Thursday. 10:43 PM. The apartment was dark except for the monitor glow.
Kaito didn't notice the cold rice or the dead coffee. His fingers moved with the precision of a master clockmaker.
[DARK SUMMON SKILL: VOID STRIKE]
[Critical Hit! Damage: 847,000]
The Demon King fell. Kaito exhaled, expecting the usual loop. Instead:
[LEVEL UP!] [Current Level: 9999 → ???]
[HIDDEN SYSTEM MESSAGE: The Seal has been broken. Initiating soul transfer...]
The monitor didn't just flicker; it bled white light. It swallowed his desk, his hands, and finally, his consciousness.
— DEADHOLLOW —
Kaito hit the dirt.
Hard.
He smelled ash.
The sky was a bruised violet, dominated by two moons—one silver, one the color of a scab.
He wasn't in his apartment. He was in a corpse of a village. Every wooden house was scorched; the central well was a jagged tooth of cracked stone.
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
► DARK ORIGIN SYSTEM ◄
Name: Kaito Voss
Class: Dark Summoner Level: 1
Souls: 0
[STATS] STR: 5 |AGI: 5 |INT: 8 |VIT: 5| DEF: 3 |LUCK: 1
► SUMMON SLOTS: [1/1] * Active: Weak Evil Scout (Lvl 1)
Next Unlock: Level 5
Locked: All High-Tier Summons (Req. Level 100+)
"Level one," Kaito whispered.
His voice felt raspy.
"From god-tier to a peasant in a designer shirt."
[NEW MAIN QUEST: The Rotten Root]
Objective: Investigate the source of Deadhollow's decay.
Warning: Something stalks the shadows of this village.
Reward: +500 Souls, Title: Survivor.
Suddenly, heavy boots thudded against the dry earth.
Torches flickered at the village entrance.
A group of men—ruffians with rusted blades—marched in, laughing with a cruel, practiced ease.
A small girl darted from behind a charred hut, crashing into Kaito.
"Please!" she sobbed.
"The Tithe-Takers... you have to hide!"
Kaito looked at the men.
He looked at his "Level 1" status.
In the game, he would have wiped them with a thought.
Here, he felt his pulse thrumming in his throat.
"I'm done hiding," Kaito said.
It wasn't bravery; it was the cold calculation of a man who had spent twenty-six years being invisible.
He raised his hand. The air grew frigid. "Summon: Evil Scout."
A shadow detached itself from a nearby ruin.
It was small, hunched, and held a jagged bone-knife. Its eyes glowed a faint, sickly red.
[BATTLE INITIATED]
The looters paused, eyes widening.
The leader, a man with a jagged scare across his nose, sneered.
"A summoner?
Here?
Kill the freak and take the girl!"
Kaito didn't panic. He analyzed
the terrain like the engineer he was.
"Scout.
Flank left.
Use the shadows of the well."
The combat was fast and brutal.
The scout was weak, but it was silent.
In the chaos of the flickering torchlight, it was a ghost.
[BATTLE COMPLETE]
Enemies Defeated: 3
EXP: +200
Level: 1 → 2
Souls Collected: +15
The remaining looters fled into the night, screaming about "The Shadow."
The leader lay pinned under the Scout's blade.
"Who sent you?" Kaito asked, stepping into the light.
The leader looked at Kaito—not at his clothes, but at the quality of the darkness around him. His face went pale. "That... that mark on your hand.
The White Capes... they said your kind was a myth.
They said the 'Origin' was purged."
"The White Capes?" Kaito narrowed his eyes.
"The Church..." the man gasped. "They've been watching this village for years... waiting for a 'glitch' to appear.
If they find out you're alive—"
The man's eyes suddenly rolled back.
He went limp.
A strange, white sigil burned briefly on his forehead before vanishing.
[HIDDEN QUEST UNLOCKED]
► "The Silence of the Heavens"
Goal: Uncover why the Holy Church is terrified of the Dark Origin.
Warning: You are Level 2. They are everywhere.
Kaito turned to find the villagers emerging from the ruins.
They didn't cheer.
They looked at him with a mixture of profound hope and absolute terror.
An old woman with silver-filmed eyes approached.
She didn't bow, but her hands trembled.
"You have the eyes of the Architect," she whispered. "The ones the legends said would return to rebuild what was burned."
"I don't know about legends," Kaito said, looking at the broken well.
"But I know this village is a structural disaster."
He looked at his system.
[STATUS UPDATE]
Level: 2 | Souls: 15/50 Next Summon Slot: Level 5
He had no army.
The most powerful religious organization in the world was likely tracking his energy signature.
He was wearing a wrinkled office shirt in a world of swords and magic.
But for the first time in his life, the "Error" wasn't in the code.
It was in the world. And Kaito Voss was very good at fixing errors.
"First," Kaito said, his voice echoing in the silent square, "we fix the well.
Then, we build a wall."
Somewhere in the High Cathedral...
A glass orb cracked. A priest in snow-white silk looked down at the fracture.
"The seal on Deadhollow has shifted," he murmured to the shadow behind him.
"Send the Inquisitors.
Not to kill... not yet.
I want to see if the 'Dark Origin' remembers how to bleed."