Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Welcome to the Transcendent World
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In 20XX, an event no one could have predicted occurred.
Hundreds of people vanished into thin air without a trace.
Some disappeared without anyone noticing,
but many others vanished right in front of their families, friends, or coworkers.
The missing people seemed to have been taken randomly, regardless of nationality or age.
The incident spread across the world in mere minutes. But those who vanished had no idea they had instantly become famous...
No one knew at the time.
I felt the familiar grip slip from my hand.
I was sure I had been holding my phone...
And in that instant, a massive headache struck.
The excruciating pain that rattled my skull finally subsided about a minute after I landed here.
In the meantime, I had been gasping for breath raggedly, and only now could I properly take in my surroundings.
I saw unfamiliar buildings reminiscent of medieval Europe, dirt paths and stone-paved roads.
And,
the strange glowing pattern right where I stood.
The sudden change in environment made it feel unreal.
The fact that I had been lying in bed, scrolling on my smartphone just moments ago, felt like a distant memory from ages past.
On top of that, what tormented my mind even more than the headache was...
These messages felt like they had been injected directly into my brain.
They forced me to accept that this wasn't a dream, but harsh reality.
Along with that, concepts like status windows, quests, and inventories—things I'd only seen in games—settled naturally in my mind.
This new knowledge informed me that I could summon the system window with just a thought.
Even so, amid this surreal reality, I felt utter confusion about my situation.
What the hell is this...?
Did I really get transported to another world?
I looked around once more. It was exactly the same scene as before.
Seeing a village with no trace of modern technology,
I finally accepted it completely.
This place was real.
The true world where I had to survive from now on.
At the same time, a sense of hopelessness mixed with faint anticipation welled up inside me.
Survival and competition, huh.
The original world was like that too.
Since it said I could go back, I had no choice but to give it a shot.
Pushing aside the mental shock of this situation, I focused on what I needed to do first.
Alright then... let's check the status window first?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, the status window appeared.
The status window appeared in a way different from what I expected, leaving me a bit flustered and puzzled.
Why is the name question marks? Okay, fine, but why are all the stats zero...?
No matter how low I rate my physical abilities, they should be at least average for a guy.
It was a bit different from the status windows in novels or comics.
Just in case, I moved my body to check for changes.
No changes in my body.
So those stats don't reflect my physical abilities?
With no information, I had to skip over the stats for now.
I read further down the status window.
Alignment: Evil? It even shows this.
The unique ability called Universal Resistance seemed related to defense. Nothing special.
The message window only had the same content as the initial system message. It seemed like an alarm log.
I immediately checked the next system window: the quest window.
Summoning it with just a thought felt strangely magical.
General Quest - Slime Hunt
📍 Head to Zone 1 and kill 5 slimes
0/5
🎁 Reward: 5 EXP, 100 Gold
Is this it? No other quests.
Slimes, huh. The objective looks easy enough.
But can I do it barehanded?
Nah. No way they start you without a weapon.
I checked the inventory, the last system window I hadn't looked at yet.
There was one item labeled Weapon Selection Ticket.
I selected it and hit use right away.
Just like the other windows, images of weapons and their descriptions appeared before my eyes.
I examined the four options and pondered for a few minutes.
Unfortunately, the descriptions were so sparse that there were no clues for picking the best one, so I went with the sword as the least bad choice.
Suddenly, a sword dropped to the ground.
Upon inspection, it was a plain iron sword, lighter than it looked when I picked it up.
Finally, there was the community window, but it said it unlocked at level 1.
So, had I checked everything I could do alone?
After that, I started searching the village for anything else.
This was a fantasy village with a medieval backdrop.
There were various shops, buildings I couldn't enter,
and NPCs.
But I couldn't talk to the NPCs. The message window just updated with a notice to reach level 1. Some demanded even higher levels.
For now, I left the village to handle the most important task.
Killing monsters.
I believed the key to this situation was growing stronger faster than anyone else.
Sure, I'd been a bit late figuring things out, but others who hadn't shown up yet were probably even slower.
If there were other people here, that is.
A membrane brushed past me, and the system message labeled this the Slime Meadow.
Slimes roamed the meadow—none had been visible in the village.
Good thing monsters don't just pop up out of nowhere as I walk.
The slimes in the meadow were spaced far apart from each other. They were smaller than expected and moved peacefully.
Counting roughly, there were about 100 in total.
I headed toward the nearest slime to start monster hunting for real.
The thought of killing it made my heart beat faster.
Don't think it's easy.
You never know.
It might lunge and overwhelm me the moment I get close.
Moving cautiously, I soon got a close look at the slime.
It was like transparent jelly. No eyes or mouth visible.
Standing right in front of it, I steeled myself.
First hunt.
As it drew near, I swung my sword down hard.
Pak!
It didn't feel like hitting flesh—instead, the blade pierced the slime and struck the ground.
A clumsy first strike.
But the goal was achieved.
The slime split into two pieces and dissolved into dust in an instant.
EXP and gold came in.
Looking at the system message, I thought,
Is that really it?
The hunt had been too easy; the tension drained from my body.
My strength suddenly gave out, and I nearly dropped the sword. Such a beginner mistake.
Startled by my error, I felt threatened and scanned around. Fortunately, the other slimes were too far apart to worry about multiple attacks.
I really felt like a modern guy who hadn't been here even an hour.
Lucky. Maybe it's not as harsh as I thought. Could just be slimes, though.
The first hunt ended just like that, far too simply.
Hunting continued afterward.
The fifth one!
Slime hunting was so easy that I took down five in no time.
This time, two messages updated at once.
I pulled up the quest window right away and claimed the reward: 5 EXP and 100 Gold.
At the same time, euphoria washed over my entire body.
A dizzying sensation, and power surged through me.
Realizing something, I opened the status window.
As expected.
This sensation was stats increasing.
Leveling up raises all stats. Not a system where you allocate points.
Putting aside my joy, I examined the status window further.
Tapping each entry brought up explanations.
Strength and Agility were as I imagined. Defense... reduces damage by a certain amount?
The description was too vague and short.
I needed more details on how it worked in reality.
Next up, Stamina.
It said it let you endure and persist better. Guess I'd have to test it.
Mana affected skills and abilities. Would know more once I got skills.
While reading the explanations, I tapped the one thing that had been bugging me.
A slight surge of emotion rose as I read it.
'Why does the system arbitrarily decide my alignment?'
The system's judgment that I was Evil irked me briefly, but I had no intention of denying it.
I knew better than anyone that I was extremely selfish and capable of anything for my desires.
I was truly an evil person and had lived as one.
The system's label didn't stir any real emotion.
But had the system judged my entire life? Was the criterion for alignment accurate...?
That's what bothered me.
Being evaluated by some transcendent being.
It felt profoundly unpleasant.
To shake off the feeling, I quickly opened the unique ability description.
Resistance to all types?
Good ability? If it's only for Defense stat, maybe not.
No skills otherwise, no lengthy explanations. Are all unique abilities like this?
I double-checked the system message window just in case. There, I learned something important.
The system had said "everyone" at first.
That meant others, including me, had come to this world.
What alignments do they have? Random criteria?
Only from Earth? If Earthlings, there must be plenty like my Evil alignment...
The system's judgment—Alignment: Evil—lingered deeply in my mind, hard to forget.