Ray awoke to the sound of rustling leaves and distant howls, the kind that sent a chill down the spine even when the source remained unseen.
He had managed to fall asleep beneath the tree's roots, using his jacket as a makeshift pillow.
His body ached with every movement, a painful reminder that this world didn't care whether he was new to it. His warehouse-hardened muscles were enough to carry him this far, but that wouldn't last long.
He would need food. Water. Shelter. Weapons. In that order. He had played enough survival games to know the basics, but games never came with this level of fear—or this much mystery.
The golden canopy overhead filtered sunlight down in thin shafts, painting the forest floor in shifting beams of warmth and shadow. Birds with sapphire feathers flew between trees that hummed gently when the wind passed through.
Everything was too beautiful to be real, yet dangerously unfamiliar.
Ray stood and rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the stiffness. His mind replayed the events from the day before—the sudden attack, the strange system-triggered ability, and the cryptic interface.
He summoned it again, focusing on the word.
"Status."
---
[Status Screen]
Name: Ray Tanaka
Race: Human (Foreign Entity)
Level: 0
Synchronization: 1.5%
Core Trait: Will of the Stray
Skill: Reactive Insight Lv. 1 (Cooldown: 22 hours)
Energy Reserve: 3/10
System Visibility: Hidden
Note: You are not recognized by this world's law of magic. Remain unseen. Grow quietly.
---
He frowned at the "Energy Reserve" line. That was new. It hadn't been listed before, and he had a gut feeling it mattered. He focused on it, and a tooltip shimmered into view.
---
[Energy Reserve]
Explanation: System abilities draw from an internal well of universal force. Recharge by resting, consuming local resources, or syncing with environmental nodes. Warning: Depletion leads to system dormancy.
---
So even the system had its limits. He would have to be careful not to waste that reserve, especially with abilities like Reactive Insight on cooldown for a full day.
His eyes scanned the area again, this time searching for what he now needed most: water. Food could wait, but dehydration would kill him long before hunger would.
A distant babbling sound reached his ears—northwest, maybe a few hundred meters away.
Ray grabbed a thick branch from the ground, fashioned a crude walking stick, and made his way toward the sound with deliberate steps.
The river was not wide, but its waters sparkled with an unnatural clarity, revealing smooth pebbles and darting fish beneath its surface.
Ray dropped to his knees and scooped the cold water into his mouth, sighing as it ran down his throat like something pulled from a dream. Then he paused. He'd drunk it without thinking.
No purification, no fire, no testing. But the system didn't raise any alarms. Maybe the world was different. Or maybe he'd just gambled with his life.
Still kneeling, Ray washed the dirt from his hands and face. His reflection stared back from the water's surface—unkempt hair, tired eyes, and a scratch on his cheek from yesterday's fall.
But behind that face was something else now. Not confidence, not yet. But purpose. And that was enough.
He stood and followed the river upstream, hoping to find either fruit-bearing trees, small game, or a better vantage point.
The terrain grew steeper, and after another hour of careful travel, he found a natural outcropping of stone that overlooked the valley below. What he saw made him freeze.
Smoke.
Thin spirals rose in the distance—too controlled to be from a wildfire. It was a camp, maybe a settlement.
Civilization. Ray's instincts split instantly. Part of him yearned to run toward it, to find others, to ask questions and learn what this world was.
But another part—the sharper part—remembered the system's warning.
> "System presence unknown to native inhabitants. Maintain secrecy at all costs."
He crouched behind a fallen log, staring at the distant smoke, weighing his options. Curiosity gnawed at him, but so did caution. If he wasn't supposed to reveal the system's existence, then whoever lived there might be dangerous—or worse, they might see him as something to exploit.
He needed information before risking contact. Slowly, methodically, Ray began making his way down the slope, using the trees for cover, staying hidden.
By midday, he had drawn close enough to see the village nestled in a shallow valley surrounded by wooden palisades. Smoke rose from small thatched huts, and people moved about in simple tunics and armor, carrying baskets or tending to animals.
No flying machines. No electricity. This wasn't a futuristic world. It was medieval—stone, wood, and muscle. A small watchtower stood at the gate, where two guards stood lazily with spears, talking and occasionally yawning. Ray kept low, heart pounding. He would not go in. Not yet.
Instead, he circled the perimeter until he found a dense cluster of trees and bushes just beyond the village's edge. There, he set up his temporary camp, hidden behind layers of foliage. As the sun dipped lower, he watched the villagers with growing fascination.
He saw no signs of magic, no strange powers—just people working, talking, and laughing. For a moment, it almost felt like something he could belong to.
Then the system reacted again.
---
[Synchronization: 3.0%]
Milestone Achieved: First Civilization Encounter (Observed)
Passive Effect Unlocked: Veil of the Outsider
> "The world sees you, but does not understand you."
Effect: Slight resistance to magical detection. Reduced suspicion when blending with local populations.
---
Ray raised an eyebrow. It seemed even observing had value. The system rewarded subtlety, not brute force. That suited him just fine.
He wouldn't barge into their world—he would study it first, learn its rules, and adapt. He would survive by being the quietest shadow in the forest, the name no one remembered until it was too late.
That night, he ate wild berries he had tested earlier and sharpened his branch to a spearhead. It wouldn't kill anything large, but it could defend him from small predators.
He didn't sleep well, too alert, too unsure. But morning came, and with it, a new resolve.
He would remain near the village for a while, watching, gathering information. He needed to know how they lived, how they fought, and what they feared.
Most of all, he needed to find signs of something—anything—that could explain why he was here.
Because the system was silent on that front. It had told him he was compatible. That no one else in this world had a system. But it never said why he had been chosen.
And Ray was determined to find out.
---