[Connecting…****]

  [Connection successful. You have been chosen as the 10th candidate for world transfer.]

  Ding.

  [Due to the Goddess's curse, all levels and experience have been revoked.]

  Ding. Calculating…

  Ding. Calculating…

  Ding. Calculating…

  [Player level has been determined.]

  [CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE ARRIVED IN THE WORLD OF CLESTIA.]

  As the buzzing notifications faded, the silence of a lavish chamber took its place. Beneath the grand canopy of a royal bed, a figure stirred—his breath ragged, his mind clouded in confusion.

  A groan escaped his lips.

  “Ugh…”

  His vision adjusted, and the sight before him sent a jolt through his mind. Ornate golden rings gleamed upon his fingers—the very same ones his in-game avatar always bore.

  He lifted his trembling hands, turning them over as if confirming their existence. And then, for the first time, something struck him—he could feel them. The cool weight of the rings. The silk of the sheets beneath him. The very air that filled his lungs, crisp and alive.

  Panic surged through his chest. He shot up from the bed, his legs—his real legs—moving beneath him with a sensation both foreign and exhilarating. He took a deep breath, the air filling his lungs not as mere code, but something real, something tangible.

  Without hesitation, he bolted for the door, his heart pounding. If this is a dream, I have to know… If this is real, then none of the game’s limitations should matter anymore.

  Down the grand corridors of the castle he ran, past the familiar hallways he had only ever admired from a distance. In the game, he had never been able to walk this far—the developers had never programmed beyond this point. But now… now he stood before the very door that had once been an unreachable boundary.

  His breath was ragged, not from exhaustion, but from the sheer weight of the moment. What lies beyond this door?

  A trembling hand reached for the handle. He hesitated. For years, this threshold had been a wall, an unbreakable divide between player and world. And now?

  Now, it was merely a door.

  With a deep, shuddering breath—one filled with hope, terror, and an unrelenting thirst for truth—he pushed it open.

  And what he saw stole his breath away.

  The sky stretched infinitely, bathed in an ethereal shade of violet. Two moons hung in the heavens, casting a glow upon the vast, endless forests below. Mountains stood like ancient titans in the distance, their peaks crowned with mist.

  It was not the world he had known. Not the crimson sky of Eldritch Dominion, nor the artificial landscapes of a game.

  It was alive.

  A whisper left his lips, barely audible over the rush of wind.

  “…So this… this is the true world of Eldritch Dominion?”

  A step forward. Then another. His footsteps were real. The wind against his skin was real. And yet, a gnawing unease coiled within his chest.

  “Was this world always like this? Were we merely blind to its true form?”

  His thoughts swirled like a storm, questions crashing into one another. And then, a single realization struck him—the system.

  “If this world is real, then does the status system still function?”

  The moment the words left his lips, a translucent window materialized before his eyes.

  [STATUS]

  [Player: Alex

  Level: 1

  STR – 8

  DEX – 10

  CON – 12

  INT – 10

  MP – 30

  CHA – 60

  SEE MORE-....]

  A long silence. Then—

  “HUH!?”

  His voice echoed through the chamber, disbelief rattling his very core. Level one!?

  All the endless grinding, the sleepless nights, the countless battles—reduced to nothing. A lifetime of progress wiped clean, his power stripped away by forces beyond his comprehension.

  His fists clenched. Rage, despair, confusion—they all warred within him.

  And then, voices.

  Low murmurs, approaching fast.

  His breath hitched, a cold dread settling over him. In his panic, he had been reckless—his footsteps, his shouts… they had not gone unnoticed.

  And now, in a world where he was nothing more than a powerless wanderer, he could feel it. A sensation unfamiliar in a game, but suffocatingly real now.

  Pressure.

  The weight of something greater.

  The presence of those who stood above him.

  For the first time since awakening, a chilling thought gripped his mind—

  I am nothing but a lowly peasant in this world of monsters.