Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The One-Credit Deathtrap
Chapter 1: The One-Credit Deathtrap
The eviction notice was pink. Not a soft pink either, the kind that burned your retinas and announced to the whole hallway that you'd failed at adulting.
Alistair Vance stared at it like it might apologize and walk away. It didn't. The word EVICTION screamed across the top in letters bold enough to make a priest swear. His throat felt dry. His last meal had been yesterday's instant noodles, which still sat in the corner, hardening into some kind of edible sculpture.
His apartment looked like a gamer's mausoleum — empty energy drink cans, stacks of old peripherals, and the glow of one last working screen. Eternal Odyssey, his old VR-MMO, pulsed faint blue light across the room, like it was mocking him. The gear on his avatar was still legendary-tier. The player behind it? Not so much.
"Forty-seven credits," he muttered. "Can't even buy a new toothbrush with that."
Rent was two thousand. Game debt was worse. He rubbed at his eyes, then opened the in-game market out of sheer denial. Maybe he could sell something—his armor, maybe, or one of his old dungeon keys.
Most of it was worth less than nostalgia.
He scrolled through the listings, filtering by lowest price. Trash, trash, and more digital trash — rusty daggers, half-broken cosmetics, someone even selling "Pet Rock 2.0 (Loyal, Unmoving)." His lips twitched. He should log off and beg his landlord instead.
Then something odd flickered into view.
Listing: Uncharted Terrestrial Body — Kepler-186f Analog
Seller: Unknown_Entity
Price: 1 Credit
A planet. For one credit. That was new.
He clicked the description, expecting a punchline.
"Asset acquired through unusual means. Planetary conditions: LUSH. Flora/FAUNA: UNCLASSIFIED. Native Sentience: DETECTED (PRIMITIVE). Warning: Asset is sold AS IS. No refunds. Management not responsible for eldritch incursions, spontaneous soul-devourment, or reality warping. Have a nice day!"
Alistair blinked. "Spontaneous soul-devourment? Really?"
It was such an obvious scam that it almost felt personal. But the name — Unknown_Entity — tickled something deep in his gamer brain. The kind of nonsense easter egg developers loved to hide in forgotten menus.
He leaned back. "What's one more bad decision?"
Click. Purchase confirmed. Balance: 46 credits.
A new icon shimmered in his inventory — a tiny green marble labeled Your Planet — Deed of Absolute Ownership.
Cute.
Then the system did something it had never done before. The whole UI flickered.
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR DETECTED: ALISTAIR VANCE (USER: CURSOR)
INITIATING PLANETARY ADMINISTRATION PROTOCOL…
WARNING: ONE-WAY SYNCHRONIZATION. LOG-OUT DISABLED UNTIL CORE LINK ESTABLISHED. PROCEED? Y/N
"What the hell is a synchronization?" he whispered.
His cursor hovered over No. His rent notice glared at him from the door.
He clicked Yes.
The screen didn't fade to black. It exploded.
Light swallowed him whole. His cheap apartment peeled away like wet paper. He tried to scream, but sound didn't exist. His body stretched, dissolved — like code being rewritten one cell at a time.
Then came the impact.
He hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of his lungs. For a second he just lay there, face pressed against soft moss that glowed faintly blue under a strange double sun. The air was hot and thick, buzzing with life. He could smell the world — wet leaves, metal tang, something sweet like alien pollen.
And pain. Real, physical pain. His knees throbbed. His chest heaved.
ADMINISTRATOR CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSMIGRATION SUCCESSFUL.
BIOLOGICAL VESSEL: STABLE.
WELCOME TO YOUR PLANET, ADMINISTRATOR.
"Oh, no. Oh, no no no—"
A translucent blue screen hung in front of his face. Not a HUD overlay — it was in his vision. He blinked, and the screen blinked with him.
He turned his head. A strange, six-petaled flower tilted toward him, humming faintly.
SCAN COMPLETE: Sun-Singer Flora — Non-toxic. High nutritional value. Sap usable as adhesive.
The knowledge flooded into his mind — not as text, but as instinct. He knew how to peel the petals, how to cook them, how they'd taste.
He staggered upright, staring around. Violet trees coiled upward like corkscrews. Twin suns hung in a lavender sky.
He'd done it. He'd bought a scam planet — and it was real.
He laughed, a manic, half-choked sound. "I'm a planetary admin. A god. A broke god—but still!"
Something shrieked in the distance. A wet, chittering noise that turned his blood cold.
Alistair froze. The sound grew louder, followed by the heavy beat of footsteps.
He ducked behind a tree just as figures burst from the brush — humanoid, blue-skinned, lean, armed with crude bone spears. A dozen of them. They were backing away from something in the shadows.
Then it came through.
A nightmare on six legs, each tipped with blades, carapace black and glossy as obsidian. Its eyes burned red, its jaws clattering in hunger.
SCAN COMPLETE: Scythe-Maw Fauna — Alpha Predator. Highly Aggressive. Weakness: Joint Vulnerabilities. Core Value: High. Market Estimate: 750 Credits/gram.
His terror cracked under the weight of one thought:
Seven hundred and fifty credits per gram.
The creature lunged at one of the blue-skinned warriors — a woman with a white streak in her hair. She screamed, bracing her spear.
Alistair didn't think. He just acted.
The Admin menu appeared in his head like muscle memory. Terrain Manipulation → Raise Land.
The ground in front of the beast erupted. A spear of solid rock shot upward, impaling the Scythe-Maw through the chest. Its screech shattered the air, echoing through the jungle before it finally collapsed.
Silence.
He stared at the smoking spike, at the corpse pinned on it. His pulse thundered in his ears.
The blue-skinned hunters stared too. The woman—white-streak—took one look at the monster, then at him. Slowly, she dropped to one knee. The others followed, bowing low.
A new golden screen blinked open in front of his vision.
TITLE EARNED: Stone-Shaper
FAITH DETECTED: 12 New Followers
ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORITY: 0.1%
PLANETARY MARKETPLACE: UNLOCKED
He let out a shaky laugh. His rent had been two thousand credits. That monster alone was worth more.
Maybe this wasn't a deathtrap.
Maybe it was a business opportunity.
Alistair grinned, wild and breathless. "Alright," he whispered. "Let's get to work."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone