Captured Upon Arrival
The moment I arrived in another world, I was captured.
When I first witnessed it, I thought the moon was falling. People stood frozen for a while, staring up at the sky. The massive golden planet that blanketed the clear midsummer sky was so awe-inspiring that it was hard to look away. “An alien invasion…?” Some people were terrified. Others insisted it was an alien invasion or that the planet’s collision would destroy Earth, fidgeting anxiously in place. Anxiety swept through the crowd like a wave, and every media outlet began broadcasting breaking news about the golden planet that had suddenly appeared over Seoul.
Yet the golden planet simply floated there for days on end, showing no signs of movement. As time passed, the shock and fear of the strange planet faded, and people’s anxiety gradually turned into curiosity. I was one of them. A few even began worshiping the golden planet as a god. I chuckled at the notion, but having been immersed in genre novels since childhood, I opened my window one night, drunk and flushed, and jokingly prayed to the golden planet that I wanted to live in a medieval fantasy world.
“I want to go to a fantasy world with swords and magic. I really want to gooo! Hahaha! Let me run through flower fields with a pretty elf girl~ Hahaha! What the hell am I saying? I must be crazy.”
Absurdly enough, that wish came true.
“…Where am I?”
When I opened my eyes, thinking morning had come, my room was gone. Looking around in confusion, I found myself standing in the middle of a forest filled with chirping birds. “What the…”
I wandered aimlessly, still dazed. Had I drunk too much last night? I thought I’d made it home, but I must have passed out on the street. Sighing, I scratched my head. “Aigoo, you idiot. No matter how drunk you are, you should at least get inside…”
Wait a second. Had there ever been such a vast forest near my house? A park, maybe, but a forest was unfamiliar. There weren’t even any mountains nearby. Even stranger, the trees growing in the forest weren’t the pine trees commonly seen in South Korea. I couldn’t name them, but every single one was an unfamiliar species. Some looked like ancient trees that could be hundreds of years old. No city would have trees that large. Was I in the countryside? Even the nameless weeds under my feet weren’t the usual grass. They looked more twisted and sharp…
“Ugh!”
While walking absentmindedly, a carnivorous plant resembling a Venus flytrap suddenly opened its jaws wide, trying to swallow my head whole. Thankfully, I reflexively threw myself backward in shock; if I’d stood there dazed, my neck would have been gone. “Why is it so big?!”
The flytrap(?) closed its mouth again and camouflaged itself like an ordinary plant, sending chills down my spine. It had grown as tall as a person, with an enormous maw. I couldn’t believe such a massive carnivorous plant existed in South Korea. “This isn’t the Amazon…”
While I stood there in a daze, my right thigh suddenly vibrated. Thinking it was my phone, I instinctively reached into my pocket—only to recoil in surprise. “What the hell is this?”
A golden sphere the size of a golf ball had somehow ended up in my pocket. It trembled continuously, as if fitted with a motor. It was as light as a ping-pong ball, yet didn’t seem fragile. Its surface was hard like a golf ball and solid, as though forged from gold. “Is this a junior version of the one floating over Seoul? It looks similar.”
When I placed it on my palm and examined it closely, it finally stopped shaking. “Huh?”
Suddenly, an image appeared on the sphere’s surface. It showed a group of people riding horses along a forest path. Behind them, prisoners bound with ropes were being dragged along pitifully. They all had Western features. Was this a scene from a Western movie? The riders looked exactly like bandits—rugged, macho appearances with shaggy beards and beast pelts draped over their shoulders, rough and crude. Their voices reached my ears.
—We caught quite a few slaves today. The boss will be pleased!
—Think we’ll get some booze as a reward?
—Keh keh, you bet.
—Wait. What’s that guy over there?
One of them pointed ahead, and the bandits’ gazes all turned in that direction. The back of my neck prickled. A chill ran down my spine, and I instinctively looked behind me. Good heavens. The menacing figures I’d seen inside the small sphere were now right in front of me. My body froze as tension surged through me. They stared at me with curious expressions, as if observing an animal in a zoo, blinking in surprise.
I tried speaking first. “A-are you filming a movie?”
I forced an awkward smile, but they ignored me, busy talking among themselves. “His skin color and appearance are different from ours.” “A foreigner?” “What’s he doing here?” “Who cares? We can figure that out later. Let’s just catch him first!”
At the signal of one bandit whipping his horse, the others drew their swords with wild cries and charged after me. “W-what the—!”
Without so much as a word, they radiated murderous intent. My body reacted on instinct. I spun around and ran as fast as I could. Never mind how I’d ended up in this situation—the ominous premonition that being caught would lead to a grim future flashed through my mind. “Huff, huff!”
