Here, beyond all barriers, reside beings of unfathomable power. Rulers of the infinite and the boundless.
In this vast expanse, two entities exist apart from all others. One is a being of pure supremacy, born into divinity, destined to reign over existence itself. The other is a conqueror, a warrior who carved their own path through battle, hardship, and relentless will.
Their voices echo across the void, a conversation unfolding in a tongue no mortal mind could comprehend. They speak of power. Of the limitless multiverse. Of celestial gates and the barriers that separate the weak from the ascended.
One puts forth a claim: ascension is not a matter of birthright, but of potential. That any entity, regardless of origin could transcend their limits under the right conditions. That with the right structure, the right circumstances, any being who shares their lineage could rise to a higher plane.
The other scoffs at the idea. Then.
A wager is made. A covenant is forged.
A single world will be chosen at random. Its inhabitants will be granted a structured system, a mechanism that levels the playing field and ensures all have an equal chance to grow. If even one among them manages to ascend beyond mortality, the bet is won. If not, the loser forfeits half their power, absorbed by the victor to secure dominance across all realms.
And so the system is born. A sentient force woven from creation’s essence, designed to guide, challenge, and empower those willing to reach beyond their limits.
A ripple tears through the multiverse. The strings that bind reality tremble as celestial energy erupts like a blinding supernova.
Across countless galaxies and over a million habitable planets, the system makes a deciding choice.
One world holds the necessary lineage. One world is bound by fate to this experiment.
Designation: Universe 7841, Galaxy 118, Planet 3. Earth.
The system descends.
A glowing message materialised in front of every human, impossible to ignore.
“This planet has been selected for the Gate System. To maintain peace and prosperity, you must prevent Gates from breaking and save your world.”
The words weren’t just seen, they were felt, spoken directly into the minds of every living person. A presence beyond comprehension.
The system continued. This was only the beginning.
Over time, more features will unlock. The Initiation Phase marked the first step. Gates would soon appear across the planet. At first, they would be green, entry-level, the weakest tier.
All green gates will remain for 24 hours. Use this time to prepare.
The system was structured around levels, a methodical path to power.
Levels and Gates:
? Level 1 marked the starting point, with no upper limit.
? Green gates: Beginner-tier. Monsters capped at level 10. Defeating the gate’s boss would close the portal or stabilise it for reuse.
? Blue gates: The most common. A three-meter light blue gate held level 10 monsters. A fifteen-meter gate might contain level 35 creatures and worse. The darker and larger the gate, the more dangerous it became.
? Black gates: Colossal and catastrophic. Fifty meters wide. World-ending threats. The system itself will warn humanity before one appeared.
Rare gate types:
? Red gates: Dimensional portals to other worlds. Sealed until unknown conditions are met.
? Silver gates: Boss chambers. The darker the gate, the stronger the mutant boss.
? Gold gates: Labyrinths. Multi-tier challenges filled with bosses, rare loot, and treasure. Even the weakest started at level 20.
As the explanation ended, a countdown appeared.
One minute.
System Announcement:
“Upon slaying your first monster, your interface will activate. You will gain access to your stats, level, and abilities. You may perceive the level of any being up to ten levels above you. Beyond that, stronger beings will appear only as red names, a warning of their overwhelming strength.”
“Happy hunting.”
The world shuddered.
Something deeper had shifted, something fundamental.
Power grids hiccupped. Satellites blinked, flickered, and realigned to strange magnetic pulses no science could explain. Instruments in laboratories spun out of control. In temples, priests collapsed mid-prayer and fell silent.
For a moment, the sky shimmered, like reality itself had been distorted.
Across every time zone, people froze. Hands trembling. Eyes wide.
This wasn’t just an announcement. It was a reckoning.
Then silence.
Thirty-seven seconds remained.
The air shimmered green across the planet. Millions of emerald portals ignited at once.
