Chapter 1

Ryōmiya Kaede, a college student and avid online gamer, was enduring a headache while relentlessly operating the keyboard. The HP bar of the boss displayed on the screen had vanished just two seconds ago. And my HP (in real life) was also very low. I hadn't slept for about four days.

"I can't sleep yet, I have to participate in the distribution...," I thought, but my body wouldn't listen. I slumped over the keyboard and lost consciousness.

To explain how I ended up in this situation, it was all my fault from three days ago. After finishing the credits I was supposed to take this semester, I felt a sense of liberation and excitement, and decided to cram in as much of the online game I was hooked on as possible. I was so elated that I didn't even consider the fact that I had no sleep scheduled for the next three days. The first two days were fine, but after that, it became increasingly difficult. Including the time before I started the game, I hadn't slept for three and a half days. My head was throbbing, and I was at my peak of fatigue.

I should have stopped then, but I resolved to continue until the next weapon dropped. However, by some twist of fate, a weapon that usually dropped within two hours didn't drop even after ten hours. Just as I was thinking of canceling my plans and going to sleep, I received a无情 (ruthless) message from the organizer of the boss raid party: "Please gather in 15 minutes, it's the fixed time." That's right, it was 10:30 PM on a Tuesday, the fixed time.

"Fixed" is short for "fixed party," which, as the name suggests, is a party of fixed members who repeatedly defeat the same boss at a fixed time to gain experience and drop items. If I skipped it, I would inconvenience all 11 other party members. No matter how much my head hurt, I had to see it through. I moved to the meeting place, fulfilled my assigned role as usual, and defeated the boss. The entire process took about two hours, as usual.

That's how I ended up in the scene at the beginning.

When I woke up, I found myself not in the familiar ceiling of my home, but in a forest. Panicking, I looked around and saw that the trees were mainly broadleaf, with some trees as thick as a meter, growing at intervals. The ground was covered with what seemed to be black leaf mold, and weeds were growing abundantly. I had no memory of coming to such a place, and I was confused.

I suddenly felt a sense of discomfort and checked my clothing. Despite not remembering changing, I was not wearing the tracksuit I had on while gaming, but rather a checkered outfit and sneakers for going out. Judging by the brightness, the angle of the sun, and the temperature, it was probably around 4 PM. Given that the vegetation was similar to Japan's, the climate shouldn't be too different.

Deciding to move from this place, I stood up and started walking, but I felt another sense of discomfort. My pace felt much faster than usual. I lightly jumped up to check, and to my surprise, I jumped about a meter off the ground. Moreover, I felt an indescribable discomfort when I landed. My legs, which were not particularly strong, easily supported my body after the one-meter fall.

"Is this a dream...?" I muttered and pinched my cheek. It hurt. I recalled hearing that "pinching your cheek in a dream doesn't work because the brain can create the sensation of pain, so it's not a reliable way to determine if you're dreaming." I thought this was probably the case and considered what to do. Since it was a dream, I decided to enjoy it. However, this was just a forest, and I needed to get out of it to make any progress. In a survival situation, you're supposed to follow the ridge, but unfortunately, this was flat ground, so that method wouldn't work.

I tried to estimate the direction using a tree stump, but there were none around, and there were no signs of human activity. I couldn't hear any water, and I had no idea which way to go.

While searching for a tree stump, I noticed that the vegetation here was similar to Japan's. The plants were familiar, and I thought my brain wasn't imaginative enough to create something I didn't know in a dream.

Deciding to follow my intuition and move in one direction, I started walking. Normally, in a forest, your sense of direction gets lost as you dodge trees, but this was my dream. My dream wouldn't have a forest that continued indefinitely. If I kept walking in one direction, I would eventually find something. Probably.

As I walked, I discovered something strange. It looked like a dog at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it had many differences. From about 10 meters away, I could see that its ears were sharply pointed, its fur was green, and it had long fangs protruding from its upper jaw. I'm not an expert on dogs, but the differences were too significant to be a breed I didn't know. It had six legs, but they weren't like an insect's. They were like Sleipnir's, with the hind legs split into two. Despite this, it walked naturally, as if this were normal.

I decided to call it a "green dog" for convenience. Since it didn't seem safe, I quietly left without drawing its attention. I was worried it might detect me by smell, but fortunately, I was downwind and managed to get out of sight without being noticed.

