The air in the living room felt different now. It wasn't just the humidity of a Sri Lankan evening anymore. It was a static charge, a hum that vibrated in the marrow of Ethan's bones. The familiar sights of his home, the worn fabric of the sofa, the half-finished space station on the floor, the framed wedding photo on the wall seemed to be losing their solidity, as if the world were being rendered by a computer that was struggling to keep up.
Then, the panels appeared.
They didn't just pop into existence. They shimmered into being, translucent sheets of light that hovered exactly thirty centimeters in front of their eyes.
Krishara let out a small, sharp breath. She reached out a hand, her fingers passing through the glowing blue light. "Ethan… It's following my eyes. I can't look away from it."
"Don't try to," Ethan said, his voice a low anchor in the rising tide of their confusion. He was already leaning forward, his eyes scanning his own interface with the speed of a high-end processor. "It's a status window. It's the interface for the integration."
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION – PHASE 1 COMPLETE]
[INDIVIDUAL STATUS WINDOW UNLOCKED]
Ethan focused his intent, and the panel expanded, unfolding like a digital lotus.
Name: Ethan Jae Park
Age: 25
Level: 1
Attributes:
STR (Strength): 5
AGI (Agility): 6
VIT (Vitality): 5
INT (Intelligence): 12
Points: 1000 + 1 Mythic + [CLASSIFIED]
Average physical stats, Ethan noted, his mind instantly categorizing the data. But the Intelligence is significantly higher than the baseline. And the points…
His gaze lingered on the word [CLASSIFIED]. It pulsed with a faint, violet light, different from the standard blue of the rest of the interface. It was a remnant of his third question, the one that had made the system hesitate.
"Appachchi, mine is green!" Nethan shouted, his fear momentarily replaced by the excitement of a child seeing a new toy. He was waving his hands at a smaller, simpler screen.
"It says I have a shield!"
Ethan crouched beside his son, but he didn't look at Nethan's screen. He looked at Nethan's eyes. The boy wasn't just seeing a screen; he was seeing a future.
"Krish, what does yours say?" Ethan asked, his voice sharp with focus.
"It's… it's complicated," she whispered. She was staring at her panel with a look of intense concentration. "It's talking about 'Vitality' and 'Flow.' It says I have 550 points. Ethan, what do I do with them?"
"Wait," Ethan said. "Don't spend a single point yet. The system is about to offer us Talents. That's where the real game begins.
"As if responding to his words, the interface shifted. The status window minimized, and a new, much larger screen filled their vision.
[TALENT SELECTION PHASE INITIATED][Multiple talents may be selected as long as sufficient points are available.]
[Warning: Talents selected now will form the foundation of your growth. Choose with extreme caution.]
A list of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of options began to scroll. It was an information overload designed to make people panic and choose the first "Epic" sounding thing they saw.
Fire Manipulation. Iron Skin. Enhanced Reflexes. Basic Healing.
Ethan ignored them all. He wasn't looking for "Basic." He was looking for the "Loopholes" the system had promised.
"Krishara," Ethan said, standing up and placing a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her trembling, but her eyes were steady. "Listen to me. The system wants you to pick something that sounds strong right now. Look for words like 'Adaptive,' 'Evolving,' or 'Growth.' We aren't building for today. We're building for the endgame.
"Krishara nodded, her intuition clicking into gear. She stopped looking at the flashy combat skills and started scanning the support categories.
"I see one… 'Adaptive Vital Weave.' It says it gets stronger the more I get hurt?"
"Take it," Ethan said. "And look for a secondary that complements it. Something passive."
"Regenerative Aura?" she asked.
"Perfect. It'll keep you and Nethan alive while I handle the variables."
He turned to Nethan. "Nethan, look for the brightest skill you can find. The one that looks like a sparkling and shiny."
"Iron Guard?" the boy chirped."
Take it. It's your foundation."
As his family made their choices, Ethan turned back to his own screen. He had 1000 points and 1 Mythic point. He knew exactly what he wanted. He had spent his entire life feeling the limitations of physical space, the walls of their small apartment, the crowded streets of Nawala, and the borders of the country.
He wanted the power to ignore those borders.
He typed a single word into the search bar: SPACE.
The list filtered down instantly. Most were low-tier: Blink (Short Distance), Spatial Storage (Small), Air Pressure Control.
Then, at the very bottom, grayed out and locked behind a requirement of 10,000 points, was the one he wanted.
[SSS-RANK TALENT: AUTHORITY OF THE INFINITE SPACE]
[Description: The user becomes the architect of reality. Control over distance, volume, and the fabric of the dimensions.]
Ten thousand points, Ethan thought. Impossible for anyone else. But I have a Mythic point.
He didn't know the exchange rate, but he gambled on his intelligence. He dragged the Mythic point onto the locked talent.
The system didn't just accept it. It reacted.
The blue light of the interface turned a deep, abyssal violet. The air in the room suddenly felt thin, as if the oxygen were being pulled into a vacuum. For a split second, the walls of the apartment seemed to stretch, the ceiling rising into an infinite black void before snapping back into place.
[Requirement fulfilled via Mythic Authority.][SSS-RANK TALENT ACQUIRED: AUTHORITY OF THE INFINITE SPACE]
A surge of information flooded Ethan's brain. It wasn't just knowledge. It was a new sense. He could "feel" the distance between the sofa and the door, not as a measurement, but as a tension he could pull. He could feel the "thickness" of the air.
But he wasn't done. He still had 1000 points.
Information is power, the system had told him.
He searched for COMPREHENSION.
[TALENT ACQUIRED: UNIVERSAL LOGIC ENGINE (RANK: UNIQUE)]
[Cost: 900 Points][Description: Accelerates thought processes by 500%. Allows for the instant analysis of system structures and enemy weaknesses.]
His vision sharpened. The world didn't just look clearer. It looked like a blueprint. He could see the structural weak points in the apartment building. He could see the "flow" of energy in Krishara's body as her new talents integrated.
Finally, he looked at his remaining 100 points. He needed one last thing. A cloak.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: ABSOLUTE STATUS SEAL][Cost: 95 Points]
The moment he confirmed it, a cold shutter seemed to close around his soul. To the rest of the world and even to the system's basic scans, he would look like a Level 1 nobody with average stats.
He was the ultimate predator: the one you never saw coming.
"Ethan?" Krishara's voice was small. She was glowing with a faint, green light. "I… I feel different. Like I can hear my own heartbeat. And Nethan… he's so heavy now."
Ethan looked at his son. Nethan's skin had a metallic sheen to it, his small frame suddenly possessing the density of a mountain.
"It's the talents," Ethan said. He walked over to the window and looked out.
The streets of Nawala were no longer just streets. They were a battlefield. He could see the first "Dungeon Gates" tearing open in the distance, jagged rifts in reality that looked like broken glass.
And then, he felt it.
A flicker in his interface. A message that wasn't a notification.
[...Impressive.]
The word appeared for only a microsecond before vanishing. It wasn't the cold, mechanical voice of the system. It was something else. Something that was watching him with a very personal interest.
Ethan's lips curled into a thin, dangerous smile.
"Krishara, get the bags I packed last week," he said, his eyes fixed on the rifts. "The tutorial is over. The apocalypse is here."
From the street below, the first scream echoed through the night. It was sharp, terrified, and abruptly cut short.
The world had officially ended. And Ethan Jae Park was just getting started.
End of Chapter 02