Elias Ward hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.
Dirt filled his mouth.
Heat pressed down from above like a wet blanket.
For several seconds he couldn’t move.
His heart hammered wildly in his chest.
The vision still burned behind his eyes.
The bells screaming across the rooftops.
The jungle dying outside the city gates.
And the giant walking forward through a storm of arrows like they were nothing.
The Devourer.
Elias forced himself upright.
Leaves rustled above him. Sunlight filtered through a dense jungle canopy. Thick vines wrapped around towering trees like coiled serpents.
No city.
No rooftops.
No unstoppable monster marching through the gates.
Just jungle.
“What the hell was that…” he whispered.
The memory felt too real.
He could still feel the dread in his chest. The certainty that whoever that man was…
Nothing in that city could stop him.
Elias shook his head.
“Focus.”
He looked down at himself.
No apartment.
No desk.
No glowing monitors.
Just dirt, sweat, and a jungle that definitely didn’t belong anywhere near his old life.
“…Great.”
A soft chime rang inside his skull.
Elias froze.
The sound hadn’t come from the jungle.
It came from inside his head.
Words appeared in his vision.
Welcome to Khal’thara, Elias Ward.
Elias blinked.
“…No way.”
Another chime followed.
Level: 1
Health: 30 / 30
Stamina: 50 / 50
A red bar appeared in the corner of his vision.
A yellow one beneath it.
He waved a hand in front of his face.
The bars stayed exactly where they were.
Floating.
Locked to his sight.
“This is a UI,” he whispered.
His programmer brain immediately started racing.
“No headset. No projection source. No hardware interface…”
His eyes widened.
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.”
The bushes exploded.
A striped blur launched straight at him.
Elias barely raised his arm in time.
Claws ripped across his forearm.
Pain flared hot and sharp.
HP -5
“Bloody hell!”
The creature hit the ground and spun toward him.
It was a rat.
A rat the size of a small dog.
Foam dripped from oversized yellow teeth.
“Right,” Elias muttered weakly. “Of course there are giant rats.”
The rat lunged again.
Elias scrambled backward, grabbing the nearest thing he could find.
A rock.
The rat slammed into him before he could stand.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He swung wildly.
CRACK.
The rock smashed into its skull.
The rat squealed.
Elias hit it again.
And again.
And again.
Finally the creature collapsed.
Its body dissolved into drifting motes of light.
A chime sounded.
Enemy Defeated: Striped Jungle Rat
+12 XP
Elias sat there panting.
Blood trickled down his arm.
“…Okay.”
He stared at the fading particles.
“That is extremely video game logic.”
The bushes rustled again.
Elias slowly turned.
Another rat crawled out of the undergrowth.
“…Of course there’s another one.”
The rat charged.
Elias swung the rock again.
The fight was messy.
Claws scratched his leg.
The rock connected twice.
Finally the rat collapsed into glowing dust like the first.
A warm pulse spread through Elias’ body.
A new chime rang.
+12 XP
Then another.
Level Up! Level 2
Warmth surged through his muscles. The bleeding on his arm slowed.
A new notification appeared.
New Skill Unlocked: Summon Familiar — Imp
Summon Capacity: 1
Elias blinked.
Then laughed.
“I get a summon.”
He stared at the notification again.
“A summon at level two.”
He leaned back against a tree, shaking his head.
“This must be some sort of RPG system… but I never got to pick a class.”
His brow furrowed.
“I must’ve randomly rolled a summoner class.”
First the terrifying vision of a monster devouring a city.
Now this.
A jungle.
A UI.
A levelling system.
And apparently a class he hadn’t even chosen.
“Don’t you usually get to choose your class?” he muttered.
The system offered no answer.
Elias shrugged.
“Whatever.”
He didn’t actually mind.
Summoner builds were usually the best classes for exploits.
Weird mechanics.
Damage scaling.
Lots of edge cases to abuse.
“Honestly I probably would’ve picked summoner anyway.”
He frowned slightly.
“…assuming the system didn’t pick it for me.”
A thought crossed his mind.
“If it knows my name…”
Maybe it knew more.
His gaming history.
His playstyle.
His macro experiments.
Maybe the system had simply decided:
Yeah, this guy’s a summoner.
Elias snorted.
“Creepy.”
Then he shook his head.
“Focus.”
He still had a new skill.
He opened the description.
Summon Familiar — Imp
A lesser demon bound to the summoner.
Attack: Fireball — 2 damage
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Elias grinned.
“Alright then.”
He raised his hand.
“Let’s try this.”
Red light swirled in front of him.
The light condensed.
A tiny demon appeared.
Two feet tall.
Red skin.
Crooked horns.
Leathery wings.
The imp blinked at Elias.
Then immediately hurled a fireball at a nearby tree.
Leaves burst into flame.
Elias stared.
“…Well that escalated quickly.”
The bushes rustled again.
