Chapter 1
The taxi slowly drove away, its red tail lights disappearing into the darkness at the end of the street. Alex stood beside his mother, father, and sister, watching it leave before they finally turned toward their front gate together.
Then suddenly—
BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore through the quiet night without warning. A sphere of blinding crimson energy erupted around them, swallowing the street and everything nearby in an instant. It wasn't ordinary fire. This was something far more violent and ancient, like a miniature sun had suddenly appeared right outside their home.
The intense heat struck Alex like an iron hammer, forcing the breath from his lungs. His entire body felt as though it were being burned from every direction, while the air around him became unbearably hot within seconds.
His lungs refused to breathe, and his skin felt as though it were being torn apart by the molten air surrounding him. Panic filled his mind as he desperately tried to understand what was happening, but everything happened far too quickly.
"W-what's happening?!" Alex tried to scream, but no sound escaped his throat. His body refused to respond, leaving him completely helpless as the crimson light swallowed his vision and erased everything around him.
Then—
A cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
The fire completely swallowed Alex before he could even process those words.
<...>
The system continued speaking inside his mind, but Alex never heard the end of its message. His awareness slowly faded away, as though someone had simply flipped a switch and turned his consciousness off.
Darkness followed.
It wasn't the kind of darkness that came with ordinary sleep. This darkness was deeper and heavier, a vast emptiness without direction, sound, or any clear sense of time. There was nothing around him, yet somewhere within that endless void floated a small glowing sphere.
The sphere radiated an unfamiliar energy that somehow felt strangely familiar to Alex. It was the only thing that seemed to exist within the darkness, and its faint glow gave the otherwise empty void a sense of existence.
Alex felt as though he were drifting through the darkness, although he couldn't tell whether he was actually moving. He tried opening his eyes, but nothing changed. There was no light, no sound, and no sensation anywhere within his body.
He couldn't feel his arms or legs. He couldn't feel his chest moving or even his heartbeat. In fact, he couldn't feel his own body at all.
Only darkness remained.
'Am… I dead?'
The thought appeared weakly inside his mind, trembling as though even thinking required a tremendous amount of effort. He wasn't certain how much time had passed, but slowly, fragments of his memories began returning.
then he suddenly remembered the strange voice that had called itself a system.
As though responding directly to his thoughts, the same mechanical voice suddenly echoed through his mind once again.
The voice felt uncomfortably close, almost as if it were another part of his own thoughts. At the same time, however, it was completely foreign and artificial, carrying no emotion whatsoever. That strange contradiction made Alex even more uncomfortable.
'Who… who are you?!'
Alex's awareness jolted from the sudden response. He couldn't move his body, but the shock he felt was enough to make his thoughts become much clearer.
The system answered immediately.
That answer only made Alex more confused. It didn't explain what the system actually was or how something like it could possibly exist inside his soul.
'That doesn't explain anything! What are you? Why are you in me? Where did you come from?!'
No matter how many times Alex questioned it, the answer remained exactly the same. Calm, mechanical, and absolute. It was almost as though the system had no intention of explaining anything beyond what it considered necessary.
Frustration slowly built inside Alex. He wanted answers, but there was nothing he could do to force the system to explain itself. Time also seemed meaningless within this strange darkness, and eventually, boredom joined his growing irritation.
After what felt like an incredibly long time, Alex finally decided to ask a different question. If the system refused to explain itself, perhaps he could at least understand what it meant by an Undying System.
'What is an Undying System?'
For the first time, the system gave him an answer that was different from before.
Alex felt a small flicker of relief upon hearing the different response. At least this time, the system had actually provided him with something new instead of repeating the same sentence.
'Required qualities? What requirements?'
<...>
Alex was stunned by the sudden change and couldn't help questioning what he had just heard.
'What? My presence caused an error?'
Confusion filled his mind once again. He had no idea how simply existing could cause a system error, especially when the system was supposedly a part of his own soul.
Before Alex could think about it any further, another mechanical notification appeared.
Alex froze.
Cannot die.
Those words repeated inside his mind again and again, drowning out every other thought. For a moment, it felt as though even time had stopped while he tried to understand the meaning behind those simple words.
Never die?
How was that even possible?
Every living creature eventually faced death. Humans died, animals died, and even trees eventually withered away. Death was something Alex had always considered unavoidable, an absolute rule that nothing could escape.
Yet this strange voice was telling him that he could never die.
He wanted to deny it immediately. He wanted to call it impossible and demand a better explanation. However, deep inside, there was a strange certainty telling him that the system wasn't lying.
Then another thought suddenly appeared.
The system had said it became connected to him after his death.
Did that mean the system was the reason he couldn't die?
Alex carefully went through everything the system had told him. Earlier, it had explained that the unique energy was already contained within his soul, and that energy was what made him an undying being.
That explanation seemed reasonable.
But it also created another problem.
If the energy had already existed within his soul, then how had he managed to die in the first place?
Perhaps the energy had appeared after his death, Alex thought. But that possibility didn't make sense either. The system had already been connected to him before the explosion, and he clearly remembered hearing its voice while he was still alive.
That meant he had possessed this strange energy even before his death.
So he could die.
And yet, somehow, he also couldn't.
The contradiction left Alex completely confused. The more he thought about it, the more questions appeared, twisting together until he couldn't find a clear answer.
'What is the explanation?'
He finally asked the system, hoping it would provide him with something useful.
The response felt final, like an invisible wall standing directly in front of him. Alex waited for another system update, hoping his authority would increase again like it had earlier.
Nothing happened.
After waiting for some time, Alex eventually gave up. There was no point repeatedly asking questions when the system clearly wasn't willing to answer them yet.
He mentally sighed before speaking again.
'So… I really died.'
The realization carried a quiet pain that Alex couldn't ignore. Even though he had already accepted the fact logically, saying it aloud made everything feel more real.
'Does that mean I'm not human anymore?'
Alex was stunned by that explanation. He had already accepted that he was no longer human, but the possibility of possessing a human body opened an entirely different set of questions.
'I can do that?'
The thought came almost immediately, followed by another possibility that seemed even more important.
'Does that mean I can possess other bodies too?'
The implications were overwhelming. If he truly had the ability to possess bodies, then perhaps his existence after death wasn't as hopeless as he had initially believed.
Still, one question remained more important than everything else.
'How do I gain a human body?'
The system responded without hesitation.
Alex paused for a moment after hearing that.
'Tasks… What tasks?'