I died a coward's death.
Not in a blaze of glory, not protecting anyone noble. Just... quietly. Alone in the back of a crumbling alley, bleeding out from a mugging gone wrong.
The city I once called home—Terra-Nine—was a graveyard of progress, choking on its own ambition. Cybernetics, AI, designer diseases... The world had gone mad chasing power. I was nothing special. No soldier. No genius. Just Kaelen: a data-scrubber for an old-world archive.
But even nobodies get second chances, I guess.
As I drifted into blackness, I remember whispering, "If there's anything out there... let me be more than this."
And something—something ancient—listened.
---
Pain.
Or maybe pressure?
My first sensation was being... heavy. Like my very existence was being poured into a vessel too small. My skin itched, but I had no hands. My ears rang, but I had no head. Just awareness. Raw, pulsing awareness.
Then came the words. Not spoken. Imprinted.
> [Evolution Core successfully installed.]
[Host body compatibility: 47%... syncing adjustments.]
[Race formed: Coreborn Hybrid – Half-Human]
[Cognitive function unlocked.]
I screamed—if you could call it that. A primal release of confusion. Emotion. Birth.
The void around me cracked. Light. Color. Sound.
And suddenly... I was alive again.
I opened eyes I didn't recognize. A reflection shimmered before me—murky, like water. A face that seemed human stared back, but with molten silver lines crawling beneath the skin, pulsing in rhythm with a hidden heart. Hair, dark but tinged at the roots with crystal-blue glow. Eyes... not mine. Too sharp. Too knowing.
I stumbled, naked and new, into a world of violet grass and black stone cliffs. Above, a double moon hung in the twilight sky. A world untouched by humans—yet somehow... familiar.
> [New Ability Unlocked: Monster Tongue]
[You can understand and communicate with lesser monsters.]
A rustle.
My head snapped toward the noise. Instinct, not fear, guided me. A small creature—furred, with six legs and glowing green eyes—stared at me from the brush.
I didn't flinch. It didn't attack.
"Can... you understand me?" I asked.
It tilted its head.
And to my surprise... it responded.
"Yesss... You are... one of ussss... but not. Different. Soft... yet Core."
> [Skill Unlocked: Core Sync – Basic Tier]
The notifications burned across my vision like dreams made digital. I didn't know what any of it meant—but my body did. My Core did.
Memories not mine slithered through my mind. A long-forgotten race called Coreborn—beings formed when human souls fused with Dungeon Cores. Ancient. Hunted. Extinct... or so the monsters believed.
"Who... am I now?" I whispered.
The creature hissed, respectful.
"You... are Halfborn. Forgotten no more."
I sat, stunned. I had no weapons. No allies. No idea how this world worked.
But I had a name—Kaelen.
I had a second chance.
And I had a Core.