The city sky was losing its color. The sunset that once felt warm now flickered like a dying streetlamp—dim, cold, and honestly, kind of pathetic. The air bit through his jacket like a subtle reminder that today was just as empty as yesterday. And most likely, so was tomorrow.
Lucien Alaric walked the narrow sidewalk with no urgency. Not fast, not slow. He just… walked. A white plastic bag swung in his right hand, filled with the same cheap dinner as always: an egg sandwich from the corner minimart, a can of orange soda, and a bag of chips he bought out of habit more than preference.
His life ticked on like a broken clock.
Wake up. Eat whatever. Go to work. Sit in front of a screen until his spine protested. Go home. Eat again. Sleep. Repeat.
> "I wouldn't call this living… but hey, at least I'm not dead."
Ironic, considering that night would be his last.
Lucien wasn't a bad guy. He wasn't a good one either. He was wallpaper—always there, barely noticed.
Friends? A few. Acquaintances with office etiquette.
Family? Distant, emotionally and geographically.
Dreams? Long buried under overdue emails and dried-up ambition.
Still, he was alive. And sometimes, that was enough.
That night, he took his usual shortcut home: a narrow alley wedged between two closed shops. Dark, damp, and covered in graffiti. Most people avoided it. Lucien liked it. No eyes on him. No noise. No pretense. Just the sound of his footsteps on concrete.
Until tonight.
> "LOOK OUT!!"
He turned.
Someone was running—fast, erratic. In his hand, a kitchen knife stained with something dark. Blood.
Behind him, a mess of footsteps and distant voices. Panic. Shouting. Someone screamed something he didn't catch.
And then—her.
At the end of the alley stood a girl, frozen in place like prey sensing the predator too late.
Alicia.
The intern from his office. Nervous. Polite. Always a little too kind for this world. Her eyes were wide. Her body didn't move. And the man with the knife was heading straight for her.
Lucien didn't think.
He ran. One step. Then a shove. He knocked her out of the way.
And the knife found him instead.
No dramatic music. No slow motion. Just pain—sharp and hot—then numbness.
He fell. His back hit the pavement. His hand clutched his side, but the blood was already flowing too fast.
> "So this is what getting stabbed feels like."
> "Great… I didn't even get to eat."
Alicia screamed. Or maybe she said his name. He couldn't tell. Everything was fading—sounds became muffled, vision blurred.
> "Lucien Alaric. Died on a dirty sidewalk after saving someone whose birthday he didn't even know. Kind of poetic, if you tilt your head."
He didn't feel angry. Or scared. Just… exhausted. The kind of tired you don't sleep off.
> "At least I mattered. For once."
Then everything faded.
Light. Sound. Thought.
Gone.
---
Darkness.
But not like sleep. There were no dreams. No body. No breath.
Just awareness. Floating. Trapped in nothing.
Time had no meaning here.
Seconds? Days? Years?
He didn't know.
Until—something changed.
A voice. Cold. Mechanical. Echoing inside his mind.
> [Soul Synchronization: 98%… 100%]
[Entity Identified: Foreign Soul Without Origin World]
[Status: Emergency Reincarnation Initiated]
[Parameters: Random, based on final state of consciousness]
[Assigned Species: Aether Larva – Foundational lifeform capable of unlimited evolution]
[Commencing Hatching Process in 10… 9… 8…]
> "...Wait. Larva?"
> "This is an isekai, right? Where's my overpowered body? My magical sword? Why the hell do I feel like some glowing mutant worm?"
No answer, obviously.
There were no suggestion boxes in reincarnation.
> [Hatching Process: Begin.]
Suddenly—pressure. A wet, slithering push. He was being squeezed out of something soft and warm.
Then he fell—landed on stone. Cold air touched his new form. A body that wasn't a body. No arms. No legs. No face.
He squirmed.
> "...Yup. I'm officially something that belongs in a jar in a lab."
He didn't have eyes, but he could sense. The space around him came into focus in strange outlines—like sonar in reverse. A cavern. Moist. Cold. Silent. The scent of dirt and fungus filled the air.
Another ping echoed in his mind.
> [Species: Aether Larva]
[Status: Weak – Unimpressive – Edible]
[Basic Skills Acquired: Instinctive Adaptation | Minor Regeneration | Nutrient Detection]
[Warning: Nearby creatures may eat you without hesitation.]
> "Wow. Really makes a guy feel welcome."
Lucien tried moving. It felt like wrestling his own mucus. Every movement was slippery, uncoordinated—but not impossible. Soon he learned how to slither, how to stick to the cave wall, how to sense temperature changes.
> "Okay, Lucien. You're a larva now. No face. No hands. No job."
> "But you're alive."
> "And this time, you're not going to fade away unnoticed."
He crawled deeper into the cave. Not knowing what waited. Not knowing if he'd even survive.
But for the first time in a long time—he had direction.
> "If this world runs on a system... I'm going to break it. Or at least abuse it responsibly."
A small creature wriggled into the dark.
Unseen. Unnamed.
But inside that soft, insignificant body, something stirred.
Lucien Alaric had returned.
And the world had no idea… that something dangerous was learning how to crawl.
---