Far beyond human perception, these fifth-dimensional beings observed. Their gaze swept the Earth, searching for the one, the fragment of one of themselves hidden in mortal form.
They found him.
A man stood in central Poland, of English descent. His essence resonated with a dormant sliver of their power, buried deep within his soul. A fragment of the fifth dimension, housed in a human body.
The beings watched.
As the countdown reached zero, the man didn’t hesitate. He had absorbed everything the system shared during its mental broadcast.
With unwavering resolve, he sprinted forward and dove into a gate just fifteen meters away.
The beings stopped watching, for now.
To them, time held no meaning. They would return later to observe his journey, both through his own eyes, and from the distance of eternity.
The sensation of entering a gate was indescribable for humans. For this human, the celestial entities waited to see what would unfold…
I wasn’t just stepping through a gate, it felt like a tear in reality. A weightlessness overtook me, then I emerged into a vast subspace.
I stood in an endless grassy plain, emerald blades swaying gently despite the absence of wind. The land stretched out far in every direction, broken only by clusters of towering trees with thick, ancient trunks and sprawling branches draped in deep-green leaves. Some trees bore blossoms of silver and violet, their petals glowing faintly, as if touched by unseen magic. Their scent was sweet but unfamiliar, honeyed nectar mixed with crisp morning air.
I drew a steady breath, letting the strange atmosphere fill my lungs. My hands trembled for a moment before finding stillness, anchoring both my body and thoughts. With each heartbeat, the unreality faded. I was here and I was grounded.
Scattered across the plain were jagged rocks etched with swirling patterns, as if shaped by something more than time. Some were wrapped in vines blooming with tiny luminescent flowers of blue and white, pulsing faintly like stars in a twilight sky.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Above, the sky stood frozen. A brilliant sun cast golden light across the land, but nothing moved. No clouds drifted. No wind stirred. Time itself seemed to hold its breath.
The air was warm, thick with energy, yet utterly still. No rustling leaves, no chirping birds. Only my footsteps pressing into the soft earth. It felt like a world untethered from reality, a threshold between the familiar and the unknown.
Then… movement.
A creature appeared ahead. Small. Humanoid. Sickly green skin with spindly limbs.
And as I focused, the system responded. Information filled my mind.
Goblin – Level 1
I didn’t hesitate.
My body moved before thought. Instinct surged as my hand closed around a jagged rock half-buried in the dirt. Its edges were rough, biting into my palm.
The goblin hadn’t seen me.
I hurled the stone with all the strength I had.
It cracked against the side of its skull with a wet thunk, bone giving way. The goblin shrieked, stumbled, clutching its head. Dazed and off balance.
I charged.
Its yellow eyes blinked in confusion, too slow to react. I closed the distance in three strides, grabbed its filthy shoulder, and slammed my fist into its face. Once. Twice. Again.
Each blow landed with brutal finality, skin splitting, teeth cracking. My knuckles burned. Blood spattered across the grass.
The goblin gurgled, limbs twitching. It clawed weakly at my arm, but I didn’t stop. Not until it stopped. Limp. Crumpled like discarded cloth.
Silence soon came next.
Then, a pulse.
It surged through me like electricity, sharp and warm, spreading from my chest to my fingertips.
A glowing message appeared before me. Clear. Immediate.
“Welcome to the System.”
A new window unfolded, revealing everything: stats, level, and abilities or skills.
- HP (Health)
? MP (Mana)
? STR (Strength)
? DEX (Dexterity)
? CON (Constitution)
? WIS (Wisdom)
? INT (Intelligence)
? DEF (Defence)
And below it, a newly unlocked skill.
Level 1, already I felt different. Stronger. At least a third more powerful, maybe closer to a quarter. And this was just the beginning.
Status Window
LEVEL 1
? HP (Health): 13
? MP (Mana): 11
? STR (Strength): 14
? DEX (Dexterity): 14
? CON (Constitution): 13
? INT (Intelligence): 10
? WIS (Wisdom): 12
? DEF (Defence): 12
Newly Unlocked Skill
Skill: Absorption
Notification: absorption will be activated at random.
