01 - It wasn't a dream...!?

The temperature was neither too hot nor too cold with the wind gently blowing bringing forth a pleasant sensation. And yet, the damnable sunlight ruthlessly piercing through the sleeping man?'s eyelids is ruining the pleasant dream he may or may not be having.

(Hmm....? Wait a goddamn minute... wind and sunlight?!)

With a start, the man? shoot up from his sleeping position and promptly froze at what he was seeing or rather, not seeing. The lifeless gray ceiling, walls full of anime/gaming posters, and PC he uses to do *cough*research*cough* inside his one bedroom apartment are now replaced by a vast open field. Beneath him was no longer his comfy bed and soft pillows but are dirt and grass. To his immediate right was a crystal clear lake undisturbed by civilization. To his left was an endless sea of greens, greens, and even more greens!

O.O

"Wut...? Okay, what was the last thing I did before ending up here? If I remember correctly... I just came home then decided to have a little smoke while checking my phone? And now I'm here..."

.

.

.

"The hell!!" (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

"Ugh, I still don't know how I got here. Hmph if I can't remember then forget it but for awhile now I've been having this strange feeling that something isn't right... like everything's higher than they should be and my voice... is a bit higher than usual...?"

Suddenly, he thought of something and ran towards the water and checked his reflection. Further thoughts flew away afterwards as he caught sight of his reflections. What stared back at him was not the face he usually sees every morning in his bathroom mirror. What used to be brown buzz cut hair, is now a jet black long flowy hair that reach down his neck with long fringes that goes past his eyes. A face of elegant indifference is adorned on a healthy jade like skin that could arouse the jealousy of any women. What is now staring back him is not the man he used to be, but the face of a boy 13-14 years of age. The most striking feature however, almost as if glowing, were the wine red eyes with slitted pupils staring back him unblinkingly. Those were the eyes that gives off a feeling danger yet a strange attraction if you were stare directly at them. You can't help but feel both fear and awe when one look into the eyes of an apex predator.

._.

A minute passed by in silence... then two... not until 5 minutes later did he start panicking but soon a trickle of memory finally surfaced in his mind.

**********************************************************************************************************

Back on old boring Earth, a man in his late 20s stood by an open window in his room with a lit cigaret in one hand and his phone the other looked as if life itself betrayed him.

"Damn it, another author dropping their novel in the guise of going on a break... Fuck if you're gonna drop it then just say so! Not this roundabout bullshit =_= And what's the deal with people posting only one chapter and just disappear forever!!?--sigh--"

As the man was still cursing said author in his mind, a ripple appeared silently in the sky right above his apartment a small, eerily glowing object the size of a fist was ejected and flying straight at him. Unfortunately for this guy, he didn't notice all this happening as he was still glaring at his phone like it owed him money. The soon to be unfortunate? otaku looked up at the last second just as the speeding object was about to reach him alas, it was too late as it slammed straight into his head. His world turned black and he knew no more.

An indeterminate amount of time later, he was woken up by a sound, one that he would later come both hate and love, which startled him awake.

*DING!*

"Ugh. wha..? What happened to me? Ehm...?"

In front of him is a very familiar sight of a game window. It was a blue squared window with a string of characters which brought him naught but bewilderment.

[Please enter term of endearment]

=_=.....after a moment of silent contemplation, "Fuck, must've been the moldy bread from this morning. Eh what the hell, why not? Uh how do I do this? There's no input keyboard... maybe with my thought...?" (Fang Lin)

*DING!*

[Name accepted. Do you wish to modify your appearance?]

._.

"Is this a game's character creation screen or something? Sure... I got nothing better to do anyways."

After what seems like hours going back and forth in the almost endless customization options, he sighed in satisfactions after the finishing touch. Giving his hard work one last look, he confirmed his decisions then with no warning, his vision starts fading again.

**********************************************************************************************************

With one last thought, he promptly fell to his knees.

"What the hell?! I thought that was just a dream!? Did I really die...? Just like that? Haha...."

With a hollow laugh filled with bitter helplessness, tear drops began form and ran along his cheeks. The faces of family and friends along with their shared memories began surfacing one after another.

Abruptly, he started to crazily stomp his foot on the ground and bellowed out endless profanity towards the heaven. Finally after using up every swear words in every languages he knows, he calmed down a little.

"Phew that was more soothing than I thought. Now then... looking at where I am, it's... more than likely I'm not on Earth anymore if those novels I've been reading are anything to go by. Hold on a sec...maybe?" (Status!)

.

.

.

"Nothing...?" he said with a frown.

"No, let's keep trying. STATS! OPTION! CHARACTER PAGE! OOOOOPEN! hu..hu..huu damn is any other commands I haven't thought of yet...? MAIN MENU!"

*DING!*

[Scanning immediate surrounding...done. Calibrating System to match Host's current locale...done]

[After opening the 'Menu' for the first time, Host can now directly navigate to the desired option.]

[(1) Status]

[(2) Summon]

The corner of his lips unknowingly started twitching, he thought (So I do have it after all...)

"Huhu... Hahaha... WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! WOOOHOOO!!"

Like a crazy person, he started jumping around in sheer happiness.

"Oops, guess I got too happy. No one... should have saw that right...? ---Phew--- Good thing I'm in the middle of nowhere. Though I guess that dream wasn't a dream after all... and why are there so little options? Shit, don't tell me I drew the short end of the stick when it comes to the system? I'm not going to have to shout that out loud every time right? Let's see..."

With a thought, he "clicked" the first option with his figurative finger.

*DING!*

***************************Status***************************

Name: Fang Lin

Title: "None"

Lv: 0 (0%)

Tier: "Mortal"

Traits: "Serene Mind"

Skills: "None"

Bloodlines: "None", "None"

Equipments: "None"

Items: "None"

Summons: "None"

AP: 0

EP: 0

IP: 0

UP: 0

************************************************************

Before Fang Lin could utter a word, he was interrupted by the system alert.

*DING!*

[For the first time operating the system, Host is awarded 1000AP, 1000EP, 1000IP, and 1000SP]

"I don't even know how much that's worth...? And Mortal? No shit, of course I'm a Mortal... but why aren't there any stats? Hm, Serene Mind?" Fang Lin tried probing it with his thought, and he wasn't disappointed."

*DING!*

[Serene Mind: boosts ability to resist negative mental effects and increased mental adaptability]

"Huh... no wonder. I thought it was a little strange that I could accept my situation so easily. Seems I can still get overwhelmed by mental trauma but I can get over them a whole lot faster. It's like a completely watered down version of the [Gamer's Mind]. Fucking knew it... drew short end of the stick. Well better than nothing I guess...Oh yeah wasn't there was another option?"

(Summon!) thought Fang Lin.

*DING!*

[(1) Ability]

[(2) Equipment]

[(3) Item]

[(4) Unit]

"Hmm... I can understand the 1-3 but Unit? You're not going to tell me I can summon people right? Well before that, let's just go through all of them one by one."

**********************************************************************************************************

Unbeknown to him, a pair of golden eyes full of intelligence, hidden beneath the nearby shrubberies, started watching ever since he's woken up. There was no malice in those gaze however, only a slight wariness and a tiny hint of curiosity. Though not the first human it's encountered, this is the first time it's such a weird one. This human is funny... it thought as Fang Lin's every single movement as he went through his tirade.