Kai Reno died at second 47 of the final round.
Not from exhaustion. Not from a clean hit.
He died because the ring floor was wet, he slipped, and his skull met the concrete curb before the referee could do anything.
Undefeated champion, killed by gravity.
---
The next thing Kai saw was a floating menu.
[INTERDIMENSIONAL STREAMING SYSTEM]
[Welcome, Streamer #4,891]
[Your channel has been activated. Viewers from your home world will be able to follow your progress in real time.]
[Destination world: Aethon — Danger rating: SSS]
[Initial skill detected...]
[Processing...]
Kai read everything twice.
"Hey," he said out loud, not sure who he was talking to. "Can I decline this?"
[No.]
"Ah. Cool."
---
He appeared in a forest.
Not a city, not a castle, not anywhere with a roof or food nearby. A forest. With trees the size of buildings and something that smelled like dampness and recent death.
The system popped open a window before he could complain.
[Skill evaluation in progress...]
[Elemental magic: 0]
[Beast affinity: 0]
[Weapon handling: 0]
[Martial arts: ...]
[Martial arts: ...]
[ERROR — Rank not recognized by system]
[Assigning temporary classification: UNRANKED]
[Skill registered as: Martial Arts Mastery — UNRANKED]
Kai stared at the screen.
"Unranked?"
[The system has no precedent for ranking this skill.]
[Recommendation: Find an Academy and request official evaluation.]
"They gave me a skill that even the system doesn't know what it is. Great."
---
The stream had been active for thirty seconds.
He already had 55 viewers.
[GarcíaFTW: bro where'd this guy come from]
[NocheEterna99: LMAOO "unranked" even the gods rejected him]
[StreamerHunter: 5 coins says he dies in 10 minutes]
Kai saw the comments floating in the corner of his vision, a system feature.
"Hey," he said, not taking his eyes off the forest. "I don't know how often I'll be able to check in on you guys. I'm trying not to die."
[GarcíaFTW: LMAOOOO]
[NocheEterna99: at least he's honest]
---
The first monster appeared three minutes later.
A wolf. But the size of a truck. With two heads, red eyes, and enough muscle mass to crush a car without breaking a sweat.
[Beast detected: Two-Headed Shadow Wolf]
[Rank: B]
[Estimated danger to user: CRITICAL]
[Recommendation: Flee.]
"No," said Kai.
[StreamerHunter: NO??? BRO WTF]
[GarcíaFTW: zero magic zero weapons and he says no to the giant wolf]
The wolf charged at him.
Kai didn't move until the last second. When the beast's jaws were about to close around his head, he twisted his body five centimeters, let the bite pass, and threw a straight hook to the side of the left skull with his full hip behind the punch.
The sound was dry.
The wolf's left head rotated ninety degrees in the wrong direction.
The animal collapsed.
Kai shook out his knuckles.
"Rank B," he muttered. "Nice."
[StreamerHunter: MY MONEY. MY MONEY IS GONE.]
[NocheEterna99: ONE HIT. ONE SINGLE HIT ON A RANK B]
[User_4421 has joined the stream]
[User_4421: WHAT DID I JUST WATCH]
[Beast defeated. Experience gained.]
[Skill: Martial Arts Mastery — UNRANKED... updated.]
[Martial Arts Mastery — UNRANKED updated.]
[Martial Arts Mastery — UNRANKED updated.]
[System cannot assign rank. Progress recorded internally.]
Kai looked at the notification.
"Are you telling me I leveled up, but you don't know how to show it?"
[Correct.]
"Perfect."
---
What Kai didn't see was what happened in the forest behind him.
Three kilometers away, something enormous raised its head.
It wasn't a wolf. It wasn't anything with a rank B or rank A or anything that could be measured by Aethon's normal systems.
It was old and big. It had been centuries since it had felt an aura like that.
It stood still for a moment.
Then it started walking toward where the smell was coming from.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[SSS entity detected within 3 km radius]
[Intent classification: UNKNOWN]
[Recommendation: Flee immediately.]
Kai read the notification.
"Here we go with the running again…"
[GarcíaFTW: BRO RUN]
[NocheEterna99: WHAT'S THE POINT OF THAT SYSTEM IF HE WON'T LISTEN TO IT]
Kai didn't run. He crouched down to pick up something the wolf had dropped—a fang the size of his forearm—and examined it with genuine academic interest while something the size of a house pushed its way through the trees behind him.