“Huh? I don’t even control my skill… do I need to work on using it?”
I had no time to waste; there was work to do. If it was true this system could bring about an apocalypse, I needed to get ahead of it, to get stronger, fast. And honestly, I was eager to see what would happen next.
As I moved through the area, I spotted two more goblins. This time, their names glowed orange, a small "Level 3" floating beside each one. Stronger than the last, but that didn’t matter.
My fist slammed into the first goblin with everything I had, the impact cracking through its frail body. These things weren’t much stronger than skinny children. Even without system buffs, I was already physically above average.
At age thirty, I stood over 180cm, broad-shouldered and well-built. Sure, I had a bit of a beer belly, but not enough for anyone to notice. Ten years working as a mechanic had given me solid arms and a strong frame and now, boosted by stats from this system, overpowering them was effortless.
The goblins crumpled, dissolving into ash that faded into the ground. One left behind a small, dull pearl-like orb, glowing faintly yellow. I rolled it between my fingers, then slipped it into my pocket. The other, I left.
I kept hunting. Over the next thirty minutes, I cleared another seven goblins, all level three or four. My own level rose to three and I could feel my body changing, not just my strength and speed, but my endurance too. STR, DEX, and DEF rose the fastest, starting higher than the rest. HP and MP followed, though they seemed to scale off my core attributes.
After another half-hour, I hit level four. During that time, I ambushed a goblin and landed a clean kill, managing to snag a small dagger from its belt. By now, my strength had almost doubled from when I first entered. I moved easily across the battlefield, faster and more efficient.
Then I noticed something strange, the glowing orbs had vanished. They were dissolving. They were... gone. Absorbed by the gate? Transported somewhere? I didn’t know. And honestly, it didn’t matter right now. Trying to understand the system this early was impossible. All I needed to do was survive and grow stronger. If world-ending gates could really appear, someone had to be strong enough to stop them.
But this power was intoxicating. And I understood better than most, strength like this could corrupt a person. In a world already filled with criminals and murderers, if the wrong people got their hands on too much power, humanity would destroy itself before the gates ever got the chance.
I stepped out of the gate for a breather, still lost in thought. My watch said an hour had passed inside. But as my phone reconnected, the time read just twenty minutes. Time moves faster, three times faster. That made sense... or at least more sense than my watch suddenly becoming useless.
Walking back toward the office where I work, I scrolled through the news. Every outlet was flooded with theories about the gates. Some were wild, but a few things had already been confirmed.
For one, certain items couldn’t pass through Gates. Firearms and other restricted weapons were phased out at the gate’s threshold, left behind on the Earths side. The system clearly wanted a fair fight. No skipping ahead with modern tech.
That worked in my favour. I had no issue relying on my hands. Years of manual work kept me strong, and I knew how to fight dirty if needed.
Another confirmed rule: only those who directly damaged a monster earned experience. No tagging along for EXP. That wasn’t an issue for me, I was hunting solo. Sure, I knew some people would struggle with killing monsters, but not me. I’d seen enough anime, read enough manga. I’d imagined these kinds of scenarios a thousand times. Now that it was real, I knew exactly what I needed to do and I was ready to do it.
The world, though, was divided. Some people saw the gates as an opportunity. Others saw them for what they really were, a terrifying new reality.
It was 10:20 AM when I pulled out my phone and typed a quick message to my friend:
"When you get this, meet me at building 23 at 13:00."
If he was planning to enter the gates, that gave him plenty of time to prepare. Hunting with two people might be better than going solo in the early stages, and I was certain we’d work well together.
After grabbing some lunch, I jumped back into a gate. If the time ratio held true, I could spend up to six hours inside and still have time to meet him. Best to make the most of it.
