I awoke to a bucket of water being dumped on my head. The water got into my eyes and my vision got all blurry, not to mention it was freezing cold. Not exactly the best wake-up call in my opinion but then again I guess I was glad to get any wake-up call considering my recent fondling of a high-velocity flower pot.
"Excuse me, who the frick are you?", someone said.
I looked around my blurry surrounding and made out a vague shape standing over me, bucket still tilted over.
I responded in my typical extremely sophisticated fashion, "My name is James".
[Name stated. Searching…]
[User found! Beginning migration.]
[Error setting profession to Wage Slave. Too weak for this world.]
[Searching User’s memories for a badass profession.]
[Profession found: Programmer. Adapting]
[Profession Adaption Complete: Programmer --> Rune Programmer]
[Retrieving Stats. Complete]
[Retrieving Skils. Complete]
[Migration Complete! Welcome James!]
My eyes went wide and my brain became overloaded.
"What the heck is going on?"
Could this be the Godlike System I’ve dreamt about? Woo! Let’s go! I’m coming for you world! This is great! I can finally be someone special. Take that stupid Jerry!
"Ugh", coughed my assailant, "Did I pour too much water on you? Or are you some new beast in disguise, plotting to destroy the world?!"
It took my brain a solid minute to comprehend the words that my ears had just received. Then my eyes became clouded with confusion sprinkled with annoyance.
"I’m not a monster you water pouring conspiracist! I just woke up here. I have no idea where I am or who I am other than my name is James and I hate being woken up with freezing water."
"Ah well if that be true lad I’m sorry! I was worried you were dead!", apologized the guy.
Well, I was. Hah, I chuckled silently amused at my attempt at humor. "Ah. Well sorry, it was a bit shocking. Waking up in such an unpleasant manner with little to no memories.
"I didn’t mean to be rude", I said being mostly truthful and feeling remorseful for my outburst.
I noticed my new acquaintance's creased brows receding.
"Well obviously, if what you said was true", he said.
I hate these stupid awkward pauses. Guess I'll work on observing this person.
He seemed pretty stoic with an angular face and pointed chin and prominent grey eyes. His hair was light brown and moderately curly. It was cut short and looked similar to the military cuts I’d seen in some TV dramas on Earth so my level of alertness jumped a bit higher.
I should see how those other people did it.
I looked back on some of the video games I played along with some books I’d read where the main character landed in another world.
Why didn't I get to meet a benevolent Goddess who gives me overpowered abilities? Whatever I should stop the silence and get to know the first person I've met in this new world a bit better.
"What’s your name?" I said with a perfectly straight face.
"I’m Harry."
"Nice to meet you! People call me James, but you can call me James", I replied, with the same dry humor that I'd had my whole life.
Harry laughed, but I could tell it was a pity laugh.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"Well James, since you seem like a nice guy and mentally stable enough, and say you don’t remember anything I’ll give you a hand. You’re probably gonna need a place to stay since the nights here get rather cold, so go to the Big Keg inn, tell em’ Harry sent you. The innkeeper should help you once you explain your situation. I’ll look for you in the morning and show you around if you’re interested".
My lips slanted into a wide smile.
"That sounds great! Thanks so much, H-man!", I jovially responded.
"Don’t call me that", said Harry, raising a single eyebrow, the other one twitching as if sad it was being left out.
"You’ll also need some money for breakfast so here’s a silver", added Harry, handing over a silver coin that I could tell had seen finer days as it was a bit dinged around the edges and didn't have that sheen you so often see on newish coins.
As I was looking for the inn I observed the quaint town around me. I could see houses lining the dirt road and families bickering in a playful way as they went about their day. I could hear the banging of metal on metal and I assumed that meant there was a blacksmith somewhere near here. Some tiny stands were propped up in between the houses and shops intermittently. I saw one selling meat kebabs and my mouth watered. Shaking my head to try to clear it I focused back on my task of finding the inn.
