I sat there in the dim light of my cramped apartment.
I stared straight at the glowing red numbers on my neural implant display.
They kept flashing the same brutal message over and over.
It told me exactly how much debt I owed the clinic.
It was for the failing piece of tech buried in my skull.
I had very little time left.
Soon they would cut me off completely from any medical support.
That meant I was one missed payment away from turning into a vegetable.
I took a deep breath.
I ignored the heavy pounding on the thin metal door.
The collectors were shouting my name.
They threatened to kick the whole thing down if I didn't open up right then.
Instead, I closed my eyes.
I focused hard on the log-in command floating in my vision like a lifeline.
I hit confirm without even hesitating.
Staying out here meant death by inches.
Going in there at least gave me a shot at earning enough credits.
That would shut them up for another week.
The transition hit fast, the way it always did.
It pulled my consciousness straight out of my body.
It dropped me into the bright, clean startup lobby of EIDOLON.
Everything looked polished and welcoming.
Soft blue lights floated around.
Gentle music played in the background.
It was supposed to make new players feel excited.
Instead, I felt terrified.
I knew this wasn't going to be easy.
My body back in the real world was already starting to sweat from the stress.
The cheap implant was probably overheating again.
But none of that mattered once the spawn point loaded fully.
I found myself standing inside a noisy beginner tavern.
It was packed with other players.
They laughed, talked, traded gear, and bragged about their latest kills.
I stood there in my default starter clothes.
I felt like the biggest loser on the entire server.
A tall guy in shiny bronze armor bumped into my shoulder on purpose.
The armor looked way too good for this zone.
He looked down at me with a smirk.
It said he already knew I was trash before I even opened my mouth.
"Hey noob," he said.
"You actually planning to do something useful in here?
Or are you just gonna stand around looking lost like every other dropout who logs in thinking this game will fix their shitty life?"
I looked up at him.
I kept my face blank even though I wanted to punch him.
"Back off, man," I said.
"I'm just here to grind some quick credits.
So leave me alone and do whatever you came here to do."
He laughed loud enough that a few people nearby turned to watch.
"Quick credits in the starter zones? Yeah, good luck with that, dropout.
The goblins out there hit harder than you think.
Most people like you die five times before they even make it to the first reward chest.
So maybe stick to picking flowers or something safe."
I didn't answer him.
I just pushed past his shoulder.
I walked straight to the big wooden quest board on the far wall.
Glowing parchment notices floated in neat rows.
I scanned them fast.
I looked for anything that paid decent without requiring a full party.
I didn't trust randoms.
I didn't have time to build friendships.
I tapped the one that said: "Clear the goblin den outside the east gate. Reward: fifty credits plus basic gear upgrade."
The system accepted it immediately.
A small map marker popped up in my vision.
It pointed me right out of the tavern and into the forest path.
I equipped the rusty iron sword that came with my starter kit.
I checked that it was still sharp enough to do damage.
I headed out without looking back.
The guy in bronze armor was still laughing with his friends about how fast I was going to die.
The forest started off peaceful enough.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves.
Birds chirped like this was some kind of relaxing nature walk.
But I knew better.
I had run low-level zones before, back when I still had hope.
I hoped this game could actually change things for me.
Sure enough, about halfway down the path, three goblins burst out from behind a cluster of bushes.
They screeched and waved crude clubs and short blades that glinted in the light.
I didn't waste time thinking.
I raised my sword and met the first one head-on.
I swung hard enough to catch it across the chest.
It staggered back while green blood sprayed across my arms.
The pain feedback from the hit registered in my real shoulder.
It felt like someone had actually sliced me.
I cursed under my breath.
The implant wasn't supposed to let pain transfer that strongly unless something was seriously wrong.
The second goblin came at me from the side.
It swung low, trying to take out my legs.
I jumped back.
I dodged the club by maybe an inch.
I countered with a thrust straight into its throat.
It gurgled and dropped.
The third one roared and charged full speed.
It slammed its blade into my forearm before I could pull away completely.
The cut burned hot and deep.
My health bar dropped to sixty percent in one hit.
I yelled, "What the hell? Is this supposed to feel like real pain? Because that's not how the game is designed."
Right then a bright red error window flashed across my vision.
It was bigger than any notification I had ever seen.
It said: "Class Unlocked: Anomaly ERROR-TYPE. You do not belong to the System."
Underneath it, my stats appeared.
Strength: five.
Reflex: seven.
Cognition: six.
Will: four.
Stability: ninety-five.
I stared at that last number, wondering why it even existed.
The remaining goblin didn't give me time to think.
It lunged again, blade aimed right at my chest.
