!”

  The guy lunged, swinging a big, clumsy punch—trying to look brave.

  Ethan slipped sideways. His knee slammed into the guy’s chest. Then he hooked his leg and dumped him onto the roof like a sack of laundry.

  Ethan planted a foot on his forehead and looked down at him like he was nothing.

  “Don’t like it,” Ethan said calmly, “then stop looking.”

  They weren’t beating him. Not after three years of training with one goal: survive.

  A moment later, a terrible realization swept through the crowd—

  Down in the building, everything had gone quiet.

  No screaming. No running footsteps.

  Just silence.

  And then—

  Heavy, deliberate steps climbing upward.

  Closer.

  Closer.

  Until they stopped right outside the rooftop door.

  THUD.

  A deep dent appeared in the metal, shaped unmistakably like a fist.

  Everyone backed away, eyes locked on the door. Hands over mouths. No one dared breathe too loudly.

  THUD. THUD. THUD.

  With every strike, the metal bowed outward violently.

  For something that strong, breaking through was only a matter of time.

  Each impact rang like a countdown to death.

  Madison, bloodshot-eyed and shaking with rage, glared at Ethan. “If you’re such a man, go hold the door! Picking on me—what does that prove?!”

  Ethan didn’t even look at her.

  Because after three years of grinding, his mission finally hit zero.

  [MISSION COMPLETE IN: 00:00]

  [CONGRATULATIONS. HIDDEN MISSION CLEARED. REWARD: “DIVINE FRAGMENT.” ACTIVATE NOW?]

  “Yes.”

  His consciousness dropped like an elevator cut loose.

  For a heartbeat, he wasn’t on a school roof anymore.

  He was seated on a throne—cold and bright like polished jade—high above a battlefield drenched in blood. Bodies piled by the hundreds of thousands. A river of red flowing at his feet.

  [DIVINITY “GOD OF SLAUGHTER” AWAKENED. DRAW A DIVINE AUTHORITY.]

  In the space of his mind, hundreds of cards appeared, circling him in a slow, uneven orbit.

  Ethan didn’t hesitate.

  He flipped one.

  Gold lettering blazed across it.

  [AUTHORITY SEQUENCE 003 — BLOOD SOVEREIGN (UNIQUE)]

  Primary [Blood Mastery]: Control your own blood and shape it into any form.

  Secondary [Sovereign Bloodline]: Ignore pain. Cannot die from blood loss. Accelerated healing.

  Secondary [Hunter’s Craving]: Killing monsters permanently increases blood strength by 1%. Stronger kills grant more.

  Secondary [Divine Resonance]: Every +10% blood strength grants a “Divine Gift” draw (Sequence ability or talent).

  Supernatural power.

  And not the weak kind, either.

  Ethan tested it immediately.

  He dragged his index finger across his teeth. A bead of blood surfaced.

  With a thought, the droplet stretched and sharpened—forming a thin, needle-like spike at his fingertip.

  It worked.

  And it felt… strong.

  Then—

  BOOM!

  The rooftop door ripped free and flew inward.

  The dark green monster stormed onto the roof like a wolf into a pen.

  Screams exploded.

  One guy—eyes wild—ran straight to the edge and jumped.

  He’d rather hit the ground than get torn apart.

  That took guts. Or pure terror.

  [DIVINE SERIES QUEST UNLOCKED]

  [CURRENT QUEST: KILL ANY MONSTER.]

  Ethan’s mouth curled into a small smile.

  Perfect.

  While everyone else backed away, Ethan moved forward against the tide. On the way, he reached out and took a small paring knife from a guy’s shaking hand.

  “Borrowing this.”

  “Dude—what are you doing?! You’re gonna get yourself killed!”

  Ahead, a few girls were pinned against the wall, trembling so hard their eyes were rolling back. Their white socks and pleated skirts were speckled with blood.

  “Don’t—don’t come closer…”

  “Help… Mom—no, no—!”

  The monster didn’t care. It stalked toward them on thick, powerful legs.

  “Mhm,” Ethan said softly—from behind it.

  A small chunk of gravel flicked from his hand, arcing cleanly through the air—

  —and smacked the creature square between the shoulders.

  For a split second, everyone had the same thought:

  He’s insane.

  …