The first thing I felt was the silence.
Not the ordinary kind of silence where birds still chirp in the distance or leaves rustle with the wind.
No, this silence was absolute—like someone had muted reality itself.
My eyes snapped open.
The sky above me was…wrong. It was a faded shade of blue, like an unfinished painting, brush strokes left halfway. Clouds floated in place without moving, frozen like glitches on a screen.
And beneath me—flat terrain, stretching endlessly. A barren training ground tiled with cracked stone slabs, arranged in perfect squares. A tutorial field.
I didn't remember coming here. In fact, I didn't remember anything. My name… my past… blank pages in my head.
"Player detected."
The voice rang out suddenly, cold and mechanical. It didn't come from around me. It came from inside.
A translucent window appeared before my eyes, flickering with static. Letters arranged themselves like clumsy fingers typing on a broken keyboard.
[System Initialization… Error.]
[Welcome, Archivist Candidate.]
[Warning: Tutorial World is unstable.]
[Proceed at your own risk.]
Archivist Candidate? Tutorial World?
Before I could ask anything, another window appeared, smaller and glitching.
[Quest: Complete Basic Tutorial]
Eliminate 3 Training Dummies (0/3)
Collect 5 Beginner Herbs (0/5)
Reach Level 2 (0/1)
Reward: Access to World Gate.
Failure: World Termination.
I blinked. "Training dummies? Beginner herbs? World termination?"
A faint thud echoed nearby.
I turned. Not far away, three wooden dummies stood upright. They were humanoid shapes, crudely carved, with cracks splitting their torsos. They shouldn't move—but their heads twisted toward me with a sickening creak.
The silence shattered. The dummies lurched forward.
I stumbled back instinctively. My body felt sluggish, like I was trapped in a dream. No weapon. No skills. Just bare hands.
The first dummy swung its stiff arm down. I raised my forearm to block. Crack! Pain shot up my arm like lightning. I almost fell, barely dodging the follow-up strike.
Instinct screamed: Run.
But another voice whispered inside me. Cold. Patient.
[Annotation available.]
A new window blinked.
[Draft Edit Function: Annotation]
You may add comments to reality. If accepted, reality adapts.
Cost: 1 Paradox Point.
Without thinking, I focused on the words. A cursor blinked. The dummy loomed, arm raised.
I typed:
[This training dummy should have a weak point.]
The window flashed.
[Annotation accepted. Paradox +1.]
The dummy paused. A faint glowing crack appeared across its chest, pulsing like a heartbeat.
I didn't hesitate. I punched with all my strength. My fist connected with the glowing fissure—
Boom!
The dummy exploded into splinters of wood and glowing dust.
I stumbled back, wide-eyed. "What the hell—"
The remaining two dummies screeched in unison, soundless mouths opening in glitching spasms. They rushed me.
Another annotation window appeared automatically.
[The dummies should move slower.]
[Annotation accepted. Paradox +1.]
Their movements faltered, like a video buffering. Slow enough for me to dodge, to strike. Each blow I landed against their glowing weak points shattered them into fragments.
The battlefield fell silent again.
[Quest Progress: 3/3 Training Dummies eliminated.]
I collapsed onto the cracked tiles, chest heaving. My knuckles bled, but the pain felt real. Too real.
And yet—something inside me throbbed with exhilaration.
[New Function Unlocked: Draft Assimilation.]
Absorb fragments of unstable worlds to strengthen yourself.
The wooden fragments around me pulsed with faint light. Without knowing how, I reached out. The pieces dissolved into my skin like ink soaking paper.
[Skill Fragment Acquired: Incomplete Strike.]
A half-finished martial technique. Deals slightly more damage when striking weak points. Incomplete—unstable.
I shivered. This wasn't normal. This wasn't a "game."
I stood, glancing at the endless barren tiles. Somewhere out there, herbs were waiting, glowing like placeholders in an unfinished world. And beyond that… a "World Gate."
But one thing was certain.
This place wasn't a beginning. It was a leftover.
A tutorial that had been abandoned.
And I… wasn't supposed to be here.
"Player detected," the System repeated, colder now. "Archivist Candidate confirmed. Draft access granted."
A new window opened, this one larger, sharper, almost predatory in its detail.
[Archivist System – Version 0.0 Beta]
Draft Assimilation: Absorb fragments from failed worlds.
Annotation: Edit reality at the cost of paradox.
Paradox Points: 2 (Warning: High detection risk.)
"Detection risk?" I muttered. "By who?"
As if in answer, the frozen clouds above shifted. A crack split across the sky, jagged and endless, like a pen dragging across paper.
From that crack, an eye stared down. Enormous. Ink-black. Blinking without lids.
The world trembled.
[Warning: Editor's Attention Detected.]
[Survive until Tutorial Stabilization.]
I clenched my fists, staring back at the impossible eye.
I didn't know who I was.
I didn't know why I was here.
But one thing was clear.
If this world was unfinished, if this System was broken—
Then maybe I was too.
And maybe that was the only reason I could survive.
To be continued…