The moment my fingertips touched the swirling blue surface, the world broke apart.
Or maybe I did.
There was no feeling of being pulled, pushed, or transported. Instead, everything simply ceased. The cold wind, the floating objects, the ringing in my ears, all of it was swallowed by an impossible, suffocating silence.
For a brief, terrifying moment, I wondered if I'd died.
Then the darkness blinked.
In the pitch-black abyss that surrounded me, a bright blue screen materialized from seemingly nothing.
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Welcome, Jin.
You have been chosen by Hanakuda.
Explore the world and pave your way into legends!
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"A… system?"
I whispered softly, it was safe to say that my mind was completely blank. I was never much of a genius and honestly this situation was overwhelming. I had always dreamt of something like this but it seemed far too good to be true.
As I stared at the screen in front of me, I couldn't help but feel…happy? The fear of the unknown is supposed to be rooted deep into every human's mind, but for some reason I wasn't scared at all. In fact, I was happy.
This moment was exactly what I had imagined every sleepless night on my bed, all good heroes had a system after all, well at least all the novels with lazy ass authors.
Ding!
Snapping me out of my thoughts was a weird dinging sound, similar to when you get a notification in a game, I looked down and saw the blue screen had changed.
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Your teleportation will begin in 5 seconds.
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"Huh? Teleportation?! Where??"
Without answering my question, the screen started a countdown.
4.
"WAIT!!! I don't know anything yet! Aren't you gonna explain??"
3.
"Ugh, shitty ass system. Why do I even bother?"
2.
I looked around one final time at the empty void around me, there was nothing really to look at. It was just one big abyss that gave an eerie feeling the more I looked.
1.
There was a bright light that filled the abyss, blinding me completely. I shut my eyes to shield them from the sheer brightness and that's when I noticed the sensation of grass beneath my feet.
I opened my eyes to see a forest.
It looked like a normal, boring forest.
Yet…
The sight before me brought tears to my eyes.
The air was fresh, a gentle and cool breeze greeting me as if the world itself was welcoming me. The trees swayed in my direction, like a silent but powerful bow. Birds flew above me, chirping their greetings as they passed.
I was free.
Of course, there was no way that anything was welcoming me, it was just my imagination. But that didn't change how I felt, for the first time in my life I belonged somewhere. The system said that I was 'chosen' by Hanakuda. I was wanted.
"So this is Hanakuda?"
A whole new world was right in front of me, I knew nothing about the language, the people, the customs, the geography. Was it a fantasy world? Futuristic? Medieval? Maybe even a normal modern world?
I knew absolutely nothing, yet that made it all the more thrilling.