The crushing pressure brought a sharp pain in his ears and he struggled to swim up. His lungs screamed for air and with not even a hint of light in the inky-black depths, it was hard to gauge how deep he was— and subsequently harder to fight the urge to give up.

With his eyes shut tight, he only focused on the desperate movements of his legs and the crushing sensation in his lungs— hoping that his concentration would somehow make his legs move faster and his body to want oxygen less. The pressure lessened, and abruptly, he broke through the water’s surface. Drawing in a big gasp, he wiped his eyes of the salt water and looked around with increasing confusion.

What he saw was so bizarre it made him wonder if he was dreaming.

With no sun, no sky, no stars and no moon, it was pitch black. There seemed to be no distinction between the inky black sea and the pitch black above. Just before his heart could be gripped by the terror of the unfathomable darkness, he saw hope.

On one horizon was a long, slim strip of light.

The experience robbed him of his ability to speak. He’d had dreams that were ultra-realistic before, this might have been just one of them.

He’d read about so-called ‘reality checks’ before— actions you would perform in your dream to confirm that you were dreaming. A reliable technique was to simply pinch your nose shut. In a dream you’d simply have the odd sensation of breathing through a pinched nose, but in reality you couldn’t breathe. It wouldn’t hurt to try.

So he pinched his nose.

And couldn’t breathe.

The black waves sloshed in the darkness and his mind was blank. A single question permeated every cell of his body.

Where the hell am I…

His breathing became unsteady and his heart thrashed in his chest. Suddenly his heart jumped to his throat— something had just brushed past his feet, shooting tingles of fear through his spine.

He had to get out. There was simply no other option.

So he swam towards the strip of light. One after another, his arms clumsily cut through the water— and he was so grateful to have taken swimming lessons years ago.

His head was empty, occupied only by a single obsession:

The light.

It was unknown how long he had spent swimming. But now he began to regret not increasing his stamina. In the water his chest heaved with every breath and his limbs felt like iron. But the light became clearer! And now that it was clear what it was, his heart sank.

The light was the cloud-streaked blue sky— a cause to rejoice, if it weren’t for the towering cliffs in front of him.

But what other option did he have?

It was quite ironic, and almost elicited a defeated laugh.

He had been of the belief that suffering builds a man, and he often lamented his lack of suffering. He was well-fed, lived in a good house, had hot showers, had no emotional setbacks and was able to study abroad. The most he’d suffered was having his heart broken.

And now, his unathletic self was forced to swim for God knew how long. And after being exhausted, he was faced with the task of climbing a near-vertical cliff.

Every wish he’d made to suffer more was fulfilled all at the same time. And now he was faced with death.

A hollow laugh rang amidst the clashing waves. To anyone nearby, it must have been a chilling experience— the unmistakable echo of laughter among the roaring waves. But it was better to despair clinging to a rock than in the sea, and there was a first for everything, even rock climbing.

Ending his short break, he swam towards the cliff-face. The waves battered his body and flung him onto the rocks.

All the breath was knocked out of him as his body was slammed onto the rocks. His skin burned with countless scratches and tears.

But he simply grit his teeth and grabbed onto the cliff face. Yes, he’d never done rock climbing before. But what other choice did he have? It was the choice of either drowning, or falling onto the sharp, jagged rocks below the cliff.

Because the cliff face was so jagged there were many protrusions he could cling onto. It was a huge relief— as if this cliff was made with the sole purpose of being a test. He had even made it halfway up!

And then stopped.

He simply stopped moving, and clung to the rock face. The craggy cliff bit into his fingers. All feeling in his muscles was lost and no amount of willpower could command them to move. He was exhausted and his fingers were increasingly burning with pain.

A calm sereness set over him, because it was over.

Before it had even truly begun, his life was over. There were so many things to think about and reflect, but he didn’t even have the time to look back on his life.

Yaaro watched his fingers slip away one by one. And then he fell.

A strange relief set over him as he plummeted through the air.

Atleast I died fighting.

With a sickening crunch, Yaaro’s head cracked open on the rocks and his consciousness went black.

----------------------------------------

“AHH!!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

His hands flew to the back of his head. The sensation of his head cracking on the rocks was so realistic it sent chills down his spine— but his head was fine. It seemed he was alive.

Again, he looked around and saw nothing but darkness, but this time the floor beneath him was solid. And although he couldn’t confirm it visually, it felt like moist stone.

Somehow, he was on solid ground— a much better environment to think in than the open ocean. He recalled everything that had happened.

He was on the train in the middle of the countryside. He went to the bathroom, and something had happened that made everyone panic. And before he could get to his cabin, his body strangely slowed down and then… He was in the ocean.

Then he swam, climbed up a cliff, fell, and… ended up in this cave.

The sound of dripping water echoed through the void.

Was he dead?

The sensation of his head cracking open was so vivid that he was tempted to agree. But he was clearly alive— everything about him from his heartbeat to his breath to the warm stickiness of the air reminded him that he was alive.

