Once I finished eating, I was ready to head out and finally see what this world had to offer. I traded the clinic's rough linen wraps for my own clothes: a T-shirt, hoodie, dark trousers, and sneakers. My stomach, which had been empty for far too long, settled into a quiet, satisfied hum after that simple meal of bread, cheese, and dried fruit.
I poked through the System and found a conversion option: system points to gold coins. This world's currency, presumably, or an elaborate way to make me feel rich right before robbing me blind. I converted 100 sp anyway, leaving me with 400 SP.
Walking around penniless in an unfamiliar world sounded like a fast track to disaster; at least now I had funds for shelter, food, gear, or bribes.
There was, apparently, an "Uninstall" option buried in Settings.
The universe really had the audacity to put my death button right next to the font settings.
Still, once I'd poked through everything the System had to offer, I felt, absurdly, ready toward whatever adventure was waiting.
I pushed through the clinic's heavy double doors and stepped into the morning light like a held breath finally released.
I stood on the threshold for a moment, letting the district wash over my senses.
Flocks of strange, iridescent birds darted between the timber eaves of a bakery across the lane, their chirps weaving through the steady clatter of iron-rimmed wagon wheels over cobblestones. A gentle breeze rolled down the street, carrying the warm, yeasty scent of fresh bread and roasted grains, a world away from the metallic tang of medicine and damp stone inside the clinic.
Across the lane, a woman in a violet headscarf handed a steaming pastry to a shy boy clutching her skirt. Nearby, an old man leaned his back against a lamppost, eyes blissfully closed toward the morning sun. People were laughing, haggling over crates of root vegetables, and calling out greetings.
It looked normal. That was the most disorienting part of all. My old world was gone, reduced to memories of sirens, fluorescent lights, and tiny high-rise apartments. For the first time, the truth settled deep into my chest, just a quiet, grounding weight: *I really am in another world.*
And so, I would live. Not by reaching backward for a life that had already slipped beyond my grasp, and not by spending this one pretending I hadn't lost it. Whatever had brought me here, second chance, cosmic mistake, some unfinished accident, I couldn't change it. The past was gone. This wasn't. So I would take whatever this was, and make it mine.
The clinic door groaned on its hinges. Jack stepped out into the sunlight, squinting against the glare. I'd left him inside, talking to the doctor who'd patched me up, it seemed they were finally done.
"Ready?" he asked, flashing an easy grin.
"Lead the way, captain"
We set out into the heart of the settlement, weaving through bustling side streets until the dense brick-and-timber architecture began to thin. The paved lanes gave way to packed dirt tracks, bordering open patches of green farmland on the edge of the district.
Jack led me through a narrow alley between two weathered storehouses, emerging behind a sprawling, rustic homestead. In the center stood an old barn with sagging rooflines, flaking paint, and a perimeter fence that looked like a stiff breeze could topple it.
"Here we are, our first stop. My grandfather's estate. And we're going to steal his horse."
I gave him a flat look.
"Why are we stealing your grandfather's horses again? We're going to get in serious trouble."
Jack glanced at me wearing a thoroughly unrepentant smirk.
"It's not stealing. It's borrowing transportation. Trust me, it'll make exploring the city ten times faster."
"Borrowing usually involves asking first."
"Well… I *did* ask. He said absolutely not. So, technically, we're just borrowing them on a temporary loan. We'll return them before sundown, no harm done."
Jack had clearly committed to the scheme.
An uncomfortable knot tightened in my gut at the realization that I was now an active accomplice in petty livestock theft.
Then again, I'd never ridden a horse in my entire life, and a reckless part of me was genuinely curious to try.
Not like I'd never stolen anything before. There was the Land Cruiser, stolen on a dare after a party, fully intending to return it before anyone noticed. Which I did, six hours later, tank full as a silent apology.
We crouched low, slipping through the morning shadows along the storehouse wall. Jack moved with the quiet, effortless confidence of someone who had snuck around these grounds a hundred times as a kid. We reached the perimeter fence, dropped down behind the weathered slats, and peered into the yard.
"Coast is clear," Jack whispered.
He vaulted the wooden rail with a single fluid motion. I scrambled over right after him, landing on the soft earth, and we ducked into the cool, hay-scented gloom of the barn.
The moment we stepped inside, the animals sensed us. Massive, muscular silhouettes shifted in their stalls, ears swiveling toward the intrusion. A low, vibrating snort echoed through the rafters like a warning.
