**Chapter 3: The World Outside**

  He stood in a forest, free for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. The sun filtered through the dense canopy above, the air fresh and earthy. Birds chirped, monsters lurked beyond the trees—but he wasn't afraid. Not anymore.

  The last 2.5 years had changed him. In the real world, only minutes had passed. But to him, those years were real—filled with growth, suffering, and relentless learning. His mind was sharper. His power, unmatched.

  He walked aimlessly, until he encountered his first monster—large, tusked, snarling. Without a word, he raised his hand and incinerated it with a focused beam of magic. The corpse left behind valuable material. He remembered the books he'd skimmed in the void—monster parts were often traded. Maybe this would be useful.

  Eventually, he stumbled into a village.

  The people were wary at first, but not hostile. They spoke a language he still couldn’t understand, yet kindness didn’t need translation. A family took him in, gave him food, a place to rest. It was the first warmth he’d felt in this world.

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  That night, he noticed a girl in the household, pale and burning with fever. The family believed it was a curse—untouchable by healing magic. But he knew better. Bacteria. Viruses. His world had science to explain what theirs did not.

  He analyzed the fever. Healing magic couldn’t cure it because it wasn’t physical damage—it was an infection. So he crafted a spell, precise and experimental, that would kill microscopic organisms without harming the host. It was risky. He tested it on himself first, storing and restoring his body through his void space.

  When he applied it to her, the fever broke by morning.

  They saw it as a miracle. He knew it was science meeting magic.

  In the days that followed, he helped the village—building, improving tools, fighting off beasts. They offered coins in return, small and unfamiliar. He tried to replicate one with magic, crafting identical shape and weight. But when he used it, a shopkeeper threw it back.

  The coin lacked something—an invisible enchantment, a magical signature. Government-issued. Foolproof against forgery.

  He smiled, not out of success, but at the challenge.

  Later, while exploring, he looked to the night sky and saw three moons. One was gray like rock, one tinted yellow, and the last a swirl of blue and green.

  The next day, he noticed something strange—the sun stood directly above him, and there were no shadows.

  He took a stick, measured shadows at intervals over distance, and calculated. The diameter of this planet was roughly 21 times larger than Earth.

  This was no dream. No illusion.

  This was a world governed by both magic and l

  ogic.

  And it was his to explore.