Sagar woke with the faint ache of disorientation pulsing behind his eyes.
Cool grass brushed against his palms as he pushed himself upright, breath catching for a moment as unfamiliar scents filled his lungs—damp earth, fresh leaves, and something older, quieter, like a world that had never learned the sound of footsteps.
He was under a tree.
Not an ordinary one.
Its trunk was thick and time-worn, roots spreading like coiled serpents across the ground. Sunlight filtered through its vast canopy, breaking into soft, golden fragments that danced lazily in the air.
Sagar stood.
All around him stretched open plains—emerald grass swaying gently, scattered with clusters of trees that looked as though they had grown exactly where they pleased, without design or restraint. To his right lay a small pond, its surface smooth as polished jade, reflecting the sky with perfect clarity. No ripples. No insects. No sign that anyone had ever disturbed it.
Untouched.
Ahead, however—
At roughly a kilometer's distance, the world simply… ended.
A vast wall of grey mist loomed silently, swallowing the horizon. It did not move like fog, nor drift like clouds. It simply existed, dense and absolute, as if reality itself had decided to stop there.
Sagar squinted, a strange unease crawling up his spine.
"Where… am I?" he murmured.
There were no roads.
No buildings.
No distant smoke, no signs of civilization—past or present.
Only nature. Pristine. Watching.
For a brief moment, he forgot himself entirely.
The beauty was overwhelming.
The silence profound.
Then—
—zzzt—
The world glitched.
Not around him—but before his eyes.
Translucent fragments of distorted light flickered into existence, jagged lines of broken symbols tearing across his vision like a shattered screen.
"What the—?!"
Before he could react, the fragments snapped together.
The distortion vanished.
Clear, pale-blue text floated calmly in the air, perfectly aligned with his sight, impossible to ignore.
Synchronization with host confirmed.
Welcome, Host.
Tap Sect System initializing…
Sagar froze.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"…System?" he whispered hoarsely.
The text shifted, lines appearing one after another with mechanical precision.
You have received a Newbie Package.
Please check.
Silence returned to the plains.
The pond remained still.
The mist did not move.
The tree above him did not stir.
But Sagar's world had already cracked open.
Shock rooted him in place as one thought echoed endlessly in his mind:
This isn't a dream.
And whatever this Tap Sect System was—
—it had chosen him.