Currently, I'm scrolling through the floating menu beside me. It looks just like the character creation menu from every RPG game I've ever played. There are options to customize your face, hair, facial hair, height, skin color, and even muscle definition. It’s exciting, but given my current situation, it’s really hard to focus.

I’m doing my best to ignore the girl behind me while browsing through all the options, but her presence looms like a spotlight.

“There’s no one coming to this room to arrest me, right?” I ask hesitantly, my voice barely hiding my anxiety.

She tilts her head slightly, her bright smile still unwavering. “Don’t worry. We’re the only ones here,” she replies with an innocence that should calm me—but doesn’t.

Should I feel relieved or even more worried? I can’t decide. Either way, this girl seems far too carefree for someone who just found a random man in her room.

“And again,” she continues, her tone genuinely curious, “I don’t understand—why would anyone arrest you?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Why would anyone arrest me?” I reply, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Meanwhile, in my head, I’m screaming at full volume: Why wouldn’t they?! A half-naked man suddenly appearing in a girl’s room is like a scenario ripped straight out of an anime cliché! This is definitely not normal!

I risk a glance at her, expecting her to finally grasp the absurdity of the situation. Instead, she’s just standing there, completely unbothered, her smile as bright as ever.

Honestly, I was prepared for a much worse reaction—something along the lines of, “What are you doing, you pervert?!” followed by a hard slap or a kick to the face. Heck, I’ve been mentally bracing myself for that this whole time.

But instead… nothing. Just calm acceptance.

It’s baffling. I guess not all girls act like the ones in anime.

I glance back at the screen, trying to focus. The character customization menu is practically begging me to dive into its options, but her unwavering gaze is like a pressure I can’t shake off.

“Okay, seriously,” I say, unable to take the silence anymore. “Are you not the least bit concerned about this situation? I mean, isn’t this… weird to you?”

She tilts her head again, her long hair cascading over her shoulder as her golden eyes meet mine. “Weird? No. Why would it be? I’m the one who brought you here, remember?”

Her answer catches me off guard. There’s no hesitation in her voice, no trace of suspicion or awkwardness. It’s almost as if she thinks this is completely normal.

“Well, I—” I begin to respond but cut myself off. What’s the point of arguing? She’s clearly on a different wavelength than me, and trying to reason with her is like swimming against a tide.

With a sigh, I turn my attention back to the floating screen. I might as well focus on something I can control—like these sliders in front of me.

*

I made a terrible mistake.

Right now, I feel like I’m dying.

My chest is tight, my stomach feels like it’s been stabbed, and I can barely breathe. My vision blurs, and tears stream down my face as I gasp for air.

“Haa… Haaa… Someone… Help…” I croak, barely able to get the words out. My legs wobble beneath me, and I feel like I might collapse at any moment.

This is it. This is how I go out.

Collapsing to the ground, I clutch my sides, desperately trying to stop the pain. My head feels light, and my mind spins in chaotic loops. For a moment, I wonder if this is some kind of curse. Maybe the girl did something to me? Or perhaps this world’s magic system has some nasty side effects I didn’t know about.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, trying to calm myself.

Okay. Think. I need to focus. What’s happening to me? Why does my chest hurt so much?

Finally, I piece it together.

“Oh no…” I whisper, opening my eyes wide. “Oh no, no, no…”

I brace myself and dare to look at the mirror once more.

Big mistake.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA—cough cough!”

I double over, coughing uncontrollably, unable to stop the laughter spilling out of me. My ribs ache, my voice cracks, and my whole body shakes as wave after wave of uncontrollable giggles rack my frame.

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This isn’t some curse. This isn’t magic.

Help me. I’m going to die of laughter.

This is pure torture.

*

When it comes to character creation—especially when you’re given the freedom to manipulate every aspect of your character’s appearance—it’s hard not to mess around. Normally, you make some goofy-looking abomination, laugh at it until you’re satisfied, and then move on with your life.

