The moment Kaiser slid the ring onto his finger, he braced himself for something dramatic—an electric surge racing through his body, a flash of light, or maybe even a voice booming some ominous revelation. Anything. But instead… nothing. No sudden flood of knowledge, no out-of-body experience, no mystical screen floating in the air.

  Kaiser blinked, confused. His excitement, sharp and anticipatory just moments ago, ebbed into mild frustration.

  'Seriously? Nothing?'

  For an instant, he thought maybe he had been too eager, too caught up in the idea of finally uncovering his true level. Maybe there were mechanics he didn’t understand—things he should have asked Hazie about before rushing in. But just as he was about to take the ring off and demand answers, something shifted.

  It wasn’t physical, not a sensation he could describe in any clear terms. But it felt… mental. Subtle, like the faintest knock echoing from the back of his mind—weak and unobtrusive, as though whatever was “there” was asking for permission to come in.

  Kaiser frowned slightly. 'So this is how it works.'

  It would be too illogical if the ring suddenly revealed his stats, that he himself wasn't completely aware of out of nothing. As it turns out, the tabulator was relying on the person's memory as a source of information, which it translates.

  The realization settled in as he sat still, focusing on that faint presence. It would begathering information by probing through his memories, cataloging his experiences. Slowly, it made sense to him. This ring, this magical tool, likely functions by assessing whether the wearer was a Player—someone who had been *transmigrated*—by analyzing the memories connected to that experience. A kind of sorting mechanism, determining who originally belonged in Shattered Realms and if not, the wearer will be branded as a normal person, probably a Descendant here. And those that experienced Transmigration are referred to as Players.

  The same process likely applied to levels. By combing through memories of kills—how many, what kind of creatures—the ring would summarize the wearer’s accomplishments and translate it into something measurable. A Player’s strength is reduced to stats and numbers for simplicity.

  Kaiser hesitated, the faint mental knock still pressing at the edges of his thoughts. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of letting something rummage through his memories. Because first of all, one's mind is privacy. And the secret's he held were no laughing matter. Including his meeting with gods, in which he messed up. Earning a cursed life from then on that is unlike Hazie’s or anyone else’s. His memories were *tainted*—littered with death, over and over again, as though each time had been the final page of a book that refused to close.

  'What if it breaks?' he thought, half-jokingly.

  However, the “knock” was patient, non-invasive. It was like the ring itself was assuring him that it’s harmless. Just a tool, so weak he could crush it if he willed. It's no surprise to be designed that way, for no one would use it if the knock show even the slightest hint of sinister intent.

  He let out a resigned mental sigh.

  'Life’s a risk, anyway. Nothing new.'

  With that, he allowed it in.

  Nothing changed. There was no jolt, no pain, no strange sensations. But suddenly, before him—somewhere between his imagination and reality—a screen appeared.

  Kaiser flinched slightly, eyes widening slightly. The screen was there, yet it wasn’t—existing in that strange place where it seemed both tangible and unreal, like an illusion imposed onto his senses. It glowed faintly red—his favorite color—with lines of white text sprawled across it.

  But something was wrong.

  The letters and numbers twitched, jittering erratically like they were glitching. Kaiser's brows furrowed as he stared at it, the symbols flickering and warping as though struggling to stabilize.

  'WTF?'

  His eyes narrowed. The screen’s text distorted further, fragments of words breaking apart before reforming into garbled nonsense. It was as if the ring couldn’t make sense of what it was seeing—like it was trying to read him and failing.

  “Anything wrong?”

  Hazie’s voice cut through the tension, her tone casual but tinged with curiosity. She didn’t look up from her food, chewing lazily as she spoke. At some point in time, his companion returned to eating.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Kaiser glanced at her sharply, the strange screen still glitching in the air before him. Before he could open his mouth to respond, however, she raised a hand, stopping him mid-thought.

  “Don’t even ask if I can see what you’re seeing,” she said, her tone dry, “because I can’t. Unless you want to show me what details you willed, that is.” She set down her food and flexed her fingers. “But for that to work, we’d both have to be within one and a half meters of each other, and both of us would need to be wearing rings. How do I know? We experimented. A lot. If there’s nothing else, don’t disturb me.”

  And just like that, she went back to eating, seemingly unconcerned.

  "Uhh, okay, thanks."

  Kaiser shifted his gaze to the disoriented screen again. His unspoken questions were answered before he could even asked them. But there was something else gnawing at him. Hazie hadn’t mentioned anything about a glitch. If this had been a problem they encountered or if there's any, she would have said so. However, Hazie did not mention anything about stumbling on errors, meaning there's none in their experiment except him.

  'So is this… exclusive to me?'

  His jaw tightened. It made sense, in a way. The ring pulled its data from the wearer’s memories, summarizing their history to assess their level and other status. But Kaiser's history was relatively broken. A chain of memories filled with impossible deaths—moments that should have been his end. And yet, every time, he got back up, living normally again before dying. Each death rewrote him, as though the story of his life couldn’t decide whether it was finished, or not? Will an Immortal life be ever be?

  If his life were a book, it will be viewed as an error in comparison to others.

  'No wonder it’s glitching.' The ring’s system—logical and absolute— probably had no framework for something like him. To the ring’s judgment, he was both alive and not. How could it measure someone who had defied the end so many times?

  A twinge of concern flickered through him. 'Damn it… What if I really break this thing?' The thought wasn’t entirely unfounded. After all, it wasn’t his. It was just a borrowed tool, and Hazie didn’t seem like the forgiving type when it came to losing important equipment.

