The swamp-scented air still clung to Levi's clothes as the echo of his scream slowly faded into the North's chill. But this time, it wasn't agony or panic that fueled it.
It was pure joy.
A glowing, semi-transparent window had appeared in front of him, floating in the air like a HUD ripped straight out of his favorite games. The text at the top read:
Cheat Engine 6.8.3
File Edit Table D3D Help
Memory View
Value: _______
Scan Type: Exact Value
Value Type: 4 Bytes
[ First Scan ] [ Next Scan ]
He rubbed his eyes. Still there.
He blinked rapidly. Still there.
He reached out to touch it—his hand passed through.
"Yesssssssssssssss!" he shouted, spinning around in the muck, arms raised to the heavens.
Several villagers flinched, gripping tools or backing away. A few crossed themselves.
Mae, standing just a few feet away with a basket of dried moss in her hand, rolled her eyes so hard they nearly echoed.
Levi, however, was in his own world. "I HAVE A CHEAT ENGINE! This is real! This is really—wait."
His joy wavered.
He squinted at the interface. No numbers. No addresses. Nothing to scan. Nothing to change.
His smile slowly dropped. "Oh no. No, no, no, no. Don't do this to me. Don't you dare do this to me."
He tried scanning for a value. Anything. Hunger? Pain? Dirtiness? There was nothing. The memory view tab showed gibberish—thousands of unreadable lines of hex and ASCII that might as well have been ancient Valyrian.
"God, aliens, simulation overlords—whoever's in charge! Please let this be a dream," he muttered. "Like a fever dream. A long nap with Skyrim mods gone wrong."
The villagers continued to stare at him like he was a moose that had learned to dance and bark like a dog.
Finally, someone took pity on him.
Mae stepped forward, brushing a damp leaf off her sleeve. "Alright, enough gawking. He's not going to breathe fire or turn into a frog."
Levi turned to see her walking toward him, her voice steady but tired. The crowd shifted.
"There's no lord here to send him to. No Maester with a book of riddles, and no Septon to shake the madness out of him. Just a poor fool, lost in his own body and mind," she continued.
Levi blinked. "Wait, are you talking about me?"
She shot him a look.
He winced. "Okay. Fair enough."
Mae turned toward a thick-shouldered man standing nearby. "Harwin, tell the others to get back to their work. There's no trouble here—just a very loud, very confused man."
Harwin nodded. "Aye. You heard Mae, go on! Show's over!"
With grumbles and backward glances, the villagers began to disperse. One child was dragged off by his ear. Jory, Levi recognized. The pebble kid.
Levi stood awkwardly, hands on his hips, trying not to look completely useless.
Mae glanced back at him. "Come along now. And try not to act any more foolish than you already have."
"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled.
They walked in silence down the muddy path toward the cottage Levi had first woken up in. The Cheat Engine window remained, floating just off-center in his vision like a ghostly overlay. He kept sneaking glances at it, hoping for movement, a flicker—anything. But it remained as dormant as a paused game screen.
Back in the warmth of the cottage, Levi slumped onto the bench with a defeated squelch. His pants were soaked. His pride was threadbare.
He rested his head in his hands. "Okay. Let's recap. I died. Maybe. Woke up in Medieval Swampland. No phone. No Wi-Fi. No food. No clue what year it is. And now I have Cheat Engine—but it's like having Photoshop in the middle of the woods. Useless."
Mae, unfazed, set a kettle over the hearth and busied herself with a bundle of herbs.
"You say strange things, lad," she muttered.
Levi looked up. "Strange for you, or strange in general?"
"Yes," she replied.
He groaned, letting his head drop with a thud onto the table. "I'm losing brain cells by the minute."
Mae chuckled softly. "Then you've still got a brain left to bruise."
He gave her a sideways look but couldn't help the slight grin tugging at his lips.
"Thanks," he said after a moment. "For, uh… not letting the villagers tie me to a tree or something."
Mae shrugged. "You're no more trouble than Jory on a bad day. Just louder."
"I've been called worse."
Outside, the noise of the village returned to normal—tools clanging, chickens squawking, a dog barking at something it probably couldn't eat.
Inside, Levi let the silence settle in, only disturbed by the subtle humming of the fire and the ever-present, mocking glow of the Cheat Engine interface still waiting for a value to scan.