My breath hitched. The grass beneath me felt real. Too real.
I pressed my palm deeper into it, fingers curling slightly as though expecting it to glitch, to dissolve, to betray its existence.
It didn't.
"…What the hell…" I slowly pushed myself up, my legs unsteady, not from weakness, but from the disorientation crawling through my mind. A moment ago, I had been in the room. My laptop still warm from use. My phone buzzing with notifications that I didn't even care about anymore.
And now—
I turned in a slow circle. Endless fields stretched beyond what my eyes could fully take in. The green was almost unnaturally pure, untouched, undisturbed. No roads. No buildings. No wires. No signals.
No civilization.
A faint breeze brushed past me again, carrying no scent of smoke, fuel, or city life. The only thing he could notice that this was still earth or another version of it and nature. My chest tightened.
'Shit! Could this be a reincarnation just like the webnovels I usually read randomly online?' I thought inwardly.
"…No network." The realization came instinctively. My hand darted to my pocket. My phone was still there which I pulled it out quickly, tapping the screen. To my surprise, there was nothing. No signal, no data, no service. Even the time display flickered once before freezing completely.
"…That's not funny."
My voice came out lower now.
I looked up again, sharper this time, scanning the horizon as though expecting hidden cameras, some elaborate setup, a prank, anything that made sense.
"Alright… enough." My tone hardened.
"Whoever is behind this, come out."
Silence answered him.
The kind of silence that wasn't empty but complete. I clenched my jaw in frustration.
"This isn't possible…"
My thoughts began racing, pulling together fragments of logic, tearing them apart just as quickly. 'Kidnapping? No. There was no transition. No memory of movement. Simulation? Too real.'
Even the smallest sensations from the pressure of the ground, the subtle shift of air, felt beyond any system I had ever encountered.
"…A dream?" I shook my head immediately. "No. I've had better control than this." My breathing grew uneven.
For the first time since I arrived, panic began to creep in.
"Mum…"
The word slipped out before I could stop it. The grip on the phone tightened. My mother was waiting. Her voice. Her scolding. He had brushed her off like always. "I'll be back any moment from now." That was what I knew left my mouth.
A hollow feeling settled in my chest.
"…Simi."
Her voice echoed faintly in my memory.
Isn't it time we get married? I shut his eyes tightly.
"No… no, no…" This couldn't be it. I had built everything. From nothing. Every sleepless night. Every line of code. Every deal. Every sacrifice.
"I'm not staying here." My voice came out firm now, laced with desperation I didn't bother hiding. I looked up at the empty sky.
"Do you hear me?!"
"..."
I took a step forward, then another, as if movement alone could break whatever illusion this was.
"I don't know what this is. Some system, some experiment, whatever!" But send me back!"
"..."
Silence.
My teeth clenched with pure anger and confusion.
"I said send me back!" The words echoed faintly across the field, swallowed almost immediately by the vast emptiness.
His breathing grew heavier.
"I have a life there…"
I immediately fell on my knees about to give way to tears.
"…So this is how it is?" My teary gaze lowered to the ground. For the first time, I felt it clearly. Powerlessness. Something I hadn't experienced in years.
Back in the real world, there was always a solution. Always a system to break. Always a way out.But here, I had nothing.
"C'mon…think Anthony." I whispered inwardly and my mind immediately drifted to how webnovel MCs have something they called stats during reincarnation.
"System? Give me my location?" I asked.
[LOCATION: SECTOR 07 — THE VERDANT STATIC] [ZONE: BUFFER FRINGE — STARTER PLATEAU] [TIME: SYNCHRONIZING WITH LOCAL COSMOS…]
The smell of ozone was replaced by the scent of dew and ancient earth.
I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering against my ribs. "Simi? Mum?"
"..."
Only the rustle of wind through trees that looked too perfect, like high-definition renders.
"System! Log out! Alt-F4! Disconnect!" he roared at the sky. His mind raced back to the mansion, the dinner waiting for him, and the engagement ring he was finally ready to buy. He had just reached the peak. He was the King of Runtown. He had the girl, the wealth, and the legacy.
He couldn't lose it all now.
[NOTIFICATION: SESSION PERSISTENCE ESTABLISHED.]
[ATTEMPTING TO RUN EXIT_COMMAND... ACCESS DENIED.]
A cold, synthetic voice echoed directly in his skull.
