In 2023 the world changed without warning. Portals tore open across the sky and aberrants flooded into the human world. The catastrophe wiped out half the global population in an instant. Jang Yu was such a walking disaster that they didn't even pick him to serve on the front lines.
So he takes the scenic route to greatness and heads for the library. The plan is simple: memorize enough manga to awaken some legendary inner power, then take on the enemy. What he doesn't plan for is a random book flying off the shelf and knocking him out cold.
When he comes to, things start getting very strange.
First, his eyes change. When he looks up at the sun, he can see a thick HP bar floating above it. And every living thing he looks at has one too.
Panicking, he rushes to the hospital to get checked out. The doctor tells him he is perfectly fine. But when he looks up at the man, he sees a deep red glow surrounding him, and above his head an HP bar sitting at just eighteen percent. Walking through the hospital corridors, he notices the patients' HP bars are consistently far lower than the nurses'.
That confirms it. He knows exactly what the HP bars mean.
Right then it hits him. This isn't some weird medical condition. His system has finally arrived.
For now, all he can do is see HP bars. What that actually means for him, he has no idea.
But on his way home from the hospital, the world shifts right beside him.
The entire street empties out in an instant. He looks up at the sky, and the HP bar above the sun has climbed to nearly a hundred thousand. Even the buildings around him are draped in an eerie, sinister hue. Unease creeps through him. Does the sun actually have a life of its own?
Just then a woman leaps from a building above and launches herself straight at the aberrant ahead.
Ever since the first catastrophe, aberrants had been ravaging the human world without end. Their power was overwhelming. Humans had no way to fight back. That was until a new kind of human emerged: the awakened. Only then did humanity find its first real foothold against the aberrants.
But the line between an awakened and an aberrant is razor thin. When people gain this power, they also bear a heavy cost. Some fall into darkness and become aberrants themselves. Others master the power of shadows and rise to the level of gods.
That was years ago. Now, under the resistance of the official Night Watch, humanity has long established safe survivor zones.
Yet right now, war is erupting before his eyes again. More fighters and aberrants appear on the streets by the second.
Then a single drop of water hits his cheek, snapping him back to reality. The noise of the street floods back into his ears. But a bigger question starts gnawing at him. Is our city really safe? Or is that just a carefully crafted lie?
Back home, he heads to the bathroom for a shower when he notices a strange mark on his chest, one that looks oddly familiar. It's the same symbol from the manga that knocked him out.
Then the pain hits, sharp and searing. Dark green veins crawl across every inch of his body. A suffocating pressure closes around him and he can't breathe. He manages to slam on the shower and the cold water pulls him back from the edge. He drags himself back to the mirror, and when he sees his HP bar sitting at a hundred percent, he lets out a satisfied smile.
Then the third change hits. His shadow starts moving on its own. It peels away from him and vanishes.
He freezes, completely horrified. He tears through the bathroom looking for it. Finally it reappears on the wall.
Breathing again, he decides the best move is to sleep it off. But the moment he opens the door, a pitch black figure is standing right there.
It stares at him, unblinking. Then its gaze drops to his feet. He stumbles backwards several steps.
Good news and bad news. Good news: he has found his shadow. Bad news: his shadow is alive.
After some bold experimentation, though, he discovers his shadow is surprisingly obedient. No matter how absurd the command, it follows through without question. He even throws a full-on street dance routine at it, and it nails every move.
While he is still trying to work out what exactly this thing is, a flash of light bursts from his chest. After a few flickers, a stat panel appears in front of him.
It's the shadow's stat panel. Not only does it carry all of his strength, it holds all of his memories too. And in the ability slots there are two mysterious plus signs waiting to be unlocked.
Watching his shadow still busting out dance moves, a thought crosses his mind. He rummages around on his desk and digs out his summer homework. He hands the shadow a pen and tells it to get to work.
Half an hour later, all it has managed to write is a single character. He grabs the worksheet and whacks it over the shadow's head. So it can't actually learn.
Fine. But surely it can copy, right?
What happens next catches him completely off guard. The shadow copies at lightning speed, perfectly mirroring his own talent for copying homework.
He sees opportunity everywhere.
That's when he remembers the shadow's two abilities. First, shadow imprint. He can extract shadow points to strengthen himself, shadow points pulled from inanimate objects. The ability is insane.
He looks around the room eagerly and moves to the dark corner behind the door. Half an hour passes. Nothing happens.
But then his eyes shift in a way he has never felt before. By activating shadow eye, he can see the shadow realm, the hidden dark side of the world.
With that, everything clicks. The terrifying vision he saw earlier out on the street. That was the shadow realm.
Then he turns his attention back to the shadow. The system hinted it should train, after all. He looks at the shadow, still copying homework, and orders it to drop and do push-ups.
It stands up immediately. Then it sinks straight into the floor and disappears.
He panics all over again. Then a portal tears open in the air and the shadow shoots back out.
Curious, he gestures for it to explain. It picks up the pen and writes: Shadow realm. Then below it: Push-ups.
He can't help but be impressed. This thing is actually smart. Training in the shadow realm must give better results.
Once the shadow heads back in, he picks up his pen, ready for his next move.