After confirming there were no immediate dangers, I thought about the creature. It was clearly not from Japan. Given my gamer brain, I probably combined real animals to create a game-like creature in my dream. If that was the case, maybe other aspects were also game-like.

However, there was no keyboard, mouse, or graphical user interface. I didn't know how to operate it, so I decided to try saying things out loud.

"Menu," "Status," "Item Shop... Oh!"

A semi-transparent window appeared in front of me, and I gasped. It followed me when I looked up. "So, I'm a game brain that brings games into my dreams..." I muttered and checked my status.

Name: Ryōmiya Kaede

Age/Race/Gender: 20/Human/Male

Level: 1

HP: 51/51

MP: 1012/1012

STR: 16

INT: 42

AGI: 22

DEX: 34

Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis, Complete Mastery of Foreign Languages, Magical Aptitude, Martial Arts Aptitude, Outlander, Affinity with All Elements

Are these high? I couldn't tell, but my MP seemed quite high. My INT and DEX were also somewhat high. As I looked at my MP, a smaller window appeared.

MP: 1012.00/1012.00

Description: Magic power. Consumed when using magic or certain skills. The average magic power of humans in this world is set to 10, and this is a relative value. The left number is the current magic power, and the right number is the maximum magic power. Magic power recovers 0.1% of the maximum every minute after it falls below the maximum.

The number is displayed without decimal places.

It seemed my magic power was quite high. I also checked my HP, which seemed to represent health and resilience, but there was no set natural recovery rate. I wanted to further analyze my status and looked back at the status screen, but I noticed something I shouldn't have missed—Outlander, Complete Mastery of Foreign Languages.

I cautiously analyzed it.

Outlander Unique/Rank 10

Description: Due to coming from a different world, this has a wide-ranging impact on status and skill acquisition rates. The effect varies based on the level of the world you came from. This world is set to 5, and the higher the level, the higher the rank. The higher the rank compared to this world, the more it enhances abilities. If you come from a world with a lower rank, your abilities are reduced.

Could this be why I could jump so high? No, that wasn't the main issue. Of course, it was concerning, but there was something more important. Another world? When I pinched my cheek, the pain and the terrain felt strangely realistic, but could this really be a dream and not another world?

However, the vegetation was similar to Japan's... but that dog was clearly not from Japan and was something I had never seen. Would something I didn't know appear in a dream? I'm not an expert in brain science or dreams, but it seemed unlikely that something I didn't know would appear.

Thinking about it wouldn't solve anything. If it was a dream, I would wake up in a short time. If I didn't wake up in a day, it was likely another world. If it was a dream, there was no problem, so I decided to assume this was another world and act accordingly. For some reason, it felt like I was in another world.

Information Manipulation Analysis Unique

Description: Can analyze anything within your field of vision. No need to touch the target, and it doesn't consume magic power. Can also analyze hidden information that can't be determined through analysis. Additionally, with the target's consent, you can hide the status displayed during analysis.

The ability to analyze information was probably due to this skill. From the description, it seemed like an advanced form of analysis. It also allowed for information manipulation, which was useful if I had rare skills that I didn't want others to see.

I tried to hide "Outlander" by thinking about it. The moment I did, "Outlander" changed to "Outlander (Hidden)." It seemed the status updated in real time without needing to recast it. I tried to analyze "Outlander (Hidden)" again.

Outlander (Hidden) Unique/Rank 10

Description: Due to coming from a different world, this has a wide-ranging impact on status and skill acquisition rates. The effect varies based on the level of the world you came from. This world is set to 5, and the higher the level, the higher the rank. The higher the rank compared to this world, the more it enhances abilities. If you come from a world with a lower rank, your abilities are reduced.

Does not appear in analysis.

It seemed to be working. There was no guarantee that there were no other ways to determine someone's abilities in this world, but it was better than nothing. I decided to hide all my skills, as I couldn't determine which were rare. I could hide my status, but hiding it would reveal that it was hidden, so there was no point. My MP display hadn't decreased, so it seemed hiding didn't consume magic power.

As I was about to analyze my other skills, I noticed a green dog about 10 meters ahead, looking at me.

"Grurrrr..."

It seemed to be growling. It didn't look like it would let me go.