I woke up in the middle of a what seems to be a forest. Careful observation might tell me that something about this forest seems odd compared to the forests that I have seen and perhaps allow me to think more clearly about the situation. But I wasn’t able to, as the memory of what happened just moment ago came back to me.

…

I was sitting in class as the students one by one walked to the teacher’s podium and got their abilities checked.

Special abilities or traits came into existence about a millennium ago and by now everyone was already used to them. During the last year of high school, the people used a special stone, which came into existence along with the abilities, to ‘unlock’ or ‘activate’ the abilities in said students.

It’s called ‘special abilities’ but really they’re just divided into 3 parts, controlling air, water, or fire in some way or form. Each can be used in its own creative way. And some have stronger abilities than others. There isn’t any ‘law of the jungle’ and ‘strong eats the weak’, at least not directly, because after a certain threshold of power there really isn’t a need to distinguish if someone is weaker than the ones in power. The gap is so large that they aren’t really considered as the same people anymore.

But I’m sure as the only heir to the clan which controls one of the world’s largest companies, and has high level water based abilities, I too will have a high-level water ability.

I look towards the girl who just had her abilities checked. Kristy, unexpectedly she had a fire based ability. She’s the second smartest person in the whole school, and it shows in her rank too. The smartest one is of course, me. I’ve even done research on the abstract concepts that came with the discovery of these special abilities, things like wormholes and interdimensional travel. Though things like that also isolated me from the rest of the people. Or maybe it’s my background that they just can’t compare to, thus choosing to stay away rather than risk interacting.

None of it matters though, as I walk up to the teacher’s podium. She tells me to put my hand on the glowing orb that is kept on the podium itself. A thing I’m sure she has repeated about a hundred times today.

As I put my hand on the orb, it’s glow starts to change color, and at the same time slowly my hand starts glowing too as it slowly extends towards the rest of my body.

The color turns green, a variant of water ability, this one is rare but not unheard of. It allows control of water in living organisms. It is one of the most powerful abilities.

But suddenly the ground starts shaking. Is it an earthquake? I look towards the rest of the class but it doesn’t seem like they feel anything unusual. Am I the only one feeling these tremors?

“Hey, teach, isn’t the ground moving?”

“An earthquake? But I don’t feel anything like that at all.”

The tremors get stronger, making me lose balance and fall to the ground.

What’s happening?

The teacher is trying to tell me something, but I can’t hear her properly over all this noise of the earthquake.

A crack opens up in the floor beneath me and I see all darkness through it. Impossible. We’re on the top floor of the building. Below this should be another floor, not the ground.

But the world doesn’t listen to my reasoning, and the crack starts expanding. I try to crawl away from the crack but it spreads too fast. I fall inside the crack.

I feel my body being weightless. I’ve done skydiving before, it’s a lot like that. That apparent feeling of weightlessness as the forces of gravity are working on you but there is no force to counteract that.

I think as I try to distract myself from the reality.

Eventually I lose consciousness from the apparent strain that was put on my mind.

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…

As I lay there on the ground remembering what just happened. I hear a voice in my head.

“Good that you’re awake now. I was almost worried that you wouldn’t wake up.”

“… Who are you?!” I ask almost instinctively.

Am I going crazy now?

I close my eyes, trying to not let my surroundings influence me and think of the voice I just heard.

“I’m real, you know.”

A figure of a woman appears in my head. I’m closing my eyes so this definitely can’t be reality. Could I really be going crazy now?

“No, you’re not crazy. I summoned you here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I called you here so I could get your help.”

I was trying to avoid paying attention to the woman but there’s only so much time I could avoid thinking about something that’s literally in my head.

Just the silhouette was visible however.

“I’m ____.”

What was that? It sounded like something I just couldn’t understand. Like gibberish but not.

“You’re… Who?”

“Ah, right. For you, I’m Gaia. The Goddess of the Earth or rather, the world itself.”

Her appearance got clearer. A very voluptuous figure. Brown, not tan brown but an earthly brown skin. Dark green hair and greenish eyes. She was also wearing a greenish blue dress. Though the dress itself didn’t cover that much. The skirt was short and the shirt left her stomach exposed.

“Are you trying to seduce me?” I ask skeptically, once again trying to distract myself from the reality of the situation that there is now a woman inside my head with a separate consciousness.

“Maybe I am, maybe not. The way you see me is just an interpretation of your own.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, trying to delay the eventual point where the conversation is going to go.

“It’s a way to help you visualize me. Like how you couldn’t understand my name. This way is easier for you to understand things.”

“Your attractive appearance is distracting me, please make it go away.”

“Sure thing.” Her figure disappears from my mind.

She then continues.

“I’ll be sure to translate everything in this world so that you could understand it.”

No. No no no no nononono.

“This place, as you might have guessed. Isn’t the world you came from.”

I refuse to accept it.

“It’s true even if you don’t accept it.”

No! Get out of my head!

“I’ll compile a ‘system’ for you, so you can understand this world better. Of course, like everything else, it is just a way for you to interpret things easier. It’ll take some time though.”

I finally get peace and quiet. A lot of thoughts flash through my mind but none can be answered now.

It feels as if a few hours have passed, or perhaps just a few moments. I’m able to get my head a little clearer.

I instinctively lift my left hand towards my face. The watch seems to be working but at the same time not. I felt about a minute pass before the seconds hand even moved. Maybe it’s broken? But doesn’t seem like that. It’s working perfectly fine, just a lot slower.

I slowly get up from the ground. My clothes aren’t dirty at all. The dust just falls off as if raindrops against a leaf from a lotus plant. It’s that way because these clothes are special. Custom made by the clan, and made to look like the fashionable school uniform. Getting them dirty requires way more than just rolling around on the ground.

I’ll think of anything, to distract me from the current situation.

They also offer protection to a high degree against knife cuts and stabs. And could even stop less powerful bullets from a pistol. But stopping one from an assault rifle would be lucky at most. There’s extra protection towards the place where the heart is. But stopping a bullet from a sniper rifle wouldn’t be possible.

I take out my smartphone from my coat pocket. I unlock it, and it seems to be working just fine. But without connection to the phone networks and the internet, its usability is highly limited.

I turn off the phone to save its battery in case I ever need it again. With modern technological progress, the phone could last a few months on full charge but I don’t want to risk it.

The watch can easily last decades, so I’m not too worried about that.

I ruffle through all the pockets I have. To find anything of interest.

My school ID, a handkerchief, earphones to listen to music sometimes and a credit card, not that it’ll be useful at all here. Obviously, none of these would really be useful in this situation. Not like I had a chance to prepare either.

Now that I’m already up, I decide to investigate into my immediate surroundings a bit more.

It looks like a forest, too dense with trees and greenery and animals too which seem to be keeping their distance from me, for some reason. A rainforest or such an equivalent, probably.

It is also quite dark, making me unable to judge what time of the day it is. But it’s during the day for sure since I’m able to see the sunlight.

A bit far away I see a creature which looks like a jaguar, looking towards me. I beckon it with my hand but it doesn’t respond.

Weird.

The forest itself is also filled with plants I cannot recognize. Or maybe it is just my knowledge that is lacking. Perhaps it would be explained later.

“I finished setting up the ‘system’ for you. Now you’ll understand the world better, maybe.”

“… That’s good, I suppose.”

“I forgot to tell you before, I’ve sent a divination to one of the priestesses. They should be coming here in a moment.”

“… To take me out of the forest. That’s good too.

“Oh right. Also, the mental strain that setting such a ‘system’ took on your brain, will make you go unconscious for a bit.”

“…. What?” My reaction was delayed as I fell unconscious just as she finished saying that.