Chapter One: Dawning

It had been a long night, and now I was nursing a pounding headache to cap it off.

Ugh. I had no idea where the rest of the girls were. Probably inside—where I should’ve been. They wouldn’t leave without me... I was pretty sure.

The metal door to the club clanged shut behind me. The chilled night air in the alley was crisp, sobering against my tan skin.

My head pounded. I only vaguely remembered wanting to step out for fresh air.

I was drunk and dumb. Wandering around a college party city was one thing—but not in the seedier corners, and not at this hour.

Especially not when my blood was more booze-bonded sludge than flowing crimson.

I should’ve stayed inside.

I reached back and jiggled the door handle.

Cold steel. Didn’t budge. Locked. There’d probably been a sign about that. I’d missed it.

Reading was hard when your eyes were making two—sometimes three—of everything.

My phone. Lifeline. I reached for it.

I frowned when the screen stayed black. Was it too dark for it to tell I'd lifted it up, or?

No. I remembered—I’d turned it off to save battery.

I thumbed the power button. The bootup light hit like a tiny sun. I squinted, but muscle memory handled the rest. Thumb. Contacts. Jane.

The phone started ringing—right as I heard footsteps.

Then a clicking noise.

I tried to straighten but stumbled, catching the wall. The moisture-slick bricks stank, and the scent made my stomach churn.

“What do you... want?” I asked, slurred. Talking was hard.

I just wanted to go home.

Then I saw the gun.

My phone slipped from my fingers.

“Just give me whatever you’ve got,” the woman said—middle-aged, tense. “Money, cards, jewelry. Doesn’t matter.”

I pushed off the wall, barely.

“Don’t move.” She raised the gun. Her voice held that sharpness people got when they were scared and dangerous.

I’d been fighting since I was a kid, but I wasn’t about to test my luck against a pistol. Even drunk me knew that.

“I don’t have any money,” I mumbled, swaying.

“You’ve got something,” she said.

I raised a hand—reflex, not threat—and she flinched. I did too. I pointed behind me.

“Please. I just want to go back inside with my friends.”

“Don’t touch the door.”

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“It’s locked,” I remembered. “Let me go to my car. Out back. I won’t tell anyone.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You got money in your car?”

“Uh…” I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Drunk me wasn’t the strategic one.

“Turn around. Take me to your car.”

I hesitated. “Hey, please. Just let me go.”

The gun came up again. “Now.”

My heart jackhammered.

“Alright…” I turned slowly, clumsily.

The alley stretched out ahead—brick tunnel, dim glow at the far end. Looked like streetlights. Maybe cars.

Hadn’t come in this way. Didn’t matter. Nothing made sense right now.

Would she let me go?

Should I fight?

All those years of gymnastics, boxing, fencing—none of it mattered. Not when she had a gun and I didn’t.

“Walk,” she said behind me, low and shaky.

Fear cut through the haze. Adrenaline brought the world back into focus, but it also narrowed it. I kept moving.

Maybe someone in the lot would help. Someone had to be out there.

But it was late. The club was thinning out.

“I’m putting the gun in my sleeve,” she warned. “You try anything…”

So no one would see. And I couldn’t scream.

The fear twisted into cold dread.

I didn’t want to cry. I wasn’t the type. But I wanted out of this.

I didn’t look back. Just listened to the squelch of her steps behind me.

The lot came into view—sparse, quiet. A couple figures, but no one paying attention. No one knew I was in hell.

Anger started to build.

Would she just take my stuff and go?

“There’s nothing in my car,” I muttered. “No money.”

“We’ll see. Keep walking.”

More anger now. Who was she to do this to me? She was getting nothing. My purse was still in the club. I had nothing.

Unless she wanted the car?

Maybe I could hit her. Fast. Hard.

The aggression I’d always leaned on in sports and study started to boil. But fear held it back.

We reached my beat-up Hyundai. I grabbed the handle.

Locked.

My stomach dropped. The keys were in my purse.

“I don’t have the keys,” I said.

The barrel pressed into my back. “Open it.”

“I can’t,” I snapped, maybe too sharply.

A pause. The pressure deepened… then eased.

She didn’t believe me. Her hands started patting me down.

“Don’t touch me,” I growled. She was crossing a line.

She should’ve let me go. I couldn’t give her anything. Couldn’t she see that?

Just let me go.

A buzzing filled my ears.

A blinding light exploded across my vision.

A force slammed into us, nearly knocking me off my feet.

“What the—?” the woman snapped.

A gunshot rang out.

The bullet tore through my chest. I collapsed.

She grabbed my car for support, barely staying upright.

I stared up at her face as the light swallowed the world.

Until even she was gone.

[Welcome to the Centrality.]

[The Great Game begins.]

[Stand by as your world is converted and your souls are integrated into the System.]

A progress bar flickered before my blinding eyes. Somehow, I could still read it.

[Converting Souls: 40%... 65%... 80%.]

The world slipped out from under me. My heart beat its last.

My body faded. A strange lightness overtook me.

Then the bar vanished.

The blinding light gave way to a tunnel—spinning with kaleidoscopic color.

I drifted forward.

Figures waited at the end. I didn’t feel drunk anymore. I felt… peaceful. In a way I never had before.

One of the silhouettes looked familiar. Felt familiar.

“Grandma?” I said softly. I just knew it was her.

She’d died years ago.

Which meant… I was dead.

I was only twenty.

Grief curled in my chest, but before it could take hold, a new notification blinked into view.

[Error: Your converted soul has been disconnected from the Centrality at the moment of full investiture. Threat of soul loss detected. Emergency reclamation initiated.]

Something seized me—something that shouldn’t have been able to in this place.

I was ripped apart. Not physically—but at the soul level. Like being shattered into a million pieces. And somehow… I felt it all.

[Error: Soul has lost connection to body. Teleportation failing. Emergency reincarnation initiated.]

[Error: Human species not fully indexed. System is incapable of reproducing the human body at this time.]

[Solution: Randomizing physical form from index of compatible invested species.]

[Success!]

[Error: Earth not fully converted. Teleportation not possible in partially converted areas.]

[Warning: Danger of soul loss imminent.]

[Solution: Transporting to random inter-world Dungeon.]

[Success!]

[Welcome to the Centrality, Clarissa.]

The notifications flashed past as I was yanked through space and something else.

The tunnel was gone. Just velocity now.

Then—impact.

I hit the ground hard. Wet earth filled my lungs.

I was solid again. Physical.

And so uncomfortable.

But it seemed whatever this System was gave little room for mercy.