In a vast grass field with nothing in sight for miles, except a young man dressed in a black tunic soaked with blood and dark brown trousers, Rah sat on the ground. His head was tilted at a sharp angle, partly in shock and partly in disbelief at the sight before him—what could only be described as a ninja raccoon.
The creature was dressed head to toe in black ninja attire, its fur barely visible beneath the cloth. A scabbard jutted upward from behind its back. Standing side by side, Rah wasn't even sure he would reach its shoulders.
"Haaa…" From frying pan to fire… Rah lamented from the bottom of his heart.
"So, are you going to talk, or are you mute?" the raccoon ninja said nonchalantly, its voice absurdly deep and unsettling.
No—that was wrong.
The raccoon opened its mouth, and speech came out. That was the more accurate description.
"Are you here to hunt me as well?" Rah asked, thinking, at least he talks, maybe I can reason with him.
"That explains the blood on your clothes. Then, welcome to this story. I'm Cinis."
"By the way, I'm human… well, I used to be. Circumstances forced me to change into this."
"'This story'? What do you mean? Like a new mission or something?" Rah asked, confused. He began shouting in his head.
SYSTEM STATUS WINDOW.
No response.
"Huh…"
SYSTEM STATUS WINDOW… SSSYSTEM STATUS WINDOW… SYSTEM STORE.
"SYSTEM STORE… SYSTEM STATUS WINDOW!" He started shouting, panic crept into his voice, but there was still no response.
Cinis raised an eyebrow, still studying Rah.
"I hope you haven't gone mad. There is no SYSTEM here."
Bewildered, Rah replied, "No system? Have you tried it too? Then how do we complete this mission?"
Cinis stared at him like a statue.
"Kid, again, this is another story. From what I've heard, you were probably in a LitRPG world. But now, you're in a progression fantasy."
Without another word, he started walking away.
Did he just call me a kid? I'm twenty-three years old, dude…So I wasn't in a game. Wow, this virus is really weird…But this raccoon isn't surprised at all. I should get as much information from him as I can…
Seeing that Cinis was already moving far ahead, Rah got up and ran after him.
"Hey, wait for me!" Rah shouted.
As he ran, he couldn't help but notice—I'm healed… even my energy is back.
This translocation stuff is awesome… hehehe.
How I wish I could see those giants' faces. They hunted me for hours for nothing…
Hmm… I wonder, could i even have filled their stomachs? Considering their size… never mind, that doesn't matter anymore.
Lost in thought, he soon caught up to Cinis.
"Hey, is there a command to check your status in this story?" Rah asked.
"Yeah. Scan with your eyes."
"Ohhh… SCAN WITH YOUR EYES." Rah repeated, hoping for a prompt to fill his field of vision or perhaps a piece of paper should appear.
Nothing happened. Cinis looked at him, annoyance flashing in his eyes.
"Oh… you mean my actual eyes…" Rah muttered. "Then what about the store?"
This world felt strange without the crutch of the System—no floating windows or paper, no instant answers. He felt like a moron wandering through a forest of thorns.
Still trying to pry as much information as possible from Cinis, he attempted to start another conversation.
"You seem pretty experienced with all this," Rah said as he glanced around. The grass plain stretched endlessly.
They seemed to have climbed onto higher ground, and in every direction lay chains of rolling hills beneath a pale sky.
Receiving no response, he pressed on.
"Where are we going?"
"You mean where I am going," Cinis replied, glancing at him. "No one is forcing you to follow."
Huh…Rah fell silent.
This guy screams bad news… but I can't leave him yet. He was infected like me, so he must be a protagonist too. I just need information. If we find a town or people, I'll ditch him…No, don't jump to conclusions. Learn as much as you can about this world first before coming to that decision.
As Rah weighed his options, Cinis thought to himself: Unexpected… but useful. Still, I should keep an eye on him.
Suddenly, Cinis spoke.
"I've been stuck in this story for about thirty years."
Rah slowly pulled himself out of his thoughts.
"Sorry… what did you say?"
"I said I've been stuck in this story for thirty years."
"That can't be right. The virus outbreak only started last month." Rah responded, not believing what he had just heard.
So no time difference where you are from then…at most he had been a protagonist for a month....Cinis deduced. Then he finally says,
"Time works differently here, You'll learn that eventually."
He paused, then added,
"Now tell me, what kind of dilemma made you desperate enough to activate the thread breaker?"
"Thread what?" Rah asked.
"Thread Breaker," Cinis replied. "The crystal you used to translocate here."
"Ohhh. It wasn't anything like that. The system just gave me the option."
"Ohhh… then you were quite lucky. The cyst." He had already figured all these out, he was just confirming his theories and trying to pry into how strong and knowledgeable Rah was.
"Yeah, I was being hunted by these giants. I almost died."
Rah paused for a moment, then asked
"What is a cyst?"
"It's a countdown that completes at twilight," Cinis said. "It allows people like us to switch stories. In this world, it appears as a thunderstorm that lasts about ten seconds. In yours… I don't really know."
"You could have just teleported," he continued. "Or saved your progress. If you were really in a LitRPG, a couple of deaths shouldn't have been such a problem."
"Ummm… yeah. I only just started. I got the virus less than a week ago. I haven't even seen a checkpoint or anything of the sort."
"Figured." Cinis had finally confirmed all his deductions
Rah hesitated before asking, "You seem to know a lot about LitRPG stories. Have you been in one before?"
"Yeah," Cinis replied. "They have the advantage of information being handed to you by the system. But they're full of monsters and missions you can't refuse."
Rah sighed. "I just hope this world isn't as cruel as the one I came from. Are there people here?"
"You didn't even reach civilization in your story," Cinis chuckled, breaking his stone face for the first time since they met.
So he can laugh. Sadist, Rah muttered inwardly.
Cinis finally offered something useful. "Yes. There are people in this world. A lot of them."
"Where?" Rah asked immediately
No response.
And that was the end of the conversation.
Psychopath, Rah thought.
Minutes passed, and darkness fully fell—thick and absolute, swallowing the plains until even the distant hills vanished. Navigation would be nearly impossible for a human in such pitch-black night.
Cinis stopped walking. He sat down without a word.
Surprised, Rah said, "We're stopping here? Hmmm… can't a raccoon see well at night?"
Cinis didn't respond. Instead, something like a small raccoon with wings flew out of his stomach and hovered in the air as Cinis began to transform. From the raccoon-man who looked like he might snatch your valuables at any moment, he turned into a man.
A man with long black hair that almost made him look like a woman. Blue eyes that seemed to pierce straight through the mind. Sharp features that made him impossible to ignore once seen.
The flying raccoon suddenly turned into light and vanished. Throughout all of this, Rah stood with his mouth wide open.
"You told me you were once human, that your situation forced you into a beast," Rah accused, still shocked.
"Yeah, well, I didn't lie. I just had to keep my guard up back then," Cinis replied nonchalantly.
Even his demeanor had changed. His voice is so soft now… this guy is not someone to be taken lightly… Rah muttered inwardly as he also sat down on the grassy plain.