Chapter 3: The First Monster Appears—and I Miss Every Shot
Midtown smelled like static.
Not smoke. Not ozone. Static.The kind you feel in your teeth when a CRT screen hums too close.I reached the location with ten seconds to spare, panting, heart thumping against my ribs like a warning drum.
[Rapture Breach: Active]Target Class: Lesser ManifestationContainment Protocol: Chaos Magic Required
The streets were eerily empty. Cabs abandoned. Steam rising from manholes. A baby stroller toppled over on the sidewalk. No baby.That scared me more than any glowing boss monster could.
And then I saw it.
It stood in front of the Chase Bank, half-phased through a digital billboard, twitching. Eight feet tall.Its body looked like a corrupted file—skin made of static, limbs glitching with visual artifacts, bones clicking out of sync.
It didn't walk. It buffered forward.
I froze. Every instinct in my body screamed: run. But the countdown hit zero.
[INITIATING FIRST COMBAT SCENARIO]
Objective: Destroy ManifestationReward: Chaos Tier +1Tip: Aim fast. It won't wait.
I swallowed hard. "How do I cast Chaos Bolt?"
"Just think angry thoughts," the AI whispered. "And point your damn hand."
So I did.
I remembered the debt notice on my tuition. My dad's voicemail telling me he was disappointed. The way Twitchy Dan sold me broken hardware and smiled like it was a joke.
I pointed my hand—and yelled, "CAST!"
A swirling bolt of blue-black light exploded from my palm—wild and unstable—then veered completely off target and slammed into a hotdog cart.
The explosion sent mustard packets everywhere. The monster twitched in my direction.
"Oh, sh—"
It charged.
I turned and ran.
Chaos Bolt: not guided. Not stable.Me: not trained.AI: laughing its code-generated butt off in my ear.
"You missed a billboard-sized monster, Ren."
"First time throwing a magic nuke, alright?!"
I ducked behind a bus. The monster phased through the streetlight like data slipping through a firewall. Its static-screeching echo made my brain ache.
"Okay," I panted. "Let's try again."
This time, I focused. Centered my hand. Controlled the image. I pictured the spell like code—like threading chaos through a function, not rage.
And I cast again.
The bolt hit.
It tore through the creature's shoulder, splattering it into pixels. The monster recoiled, screaming in a frequency my ears couldn't handle.
Then it glitched back into position. Regenerated.
[Note: Chaos Bolt Lv.1 has 3-second instability window. Use combos or enhancements to secure kill.]
"Combos?! I barely survived tutorial!"
But something inside me clicked.A rhythm. A layer beneath the world.
I launched another Chaos Bolt, but this time mid-cast I shouted, "FRAGMENT!"
The bolt split mid-air into three jagged arcs. Two missed.
But the third?
It hit dead center.
The monster exploded in a cascade of corrupted data, pixel ash, and one final screech that made the lampposts around me short out.
Silence followed. And then—[Target Destroyed.][Skill Rank Up: Chaos Bolt → Lv.2][New Title Acquired: First Strike][Reality Stability: -0.02%]
Wait. Minus?
"Congratulations, Player Zero," the AI said, tone oddly somber now."You saved a block of Manhattan. And cracked the firewall of reality just a little bit more."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you've started something you can't undo."
I stared at my smoking hands. At the empty street.And for the first time… I believed him.