60 days

Kaden sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. In all the chaos of escaping the egg sac, he had completely forgotten to check for the achievement title.

Shooting Star.

There it was.

A slow grin spread across his face, a mixture of triumph and disbelief flickering in his eyes. He had done it. Against all odds, he had done it. It was practically impossible to achieve in just a single day, with limited opportunities within the protective barrier, but somehow, he had pulled it off.

And now—the gateway to his next plan was secure.

[Shooting Star: Survive overwhelming odds and achieve a feat deemed statistically impossible in the current world. As a shooting star, you can participate in a system event of your choosing. The next system event starts in: 60 days.]

Kaden gulped.

Sure, there were other ways to enter a system event and there were some system events open for everyone but this achievement according to his last life's prison guards took one to a special unique system event.

He only had vague information about the whole thing but now he had the confirmation right in front of him. This was it. This was the opportunity he had been chasing since the moment the world changed, the one thing that could push him beyond normal limits. A special unique opportunity.

The egg sac… that had been unexpected. A complete accident. One he had turned to his advantage. But this? This was planned.

And yet, a flicker of unease wormed its way into his mind.

Did he even know what a system event entailed?

No.

But he knew one thing: those who survived came back ten times stronger.

Kaden's fingers curled into fists as he reread the notification, his pulse hammering in his ears. He couldn't rely on another miracle like the egg sac falling into his lap. That was a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck. If he wanted to survive whatever this system event was, he needed to prepare. He needed to be ready for anything.

Sixty days.

It felt like both an eternity and an instant. The system didn't hand out achievements like this lightly. If it had deemed something "statistically impossible," that meant no one—not a single person—was ever supposed to accomplish it.

And yet, he had.

That meant two things.

One—the system was watching him now. He was no longer just another nameless survivor clawing his way up the ranks. The system had acknowledged him, marked him as something outside the norm.

And two—whatever event he entered wouldn't be fair. It would be brutal. The system wouldn't let a Shooting Star take the easy path. It would push him to his breaking point. If he wasn't ready…

He would die.

But this was exactly what he wanted.

A cold, fierce resolve burned in his chest. Only if he pushed himself like this could he stand a chance against that madman who would descend in a year's time. He needed power—real power. Not just to survive, but to fight back against the forces that would try to enslave their world.

His gaze dropped to the swirling vortex below him.

The dungeon. A pocket of reality disconnected from the main world. A place teeming with monsters, trials, and rewards. The perfect hunting ground.

If he was lucky, he might even find a rare natural artifact—the very thing he needed for his class evolution. And if he was even luckier… he might find something that could act as a bloodline catalyst.

His lips curled into a sharp grin.

Perfect.

This would be his proving ground. His first real test as an E-rank. If he was going to survive a system event in sixty days, he needed to start now.

Kaden rolled his shoulders, cracked his knuckles, and took one last breath. Then, without hesitation, he stepped forward, heading straight for the portal.

The portal was essentially a huge gaping hole in the fabric of the world, a hole that connected another world to this world, more specifically a pocket world or a pocket space.

These pocket spaces were chunks torn from a dying world or a destroyed world or perhaps just a system-engineered world. There were several theories floating about in his last life. What really mattered was that these were full of beasts, a ripe hunting ground for fast leveling.

Thanks to system shenanigans, the word used for explaining things no one understood, the monsters inside a dungeon never really ran out. However, the first run was always assumed to be special. 

Maybe more rewards, definitely a title, and maybe even something more. Kaden had no idea. This would be his first attempt at a first run and he was damn excited. He closed his eyes for a moment steadying himself and then entered the portal.

Meanwhile…

Back in the forest inside the beginner zone, a pair of slit-like eyes opened and a creature weakly slipped out of a dried and broken egg sac.