As soon as the screen flashed out of his vision, Luke realized that his surroundings had changed. Emma was still next to him but that was the only thing that had stayed the same.

  He was now within a campsite of sorts, with dozens of cozy looking wooden cabins. Luke spotted several familiar faces, it appeared that a big chunk of his platoon had found themselves in this strange settlement. Before he could spend too long looking around, he once again heard a loud ring.

  *Welcome to your new home*

  *The Games have begun, you have nine days to grow your strength before the first trial.*

  *Be swift, but wary*

  Luke digested this information with relative calm. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Johnny was about to have a meltdown but the floating text in front of him changed and quickly drew his attention back to it.

  STATUS

  Name: Luke Carpenter

  Race: Human (Lesser)

  Level: 0

  Rank: 0

  Class: N/A

  Health: 100%

  Stamina: 89%

  Mana Reserves: 100%

  Free points: 0

  Skill points: 0

  STATS

  Strength: 18

  Agility: 17

  Toughness: 13

  Stamina: 20

  Vitality: 11

  Perception: 18

  Soul: 16

  Spirit: 13

  SKILLS

  [Unarmed Combat (Lvl.16)]- One does not need a weapon if they can truly harvest the power within their body…You currently possess moderate skill in unarmed combat

  [Swordsmanship (Lvl.14)]- The sword can split oceans when used by a Master but fail to cut wood when used by a novice…You currently possess moderate skill in swordsmanship

  [Stealth (Lvl.10)]- A foe that is strong from ahead may be weak from behind… You currently possess moderate skill in stealth

  [Tracking (Lvl.8)]-Great opportunities come to those who look for them…You currently possess basic skill in tracking

  ABILITIES

  Active:

  [Analyze (Lvl.1)]- A crucial ability for those who intend to survive their battles, [Analyze] allows you to focus on any object or being and attempt to discern information about them, such as their stats or level.

  Passive:

  [Allspeak]- A gift to adventurers who roam far and wide, [Allspeak] allows you to speak and understand all languages, except the tongues that have a power of their own.

  TITLES

  [Champion of the third village]- A title granted to the very best of the third village, the champion. The effects of this title will be revealed as the games progress.

  [Outworlder]- A title granted to those who are not of this world, to those who were brought here by unknown forces for mysterious reasons… It grants its wielder the abilities [Analyze] and [Allspeak].

  Have we transmigrated into a fantasy world? thought Luke when he was done reading. He wondered why he was so calm and accepting about this, he felt like he should be in denial. But soon, he understood why.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Denial was the first stage of grief… and he wasn’t experiencing grief. Quite the opposite, he was thrilled by the prospect of living a completely different life in a world of magic and fantasy. After all, he had nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

  Luke willed the screen in front of him to disappear and looked around. The things he read warranted a lot more thought, especially the part about being champion and the implied existence of other settlements but he wanted to see how the others were doing first.

  A lot of them were still staring blankly into space, confirming his suspicion that the strange screens could only be seen by the person to whom it was relevant. He saw all sorts of reactions to the information like panic, disbelief and even laughter.

  Luke didn’t blame the others for their strange reactions. They had just been sucked out of their relatively normal lives and thrust into a world that seemed to function like a fantasy video game or tabletop RPG.

  Luke was probably the only one who was ready to accept this new reality. That was to be expected, he was the only one who wanted this. He was the only one who wanted to be in this new world, because of what it represented…

  Hope thought Luke. A new world that was entirely unlike his old one brought hope for him to finally be happy. It brought hope for him to have a life that he truly found meaningful. A hope that waned slightly when everyone else started crowding around him, bombarding him with all sorts of annoying questions.

  “Stop, stop, STOP!” shouted Luke after a few seconds of chaotic questioning.

  “Why do you think I have an answer to any of this?” he asked in exasperation after they quietened down.

  “The Lieutenant isn’t here…you’re the platoon sergeant, who else do we go to?” asked Emma.

