When I opened my eyes, the silence was suffocating. My head throbbed as if I’d been beaten with a baseball bat. The room around me was empty, devoid of any life. Every window was nailed shut, as if someone had gone to extreme lengths to keep me trapped—or to keep something else out.

I was lying on the cold, hard floor, staring up at a ceiling that seemed to press down on me, threatening to crush me under its weight. Panic clawed at my throat, rising like bile. I had no memories, no sense of who I was. My mind was a void, a blank slate wiped clean of any trace of a past life.

“What the fuck is going on?!” I shouted as I jumped to my feet, desperate to escape. But as I tried to move, my body froze, paralyzed by an unseen force. The panic that had begun to rise in my chest was suddenly snuffed out, crushed by something far more powerful than fear. A voice echoed through the room, calm and emotionless.

“[Welcome to System.in],” it said, each word sharp and clear. “[Your previous life has been erased with your consent. You are now bound to the System, and you must follow its rules to survive.]”

I strained against the invisible bonds holding me in place, my heart pounding in my chest. Suddenly, a video was projected onto the empty wall in front of me. Cold sweat trickled down my spine as I watched the screen.

The video showed a young man—me—with heavy dark circles under his eyes, hair already streaked with gray despite his youth. He looked like shit—broken, exhausted, a shadow of a person.

“Is that me?” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

“[Affirmative],” came the cold, mechanical reply.

On the screen, the man—myself—spoke in a voice drained of all emotion. “I am willing to participate in System.in. I understand that I will lose my memories, but I do not care.”

“System?” I murmured, my mind reeling. “What is System.in?”

The voice didn’t respond. Instead, a set of instructions appeared in my mind, as though being typed out on an invisible screen:

1. **[The first rule of System.in is:]** You do not talk about the System.

2. **[The second rule of System.in is:]** You do not talk about the System.

3. **[The third rule of System.in is:]** Giving up or failing the Task means Game Over.

4. **[The fourth rule of System.in is:]** Only two users participate per World.

5. **[The fifth rule of System.in is:]** One Quest at a time.

6. **[The sixth rule of System.in is:]** No rules, no limitations on how you go about accomplishing your Quest.

7. **[The seventh rule of System.in is:]** Quests will go on as long as they have to.

8. **[The eighth and final rule of System.in is:]** If this is your first night in System.in, you have to participate.

The words etched themselves into the wall as the System explained them, fragments of the wall crumbling to the ground as if to emphasize that these were ironclad rules, carved into stone—unbreakable, unforgiving. There was no room for misinterpretation, no chance for rebellion. The rules were absolute, seared into my new reality with the sharp edge of a blade.

**[Quest: Steal or destroy the tree.]** The System’s command echoed in my mind, a cold and unyielding directive.

“What tree?” I asked, my voice trembling with desperation. Silence.

“Where am I supposed to find this tree?” I tried again, but the only response was the oppressive stillness. The System’s silence was more chilling than its voice—an icy void that left no room for doubt. Questions battered at the edges of my mind, but the System offered no answers. It simply demanded obedience, a mechanical force devoid of reason.

Suddenly, the paralysis holding me in place was lifted, and I collapsed to my knees. The impact sent a sharp pain through my body, but it was nothing compared to the cold dread that settled in my gut. I forced myself to stand, my legs trembling as I staggered toward the door that had materialized on one of the walls. The door pulsed with an ominous energy, as if it were alive, waiting for me.

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I hesitated, my hand trembling over the handle. The room felt like it was closing in on me, the air thick with a suffocating menace. “All is well,” I muttered, though the words tasted bitter and false on my tongue. I tried to steel myself for whatever awaited me beyond the door, but deep down, I knew—this was the beginning of something dark, something that would consume me.

But there was no turning back now.

With a final breath, I opened the door.

