A soft breeze gently caressed the young boy's face. Sunbeams, breaking through the tree canopy surrounding his slumbering body, reflected across his face as his chest rose gently in sleep.
The air, thick with the scent of damp earth and unknown flora, carried a subtle, wild perfume.
The boy was clearly young, no older than 10. His medium-length black hair lay splayed across his face, revealing soft facial features that nonetheless held a sharp elegance.
His body was alarmingly skinny, not due to genetics, but rather severe malnutrition; he looked quite emaciated and dirty.
A low groan escaped his lips as his eyes fluttered gently and in quick succession, the haze of sleep slowly dissipating from his mind.
"Oh... that's a killer headache," he mumbled, his hand instinctively rising to press against his throbbing forehead.
"What the hell happened?"
Opening his eyes fully, he blinked rapidly, his mind struggling to reconnect with reality. As his vision cleared, he took in his surroundings, and his mouth fell open, gaping in sheer confusion.
Towering trees, their leaves in shades he couldn't quite name, loomed overhead, and the faint rustling sounds of unseen creatures echoed through the quiet forest.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked aloud, his voice sounding surprisingly small. He stood up slowly, a strange sensation washing over him.
Looking down, he noticed something fundamentally different about his body: his torso was shorter than he remembered, while his hands and feet were almost childlike in size. The cool, firm earth felt alien beneath his bare, slender soles.
Clenching his small hand open and closed, a sharp gasp escaped his lips. "Okay, this is either the weirdest dream, or I've turned back into a kid again."
His hand instinctively moved to his throat, clenching it in disbelief. The sound of his voice, foreign yet oddly enchanting and higher pitched than he was used to, startled him.
His heartbeat began increasing steadily; the foreign location and the bizarre situation he found himself in physically stirred a growing worry within his mind.
'Calm down!' he yelled internally, a desperate attempt to regulate his spiraling emotions.
He closed his eyes, took a deep gulp of air, held it for a couple of seconds, then exhaled, repeating the process for a couple of minutes until the frantic pounding in his chest began to subside.
Feeling the tension slowly leave his body, he opened his eyes once again.
Spotting a large wooden stump ahead, he walked over slowly, taking tentative steps to avoid tripping, before carefully taking a seat to assess the situation more calmly.
'Okay, one, this is a hyper-realistic dream,' he reasoned, even as he pinched his skin. The sensation of pain, a sharp sting, jolted him slightly.
'Not a dream. Then it's two: I've either been reincarnated, or I was part of a weird government science experiment.'
He put his hand in his pocket, searching around in hopes of finding his wallet or phone, either would at least make one of his wild theories more plausible.
'What's this?' he thought, his fingers brushing against a piece of paper. Quickly fishing it out, a glint of expectation and excitement sparked in his eyes.
Opening the folded piece of paper, his eyebrows furrowed in a complex mix of confusion, surprise, apprehension, and excitement. Each emotion cycled through him, growing more intense the further down he read.
{Hello Sol, I hope you're not feeling too confused since waking up.
I've written this letter at your request to give you enough information for your current predicament and to alleviate the worry you'd be feeling.
Yes, you asked me to do this.
Who I am is not important, but what I have done for you is.
You died, and in turn, we met.
Fortunately, I enjoyed our conversation enough to give you another chance in life. Now, more for my own entertainment, I offered you a couple of wishes. For reasons I won't write here, you made a unique request, and I've granted it.
The following is what you have requested.
Firstly, you pooled your wishes into something you once enjoyed from fiction: a System. The System will awaken once you've completed reading the letter in its entirety.
Secondly, you've been sent to a new world. This is a world I've chosen for you, as I thought it would be the best place to start. Where you end up will depend on your own efforts and the System.
Third, and the last request you asked of me, was to say this phrase: 'You don't want to remember the past. It's not worth the pain and heartache. Focus on the future.'
At that, I will bid my farewells.
Enjoy your new life, and if you work hard enough, maybe one day we will meet again.}
Clenching the paper in his hand, slowly crushing its pristine form and warping it, Sol stood up and began to pace in agitated anxiety.
The words about his past struck a nerve, a dull ache blooming behind his eyes, a sense of profound loss he couldn't grasp.
'Not a dream, not the same life I lived before, a new world, and a system? What the hell happened to me?' He fought the urge to dig deeper into the forbidden memories, forcing himself to focus on the immediate strangeness.
Slowly walking in a tight circle that began forming from his own footsteps, Sol sighed, more confused than before. Just as he was about to collapse back onto the stump, a faint, almost melodic hum vibrated in his ears.
The sunlight around him seemed to shimmer, and then, with a soft shiiing, a translucent blue panel materialized directly in his line of sight.
"God!" He yelped, jumping back abruptly, nearly tripping over his own feet in shock.
[System has now awoken. Welcome host, to the Monthly Gacha System!]
[Please say or think the words 'Information' to gain an understanding of the System, or 'Status' for your status screen.]
Sol's body trembled as he read the glowing panel, his eyes jumping wildly at the blinding white words displayed purely for himself. This was undeniably real.
'Uh, information?' He asked in his mind, cautiously.
[The Monthly Gacha System is based on typical Gacha Systems from fictional works in your previous life. Once a month you will be granted and able to draw a single Gacha, though you will also receive an additional draw on your birthday (the day you have awoken, so today). There are no tiers, tickets, or consumable points to gain more draws. Your prizes can range from basic items, to skills, powers, abilities, bloodlines, physiques, unique traits and more, from anime, manga and light novels, movies and TV shows.]
Sol's jaw dropped, his eyes wide as saucers as he devoured the information.
He choked on his own saliva, a sudden, exhilarating surge of disbelief and pure elation washing over him. The sheer magnitude of what he had been gifted was almost too much to comprehend, feeling utterly dream-like.
Though he held no memories of his past personal life, the vast ocean of fiction he had read and enjoyed in that previous existence was vividly clear in his mind.
"What conversation did I have with this being to be given this chance?" Sol whispered, the words barely audible as he collapsed onto the stump again. The energy he used to hold himself up simply dissipated at the System's appearance and the incredible revelation it brought.
Taking a deep, shaky breath, Sol spoke out slowly.
"System, can you tell me what world I am in?"
He sat there, waiting patiently for the mechanical, prompted response. After a couple of minutes of silence, Sol pursed his lips and shook his head, realization dawning.
"I guess it's just a System for the Gacha and nothing else." His voice held a hint of disappointment, quickly overshadowed by renewed excitement.
Shaking his arms and legs, Sol waited for the lingering tension to leave his body once again.
'Do my birthday draw, System.'
[Birthday Draw Initiated!]
[Searching database..]
[Fetching Gacha draw.]
[Congratulations for obtaining..]
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A/N: Hey all, I hope you enjoyed he first chapter. I left the draw blank, because I want your comments on what you'd like him to draw, I might take it into account!