The dream haunted him again, as it always did. Heavy rain, a wet city park, and Yui's tear-streaked face, uttering a soul-cutting vow. "In every step you take and every love you embrace, remember—no happiness will ever stay with you." Those words echoed, cold and piercing, even as his consciousness began to pull away from the darkness of sleep.
Reinh groaned, his head feeling as heavy as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer, just like after an all-night grinding session in front of his computer screen. His body was incredibly weary, every joint screaming in protest. The thick scent of wet earth and the pungent aroma of pine needles assaulted his nostrils, so real, so foreign—in Tale's of Aurora, the game he played on his PC, forests only had a generic "forest" scent described in text or, at best, presented through high-quality sound effects, never this detailed and strong. Slowly, he opened his eyes. It wasn't the dim ceiling of his room that greeted him, nor the glow of the computer monitor that faithfully accompanied him late into the night. What he saw was a canopy of dense green trees, towering high, pierced by the morning sunlight that shyly peeked through the gaps in the leaves swaying in the wind—a visual and environmental physics detail far beyond the ultra-settings graphics of any PC game.
He was lying on a stretch of damp grass, the cold of the ground seeping through his cream-colored shirt, which now looked shabby and torn in several places. His black trousers were caked with mud. Where am I? His mind was still foggy, trying to process this overly real sensation. For a moment, cold panic gripped him. Could he have died in his sleep from exhaustion? Too many restless nights, too much caffeine, too much pressure to break through level 91 in Tale's of Aurora.
With great effort, Reinh tried to get up, leaning his body against a large tree with rough bark that felt real and fibrous under his palm—not the smooth, repetitive 3D texture he was used to seeing on his monitor screen. He looked around. A dense forest stretched as far as the eye could see, the types of trees feeling familiar yet different at the same time. This… this is like Oakwood Forest near Sekandaya Port, the starting town in Tale's of Aurora. But why is it so real? The sunlight filtering through the leaves created a dynamic pattern of shadows on the ground with a complexity that his graphics card could never render in real-time.
Reinh touched his face. His hair felt longer and sticky with sweat and dew. He tried to access the game menu, a reflex ingrained after thousands of hours staring at the screen and clicking the mouse. His hand moved as if searching for a hotkey on the keyboard or clicking an icon on the screen. Nothing. Empty. The mental command to bring up the user interface—status bar, mini-map, inventory window—yielded nothing. There was no transparent display that usually appeared in the corner or center of his screen.
His heart began to pound. This was strange. Very strange. Could it be… he remembered the isekai novels and anime he often read and watched in between grinding sessions. Had he been transported to another world? Thrown into the world of Tale's of Aurora itself? The thought seemed ridiculous, yet the real sensations around him—the wind caressing his skin, the scent of the forest, the pain in his body—all supported that crazy possibility.
Nervousness began to creep over him. If this was truly another world, how could he return? Or… had he died in his own world and this was some kind of afterlife? The thought of death made him shiver. He tried again, more frantically, repeating the mental command to bring up the menu, pressing an imaginary escape key. The result was still nil. Even the hope of finding a logout button, his last resort, vanished.
"This can't be…" he muttered, his voice hoarse. Panic began to grip him more tightly. Could this be a very extreme game update? Or had the server been hacked and he was trapped in some kind of strange simulation? But, his level… he felt a strange emptiness within him, as if all the power of Luminere, the level 90+ Awakener with a nearly full skill tree and a lineup of legendary equipment, had been reset to zero. He hadn't felt this weak and vulnerable in a long time, not since he was a newbie desperately collecting copper coins in Tale's of Aurora.
If this was indeed the world of Tale's of Aurora, then his Key of Aura… As a Luminere, he had several Keys of Aura that he often used, although in the game they functioned more as temporary buffs or summons. He tried to recall the name of one of the Keys of Aura he relied on most for defense, an earth elemental spirit named Terra Minor. "Terra Minor, I beseech you, come forth!" he exclaimed, extending his hand, trying to feel the connection he usually felt when summoning the spirit in the game. Silence. No light particles gathered, no small rumble signaled the spirit's arrival. Only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves. He tried again, with the name of another Key of Aura he remembered, Sylphwing, a small wind spirit. The result was the same. Empty. No response. His Keys of Aura didn't appear. This further strengthened the suspicion that he was no longer in the game system he knew.