Inside, I cut down another fifteen goblins. One carried a sturdy tree trunk that made a decent club, so I took it, keeping the dagger in my offhand. By now, I’d killed over thirty goblins since awakening. My stats rose steadily, and I couldn’t help wondering if my starting point had been above average.
Some attributes rose by three points per level, others by two. At level seven, the strength coursing through my body felt several times greater than before. Maybe I had a natural edge. Or maybe it was potential. I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to risk stupid decisions chasing answers.
My status window now showed level seven.
Progress to Next Level: 18 / 277 EXP
Killing level four goblins only gave nine EXP. That meant around thirty kills to level up. Too many. And the strongest I’d seen so far was level five.
It wasn’t efficient.
So, I went for the boss gate.
Ahead, a silver glow shimmered soft, otherworldly. Not imposing like the black calamity gates described earlier. But its calmness set me on edge.
I approached slowly, heart thudding harder with every step.
Level 7. Stat-boosted. Armed. I should have felt ready.
But I didn’t. Not fully.
Beneath the anticipation was something else. Not fear or unease. It was a kind of tension that slowly creeps in.
I took a breath, tightened my grip on the makeshift club, and jumped through.
My boots struck rough, uneven stone. I staggered once, adjusted, and moved forward. The ground echoed strangely beneath me.
The air was thick with moss and mildew, undercut by something fouler, rot sealed behind stone for years.
It was cold, but not just from temperature. A deeper cold, forming through the atmosphere.
The cavern was unnaturally lit. No torches. No skylight. The glow came from the air itself, a low pulse, constant as breath. Shadows warped across jagged walls. Rock formations jutted like frozen claws, slick with condensation, streaked with violet-glowing veins, scarred by old gouges.
My fingers flexed around the club. My breathing slowed on instinct. I wasn’t panicking, but everything in me screamed that this place was unnatural.
A drop of water plinked into a pool.
I twitched. Locking in with focus.
Each step echoed longer than it should. My shoulders tightened. This wasn’t a hunting ground. It was a den.
Then I heard it.
Skrrk. Skrrk.
Scuttling. Low. Sharp. Just beyond the light. Watching. Waiting. Then I saw it.
A goblin unlike any I’d fought before.
It stood as tall as me, broader in the shoulders. Its wiry arms hung low, claws jagged and blackened with old blood. Diseased green skin stretched over corded muscle, mottled with dark patches along its joints and spine.
But it was the eyes that froze me.
Beady. Red with a calculating focus.
Not vacant like the others.
It snarled, crooked teeth grinding behind a hooked nose, a guttural growl echoing through the stone.
Then the stench hit me.
Rotting meat. Stale filth. Bile. It clawed through my nose, clinging to the cavern like mould grown old and sentient.
Every inch of it radiated hostility. This wasn’t some mindless scavenger.
This was a predator.
A boss.
Its posture shifted, muscles coiling tight. It was preparing to strike, but I didn’t wait.
I surged forward, legs burning with raw strength. Faster. Stronger. My body moved like a weapon drawn taut.
Its name flickered yellow in my vision. “Same level.”
Didn’t matter.
I closed the gap in an instant, raised my offhand dagger, and drove it deep into its back.
The creature roared, twisting with its full speed. Claws slashed toward my throat.
I threw my head back just in time. The air hissed past my skin, close enough to feel the air press by me. A second slower and I’d be dead. My pulse thundered.
No hesitation. No second chances.
I slammed the club into its skull. Wood cracked against bone with a sickening crunch. The impact staggered it, blood streaking from the wound.
Still upright. Still breathing.
Not for long.
I ripped the dagger free from its upper back and plunged it into its neck, the dagger long enough for the tip to protrude out the other side of its throat.
It choked, gurgling as black blood poured down its chest. The goblin stumbled, knees buckling, then collapsed in a twitching heap.
Then nothing.
That was it, boss was dead.