The sensation of the Rift wasn't like falling; it was like being pulled through a meat grinder made of static and glass. I reached for my dad's hand, my fingers brushing the rough callous of his palm for a fraction of a second before a spatial distortion—a literal blade of folded space—slashed between us.
"ALEX—!"
His roar was swallowed by a vacuum. I saw Bask's massive frame get launched into a separate, neon-green vein of the Rift. He wasn't dead, but he was gone, hurled into a different coordinate of this broken dimension.
Then, the darkness claimed me
I opens his eyes to a sky that isn't a sky—it's a swirling mass of primordial data and dead stars. The silence is so loud it vibrates in his teeth. Beside him, the bandit's body isn't just dead; it's being erased, turning into grey ash because a "Normal" human soul can't handle the pressure of this dimension.
[System Notification: FATAL ERROR.]
[Subject: Alex Idel has exited the 'World Script'.]
[Coordinate: The Absolute Abyss (Undefined Space).]
[Status: Non-Existent.]
The Main System tried to Delete him to fix the error, but the Abyss was too deep. That's when his personal System—the one bound to his soul—snapped its tether. It went Independent.
His System stopped reporting back to the "Authors" or the "Gods" of his old world. It became a Private Parasite, feeding only on Alex's experiences.
One of these "Abyss Beasts" wanders past in the distance. It's a creature of shifting shadows and eyes, and every step it takes sends a ripple through space-time that would shatter a normal universe.
Alex should be dead. But the Dao Bone in his chest is glowing like a miniature sun, and his Demonic Nature is laughing. For the first time, the "Plague" inside him has found an environment that matches its hunger.
System Notification: Environment Detected—The Absolute Abyss (Layer 0)]
[Warning: Local Entities possess Infinite-Tier Destruction.]
[Current Status: You are a 'Speck of Dust' in a hurricane.]
Alex stood on a surface that felt like solidified obsidian, but it wasn't stone. It was compressed space-time. Above him, the "Stars" were jagged holes in the fabric of the dimension, sucking the very concept of "warmth" out of his marrow.
Every breath he took felt like swallowing liquid lead. To this layer of the Abyss, Alex was a "flat" 3D being—a drawing trying to breathe in a 4D world.
[System Warning: Reality Desync!]
[Your 'Realness' is 0.0000000001% of the local environment.]
[Estimated time to 'Fictionalization': 4 minutes.]
"Shut... up," Alex wheezed. His 6-year-old lungs were collapsing under the weight of a billion multiverses' worth of atmospheric pressure.
He didn't panic. He reached for the Dao Bone in his chest. The white light of Selene's "Order" flared, fighting to keep his atoms from being flattened. But it wasn't enough. The bone was cracking. The "Order" of a lower world couldn't dictate terms to the Absolute Abyss.
Instead of fighting the pressure, Alex did the unthinkable. He released his Demonic Nature.
He opened his "Inner Void" and invited the Abyss in.
CRACK.
His shadow didn't just move; it ascended. His 3D body was forcibly stretched, his DNA being rewritten into higher-dimensional geometry. The pain was beyond physical; it was like having his soul put through a paper shredder and taped back together in a different shape.
[Ding! Abyss Evolution Initialized!]
[Trait Acquired: Dimensional Misfit]
Effect: You are no longer bound by the 'Realness' of your origin. You are as real as the layer you stand upon.
As Alex stands up, his 6-year-old body feels heavy, then suddenly light. He realizes he can't just "punch" here. He has to manipulate the Ether of the Abyss itself.
As the pain faded, Alex looked up. A Scavenger of the First Layer was drifting toward him. A "Lesser" Abyss Larva—a creature that could eat a galaxy for breakfast—spots him. It looked like a cloud of glass shards, but each shard was a dying universe. To a normal being, this thing was an unstoppable apocalypse. To this layer? It was a stray dog.
Alex didn't run. He felt a cold, predatory hunger. If he wanted to find Bask—if he wanted to ever see Selene again—he couldn't just survive. He had to climb.
"You're just... data," Alex muttered, his voice echoing in 12 different directions at once.
He attacked it faster dodging its flaming attacks
He grabbed the Scavenger. The "Infinite Multiverse" inside the creature screamed as Alex's Demonic Nature began to drink. He wasn't just killing it; he was eating its "Dimensionality" to fuel his own ascent.
