People enjoyed online games for various reasons. For someone, it was a time pass in their boring life. For someone, it was a platform where they could show off their skills and gain followers. For someone, it was the only place they could forget their loneliness by speaking with like-minded people.
But for Oscar?
A young man sat across the computer monitor with his hands hovering lazily over the keyboard and mouse. On the screen, a famous FPS battle royale game was running.
This young man had one hand deep inside a packet of potato chips, while he used his other hand to aim and fire. Every single one of his bullets hit the target dead center, no matter where he aimed.
You have killed Omni_Dragon.
You have killed Void_Shira.
You have killed Shadow_Ninja.
You have killed Apex_Predator.
You have...
.
.
The match had only started five minutes ago, and he had already started a massive killing spree. Naturally, he was doing this while completely invisible to his opponents, flying across the map sky with endless ammunition and a ruthless aimbot script running in the background.
[Omni_Dragon: Damn it, what the fuck! I just went behind a rock to drink an energy drink and I died through solid stone!]
[Void_Shira: I just wanted to ride a buggy. Wooahh, he is flying above me!]
[Chaosbringer: Fuck, it is him again! The Divine Cuck! That hacker motherfucker!]
Oscar scrolled down the in-game text chat as he continued to wipe out the entire lobby. As he read every single curse directed against him and his entire family, the grin on his face continued to widen.
He enjoyed online games because it was the only place he could rage bait someone without fearing any real repercussions. What was more fun than ruining a high-ranked lobby with illegal hacks and single-handedly destroying months of someone else’s hard-worked rank progress?
You have killed Ghost_Walker.
Congratulations! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
Finally, after five minutes, the entire lobby of one hundred players, including the bots, had been killed by him alone. Oscar laughed loudly in his dimly lit room as he clicked the button to queue for the next ranked match.
He had no idea that in a far away place, someone had been rage baited far more than he ever expected.
In a luxurious gaming streamer setup across the city, a young man slammed his mechanical keyboard into pieces.
"Find him. FUCKING FIND HIM!" the streamer screamed at his bodyguards. "That fucker! I was just one point away from reaching Conqueror! My first time reaching Conqueror rank! And he ruined it!"
"Yes, boss," the lead bodyguard replied, pulling out a phone to contact their local contacts.
An hour later, Oscar suddenly found himself forced down onto his knees on cold concrete. He was surrounded by more than a hundred heavily tattooed men inside an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city.
Countless bright headlights from high-end cars were directed straight at his face, blinding him completely.
A tall man stepped forward from behind the lights, holding a silver revolver. Before Oscar could even open his mouth to offer an apology or offer to fix the rank points, the trigger was pulled.
A loud gunshot echoed through the warehouse, followed by a sharp pain and a hot sensation in his chest. Oscar fell backward, his vision turning dark as his blood pooled on the floor.
Don’t tell me... I am killed just because of hacking in a video game?
That was his very last thought as life completely drained from his body.
*
* *
"What the fuck!"
Oscar snapped his eyes open, gasping for air as he clutched his chest. He expected to feel a bullet hole and wet blood, but there was nothing. No blood, no wound, and no pain.
He sat up quickly and looked around. He was not in an abandoned warehouse, nor was he in his own bedroom.
He was lying in a narrow, dirty alleyway between two massive concrete buildings that looked far too advanced for anything he had seen back home. Flying vehicles soared high up in the sky, passing through illuminated air lanes.
Memories that did not belong to him suddenly flooded into his mind like a tidal wave.
Humanity almost went extinct with the arrival of Mana.
Monsters straight from myths and legends began appearing across the world without warning. Countless dungeons emerged from thin air and tore entire countries apart. Great cities fell within days, civilizations collapsed overnight, and humanity was pushed to the absolute brink of total extinction.
Then came the System Integration.
Those who managed to kill a monster were integrated with their own unique System. By completing the quests issued by their Systems, they could gain extraordinary abilities, unlock powerful skills, and eventually awaken godlike powers.
They were universally known as Hosts.
With the emergence of Hosts, humanity finally managed to halt its downward descent toward extinction. Monsters were hunted down, dungeons were cleared and conquered, and the surviving nations slowly began rebuilding what had been lost over the decades.
Decades passed, and Hosts became the ultimate symbols of prosperity, wealth, and power. Children who once dreamed of becoming engineers or doctors now dreamed of becoming Hosts, hoping to awaken a powerful System and carve their own path to greatness.
But not every System was useful.
Some Systems granted abilities so worthless that their Hosts would have been better off living as ordinary civilians. Others came with cruel quests and unreasonable demands, forcing their Hosts to do terrible things just to receive basic rewards.
Yet despite the extreme risks, more and more people continued to pursue the path of a Host. Because in this new world, becoming a Host was no longer simply a choice. It was the only real chance to become something far greater than human.
He had transmigrated!
He was still named Oscar, but he was no longer on Earth. He was in a parallel world, living as a sixteen-year-old orphan with the exact same name.
This original Oscar had lived a miserable life in a low-tier district. Just an hour ago, he had been cornered in this very alley by a group of rich academy bullies who beat him unconscious.
The severe head injury from the assault had ended his life, allowing the hacker Oscar to take over his body.
"So I really died and transmigrated into the body of an orphan who died from getting bullied..." Oscar muttered, rubbing his sore head as he absorbed the information.
Before he could process his situation any further, a strange mechanical chime sounded directly inside his head.
Ding!
A translucent blue screen manifested in front of his eyes.
[You have qualified to awaken a system. System Integration initiating...]
[Reading the life experiences of the Host instead...]
Oscar watched the blue screen in shock as text began rapidly scrolling past his line of sight.
[Warning! Failed to read the Host.]
[Warning! Unable to establish System compatibility with existing world protocols.]
[System Integration failed!]
Oscar’s face turned pale as he read the failure notification. In a world full of monsters and dungeons, failing a System Integration meant remaining an ordinary, weak human forever.
"Fuck, how is this even possible?" Oscar yelled out in frustration, pulling at his hair. "What kind of luck is this? I get killed for hacking, get transmigrated into a new world, and then the world’s own System glitches out on me?"
Just as he was about to give up on his new life, the blue screen flashed violently, turning from a soft blue into a dark golden hue.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You are the first living being to craft a System for yourself!]
[Developing System based on the Host’s life experiences...]
[Analyzing core soul records: Infamous Hacker, Game Breaker, Script Developer...]
[Divine Hack System has been successfully crafted!]