Level Zero God

The rain had been falling since morning not the kind that softened the city, but the kind that weighed it down. It was becoming heavy and endless. Streets had turned into rivers. Power lines trembled under the grey sky.

Dorian Vale walked through it without an umbrella. His shirt clung to his frame, soaked. Each step he took, sent a splash inside his worn shoes, but he didn’t slow down. He couldn’t afford to.

Not today.

The employment office was three blocks away. If he missed the final registration window again, his file would be permanently removed from the system. No second chances.

Dorian tightened his grip on the rough looking folder under his arm. Inside were an identification card, a faded CV, and a rejection slip folded so many times.

He kept moving.

The city surged around him with indifferent life. A bus rushed past and sent filthy water across the roadside. Someone shouted a curse. Dorian didn’t react. He had stopped reacting to the world a long time ago.

At twenty-five, he had learned a simple truth: the world didn’t slow down for people like him.

By the time he reached the building, his shoulders were heavy with fatigue and rainwater. The structure looked like every other government office, faded paint and a flickering signboard that struggled to stay lit.

A long queue stretched outside the entrance.

Dorian exhaled slowly. ‘Of course.’

He joined the line anyway.

Minutes dragged on. The rain grew heavier, but no one left. People shifted in place, murmured complaints, stared at dead phone screens, and argued with a system that never listened.

Dorian kept his eyes fixed on the entrance. ‘Just don’t close. Just don’t—’

A sharp buzz cut through the air.

The signboard above the building flickered violently, then went dark.

Groans rose from the crowd.

“Not again…”

“Power failure in 2026? What a joke.”

Dorian said nothing. He only watched.

Then the signboard blinked back to life. But the message had changed. No longer the employment office logo. Instead, a glowing white text appeared:

> SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE

Silence fell instantly. Even the rain seemed to hesitate.

Dorian frowned. “What… is that?”

A second line appeared.

> SELECTING PARTICIPANTS…

A strange heaviness settled in his chest. This wasn’t normal. Not even close.

A nervous laugh came from somewhere in the queue. “Is this some kind of advertisement?”

“Maybe it’s a new government program.”

But Dorian didn’t laugh. Something about the message felt wrong. Not visually. Not logically. But deep in his gut, like an instinct older than thought.

The screen flickered again.

> YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED

Every phone in the queue lit up at once including his.

Dorian froze. His cracked screen displayed the same message in sharp white letters:

> WELCOME, PLAYER DORIAN VALE

The world went still. A woman nearby dropped her phone. Someone backed away slowly, shaking their head.

“This is a hack! This is definitely a hack!”

But the message didn’t change.

> TRANSFERRING TO INSTANCE: “ORIGIN SECTOR – LEVEL 0”

Dorian finally moved. “This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered. “It’s impossible.”

He tried shutting the phone down. Nothing happened. He fumbled to remove the battery, but his fingers slipped.

Then the ground trembled.

At first it was faint. Then deeper. The pavement beneath the queue rippled. People screamed. The world was breaking.

“No—no, this isn’t real!” someone shouted.

But reality didn’t listen. The air cracked with a sound like glass shattering. Dorian looked up just in time to see the sky distort. Clouds folded inward. Buildings stretched upward like melting reflections.

The entire street, the entire world was collapsing.

Dorian stumbled backward. “This is not happening…”

A man grabbed his arm. “Tell me you see this too!”

“I see it,” Dorian said quietly.

And that was the problem.

Above them, a huge circular interface opened in the sky. A glowing system window, vast and impossible. Burning text appeared inside it:

> WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM

Then everything went white.

Dorian fell.

Not through air, but through layers of reality itself. There was no wind. No sound. Only endless, directionless motion.

Then came the impact.

He hit the ground hard, rolling across rough stone. Pain shot through his shoulder. Dust filled his lungs. He coughed violently and opened his eyes.

He was no longer on Earth.

The sky above him was wrong, too clean, too artificial. A perfect blue that felt manufactured. Two suns hung at different angles, completely unmoving. The ground stretched into a cracked field of stone and pale grass that shimmered faintly, like a low-resolution world rendered imperfectly.

Dorian slowly pushed himself up. “…Where am I?”

A sound chimed inside his mind.

> WELCOME, PLAYER

He flinched. “Stop that.”

> WORLD: ORIGIN SECTOR – LEVEL 0

> OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE

> WARNING: DEATH IS PERMANENT

Dorian’s throat tightened. “This is a simulation,” he whispered. “It has to be.”

He turned sharply. No roads. No cities. Only ruins in the distance, broken structures like corrupted data given physical form.

Then he saw movement.

Between the ruins, something shifted. A figure stepped out. At first glance, it resembled a man. Then it didn’t. Its body flickered, unstable and fragmented, as if reality couldn’t decide what shape it should take. Its face stretched too long, mouth opening in unnatural increments.

Above its head, faint glowing text hovered:

> LVL 1 – CORRUPTED HUSK

Dorian took a slow step back. “This is insane…”

The creature turned toward him and screamed—a sound that was not human. Then it ran.

Dorian ran too.

---

The system activated instantly.

> COMBAT DETECTED

> INITIATING TUTORIAL LINK…

A translucent interface appeared mid-air in front of him. He nearly tripped avoiding it.

> BASIC CONTROL MODULE UNLOCKED

> SKILL ACQUIRED: [SYSTEM INTERFACE ACCESS]

“I didn’t agree to anything!” Dorian shouted.

The creature closed the distance too fast. Its breathing was wet and distorted, like something that had forgotten how to exist properly. Dorian’s lungs burned. His legs screamed.

Another interface appeared.

> NEW QUEST: FIRST BLOOD

> OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE ONE CORRUPTED HUSK

He laughed breathlessly. “Eliminate it with what? Words?”

A heavy impact slammed into his back. He hit the ground hard. Dust exploded around him. The creature loomed above, twitching violently, its mouth opening wider than should have been possible.

Dorian stared up at it. Something inside him shifted. Not fear. Not panic. Something colder. Stronger.

“No,” he said quietly.

The creature roared.

Dorian grabbed a stone from the ground. His hands were shaking, but he didn’t let go.

> PLAYER STATE: AWAKENING COMBAT INSTINCTS

The creature lunged.

Dorian moved. And reality snapped. When silence returned, only one of them remained moving.

Dorian stood over the broken form of the Corrupted Husk, breathing heavily, the stone shard still clenched in his hand. His arms trembled. His chest heaved.

Then........ > LEVEL UP

> +1 STAT POINT AWARDED

He stared at the message. Slowly, he looked down at his hands.

“What am I becoming…?”

Far beyond the cracked horizon of the Origin Sector, something unseen watched him. Not randomly. Not blindly.

But with intent. And for the first time, the System took notice.