He remembered the basic skills he had mastered as a Luminere. With a little hesitation, he stretched out his hand, trying to focus the remnants of energy he felt, recalling the key combinations or spell sequences he usually used. "Ignis Minor!" he exclaimed, softer than he intended, using the name of a low-level fire skill. Miraculously, a small spark appeared in his palm, then grew into a fist-sized fireball, radiating a tangible warmth. However, the sensation was different. He felt energy draining from his body, a real physical exhaustion, not just a reduction in numbers on a blue MP bar on the screen. The fireball shot out and hit the tree in front of him, leaving a small scorch mark and the sharp smell of burning wood. It worked. But… this was strange. The process of casting a spell felt more complicated, requiring mental focus and more precise hand gestures, not just pressing '1' on the keyboard or clicking a skill icon.
He tried again. "Glacies Scutum!" This time, it took more effort. The air around him cooled, and a shield of transparent ice formed before him, emitting a chill that made his skin crawl. Again, a real sense of fatigue overcame him. This was no longer just pressing a button with a clear cooldown timer. It required concentration, energy, and felt so… physical. Previously, he could cast dozens of skills without feeling this tired, as long as his virtual mana potion supply was sufficient. Now, just two basic skills left him breathless.
"What's happening?" Reinh asked the emptiness of the forest. He walked aimlessly, trying to find signs of civilization or other players. This forest, though similar to the beginner area in Tale's of Aurora, felt wilder, denser, and the sounds within it were more varied—birdsong with complex melodies he had never heard from a game's sound effect library, the rustling of leaves blown by the wind in random and unpredictable patterns, the buzzing of insects at different frequencies, even his own footsteps on dry twigs produced sounds that were too clear and specific. There was no longer the epic or atmospheric background music that usually accompanied his adventures, only the silence of nature interspersed with natural sounds.
After walking for perhaps an hour, tripping over protruding tree roots (which in the game might have just been part of the ground texture) and avoiding thorny bushes that could actually scratch his skin and leave a stinging sensation (unlike game assets that were simply passed through without physical effect), Reinh saw a glimmer of hope. Thin smoke curled in the distance. Quickening his pace, he headed towards the source of the smoke. He found a small hamlet hidden among the trees, consisting of only three or four simple wooden huts with thatched roofs. Perhaps this is a hidden village like Elderwood Hamlet or Stillwater Village that I never found in the game despite exploring the map countless times.
A middle-aged woman with braided brown hair and a dirty apron was hanging clothes in front of one of the huts. Reinh approached cautiously. "Excuse me…"
The woman turned, her green eyes looking at Reinh with a mixture of curiosity and human wariness, not the fixed gaze of an NPC waiting for a player to interact to trigger a dialogue tree. "Yes, son? Are you lost?" her voice was friendly, but there was a note of caution. This is Elara the Fletcher, Reinh thought, the arrow-selling NPC in Sekandaya Port whose character model was quite detailed. But her face was more wrinkled, there were fine lines around her eyes that indicated age and experience, her expression was more alive and changeable, not stiff like the NPCs he usually encountered on his monitor screen.
"I… I think so, Ma'am," Reinh replied, still trying to process. "Where is this? Is this still part of the Sekandaya region?"
The woman smiled faintly. "You're far from Sekandaya, son. This is Oakhaven Hamlet. You must be very tired. Come, sit for a while." She pointed to a rough wooden bench near her hut.
Reinh hesitated for a moment, then nodded. He didn't have a single coin – his inventory was empty, no gold coins that he usually collected. His clothes were tattered. He must look like a beggar. "Thank you, Ma'am… Elara?"
The woman frowned, a genuine expression of confusion. "My name is Martha, son. Not Elara. Perhaps you're mistaken."
Reinh's heart pounded. Martha? Not Elara? But her face, her posture… almost identical to Elara's character model. He sat on the bench, his mind in further turmoil. Martha went into the hut and returned with a cup of water from an earthenware jug and a piece of hard wheat bread. The water felt cool and fresh, not like tasteless virtual water or just an icon in the inventory. The bread, though hard, had a strong wheat flavor and a distinct baked aroma.
"This is all I have, son. Eat up."
While chewing the bread, Reinh saw a puddle of water left from last night's rain near his feet. With a mixture of curiosity and anxiety, he looked down. His reflection in the water's surface startled him. His black hair, usually neatly undercut in the real world, had turned light brown, longer and matted, exactly like the hair color of his Luminere avatar, but it felt like real hair. And his eyes… his dark brown pupils now shone with an intense, bright yellow, almost like a cat's eyes in the dark—the eye color he had chosen for Luminere. This was no longer just looking at an avatar on the character creation screen or inventory screen. This was him, his body, changed. This physical transformation further added to his confusion and sense of unreality.
