Alcazar's fingers trembled over the control panel. Sweat dripped down his forehead, but his mind was cold, precise, and unyielding. He had eliminated terrorists, dictators, and war criminals alike. Every life he had taken had been calculated, justified in his own eyes. But today… today was different.
A nuclear missile — the last in a chain of catastrophic events — was poised to launch. Miscommunication between rival nations had brought the world to the brink. A single wrong move, and millions would die.
He glanced at the countdown: 00:05. Five seconds. Five seconds to stop a war.
Alcazar pressed the stop button. The missile shuddered. Time seemed to slow. Then, silence. Relief flooded him — until a massive explosion tore through the launch site. The world around him blurred into a flash of fire and smoke. Pain, heat, and light consumed him.
And then… darkness.
When his eyes opened again, he wasn't in a warzone. He wasn't even in the world he knew. He was staring at a black void — but not an empty void. Memories flooded him: his childhood. A small room, a dusty old computer, and a game he had loved more than anything else — a girls' game with insane combat, impossible challenges, and mobs he had dreamed of fighting in real life.
He remembered wishing — wishing he could fight monsters, just like in the game. Just a little taste of adventure.
A sudden jolt pulled him back.
Alcazar gasped. He wasn't on the floor of his childhood room anymore. His lungs burned. His head throbbed. He was lying on a forest floor. Pain seared through his right arm and leg — injuries that weren't his own.
He rolled onto his side, taking in his surroundings: thick trees, twisted roots, and the scent of damp earth. Sunlight flickered through the canopy. But what caught his attention wasn't the serene forest.
It was the monster.
A massive bear-like creature, but wrong in every way nature intended. Its claws were long as swords, its eyes glowed with unnatural red fury, and its growl rattled the bones in Alcazar's chest.
Next to him, a body — an adventurer, clearly dead, ripped apart. Blood seeped into the soil, staining the earth a dark red.
Alcazar's instincts screamed. He wanted to move, to draw a weapon, to fight… but his new body was weak. Injured. A stranger's body.
The bear-monster crouched low, claws digging into the earth, eyes locked on him. A low growl turned into a roar that echoed through the forest.
Alcazar swallowed. Every fiber of his being screamed run, but a part of him — the part that had spent years hunting the world's deadliest targets — whispered fight.
And just as the monster lunged, claws extended, the world went black again.
End of Chapter 1