Ken woke up with a jolt, cold sweats sipping out of his pores. Sitting up, Ken noticed he was in an unfamiliar room, a rather new and fresh experience due to his lack of luck in both love and coitus.

The room was small, roughly ten meters square. Made of unknown kind of wood, the room gave off a rather peculiar smell. One that reminded Ken of his father’s office desk.

Ken looked around and saw no furniture inside other than a table in the corner of the room. On top of the table were a familiar set of clothes. This shifted his attention to his own body. Under the blanket, he was wearing nothing but his trunk. Alerted and embarrassed at the same time, Ken quickly donned his clothes, a small tear accompanied by a faint dark stain on the left side of his t-shirt brought last night memories back to him.

He was on his way to the campus, doing his bare minimum to arrive on time. Ken walked through a small alley, a rather dirty and dim one which made people think twice before entering. Ken did not mind it though, as it was a shortcut which saved him about three minutes of circling around the block.

As he was passing by, the sound of the surrounding neighborhood became increasingly muffled. Ken paid no mind, as he was busy scrolling down his social media feeds. Especially as his favorite model had just posted a new picture, one was both alluring and inviting to single young men like him. Absorbed in his own fantasy, it took ken two minutes to realized that he should have passed the alley by now. Looking up to the front, Ken’s mind froze.

In front of the man was an embodiment of true darkness. Taking shape of a door, the darkness was pulsing and fluctuating about. At the same time, it sucked all the lights within the alley, while expanding insatiably outward.

Ken stood still for several seconds, only awaken out of his stupor after he heard the sound of his phone hitting the ground. He quickly tried to flee location, minding not his phone as the prospect of keeping his life was much more important to him at the moment. Sadly, his effort was to no purchase, as his body was rooted on the spot, not moving a single inch as the darkness spread further. Soon enough the darkness wrapped Ken in its embrace. Then it folded itself to oblivion, taking Ken along with it.

The darkness was gone as swift as it came. Ken’s eyes once again found some source of lights. Regaining his vision, Ken discovered that he was no longer standing in the alley. He had no time to register his surrounding, however, for there was another weird thing happening right in front of him.

Roughly one foot in front of his face was a blue screen with some text in it. Focusing his eyes, Ken began reading the text.

You have acquired a new title, [Earth’s Pioneer].

You have acquired a new title, [Outworlder].

It was short and concise, yet the information it yielded brought storm upon Ken’s mind. The single fact that he was no longer in earth was clear, as he was sure there was no technology nor sorcery in earth that could possibly move him from one place to another with little to no discomfort. The clarity in his mind was also proof that he was not under any kind of drug, which by the process of elimination left only one explanation, which was bared right in front of him.

Stolen novel; please report.

At the same time, the blue screen in front of Ken brought another issue to attention. If he was not mistaken, it was something Ken often found in his games, a system notification. This meant Ken somehow gained the ability or privilege, to view information which usually privy to people. And if Ken was once again not wrong, this also meant that Ken had access to a status menu.

Intending to verify his theory, Ken’s mind tried to think of a keyword that might summon the screen in question. It was at this moment that Ken heard a noise behind him, getting louder at each moment. Unfortunately for him, before he had time to fully turn his body, Ken felt an impact hitting him on his left waist.

For a moment, Ken gained the ability to fly. It was short lived however, as his body slammed upon a tree. The crash took whatever air left in his lung away and he felt enough pain to last him for a lifetime, but he knew it was the time for neither self-pity nor grumbling. Fighting away his dizziness, Ken quickly tried to dismiss the blue screen in front of him, which to its credit instantly went away.

Now with a clear sight to his aggressor, Ken recognized it as a boar. It was unlike any boar he had seen. With dark green fur acting as a camouflage and short horn right over its snout, the boar in front of him was evidently born for combat. Ken swiftly ended his inspection, as he saw the boar was once again charging toward him.

Even when his body disagreed with him, Ken knew it was time to move, thus he forced legs to dodge to the side. The dodge was a success, as he heard the boar crashing into the tree behind him. Looking back, Ken saw a pleasant surprise. The boar’s horn was stuck inside the tree, whatever evolution its bloodline experienced obviously did not put such a predicament into consideration. The boar was struggling furiously to free itself.

Ken took in several quick breaths in succession, his body began sweating furiously. His arrival to a new world was greeted with a near death experience, which meant that this world was dangerous and perhaps not as welcoming as he expected it to be.

A beat of pain reminded Ken that he was injured. Ken quickly rolled up his shirt to inspect his wound. He winced once he saw the wound, it was one inch wide and about two inches deep. With action movies as references, Ken was sure he was fatally wounded. A bullet wound or a knife stab in the abdomen was enough to kill a person, let alone one that was several times as large.

Looking back unto the culprit, Ken noticed that the boar’s struggle was paying dividend. Its horn was almost free from the tree, which meant that he was soon going to enjoy another serving of the boar’s charge.

By then, the young man had quickly realized the possibility of death and he was not at all ready for it. He soon took a direction opposite of the boar’s face and fled the area.

Ken had been walking for ten or so minutes, his injury meant that his stamina was limited and running was not an option. Looking around, he saw that the jungle he was currently in had few wild inhabitants, giving a possibility of a civilization nearby. Finding hope, Ken shouted for help a few times, forgetting the fact that he was in alien world with the possibility of being the only human in it.

After another ten minutes, more than twenty shouts for help, and tripping himself twice, Ken was close to his limit as his wound was not getting any better. He sat down and rested himself upon a tree, not minding the dirt or moss sticking to his body. He was probably going to die and become a corpse anyway, why bother keeping himself clean. His consciousness was fading, gone was the hope for help, as they would not make it in time to cater to his wound even if they arrive.

His last thought was that he was grateful that at least there was no one to grief his sudden disappearance, being an orphan as he was. He forced one last smile upon his face, then he closed his eyes in peace.

As his recollection finished, Ken remembered one important detail upon his awakening. The wound on his waist was gone, along with any trace of damage or pain that represented his experience the other day. If it was any consolation to the nightmare of a day he went through yesterday, his instaneous recovery let him know that magic was a thing in this new world.

Ken closed his eyes, if he wanted to survive in this world of magic and monsters, he had to be prepared. First, he would finally do what he failed to do yesterday.

“Status”