Another rat crept out.
Elias pointed dramatically.
“Attack.”
The imp screeched and launched a fireball.
The rat squealed as flames struck its side.
Then it turned.
And charged Elias.
“…Wait.”
Another fireball hit it.
The rat ignored the imp completely.
It sprinted straight toward Elias.
“HEY!”
Claws slashed across his ribs.
HP -4
“Why me?!”
The imp kept firing.
The rat never even looked at it.
Elias smashed the creature with his rock until it dissolved into light.
He dropped onto the ground, breathing hard.
The imp fluttered down beside him and scratched its nose proudly.
Elias stared at the combat log.
Imp Fireball — 2 damage
Rock Strike — 1 damage
His mind started turning.
“Hold on.”
He replayed the fight.
The imp had attacked first.
The rat had literally been on fire.
And yet—
Elias looked down at the claw marks on his ribs.
“…it still came after me.”
He pointed at the imp.
“You set it on fire.”
The imp grinned proudly.
“And it still attacked me.”
Elias frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
He glanced at the damage numbers again.
Then leaned forward slowly.
“Wait.”
“The imp attacked first.”
He gestured toward the bushes.
“But the rat never even looked at it.”
The imp fluttered lazily.
Elias rubbed his chin.
“Okay… either that rat was incredibly stupid…”
He looked back at the imp.
“…or the system doesn’t consider you a real target.”
The idea clicked.
His eyes widened.
“Oh.”
He stood slowly.
“Oh that is interesting.”
He lifted the rock.
“You do two damage every two seconds.”
He glanced at his combat log.
“I do one damage every three seconds.”
The imp puffed out its chest proudly.
Elias slowly began to grin.
“So I tank.”
He pointed at the imp.
“You shoot.”
The imp screeched happily.
Elias leaned back against a tree, excitement building.
“One imp already out-damages me.”
His mind raced.
Two imps.
Five.
Ten.
A whole swarm of them throwing fireballs nonstop while monsters wasted all their time attacking him.
His grin widened.
“Yeah… this system has rules.”
He flexed his injured arm.
“And rules can be exploited.”
The imp hurled another fireball into the bushes.
Something deeper in the jungle moved.
Elias didn’t notice.
He was already planning.
“Armor.”
“Health.”
“A lot more health.”
He laughed.
“We’re going to break this game.”
Tik.
The sound was faint.
Sharp.
Like a fingernail tapping glass.
Elias frowned.
“…Did I step on something?”
The imp picked its nose.
Elias glanced down.
For a moment something shimmered beneath the dirt.
Like a crack in the world itself.
Then the system chimed again.
ERROR
Unrecognized Command Detected
Elias slowly smiled.
His programmer instincts flared.
“Oh.”
“Oh that is very interesting.”
He stared at the error message for several seconds, waiting for something else to appear.
Nothing did.
The jungle buzzed around him. Insects chirped. Leaves rustled high in the canopy.
The imp hovered beside him, chewing on a claw and staring suspiciously at the undergrowth like it expected something else to catch on fire.
Elias finally exhaled.
“Alright.”
He wiped the last of the blood from his arm and leaned back against the tree.
“If this really is some kind of system…”
He focused on the floating interface.
“Let’s see the full menu.”
The UI responded instantly.
New translucent panels unfolded across his vision like sheets of glass.
At the top appeared a simple header.
Elias Ward
Level: 2
Health: 26 / 30
Stamina: 50 / 50
Below that, another section expanded.
Attributes
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 3
Vitality: 3
Intelligence: 4
Elias leaned forward slightly.
“Huh.”
His eyes scanned the numbers quickly.
“Pretty balanced… except intelligence.”
He tapped his chin thoughtfully.
“This looks like the start of a classic summoner build.”
His gaze lingered on the intelligence stat.
“Favouring intellect. Probably for spell damage.”
That made sense.
Most RPG summoners relied on scaling magic damage through intelligence while their creatures acted as extensions of their power.
Standard stuff.
Predictable.
Elias scrolled further down.
Another panel expanded.
Skills
Summon Familiar — Imp (Level 1)
A description unfolded beneath it.
A lesser demon bound to the summoner.
Attack: Fireball — 2 damage
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Elias glanced sideways at the imp hovering beside him.
“…Not exactly terrifying.”
The imp hissed defensively.
Elias smirked.
“But useful.”
His eyes drifted back to the faint message still hovering at the edge of the interface.
ERROR
Unrecognized Command Detected
He rubbed his chin slowly.
“That definitely shouldn’t exist.”
Game systems didn’t throw random errors at players.
Errors meant something deeper.
A bug.
A hidden interface.
Or access to something the system wasn’t expecting him to see.
Elias’ grin slowly returned.
“Oh yeah.”
He leaned his head back against the tree and stared up into the jungle canopy.
“This is going to be fun.”
The imp cackled happily beside him.
