Noah blinked, still making fantasies of pizza, when a faint chime echoed in his mind.
It was clean. Precise. Professional.
[Welcome, Noah.]
The words appeared in neat, crisp letters — like an engineer's dream of a digital .
[Information Noah Reed]
[Name: Noah Reed]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 1]
[Age: 18]
[Class/Job: Engineer]
[Status]
[Currently Mildly Confused]
[Perfectly Healthy]
[Skills]
[None]
Noah raised an eyebrow. "...Huh. Simple. Efficient. I like it."
It was like getting a new phone and finding the manual already bookmarked.
Meanwhile, sitting on the grass a few feet away, Emily had just taken a sip from her cola bottle when her own chime came. Except hers was… different.
It sounded like an overly enthusiastic ringtone that belonged to a hyperactive talk show host.
[Hello hello!]
Emily froze mid-drink. "...What?"
[So do you want me to tell you your name? Oh no need to answer, you're Emily Cross!]
[You're 18, you're more confused than Noah, you're a female, your job is a Scientist because you were a Scientist in the previous world…]
[Oh! And you've been Isekai'd, but you already know that, right?]
[You have no skill blah blah blah, moving on—]
Emily spat out her cola. "Blah blah blah?! Excuse me?!"
Noah glanced over, baffled. "What's wrong with yours?"
Emily pointed at the air in front of her. "Mine's… mocking me. It's judging me."
The voice in her head kept going.
[You're currently sitting on grass. The temperature is pleasantly warm. Your facial expression indicates mild irritation mixed with disbelief.]
Emily's eye twitched. "Are you—reading my face?!"
Noah stifled a laugh. "So… you got the sarcastic AI assistant."
"I don't want the sarcastic AI assistant!" Emily flailed her arms. "Yours looks like it was programmed by NASA. Mine feels like it was programmed by a bored Y*uTuber!"
The voice was unfazed.
[Correction: not bored. Hilarious.]
Emily groaned and dropped onto her back. "Kill me now."
Noah, true to his job title, started prodding his system with methodical curiosity.
"System, list possible commands."
[Available commands: Status, Skills, Inventory, Map, Analysis.]
Noah nodded. "Efficient."
Emily tried the same. "System, list possible commands."
[Oh, now you want my help?]
Her left eye twitched again. "Yes."
[Status, Skills, Inventory, Map, and—oooh—Experiment Log, that's fun.]
"Experiment Log?" Emily perked up.
[Yes, it's like a lab notebook but cooler. I'll even add sarcastic footnotes.]
Emily slapped her forehead. "Why me."
Skills… or Lack Thereof
Noah checked his skills.
[Skills: None]
"Fair. Can't expect to start with rocket science."
Emily checked hers.
[Skills: None, but with your genius, maybe you'll invent something before you die.]
Emily's hands curled into fists. "This thing wants me to punch it, I swear—"
[Disclaimer: punching your system will not yield results.]
Noah chuckled. "I think I like your system more than mine."
"You would," Emily muttered.
Noah pulled up his map. A simple, elegant layout appeared — a top-down display with terrain markers and a blinking "You are here" dot.
Emily tried hers. Her map came with cartoonish icons, exaggerated trees with smiling faces, and a huge red arrow labeled "Danger Zone – Don't Go Here, Genius" pointing at the nearby forest.
Emily just stared. "...Why does my forest have a warning label?"
[Because you will ignore it otherwise.]
She slammed the invisible map shut. "Nope."
"Alright," Noah said, standing up. "If this is an isekai situation, we need to test the environment. Figure out resources, water, shelter—"
[Oh, responsible thinking. Level up in adulting achieved.]
Emily's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Wow, thanks, system."
[Anytime.]
...
They walked a little, keeping their half-empty pizza box tucked safely under Noah's arm. The grass was soft, the air smelled like fresh rain, and in the distance, the roars from earlier echoed again — low, guttural, and far too close to be ignored forever.
Noah's map flashed.
[Warning: Unidentified Hostile Lifeforms Nearby]
Emily's map cheerfully updated.
[Guess what? Monsters are like, super close! Wanna go say hi?]
Emily gritted her teeth. "No. No, I don't."
They reached a small rise in the land. From here, they could see the edge of the forest… and movement.
Large, shadowy figures shifting between the trees. Glimpses of jagged horns and heavy footsteps.
Noah's system quietly labeled them:
[Threat Level: Moderate]
[Species: Unknown]
Emily's system screamed into her brain:
[RUN, EMILY, RUN—oh wait, I forgot, you're stubborn.]
"Shut. Up." Emily hissed.
"Okay," Noah said, "first step is to avoid being eaten. Second step—"
"Find a way home?" Emily cut in hopefully.
