Arya opened her eyes. She couldn't rise.
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Her body was impossibly heavy, as if her muscles had been replaced by tightly wound wires beneath the skin. This wasn't simple exhaustion—it was a strange, violent blend of sudden power and a weakness that gnawed at her senses. Her pulse pounded fast and bright, each beat echoing in her ears. A foreign heat moved through her veins. Her blood felt faster now. Denser.
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And with the physical shift came hunger. Not for food—it was a deep, psychological void screaming for energy.
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She tried to focus. Her head spun viciously.
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Pushing herself upright, she pressed a palm to her forehead and let out a hoarse, broken sound. "Ah..."
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The pain in her skull was sharp. The dizziness tilted the room for seconds. She fought to stand and lost her balance almost immediately, clutching at the wall with both hands. A tremor ran through her fingers. Inside her chest, a cold, new pulse had settled beside her heart. It was growing. Slowly.
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Everything was too sharp. The sound of her own breathing was loud. The cold air from the window bit at her skin with roughness. In that moment, her body didn't feel like her own. Every sensation demanded attention. Curiosity and terror tangled together with every breath.
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"Did my body actually get stronger... or am I imagining this?"
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She whispered it to herself, testing the limits of this new condition as if prodding a wound.
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Then—
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As Arya fought for balance, a metallic tone split the silence inside her skull. A voice that belonged to no human source. And with it, translucent text bloomed in the air before her eyes. Not a blur from the dizziness—this was a pale blue screen, nearly transparent, tracking her gaze wherever she turned.
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---
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[System Notification]
[Updating host data... Initial integration complete.]
[Welcome to the new world system.]
[Alert: Civilization collapse phase is currently active.]
[Time remaining until final integration, total infrastructure failure, and gate activation: 06:19:55:04]
[Note: During this period, all homes, vehicles, electrical and water networks, and transportation services will gradually shut down and disappear. Use this time to secure resources and reach safe zones.]
[Local integration statistics:]
[Human integration success rate: 42%]
[Failure to absorb mana results in immediate consciousness erosion and transformation into an instinct-driven creature (Category: Monster).]
[Alert: Status Board is now available.]
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---
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Arya flinched backward. The screen wasn't fixed—it moved with her eyes. She blinked, hard, again and again, waiting for the hallucination to break. It didn't.
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Staring in disbelief, she reached a trembling hand toward the floating letters. Her fingers passed through light. Touched nothing.
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The pressure of information swelled inside her skull. She forced herself to focus, her voice barely a whisper. "I want to know... what's happening."
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As if the system had been waiting for permission.
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A soft hum—like the buzz of an electric current—vibrated through her ears. A larger window unfurled before her, dense with data, cold and absolute.
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---
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[Personal Status Board]
Name: Arya Caldwell
Race: Human
Age: 15
Title: —
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
Class: — (Unlocks at Level 10)
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[Nucleus]
Status: Open
Stability: 87%
Mana: 100/100 (Activation words required; see Skills Book)
Spirit: 50/50 (Consumed when using mental powers)
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[Physical Attributes]
Strength: 10/10 (Affects normal attacks and certain physical strikes)
Defense: 10/10 (Affects health and anomaly resistance; higher defense reduces damage taken and increases overall health)
Agility: 10/10 (Affects movement speed and reaction time)
Health: 95/100 (Determines physical damage tolerance; as health drops, injury worsens and movement becomes impaired)
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[Skills]
—
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[Mental Powers]
Angel (Activating Form 1 consumes Spirit)
Devil (Activating Form 1 consumes Spirit)
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---
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Arya stood pinned in place, her eyes racing across the numbers. She didn't understand all of it. But the 42% and the phrase integration failure seized her heart in a cold fist.
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While she struggled to process the data, the outside world sent its own confirmation. She didn't need to read anymore. The screams reached her first.
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She spun toward the window and rushed to see.
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The blood in her veins turned to ice.
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The street below had become a slaughterhouse. The people who failed the integration had twisted into grotesque creatures, their movements jerking and inhuman. They hunted through the chaos, chasing the fleeing into every corner. The screams weren't just sounds of fear—they were torn, wet, the kind of agony that clings to the air long after it's been ripped from a throat.
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And then she saw Ra'ad.
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The dog was massive, chained in the neighbor's yard. But this wasn't the Ra'ad she knew. His body had swollen, muscles bulging in deformed ridges. His eyes glowed—hot, furious red.
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In a blink, he lunged at his owner, the man who had been struggling to free his chain so they could run.
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There was no mercy.
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Ra'ad tore into him with savage fury. The sound of ripping cloth and flesh reached Arya's ears despite the distance. Then—suddenly—the dog stopped. He lifted his head, muzzle slick with blood, and snapped his gaze directly toward her window.
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Their eyes met for one second.
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That glare was predatory. Hungry. It made her feel like her soul had been targeted.
