Otherworld Chronicles

A sudden pain shot through his head, and before he could react, his body started to stretch, pulling him in. He was being speghettified into the black void, or whatever this thing was.

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"AHH... FuCK! Huff… huff..."

Ryan was in agony. The memory of that intense pain was still vivid and raw. It felt like his entire body had been stretched in every possible direction—a painful sensation he had never experienced until now.

He couldn’t believe his body was still intact or that he was even alive.

Maybe it was all in his mind, and the moment he made contact with that black substance, it inflicted unbearable mental pain.

He forced himself to calm down, slowing his breathing. As he finally relaxed, he took in his surroundings.

This place was definitely not his home; it looked like he was in a massive cave.

Luminous, purple-colored stones were scattered everywhere, illuminating the dark cave. They were mesmerizing. He’d never seen anything like them before.

Ryan didn’t know where he was, but this place was far from normal, that much was clear.

'Did I fall into a coma? No... This couldn’t be a dream. The pain I felt was too real, and the fact that I was able to think clearly only confirmed it.'

He was almost certain that touching that thing had brought him here. He didn’t know how, but it was the only conclusion he could draw at that moment.

He had no idea what this place was. Part of him thought about exploring deeper into the cave, but the darkness ahead sent chills down his spine.

"Why aren’t there any glowing stones in that direction?" he wondered. This cave was too strange.

As he stared into the distance, tears suddenly welled up in his eyes. He wasn’t crying; it just happened when he looked into the darkness.

It was a natural occurrence for him. Whenever he was alone and looked at darkness, tears automatically started coming out.

Ryan’s mind began to play tricks on him, forming illusions of someone standing there.

He knew it wasn’t real. He tried to convince himself it was just fear manifesting, but the tears and the tremble in his body said otherwise.

"Fuck, I can't do this!" he muttered as he pulled his shirt over his head, crouching on the ground. His belly was exposed as he awkwardly hid beneath the fabric.

It was childish, he knew, but he swore he saw someone there. The recent deaths of his dad and uncle had already been haunting him with strange dreams, and now this—this nightmare he couldn’t wake from—he just couldn’t take it anymore.

He stayed there, feeling utterly helpless, waiting to be attacked or killed. But nothing happened, except his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst.

"Hahaha! What a scared pussy!"

Suddenly, he heard a voice. Startled, he slowly pulled the shirt down and looked around, but there was no one.

Summoning some courage, he asked, "Who are you? Where are you hiding? Do you know where this place is?"

He looked around, waiting for a response, his heart still racing.

"I'm me! I'm not hiding anywhere, and I also had no idea where this place was," the voice replied, answering all his questions at once. The voice sounded like a woman’s.

Though her words didn't exactly help, something about them felt off. She was hiding something.

"What do you mean by 'had no idea'? So you know now?" Ryan pressed.

"Well, well, even if it was easy to catch that. Considering your state, I didn’t expect you to notice," the voice answered, her tone almost teasing, leaving him more confused.

'Why the heck is she talking like some kind of teacher?' Ryan thought.

He quickly stood up and pulled his shirt back down. Strangely, just talking to her was calming, and the fear he'd felt earlier disappeared.

"So, will you finally tell me who you really are?" he asked, hoping for a clearer answer.

"Well, I was just a normal girl in my world. But I had an accident... and somehow ended up here—inside your body."

'Inside my body? Is that why I couldn't see her... but how was that possib—nevermind, there were already too many things that weren't possible in the first place.'

"Yeah, I was like that at first too." Suddenly, the girl spoke again, surprising him as he was just thinking.

It was kind of natural for her to know his thoughts since she was inside his body, so he couldn't do anything about it.

Also, her words indicated that she knew about everything going on now, even if she didn't at first.

"So, are you going to tell me about all this?" Ryan asked.

"Okay, I have the duty to tell you anyway. When I first appeared here, I was just as lost as you. But then a ton of information came flooding into my mind.

Basically, we were brought here at the same time, but due to some reason, our souls crashed and I became a part of you."

"Then a mysterious person met me, who said I'll have to be the system assistant if I want my soul back..."

The voice echoed in Ryan's mind, and confusion filled him as she finished speaking.

System assistant? Soul crashed? Mysterious person? What was all this, and why was he part of it?

"Tell me more. What system assistant? And did he tell you about this place?" Ryan asked, trying to get more information.

"It's a magical system for you. That being gifted it to you and appointed me as the assistant to manage it."

"To start the system, you have to say 'activate status.'"

Ryan was surprised—a magical system? So this world really was a different one.

Intrigued by her words, he quickly did as she said.

"Activate status!" he muttered, waiting for something to happen.

A purple-colored mist suddenly manifested in front of him, slowly turning into a translucent hollow panel hovering in the midair with something written on it.

[————————STATUS———————] Name: Ryan Harmer

Age: 6726 days

Race: Human

Bloodline: Draugr Vitalis

Level: 0

Affinity: None [—————————————————–—–]

"Oh, it's like a gaming status, but what does it do? It says level 0, how do I level up?" Ryan asked.

"The system is to make you powerful. In this world, there are many dangers, so to survive, you have to be stronger. To level up, you have to kill other creatures."

Ryan nodded. It was familiar to the stories he had read and the games he had played.

He always wanted to play high-graphics open-world games filled with magic and unique monsters.

But now he guessed he'd experience it himself in real life rather than playing it on a PC.

It was hard to believe, but many impossible events had already happened, so not accepting it would just be deceiving himself and downright dumb.

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