Blinding light flooded my vision, forcing me to squint. When the light finally dimmed, I found myself in a grand courtyard under a blood-red sky. The air was thick with the stench of decay and blood. There were several people standing in a line, including myself. I looked around cautiously, then down at myself, noticing that I was armed with a sword, a bow, some armor, and a dagger.

‘Am I a guard? A soldier?’ I wondered, my mind racing as I tried to make sense of this twisted reality.

The ground beneath my feet was cold and hard, the grass around me withered and dying. But in the center of it all stood a tree—gnarled, ancient, and bearing golden apples that gleamed with an unsettling, almost malevolent light.

Beneath the tree lay a line of beheaded bodies, their blood seeping into the earth. I couldn’t help but conclude that this king, the one I was supposed to serve, nourished the tree with the blood of his enemies—or perhaps something even worse.

My thoughts were interrupted by a voice, powerful and dripping with rage, that shattered the silence. “YOU HAVE FAILED ME!” The voice paused, the weight of the words sinking in. “AGAIN!”

I turned toward the voice and saw him—a man wearing a golden crown. He towered over the others, standing at least two meters tall, cloaked in black and crimson. His eyes blazed with a cruel, golden fire, his face twisted into a mask of fury. His presence made my blood run cold, and the courtiers around him cowered in fear, their faces pale and drawn.

At the base of the tree lay two women, battered and broken. They were the King’s daughters-in-law—this I knew instinctively, though I had no memory of them. His sons had failed to protect the golden apples, and now they were paying the price.

They had to watch their loved ones being sacrificed to the tree. The King’s wrath was palpable, even from a distance. I could feel the heat of his rage, a force that could crush anyone who stood in its way.

‘So, I’m supposed to deal with this tree?’ I thought, panic and frustration gnawing at me. ‘How the fuck am I supposed to steal a goddamn tree? And destroying it… that’s impossible!’

The tree was enormous, its trunk thick enough that it would take at least a dozen people holding hands to circle it.

“How dare you let this happen!” the King roared, his voice shaking the ground. “I should have you both executed for your incompetence! Just like these whores you’ve married!”

One of the King’s sons, barely able to lift his head, managed to croak out a plea. “Father… please… forgive us…”

But the fire in the King’s eyes only burned hotter. “Begging for forgiveness?!” he spat. “Forgiveness is for the weak. You will suffer for this, just as anyone else who dares to disappoint me!”

The courtyard fell silent as the King turned his gaze to me. His eyes bore into me, cold and calculating.

“You,” the King said, his voice dripping with venom. “You will nail these wastrels to the ground and guarantee their survival. Even if they’re failures, they are my sons!”

He turned to a group of guards, who immediately paled in fear. “You all will guard the tree tonight. If even a single apple goes missing, you will suffer the same fate as these fools.”

The two beaten men looked at me with hollow eyes. They were broken, their spirits crushed. I was handed a hammer, chains, and nails. Unsure of how to proceed, I glanced at the towering king, his gaze expectant and unyielding. I had no choice. Better them than me. I chained them, feeling the nails inside the cuffs bite into their flesh, and then nailed the chains to the ground.

The presence of these two princes was a warning to me, a glimpse of the horrors that awaited if I failed. My heart pounded, but the rules were clear: I had to either steal or destroy this cursed tree. But how? And what would happen if I failed? Would I be stranded here, or would something far worse await me?

As night fell, the King and his entourage retreated into the palace, leaving me and the other guards in the darkening courtyard. We were left to watch over the corpses beneath the tree, the broken men chained to the ground, and the golden apples that glowed eerily in the fading light. The air grew colder with every passing moment, and I stood beneath the tree, my mind racing, knowing I had a mission to complete before I get to leave this place, and find much sorely needed answers.

The silence returned, deeper and more oppressive than before, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

In the back of my mind, the System's rules kept echoing relentlessly.

“At least give me a fricking tutorial or something like that before you throw me into the deep end!” I whispered, extremely annoyed.