First, Level Up (1)
A strange ceiling stared down at me, its feel oddly unsettling. Cold air wrapped around my whole body. I'd only gone to sleep like any ordinary night, and yet here I was, lying in a completely unfamiliar space. Not only that—every time I shifted, a jarring metallic scraping echoed with maddening loudness.
"Ugh……."
My voice came out hoarse and barely there. Guess I'd been more tired than I realized yesterday. My ears were fuzzy, and my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
"Where the hell am I……."
I forced my heavy body upright and managed to lift my head. The moment I did, that strange unease pressed in faster. Walls surrounded me on every side—a suffocating, enclosed space. Every so often, the low moan of some beast reverberated through the corridor, sending a chill creeping down my spine.
"Huh……?"
The creeping wrongness wouldn't stop. I lowered my gaze and stared at my hand dully. I'd assumed it was just anxiety playing tricks on me, but when I looked, it wasn't that at all. As though I were trapped inside a dream, my entire body was wrapped tight in a rough lump of metal. The incessant clanging I'd been hearing since I woke up, it was coming from my body.
"W-What the hell is this……?"
Blinking stupidly at the window, I stared. Then a transparent window materialized right in front of me, impossible to ignore. Written on it, with no room for doubt, were two words: Job and Level.
"Is this… for real……."
Even with my own two eyes, I couldn't bring myself to believe it. Only after staring at the status window did it dawn on me, vaguely, that this place was somewhere inside another world. I wasn't fully awake yet—couldn't tell if this was a dream or reality—but at the very least, it was clear I was in another world.
"……."
Since who knows when, a low howling sound had been echoing through this space like a hollow moan. I finally pulled myself up and looked around slowly. If I'd opened my eyes in a normal place, I never would have known, but the fact that I was alone in this bone-chilling location, the moment I got here, was genuinely eerie. Well, whatever. Whether this was real or a dream, I needed to get out of this place quickly before I could sort my thoughts.
***
I turned my steps toward the opposite side, away from where the sounds were coming from. The moment I did, something heavy slammed against my foot and made me flinch.
"……A sword?"
Calling it a sword was generous. It was enormous, thick, heavy, and crude. More than wondering why such a massive greatsword was abandoned here, the first thought that crossed my mind was whether it was even a weapon made for people to use.
◈ A crude greatsword only the strong can wield
Stupidly, I'd been hoping this otherworld might have given me some incredible weapon. But of course, no such luck. Still, it was sitting right there in my vicinity, so there was no question it was meant for me.
— Clang
When I actually picked it up, the greatsword wasn't as heavy as I'd expected. It was big, so of course I had to use both hands, but I could manage it by myself just fine.
"……."
Armed with the greatsword and having finished all my preparations, all that remained was to get out of this dreadful place. But now that I thought about it, my current appearance felt oddly familiar. Earlier I'd been too stunned to process it, but the fact that my level was an ambiguous 4 rather than 1 was starting to nag at me. And this rough tin armor, this crude greatsword, they were disturbingly familiar.
The moment I started paying attention, this strange feeling kept circling through my head, making it impossible to move forward. Even though I knew I needed to get out of this dangerous space as fast as possible, I stood there like a fool, turning the feeling over and over in my mind.
"Ah."
After who knows how long standing in the same spot, lost in thought, I suddenly realized something and my eyes snapped wide open.
"This is the character from that game I played yesterday……."
Right—yesterday, before falling asleep, I'd fired up some game for a quick session. It had decent graphics, so I gave it a shot, but the description was hilariously unhelpful and the optimization was a disaster, so I hadn't even gotten through the tutorial before I quit. The character I'd been playing looked remarkably similar to what I was seeing now.
"Wait, did I not get isekai'd but rather possession'd……?"
Now all the questions were unraveling one by one. That explained why my level was that ambiguous 4—
"……."
Solving the mystery didn't change my situation one bit. The unease I'd been feeling just evaporated cleanly. All that was left was to escape this strange space. I should've memorized the path better. I'd only played for such a short time that I couldn't remember where anything was.
— Clang
I headed straight for the door right in front of me without hesitation. The opposite corridor was where the sounds were coming from, and it looked plenty dangerous. The path in front of me was silent, so it seemed relatively safe.
— Screeeech
I opened the door without a second thought, fully expecting a safe room. But that naive assumption shattered the instant the door swung wide.
"Whoa?!"
"Whoa?!"
The space beyond was vast and immense. Its overwhelming size was on open display, too big for the entire field of vision to take in. But what made me freeze wasn't the size, it was the cow monsters packed into that space. They stood on two legs, of course, and each one gripped a threatening halberd in their hands, staring at me with vacant eyes.
"……."
Some game instantly flashed through my mind. The space looked exactly like one.
"Whoa."
"Whoa."
Before I could even process what I was seeing, the herd of cows charged toward me in big, confident strides. There was no way this was a number I could handle, so I spun around and slammed the door shut. But the monsters had already started their charge, they smashed through the closed door without breaking stride and began tearing around wildly.
"……!!"
The wide corridor was instantly flooded with halberd-wielding cow monsters. The nearest one swung its halberd at me without hesitation, and I instinctively raised the greatsword over my head, barely deflecting the attack. As though to remind me that all of this was undeniably real, the impact of the deflected blow shot straight through my body.
"Whoa!!"
And just like that, the fight began. The pressure was nothing like a game—an overwhelming, suffocating weight hit me all at once. I'd barely blocked a single attack and already burned through that much mental energy. How the hell was I supposed to deal with the rest of them? My skin was already crawling.
— CLANG!!
I deflected another halberd the same way and, figuring it was better to go on the offense than keep playing defense, lunged with a counterattack. My body was still rigid with the creeping fear, but if I didn't do something, I was dead.
— WHOOOOSH!!
Probably because of the greatsword's size, I barely swung it and an enormous gale, accompanied by a deafening roar that felt like it was tearing my ears apart, blasted through the corridor. Worse, the cows lined up in the front rank let out agonized shrieks and split clean in two, one after another. As easily as cutting a cake—
At the same time, my level skyrocketed. I hit Level 10 in an instant.
"……So this really is the Lucky Cow room."
Those things were surprisingly easy to knock down with just this crude greatsword. Looking at their appearance, you'd think even a veteran adventurer would have trouble with them—but apparently not.
"Whoa whoa whoa!!"
When the ones in the front rank all went down, the next wave surged forward and attacked again. I kept up the same rhythm, swinging the crude greatsword, blocking and attacking without pause. Every time I felled a cow, the absurd amount of experience points I gained pushed my level up rapidly. But since this was my first real combat, my armor was getting covered in dents, bruises and gashes were appearing everywhere, and I was slowly turning into a mess.
"Hah… hah… hah……."
My breath came in ragged gasps. Once I hit a certain level, the experience points I gained dropped noticeably. My body was tiring out gradually, and my movements were getting sluggish. But the endless flood of cow monsters meant I couldn't stop moving for even a moment. I had to keep swinging that greatsword with my aching, creaking body. If I hesitated even for a second, I'd be swept up by the herd and meet a pitiful end.
As my level climbed, the difference was unmistakable. My body grew lighter and lighter, so much so that it wasn't even comparable to the beginning. The weight pressing down on my shoulders faded, and every movement became more fluid. But this change wasn't just physical. A surging power and a vivid rush of vitality erupted from within, momentarily wiping away the fatigue of battle.