  “None of that matters right now, Emma. We’re clearly not in our old world anymore” said Luke.

  “What? You think we were just dropped into a different planet?” asked a private with a nervous laugh.

  “And what’s your theory on what’s going on?” countered Luke, to which the bald man had no response.

  “I know this may be confusing but we cannot afford to act like this isn’t real. There could be danger coming and we need to be ready for it.” said Luke.

  “How do we prepare, sir?” asked a black haired man. Luke smiled slightly as he turned to look at him. He could always count on Matt to be rational.

  “I assume you all saw the floating screens?” began Luke, to which several people nodded.

  “This world appears to function like some RPG games from back on earth. There are lots of fantasy elements here like our weapons and clothing and on top of that, the screen showed me things like “Class” and “Level”. I think we can assume that like in those games, we level up by killing monsters.”

  Luke paused for a few seconds, waiting for someone to disagree or add something. When no one did, he decided to just end his little speech without talking about the other villages that may exist. He certainly didn’t want to cause even more panic and chaos right now.

  “Nine days from now, some sort of trial is set to begin so we should try and get as strong as possible before that. But for now, I say we just check out these cabins and head to bed early. We shouldn’t be out in the woods at night, not yet at least.”

  “What happened to the rest of the platoon?” asked Emma right as he was about to walk away.

  “I don’t know” said Luke and almost turned around to leave before he decided to not be a dick and say a few more words.

  “We can hope that they weren’t brought here. But it’s also possible that they encountered some danger in the woods. Either way, now is not the time to think about this. Our focus should be on surviving the upcoming trial, after that we can try to find some clues on what actually happened” said Luke.

  With that, he left the crowd behind and walked towards the largest cabin in the village. There was a bronze plaque on its door with the word “Champion” on it. Right before he went in, Luke turned around and took one last look at his comrades, noting the somber mood.

  The cabin was as simple on the inside as it was on the outside. There were six windows in total, two on every wall except one. The white bed was on the smaller side but it looked comfortable enough and he was happy to see that there was a fireplace, which had two armchairs and a small table in front of it.

  Luke was expecting to have to use some sort of outhouse but the door on the windowless wall actually led to a bathroom. When he stepped inside, he could instantly see that the bathroom was a lot nicer than the rest of the house.

  He eagerly walked over to the sink with a large mirror in front of it and washed his hands and face, finally getting rid of the last traces of blood. After a thorough rinse, Luke dried his hands on a soft white towel and looked into the Mirror.

  Back in his teens, he had hated how normal he looked. He was black haired and brown eyed with a face that was neither handsome nor ugly, just easy to forget. Even when it came to his height, Luke was just slightly above average but not tall.

  Since then, he’d gotten rather fit which made him stand out a lot more. Though at this point, he wasn’t really concerned with his appearance. He absentmindedly stared at his reflection for a few more seconds before coming to a sudden realization.

  Where’s the Goddamn toilet? thought a frustrated Luke. He hadn’t noticed it at first but the bathroom only had a sink and shower. As he looked around, he also realized that while there was soap and shampoo on the shower rack, the bathroom didn’t come with a toothbrush or toothpaste.

  Luke stared at the shower rack for a few more seconds before letting out a sigh and leaving the bathroom.

  We get a rain shower and fireplace but need to shit in the woods... I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised after everything else that’s happened today he thought as he sat down by the fire. Indeed, today had been a strange day but today had also been a good day.

  As he sat there, with the fire crackling merrily in front of him, Luke felt at peace. That sense of emptiness, the fear that he would die without having lived a meaningful life, it was all gone. Right now, the hope within him was too strong to allow any of that.

  Despite knowing that there was danger coming, Luke was more excited than afraid. Mundanity was what he hated most, and from everything he’d experienced of this new world, it was anything but.

  Luke could feel how depressing the mood was outside, he knew people were probably talking about whether they would see their families again or wondering if the rest of the platoon was truly dead. He knew they were in pain but here in his cabin, things were good.

  This trial...it should be interesting