Jihan leaned back against his bed, taking a long, steady breath to calm his nerves. The air in his apartment felt heavier than before, as if the weight of the world had suddenly descended upon him. He tried to distract himself, but the reality of the situation kept creeping in. As he exhaled slowly, his eyes wandered to the faint glow of a floating screen that appeared before him.
"You have leveled up."
Jihan blinked, confusion clouding his thoughts. "Level up, huh? Is this like... a game or something?" His heart skipped a beat at the thought. "Then... is there a status window too?" He dared to hope.
Before he could dismiss the thought as absurd, another screen popped up, confirming his wild speculation.
Status
Name: Seo Jihan
Level: 1
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Title: None
Stats
Strength: 7
Intelligence: 14
Agility: 8
Dexterity: 10
Skills:
None
Jihan stared blankly at the screen. "Hmm..." He chuckled to himself. "Ha! I think I've played too many games. I'm seeing my own status window now. Great."
He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Oh well, I'll think about this later. First, I need to sort out all the stuff I brought back from the store."
Jihan set about unpacking his supplies—water, food, batteries, a flashlight—anything that would be useful for whatever the hell was happening. As he worked, he noticed the room grow eerily dark.
"Did the lights go off?" he muttered, frowning. "Shit, well, I do have a flashlight."
He flicked it on, the beam cutting through the darkness. Using the light to guide him, he quickly heated up some pre-packaged food in the microwave. After finishing his meal, he walked back to his bed and sank into the covers, exhaustion taking hold of him. "I'll deal with this tomorrow," he mumbled, still trying to make sense of everything.
Before heading to bed, Jihan placed a glass on the door handle, He didn't know why, but the glass would alert him if someone—or something—tried to open his door in the night.
Lying in bed, Jihan opened his eyes, Was all this really happening? Was it just a dream? he thought.
Jihan wanted to test last time for him to believe his situation so he called out "Status"
"Status Screen".
Jihan blinked, wide-eyed. "So... it wasn't a dream after all?" He let out a shaky breath, then settled deeper into his pillow, trying to relax. But his mind kept racing. What had happened the previous night? What had attacked him in the dark?
What was that thing?
A sudden realization struck him. The name had appeared in the floating screen earlier. Slinkrat.
He whispered to himself, "Slinkrat... that name sounds familiar."
He thought for a moment, trying to recall where he'd heard it before. Then it hit him. "Wait, I've seen that name before in Path of the Dead—it was in the tutorial. Damn, I almost forgot about it. Haven't seen one of those in ages."
The Slinkrat was a small, hunched creature resembling a hybrid of a rat and a humanoid. Standing just under three feet tall, it was weaker than the goblins but far more agile. Its name, Slinkrat, represented its stealth and speed.
Jihan's mind spun with the implications. "I don't know if the game turned into reality or if I'm just losing my mind... but if this is real, then I'm going to be the top player of this game—this reality."
His heart surged with determination, knowing that whatever was happening, he was going to master it. The question was no longer if he could survive; it was about becoming the very best.
And for that, he needed to adapt—fast.