But this? This is something else entirely.

It all started innocently enough. Like always, I began customizing the hair. There weren’t too many options at first—just basic styles like straight, wavy, curly, and so on. Pretty standard. After choosing a general style, sliders appeared to adjust details like length, volume, and thickness.

Initially, I wanted to create a character inspired by a certain villain from a superhero movie—the one obsessed with eradicating half the population of the universe. You know the one. To complete the look, I went with the bald option.

And that’s when it all went downhill.

The moment I clicked the bald option, my hair vanished instantly. No fade-out, no animation—just poof! Gone.

I chuckled at the sudden change, thinking it was kind of funny. Then I looked closer at my newly bald head, and for some reason, it was absolutely hilarious. The shiny, smooth surface caught the light perfectly, and the sight of my reflection made me lose it.

It’s not just the bald head—it’s the whole context. Seeing myself, a handsome man dressed in a fancy fantasy outfit with a completely hairless dome, was enough to break me.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, I could feel the girl’s gaze on me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her staring at my ridiculous creation. Her expression was a mix of curiosity and amusement.

Desperate to avoid her judgmental eyes, I focused back on the screen, determined to keep going.

“Alright,” I muttered under my breath, trying to stifle my laughter. “Let’s move on to the face…”

The facial sliders offered an absurd level of freedom—far more than I had anticipated. You could stretch, shrink, and distort every feature in ways that no sane developer would ever allow.

I decided to start with the chin. After all, I had planned to recreate that glorious chin from a certain iconic superhero villain.

That was the plan.

But...

I got carried away.

The sliders were just too tempting, too inviting. Each tweak and adjustment opened the door to endless possibilities for chaos. Before I knew it, I had abandoned all attempts at creating anything remotely recognizable.

Now, I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my masterpiece—a horrifyingly hilarious monstrosity.

My eyes were massive, cartoonish orbs, awkwardly perched on my forehead like misplaced headlights. My nose was comically large, a behemoth of a feature that looked like it could inhale an entire room’s worth of air in one breath. And my mouth? Perfectly normal—except for the fact that it was casually hanging out on my right cheek, as if it had simply decided the middle of my face was too mainstream.

At first, I managed to keep it together. I didn’t laugh. I thought of it as harmless fun—just fooling around with the options like I’d done in countless games before.

But then, something snapped.

It wasn’t the absurdity of the appearance itself. It was the way the reflection moved.

When I blinked, the eyes on my forehead blinked back at me. When I opened my mouth to chuckle, the mouth on my cheek stretched wide in a grin I wasn’t prepared for. The synchronization was too much to handle.

And that’s when I lost it.

“AHAHAHAHAHA!”

I doubled over, clutching my sides, tears already welling in my eyes. The abomination in the mirror mimicked my every move, and each gesture made the whole thing even funnier.

When I instinctively raised a hand to wipe away the tears, my distorted reflection did the same—but instead of touching its oversized eyes, it accidentally rubbed its enormous nose.

That did it.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!”

I collapsed to my knees, gasping for air. My laughter echoed in the room, bouncing off the walls like a symphony of madness.

The more I laughed, the worse it got. My reflection, with its hideously exaggerated features, continued to move in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. The ridiculousness compounded itself like an infinite feedback loop of chaos.

*

That was close.

Thankfully, there’s a reset button. With one press, my distorted reflection vanished, replaced by my original appearance.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I felt a wave of relief. Back to normal, I thought, wiping imaginary sweat off my forehead. That experience was fun—and painful—in equal measure. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in either this life or my previous one. If laughter really is the best medicine, I might have overdosed.

The girl beside me had been silent this entire time, simply watching me with that ever-present, cheerful smile. Her expression didn’t change—not when I was hunched over, gasping for breath, and not when I was flailing around to reset my appearance. I couldn’t help but wonder: What in the world was she thinking while I was losing my mind over my own reflection?

