Pain.
It wasn't just a dull ache—it was searing, raw, as if my body had been tossed into a furnace and left there to burn.
I gasped, but the air clawed at my throat like smoke. My lungs, desperate and tight, refused to cooperate. Everything around me spun, and I felt like I was falling through the earth while lying perfectly still.
What… the hell just happened?
Bits and pieces came rushing back. A streetlight. Screeching tires. The cold gleam of headlights reflecting off wet asphalt. The crash—
Then, nothing.
Until now.
My senses slowly began to reawaken. The scent of damp soil. A breeze that rustled the foliage nearby. The faint chirping of insects and the hoot of something avian in the distance.
This wasn't my apartment. It wasn't the inside of an ambulance either.
Groaning, I forced my body upright. My palms scraped against uneven ground—dirt and moss. My clothes were torn, my work shirt clinging to me with sweat and grime. The ground beneath me was neither concrete nor tile but the cold embrace of nature.
Blinking away the blur in my vision, I finally looked up.
And froze.
Above me stretched a sky I didn't recognize.
It wasn't the choking, smog-ridden gray ceiling I was used to seeing outside my office window. It was deep, endless sapphire, clear and impossibly wide. Stars shimmered—too many, too close. And a golden moon, swollen and foreign, loomed like a watchful eye.
This… isn't Earth.
The thought came unbidden, followed by a wave of denial. No, I was hallucinating. Maybe I hit my head. Maybe I was in a coma. Maybe this was one of those hyper-realistic lucid dreams I'd read about.
Then it happened.
Ding!
A bell—soft, crystalline—resonated directly inside my mind. The sound was so crisp it shattered any lingering notion that this was a dream.
A translucent screen shimmered into existence before me.
_______________________________
[Welcome, Player.]
[You have entered the System.]
[Initializing Awakening…]
_______________________________
---
I stared, unblinking.
"What... the actual hell?"
It was like one of those isekai novels I'd read to distract myself on long commutes. The overworked salaryman dying and waking up in a magical world. Except this time… it was me.
The pain in my side throbbed in protest. Real. Too real.
I reached toward the screen cautiously, but it vanished before my fingers could brush it. My breath came in shallow pants.
"Okay," I muttered. "Deep breaths. Figure it out later."
But I didn't get the luxury.
Something snapped in the woods behind me.
I froze. Every muscle in my body locked in place. Leaves rustled. Twigs cracked.
Then came the sound that sent a bolt of instinctive terror down my spine—a low, primal growl.
Slowly, I turned.
Eyes. Crimson. Glowing like embers in the dark.
A beast stepped forward, moonlight catching the sheen of its matted black fur. A wolf—but larger than any normal predator. Its shoulders easily matched my chest in height, and its teeth were bared in a cruel, hungry grin.
I didn't need a prompt from the System to understand.
I was being hunted.
My heart raced. My body screamed at me to run, to hide, to survive—but I couldn't move. My limbs were paralyzed by fear, and the creature could sense it.
It lowered itself, muscles rippling.
Then something moved—a blur between me and the beast.
A boy.
No older than ten, wielding what looked like a carved stick in both hands. No... a wooden training sword. His eyes were wide with panic, his breaths shallow. But still, he stood his ground between me and death.
"You idiot," I whispered, too stunned to move. "You're going to get yourself killed…"
And then, I moved.
I didn't think. Instinct—or maybe some leftover human decency—took over. I surged forward and yanked the wooden blade from the boy's trembling grip.
The wolf snarled, sensing the challenge. Its muscles coiled.
Ding!
_______________________________
[Weapon Equipped: Crude Wooden Sword]
[New Action Unlocked: Weapon Combat Basics]
[Do you wish to use the Element of Wind?]
(Yes) / (No)
_______________________________
---
My mind reeled.
Wind? What did that even mean?
The wolf didn't care.
It lunged.
I had no time to think. No time to calculate.
I chose Yes.
And everything changed.
The instant I chose Yes, I felt something awaken inside me.
It wasn't magic in the way I imagined—no swirling circles or sparkly effects—but something deeper. Primal. As if the air itself had been waiting to answer my call.
A rush of wind exploded beneath my feet.
Suddenly, the world slowed. The wolf's leap, mid-air and terrifying, seemed sluggish—like a raindrop frozen in time.
And I moved.
My body, just moments ago heavy and sluggish, now responded like it had been trained for this. The wind coiled around my limbs, guiding them, sharpening them. I ducked under the beast's claws and rolled to the side, barely dodging the fangs that snapped inches from my face.
My heart hammered in my ears.
I wasn't a warrior. I was a damn accountant.
But my body didn't care.
I pivoted on one foot, channeling momentum through the crude wooden blade. My strike, clumsy and unrefined, connected with the side of the wolf's snout.
CRACK.
The beast reeled—not because the hit was powerful, but because it hadn't expected resistance. I took the opening and jumped back, breathing hard.
"System," I hissed. "Is there a damn tutorial!?"
No reply.
Figures.
The wolf circled, low to the ground, blood trickling from its mouth. Its eyes were more furious now than hungry.
