Slowly, I opened my eyes.
Then closed them again.
An old habit of mine.
Whenever I wake up, I immediately close my eyes again. Why? Simple. To continue a sacred ritual. A ritual long forgotten by modern society. Especially in Japan.
Only a rare and highly disciplined group of chosen individuals still practice it. A secret tradition passed down through generations… a technique requiring immense dedication, mental focus, and absolutely zero productivity.
I call it:
"The Sleeping After Waking Up Ritual."
A noble art.
A beautiful art.
A completely necessary art.
Some fools claim it is just "going back to sleep for five more minutes." But those people lack vision. They cannot comprehend the complexity of this ancient practice.
Sadly, today… I was unable to complete the ritual.
Because the moment my brain started working again, the memory returned.
The door.The light.The cold.
And the darkness that swallowed me whole. My eyes snapped open. I stared upward at the ceiling.
…Except it was not a ceiling.
Above me stretched a vast blue sky, scattered with small drifting clouds that failed to block the warm light of the rising sun. A few thin branches hung overhead, their leaves swaying gently and stealing pieces of the sky from my view.
Squinting against the sunlight, I slowly pushed my upper body up from the ground.
A sudden black screen appeared in front of my eyes. Floating in the air.
Two sharp, almost sinister eyes blinked open inside the darkness, followed by a crooked smile that stretched across it. The face lingered for only a moment before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
I blinked.
"...Was that some kind of screen effect or something?"
I scratched my hair absentmindedly. Another old habit.
Before I could think further, the black screen returned. This time it was clearer. Cleaner.
Words appeared on it.
My name.
Right beneath it, a small arrow pointed downward, pulsing gently as if urging me to press it.
"What am I supposed to do…?"
I stared at it for a moment.
Then shrugged.
"Well… obviously I'm going to click it."
The moment I reached out and tapped it with my finger...
Ping!
A bright sound rang out, and a voice suddenly echoed in my mind.
At the same time, lines of information began flooding across the screen.
"just as i thought"
This was the system that appeared after reincarnation. Just like in the novels.
Honestly… I was not even surprised.
A long time ago, I lost the ability to feel excited about anything. Life had drained most of the color from my emotions, leaving everything dull and gray. So seeing a floating system window after apparently dying and waking up in another world did not shock me as much as it probably should have.
It was fine by me.
My eyes moved to the name displayed at the top of the screen.
"Elias Roudef," I read quietly.
"...Is that my name?"
Below it, lines of information were neatly arranged, glowing faintly in the air.
Name: Elias RoudefGender: MaleEthnicity: Human
Power: 14Endurance: 8Magic: 2 (+1) updatedMana Sensibility: extremely High
Blessing: Giving All by the *******, according to the reference of Chapter **/****
Skills:
• Origins of Magic
stared at the screen for several long minutes, reading the information again and again as if it might suddenly change if I looked long enough.
I let out a long sigh as I pushed myself up from the ground, brushing the dirt off my clothes. My eyes wandered across my surroundings, trying to make sense of where I had ended up.
Trees.
Grass.
Open sky.
Just as I was about to take a step forward, another ping echoed in the air. The floating screen flickered, and a new line of text appeared.
Mission: Save the weak | May the blessing of ******* be with youPenalty for failing: Death
I stared at it.
"…What?"
The words had barely settled in my mind when a loud scream suddenly tore through the air from my left deep inside the forest.
I froze for a second, then took a deep breath.
There were still too many things I did not understand. The system, this world, the mission, even my own situation.
But one thing was very clear.
I did not want to die again.
Not before I figured out what kind of world I had been thrown into.