The air around Nullen stilled.
A strange tension, like the pull of gravity bending around him—settled over the clearing. For a moment, the bounty hunters froze mid-step. Their instincts, honed by years of surviving Altherion's deadliest zones, screamed at them. Something wasn't right.
"Wh-what... was that presence just now?" one of the gang members muttered, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his blade.
"It felt like… a level 1000 player just appeared out of nowhere."
"That's impossible," another snapped. "No one that high would be here. Must be a glitch, or some cheap trick."
Their eyes locked on Nullen—on the boy standing there in his white beginner's outfit, who had just faced them without an ounce of fear. He looked ordinary. Black hair, pale skin, yellow-tinged eyes… nothing about him screamed power. But the air around him twisted unnaturally, like it was resisting the very idea of touching him.
"Let's just crush this poser and move on," grunted the one in the hoodie.
Without warning, the hoodie-wearing hunter lunged forward, his blade slicing the wind. But before it could reach, Nullen disappeared in a flash of black.
In less than a second, he reappeared behind his attacker.
Time felt like it broke in that moment. A cold breeze whispered through the silence as Nullen stood still, one hand in his pocket, his golden eyes gleaming.
The bounty hunter turned, confused—only to see Nullen grinning.
"You're slow," Nullen muttered.
And then, with a single motion, he shoved the man with such force that his body glitched and shattered into light. Despawned. Gone in an instant. No resistance.
The rest of the group didn't even move.
Their eyes widened. Jaws tightened.
Silence gripped the area.
The data around Nullen twisted and coiled like a living thing, reflecting something ancient, something that didn't belong in the beginner's region.
One of the hunters stepped back. "That… that wasn't normal."
"He's not level 3. No way. What the hell just happened?"
Nullen turned, slowly, letting his gaze sweep over them.
None of them dared to approach.
Without a word, he slid both hands into the pockets of his outfit, tilted his head in that familiar arrogant Velgrin way, and casually walked away—leaving behind a field of stunned, silent killers.
He ran through the open plains, his pace unhurried, as if his body already knew how to move with the elegance of a predator. The wind brushed against his white outfit, and the sun overhead only made his pale skin seem colder.
He entered the safe zone again—where no combat could occur, and player protections were strictly enforced. The system recognized his ID immediately, projecting a small hologram over his head: "Nullen66 – Level 3."
But none of that mattered to him.
He had a place assigned to him—one of the basic housing slots given to low-level players. A compact steel building with barely enough space for a bed and a terminal. It was pathetic… but for some reason, Velgrin found a strange comfort in it.
He stepped inside, slammed the door shut, and threw himself onto the stiff bed.
The silence in the room gnawed at him.
His eyes stared at the metal ceiling above, mind spinning.
That power… That felt real.Was it… truly mine? Is that what awakening meant?
Then it hit him again. The visitor. The memory.
Blood. Screams. That staff. That thing that killed him.
A virus? Maybe. Maybe not.
But one thing was certain—he had never been that helpless. Never felt so... human.
He clenched his fists. No. I won't stay this weak. I won't let that happen again.
Then came the familiar chime.
Ding!
A glowing window hovered before him.
[SYSTEM UPDATE DETECTED]
[AWAKENING CORE UNLOCKED]
[View Patch Notes?]
Nullen blinked. "Yes. Show me."
The screen expanded.
[Patch Notes – Core Awakening Sequence Complete]
Player: Nullen66 / Velgrin
Previous Class: Final Boss (Dragon Class – Shadow Type)
Rebirth Class: Awakened Variant
Detected Power Resonance: Shadow Dragon Magic – Awakened
Form Level: 2
Max Potential Level: 1066
New Skill Tree Unlocked:
Shadowstep (Learned)
(locked)
(locked)
(locked)
Caution: Awakened system anomalies may attract unwanted digital attention. Core still stabilizing.
Velgrin—no, Nullen—read through the lines carefully. He felt a ripple of nostalgia as he saw the name of the abilities. These were his. All his. The very same powers that once reduced armies to ash.
But they were reborn… different now. Sharper. Evolved.
And they belonged to this small, pale human boy.
"Shadowstep..." he whispered, recalling how he once phased between shadows to cut through invaders like butter. It was now his again.
He sat up on the bed, pulling his knees in, staring at his pale hands.
"This body is weak," he muttered. "But the power… the core... it's still mine."
His fingers curled into fists. "I need to learn how to use it properly. This world... isn't the same as before."
He glanced at the digital news scrolling outside his window. The entire sky was plastered with one headline:
"VELGRIN, THE FINAL BOSS, BRUTALLY KILLED BY UNKNOWN PLAYER – 20 YEAR RESPAWN LOCKED"
Even in this pathetic new body, his name still carried weight. Even in death, he was news.
Velgrin closed his eyes.
He remembered what life was like in the dojo—eternally guarding, waiting for players to challenge him. Eat. Sleep. Fight. That was his loop. For decades.
But now? He was free.
He chuckled. "I can actually… do things."
No code kept him tied to a room. No algorithms forced his behavior.
He could walk where he wanted, run where he pleased, and—most importantly—kill who he wished.
The system window pulsed again.
[Would you like to begin your next quest?]
[Suggested Quest: Awaken the Dragon]- Objective: Visit a memory shard site- Location: Zone 3, Forgotten Sands- Difficulty: ???
Nullen grinned.
"Yeah. Let's see what the world really has to offer this time."
Nullen leaned back against the old wooden frame of his bed, staring up at the flickering ceiling light of his tiny safe zone home. The digital glow from the system's floating interface gently dimmed as the quest prompt faded, but the words still echoed in his mind like a whisper: Awaken the Dragon.
For the first time in his existence, he was no longer a piece of the code. No longer a static final boss, waiting endlessly for challengers to appear just to fall to them or tear them apart. No longer bound to the bloodstained dojo, endlessly repeating a cycle of meaningless fights and scripted rage. No timer chained to his spine. No respawn countdown. No system-mandated path.
He was… free.
And that realization hit harder than any sword ever had.
He could move without restriction. Breathe without waiting. Choose where to go, what to say, who to be. This world, which once used him as a piece of background content, now stood in front of him like an open sky after years underground. And damn… it was intoxicating.
The system—it was different now. Not just a handler of stats and cooldowns. It felt like it recognized him. Like it was waiting for him all this time. The moment he reawakened in this body, it had reacted. It adapted. It evolved. Not once had the old Velgrin received messages like this. Not once had he been offered choices. The irony wasn't lost on him—he was at his weakest, yet he'd never had more potential.
A new life. A second chance. And this time, he wasn't going to waste it following some broken programming or dying for amusement.