Fake Death

Samuel Gray is no one special. Just another forgotten soul in the lower levels of Novus City a place where dreams are traded for survival and even hope comes with a price. Each day blurs into the next as he delivers packages to people who don’t see him, eats food that barely tastes like anything, and falls asleep wondering if this is all life has to offer. But everything changes the night he tries to help a stranger and bleeds out in an alley. On the edge of death, a voice echoes in the darkness. > “Vitality Critical. Initializing Ascension Protocol. Do you accept?” In that moment, Samuel awakens something unimaginable: a system interface that turns the laws of life into a game complete with stats, quests, abilities, and something far more dangerous purpose. Now marked by a power that shouldn’t exist, Samuel must navigate a world where reality bends, imagination has weight, and forgotten dreams can become weapons. But the Ascension System didn’t choose him at random. There’s a reason he was chosen. There’s a cost to rising. And someone or something is watching.