The moment I rounded the alley, I knew my life was over.

I ducked, a bright flash of magic singeing the ends of my hair, which flopped around with the wind and with every movement. When I looked back, the bandits were close to catching up. Various screams of aggression, annoyance, and fear blurred in my ears and my pounding heartbeat replaced them. Then, I turned my attention back to where I was going. My heart stopped.

It was a dead end.

How did it come to this? To answer that question, let me go back to a few minutes ago.

After the light faded and I ended up in a place that's definitely not the living room, I did a quick survey and realized two things. One—I was standing inside the most colorful forest I had ever seen; and two—I was dressed in the silliest attire I have donned in my entire life.

So, I did the most sensible thing as a person of my caliber could think of.

I jumped ship. Figuratively, that was.

By the time I finished tugging off the straps and buckles attaching metal articles to my arms, legs, and upper body, a pile of glinting handiwork sat by my feet. I had propped myself on a nearby rock, avoiding the direct stream of sunlight punching through the canopy of scarlet leaves. Then, I sighed, reaching out to brush my hair off my forehead. Instead of my hand merely touching and feeling the wetness of sweat against my skin, my vision pricked and a blast of information slammed into it.

I remember giving out something between a yelp and a gasp. When I flinched, my butt slid off the alga covering the rock's surface, sending me crashing backwards. Another cry of pain followed by a groan escaped my lips as the back of my head smacked against the rough bark of a nearby tree. The impact sent vibrations up the trunk, shaking a few red leaves loose.

I blew off the one that landed on my face. I straightened, hand rubbing the sore spot behind my head. That's dangerous, right? My attention was caught by something more interesting than the blossoming sting somewhere in my back. In my vision, what looked to be a user menu in any typical game blinked at me.

What in the world was this? I extended my arms, watching how my skin turned muted gray against the spaces the translucent menu took up. It's like having a glass pane filled with letters and bars block one's line of sight at all times. How did I even trigger it?

I was reaching up to clear up the itchy spikes tickling my forehead. My hair was known to be an untamable beast and needed to be sheared regularly. I've been going back and forth between the province and the house in the city due to the clean-up of the house these last few weeks. I wasn't able to get around to snipping my hair off.

That's when the strange menu popped up—right when my hand moved over my face. So, I tried it again, this time in the opposite direction: down. Before my eyes, the glass pane blinked out of existence. To further prove my theory, I swiped my hand over my face once more. Poof. Menu. Swing down. Poof. No more menu.

But maybe the "poof" sound was a bland addition from me.

Anyway, swiping up summons the menu, and swiping down removes it. Got it. I brought the menu back, studying each of its sections and components. Back then, Hye-jin would reprimand me for taking too long reading everything when we could just forge ahead and understand the game on our own. But—I looked around me for a sliver of a woman with dark hair and a disapproving frown etched deep into her face—she's not here, was she?

So, relishing in my newfound freedom to read things, I skimmed through the menu. There were progress bars with symbols to their left. I had no inkling what those meant, but I could guess these were my stats? Most of them were green, barely past three-quarters of the length. Should be good.

My eyes wandered to the small pocket of space below the bars. It said Location. Curious. Let's see what it's going to tell me. The letters arranged to spell Mystriae greeted me. I raised my eyebrows. Why did that name sound familiar?

Of course. Duh. Solarlume. Ironically the last game I played with Hye-jin before I ended up in this forest. Was the light and me pressing the new button on the home screen connected to this? Maybe. Most likely.

Which meant only one thing—I was somehow inside Solarlume and was able to interact with everything just as I would in a real world. Totally the vibes of the animes I used to watch all throughout my highschool and university days. After all the insanity I've had to live through the past couple of months of paperwork, court appearances, and settlements, being stuck inside a video game suddenly seemed...refreshing.

Shoot. I spaced out. Wrenching my attention back to the menu, I spotted a field next to the bars which was labeled inventory. Couldn't be bad, right? I played this game for years and had gotten far with my recent restart for nostalgia's sake. How were my precious items? It's great to be able to use the special edition Merlaine Dagger, especially if I was in some sort of augmented reality version of it. That'd be so cool.

What stumbled into my view couldn't have been more traumatizing. Apart from the starting bag of money which was enough to get me out of Mystriae and sail towards a city where I would find my first quest, sitting in my inventory list were a spare starting sword with barely any damage inflicts, a pastry roll, and a shovel that couldn't be traded or stolen. It's like you could lose everything but still be left with something to hit the soil with. Great.

There's no Divine ores or any of the equipment I obtained from various quests and limited events. Certainly, there's no Merlaine Dagger.

I noticed the small triangle at the lower right part of the inventory list was muted ocher. This meant I was on the first page and there were no more pages after that. Which also meant that, right now, these were all I have.

"What nice scales you have there, lad," a voice grouched past my preoccupation and grieving for my lost items. "Is this for sale?"

My eyes followed the direction the newcomer's head was. With the menu in the way, it's impossible to tell what they looked like, only that he was a man and he was looking at the pile of metal I had dumped at my feet.

I glanced at the inventory field again, then back at the armor. These were what's left of me in this new world. There's no way I was going to sell my armor, despite how bulky it was. So, I decided to test my theory and focused on the armor pile. The equivalent of clicking buttons in this world should be...thinking about it. With that, I willed my armor to show up in my inventory. Come on.

The armor glowed a faint sheen of green before fading out of existence. The man in front of me made gurgling noises before stepping back, his hand resting somewhere in his side. I straightened and called off the menu, faintly seeing the armor's name being added in my inventory list. Something like Arianda Armor, perhaps?