"Take whichever one you like,"
Jack said as he went deeper down the central aisle toward the back stalls.
I stepped toward the nearest gate. Inside stood an enormous chestnut stallion, its muscular coat gleaming faintly even in the dim stable light. It watched me with large, dark, unnervingly intelligent eyes.
How hard can it really be to ride a horse?
I certainly had no intention of wasting points on a horse-riding skill. I'd watched plenty of westerns and historical dramas back home. You step in the stirrup, throw a leg over, grab the reins, and steer. Simple.
I reached out, unlatched the stall door, and took hold of the leather reins. The horse watched me with a stillness that I fatally misinterpreted as calm.
I set my foot into the stirrup, gripped the saddle horn, hauled my weight upward, and swung my right leg over its broad back.
I settled into the leather seat and let out a quiet breath. "Okay. I've got this."
The horse immediately proved that I did not, in fact, have this.
It let out a shrill, furious shriek, rearing violently onto its hind legs as if offended that a complete amateur had dared to touch its back. My stomach plummeted straight through the floorboards.
Before I could even yell for help, the stallion dropped its front hooves and charged directly at the exterior wall of the barn.
The weathered wooden planks gave way with a deafening crack. Timber snapped like kindling, raining splinters past my ears. A sharp edge grazed my cheek, a brief sting of heat I didn't have the luxury to process, as we blasted straight through the barn wall and exploded into the daylight.
My heart hammered in my throat. My hands locked onto the reins with a white-knuckled death grip, my palms slick with cold sweat. Wind whipped violently across my face, stinging my eyes and tearing the air right out of my lungs. Every bone-jarring stride sent a shockwave up my spine, rattling my teeth.
I had left Jack in the dust, destroyed private property, and was currently being hijacked by five hundred kilos of pure muscle and rage.
"Turn! Stop! Left! Right!" I bellowed, yanking the leather straps with everything I had.
The stallion didn't care. Every desperate pull on the reins only seemed to infuriate it further, straining my shoulders until the muscles burned. We tore onto a paved thoroughfare, scattering pedestrians left and right.
Faces blurred past in a smear of startled gasps and shouts, my own pulse roaring louder than the thunder of hooves beneath me.
Around the bend ahead, a heavy steam carriage turned onto the road, puffing thick gray smoke, while a young child stood playing near the edge of the lane directly in our path.
"Hey! STOP!" I screamed.
The stallion caught sight of the rumbling metal vehicle and slammed on its brakes, swerving hard to cut around the corner.
The horse stopped. My momentum did not.
I flew clean out of the saddle. Yet, by some miracle of pure panic, my fingers refused to release the reins. I hit the packed dirt hard, skidding across the stones, dragged behind the animal like a rag doll as it trotted around the turn.
"Wait! Wait! Stop moving, you crazy beast!"
The robotic voice sounded in my mind as I dragged through the dirt.
[Notice: Taming Feature detected.]
[This feature allows the Player to establish a bond with eligible creatures.]
"Then what are you waiting for? Tame it!"
[Request denied. Equestrian Skill required: 50 SP. Taming requires an additional 50 SP. Total cost: 100 SP.]
"I have to pay to not get trampled?!"
**\[ Correct.]**
I scrambled to my feet, digging my heels into the dirt and hauling myself back toward the stirrups before the horse could bolt again. The animal tossed its head, wild-eyed and ready to trample whatever stood in front of it.
I didn't want to burn more points, but pride wasn't worth my life.
"Whoa! Easy!" I hauled back on the reins with both arms, climbing back into the saddle as the stallion reared once more.
"Fine!" I'll pay for the Equestrian Skill and for the Taming feature!"
**\[Purchase successful.]**
*Ka-ching!*
**\[Balance: 300 SP]**
**\[Target Locked: Taming in
Progress...]**
**\[Confirmed — Equestrian Skill equipped.]**
Then the air hummed. Two wide, luminous rings of pale azure light blossomed into existence, one hovering a meter above the street beneath the horse's hooves, the other suspended over my head. They boxed us in, casting a sharp blue glow across the cobblestones.
For a heartbeat, the rings hung motionless, vibrating with a low, harmonic pitch.
Then they swept. Both rings slid along the stallion's frame, down its arched neck, across its shuddering flank, past the frantic kick of its hind legs, reading the beast like a high-tech scanner. They reached the base, reversed, and glided back up. Once. Twice. Three times, accelerating with each pass as the System locked onto its target.
