“Fuck my fate,” he muttered under his breath.

  The deadline loomed, and his boss, an insufferable asshole, wouldn’t accept delays.

  He glanced out the window. The office was empty. Everyone else had long gone home, swallowed by the night, while he was still chained to his desk, working overtime.

  Games had once been his passion. Now they felt like a curse.

  Tonight, he was finalizing the Class Tree, the power system of the new RPG his company had pinned all their hopes on.

  It appeared as a translucent structure, like a sculpture carved from clear glass. Roots curled at its base. A single central stem climbed upward from the roots. There were no branches or leaves yet.

  The Class Tree served three core purposes: displaying character attributes, acquiring classes, and tracking experience gain.

  With AI on the rise, he had integrated machine learning into the tree. This was the game’s true hook, the player could define their own class.

  When they clicked Create Class, a blank pop-up would appear. They could type in a concept or vision for a class and hit Submit. The tree would then analyze the idea, evaluate attribute thresholds and hidden conditions. If the character met the requirements, a new branch would form on the tree. If not, the attempt would fail.

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  Players couldn’t create overpowered classes from the start. The system enforced attribute restrictions and layered conditions.The more powerful the class, the stricter the requirements, and greater the unique traits.

  Classes were tiered. A class’s tier reflected its rarity, power potential, and progression depth. While most higher-tier classes granted more traits, some may grant a single, potent trait with exceptional scaling. Trait quantity is a guideline, not a rule.

  Traits were represented as leaves along the class’s branch. Only one class could be created and leveled at a time. Only when the current class is maxed out, can you create the next class.

  It was a flexible system but with restrictions. Balanced. Elegant. Almost done.

  He leaned back in his chair and checked his phone. No missed calls. No messages.

  Not surprising..

  He was a loner. Few friends. No girlfriend. Estranged from his parents and siblings. But it didn’t bother him. The quiet was... comfortable.

  Then, something shifted.

  A ripple shimmered through the air, silent, unnatural.

  The colors around him bent, warped, and melted like oil on water.

  The space began to breathe, expanding and contracting with a pulse he couldn’t hear, only feel deep in his gut.

  The sterile white walls of the office flushed amber, then sea-green, then a bruised violet. Everything twisted, desks stretched into shadows, time seemed to slow. Reality itself turned viscous, as if the rules of the world were loosening their grip.

  “What the fuck!?”

  He staggered to his feet, voice cracking. “Help!”

  But the ground buckled beneath him. Gravity lurched sideways. The hum of the lights turned into a low, groaning moan. In a blind panic, he lunged for the nearest solid thing, his monitor. His fingers clutched at it like a lifeline.

  And then,

  A blinding burst of light.

  A deafening crack of sound.

  And everything went black.