"When I was a kid, my mom used to say that if you hang upside down too long, the blood rushes to your head and you die. I used to laugh at that—just another one of her weird mom-isms. But right now? Yeah, I'm hanging upside down—head pounding like a war drum—and I'm not laughing anymore."
Jin dangled by a thick rope, his body swaying gently like a slaughtered goat in a butcher's stall. The rope bit into his ankle, sending sharp pulses of pain up his leg. A steady throb built behind his eyes as gravity pulled the blood downward.
Around him, he could feel the presence of two other people.
He scanned the area closely, taking in every detail. A vast underground chamber stretched beneath them. The air reeked of scorched metal and sulfur. On the cold stone floor, robed figures moved in precise, ritualistic patterns, sketching a glowing arcane circle that pulsed with molten red veins of light.
"So… this is another world, huh?" Jin muttered, his voice rasped dry from thirst. "Could be worse. My old life sucked anyway."
He shifted slightly and winced. "Damn. I've got a lot of piss. I really need to pee."
He paused. "…Wait. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Hang here until I become demon jerky?"
Crossing his arms—no easy feat while upside down—he raised his voice:
"Oi! BROTHER! Do you even know who my father is?! What kind of maniac kidnaps someone this important!?"
No response. The robed men continued their ritual as if he were background noise.
Then—movement.
A girl nearby turned her head with practiced grace, violet eyes shimmering in the reddish light. Her face was angular, elegant. Moon-pale skin. Ears tapered into sharp points.
An elf. A stunning one.
She studied him with mild amusement. "Is your father someone powerful, little one?"
Jin looked at her—and forgot to breathe.
She wasn't just beautiful—she was celestial, like a painting that had stepped out of its frame just to judge him.
"Little one"? That hit harder than a tax bill.
Trying to save face, he spit into his palm, ran it through his messy hair (or tried to, given the angle), and flipped the charm switch.
"Excuse me, stunning stranger—but who exactly are you calling a little one?"
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
He leaned in as much as he could, grinning. "Be honest. Are you trying to assassinate me with that smile? Because I'm seconds away from cardiac arrest."
She let out a soft, silvery laugh. It echoed in the chamber like wind chimes in a cave.
Progress.
Then came the interruption.
"How could she not laugh? The way you talk, your expressions, your desperate pickup lines... You sound like a thirty-year-old trapped in a teething toddler."
Jin craned his neck toward the voice.
An old man hung nearby, wiry white hair splayed out like spider legs, his beard twisted by gravity. His eyes twinkled—amusement, maybe, or pity.
"Who asked you, Grandpa?" Jin snapped. "This is an A-B conversation. Go dangle elsewhere."
He paused.
"…Wait. Did you say toddler?"
He looked at his hands. Small. Soft.
His feet? Tiny too.
The realization punched him straight in the soul.
"No... No no no. Don't tell me I got reincarnated as a baby?!"
He screamed in silence.
"God, I had plans! Marry the elf. Build a cottage. Raise three kids. But now? Now I have to wait fifteen years just to flirt legally?!"
Then something clicked in his mind,
Worried, he leaned forward the best he could, tugged his waistband slightly—and peeked.
Whew. Still a boy.
The elf girl raised a brow. "So, kid… who is your father?"
Jin sighed. There it was again. That eternal "kid".
"Bluff," he said. "Just trying to throw them off."
Then he brightened. "Anyway, stunning lady—do you know where we are and why we're dangling here like cursed fruit?"
Before she could reply, the old man answered.
"We're in the Northern Kingdom. Those robed lunatics down there? Demon cult. Drawing a high-tier sacrificial circle. Likely planning to offer us up in some eldritch ritual."
Jin narrowed his eyes. "Did I ask you, walking antique? Why do you keep jumping into conversations like a bad Wi-Fi connection?"
The old man muttered something unprintable.
Jin smirked. "Since you're so full of answers, let's test your wisdom. Do you know who my father is?"
The old man blinked. "No."
"Strike one. But I'm feeling generous." Jin cleared his throat dramatically. "Answer my next question correctly, and maybe I'll promote you from 'fraud' to 'old-but-sometimes-useful.'"
Even the elf girl leaned in, intrigued.
"Alright," said the old man, tired but curious. "Ask."
Jin nodded seriously.
"Imagine this: A Swordmaster and a Mage face off. The Swordmaster unleashes Thunder Dragon Slash. The Mage fires off Fire Meteorite. Their attacks collide. Massive explosion. Light blinds three kingdoms."
He paused.
"Now… stop imagining."
The old man's brow furrowed.
"Did you understand everything?"
"…Yes?"
"Great," Jin said. "Then answer me this: If they get married in the future, what should they name their child?"
Silence.
The old man opened his mouth—then closed it.
Jin smirked. "Thought so. You've been exposed. Great wise man, my ass."
The elf girl burst out laughing, tears welling in her eyes as she shook with mirth.
And then—
SMACK.
A cultist stormed over and slapped her across the face, the sound echoing like a whip crack.
"Laugh again, and I'll carve your tongue out."
Jin's entire body stiffened.
His blood boiled hotter than the glyphs below.
"Oi. Did you just hit the lady I like?"
The cultist turned and slapped him too, hard enough to rattle his skull.
"You talk too much, brat. Maybe I'll sacrifice you first."
He turned and walked away, his boots tapping against stone like a countdown.
Blood dripped from Jin's lip. His head throbbed. His vision swam.
"Great," he muttered. "Just kill me already. Maybe next time I'll reincarnate as a grown man. Save me the wait. Marry someone like her straight away…"
He sighed.
"My only regret is dying next to such a beautiful woman…"
And then—
[System Installation Complete]
[The host soul has successfully transferred to this world. The system is now active.]
"One minute… what's this? A system?"
Another glowing line blinked into existence, hovering midair like a prophecy etched in light:
[From now on, Host can view other characters' star ratings. And can access his status.]
His eyes widened.
"I knew it… It is a system!"
Emotion surged like a dam breaking behind his smile. Finally—he wasn't alone.
Tears didn't fall, but they screamed in his chest.
"System… where were you all this time? I thought I'd die here today."
But silence greeted him. The screen flickered softly, offering no reply.
He exhaled shakily. "Seems like my system can't talk…"
Just then, something caught his eye—a shimmer above one cultist's head. A glowing card hovered there, steady like a halo. He turned to the elf girl beside him, and her card pulsed brighter when he looked:
Name: Lana
Character: 7★
Rank: 3★
Class: Archer
The numbers were written on the card floating above Lana's head.
Jin narrowed his eyes. "I've seen these numbers somewhere before…"
Suddenly, something clicked in his mind.
Wait a minute. Could it really be what I'm thinking?
Without wasting another second,
He commanded—
"Status!"
A new screen appeared before him, blue and translucent,
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ STATUS SCREEN ┃
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ Name : Jin Level : 7
┃ Rank : 0★ Character : 10★
┃ EXP : 0 / 100
┃ Class : N/A
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ HP : 8 / 10 MP : 20 / 20
┃ Stat Points : 0 Skill Points : 0
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ STATS:
┃ Strength : 3 Agility : 7
┃ Endurance : 6 Intelligence : 12
┃ Perception : 3 Willpower : 5
┃ Charisma : 15 Luck : 20
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ SKILLS:
┃ [Equipment] Finger energy shot (lvl 1)
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
He scanned it carefully, then exhaled in disbelief.
"This is real… just like in the game. I'm not just in another world…"
His fingers trembled as the realization hit.
"I've entered Neptuan Online."