After walking around for a while I arrived in front of the Big Keg inn. It was about what I expected given the medieval-ish time period and general aesthetic I’d seen so far. A pretty boxy wooden building. The sign for the inn was tilted slightly as if the sign itself was drunk. Warm light peeked through the two windows at the front and from around the door which was left partially open. It looked cozy in a rundown sort of way and I could hear people laughing and probably drinking inside. I opened the rustic oak doors and looked around.
There were lots of tables with the standard tavern stools standing around them like they were trying to protect the tables from the overly rowdy customers that were practically tripping over themselves drunk. I saw a place that looked like a reception/bar sort of thing and decided to go over to introduce myself along with trying to get a place to stay for a while while I sorted things out.
So I began my awkward dance between tables, tipsy people, and stools on my journey to hope and prosperity while the lady manning the bar/reception area sneakily smirked at my plight, her eyes alight with general mirth along with some mischief. I didn’t mind that much though because she was quite alluring with red hair and green eyes that seemed to have an unnatural depth to them. When I got to the counter though she quickly resumed her previous professional attitude to the point where I wondered if I'd seen it correctly the first time.
"Hey uhh", I said apprehensively, nervous in front of this new person and even more nervous since she was pretty.
"Stella", she offered with a warm smile on her face.
This is going to sound so stupid but I need a place to stay. Ah, screw it, I'll just say it.
"Hey, Stella! I’m James. I heard from this guy named Harry that I might be able to stay here for a bit while I figure out what's going on. I sorta lost all my memories", I explained tentatively, hoping she wouldn't sic the drunkards on me if she thought I was lying.
"I can let you stay for a while but I’ll check with Harry and if you lied to me you’ll regret it!", she said in a compassionate but commandeering tone that I could tell would immediately become hostile in the blink of an eye if I made the wrong move.
"Thanks that would be great! I promise I’ll pay you back in the future", I said smiling widely, happy to have brokered a deal.
Hopefully, rooms didn't cost that much so my debt would be small I thought to myself.
"Mhm", she grunted smiling, seemingly doubting my promise to pay her back, "Here’s your key James. You're in Room 4. Down the hallway behind me you can’t miss it".
"Thanks, Stella!", I said while walking away towards the hallway.
I found the room marked 4 with seemingly gilded numbers and slid the key into the socket that was rusty from years of use. I turned it to the right and heard the tell-tale click of an unlocking door. Then I turned the handle and feasted my eyes on my new abode, for the time being. It was a nice-looking room considering I got it for free.
There was a dark oak bed with nice big fluffy covers that looked extremely inviting. I couldn’t wait to try it out. Next to the bed, there was a tiny table with a candle that had clearly already been lit, hardened wax droplets on the side, and a few on the side table itself. The one window was open to the outside with some kind of thin mesh across it to keep the annoying bugs out and shutters on either side.
Additionally, there was a big chest at the foot of the bed with a note saying breakfast was served at 9:30 and I thankfully had a wooden clock on the wall to tell me that. The clock didn’t tick though which was, to me, more unnerving than the ticking sound, but I just chalked it out to this world’s likely more magical mechanics. I reached out and knocked on it, trying to see if it was hollow or not.
[Scanned new device | Simple]
[+5 System Experience]
[New rune discovered: Movement]
[+20 System Experience]
[New rune discovered: Time]
[+50 System Experience]
[Experience: 75/100]
I jumped at the sudden emergence of the ephemeral blue box. Interesting, I remember the System said something about adapting programmer into Rune Programmer.
Maybe I can program with these rune things?
I jumped at the endless possibilities, well endless once I had enough runes to actually make something more than a clock and knew more about how to make them work.
I wonder if I’m the only person with the Rune Programmer profession or if other people have it? I hope it’s special to me, that would be so cool. Ah frick, I'm not going to be able to sleep with all these stupid thoughts.
I figured laying there was better than worrying about stuff I couldn’t do at least not yet so I took off my clothes. I then lit the weird-looking thing in the heating stove and got a nice flame going to keep me from freezing. After that, I crawled into my bed, pulling the warm covers over me. I smiled at the comfort of a nice bed. It took me a while to calm my brain but I managed to do it with a bit of time and about 1000 sheep counted. Then I drifted off to sleep in an unknown world.