Air surged into my lungs—hot, metallic, searing like a system powering up after years of silence. Not the stale recycled air of my bedroom. This was sharper, thinner, alive with something I couldn't name.
Light phased in gradually, pixelated at the edges, like an environment still rendering.
The ground no longer existed beneath me. I floated, suspended by invisible threads that held me just tight enough to keep me balanced.
Muscles I'd never used suddenly remembered their purpose. My body felt wrong—lighter yet denser, as if I existed both inside and outside myself. Every breath carried weight, as if reality itself were listening.
What the hell happened to me? I touched my throbbing head.
I glimpsed my reflection in the glass—a stranger wearing my consciousness.
Large, luminous eyes. Crystalline blue. catching light like ink suspended in water.
These weren't my eyes.
This wasn't my face.
I wore a black hooded jacket, sleek and form-fitting, with geometric lines traced across the chest and sleeves. The lines pulsed faintly—alive, responding to my heartbeat. Half-fingered gloves clung to my hands, the material catching the sigil's glow. A long-sleeved shirt hugged my frame beneath the jacket. Cargo pants, reinforced at the knees with subtle lines running along both sides with black boots, completed the outfit as if was prepared for something.
My hair was longer than I remembered—spiky strands streaked with black and grey framing features that looked younger. Seventeen, maybe. My skin carried a medium undertone, unmarked and smooth, as if I'd never lived a single day in my old world.
I turned my gaze, my body following as I took in my surroundings.
I lay at the center of a glass chamber. Four walls rose at perfect right angles, their surfaces a flawless accent-blue that caught and refracted light in impossible ways. Thin neon conduits traced the seams where walls met floor, pulsing softly in rhythm with sigils etched beneath the surface. Geometric patterns shimmered and repeated, spiraling outward from the massive star carved into the floor below me.
The star radiated from interconnected lines and shapes, glowing with steady intensity. A circular band of neon light encircled it. Beyond that, runes and symbols lined another concentric circle, each separated by radial lines that pulsed with the same frequency now thrumming inside my ribs. Ethereal mist clung to the corners, drifting through the glowing conduits, carrying the sigil's rhythm into the air.
Every pulse echoed through the chamber.
Every pulse synced to my heartbeat.
What is this place?
My memory felt like smoke—fragmented, slipping through my fingers. I only remembered… darkness. A force dragging me from my world, tearing me away as if it had been waiting for that moment.
My chest tightened.
No familiar ceiling. No hum of the fridge. No comfort of my old bed. Just the glass chamber, the glowing sigils, and a heartbeat that felt… mine, yet not mine.
Cold dread crawled up my spine. Something had taken me from my world as I died, unmade me, and left me here.
I didn't know why. I didn't know how. All I knew was that I was no longer normal.
A glowing rectangular plate materialized before me, steady and unwavering. It pulsed with raw power, humming at a frequency I felt in my bones.
**\[Reincarnation: Successful]**
**\[Welcome, Champion]**
The text shifted.
**\[World Registered: Elexers]**
\[Notice: This world is real—no different from the one you knew. While you operate under game-like mechanics, your life does not reset. Death is final.]
The words should have been absurd—game logic made manifest, floating in the air as if it belonged. No, not just a game, but reality. It even recognized me as a Champion.
The word wouldn't leave my head.
Not why I was here but why it had chosen that name.
My breathing steadied. The trembling eased, replaced by something more deliberate. A sound escaped my throat—half laugh, half sob—as my nails bit into palms that were mine but weren't.
I was still me. Different body, different world, but the thoughts racing through my head belonged to no one else. The fear twisting in my gut was mine. The desperate need to understand—that was mine too.
I studied the interface.
It was hard to comprehend—another world existed, and somehow, I had been brought to it.
There was no one here. No god, no angel, no guide with luminous wings or a radiant aura. Not even a devilish trickster, poised to deliver a dramatic monologue about my fate.
Only me. And the interface.
The silence in the chamber was more terrifying than anything I had ever felt in my own room.
"Just me and a glowing menu," I muttered.
---
**\[Start]**
*Click "Start" to begin your adventure in this new world …*
I raised my arm toward the button.
And froze.
My parents. My brother. My sister. My friends.
They were still back there.
The thought hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath I'd just gotten back. I could see them so clearly—Mom at the kitchen table with her morning coffee, the way she'd hum while reading the news on her tablet. Dad in the garage, tinkering with something that didn't need fixing, just because he liked the work. My brother's laugh, loud and unfiltered, echoing through the house at some stupid joke. My sister's voice calling me an idiot, but with that edge of affection she'd never admit to.
They'd wake up tomorrow and I'd be gone.
Only that it had been sudden.
A body to bury. And… absence.
Mom would check my room first, probably annoyed I'd slept in. Then confused. Then worried. The worry would turn to panic, and the panic would turn to something worse—that hollow, desperate hope that clings even when you know the truth.
I pressed my palm against my chest, feeling the unfamiliar heartbeat beneath unfamiliar skin.
