[Mission 001: Complete]
[Stat Rewards Applied]
[NIHILOS SYNC: 13% → 18%]
[Warning: Neural Overload Threshold Breached]
[Forcing Logout...]
Reven barely had time to read the last line before everything glitched.
The sewer dissolved around him, code peeling like flakes from a dying screen. His body felt weightless and heavy at once. Sound vanished. Light collapsed.
Then everything went black.
Real World
Reven gasped awake in his cramped room.
Sweat soaked through his shirt. His VR gear hissed softly, the failsafe light blinking amber.
His heartbeat thundered. But something was off.
He blinked.
No migraine. No nausea. No muscle pain.
He stood and realized his balance felt... sharper. His joints, usually stiff after a long session, moved like he'd done stretches for hours. His hands, though still rough from bruises at school, closed into fists that felt denser.
He moved to the mirror.
His face was still the same. Hollow cheeks. Tired eyes. But there was something else.
His gaze.
It wasn't dull anymore. It was steady. Focused.
"Why do I feel... stronger?"
He flexed his fingers. Punched the air lightly. The motion was clean. Controlled.
Something had changed.
His phone vibrated.
A single message. No sender. Just white text on a black background:
[NIHILOS SYNC: 18%]
[PHYSICAL NERVE CROSSOVER: ACTIVE]
[You are evolving in both realities.]
Reven dropped the phone.
School – 8:43 a.m.
The corridors were as loud and cruel as ever. Reven walked the same path, past the same people who never saw him. Who always saw through him.
Then they did.
The three usual bullies blocked the hallway near his locker.
"Yo Reven," said the leader, smirking. "Wanna donate lunch money to society again?"
"We'll call it a public tax," the second laughed.
Reven didn't stop walking. He looked at them like he was observing insects.
They shoved him.
He didn't stumble.
"Oh?"
Another push.
Reven's back hit the locker, but his expression didn't change.
"You hear me? Are you broken or something?"
A punch came.
It hit his stomach.
No reaction.
Reven stared straight ahead, eyes colder than the grave.
"That didn't hurt," he said.
They went quiet.
"Wanna try again?"
His tone was not angry. Not mocking.
It was sincere. Calm.
And something about it made all three of them step back.
He bent down, picked up his notebook, dusted it off.
"I said, try again."
They didn't.
They left.
Back in the classroom, everything sounded distant. The teacher's voice, the fans, the giggles. All blurred.
Reven's phone vibrated again. Another message. This time with a loading bar.
[NIHILOS Monitoring: 18.47%]
[Resistance Level: Rising]
[Warning: You are now detectable.]
He stared at it.
Then locked the screen.
The world was changing.
And it was starting with him.
To be continued in Chapter 6.2 – "Observation Layer"