A small town. Inside an old house, in a small room, a young man sat at his computer. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. His name was Derek, and he was 20 years old.
Derek had been studying in college for three years. Since his family wasn’t very wealthy, he worked two jobs after classes, leaving him with almost no free time. But during one of his rare breaks, he decided to sit down at his computer.
"Finally, the game is installed. It had a massive advertising campaign—let’s see what it’s really like," Derek thought to himself.
The game was an RPG called "Legendary King." It was about a hero who built his kingdom and fought enemies with magic and a sword.
As soon as Derek launched the game, he felt the whole room tremble.
"What’s happening? An earthquake?" Derek thought quickly.
He was about to run out of the room when his computer monitor shone with a bright white light. A sharp pain hit his head, and he lost consciousness.
Derek didn’t know how much time had passed before he woke up. He got up from the ground, holding his head because of the pain, and looked around.
"Where am I? What happened?" he thought.
He realized he was in a jungle. Searching his memories, he recalled what had happened before.
"How did I end up in a jungle?" Derek wondered.
Once his headache subsided, he decided to take a closer look at his surroundings.
"These aren’t normal jungles," Derek thought. He had never seen trees like these before. They were over 20 meters tall, with strange purple vines covered in thorns wrapping around them.
Feeling a little panicked, Derek decided to stay in place for now and think about his next move.
"This makes no sense—I don’t even live anywhere near a jungle. I need to find people," Derek thought.
Choosing a random direction, he started pushing through the thick vegetation. After about ten minutes, he suddenly heard a deafening roar.
Covering his ears with his hands, he looked in the direction of the sound. Whatever had roared wasn’t far—maybe 200 meters ahead. Then, a second roar answered the first.
Derek froze in fear. And then, suddenly, messages appeared before his eyes:
[Skill Learned: Danger Detection]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
[Skill Learned: Fear Resistance]
Snapping out of his daze, Derek glanced at the glowing text, then immediately turned and ran back the way he had come.
As he sprinted, another message appeared, but he didn’t pay attention to it.
[Skill Learned: Sprint]
When he finally returned to the spot where he had woken up, he was gasping for breath.
"What the hell is going on?! Were those monsters? And what were those messages?" Derek thought anxiously.
Glancing in the direction where the roars and tremors continued, he decided to put that issue aside for now. He needed to get as far away as possible.
As he ran, he spotted a rocky cliff not far from where he had first awakened.
"Maybe there’s a cave where I can hide?" Derek thought hastily.
Quickly making his way toward the cliff, he pushed through the dense foliage for about five minutes, constantly checking for any sounds of the creatures.
"It sounds like they’re fighting each other," Derek thought.
When he reached the cliff, he examined it. It was over 100 meters tall and at least 200 meters wide. To his right, he noticed a small entrance to a cave.
He approached cautiously but then stopped abruptly.
"Wait… what if this is some beast’s den?" Derek thought.
He decided to check the entrance for any animal tracks. Instead, he found a drawing of a campfire near the cave’s entrance.
"People were here!" Derek thought with relief.
Stepping inside carefully, he saw the remains of a burned-out fire, animal hides spread on the ground, and a few wooden spears leaning against the wall.
Looking up, he noticed a small crack in the cave ceiling, allowing sunlight to filter in. Then, turning his attention to the walls, he saw strange symbols carved into the stone.
As soon as he looked at them, another message appeared before his eyes:
[New Language Discovered: Universal Tribal Language]
"What the hell is this?" Derek thought in confusion.
He reached out to touch the glowing text, but it dissolved before he could.
"Is this… just like in those novels?" Derek thought skeptically.
Taking a deep breath, he hesitated before speaking.
"Status?" he said uncertainly.
And before his eyes, a status window appeared.
[Welcome to the "Legendary King" System]
[User Status]
A gray notification appeared:
[Territory Status (Unavailable)]
Derek tapped on the "User Status" section, and a statistics window popped up before him.
[User Name: Derek]
[Race: Human]
[Title: None]
[Level: 0]
[Experience: 0/10 XP]
[Development Stage: None]
[Health: 16/16 HP]
[Stamina: 19/22 SP]
[Spiritual Energy: 0/0 EP]
[King’s Points: 0.0]
[Attributes]
Agility: 7
Endurance: 11
Strength: 8
Intelligence: 13
Spirit: 12
Free Attribute Points: 0
Below the status window, there were several sections:
[Skills (+)]
[Inventory (+)]
[Quests (+)]
[Shop (+) (Unavailable)]
[Knowledge (+)]
[Worlds (+) (Unavailable)]
As Derek examined the status window and the various sections, the sounds of battle outside suddenly ceased. He turned his gaze toward the cave entrance.
Deciding it would be safer to block the entrance, he looked around and spotted a large stone nearby.
As he approached the entrance, the status window blurred and faded.
Attempting to move the stone, Derek quickly realized that if he completely sealed the entrance, he wouldn’t be able to move it back later. So instead, he pushed it just enough to cover part of the entrance—enough to prevent any large creature from squeezing through.
Struggling to shift the stone into place, he finally managed to do it and then slumped down onto the animal hide, letting out a deep sigh.
"I need to figure out this system first… then I’ll decide what to do next," Derek thought to himself.