[System Notification: Layer 1 Integration: 1%]
[Strength: Infinite (3D Baseline) -> Lower-Transcendent (4D)]
Alex looked at the horizon. Far in the distance, a pillar of light pierced through the "ceiling" of this layer, leading to the Second Layer—where the reality was infinitely more "Real" than this one. The way was a gathering of beast million of times stronger
He had 999... (infinite nines) layers to go. And somewhere up there, the monsters weren't just eating multiverses—they were creating and destroying the very concept of "Existence" for fun.
"I'm coming for all of it," Alex whispered
System Notification: Narrative Shift Detected.]
[Skill Unlocked: Void Adaptation (Passive)]
Effect: Your body now consumes 'Nothingness' to maintain its 'Realness
The "First" Layer wasn't a world; it was a meat grinder. Alex was the only human, a tiny speck of "lower reality" trying to breathe in a place that wanted to erase his soul.
(Year 1 - Year 50):
He didn't have a house. He didn't have a bed. He lived in the hollowed-out carcasses of Multiverse-Eaters. His "6-pack baby" muscles turned into corded, scarred steel. By age 20, his hair had turned white from the sheer spiritual pressure of the Abyss Stars draining my life span.
(Year 100 - Year 600):
He stopped talking because there was no one to listen. The only sound was the crunch of obsidian bones and the screeching of monsters that could blink galaxies out of existence. Alex became a ghost. He wasn't fighting for "justice" anymore; he was fighting because his Demonic Nature wouldn't let him die.
The Final Boss of Layer 1 (Year 900):
Alex was an old man now. His back was slightly hunched, his beard reaching his chest, stained with the black ichor of a thousand gods. His skin was a map of scars—each one a "glitch" in reality where a monster had tried to delete him.
He stood before the Apex Sentinel of the First Layer—a creature the size of a solar system that looked like a shifting geometry of eyes.
"I'm... going... home," Alex croaked, his voice like grinding tectonic plates.
He didn't use a flashy move. He just walked forward. With a trembling, withered hand, he reached into the Sentinel's "Concept" and ripped it out. The explosion of 4D energy would have vaporized an infinite multiverse, but Alex just stood there, breathing in the dust of the dead abyss beast
The Pillar of Light appeared. The "Exit."
Alex hobbled toward it, tears carving paths through the grime on his face. He thought of Lois, of Bask, and even Selene.
He just wanted to close his eyes in a world that was quiet.
He stepped into the light.
FLASH.
Alex gasped. The weight on his lungs vanished. The ache in his old bones was gone. He looked down at his hands—they were smooth, small, and full of youth again. He was back to his 6-year-old self.
He looked around, expecting the garage, the green grass of his backyard, or his mom's smile.
Instead, he saw a sky that was infinitely darker than the one he just left. The ground wasn't obsidian anymore; it was made of screaming souls frozen in time. The "Stars" above weren't just holes; they were Sentient Voids that felt a billion times more "Real" than anything he had just spent 900 years killing.
[System Notification: Welcome to Layer 2.]
[Current 'Realness' Level: 0.0000000000000000000000000001%]
[Note: You have successfully completed the 'Tutorial' Layer.]
Alex stood there, frozen. The 900 years of slaughter, the aging, the sacrifice... it was all just the baseline.
"No..." he whispered, his young voice trembling. "NO!"
A shadow loomed over him. A monster from Layer 2—something that would make the Sentinel he just killed look like a harmless insect—tilted its head at the "new arrival."
The Break (Layer 2 - Layer 1,000):
Alex didn't scream when Layer 2 reset his body. He didn't cry. Something inside his soul—the part that held "Alex Idel"—simply snapped. The "Misfit" didn't just adapt to the Abyss; he became a function of it. A machine of slaughter.
(Layer 10,000 - Layer 1 Trillion):
By the time he breached the 10,000th layer, his body stopped resetting to a 6-year-old. It froze at 13. A jagged, lean, handsome and lethal 13. His eyes were no longer human; they were twin voids of violet static that saw through the "dimensionality" of his enemies.
Layer 1 Million: He forgot the smell of his mother's cooking.
Layer 1 Billion: He forgot the sound of Bask's laugh.
