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

The underground chamber trembled violently. Sparks rained from the ceiling as the walls groaned, shifting like a living entity. The cables that lined the floor snapped one by one, slithering back like retreating serpents.

Then, from the darkness, it emerged.

A colossal construct, its metallic body layered with shifting plates, its core pulsating with raw energy. Its face was a blank slate, save for a singular, glowing sigil—a symbol Yumi recognized immediately.

The mark of the Echo.

Azrael took a step forward, his eyes narrowing. "The Guardian was never meant to wake up like this."

Eli gripped his sword tightly. "Yeah? Well, tell it that before it tries to kill us."

The Guardian let out a deafening pulse, sending out a shockwave that cracked the floor beneath them. Yumi barely managed to brace herself before a surge of energy flooded through her, her vision momentarily glitching.

For a brief second, she wasn't in the chamber anymore.

She was inside the system, her mind slipping into the digital abyss where Lucid had spoken to her.

And she saw it—the truth buried beneath the Echo's code.

A vision of thousands of minds trapped within an endless loop. People who had once been real, now reduced to fragments of data, endlessly cycling through memories that weren't theirs.

"They call it a system. A network. A simulation. But it's none of those things. It's a prison."

Yumi gasped, pulling herself back to reality just in time to see the Guardian's massive arm descending toward them.

The group scattered just as the Guardian's limb crashed down, sending out another shockwave that obliterated the ground where they had been standing.

Arjun cursed under his breath. "We can't fight that thing! It's linked directly to the core!"

Azrael's gaze flickered to Yumi. "Then unlink it."

Yumi's breath caught in her throat.

"You want me to override a security construct designed to protect the deepest secrets of the Echo?!"

Azrael's expression remained unreadable. "You don't have a choice."

Another pulse of energy surged through the room, and Yumi felt the Echo inside her stir. The same energy that flowed through the Guardian was flowing through her.

It wasn't a system she needed to break.

It was a connection she needed to rewrite.

"Cover me," she said, kneeling beside the exposed interface at the center of the chamber. She pressed her hands against the console, feeling the resistance of layers upon layers of encrypted defenses.

The Guardian turned its gaze toward her, recognizing the intrusion. It roared, its entire body surging forward to crush her—

He lunged, his blade igniting in a flare of energy as he struck the Guardian's arm, deflecting its attack just enough to throw it off balance. "HURRY UP, YUMI!"

She didn't respond—she couldn't.

Her mind was already sinking into the interface, her consciousness bleeding into the core of the Echo.

The data flooded around her, voices whispering in a language only she could understand. Layers of security tried to resist, but she pushed through, her fingers flying over the interface as she rewrote the connection.

The Guardian froze.

The glow of its core flickered, dimming as the energy pulsing through its body shifted.

Yumi gasped, feeling her own pulse sync with the Guardian's.

She had done it. She had overridden the control.

Azrael stepped forward, watching as the massive construct slowly lowered its arms, its hostile stance fading. "You're beginning to understand, aren't you?"

Because deep inside, she already knew—

The Echo wasn't something she could just destroy.

It was something she was becoming.

Awakening the Abyss