Pain.
That was the first sign that something was wrong.
Because honestly, if he had died and gone to heaven, he should have felt a cool breeze on his face, not a throbbing pain in every fiber of his body.
He opened his eyes.
Sun. Blue sky. Sand stuck to his skin.
A beach?
Did it make sense? No.
He stood, feeling his legs wobbly. It was strange. Like he was using a body that wasn't quite his.
That's when he noticed his hands.
He looked at them, turned them this way and that. They were his… right?
At least, they should have been.
But there was something different. Firm skin. Long fingers. He ran his hand over his face and noticed his features were more defined, his hair was fuller and…
He ran to the nearest body of water and looked at his reflection.
Okay. That wasn't like him. Well, it was, but not exactly.
Younger. Stronger. More… generic anime protagonist.
What the fuck was going on?
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the information came flooding back.
Power of the Shadow Emperor.
10 slots available for shadows.
Shadows can be extracted from corpses and become loyal servants.
They can be summoned to fight by your side.
He opened his eyes.
"…Okay. That's new."
It was one thing to watch anime. It was another thing to wake up inside one.
And if he was in an isekai… then that meant this was a survival game.
He looked around. No sign of civilization. Just trees and the sound of waves.
First rule of unknown worlds? Test your skills.
And to do that… he needed to kill something.
---
Hunting.
It was never an activity he thought he would need to do.
In his previous life, food was something that simply... appeared. He opened the app, chose what he wanted, and twenty minutes later, a motorcycle would stop at his door with his order.
Now? He was holding a rock, crouched behind a bush, staring at a wild rabbit.
A rabbit.
If someone had told him that one day he would need to kill a rabbit to test dark powers, he would have laughed in their face.
But there he was.
He took a deep breath. Aimed. Threw the rock.
A dull thunk. The rabbit trembled and fell to the ground.
He stood there for a few seconds, waiting for some +XP screen to appear over the corpse.
Nothing.
Well, at least he didn't feel guilty. It was a new world, new rules. Survival was the priority.
Then it happened.
The rabbit's shadow began to peel away from its body, billowing like a black mist.
He didn't need to think.
Instinctively, he reached out.
The shadow was sucked into him.
A shiver ran down his spine—not from fear, but from something else. A connection. He could feel the shadow inside him, waiting for a command.
He closed his eyes and tried something.
"Come."
The shadow emerged from the ground, taking the shape of the rabbit again—this time completely black, its eyes empty.
He stood there, staring at his first shadow servant.
"…Okay. This is pretty awesome."
But one rabbit wasn't enough.
He spent the next hour hunting more small creatures. When he was done, he had five shadows: three rabbits and two birds. None of them were particularly useful for combat, but they were at least good for practice.
That's when he heard the growl.
And he realized that he had become the prey.