I thought I’d run hard enough to make Usain Bolt proud, but before long, something whipped through the air and wrapped around my neck. The moment I grabbed it, the rope tightened viciously. “Gah!”
A rope around my neck. The thought struck me: This isn’t a joke. This is real. Someone yanked the rope hard from behind, and while running, my head snapped backward. My body lifted briefly into the air before crashing down. “Ghk!”
I fell backward, pain shooting through my entire body from the impact. But before I could even clutch my injuries, I was being dragged backward, the rope choking me. “Kuh! Kack!”
Groaning in agony, I clawed at the rope around my neck with both hands. Dust billowed as I was dragged along. “Hahaha. Running won’t save you!”
Some time later, when the rope loosened and air returned to my lungs, my scattered mind finally cleared. I pushed myself up and carefully touched my sore, reddened neck. The rope had been loosened. Looking around, five bandits had surrounded me in a circle, chuckling. Each one had fierce eyes and a large build, looking savage and menacing. “Where’d you come from! Why do you look like that?”
The one who seemed to be the leader thrust his large face forward and spoke in a booming voice that made my ears ring. His volume made it sound like he was angry. “U-um…”
Like a mouse cornered by cats, I stared with tense eyes and hesitated to answer. Something had felt off since I looked into the small sphere earlier—they looked Western, yet spoke Korean fluently. A thought occurred to me. Could this place be another world? The fact that the small sphere projected images like a crystal ball was already impossible in reality. I should have suspected it then. Just like the protagonists in countless genre novels, maybe I had been transported to another world.
Glancing behind me, the bound prisoners’ eyes were filled with terror, pale and desperate. Their ragged appearance and despairing expressions looked too real to be acting. I swallowed hard and opened my mouth. “…B-brothers. Um, do you know what Earth is?” “Jig?” “Sigu?” “Jiku?”
They each tilted their heads at the unfamiliar word. I continued cautiously. “You asked why my appearance is strange, right? The place I came from is called Earth. My nationality is South Korea.”
Suddenly, I remembered praying to the golden planet over Seoul last night. How I’d wished to live in a medieval fantasy world because I was tired of university. ‘Could it be because of that? Was that golden planet actually a god?’
Realizing this was another world made the chaotic situation snap into focus. I’d been dropped alone into an unfamiliar world, wandered cluelessly through the forest, and been unlucky enough to be captured by bandits. “What do people call this world? I mean, what do they call this planet?”
I asked clearly, clinging desperately to my sanity. My eyes were pitiful and pleading, as if saying, ‘I’m a newbie in this world, so won’t you let me go out of pity?’ But the reaction was dismal. “What nonsense is this guy spouting?” “No idea.” “Tch, we don’t have time to listen to his babbling. Let’s just head back to the mountain stronghold!”
The bandits bound my arms and legs to a long pole like captured game and dragged me away alive. “You all did well! Looks like we’ll make a pretty penny at the next slave market! Wahaha!”
The mountain stronghold deep in the forest housed well over a hundred bandits at a glance. Men, women, and children alike had menacing eyes and an extraordinary presence. They all stared at me curiously as I was dragged in upside down. “Why does he look like that?” “He’s not from this country, is he?” “Is he some kind of demi-human like an elf or dwarf?” “Who cares. He’s clean and pretty handsome. Nicer looking than the guys in our stronghold.”
The curious attention was appreciated, but being looked at like a zoo animal was not. I was a person, thank you very much. Soon, along with the prisoners dragged from the forest, I was stripped naked—men and women alike—and thrown into a dark, filthy prison cell. Two guards holding spears radiated murderous intent like Guan Yu wielding his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, their expressions fierce. “Stay put until the higher-ups decide! Try to escape and you’ll lose your head! Do anything suspicious and—listen up. First time, we cut off your wrist! Second time, your leg!”
Being crammed into a cramped cell where I couldn’t even lie down properly, hugging my knees in a squat, was no easy task. Occasionally, when I exhaled, my skin brushed against the person next to me, and we both flinched. Being imprisoned was bad enough, but maintaining the uncomfortable posture drained my mind and body twice as fast. “Haa…”
It was miserable. Sighs kept escaping, and despair weighed heavily. Why had I come to another world? Was this really what I’d wished for? Self-loathing crept in. Usually, protagonists sent to another world received some special ability, didn’t they? ‘But what do I have?’ Instead, I’d been captured by bandits right away and was about to meet my end. While wallowing in despair and lamenting my fate, my eyes suddenly snapped open. ‘That’s right, the golden sphere! Yeah, I still have that!’