The worst part was knowing I couldn't even leave a note. Couldn't send a message.
Not even bid farewell.Couldn't give them anything except questions that would never have answers.
I remembered the last thing I'd said to my sister. Something dismissive, probably. Some throwaway comment about her music being too loud. That was it. That was my goodbye.
And my brother…
My throat tightened.
If I'd known—if I'd had even a moment's warning—I would have told them. I would have said the things I am supposed to say. That I loved them. That they mattered. That every ordinary moment we'd shared was worth more than I'd ever let on.
But I didn't know. And now I was here, in a glass chamber in another world, wearing someone else's face, about to press a button that would take me even further away.
I wanted to go back. Just for five minutes. Just long enough to hug my mom, to tell my dad I was proud to be his kid, to mess up my brother's hair one more time and give him a good lecture about life, to tell my sister she wasn't as annoying as I pretended.
But the chamber was silent. The interface waited. And my old world was already gone.
I wore a composed expression, hiding the unrest within, even as the change pressed itself into my mind and body. My hand trembled as I reached forward.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the empty air, to the family that couldn't hear me. "I'm so sorry."
Whatever came next, I would face it. I had to.
For them, if nothing else.
Then I pressed Start.
---
A new interface unfolded.
**Notice: The System is synchronized with your cognitive focus. Direct your awareness to initiate activation; all functions will respond in real time.**
Two modules appeared first, clean and efficient:
**\[Quest Module]**
Tracks missions and objectives. Rewards, and hints. Quests appear at your discretion—accept or decline as you see fit.
**\[Combat Module]**
Manages all combat-related actions.
I stared at the panels, my mind struggling to process. Quests. Combat. This wasn't metaphorical—the System was treating this world like it actually operated on game logic.
My hands shook, but I didn't pull back. I couldn't.
The reality of it settled in my chest, sharp and unrelenting. I was going to fight. I was going to complete quests. This wasn't a story I was reading—this was my life now.
Two more modules materialized:
**\[Exploration Module]**
Updates in real-time as you explore, highlighting newly discoveries.
**\[Store Module]**
Provides access to items available exclusively through the System.
A nervous laugh escaped me. "A store. Of course there's a store."
The absurdity of it almost broke through the fear. Almost. But the weight of what this meant pressed down harder—I'd need to buy things to survive. I'd need to explore to find my way. Every game mechanic was a reminder that this world had rules, and I'd have to learn them fast or die trying.
One final module appeared:
**\[Inventory Module]**
Stores all items—equipment, consumables, quest objects. Items can be equipped, used, or combined as needed.
\[Additional Info: Experience points are earned based on your progression and accomplishments.]
No fanfare. No divine choir. Just cold, clinical information.
Another interface appeared.
**\[You can manage and check your modules on your Primary HUD]**
**\[Primary HUD: Initiated]**
---
**\[Health: 100 / 100]**
**\[Status: Normal]**
**\[Level 1] \[+XP]**
**\[Currency: 0 Shillings]**
**\[System Management]**
**\[Module Management]**
The information hovered to my left, fixed in space. Semi-transparent, a soft blue haze framing sharply etched black text. Health and level gauges floated like holograms, their edges blurred and faintly glowing. They didn't block my vision—only layered over it, a constant companion.
**\[System Initialization Complete]**
A final interface shimmered into existence.
\[DEPLOY]
Quest. Combat. Exploration. Health, coins, level, status. System management. Basically, I'd been handed a full-blown RPG in real life,I was no different from any other anime protagonists.
The thrill hit me like a power-up straight to the chest. This wasn't my world anymore. The glowing sigils under my feet, the hum in the air—it all screamed real. Real-world stakes. One wrong move, and… yeah. I could actually die here.
I shook my head, trying to steady the rush of excitement and terror. "Okay… focus, Neriah. This isn't some game on a screen. There are no respawns here."
My fantasy adventure was waiting.
Here it begins… my life in another world.
I pressed the Deploy button.
The chamber blinked out of existence. And then, so did I.
---
My lungs seized. No air. Panic exploded through my chest,every instinct screaming that I should be suffocating, freezing, dying
I hovered, suspended in the void. My body drifted helplessly, no weight to anchor me as if the air itself had forgotten me.
I couldn't breathe. A faint shimmer rippled across my skin like heat waves rising from summer pavement. A translucent barrier hummed around me, tangible against every nerve ending.
New panels slid down from the module management interface.
**\[Guidance Module: Online]**
*Connected to user focus—tutorial active until landing*
**\[Exploration Module: Online]**
**\[Environmental Protection: Activated]**
**\[Environment Analysis: Activated]**
The dots scanned.\[....]
**\[Location: Space]**
Coordinates scrolled across my vision—latitude, longitude, altitude—dropping in real time, counting down toward an inevitable collision with the world below.
The modules retracted, leaving the HUD clean.
**\[Quest Module: Online]**
**\[Available quests may not all appear as immediate notifications. Check the module to discover hidden or optional objectives.]**
**\[New Quest: Land Safe]**
**\[Reward: 100 Shillings]**
The panel slid back.
