Gojo had been awake for thirty-six hours straight.
Not because of the apocalypse that hadn't happened yet. He was awake because the new patch for Realm Chronicles had just dropped and someone on the forums claimed there was a hidden drop rate exploit in the Frozen Wastes dungeon.
Naturally, Gojo had to verify this personally. Scientifically. At 4AM with three empty energy drink cans beside his keyboard.
He was mid-run when the screen went white.
It wasn't his monitor or the room.
Everything
---
「 ATTENTION ALL HUMANS. 」
The words didn't appear on a screen. They appeared in his vision, floating in stark white against a void that had replaced reality. Around him he could hear screaming coming from thousands of voices or maybe millions. All at once, they sounded confused and terrified.
Gojo blinked.
"Server maintenance?" he muttered.
「 THE GRAND SURVIVAL GAME HAS BEGUN. 」
「 YOUR WORLD HAS BEEN CONVERTED INTO A GAME TERRITORY. 」
「 ALL HUMANS WILL BE ASSIGNED A TERRITORY SEED AND A UNIQUE SYSTEM. 」
「 BUILD. EXPAND. CONQUER. 」
「 THOSE WHO CANNOT SURVIVE WILL BE DELETED. 」
The void cracked open and the blue sky bled through like a loading screen finishing its render. Gojo felt the ground beneath his feet change as he looked around.
A vast empty plain stretched in every direction. There were no buildings or roads, even civilization. Just wind, wilderness, and in the far distance, the silhouette of mountains that definitely hadn't existed in South Korea five minutes ago.
"Okay," Gojo said slowly. "So it's that kind of game."
---
Around him, six other people materialized from the same white void with all of them stumbling, gasping, grabbing at the ground like they needed to confirm it was real. A middle aged man in a business suit immediately vomited. A teenage girl was crying silently. A woman in scrubs kept repeating "this isn't possible" like a loading mantra.
Gojo was the only one standing still.
He was reading the system notifications stacking up in the corner of his vision like a game UI — because that's exactly what they were.
「 TERRITORY SEED ASSIGNED. 」
「 LOCATION: Eastern Wilds, Sector 9 — Unclaimed. 」
「 TERRITORY RANK: F 」
「 RESOURCES: Minimal. 」
「 THREAT LEVEL: Moderate. 」
"F-rank start," he noted mentally. "It's the classic ruthless game design. Throw them in with nothing."
Then the important notification arrived.
「 UNIQUE SYSTEM AWAKENING IN PROGRESS... 」
Everyone around him seemed to receive theirs simultaneously because he could heard them gasp simultaneously.
"SSS-rank Combat System—"
"Merchant's Blessing—"
"Holy Knight Talent—"
The business suit man stared at his hands with trembling reverence. "Divine Sovereign System," he whispered. "I— I have a Divine Sovereign System." He straightened immediately, spine stiffening, fear replaced by something uglier. Entitlement. "Everyone listen to me. I have an SSS-rank system. If you want to survive you will follow my—"*l
Gojo stopped listening.
His own awakening notification had just appeared. And it was behaving very strangely.
「 UNIQUE SYSTEM AWAKENING DETECTED. 」
「 SCANNING... 」
「 SCANNING... 」
「 SCANNING... 」
「 ERROR: System type not found in registry. 」
「 ESCALATING TO HIGHER AUTHORITY... 」
「 HIGHER AUTHORITY CONSULTED. 」
「 ASSIGNING... 」
A long pause. Longer than anyone else's had taken. The business suit man was still talking. The girl had stopped crying and was reading her own notifications. Nobody noticed Gojo standing perfectly still, watching his screen like a hawk.
「 GAME DEVELOPER CONSOLE — ASSIGNED. 」
「 ACCESS TIER: Junior Developer 」
「 MODULES UNLOCKED: World Editor / Entity Manager / Drop Rate Console / Debug Mode / Supreme Store \[LOCKED\] / Patch Notes \[LOCKED\] / Constellation Interface \[LOCKED\] 」
「 WARNING: This system was not intended for player use. 」
「 Have fun. 」
Gojo stared at that last line for a long moment.
'Have fun.'
It didn't have any rank, power buff or any show of details like that. It was just a casual sign-off from whatever cosmic entity had accidentally handed him the keys to the entire game engine.
He opened the Drop Rate Console.
A clean interface materialized inti rows and rows of item categories, monster types, resource nodes, dungeon chests. Every single one had a percentage slider beside it. They all sat at their defaults. Common herbs: 12%. Iron ore: 8%. Rare equipment: 0.3%.
Gojo selected all.
He dragged every single slider to 100%.
「 CONFIRMED: All drop rates in Territory — Sector 9 set to 100%. 」
He closed the console and looked up at the wilderness around him. Somewhere out there, in this newly converted game world, kingdoms were already forming. SSS-rank players were rallying followers. Divine systems were manifesting golden auras and grand destinies.
And here in Sector 9, a broke eighteen years year old in a gaming chair hoodie had just set every loot table in his territory to maximum.
He cracked his knuckles.
"Alright," Gojo said quietly, to nobody in particular. "Let's see what this world is running on."
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「 WELCOME, DEVELOPER. 」
「 THE GAME BEGINS NOW. 」