I panicked and triggered the new skill that had just appeared in my hotbar.
It was labeled "Rollback Minor."
Everything froze for a split second.
Then it snapped backward three full seconds.
It put me right back to the moment before the last hit landed.
I sidestepped smoothly this time.
I drove my sword into its side instead.
I watched it collapse in a heap.
The whispers started.
They were soft at first but clear enough to make my skin crawl.
"You shouldn't be here," they said over and over like a broken recording inside my skull.
I stood there breathing hard.
I checked my arm where the cut had been.
I found the wound already fading.
It was like the rewind had undone the damage too.
But my head still buzzed.
Stability had dropped to ninety-two according to the floating numbers.
I muttered to myself, "This is messed up. This is really messed up."
But I kept moving.
Stopping meant thinking about the debt, the collectors, and the fact that my body back home was probably shaking from adrenaline and low blood sugar.
I pushed deeper into the forest toward the den entrance.
Smoke rose from hidden campfires.
More goblin voices echoed off the stone walls.
A small group of new players caught up to me just as I reached the cave mouth.
There were three of them—two guys and a girl.
They all wore matching green cloaks that screamed they had bought a starter pack.
The leader, a stocky dude with a shield strapped to his back, said, "Hey, that was some nice moves back there with those goblins.
You want to team up for the den? Because soloing it is suicide, even for people who know what they're doing."
I looked at them.
I sized them up fast.
Extra bodies meant better chance of surviving.
"Fine," I said.
"But don't slow me down.
And don't expect me to carry you if things go bad."
The girl smiled.
"Deal. My name's Kira. I'm the healer.
So stay close if you start bleeding too much."
The other guy, the quiet one, just nodded.
"Let's go before more spawn."
We stepped into the darkness together.
Torches flared to life in our hands.
The tunnel sloped downward.
The air grew thick with the smell of damp stone and rotting meat.
Goblins hit us almost immediately.
They poured out from side passages in groups of four and five.
They swung wildly and screamed in that guttural language.
It always sounded like they were cursing us personally.
We fought back to back.
The leader bashed with his shield.
Kira threw green healing pulses that stitched our cuts closed almost as fast as they opened.
I slashed and dodged.
I used Rollback twice more to undo bad hits.
Each time, the buzz in my head grew louder.
Stability slipped down to eighty-eight, then eighty-five.
The whispers got more insistent.
They told me I was breaking something important.
We cleared room after room.
Piles of goblin bodies stacked up.
Credits ticked into our accounts slowly but surely.
Until we reached the final chamber.
The boss waited there.
A massive goblin chief twice my size.
It wore crude iron plates.
It held a jagged two-handed axe that looked like it could split me in half with one swing.
It roared the second it saw us.
It shook the walls.
"Intruders," it said.
"You die here today."
The fight exploded into pure chaos.
The chief swung wide arcs that forced us to scatter.
Smaller goblins swarmed from the shadows, trying to flank us.
The leader took a direct hit from the axe.
He went flying across the room.
His health bar hit zero in an instant.
He vanished with a pop.
Kira shouted, "Oh crap, he's out! We're down a tank!"
The chief turned its ugly red eyes straight on me.
It raised the axe high, ready to bring it down and split my skull open.
I activated Overwrite fast.
I changed the glowing tag above its head from "Boss" to "Weak."
The system accepted it with a glitchy flicker.
Suddenly the chief stumbled.
Its strength had been sapped.
Its movements slowed.
Its roar weakened.
I charged straight in.
I swung my sword with everything I had.
I carved deep gashes across its chest.
Kira healed me from behind.
The quiet guy threw fireballs that actually did decent damage for once.
We brought it down together.
The chief collapsed in a heap of green blood and broken armor.
The completion notification flashed across my vision.
"Quest complete. Fifty credits awarded plus bonus loot."
I felt a rush of relief.
That money would buy me at least another week.
Maybe two if I stretched it.
But then the whispers came back.
They were louder than ever, right inside my ears.
"Anomaly contained. Initiating purge protocol."
My Stability dropped hard to seventy-two in one brutal hit.
I froze.
Something cold and wrong was watching me from inside the game now.
It knew exactly what I was.
It didn't like it one bit.
Kira turned to me, breathing heavy.
"That was insane. You just rewrote the boss like it was nothing.
What kind of class even lets you do that?"
Before I could answer, a new system message appeared.
It was private and blood red.
Only I could see it.
"Welcome, anomaly. The real test begins now."
My vision blurred for a second.
The cave walls flickered like bad code.
When it cleared, I saw something in the shadows behind Kira.
A pair of glowing eyes.
They definitely didn't belong to any goblin.
They stared straight at me, waiting for my next move.