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Arya recoiled. Cold swept through her limbs. She threw herself at the window, slammed it shut, and locked it with shaking hands.
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She backed away, her spine hitting the wall. She slid down slowly, pulling her knees to her chest. Her breathing was ragged, loud in the silence of the room. The Status Board hovered before her, cold and unblinking.
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A reminder. The world she knew was over.
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She was staring at death.
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Then—shattering glass from downstairs. A heavy thud.
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One name surged into her mind. Maryam.
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Pressure clamped down on her chest. Maryam didn't break things. She moved quietly. Always quietly. The thought that the sound had come from her wasn't comforting. It was worse.
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Arya took one step forward. The wooden floor sighed beneath her foot.
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She moved with agonizing caution. Every step measured. She drew her breath shallow, trying to shrink the sound of it. The door creaked as she opened it—barely a sound, but it locked every muscle in her body for a long second. She waited, straining for any sign of movement in the dark hallway.
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The corridor was transformed. Light from the high windows fell in long, distorted shadows across the walls. The curtains swayed without wind. Dust drifted through the air in erratic, suspended spirals. The house she had grown up in felt alien. Abandoned for years.
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She descended the stairs. Cold wood under her clammy palm. Footsteps echoing—tap... tap... tap—soft, but inside her skull each one fell like a hammer strike.
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The air thickened. The smell was wrong—damp, heavy, as if something from outside had already slipped in and settled in the walls.
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Halfway down the stairs, she froze.
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From the corner of her eye: movement in the living room. A distorted shadow whipping behind the furniture. It wasn't clear. It was barely anything. But it shattered what little courage she had left. Every nerve in her body screamed.
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She forced herself forward, step by step, her hand reaching toward the Status Board as though it could somehow defend her.
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The living room was drowning in silence.
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And there, standing with her back to the kitchen entrance, was Maryam.
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She was completely still—but her body was braced with a tension that defied nature. She didn't move. She just stood, too motionless, like a sculpture carved from coiled threat. Something was deeply wrong. Her frame looked locked, muscles rigid beneath the skin, caught in the posture of a silent predator.
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"Maryam?" Arya's voice trembled. Hope and fear knotted together in a single word.
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No answer came.
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In that stretched second, warmth flooded Arya's mind: the scent of cakes Maryam used to bake, the way her laughter had filled the house, the gentle hand that used to stroke her hair.
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Then Maryam turned. Slowly.
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Her eyes were hollow voids. The pupils nearly gone. Dark blue veins bulged at her temples. There was no awareness left in that gaze—only the flat, empty assessment of something staring at prey.
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A sharp chill raked down Arya's spine.
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In a single instant, Maryam moved.
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She lunged with a speed Arya couldn't have anticipated. No hesitation. No readable expression. Just sudden, blind violence.
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"Maryam!" The name tore out of Arya without thought—a plea hurled at the ghost of someone who was already gone.
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She tried to scramble backward, but her feet tangled on the slick floor. She lost balance and crashed onto her back. The impact slammed the air from her lungs. Pain exploded through her spine and shoulders. Sharp jolts stabbed through her skull. Her vision swam.
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Maryam's limbs were rigid. Stronger than they should be.
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No words. Only dead, rattling breath.
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Her teeth drew close. Too close.
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Then—a red flash erupted before Arya's eyes.
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---
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[Warning]
Status Board
Flashing
Screaming
[Health Decline]
Health: 80/100 (Impact from fall and attack)
[Temporary Strength Decline]
Strength: 9/10 (Body strained; muscle response sluggish)
[Temporary Spirit Decline]
Spirit: 40/50 (Shock and fear interfering with focus; mental powers may be impaired)
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---
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Blood thundered in Arya's ears. Her heart pounded—hard, desperate—and then began to slow.
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Maryam's jaw opened above her throat.
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No time. No strength. No voice.
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Inside her trembling field of vision, a dark red panel tore itself open, as if reality had split to accommodate it.
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---
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[Creature Status Board]
Race: Common Monster
Rank: F
Health: 100/100
Strength: 13
Defense: 10
Agility: 5
[Details:] Ordinary human. Consciousness fully consumed by the energy that invaded the world.
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---
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...Maryam...
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The name alone cracked something deep inside her. This wasn't an unknown monster anymore.
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It was the body she knew.
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Without its owner.
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Is this... really Maryam?
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Blood roared. Her heartbeat hammered, then slowed further. Maryam's jaw descended toward her throat. There was no time. No strength. No scream left to give. Only darkness creeping in at the edges of her vision, and the cold of tears sliding down her cheeks, unfelt.
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Within her blurred sight, another dark red window surfaced:
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---
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[Warning]
[Severe Health Decline]
[System Suggestion: Activate Defensive Protocol]
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---
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And then—
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Something black... emerged.
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---
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