  Before his worry could spiral further, the erratic screen began to change. The glitching slowed, the symbols and numbers no longer distorting as violently. Kaiser exhaled softly as the chaotic mess stabilized, the screen flickering once before finally settling into something… readable.

  The red glow sharpened, and at last, clear white letters formed in neat, crisp lines.

  Kaiser stared, his chest tightening with anticipation he hadn’t even realized he was holding. After all this time—after the confusion, the wondering and struggle, who knew a day like this will suddenly pop out of nowhere?

  Though, not entirely unexpected so he made sure to take it slow beforehand to savor every moment of his first time, which is the most special of all.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Before opening it and began deliberately reading each letter.

  The first line appeared, simple and unsurprising.

  Name: Kaiser

  Basic. Straightforward. No complaints there—until his gaze lingered a second longer, and a faint pop appeared beneath the word “Name,” like a tooltip waiting to be read. Curiosity got the better of him. He focused on the term.

  A small window expanded, glowing faintly in that cursed red.

  Named - A word or set of words by which a person, animal, place, or thing is known, addressed, or referred to. Basic knowledge for idiotic morons who’re reading this. Well, at least you knew what names are.

  Kaiser’s lips twitched.

  '...Are you kidding me?'

  His eye twitched, a vein pulsing faintly at his temple. "I swear to God, whoever made these rings… If I ever meet them—him, her, or whatever the hell creates this—I’m going to give them a piece of my mind."

  Hearing him, Hazie's suppressed laughter echoing across the campfire as she watched him cursed the damned creator of these rings that insulted its wearers.

  “There’s probably a long line for that,” she quipped.

  Kaiser shot her a glare but ultimately shrugged off the annoyance, deciding to move on. The next logical thing to check was his own name—*Kaiser*. His gaze flickered over it, pausing briefly. Did he really want to see what snarky garbage the ring would spit out this time? If there's any, that is. Considering the sharp-mouthed forger of this tabulator tool is basically a stranger to Kai to add description to his name... Unless the creator was too hellbent on bad-mounting their product users to go through the trouble of programming it to generate one according to ten wearer's memory.

  'There's no harm in trying. Besides, It’s just my name. How bad could it be?' he told himself.

  He focused on it, and sure enough, another description unfurled like an uninvited guest.

  Kaiser - Name deserving of an Emperor, but this bearer was an utter disappointment. With luck as low as trash and ill character that will surely bring an empire to ruin. Oh, I beg of you, don’t live up to your name. Besides, you can’t even conquer a way to a woman’s skirt, let alone, an empire. Not to mention the fact that you die a virgin more than one times... Now that's just too pathetically unbelievable if an achievement.

  The moment he read the last word, Kaiser's hands clenched into trembling fists, and his face darkened as if a storm cloud had passed over him.

  Seeing him struggle not to punch thin air with intentions to murder, Hazie outright cackled this time, nearly choking on her food as she clutched her stomach. Kaiser’s glare shot toward her like daggers, but she only waved a hand in apology—though her smirk said she wasn’t sorry at all.

  “Thanks a lot for not warning me,” he growled lowly through gritted teeth.

  Hazie wiped a fake tear from her eye, grinning ear to ear. “What? The descriptions? Sorry, I thought it would sing praises like it did for me.” She smirked, her voice lilting with feigned pity. “You know, that ring hits harder on a girl than you ever could. No surprise you’re still a virgin.”

  That's two knives in a row. Kaiser could almost see them—one from Hazie, the other from the cursed ring—piercing his pitiful pride in perfect sync. He briefly considered making the ring bounce of Hazie's head.

  'They’re definitely teaming up on me.'

  “Whatever,” he muttered, waving her off with a scowl. He pushed his irritation down, forcing himself to move on. His gaze shifted to the next entry, skipping the line:

  Status: Player

  And moving on to what he had been waiting for this whole time.

  Level.

  Kaiser ignored the word’s tooltip, as well, knowing full well it would only mock him like the others had. He skipped past it and focused instead on the actual *number* beside it.

  For a moment, everything felt suspended—his heart, his breath, his thoughts—as his eyes zeroed in on the truth.

  And then he saw it.

  Level 2: (Cipher — 3 points)

  Kaiser froze. His expression hardened, his breath catching in his throat. For a moment, he just stared, his mind refusing to process what was right in front of him.

  Hazie, sensing the shift in his demeanor, paused mid-bite. Her grin faded as she watched him carefully, feeling unease for Kai wasn't in for a laugh this time... He's expression are unsettlingly cold, to a chilling degree.

  “Hey… what’s wrong?” She asked worriedly.

  Kaiser didn’t respond immediately. His expression darkened, shadows flickering across his face in the firelight. When he finally spoke, his voice was low.

  "What's your level?"

  "Thirty eight—Cipher, why?"

  That's undoubtedly higher than him...

  His grip tightened, finding it hard to make sense of the situation, he unconsciously spat.

  “What kind of joke is this?”

  Hazie blinked, surprised by the suppressed emotion in his voice. She set her food aside, her amusement evaporating. “What are you talking about? What does it say?”

  Kaiser didn’t look at her. His gaze remained fixed on the glowing red screen as though he could burn a hole through it by sheer will alone. But he can't, nor could he change it's unsightly contents.

  Eventually, he sighed heavily, recollecting himself and respond.

  "...Nothing."