“That must’ve been a sight,” I muttered under my breath.

She tilted her head slightly but didn’t say a word.

“Are you satisfied with your appearance?” she finally asked, her tone light and friendly. Her golden eyes sparkled, and her smile remained bright.

I let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling the exhaustion hit me. “Yeah,” I replied, running a hand through my hair. “I think I’ll stick with this.”

As much as I’d wanted to get creative, I was far too drained after that fiasco. Designing a character might’ve been fun, but enduring the quiet judgment of this girl beside me? Not so much. Whether intentional or not, her gaze made me feel like I was being evaluated, and it gnawed at my nerves.

“Alright,” I said, trying to shift gears. “What’s next?”

Usually, after character creation, there’s the job or class selection, right? Warrior? Mage? Maybe even something weird, like Bard? My excitement bubbled back up at the thought.

As if responding to my question, another transparent screen materialized in front of me. This time, it displayed a single word: Name.

“Name, huh?” I mumbled, tapping my chin thoughtfully. I hadn’t thought about what name to use in this new world. Should I go with something cool, like Erevan or Kaelthas? Or maybe stick with my real name for simplicity?

But before I could decide, the gravity of the situation hit me like a freight train.

Am I actually... already dead?

The thought sent a shiver down my spine. My hand hovered over the screen, frozen mid-motion. I glanced at the girl, wanting to ask her, needing to know the truth—but the words wouldn’t come out. It wasn’t the idea of being dead that scared me; it was the implications.

What had I left behind?

My family... Would I really never see them again?

I’d told myself I could handle this, that I could treasure the memories and move forward, but now, standing here, the weight of loss pressed heavily on me. My heart ached—or at least, it felt like it should—but the strange numbness in my chest reminded me that I might not even have a beating heart anymore.

Am I really gone from their lives forever?

The thought left me hollow, and for the first time in this strange new world, I felt truly afraid.

The girl, still holding that gentle smile, tilted her head slightly.

“Is something wrong?” she asked softly, her voice cutting through the silence like a lifeline.

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came. How could I even begin to explain what I was feeling? That the prospect of being here, in this fantastical, dreamlike world, didn’t excite me as much as it terrified me? That the thought of starting a new life wasn’t as thrilling as the thought of losing everything I once had?

I clenched my fists tighter, staring at the glowing screen before me.

Was I really ready for this? Was I ready to leave everything behind?

What if I don’t want something new? What if I just want to go back?

I let out a shaky breath, staring at the screen again. When I'm looking at the mirror my reflection stared back at me, looking both familiar and foreign. The name field blinked expectantly, waiting for me to take the next step.

As much as it hurt, as much as it scared me, I realized that all I could do was move forward.

With a trembling hand, I reached out and started typing.

[Gray]

“Let’s just go with this,” I muttered under my breath, more to myself than to the girl beside me.

As soon as I pressed the enter button, the ground beneath me began to glow, a soft, radiant light spreading outward in rippling waves. It felt warm, almost comforting, yet it carried an undeniable sense of finality.

The girl took a step back, her hands clasped in front of her, her ever-present smile softening. “I hope you enjoy your journey, Gray,” she said, her voice still as serene as ever, though there was a subtle tremor in it now, one I hadn’t heard before. “I’ll… be waiting for you.”

Her words lingered in the air, heavier than I expected. For a brief moment, her golden eyes locked onto mine, and in that fleeting exchange, I thought I saw a glimmer of sadness—something deeper than the cheerful person she had worn all this time.

“Wait—”

My voice rising in panic as the glowing light intensified. I tried to step forward, but the light beneath me surged, blinding me.

The last thing I saw was her smile. It wasn’t the radiant, carefree expression she had worn earlier—it was softer, almost melancholic, as though she were saying goodbye to something far more precious than just a random stranger.

After that, everything turned white and I finally arrived in a world I had never dreamt of.