“-ck?” For a second everything stopped completely, and then I was wrenched backwards as if I was in a roller coaster, feeling like I was being pulled backwards with an immense speed. I flew backwards out of the Earth’s atmosphere, and continued onwards. I watched the only world I’d ever known get smaller and smaller, and even our massive Sun seemed to shrink as I flew backwards. I suddenly realized there was no air in space, but to my surprise I was still able to breathe. I looked around, surrounded by a sea of stars in the vast emptiness of space. I had never felt so alone.

I thought back to what I had just seen before this happened. Was this even real? Was this a dream? I pinched myself, realizing I was seemingly able to move my limbs, though I remained flying backwards as if attached to an invisible leash. I stopped thinking about the strange mechanics of this, realizing that again I had gotten stuck in my thoughts.

As I realized this and looked up, I realized I was going faster and faster. With that thought, I suddenly jerked to a stop, and found myself floating in… nothingness? It looked vaguely like water, but it was so dark I could barely see anything, and again, I could still breathe.

[Entered the Abyss Between Worlds. Initializing System before completing transport.]

What?? The Abyss Between Worlds? I wondered if I had just unknowingly taken some psychedelics, and passed out playing video games, but if not… I had no clue what the hell was happening. The words faded from my screen as I patted my face to see if I was wearing some high-tech virtual reality goggles, but I found nothing. The abyss? A system? At least I was stationary now. It was floating here that really let it sink in what just happened. I had died. I had died! I died, and nothing I did even mattered. All my life, and I was just in a dead-end job in the middle of nowhere. Sure, I had a few colleagues I hung out with, but friends? Would anyone go to my funeral or would there even be one? Was there a body left? I shook my head, trying to get such depressing thoughts out of my head. The past was the past, and I died helping someone. What better way was there to die? Probably in my sleep surrounded by a family and loved ones. But that didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was finding out what was happening now, where I was, and what to do next.

I decided to see if there was a surface to this strange dark-looking water, and started swimming upwards.

[System initialization starting.]

More words wrote themselves out in front of me, and I tried waving them away again, pleasantly surprised by it working. I kept swimming upwards, and after seemingly an eternity, I breached the surface. I looked around, noticing that everything was shrouded in a faint black mist. In every direction I looked, there seemed to only be more water, but unless I was imagining it, far away I thought I could see land. Seeing that I wasn’t going to get far looking around above the water, I dived back into the depths.

I swam downwards and downwards, but there seemed to be no end to the water. I paused swimming to rest for a second, but strangely, I didn’t feel tired at all. I righted myself in the water, and tried to see if I could spot anything down here. There seemed to mostly be emptiness, but out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement. I turned in that direction, startled, and wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me in the darkness. There. I saw it again, and as I stared into the depths of the abyss, something stared back.

A large crimson eye, easily half my height, stared straight back at me. The pupil was a vertical slit, vaguely reptilian looking, and it seemed to stare into my soul.

[Abyssal Gaze resisted. System Protection is active.]

What the hell? I did not know what that was, did not know what that was, and didn’t want to know what that was, and promptly decided to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. I turned around and started swimming with all my might, hoping whatever that creature was didn’t think I was interesting enough to chase. After a few minutes of non-stop swimming, I turned around to look for it, and to my relief, it was gone. I turned around again, and then found where the creature had gone. It was in front of me.

Seeing it up close, it looked much more menacing. I could now see both of its eyes, which lit up the area around it, letting me see most of the front of its body. Its head almost looked like that of a dragon from art on Earth, and to its sides I could see clawed, lizard-like arms, along with wings connected to the arms, almost reminiscent of a bat’s. Curiously, it didn’t seem combative, just watching me, and tilting its head. It slowly swam around me, and I cautiously turned with it, just in case it was looking for an opportunity to attack my back, not like it couldn’t kill me easily already.

It swam towards me, and bumped me with its nose lightly, seemingly investigating what I was.

[Juvenile Abyss Leviathan resisted. System Protection is active.]

Oh. A leviathan. That didn’t sound good, especially since it was a juvenile. What else was here? How big was an adult leviathan? It hadn’t attacked me so far, so that was a good sign, but I didn’t know how smart it was or what it would do. It looked at me again, and I suddenly felt a faint push in my mind, almost like the beginning of a headache, and I heard what sounded like whispered screeching in my head. What was that? I looked around. Nothing was in sight other than the leviathan. I heard the noises again, and I felt a faint tugging sensation in a certain direction. I looked in the direction of the feeling, but the only thing there was the leviathan. Was it the leviathan? Was the leviathan trying to communicate? If it was, I didn’t know how to respond, so I just started waving my arms and shaking my head. It cocked its head, watching me curiously, and after a few seconds of silence, reached one of its arms out and hit me, sending me careening through the water.

[Juvenile Abyss Leviathan resisted. Abyssal Ruin resisted. System Protection is active.]

It swam effortlessly after me, seemingly not trying to hurt me, and before I could right myself, it batted me again, propelling itself through the water right behind me, content with just observing what I was doing.

[System Initialized. Teleporting in 5 seconds. Please remain still for lowest risk of death or dismemberment]

What? Lowest risk of death or dismemberment? Does that mean there still is one? I curled up into a ball and hoped that made the leviathan no longer interested in hitting me.

[Teleporting in 3 seconds.]

[Teleporting in 2 seconds.]

[Teleporting in 1 second.]

The leviathan hit me again.

[Teleport Commencing.]

I suddenly found myself in a tunnel of colors flashing past me at incomprehensibly fast speeds, as I fell violently, jerking around the tunnel randomly. As fast as it had begun, it stopped, and I jerked into place, floating in a kaleidoscopic world of moving colors.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

[Teleportation Concluding. Due to movement, you have been placed within the same space as Level ?? Orc Warlord. Dismemberment or death is possible.]

