Ohritro

Eli Turner had perfected the art of coasting through life, gaming, lounging, and vibing with no grand ambitions beyond the next high. But his laid-back existence is upended when his laptop inexplicably transforms into a gateway to another world. What starts as a surreal escape becomes a perilous journey as Eli finds himself wielding a mysterious system that allows him to level up, fight monsters, and gain abilities beyond his wildest dreams.  

At first, the portal world feels like a haven, offering purpose and adventure Eli never knew he craved. Guided, or manipulated, by Azrael, a mischievous god orchestrating the game, Eli rises as one of the system's chosen players. But as the quests grow more dangerous and Azrael’s true intentions begin to surface, Eli struggles to balance the fantasy world with his life back home. His girlfriend, Sara, and his friends are left grappling with a version of Eli they hardly recognize, as the lines between his two lives blur.  

When the system expands to players worldwide, Eli crosses paths with others drawn into Azrael’s cosmic experiment: Yumi Tanaka, a fiercely disciplined Japanese student with a perfectionist streak, and Arjun Mehta, a charming Indian playboy with secrets of his own. Each carries their own burdens and ambitions, but all three must face the harsh truth: Azrael’s game is far more than it seems.  

As alliances are forged, rivalries ignite, and the stakes escalate, Eli must confront not only the dangers of the portal world but the growing rift between the person he is and the hero he’s becoming. In a game where every move is a test and every choice ripples across both worlds, the question remains: can Eli, Yumi, and Arjun uncover the truth before the system consumes them all?

I Got a Notification on my Laptop and Got Legendary Powers

Yumi's world shattered into a storm of light and sound. She felt herself tumbling through the void, weightless, as the very fabric of the chamber unraveled. The echoes of Azrael's final words still rang in her ears—

"The cycle ends here."

Her body twisted through the broken fragments of data and space, the remnants of the obelisk swirling around her like shards of a shattered mirror. She tried to reach out, to stabilize herself, but there was nothing solid to hold onto.

A sharp, distorted voice cut through the chaos.

She barely had time to react before a strong grip caught her wrist. Eli. His face was twisted in effort as he held onto her with one hand, the other clutching onto a jagged edge of the collapsing reality around them.

Arjun was just below, fighting against the pull of the void. His coat whipped wildly in the currents of fractured space as he clawed his way toward them. "We need to find an exit now!"

Instead, they were floating in a space that was neither real nor artificial—a place where the walls between data and existence blurred. It was as if they had been thrown into the very heart of the Echo itself.

And in the distance, something stirred.

Yumi's breath hitched as she turned her head. Through the spiraling maelstrom of broken code, she could see a figure standing at the center of it all. Azrael. Or what remained of him.

His form was no longer human. His body had merged with the digital storm, his features flickering between the familiar and the alien. He was dissolving, yet expanding. Becoming something beyond what they could comprehend.

His voice echoed, no longer bound by the limits of sound.

"You shouldn't have come this far."

The words resonated through Yumi's very bones.

Eli tightened his grip on her wrist. "Okay, so, not to be dramatic, but how the hell do we fight that?"

Azrael turned his gaze toward them. His eyes were no longer his own—two endless voids, filled with cascading streams of code. He raised a hand, and the space around them trembled.

"There is no fight," he said. "Only acceptance."

A pulse of energy surged outward. The fragments of the broken obelisk ignited with raw power, converging toward Azrael's form. The Echo was completing itself.

Yumi's mind raced. Think, think!

Then, she saw it—small, almost imperceptible. A flaw. A single fragment of data that had not yet merged. A weak point in the storm.

"The obelisk wasn't just a key," she realized aloud. "It was a lock."

Arjun caught on immediately. "And if we break the lock—"

Eli's eyes widened. "We stop the Echo from finishing!"

But Azrael wasn't going to let them act freely.

He moved his hand, and the void around them twisted. Gravity turned inside out. The world blurred.

Yumi gritted her teeth. No more hesitation.

—And lunged toward the fracture in the storm.

Into the Fracture