I turned my head, unable to look away.
Elexers drifted through the darkness, Earth-sized and alien, gleaming like a jewel. Blues, greens, and whites twisted across its surface in slow spirals, oceans shimmering as though the planet itself were breathing.
Beyond the curve—six moons. One large and familiar. One smaller, reddish, hanging like a bloody eye. The others took strange, alien shapes, orbiting silently as if marking something unseen.
The Exploration Module slid down again. A plus-shaped reticle pulsed at its center, sharp and predatory, tracking the world below with unnerving precision. It snapped from point to point, not just marking coordinates—but anticipating my fall.
Then—
I fell.
My body plummeted before my mind registered it. The protective barrier flared brighter, cocooning me as I hurtled toward Elexers. The planet surged upward, swallowing the void, growing larger with speed that made my throat close.
Truck-kun could've at least made it quick. I might as well have been born a newborn just to skip this part. I'd seen characters fall and rise on screens—but now it was my turn. And these stakes weren't pixels.
Even with the System's protection, every instinct screamed I could still die if the landing went wrong.
The fall stretched on.
Continents took shape below—landmasses I didn't recognize, wrong in ways that made my head hurt. Oceans glittered like scattered glass.
Then I hit the atmosphere.
The barrier erupted in flames—not touching me, but surrounding me in a cocoon of fire and friction as air molecules screamed past. The heat should have incinerated me instantly, but the shimmer held, absorbing the punishment, turning my descent into a controlled burn.
I was a falling star.
Clouds rushed up to meet me. I plunged through them, moisture beading on the barrier's surface before evaporating. Below the cloud layer, the world came into focus—forests, rivers like veins across the landscape.
The System remained silent.
*Just pick anywhere,* I thought, panic clawing up my throat. *I don't care. My life is on the line.*
The Primary HUD shimmered.
**\[Exploration Module: Online]**
**\[Environmental Analysis Active…]**
*Coordinates streaming…*
The targeting reticle snapped into place, pulsing as it locked onto a place.
The barrier shifted suddenly, forcing my descent in another direction. Wherever it was sending me, I had no choice but to go.
The ground rushed up—
The air twisted around me, spinning in one slow, deliberate circle—as if an unseen hand had reached out and caught me mid-fall. The barrier flared brighter. My body slowed, the violent rush fading, replaced by strange, reverent stillness.
The System cradled me, lowering me with impossible gentleness.
My feet touched the ground.
No pain. No impact. No broken bones.
The barrier flickered once, then vanished.
**\[Environmental Protection: Deactivated]**
I stood still on the grass-covered ground, muscles trembling. Real, fresh air filled my lungs for the first time since the void.
Then my knees buckled.
I hit the ground hard. My palms scraped against rough cobblestone. My stomach lurched, bile surging in my throat. I gagged, fighting the urge to vomit. Dark spots pulsed across my vision in rhythm with my racing heartbeat.
Temperature shock hit next. My skin felt hot from atmospheric entry, then cold as sweat evaporated in the strange air. I shook, adrenaline draining from my system, leaving me hollow and weak.
My ears rang. My head pounded. Every nerve ending screamed.
I pressed my forehead against the grass and focused on breathing through the nausea.
*In. Out. In. Out.*
The world slowed to a painful halt.
I forced my eyes open, forced my head up.
**\[Exploration Module: Online]**
**\[Environmental Analysis: Deactivated]**
The interface flowed backward, bringing the Quest Module into focus.
**\[Quest Module: Online]**
**\[Quest Complete: Land Safe]**
**\[50 XP Gained]** → *Level Gauge Increased*
A faint chime echoed—soft, melodic, like a coin dropping into a fountain.
The gauge pulsed rhythmically. Light swelled along its edges, glowing brighter until it settled into steady luminescence.
**\[Current Level: 2]**
The module slid back. The Guidance Module appeared briefly before retreating.
**\[Guidance Module: Offline]**
I pushed myself up on shaking arms, forcing my body to obey. Exhaustion clawed at every muscle. Pain rang through me in dull echoes. My legs protested, knees threatening to fold, but I stayed upright—barely.
The world came into focus.
A stream wound through the clearing, water tumbling over smooth rocks with a quiet gurgle. The sunlight caught the ripples, sending little sparks dancing across the surface. Grass grew thick along the banks, dotted with scattered stones that had been worn round by years of water.
Trees lined the edges of the stream, some tall and thin, others wide with gnarled trunks that looked like they had seen a century pass. Leaves rustled in the breeze, throwing dappled shadows on the ground. Somewhere in the distance, a bird's call cut through the air, sharp and alive.
The mountains stretched beyond the valley, their peaks fading into a soft blue haze. Clouds drifted lazily across the sky. The air smelled faintly of damp earth and pine.
It felt real. Like somewhere you could put your hands in the water, lean against a tree, and just exist.
For a moment, I thought this might be heaven.
It was quiet. Peaceful morning. Too gentle for a world that was supposed to be real.