Waking up in another world is one thing.
Waking up to see a status window flashing like it's running Windows XP is something else entirely.
At first, I thought I was hallucinating. Again. Like maybe the stress of being a soon-to-be dead side character living on borrowed time had finally fried my brain.
But then the glowing letters moved.
📜 [Status Window Unlocked]
🎉 Congratulations, Noah Drakopoulos(marcus Martin)! You may now access your personal interface.
(Because apparently reincarnation comes with patch notes.)
I blinked. I waved my hand in the air like some fantasy Naruto-wannabe. The text followed my vision.
"…oh no," I muttered. "It's Skyrim. I'm in Skyrim."
[Status Window – Noah Drakopoulos]
New Name: Noah Drakopoulos
Real Name: Marcus Martin
Age: 16
Race: Human (???)
Class: N/A
Health: 55/100
Mana: 20/100
Soul Integrity: 61% (Warning ⚠️)
Condition: Fatigue (mild), Magical Instability (chronic), Anxiety (severe), Hair: Messy
Titles:
– [The Rewritten]
– [Threadwalker]
– [One Who Shouldn't Be Here]
Abilities:
– Echo of Death (Passive – ???)
– ???
Inventory:
–
–
–
"Okay. Two things," I said to the glowing UI, stepping back from the mirror. "One: What the hell is 'Soul Integrity'? Why is it at sixty-one percent? Did I miss a soul update? Am I running on spiritual trial mode?"
The words just pulsed politely in the corner like an overly patient tutorial pop-up.
"Two: 'One Who Shouldn't Be Here' is an unnecessarily aggressive title, and I feel like I should be offended."
Would you like a tutorial?
✅ Yes
❌ No
(Note: You cannot disable this message unless you accept the tutorial.)
"Wow. Just like real-life apps," I muttered, and tapped "Yes" with a sigh.
Tutorial: Welcome to Status Windows™!
> You've been granted access to a personal metaphysical interface.
Please do not attempt to uninstall.
Attempting to explain this to others may result in confusion, exile, or spontaneous combustion.
"Titles" reflect how the world sees you.
"Abilities" are tied to soul resonance.
"Soul Integrity" dropping below 30% may result in mental collapse, memory leaks, or death.
"Memory leaks?" I stared at the glowing letters. "What am I, a cursed JavaScript file?!"
The system did not respond.
After I got over the initial shock (and brushed my teeth with a deep sense of existential dread), I noticed something new beside my door:
🔍 [Active Quest: Survive the Week]
🗓 Days Remaining: 6
Objective: Don't die. Seriously.
Reward: Continued existence. Possibly unlock more plot.
I stumbled into class still mentally rebooting, the status window now semi-transparent in the corner of my vision like a bad HUD mod. Of course, nobody else seemed to notice it—not Silas the Lightning Jerk, not Lyra the Human Eye-roll, and definitely not Ren O'Shae, who still stared at nothing like the quiet goth transfer student with secret main-character energy.
I sat next to Liora again, who leaned in and whispered, "You look like you haven't slept."
"Because I discovered I might be a magical glitch and possibly dying again," I said flatly.
"…you want half my sandwich?"
"God, yes."
During Professor Elira Thorne's lecture on magical echoes and soul links, my window pinged again:
⚠️ [Echo of Death triggered]
🕯 You briefly glimpsed a thread of fate.
Fragment: "…he won't survive the ritual."
Vision: A burning room. My hands shaking. Blood in a silver bowl.
I blinked.
That was new.
That was also deeply terrifying.
But instead of freaking out like a normal person, I just scribbled it down in my notebook under:
Possible Ways I Might Die (Again):
– "Ritual???"
– Fire
– Bleeding into dishware
By the end of the day, I had learned three things:
1. I now had a UI that mocked me with passive-aggressive pop-ups.
2. I was still absolutely dying unless I figured out how to rewrite my fate.
3. Despite everything, I still had no idea what the hell I was doing.
But at least I had a status window.
Which meant I wasn't just in the story anymore.
I was playing it.
Badly.
But still.
Game on.
Or is it novel since I'm in a book, not a game?.
Whatever on.
End of Chapter 6