The world ended on a Tuesday.
At least, that's what the news called it before the anchors turned into corpses and the stations went dark.
Ethan Vale had been sitting in a grimy diner at the edge of downtown, nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee and trying to ignore the latest bad news flashing on the mounted TV screen. Another economic downturn, another scandal, another war brewing somewhere far away.
Not his problem.
He exhaled, rubbing his temple. Life had been a downward spiral for months now. No job, no prospects, just another washed-up pro gamer who had fallen off the map when the competitive scene moved on.
Then the sky turned red.
The world outside the diner window froze. Cars skidded to a halt. People on the sidewalks clutched their heads, their bodies jerking unnaturally. Ethan felt it too—an overwhelming pressure slamming into his skull, like someone was trying to rewrite his very existence.
And then, the notifications came.
> [System Initialization Complete.]
Welcome to the Infinite System.
All sentient beings will now be assigned Classes, Stats, and Quests.
Survival is not guaranteed.
A wave of golden text flashed across his vision, burning into his retinas like a HUD from a video game. His fingers twitched. This wasn't normal. This wasn't some glitchy AR ad.
Then the screaming started.
The man behind the diner counter let out a gurgled gasp and dissolved into glowing pixels, his body breaking apart like corrupted data. The waitress, a young woman with too much eyeliner, collapsed, convulsing, as strange symbols crawled across her skin.
Outside, chaos erupted.
People crumpled to the pavement, their forms flickering between flesh and something… digital. Others mutated on the spot—bones snapping, limbs elongating, eyes turning pitch black as their bodies twisted into nightmare creatures.
The first wave of monsters had arrived.
Ethan barely had time to register it before his vision pulsed again. Another notification.
> [Player Profile Created.]
Name: Ethan Vale
Class: ???
Title Acquired: Last Player
Unique Ability: Code Breaker [Hidden]
He stared at it.
"...What?"
The text didn't make sense. Everyone around him—those who survived the first wave—were receiving assignments: Warrior, Mage, Scavenger, even a few Rogues. But his Class was blank.
His title—Last Player—felt like a bad joke.
Before he could process it, the diner exploded.
Something large crashed through the front window, sending glass and metal flying. A woman's severed arm landed on the counter, still clutching a phone.
Ethan hit the floor on instinct, rolling under a table as a hulking creature stepped into the wreckage.
It was wrong, a humanoid mass of shifting shadows and jagged bones. Its face was a hollow void, and when it opened its mouth, Ethan swore he could hear code breaking apart inside it—static, warped whispers, and corrupted data streams.
He barely had time to breathe before another notification flashed.
> [Survival Quest Activated: First Kill]
Objective: Eliminate one hostile entity.
Reward: Stat Upgrade + 1 Skill Unlock.
Ethan swallowed hard. He didn't have a weapon. No armor. No skills.
The monster's gaze snapped to him.
It moved.
Ethan threw himself sideways just as the creature's claws ripped through the table where he had been crouching. Wood splintered. The impact sent him sprawling onto the grimy floor.
He had to move. Now.
He scrambled toward the ruined counter, his fingers brushing against something cold and metallic. His pulse skyrocketed as he recognized it—a dented metal pipe, probably from the wreckage of the diner's kitchen.
Not a gun. Not a sword. But it was something.
He turned just in time to see the creature lunge at him again.
Adrenaline spiked. He swung.
The pipe connected with the monster's arm, but the impact barely fazed it. The creature twisted unnaturally, its body glitching for a split second before reforming, its jagged mouth stretching into something like a grin.
> [System Alert: Ineffective Attack. Analyzing Weakness…]
[Weakness Detected: Structural Instability.]
Ethan blinked. What the hell did that mean?
Before he could question it, a diagram appeared in his vision—red glowing lines mapping out the monster's vulnerabilities.
It was like a cheat code. A glitch.
Ethan gritted his teeth, adjusting his grip. If that was how this worked… he could exploit it.
This time, when the creature lunged, he didn't aim for its arms. He sidestepped the attack—faster than he should have been able to move—and brought the pipe down right on the weak spot at the base of its skull.
CRACK.
The moment the metal connected, the monster froze—its form flickering wildly like a broken video file. For half a second, its body failed to process the damage. Then—
It shattered into golden pixels.
> [Quest Complete: First Kill]
[Reward: Stat Upgrade +1 Skill Unlock]
[Skill Acquired: System Exploit (Rank F)]
Ethan stood there, breathing hard, his hands clenched around the pipe.
Around him, the city burned. Buildings crumbled, distant explosions echoed through the streets, and more monsters were emerging—some small, others massive, tearing through the remains of human civilization.
This wasn't just an attack.
It was the end of the world.
But Ethan wasn't dead. He wasn't some helpless civilian waiting for salvation.
He was the Last Player.
And if the System had flaws, then he was going to break them.
One glitch at a time.
City of the Dead
Ethan's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
The shattered remains of the monster dissolved into golden pixels, flickering for a moment before vanishing completely. The metal pipe in his hands felt too light, too insignificant, like it shouldn't have been enough to kill something that inhuman.
But it had worked.
And the System had rewarded him for it.
> [Stat Upgrade Applied]
+2 Strength
+1 Agility
> [Skill Acquired: System Exploit (Rank F)]
- Allows user to detect and manipulate minor system vulnerabilities.
- Higher ranks may unlock deeper exploits.
Ethan barely had time to process the information before another explosion rocked the street outside.
Screams. Gunfire. The smell of burning metal.
The world was dying, and no one knew why.
Ethan sucked in a breath and forced himself to move. Staying in one place was a death sentence. He stepped over the wreckage of the diner, boots crunching against shattered glass as he peeked out onto the street.
What he saw made his stomach twist.
The city was unrecognizable.
Skyscrapers stood like fractured tombstones, some already collapsing as strange, blackened vines snaked up their sides. Roads had cracked, splitting open to reveal glowing fissures pulsing with unreadable runes. The bodies of the dead were strewn everywhere—some dissolved into pixels, others mutated into horrors.
This wasn't a war. It was a reset.
Something old and merciless had rewritten reality, and Ethan had no idea why he was still standing.
His grip on the pipe tightened as he moved.
The system messages still lingered in his peripheral vision, his newly acquired System Exploit skill flickering at the edges of his awareness like an unopened file. Whatever it did, it had saved his ass back there.
If he wanted to survive, he had to understand it.
He took a deep breath and focused.
> [Skill Activation: System Exploit (Rank F)]
Scanning environment…
His vision shifted.
For a brief second, everything became code.
The city wasn't just ruined—it was corrupted. Parts of buildings flickered like they shouldn't exist, as if they were half-rendered assets in a broken game. The monsters that stalked the streets weren't just alive—they were spawned.
And some zones were still untouched.
Ethan's eyes locked onto a building across the street—a parking garage. Unlike everything else, it wasn't breaking down. The structure held steady, a stark contrast to the crumbling world around it.
A safe zone?
Before he could move, a voice shattered the silence.
"HEY! Over here!"
Ethan spun, muscles tensing.
A girl—no, a player—was sprinting toward him, her dark hoodie torn and smeared with blood. She had short black hair, wild green eyes, and a knife clenched in her hand.
Behind her, three figures followed.
Not monsters.
People.
And they had weapons.
Ethan's stomach dropped. Not all threats came from the System.
The girl skidded to a stop next to him, breathless. "If you don't want to die, we need to move. Now."
Ethan didn't hesitate.
The world had changed. And trust was a currency he couldn't afford to waste.
He ran.
[End of Chapter 1]