[Installing system…]
"System…?"
Darkness.
No sound, no color. Just absolute emptiness.
The only thing he could see was a translucent screen floating in the air, faintly glowing.
"This… a system screen?" Lucas muttered.
He tried to remember—the last thing that happened was him walking home from the convenience store… then, a stab. Sharp. Hot. Darkness.
And now—he was here.
[Installation complete]
[Welcome, User]
Lucas stared at the screen without blinking. As an avid reader of litRPG webnovels and manhwa, everything felt way too familiar. A system screen, a dark place, transmigration… But there was no excitement. Only one thing: anxiety.
A litRPG world was fun to read about, but… it was not a place to live in. A world filled with monsters, crime, death, and tragedy. Lucas never wished for this to happen to him.
A cold wind pierced his skin.
His body... was floating. No, he was falling.
[Name assigned: Dyren Valenhardt]
[Level: 1]
[Class: Necromancer]
[Status: Cursed (HP decreases by 0.10 per second)]
"Necromancer?" Lucas muttered. "An overpowered class… but what does 'cursed' mean? Who cursed me?"
Lucas was truly confused about what was happening. He appeared in a strange, dark place, got assigned the Necromancer class, and received a cursed status. It made no sense.
"Wait a minute!" Lucas looked at the name on the screen. "Isn't that…"
He remembered something—Dyren Valenhardt. That name wasn't unfamiliar. He had read about this character… in the novel Crimson Sovereign, one of the darkest novels he had followed before dropping it due to its insane plot. One thing Lucas still remembered: the MC was mutilated by villains until traumatized and driven mad. The once bright story turned into pointless carnage.
"And I got transmigrated just to get killed?" Lucas couldn't believe it. "This is beyond ridiculous."
Lucas wasn't going to let that happen. He looked around. A faint light began to appear from above. Not a saving light, but glowing stone walls rising high.
Turns out he was falling from hundreds of meters high. Lucas had forgotten this part.
"Seriously? I'm really going to die?!"
The ground below started to come into view. A massive black crater opened wide—like the mouth of hell. Lucas had no idea how to survive. His chance of survival was 0.1%. Only dumb luck could save him. Lucas had lost all hope.
Especially when he saw something moving at the center of the crater. A giant creature with red skin and three dog heads stood guarding the crater's core.
[Cerberus – Level 100 – Guardian of the Ninth Floor]
Lucas—Dyren—swallowed hard. Cerberus lifted one of its heads, looking up… locking eyes with him. Another stroke of misfortune.
"I'm going to die eaten by a level 100 monster?! Is this for real?! Well, at least this looks cooler." Lucas said flatly.
He wanted to close his eyes, to give up. But something shocking appeared in front of his face.
[Protection System Activated – Effect: Immune to damage for 30 seconds after transmigration.]
"What?!"
BOOM!
His body crashed into the ground—right above Cerberus' head. The shockwave shattered the monster's head and body. Cerberus didn't even have time to fight back—its body was destroyed in a burst of blood and flesh. It didn't even realize it had died.
Lucas was silent, feeling nothing. No wounds, no pain—only a barrage of notifications flashing in front of his face.
[You have slain: Cerberus – Level 100]
[EXP Gained: 9,280,000]
[Level Up: 1 → 69]
[New Skill: Summoning Undead (Legendary)]
[New Skill: Undying Will (Epic Passive)]
[New Skill: Throne of Bones (Legendary)]
[New Skill: Eye's of Night (Common Passive)]
[...]
[...]
"What… is this?" he muttered.
Lucas—or Dyren now—lay among the remains of Cerberus, one of the strongest monsters. He was still in shock. Everything happened too fast. A plot twist that even surprised him. Level 69 in one go? 12 new skills? All of it happened without his understanding.
[Protection Ended]
[Good luck, User]
The world became clearer. With the new Eye's of Night skill, Dyren could see through the darkness. Cracked ground, suffocating air, and… the scent of blood from Cerberus' corpse.
He looked down. The Cerberus' body lay broken, still radiating a terrifying aura as if it refused to accept its ridiculous death. Dyren scratched his head, trying to understand the absurdity.
"What is this? I don't get it." He opened his status screen again. His new name was clearly visible there. "My name is Dyren Valenhardt now," he muttered, pinching his cheek. It hurt. This was real. He wasn't dreaming.
Suddenly, his mind was filled with memories that weren't his.
Flashes appeared—betrayal, brutal experiments, being cast out by the Umbra Sanctum base, being killed and thrown into an S-rank dungeon. Dyren had not been treated as a person, but a test subject. Every day, he endured brutal torture.
That was nothing compared to the pain of being betrayed by his own "family." He was sold by his father for money. That pain was unforgettable.
Lucas' tears fell without him realizing it. He sat in silence, staring blankly. Dyren's life memories were horrifying. None of this was in the novel. Lucas felt his chest ache. As if crushed from the inside.
He clenched his fists. His rage burned.
"I'll destroy them all," he whispered to himself.
With heavy breath, Dyren opened his status window.
His eyes stopped on one skill:
[Summoning Undead]
[Type: Active]
[Description: Summons the dead as long as a soul trace remains. The summoned being will be bound by an absolute contract.]
[Summon Limit: 6 (based on level)]
Dyren looked at Cerberus' half-destroyed corpse. Some parts were still recognizable. There was still… a trace of soul. He took a deep breath and nodded with resolve.
"Can I bring it back?" Lucas said.
His right hand rose. Dark energy surged from his fingers, forming a deep purple magic circle.
"Return to me… my servant!"
Energy flowed into Cerberus' corpse. The ground trembled. Green and black smoke wrapped around the body. Bones and flesh began fusing again. In moments, the powerful monster returned to life.
Cerberus' three pairs of eyes opened, glowing bright green.
[Undead Summoning Successful]
[Cerberus – Elite Undead – Contracted]
[Cerberus – level 100]
Cerberus growled lowly, then bowed in submission before Dyren. The fury in Cerberus' soul disappeared the moment he was resurrected.
Right then, Dyren sensed something approaching.
Other monsters—of various types and forms—were moving toward him. Their aura blanketed the dungeon floor. A large gate in the distance had opened. They came from inside it. The 10th floor of the dungeon.
"This is an S-rank dungeon… They really want me dead," he muttered.
He didn't know who brought him to this world. But one thing was certain—he wasn't going to die here. He would survive and find a way to return to his world.
Dyren raised a large sword that somehow appeared in his hand. Red veins on the blade pulsed… alive.
"If this is hell… then let me be its king."
He looked forward.
"Come at me, bastards!"