The afternoon sun leaned lazily against the windows of Room 4B. Inside, the air was thick with the usual noise of high school life.
"Yo, check out this clip! That pro-player just hit Challenger in three days!"
Laughter erupted from the back row where the "Elites" sat. Ryu, the star athlete, was leaning back in his chair, surrounded by students hanging onto his every word. In the center of the room, Sarah, the class president, was gracefully organizing a festival committee, her smile perfect and practiced.
And then there was Jojo.
He sat in the far corner, his desk pushed slightly away from the others. He wasn't bullied he was something worse. He was invisible. To his classmates, Jojo was just the guy who stared out the window, a "nobody" whose name most of them couldn't even remember.
"Hey, Jojo," Ryu called out suddenly, a smirk on his face. "Did you finish that history report? Let me 'borrow' it real quick."
The class went quiet, waiting for the punchline. Jojo didn't even look up. "I didn't do it, Ryu."
"Liar," Ryu chuckled, stepping toward Jojo's desk. But before his hand could reach the paper, the world shifted.
A hum, deep and vibrating in their very teeth, shook the floor.
"What the..."
A blinding, neon-blue geometric circle erupted from the floorboards, engulfing the entire room. Desks disintegrated into pillars of light. The ceiling vanished, replaced by a swirling vortex of stars.
"Everyone, stay calm!" Sarah shouted, but her voice was swallowed by a roar of magic.
[Location: Royal Palace of Aethelgard. The Grand Altar]
When the light faded, the students were no longer in their uniforms. They were draped in shimmering silks and reinforced leather. Above their heads, floating status screens flickered into existence like digital halos.
"Praise the Heavens!" an old man in golden robes King Aldric shouted from a high throne. "The SSS Tier Heroes have arrived!"
The students gasped as they read their own screens.
Ryu: [Class: Solar Sovereign] | [Rank: SSS] | [Level: 10]
Sarah: [Class: Valkyrie Queen] | [Rank: SSS] | [Level: 10]
The room was filled with cheers. The "Elites" had become literal gods. But at the very edge of the circle, a shadow began to leak across the floor like spilled ink.
Jojo felt a searing pain. His bones felt like they were melting into liquid. His skin turned translucent, then obsidian. He tried to reach out for help, but his arm collapsed into a dark, gelatinous puddle.
[System Error: Racial Incompatibility.]
[Reconstructing Vessel...]
[New Race: Shadow Slime (Non Human)]
[Rank: F]
[Skill: Void Consumption (Level 0)]
The King's smile vanished instantly. He walked down the steps, his heavy boots clicking on the marble until he stood over the shivering black puddle that was Jojo.
"A slime?" the King spat. "A filthy, parasitic monster was summoned alongside my Saviors? This is a holy insult!"
"Wait..." Jojo tried to speak, but only a wet glub came out. He looked up at his classmates. Ryu was looking at him with pity, while others stepped back in disgust. No one spoke up for him.
"Guards!" the King roared. "This thing cannot stay in my sight. Open the Forbidden Gate. Send it to the roots of the world."
The King pulled a jagged red crystal from his sleeve and smashed it against the floor next to Jojo. Space itself tore open a jagged, bleeding wound in reality.
"Die in the dark, monster."
With a kick from the King's armored boot, the Shadow Slime was sent flying into the rift.
[Location: The Great Abyss. Floor 100 (The Graveyard of Gods)]
Jojo hit the ground with a wet splat.
It was pitch black. The silence was so heavy it felt like physical weight. The air was freezing, and the ground was made of jagged, obsidian stone.
[Warning: You have entered the 100th Floor: 'The End of All Things'.]
[Regional Level Range: 699 - 1,000]
[Current Status: Level 0 Slime]
A pair of glowing, crimson eyes opened in the darkness just five meters away. The creature was a mountain of fur and bone an [Abyssal Behemoth], Level 850. It didn't even see Jojo as a threat it just saw a snack.
Jojo shivered. He was a nobody in class, and now he was a nobody in a world of monsters. But as the Behemoth lunged, a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[Passive Skill 'Shadow Meld' is available.]
[Would you like to survive? YES / NO]