With that comforting message, I appeared abruptly, feeling an intense squeezing pressure for a quarter of a second before I heard a squelch and felt something explode all over me. I smelled the strong scent of blood, hoping in horror that it wasn’t mine.

[Teleportation Dismemberment resisted. System protection active.]

[Teleportation concluded. System protection deactivated.]

[You have killed a Level 58 Orc Warlord. No awakening detected. Experience points will be distributed upon awakening.]

[You have earned Achievement: Multiversal Traveler]

[You have 9 more notifications. View now? (Y/N)]

No, what the hell is happening? The notifications all disappeared, but I instinctively knew if I wished for it, they would reappear.

I blinked and looked around, first noticing that I was covered in blood and guts, and kneeling in the corpse of what looked like a very large, green human, an Orc, I supposed. I then realized two things. A, I was completely naked. B, I was covered in blood. I was, surprisingly to myself as well, more disturbed with the fact that I was naked than the fact that I was covered in blood. I quickly looked everywhere to see if I could find anywhere to wash off and get some clothes, only to realize I was standing in the middle of a cave, surrounded by startled-looking orcs. I slowly raised my hands and took a step backwards, but to my surprise, as soon as I moved, all of the orcs ran away as fast as they could. Did they think I just killed their leader? I shrugged in my head. Works for me. Let’s see what they have that I can use.

I first leaned down to the body of the former warlord to see if he had anything I could use, only to immediately be hit by the smell. Ugh. I am not getting any closer. I took a closer look around the cave, seeing the opening through which the orcs fled from, so I exited through that hole in the rock.

As I stepped outside, the first thing that I noticed was the sunlight. It felt like forever since I was last under the sun. I closed my eyes, and just listened, hearing the wind rustling the leaves of trees, the birds chirping, and tragically, no sound of water. I took a deep breath in, and immediately started coughing as I inhaled the strong scent of blood still covering me. Forgot about that… I opened my eyes and tried to get a sense of my surroundings. I was in the middle of a forest clearing in front of the cave, and there seemed to be tents made of animal skins that were currently set up, as well as a campfire, but there was no movement. This must have been the orcs’ campground.

I quickly took a peek in a few tents, finding nothing of use in most of them, before getting to a tent larger than the others. Inside, I found a pile of animal hides, some pouches, as well as quite a few rusted metal axes. Next to these, by itself, was a small vial containing a bright red liquid of some sort. I couldn’t quite tell what it was, but I decided to take it. I tied some animal hides around my waist so I was at least slightly clothed, and also took a pouch and tied it to my makeshift pair of shorts, putting the red vial inside of it. I additionally took a single axe, which I also managed to affix in my newfound clothing.

While I had this silence, I decided to see what this “System” was all about. I thought “show notifications” to myself, and then found my view flooded with floating messages.

[You have earned Achievement: Multiversal Traveler for traveling through multiple realities, crossing the bounds of all dimensions.]

[Multiversal Traveler has granted you skill ]

[You have earned Achievement: Overwhelming Force for killing a fully healthy awakened enemy in a single hit while unawakened.]

[Overwhelming Force has granted you title ]

[You have earned Achievement: Punching Up for killing an enemy more than 10 levels above you.]

[Punching Up has granted you skill ]

[You have earned Achievement: Limit Breaker for killing an enemy at least 1 stage ahead of you.]

[Limit Breaker has granted you title ]

[You have earned Achievement: Against All Odds for killing an awakened enemy by yourself before awakening.]

[Against All Odds has granted you title ]

Ooook. I waved my notifications away. Was there somewhere where all of these titles and skills and achievements went? I thought for a second, and remembered how I would usually see this in a video game. Status.

Name: Alexander Blackwood

Age: 23

Equipped Title:

Class:

Level:

Stage:

Affinity:

Stats:

STR: 8

DEX: 10

INT: 12

CON: 8

Resources:

Health: 100%

Mana: 120/120

Skills: , ,

Abilities:

Unlocked Titles: , ,

Unlocked Achievements: , , , ,

What does half of this stuff even do? I was completely clueless about what any of these did, but decided to try to figure it out later, as I didn’t want to stick around and see if the orcs got over their fear, as I would definitely stand no chance if they were to fight me.

I stepped out of the tent, tugging at my makeshift shorts to ensure they were secure and patting down my belongings to check everything was still in place. The air outside was crisp, carrying the earthy scent of pine and damp soil. I scanned the trees ahead, their dense canopy dappling the forest floor with shifting patches of sunlight, and cautiously made my way toward the area where the trees seemed thinnest.

The edge of the forest was eerily quiet, save for the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze. Seeing no sign of animals, I pressed on, weaving through the trunks as the forest began to open up. The sunlight grew brighter, and soon, faint hoofbeats reached my ears, distant but unmistakable.

I followed the sound, stepping carefully until I emerged onto a dirt road. A few yards away, three figures sat astride translucent blue horses that shimmered faintly in the sunlight. My breath caught at the sight of them—other people. Finally.

I raised my hands, palms out, in a gesture of peace and started toward them, but froze as one of the riders—a man with sharp, pointed ears—drew a bow and leveled a nocked arrow directly at me.

“I come in peace!” I called out. Although I understood my own words, they didn’t sound like English. Some unfamiliar language spilled from my mouth, feeling alien yet familiar at the same time.

The archer’s eyes narrowed. “Step no closer, murderer. We won’t be tricked by a bandit such as you.”

Confused, I glanced down and winced. My entire lower body was still covered with blood, some of it dry, and some of it still dripping.

“Oh, that,” I said hastily, raising my hands higher. “I can explain.”