The sky…

The strip of light in the distance was the sky, and the sky over the ocean was pitch black. The strange environment was otherworldly. Almost as if…

He was in another world.

“How could that be possible…” He murmured to himself. His only experience with otherworlds was through reading webnovels. And if he truly was in another world, magic had to be real.

But soon his train of thoughts came to a halt. Firstly, even if this was another world, there was no guarantee that there was magic. And secondly, what kind of magic? Had he been transported to a Lord of the Rings style Western fantasy? An isekai fantasy? A world of martial arts? An unfathomably large space opera?

He could not rule out any possibilities from this strange place. But he could rule out one possibility. He held no hopes for it, but he tried anyway.

System

Nothing happened.

But maybe there was a different trigger word, or he might have had to say it out loud. So he thought of a different word, Status

A yelp almost rang out in the darkness. A translucent blue panel materialized in front of him, hovering in the darkness.

Yaaro stared at the panel with his jaws slack.. I’m in an isekai. I got… I got isekai’d.

He touched his arms. And then every part of his body. The sensation of his skin was so real. And even though he’d already confirmed it, he pinched his nose. He couldn’t breathe— This was real. So very real.

He was in another world with a system.

Excitement bubbled up from inside him like a violent volcano, but he couldn’t make too many sounds— who knew what lurked in the shadow. So his face broke into a stupidly wide grin and he fistbumped the air, silently roaring with exhilaration. He studied the panel with a smile.

Name: [Yaaro Ilay]

Titles: None

Level: 3

Skills: None

Stats: Mana-> 10,315,780 Strength-> 3 Speed-> 2 Stamina-> 2

The mana stat especially had a lot of numbers, so he patiently counted them— One, two, three, four… “TEN—” MILLION?????? His hair stood on end. In his shock he had completely forgotten to be cautious. Suddenly remembering the environment around him he panicked and waited in complete stillness. For five minutes he was as still as the floor beneath him.

Even as he tried to cautiously listen to his surroundings, his internal monologue couldn’t be muted.

10 million… 10 million… 10 million… 10 mi—

There are times when you can sense a person looking at you. Or feel the presence of someone behind you even with no one present. A crushing fear blanketed him and grabbed his heart. His heart beat wildly and the back of his shirt stuck uncomfortably to his skin. He immediately scrambled back until he hit the wall.

In the pitch black darkness, there was something standing right in front of him.

A soft feminine voice spoke,

“#@!#!@%$%$#%#$%#$^”

It’s a woman…

He sighed in relief, and then immediately tensed up.

What’s a woman doing here?

Could he even be sure that the thing in front of him really was a woman, and didn’t merely sound like one?

His mind ran amok with horrifying ideas and then the voice spoke again.

“#@! ! # #!?”

Yaaro’s brows furrowed. Although the ‘thing’ spoke in a strange language, somehow he could understand it. “Who are you?” It asked.

The darkness in front of him didn’t allow a single detail to be made out. And as he tried peering through the veil, the pitch black slowly parted and his jaw dropped. He was ashamed for even thinking it could have been anything but a woman.

Her hair was a beautiful waist-long mint green, and she wore an elegant white chiffon that flowed to her ankles. She reminded Yaaro of a Greek Goddess and was the very personification of femininity.

As Yaaro stared at her, completely in awe, he felt touched. Motherly love emanated from her kind smile and even though he had a loving mother, he wished he could be born again as the lady’s son.

And then he looked away, ashamed for having such weird thoughts.

“Child. Where did you come from?” She seemed to be saying— her warm smile put his heart at ease, as if he could leave all his worries in her hands.

“I… I came from another world.” He blurted out. Shit! Why did I say that!

“(*&^%$#@^&(*&^%^ ?” She tilted her head slightly, seeming to say, “I cannot understand your language.”

“You can’t understand me?”

The lady simply reiterated what she said. He could understand her, but she couldn’t understand him. When there was such a massive language barrier, he felt defeated— even more than facing death on the cliffs.

“Maybe you don’t know how to project your voice?” The lady seemed to be saying.

Yaaro shook his head. Even if he replied to her, she couldn’t understand him.

“If you don’t know how to project your voice, I shall teach you.”

Yaaro’s eyes slowly brightened and he eagerly nodded to which the lady’s smile subtly grew.

“Reach into yourself and think about conveying your intent” she seemed to say. The problem was that he had no idea what she meant. Reach into yourself. He pondered on its meaning. Without a doubt the lady talked about mana— something he had 10 million of.

Having so much mana would definitely bring some changes to his body, and maybe inspecting those changes was what the lady asked him to do. He had some experience with mediation before, so Yaaro slowly withdrew from his thoughts and focused on the different parts of his body.

Starting from his extremities (which felt the same) he inspected each part of his body for differing or weird sensations.

When he focused on his chest however, he opened his eyes in shock.

There was something swimming around his heart.