As Leon stepped into the portal, a blinding light engulfed him, overwhelming his senses. The world around him seemed to dissolve into pure brightness, forcing him to shield his eyes with his arm. His body felt weightless, as if he were floating in an endless void. The light grew hotter and more intense, pressing against him from all sides. His skin tingled, his muscles stiffened, and a deep discomfort churned in his stomach.
Suddenly, the heat subsided, and a strange coolness washed over him. The portal spat him out onto cold, rough ground. He stumbled, almost collapsing from the dizziness, his vision blurry. He squeezed his eyes shut, taking deep, steady breaths to calm the nausea that gnawed at him.
When he finally opened his eyes, he was no longer the Leon he knew. His reflection in a puddle of murky water sent a shock through his heart—his once familiar appearance was gone. Instead, a scrawny, pitiful figure stared back at him. His hair, now a striking white with streaks of blue, clung messily to his head. His eyes remained the same color, but they looked hollow and dead, as if something vital had been drained from him.
He ran his bony fingers over his face, tracing the sharp angles of his jaw, the thinness of his body, and the sickly paleness of his skin. His clothes hung loosely on his skeletal frame, ragged and torn, barely covering his frail form.
Around him, the air was thick with the stench of rot and decay. He had landed in a slum—a place that looked like it had been forgotten by time. The streets were narrow and lined with crumbling buildings, their windows shattered and walls covered in grime. Piles of trash and debris littered the ground, and distant echoes of scuffling feet and murmured voices filled the oppressive silence. Dim light filtered through the heavy clouds above, casting long shadows that seemed to crawl across the ground.
The people here were as broken as their surroundings—emaciated figures slumped against walls, their eyes glazed over with hopelessness, much like his own reflection. This place, this version of reality, was harsh and unforgiving. It felt as if the very air suffocated any sense of hope.
Leon stood there, his body trembling, his mind racing to make sense of the transformation and this grim new world.
"Yep, this is definitely an insane start," he thought as he looked down at himself, clenching and unclenching his frail fists. The muscles he once relied on were gone, replaced by a sickly, weak frame.
"It feels like even a stray dog could beat me now," he muttered bitterly to himself.
Just then, a sharp tone echoed in his mind.
{Successful Transmission}
Leon froze, his thoughts interrupted as he focused on the message that appeared before his eyes.
{Insane Difficulty Trial Starts}
{Your overall strength has decreased by 50%}
Leon frowned at this, feeling the weight of the words sinking in. His strength had already been gutted from the transformation, and now this?
He waited, forcing himself to stay calm as the next message appeared.
{Primary Goal: Save the city on the verge of destruction from the monster horde attacking six months from now.}
{Time Limit: Six months}
He clenched his jaw, his heartbeat quickening. A monster horde? A city to save? With this body? It felt impossible, but there was no time to protest. The final message came through, and it was the one that made his blood run cold.
{Insane Debuff: Everything the Challenger receives will be reduced by 50%}
"Yep, now that's insane difficulty for you," Leon thought to himself, sighing as he processed the overwhelming situation. He barely had time to stand from the damp ground when another message flashed before his eyes.
{It is detected Challenger has not awakened Inherent Ability.}
{Challenger will be rewarded with Class Change Token (Common)}
Leon blinked. A Class Change Token? That sounded like his way out of being so pitifully weak. But before he could get too excited, more lines of text appeared.
{Challenger has chosen Insane Difficulty.}
{Class Change Token (Common) upgraded to Class Change Token (Epic)}
{Change your class to access your Status Screen}
{Good luck, Challenger. May Celestial be with you.}
Leon felt a small rush of relief at the upgrade, but it was quickly overshadowed by a heavy sense of unease. An epic class token sounded like a massive boost, but if the system was rewarding him so generously this early, it only meant that the trials ahead were going to be impossibly hard.
"Well, it's already hard—everything I'm going to receive will be reduced by 50%," Leon thought as he stood up. But as he got to his feet, an elderly woman passed by, offering him a freshly baked loaf of bread.
"Here, sweetie," she said kindly before moving on to distribute bread to others in the slums.
Leon blinked, surprised by her generosity. He stared at the bread, then a thought struck him. "Yes... what if?"
"Cherry, you there?" he asked aloud, glancing around, trying to find the emo fairy.
Suddenly, Cherry appeared on his shoulder, her expression cold and emotionless as always. "You don't have to shout aloud. You can call me mentally, just start with my name," she said flatly.
Leon nodded quickly, not wanting to look like a madman talking to himself in public.
'Can I donate this Class Change Token?' he asked mentally this time, glancing around at the people in need.
[Yes, Host. You can do that,] Cherry replied in his mind.
Leon smiled foolishly, feeling a bit smarter for asking. 'Hmm, I could use this to get a good ally too,' he thought, his gaze drifting to the system's appraisal function.
'Cherry, can I appraise humans with this function?' he asked, curiosity rising.
[Yes. The appraisal function was designed so future Hosts can find someone in desperate need of charity,] Cherry explained.
Leon rubbed his chin, pondering his next move. 'Does it make a difference if I donate to someone who doesn't really need it versus someone who does?' he asked.
[Yes. For example, if you give a homeless person a house, you'll receive higher karma points based on their need level. But if you give a house to someone who already owns several, you will not receive any karma points,] Cherry clarified.
[Obtaining karma points is necessary, as they can be used to upgrade the system to the next level.]
'Wait, the system can level up too?' Leon's eyes widened in surprise.
[Yes, it can,] Cherry confirmed.
Leon grinned, excitement bubbling inside him. "So there's more to this than I thought..." he murmured to himself, realizing that this slum might hold more opportunities than it seemed.