"Thank you very much, Madam Martha," Reinh said sincerely, accepting the food with trembling hands. Hunger suddenly gnawed at his stomach, a physical sensation far stronger than the hunger bar indicator that might exist in some survival games. He ate ravenously, while Martha watched him with a pitying gaze.
"Where did you come from? Your clothes… it seems you've been through some hardship," Martha asked gently, her voice full of a sympathy he had never heard from NPCs with limited and repetitive dialogues.
Reinh was unsure how to answer. Say he came from another world? Or from the PC game he played all night? That would sound crazy. "I… I don't quite remember, Ma'am. Everything feels hazy."
An old man with a long white beard and a simple carved wooden staff emerged from the next hut. His blue eyes, now dimmer with age and surrounded by wrinkles, looked sharply at Reinh. "Young man, you look like you've just wrestled with a Wilderness Grondal. Lucky you're still alive." Wilderness Grondal? In the game, it was a low-level monster easily defeated with a few mouse clicks and skills. But from the old man's tone, it seemed like a real threat that could take a life.
"Father, don't scare him," Martha chided. "He's lost."
The old man, who resembled Old Man Hemlock, the herbal gathering quest-giving NPC in the game who always stood in the same spot, approached. "My name is Barnaby. What's your name, son?"
"Reinh, Sir. Reinh…" He hesitated for a moment, then added, "…Luminere." His avatar name in the game, the only identity that still felt attached and held power in the world he knew.
Barnaby and Martha exchanged a look, an expression difficult to interpret, not just a limited NPC facial animation. "Luminere? That sounds… grand. But, welcome to Oakhaven, Reinh Luminere. Rest. If you wish, you can help chop wood tomorrow morning with my Ironwood Chopper—this is a real axe, not an item with stats—in exchange for food and shelter tonight."
Reinh nodded. No money, no clear destination, the offer was a blessing. That night, he slept on a slightly itchy and distinctly smelling straw floor in the corner of Barnaby's hut, his mind filled with questions. These NPCs… they weren't NPCs anymore. They were alive, had different names, families, and real emotions. They offered help without expecting quest items or experience points in return. This world operated by entirely different rules.
The next morning, after helping Barnaby chop wood with an axe that felt heavy and dull (not a special-effect axe like in the game that could increase strength), which left his hands blistered and heavily sweating, Reinh said his goodbyes. Barnaby gave him a little more bread and directions to the main road, which he said could take him to Sekandaya Port, though it would take a full day's walk. "Be careful on the road, son. This Whispering Woods is full of dangers if you're not vigilant. There have been reports of Shadowfang Wolves packs lately." Those names, Whispering Woods, Shadowfang Wolves, they were all in the game, but now spoken with a tone of real caution.
The journey to Sekandaya Port was long and tiring. Reinh passed through vast grasslands filled with wildflowers of colors and scents he could never have smelled through a monitor, and crossed a small river whose water was clear and bitingly cold on his feet. He saw several wild animals that resembled the low-level monsters in Tale's of Aurora—Forest Boars with longer tusks and fiercer eyes that snorted angrily when they saw him, Giant Spiders whose webs were sticky and strong when he accidentally touched them—but they looked more real, more threatening, and moved with animalistic instinct, not predictable AI attack patterns. He tried to avoid confrontation, realizing that without a complete skill tree, unlimited mana potions from the item shop, and the epic equipment he usually wore as Luminere, he was very vulnerable.
Towards a_fternoon, the large wooden gates of Sekandaya Port finally came into view in the distance. The port city looked exactly as he remembered it from the game: sturdy stone walls, towering watchtowers, and a bustling pier. However, as he got closer, small details began to feel different. Flags with an unfamiliar silver sea lion emblem fluttered above the gate, their fabric moving realistically in the sea breeze. The guards standing at the gate wore dull iron armor with different engravings that looked heavy, and their faces… some he recognized as the avatars of players from his old guild, 'Crimson Vanguard', or other players he often saw on the leaderboards. But their gazes were devoid of recognition, as if he were a stranger.