[User Anthony K.J. Star, cease your attempts. Your previous biological coordinates have been archived. You have migrated to the Aethercode Realm.]
"Migrated? I'm not a file, you piece of junk! Send me back! I have a life! I have a wedding to plan!" Anthony's voice cracked. For the first time in a decade, the genius hacker felt helpless.
[The Aethercode Realm is the Root Source of all reality, the voice responded, indifferent to his grief.You cannot return until you have achieved System mastery. Face your current reality, Architect. To survive, you must first understand the Code.]
I slumped onto the grass. The weight of it hit me. This wasn't a game I could just shut down. This was a new server. A new life.
"Fine," I whispered, my eyes hardening into the cold gaze that had dismantled bank firewalls. "If it's a system, it has a UI. Show me my stats."
[INITIALIZING STATUS WINDOW... LOADING ASSETS...]
•USER PROFILE: ANTHONY K.J. STAR
•CLASS: [UNASSIGNED / NULL]
•LEVEL: 1
•HP: 50/50
•MP: 10/10
•STR: 4
•AGI : 6
•INT: 180 (ERROR: STAT EXCEEDS •LEVEL 1 LIMITS)
•LUCK: 0]
SKILL NAME TYPE STATUS
[•SCOUT_V0.1 (Passive) Data Mining ACTIVE 0 MP: Automatically scans entities within a 5-meter radius for Name, Level, and rank.
•INSPECT_OBJECT DEBUGGER READY 2 MP: Analyzes a non-living item to reveal its Material Code and durability.
•LATENCY_BURST EXPLOIT |LOCKED| 15 MP Required. (Level 5): briefly lags the movements of a single target for 0.5 seconds.
•VARIABLE_TWEAK MODDING UNSTABLE 50+ MP]
"Five HP? Level one?" I stared at the screen. 'Compared to the gods he used to hack in a game, he was just a bug. A literal insect. The high Intelligence was the only thing flickering in gold, but without the Physical Processing (STR) to back it up, he was a glass cannon with no cannon.
[In this realm,] the System explained,
[Power is determined by one's rank. From the lowly Unranked to the High-Teir Nobles who possess Admin Privileges, the hierarchy is absolute. Your current Rank: (F-RANK SCRAP)] The system said as if mocking him.
"Scrap, huh? We'll see about that."
I stood up and began to scout the area. I noticed I wasn't in a forest,but was in a clearing overlooking a massive valley. In the distance, I could sight a city that looked like a fusion of a medieval fortress and a circuit board. Massive towers of white stone were etched with glowing blue lines of mana.
I moved toward a dirt path and spotted a group of travelers. I stayed in the shadows, using my eyes like a scanner.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: SCOUT_V0.1 (BETA)]
I watched as a carriage passed by. It was guarded by men in silver plate armor, but the armor pulsated with a digital rhythm.
Guard 1: [LVL 15 - SOLDIER]
Guard 2: [LVL 18 - ELITE GUARD]
Inside the carriage, I caught a glimpse of a woman with hair like spun silk, wearing robes that glowed with a terrifying amount of data.
Target: [LVL 45 - NOBLE_ADMIN_BLOODLINE]
"A level 45... and I'm at 1," I muttered; realizing the world was built on a brutal caste system. The Nobles weren't just rich but they were literally higher-level code. They had access to better software (spells) and hardware (artifacts).
I reached out to touch a nearby tree. Instead of feeling bark, I felt a faint vibration. Suddenly, I closed my eyes, focusing my mind as if I were staring at a terminal.
If this is the Aethercode Realm... then every leaf, every guard, and every noble is just a line of code.
I tried my first active hack. I didn't try to fly or kill. But instead, I targeted a small pebble at my feet.
[Command: [Rename: Pebble -> Explosive_Fragment_Beta]
[WARNING: INSUFFICIENT PERMISSIONS!]
[MANA COST: 500 | CURRENT MANA: 10]
I winced as a migraine spiked through my brain. The system was too strong for me right now. I was a master hacker trying to break into a supercomputer using a calculator.
"Okay," I smirked, wiping a bit of blood from my nose. "So I can't rewrite the world yet. But I can read it. And if I can read it, I can find the bugs."
I watched the Noble's carriage disappear toward the city. In Runtown, I started with nothing and became a billionaire. Here, I would start as scrap and become the root user.
"Wait for me, Simi. I'm coming home. I just have to format this world first."