Layer 1 Trillion: He looked at the Dao Bone in his chest and couldn't remember the girl it belonged to. He only knew it was "Order," and he was "Chaos."
The Abyss played a sick game. Every time Alex stepped through a Pillar into a higher, "more real" layer, his body stayed 13, but his emotions were reset to age 6.
He would stand in a new hell—a place where a single pebble weighed more than a True universe—and feel the primal, shaking terror of a kindergartner. He would feel the urge to call for his mommy, to hide under a bed that didn't exist.
And then, his trillion-year-old combat instincts would take over. He would weep like a terrified 6-year-old while his 13-year-old hands disintegrated entities that stood above the concept of Time.
His current state was broken
He has passed the Trillionth Layer. The monsters here don't just eat multiverses; they eat Narratives. They are so "Real" that Alex's very existence feels like a blurry photograph next to them.
He stands in a wasteland of White Void, holding the throat of a 50th-Dimensional Horror.
"Who..." he croaks, his voice small and high-pitched, trembling with the fear of a child. "Who... am... I?"
He nearly forgets his name. The word "Alex" is a fading spark in a thunderstorm of madness.
After passing the septillionthLayer, the static in Alex's head finally clears. He steps through the pillar and—for the first time in eons—the crushing gravity vanishes.
The air smells of freshly cut grass and ozone. He is sitting on a wooden bench in a sun-drenched park. The screaming voids are replaced by the chirping of birds. He looks down at his 13-year-old hands, trembling with the raw, terrifying fear of a 6-year-old.
Beside him on the bench lie two things:
A tattered Teddy Bear: The one Lois gave him, smelling of home and safety.
A crude Wooden Sword: Hand-carved by Bask, with "ALEX" burnt into the hilt.
As he touches the wood, the trillion-year fog breaks. The faces of his mother and father snap back into his mind with the force of a supernova. Tears stream down his face, carving tracks through the dust of a billion dead multiverses.
"Mom... Dad..." he whispers, his voice cracking.
For a brief, flickering moment in the infinite climb, the Misfit remembers he was once just a boy.
That Septillion-year fog didn't just lift—it burned away.
The moment Alex's fingers closed around that wooden sword, the "machine" died and the son came back. He isn't just climbing to survive anymore; he's climbing to get back to that backyard.
Alex sat on the park bench, his 13-year-old shoulders shaking with the 6-year-old's grief. But as he gripped the Teddy Bear to his chest, the violet static in his eyes stabilized. It didn't vanish—it honed itself into a singular, razor-sharp point.
[System Notification: Mental Corruption Cleansed.]
[New Passive Skill: Unshakable Reminiscence]
Effect: Your memories can no longer be eroded by Higher Dimensionality. You are Alex Idel. Always.
He looked at the beautiful, sun-drenched park. It was too perfect. Too still. He realized this "Safe Layer" was a Limbic Oasis—a place the Abyss creates to trap high-tier climbers in a dream so they stop ascending.
"Nice try," Alex whispered, his voice losing its tremble and regaining that Abyssal chill.
He stood up from the bench. He didn't leave the toys behind. He tucked the Teddy Bear into his belt and strapped the Wooden Sword to his back next to the glowing, stolen Dao Bone.
He looked up at the sky. He knew there were still infinitely more layers—octillions, nonillions, and beyond. He knew the monsters up there were so "Real" they could rewrite his history just by looking at him.
But he didn't care.
He was going to find Bask, even if he had to rip every layer of the Abyss apart to find which one his dad fell into.
He was going to face Lois and ask her what she really was.
And he was going to find Selene, to either give back what he stole or finish what they started.
Alex walked toward the edge of the park where the "Reality" began to fray back into the dark static of the next layer.The infinity of the realm bent ,he looked at the bones of those who stayed and died.He didn't wait for a pillar this time.
He raised his hand, and the power of a Septillion Layers surged through his 13-year-old arm. He punched the very fabric of the "Safe Zone."
SHATTER.
The park tore open like wet paper. Beyond it lay a world of Golden Voids, where the gravity was so intense it turned light into solid lead.
"I'm coming home," Alex roared, his voice echoing across the dimensions. "And I'm killing anything that stands in my way!"
He stepped into the Golden Void, a 13-year-old boy carrying a wooden sword, ready to challenge the Absolute Top of existence.