The air shimmered with raw magic. Candles flickered violently in their holders. A thousand runes carved into the white marble floor pulsed with divine light.
Inside the Grand Summoning Hall of Solaria, nobles, knights, and sages all held their breath.
"O Ancient Light, answer our call!" cried the royal mage, arms outstretched. His beard crackled with magical sparks. "Grant us a warrior born of prophecy — the Hero from Beyond!"
A storm of energy spiraled above the glowing magic circle. The air roared. The marble trembled. Lightning coiled like serpents in the dome above.
Princess Elira Valtessia stood beside her father, dressed in battle regalia, arms crossed. Her steel-blue eyes didn't blink as the light intensified. She didn't have to look to know what this meant. This moment would define their world.
The final chant echoed:
"Summon the Hero who will defeat the Demon King!"
A blinding flash exploded from the circle.
Silence fell.
The light faded.
And at the center of the summoning circle… was a man.
No—a boy.
He was sitting on the ground. Legs crisscrossed. Holding a brown paper bag. Steam floated from a tipped container of noodles.
He looked up.
"…Did I die?"
Elira's expression dropped faster than a wyvern in a nosedive.
The boy wore some kind of strange cloth—loose-fitting pants, a shirt with a faded logo that read "No Sleep, No XP," and some kind of footwraps made from worn rubber. His hair was messy. A pair of earbuds dangled from his neck. One was still playing music.
He looked around with a confused squint.
"…Cosplay festival?"
A ripple of whispers spread across the throne room. Mages blinked. Priests exchanged horrified glances. The king's mouth opened and closed twice.
The royal mage's jaw trembled. "Th-This is not… not the Hero! There must be a mistake!"
The boy stood up slowly, wiping something off his knee. A chopstick clattered to the floor.
"Okay, weird hallucination," he muttered to himself. "Probably fell asleep on the job again. That's the last time I do overtime without coffee."
A small, golden window popped up in front of him.
He blinked.
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
[ERROR: Uncalibrated Hero Signature Detected]
[Title Granted: "Bugged Hero"]
[You have accidentally absorbed 9,999,999 EXP from Summoning Core]
[Stat Overflow Detected. Initiating Chaos Protocol.]
"Whoa."
The window glitched. The numbers spiked. A tiny pixelated creature on the screen caught fire and exploded.
[Welcome, Kai Veyron.]
"WHO is this!?" the king roared, his heavy cloak billowing behind him. "This… this child is supposed to slay the Demon King?!"
"I'm not a child, dude," Kai said, frowning. "I'm twenty. I think. Maybe twenty-one? Depends on how time works here."
Elira stepped forward, her silver braid swaying behind her. Her voice was cold and sharp as the sword strapped to her waist.
"You. State your name, origin, and class."
Kai tilted his head. "Uh… Kai Veyron. Delivery guy. From Earth?"
"Earth…?" Elira narrowed her eyes. "Is that a city?"
"More like a trash fire with internet," Kai mumbled.
A vein popped in her forehead. "Are you mocking us, Hero?"
"Hero?" he asked. "Wait. You really did summon me?"
Another mage flipped through a glowing grimoire. "S-Sire, it says here the summoning circle was tied to the strongest compatible soul in the cosmos…"
The king's eyebrow twitched. "You're telling me this noodle-scented buffoon is the strongest soul in all the realms?!"
"Hey!" Kai said, offended. "This scent is soy-garlic beef!"
Elira sighed. "Regardless of how this happened, protocol demands we verify his abilities."
Kai was already poking his system menu, which had exploded with chaotic colors.
[Strength: ERROR]
[Agility: ERROR]
[Mana: ∞]
[Title: Walking Catastrophe]
[Skill Unlocked: Passive Disaster Aura (Rank: ???)]
"What the hell does a 'Disaster Aura' do?" Kai muttered.
Behind him, a golden statue cracked down the middle and exploded into rubble.
Everyone ducked.
"…Oops."
The next hour was spent "testing" Kai's abilities — which really meant throwing spells at him and watching the universe panic.
A level 5 lightning bolt? Absorbed and shot back like a mirror.
A tier-7 golem summoned to wrestle him? It disintegrated when Kai tried to shake its hand.
At one point, he tripped and knocked over a relic… that turned out to be a sealed ancient beast. It escaped. Then immediately bowed to him and ran away crying.
By the time the sun began to set over the kingdom, the throne room was partially destroyed, half the noble audience had fainted, and Elira's eye was twitching so hard it looked like she had developed a curse.
Kai slurped a new cup of noodles, sitting on a rubble pile.
"This is the worst summoning ever," Elira muttered.
Kai looked up. "I mean… I didn't ask to be here. I was on my way to deliver lunch to a guy named Tony. Hope he didn't die waiting."
The princess folded her arms. "You may not have asked for this, but your presence has changed everything. Your power is… unprecedented."
"Is that a good thing?"
"That depends," she said. "Will you help us defeat the Demon King?"
Kai blinked. "I'm just a delivery guy. You've got knights, mages, sword girls with fancy hair. Why me?"
Elira took a deep breath. "Because… prophecy says only a soul from another world can wield the power to defeat the darkness. And somehow, you are that soul."
There was a long pause.
Then Kai scratched the back of his neck.
"…Do I get free food and a place to sleep?"
"…Yes."
He stood up. "Cool. Sign me up."
High above the shattered hall, in a dark alcove near the ceiling rafters, a figure knelt.
Cloaked in shadow, daggers strapped to her thighs, she narrowed her eyes beneath her mask.
So this was the Hero. The man they had warned her about. The man who, one day, might destroy the very world he was summoned to save.
She tightened her grip on her blade.
"Pathetic," she whispered. "He'll die before he even learns what he is."
She disappeared into the shadows.
Far to the north, deep in the demonic wastelands, a colossal obsidian fortress trembled.
The Demon King awoke in his throne, red eyes glowing. His generals knelt in fear.
"…Did you feel that?" he growled.
A bat-winged demon nodded. "Yes, my king. A ripple. As if a god… sneezed."
The Demon King frowned.
"Begin preparations," he said. "The Hero has arrived."
Meanwhile, Kai was lying on a giant silk bed in a royal guest room, poking at his broken system screen.
Every few seconds, the stats flickered wildly.
[Your sneeze has caused a wildfire in the Northern Forest. Casualties: 0. Panic: 1,400 villagers.]
"…Oh no," he muttered. "I'm literally a walking accident."
[Sleep Mode Activated. Have fun surviving, loser.]
The system shut off.
Kai sighed and buried himself in the pillows.
"Yep. Totally normal day."
He didn't notice the magical eye watching from the mirror.
Or the dagger waiting just outside his window.