Confused by what he was seeing, the boy reached out to touch the hovering panel with the strange text.

  But as soon as his finger made contact, he was surprised to find there was no sensation of touch. His finger simply passed through the light blue panel as if it weren't there.

  "!!!"

  Panicked, the boy quickly pulled his finger away, inspecting it for any signs of injury. Finding none, his attention returned to the panel.

  This time, new text appeared inside the otherworldly panel:

  [It has been detected that USER_1339 does not possess any complete [Language] skill. Forceful implant of [Primitive Language: level 1] will be done.]

  Before the boy could fully process the words, he was struck by an intense, head-splitting pain, causing him to tumble onto the ground, clutching his head in agony.

  "Ah!!"

  His body was wracked with pain, as though a hot knife was slowly carving into his brain. The pain was unbearable, lasting an entire minute before the panel updated once again:

  [Forceful implant of [Primitive Language: level 1] has been completed.]

  With that, the panel disappeared.

  The boy, still on the ground, was left reeling from the excruciating experience. The forceful tampering with his mind had knocked him unconscious.

  It wasn't until two hours later that the boy finally began to stir.

  "Ugh...."

  When the boy finally opened his eyes, he immediately noticed the dull throb in his head. The pain was still there, but it was fading, like a lingering fog slowly dissipating.

  '???'

  His thoughts were clouded. He tried to piece together what had just happened, what had he been doing? Why was he lying on the ground?

  First, he'd come to the village. Then he was chased away, and thee was the strange thing that appeared in front of him—a panel, floating in the air, with words. And then... then the pain, that agonizing ache that made his vision blur and his body collapse.

  But now, here he was. Confused, yes, but somehow feeling... different.

  The sound of birds chirping nearby broke him from his reverie. He blinked and turned his head, catching sight of them on the branches.

  "CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!" (Honey, I'm home!)

  "CHIRP CHIRP!!" (Took you long enough!)

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!" (Sorry! Sorry! But I got food!)

  "CHIRP!" (Get more!)

  "CHIRP CHIRP!" (Okay! Okay!)

  The boy froze, his chest tightening. What was happening? He stared at the birds, his mind scrambling to make sense of it all.

  For some reason, he could understand what the birds were talking about. Their chirps, which he had heard hundreds of times before, now seemed like clear words. It was still the same nonsensical chirping, but somehow... it was no longer nonsense.

  And yet, the boy couldn't make sense of how or why this was happening. The chirps, once meaningless, had transformed into something understandable.

  But how? Why now?

  Shaking his head, the boy pushed the thought aside and stood up, deciding to wander back to the Fox village, hoping to find food.

  But just as he began walking, something caught his eye. The strange floating panel from before had appeared again, hanging in mid-air before him.

  His heart skipped a beat. His mind flashed back to the searing pain he had felt when the panel first appeared, and he instinctively took a cautious step back, fearing another wave of excruciating headaches.

  But after a few seconds, nothing happened. No pain, no overwhelming sensations.

  The boy stared at the panel. His breath was shallow, but nothing came to harm him. Instead, it was almost... calm, like the panel was waiting for him to do something.

  As his gaze lingered on the strange text, something shifted inside him. The text—it wasn't just letters. He didn't understand the meaning directly, but he felt it. It was like a silent current running through his thoughts, and somehow, the boy knew what the words meant.

  The boy hesitated. The panel wasn't threatening him. It felt almost... helpful. He didn't know why, but it felt like it was trying to teach him something.

  A text appeared on the floating panel as if responding to his attention.

  [USER_1339, in order to use the functions of 'Chat' and 'Status', you will need to either say it vocally or image it inside your head.]

  He wasn't sure what the words meant, but the feeling, the strange sensation of understanding, washed over him again. He didn't know what "Chat" or "Status" were, but it didn't matter. The key was how to make them work. The words, or ideas, were just... there in his mind, but how to access them?

  With nothing else to do, he focused and imagined the word in his head. He couldn't say it out loud, he had never spoken any words before but simple primitive grunts, but he could picture it, sense it.

  'Status.'

  The panel shifted again, and a new set of words appeared:

  [

  World - Z1339

  Name: Unknown

  Age: 12

  Gender: Male

  Health: 2/5

  Strength: 0.3

  Endurance: 0.2

  Agility: 0.5

  Status:

  | Fragmented memory: (???)

  Skills:

  | Universal Primitive Language: Level 1

  ]

  The boy's eyes widened as he stared at the panel. He didn't know what any of it meant, but he felt that it was important.

  The feeling was familiar, yet alien. It was as if the information was embedded in his mind, but he had no framework to understand it.

  Either way, the panel closed itself once as if reading the thought of the boy who had grown bored at staring at his own status.

  Now, it was time to test out the 'chat' functions.

  'Chat'

  [Chat Logs - Z1000 - Z2000]

  USER_1101: Yo

  USER_1235: Anyone mind helping out a fellow noob?

  USER_1982: Yo

  USER_1992: Has anyone tried courting the princess of the Lan clan? How did it go?

  USER_1442: An apple a day

  USER_1005: @USER_1009, you there?

  USER_1772: YOLO!

  USER_1111: keeps the doctor away

  USER_1222: Yo

  ...

  The boy was immediately overwhelmed by the flood of messages that filled the screen. Most of the chat lines were meaningless—seemingly random words strung together, without any clear context.

  Despite the chaos, he could understand a couple of things:

  The USER_#### names represented different people participating in the chat. Most of what were being said were complete nonsense, causing the boy to be greatly confused at what he was seeing.

  Either way, the boy was intrigued at what he was seeing and wanted to see what other things the people in the 'chat' were going to say.

  But the rumbling in his stomach said otherwise, demanding its host to find food.