At the center of the horse's chest, the rings halted and began to counter-rotate. The top ring spun clockwise, the bottom counter-clockwise, twisting the ambient light into a tight spiral.
*Clack.*
An audible sound echoed through the street, a deep, mechanical click, like a heavy vault tumbler snapping into place. It didn't come from the horse, nor from me. It resonated from the space between us, as though the System had physically reached into the animal's panicked mind and flipped a switch.
The glowing rings flared brilliant blue, then shattered into a cloud of sparkling motes that dissolved into the morning air.
**\[Notice: Taming successful.]**
The stallion's hooves struck the ground and settled. It stood perfectly still, breathing steadily, its ears flicking back toward me before pointing forward in total composure.
"Okay..." I breathed, wiping a streak of dust from my forehead. "That was actually pretty cool."
Then I looked down, and my jaw dropped.
The horse had completely transformed. Its rough chestnut coat had deepened into a sleek, midnight-black hide that swallowed the light. Its eyes burned with a soft, ethereal azure flame, the exact same luminous blue that now coursed through its mane and tail, rippling and dancing like cool fire in the breeze.
"Alright … Just pretend you're riding a magical war steed. Totally normal."
The stallion let out a low, resonant rumble from its chest, as if agreeing with the assessment.
The first box below the health bar was filled with an icon of a man riding a horse.
A flood of information rushed into my brain. It wasn't a memory, nor a sudden epiphany. It was pure, distilled data scrolling across my nervous system faster than thought: optimal center of gravity, posture alignment, tension thresholds for the reins, how to read the subtle twitch of shoulder muscle before a turn. I didn't learn it; it was simply *there*, like a drawer in my mind that had always existed and had finally been unlocked.
Hoofbeats echoed from the alley behind us, and Jack came sliding to a halt on a sleek gray mare with a white blaze down her nose. He stared at me, his eyes wide with utter bewilderment.
"Are you all right?!" he yelled, leaning over his saddle. "And... what in the world did you do to that horse?!"
"I, uh..." I cleared my throat, improvising rapidly. "I tapped into my abilities to calm it down. The appearance change is just... a natural magical side effect."
Jack's initial shock melted into pure, unadulterated awe. "Are you kidding? That looks incredible! It's like something out of a magical beast fairy tale!"
"Like… a unicorn," I said dryly, though my fingers were still locked securely around the reins.
"Better than a unicorn." Jack circled the horse like he was appraising a piece of art, not remotely noticing my white-knuckle grip.
From the sidewalk, several pedestrians stopped to point and whisper, their eyes wide as they took in the midnight-black steed with the glowing blue mane.
I leaned slightly toward Jack, lowering my voice. "By the way... I kind of demolished your grandfather's barn wall on the way out. I am not going to get arrested, am I?"
Jack blinked, then threw his head back and burst into a hearty laugh.
"Not a chance, That dry rot was going to collapse that wall by winter anyway."
He clicked his tongue and nudged his gray mare into a brisk trot.
"Come on, let's go some rounds through the city."
"Right behind you,"
I applied light pressure with my heels against the stallion's sides.
The black mount stepped forward instantly, moving into a smooth, effortless stride. My hips rolled with the gait automatically. My lower back absorbed the rhythm of its movement without a single conscious thought, and my shoulders settled into an easy, balanced posture before my brain even registered the command to adjust.
My body was following a script, reacting a split-second ahead of my conscious thoughts. The System had granted me the knowledge and the physical familiarity, downloading every mechanical nuance straight into my muscles.
But as the wind rushed past and the cobblestones flew beneath us, It became clear to me about something important: *familiarity* wasn't the same as *experience*. The reflexes were borrowed, but the journey was mine to make.
As we picked up speed, the stallion didn't just run, it glided. Every pound of iron against cobblestone was absorbed through the saddle with impossible grace, the azure flames of its mane whipping back in silent, heatless ribbons of light that trailed behind us like comet dust.
The rural lanes gave way to a grand cobblestone avenue that cut straight toward the heart of the settlement.
The buildings here climbed three and four stories into the morning sky, built from sturdy gray stone and interwoven with gleaming copper pipes that hissed rhythmically with steam. Massive archways spanned overhead, draped with colorful merchant banners and heraldic crests that fluttered in the updrafts.