Beside me, the boy had fallen on his rear, staring at me in disbelief.
"You…" he gasped. "You used wind…"
I didn't answer. My focus was on the wolf.
No way I could take it in a straight fight.
The sword was garbage. I had no armor. And I was running on borrowed time—whatever boost the system gave me wouldn't last forever.
But the wind…
I closed my eyes for just a second and reached inward. The moment I focused, I felt it again—an invisible thread spiraling through my body. A current, waiting to be pulled.
I tugged.
The wind surged again, wrapping around my legs like a living thing.
The wolf charged.
I ran to meet it.
My feet barely touched the ground. My body was light, carried by unseen hands. At the last second, I leapt—using a rock as a springboard—and spun in the air.
THWACK!
The blade connected with the side of the beast's skull. This time it yelped, stumbling sideways.
"Come on," I muttered. "Just fall already…"
It didn't.
The wolf snarled, then lunged again, ignoring its wounds.
Too fast.
My body couldn't keep up. The adrenaline was fading.
Then—
A streak of light flew past me.
A stone—glowing faintly—struck the wolf's flank and burst into a flash of green fire. The creature howled, this time in real pain.
A second figure appeared—taller than the boy. A girl, maybe fifteen, dressed in worn leathers and holding a sling. Her face was sharp, her expression focused.
"You're not from around here," she said, already loading another shot.
"Understatement of the year!" I shouted, stumbling backward.
The wolf turned on her, but she was faster than she looked. The sling snapped again, and another blast of light exploded at its feet.
The beast hesitated.
Then, with a final snarl, it bolted into the forest, tail between its legs.
Silence fell like a blanket.
My knees buckled. I collapsed onto the dirt, the wooden sword slipping from my hands.
The wind was gone. The strength, gone. All that was left was exhaustion.
And fear.
The girl approached, glancing once at the boy to check he was unhurt.
He nodded, wide-eyed, still sitting in the mud.
Then she looked at me.
"Who are you?" she asked, voice cautious but not unkind.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. What the hell was I supposed to say?
"...I don't know."
She narrowed her eyes. "Are you cursed? An escapee from the Tower?"
I blinked. "What?"
The boy spoke up. "He used wind, Ryn. But… weird. Like the mana listened to him too easily."
Ryn. So that was her name.
She stared at me a moment longer, then sighed. "Great. Another wild variable."
Before I could ask what that meant, the system chimed again.
---
_______________________________
[Combat Complete.]
[Experience Gained: 50]
[Proficiency Unlocked: Wind Affinity – Beginner Lv. 1]
[New Stat Unlocked: Mana Sense – Dormant]
_______________________________
---
I exhaled slowly.
So this was real.
Not a dream. Not a coma.
Real.
I didn't know how or why I was here—but the rules were different, and I had no choice but to follow them.
Adapt or die, the system seemed to say.
I sat there a moment longer, staring at the forest edge where the wolf had disappeared.
And for the first time since waking up, I felt something stir beneath the fear and confusion.
A flicker of something… dangerous.
Not anger.
Not joy.
Excitement.
---
We walked for a while after that—through winding trails under canopies of glowing trees and whispering leaves. I'd never seen a place like this before. The plants looked half-alive, the air rich with something invisible but tangible.
Mana, they called it.
The boy's name was Cael. Ryn's younger brother.
They were orphans, apparently. Survivors of a nearby village that had been overrun by "shades" weeks ago—whatever those were. They'd been hiding in the forest since, scavenging and staying off the roads.
"I don't get it," Cael kept saying, walking beside me. "The system never lets anyone awaken outside of a shrine. But you just... did."
"Trust me, kid," I muttered. "I don't get it either."
Ryn, walking ahead with her sling still at the ready, didn't speak much. She clearly didn't trust me—but she didn't abandon me either.
Eventually, we stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking a wide valley. Nestled between two mountains, glowing in the distance, was a strange-looking tower made of stone and metal.
"That's the closest settlement," Ryn said. "Lower Ring of Halron. You'll be safe there... maybe."
I stepped closer to the edge.
The world before me stretched endlessly—fields, forests, rivers that shimmered with color. Creatures I couldn't name moved in the distance, their silhouettes monstrous.
None of it felt like Earth.
And yet, as strange as it all was, it felt…
Free.
I glanced down at my hands. They were still shaking, slightly.
I had nearly died. Twice.
But I had survived.
Somehow, I'd tapped into something inside me—something that didn't exist in my old life. A force that listened when I called.
The system.
The wind.
And with that realization came a question that would haunt me more than any wolf or monster:
What else was I capable of?
_______________________________
[Status Screen Updated]
Name: [???]
Class: Unknown
Level: 1
Element Affinity: Wind (Beginner)
Health: 70/100
Mana: 25/25
Skills: Weapon Basics, Wind Surge
Traits: ??? (Locked)
Title: None
[New Objective Added: Survive and Unlock Class]
_______________________________
---
I stared at the floating screen, heart pounding.
In my old world, I was a ghost in a suit, just another name on a spreadsheet.
Here…
Here, I might become something else entirely.
And I wasn't about to waste that chance.