A blond-haired guard with a scar on his cheek, whom Reinh once knew as 'Sir Kaelen the Valiant', a tough knight from the rival guild 'Azure Dragons', stopped him. "Halt! Who are you and what is your business in Sekandaya Port?" his voice was firm and cold, no longer the friendly greetings between players or duel challenges that usually occurred through chat windows or emotes.
"I am Reinh. I am… an adventurer," Reinh replied, trying to sound confident.
The guard, Kaelen—or whoever he was now, perhaps named Captain Gareth or Sergeant Alaric—looked him up and down suspiciously. "Adventurer? You look more like a vagrant from the Misty Marshes. Where are you from?"
"I… from the forest. I got lost."
Another guard, a woman with fiery red hair formerly known as 'Lady Vixen the Sorceress', laughed cynically, her voice now hoarser and less arrogant. "Which forest spewed out someone like you? You carry no weapon, your clothes are tattered. Are you a spy from the Frostfell Ice Kingdom in the North?"
Frostfell Ice Kingdom? In the game, it was a notoriously difficult high-level raid dungeon, accessed through a portal. Now it was a real, feared kingdom?
"I am not a spy," Reinh said firmly. "I'm just looking for a place to rest and maybe… work."
After a brief interrogation and a cursory search (they found nothing on him, not even his virtual coin pouch), Kaelen finally allowed him to enter, but with a warning. "Don't cause any trouble, stranger. The law in Sekandaya Port is enforced with the sword Justice's Edge. Our eyes are on you."
Reinh stepped through the gate, his heart pounding. He was in Sekandaya Port, a city whose every nook and cranny he knew from the game map. Yet, everything felt foreign. The air was filled with the pungent smell of salted fish, sea salt, tar, and the clamor of merchants shouting their wares in a language he understood but with new local accents and terms, not just repetitive NPC voice lines. People bustled about, faces he partially recognized as player avatars, now living as calloused-handed fishmongers, stain-clothed artisans, sunburnt sailors, or simply ordinary townsfolk going about their busy lives. They laughed, argued, transacted, living their own lives, without any sign that they had ever been 'players' from another world who spent all night grinding or raiding bosses in front of a monitor.
He saw a young woman with braided blue hair, who used to be 'AquaMarine', a famous healer on his server. Now, she was haggling over the price of vegetables with a grumpy old merchant, her expression showing genuine annoyance. Beside her, a burly, heavily bearded man, formerly 'IronBeard the Unbreakable', the legendary tanker, was carrying a little girl who laughed merrily while holding a lollipop, his smile full of a father's warmth. They had families, lives, lineages in this Tierias.
Reinh walked towards the main square, where players used to gather to form parties or simply show off their latest armor sets on screen. Now, the place was filled with locals busy with their activities—children playing chase with real, joyous laughter, women gossiping near a well while carrying real buckets, and some street musicians playing unfamiliar yet melodious tunes on instruments made of wood and animal hide, producing beautifully flowing music, not looping background music. He sat on the edge of a stone fountain carved with a sea dragon, exactly like in the game, but now its water felt cooler and more refreshing when he dipped his hand in, and the green moss growing on its stones felt real and slightly slippery to the touch.
A cold, terrifying realization began to creep over him, piercing him to the bone. This wasn't a new patch. This wasn't a game event. This was a different reality. The world of Tale's of Aurora that he knew from his PC screen had become real, or he had been thrown into it. And more horrifyingly, only he remembered everything. Memories of his original world, of the game, of his identity as Luminere, the Awakener. The other players, his friends, his rivals… they had all forgotten everything, reborn as natives of this world.
The Keys of Aura—powerful guardian spirits that in the game were items or skills summonable from random map drops or item summoning scrolls to fight, provide various buffs, and follow players as light particles or mini-forms visible on screen—must now be wild entities, lost and purposeless after being abandoned by the players who were their "masters" or "summoners." They were manifestations of Tierias's celestial power or savage creatures from the dark realm of Pandemonium, which in the game's lore were bound to the Emissaries of Goddess Sifa to fight alongside them. Now, they were free, sentient, and possibly dangerous.
He was alone. Alienated. With memories that became a burden. He was The Last Awakener, the last of the Emissaries still conscious.
The emptiness that had been gnawing at his soul in the real world now felt even thicker in this dream world that had become reality. Yui's vow echoed in his ears again, as if finding a new stage to haunt him. Amidst the bustle of Sekandaya Port, Reinh felt more alone than ever before. What was he to do in this world without a system, where he was the only one who remembered the truth?