Trash Warrior Becomes War God

CHAPTER 1

The roar of the crowd was deafening.

"War God! War God! War God!"

Marco Rossi's fingers flew across the keyboard, his warrior avatar cleaving through the final boss with surgical precision. The health bar dropped—ten percent, five, one—and then shattered into a thousand golden fragments. Victory. Absolute, undeniable victory.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the War God has done it!" the announcer's voice cracked with excitement. "Against all predictions, against every tier list and meta analysis, he's proven the warrior class supreme! Marco Rossi is your Sky Game World Champion!"

Marco leaned back in his chair, pulling off his headset. The stadium lights blazed around him, thousands of faces screaming his name. Three years of being mocked, three years of hearing how warriors were trash, how he'd never make it past regionals—all of it washed away in this single moment.

"Now for the prize ceremony—"

The screen went black.

Not just his screen. Every screen in the arena. The lights flickered, died, and plunged twenty thousand people into darkness. Marco's victory screen vanished, replaced by a single line of text that burned itself into his retinas:

SYSTEM OVERRIDE: TRANSFER INITIATED

"What the—"

White light erupted from his monitor, searingly bright, and swallowed him whole.

Pain.

That was Marco's first coherent thought when consciousness returned. Not the dull ache of sitting too long or the eye strain from gaming marathons. This was visceral, primal—the kind of pain that confirmed something was terribly wrong.

His second thought: Why can't I log out?

He tried to move and immediately regretted it. Every muscle screamed. Something warm and sticky covered his face. Blood. Real blood, with that metallic tang he'd only smelled once before, when his brother had split his head open as a kid.

"Help..." The word came out as a croak. Wrong. His voice was wrong—deeper, rougher.

Where's the menu? Where's the exit button?

He forced his eyes open. No HUD. No health bars, no stamina indicators, no minimap. Just trees—massive, ancient trees stretching into a canopy that filtered golden sunlight into scattered beams. And blood. So much blood, soaking into the moss beneath him.

Marco's hands—no, not his hands—were larger, rougher, with an odd grayish tint to the skin. Panic seized him. He tried to push himself up, but his body refused to cooperate. The pain dragged him back under.

Memories crashed through him like a tidal wave—but they weren't his.

A child's voice: "Look at the half-breed! Your mother was a whore who spread her legs for a filthy orc!"

A woman's cold stare: "You're a mistake, Derek. A disgusting mistake."

Fists. Kicks. Blood in the dirt.

"You're worth less than the mud on my boots, half-blood."

"Kill it. Nobody will miss one more mongrel."

A blade. Searing pain. Darkness.

Marco jerked awake, gasping. Days had passed—he didn't know how many. He was in a bed now, soft and clean, in a small room with wooden walls. Bandages wrapped his torso, and the scent of herbs filled the air.

A young woman sat in a chair beside him, her eyes widening as she met his gaze. "You're awake! Aunt Miriam, he's awake!"

An older woman hurried in, her hands glowing with a soft green light. She placed them on Marco's forehead, and the pain receded to a manageable level.

"Easy now," she said, her voice gentle. "You've been through hell and back. Don't try to move too quickly."

"Where..." Marco's voice was still that stranger's voice—Derek's voice. "Where am I?"

"Our home," the younger woman said. Her name floated up from Derek's memories: Sofia. "I found you in the forest, barely alive. You'd lost so much blood..."

"What happened to me?"

Sofia and Miriam exchanged glances. Finally, Miriam spoke. "You were attacked. Left for dead. Do you remember anything?"

The memories were there, sharp and terrible. Derek's memories. A group of human boys from the village, led by a merchant's son, had cornered him in the forest. They'd beaten him, stabbed him, and left him to bleed out.

"You're trash, Derek! Worthless half-orc filth!"

"Your kind shouldn't exist. Do the world a favor and die!"

Marco closed his eyes. "I remember."

Two weeks later, Marco stood at the window of Miriam's cottage, staring out at the world that had become his prison. Or his reality. He still wasn't sure which.

There was no game system. No respawn. No way home.

He'd tested everything. Tried every voice command, every gesture that should have opened menus or settings. Nothing. This body—Derek's body—responded like a real body. When he cut his finger on a kitchen knife, it bled and hurt and took days to heal. When he ate, he tasted food with an intensity that no VR simulation had ever achieved. When Sofia smiled at him, something in his chest tightened that had nothing to do with game mechanics.

This wasn't Sky Game. This wasn't any game.

"You're thinking too hard again," Sofia said, appearing beside him with a cup of tea. "Aunt Miriam says that's bad for recovery."

"Sofia," Marco said carefully, "what do you know about Kensington Academy?"

She blinked. "The mage academy? It's one of the most prestigious schools in the kingdom. Why?"

"I want to go there."

"Derek, you can't be serious. You have no money, no connections, and..." She trailed off, her expression pained. "You know how people treat those with orc blood. The academy would never—"

"Then I'll make them." Marco turned to face her, and something in his eyes made her step back. "I was the best once. I'll be the best again."

Three months later, Marco stood at the base of Kensington Academy's tower, his heart pounding. He'd trained every day, pushing Derek's body to its limits. Miriam had taught him basic healing magic. Sofia had helped him study the local language and customs. But nothing could have prepared him for this moment.

The Tower Master, an elderly man with silver hair and eyes that seemed to see through everything, studied him from behind an ornate desk.

"You're the half-orc boy from the village," he said. Not a question.

"Yes, sir."

"You were left for dead three months ago. Beaten, stabbed, humiliated. Why come here? Why not run? Why not hide?"

Marco met his gaze without flinching. "Because hiding doesn't change anything. Running doesn't make me stronger. I came here to prove that what I am doesn't define what I can become."

The Tower Master was silent for a long moment. Then, incredibly, he smiled.

"You remind me of someone I once knew. Someone who refused to accept the limitations others placed on him." He stood, walking to the window that overlooked the vast city below. "Very well. I'll give you a chance—one chance. Fail, and you'll be expelled. But succeed..." He turned back. "Succeed, and you'll have the resources of this academy at your disposal."

Marco bowed deeply. "Thank you, Tower Master."

As he left the office and climbed to the tower's observation deck, Marco looked out over the sprawling city. Somewhere out there were the people who'd killed Derek. Somewhere out there was a world that saw him as less than human.

Once, he'd been a god of a virtual battlefield.

Now, he was something far more dangerous: a man with nothing left to lose and everything to prove.