"Second step," Noah repeated, "is to secure food, water, and shelter. Third step is to learn how this system works."
Emily folded her arms. "Fine. But the second I find a way home, I'm taking that pizza box and leaving."
[You mean you're taking me with you.]
Emily groaned. "No."
[Yes.]
Noah smirked. "You're stuck with it."
The forest roared again, this time closer. The wind shifted, carrying the scent of damp earth and… something else. Something sharp, metallic.
Emily's system chimed.
[Plot development incoming.]
Emily's stomach sank. "I hate you."
[Love you too.]
Noah tightened his grip on the pizza box. "Alright. Time to see if we can survive Day One."
The grass rippled under their feet as something moved just out of sight.
Both systems pinged at the same time.
[Incoming threat detected.]
[Uh-oh, here we go.]
They turned toward the sound — a deep, guttural creak, like wood groaning under a storm.
The trees ahead shuddered, then began to bend… not from the wind, but from something pushing through.
Noah's breath hitched. Emily didn't wait to find out what it was.
"Run."
They didn't need to agree. Instinct screamed louder than curiosity.
Leaves whipped against their faces as they bolted, the ground trembling faintly beneath their feet.
Whatever was coming, neither of them wanted to stick around long enough to see if it thought humans were on the menu.
...
They had been walking for what felt like days (It was an hour).
The sun hadn't moved much, but the heat was just enough to make Emily start regretting leaving the shade of the teleport spot.
She was also regretting the company inside her head.
[So! You've now asked, like, a million times why you got me instead of Mr. Serious Engineer over there.]
Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. "I asked once."
[No, you thought it a million times. Same thing.]
Noah glanced over. "Do I even want to know what it's saying now?"
Emily waved him off. "Apparently it's about to explain its… existence crisis."
[Not an existence crisis! A backstory. Pay attention. So—]
The voice somehow got louder, like it had leaned right up to her mental ear.
[I have never been able to get a host or user because no one was isekai'd into this world before. Not once. Not ever. Nada.]
Emily raised an eyebrow. "And now there's two of us?"
[Exactly! And the moment I saw you both, I thought: Ooooh, the engineer guy will definitely want to take me apart and figure out how I work. That'd be so much fun.]
Noah coughed. "Uh… thanks?"
[But then—twist of fate!—I ended up stuck with you. YAY! And we can't switch. Like, ever. But you know what? I don't care! I finally got a host! I'm so happy! HEHEEEEHEHEHEH!]
Emily stared into the middle distance. "…I think my system is insane."
Noah smirked. "Think?"
They kept walking. And walking.
The scenery didn't change much — rolling grasslands, scattered trees, and the occasional bird-like thing that looked like it wanted to bite your toes off.
By the time they spotted a cluster of small trees with bright red fruit, Emily's legs were protesting.
"Finally." She trudged forward. "Food."
Her system practically screamed.
[YO! YO! YO! YOU KNOW WHAT THESE ARE?]
Emily eyed the berries warily. "No…?"
[THEY'RE BERRIES THAT GIVE YOU SPECIAL EFFECTS!]
Noah perked up. "Like… healing?"
[Better! They increase your stat points by one!]
Emily narrowed her eyes. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. They're NOT called special effects."
[Pfft, thou have guts, thou try to refuse the system, whatever. Oh, that reminds me, I totally forgot to give you your stats!]
Emily stopped. "You forgot—"
[Shh. Okay, so: an average person has 10 in every stat, okay? So you, Emily Cross, have—]
The words appeared in her mind in big, neon letters.
[Strength: 9 — weak]
[Intelligence: 15 — genius]
[Dexterity: 12 — flexible]
[Charisma: 20 — OOOOH beautiful lady]
[Wisdom: 10 — unfortunately average, should've been 2 if we're being honest]
[Constitution: 10 — meh]
Emily's mouth fell open. "You did not just—"
[I did.]
Noah's system pinged calmly, like a polite butler arriving with a clipboard.
[User: Noah Reed]
[Strength: 15]
[Intelligence: 11]
[Dexterity: 12]
[Charisma: 12]
[Wisdom: 10]
[Constitution: 10]
Emily glanced between the two sets of numbers. "You're stronger than me?"
Noah shrugged. "You're prettier than me."
Her system butted in instantly.
[Oh, way prettier. And smarter. But not stronger. Or wiser. Honestly, your wisdom score is a miracle.]
Emily groaned. "I am not eating those berries."
[Suit yourself. I'm just saying, +1 Strength could save your life someday.]
Noah picked one, turning it over in his fingers. "If it's true, then stat boosts this easy would be worth testing."
Emily hesitated. "You really trust my system?"
Noah smiled faintly. "No. But I trust that your system likes chaos — and chaos is more fun when we're alive."