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