"No, not for sale," I pushed past the man. Without the menu, I could see the hilt of the sword peeking from the shade of his fur cloak. The man's hand curled around it. Oh, dear. Did I just piss him off? "I should be on my way. I was just resting. Do you know the quickest way to the capital?"

I figured whatever the capital was, it'd give me more clues as to where I was. After that, I'd work to raise my level and gather enough power and knowledge to get out of here. I need to get back to Mom and Kaito, my brother who was born too late into the world. Without me, either or both of them would perish because the world has no place for an abandoned infant and a mad parent who did the abandoning.

That was the plan. For now.

I was about to get past him when I was yanked back by a strong grip around my arm. When I looked down, a meaty hand revealed itself. "Not so fast, boy," the man said, his voice deeper and scratchier than when he first spoke. I guess that's him being nice and this was him being...not nice? "Did you just use spatial conjuring? You can't fool me. You're a mage, aren't you?"

A mage? Last I checked, there were no mages in Solarlume apart from the ones with a high magical affinity in well-formed parties. They're a rare bunch and certainly wouldn't be found wandering a forest on their own.

"If you're indeed one," the man continued while I tried to squirm out of his grip. How about I summon the menu once more, see the skills I could use to get myself out of this situation? "Then you must be loaded. Tons and tons of treasures for me to raid, right?"

"No," I insisted. If I wave my hand over my face, he might take it as a sign of aggression and make me get to the end faster than I anticipated. "I just need to get to town. I have to meet a contact there."

The man snickered. The sound reminded me of a seal in pain I saw once in the ocean exhibit when they visited the city and I had to fill in for my boss. "A contact, huh?" he said. "Lead me to them and I might let you live."

A disturbing question popped in my head. What would happen if I was killed here? Would I leave a pile of items to be exacted like in those multiplayer games? "I'm really sorry but I couldn't help you," I said, racking my head for any attack spell I used in this game before. One came to me. I didn't like what it entailed but it's the only thing I could conjure at this moment. It belonged to one of the starting skills for the race my character belonged in as well.

"Give me the armor or I'll cut off your fingers," the man gruffed. Seeing how confidently he held the hilt of his sword and planted his feet on the ground told me he would make good of that threat if I didn't cooperate.

All the more reason to get out of here, then.

"What do you say, lad?" The man gave my arm a little shake. "Let's have a hearty deal, should we?"

I leveled my gaze to the man's face. It reminded me of how the smug higher-ups with six-figure monthly incomes looked at me. I couldn't bear to see it again, even after my world and my reality has changed. "Sure," I said, my voice flattening to a deadly edge. "Shift."

Something flared inside me—heat or ice, I wasn't sure anymore—and my muscles started expanding and...well, shifting. Information flooded my brain, giving me a brief overview of what this man could do—skills, physical qualities, and mastery. By instinct, I ripped his own grip from my arm which had already matched his. I drew my arm back and threw probably one of the lamest punches I'd ever throw. My fist connected with the man's exposed stomach. Some sort of force built up between my fingers and, with a sonic boom, sent him flying backwards. He slammed into a nearby tree, making the trunk groan. Then, a flurry of red and orange leaves dropped on him.

I would have laughed, would have chosen to whip out my phone and take a picture. Heck, I could have marveled at how the raw power in my veins brought about by my character's most basic skill worked, but the man shot out from the pile of leaves all red in the face. Then, he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Sharply. The sound pierced the whole forest, as well as the voice that came out of his throat. "We've got a mage! All units move!"

Oh. He's not alone.

When the leaves and the canopies rustled with frantic shaking, I turned on my heels and started running.

And I have been doing so since then. My recent memories consisted of slapping branches and vines out of the way, ducking and swerving out of the trajectories of magical energy raining from all known directions, and jumping over exposed roots and fallen logs. The colors of the forest were lost on me. At some point, I summoned the menu and focused on the location menu. Now that I was moving, a blinking red dot moved along with me, like a GPS tracker.

The forest began thinning out. A town or a clearing upcoming. Both not good.

A bolt of white-hot fire whizzed inches from my ear before embedding itself on a blue shrub to my right. It burst into white flames. The yelp that came off my mouth couldn't have been human.

Run.

Then, my muscles tensed up, throwing me out of the loop of my own motions. I sprawled forward. What's happening? I raised my hands to my face. They're back to normal, at least what was considered normal in this world. My skill had run out. Which meant I was back to my wimpy and scrawny body.

A small field flashed in the menu. It read: Shift. An inventive spell specific only to the valdyrsi. It lets them borrow the physical form, qualities, and magical abilities of whoever has physical contact with them. While powerful, the length of retention and the efficacy of the skill depends on the magical and skill capacity of the user and consumes a considerable amount of MP and HP. Cooldown in 1h. 59m and 59s. 59m and 58s...

What in the world? One hour for a skill's cooldown? That's too much! I didn't remember the game to be this hard. The largest cooldown duration I've ever encountered was thirty minutes, and that's usually in the higher level skills and the result of recombined spells. I was screwed. Really, really screwed.

And apparently, my character was called a valdyrsi. Great.

A clearing appeared in the distance. A quick glance in my map told me it was a large blob of beige. By association, the green should mean the forest. So, the beige could only mean one thing—civilization.

Aim for the clearing, then.

The ground beneath me suddenly ballooned, throwing me forward. I slapped the ground, my arm catching my fall. Pain smeared all over my shoulders and neck.

"Got him, boss!" somebody yelled past the ringing building in my ears. I struggled to my feet and noticed the newly-added red bars in the menu. Those should be my health and magic points. Which was which, I'd figure that out later.

A sword slashed across my head. I ducked and rolled away, by pure instinct and the adrenaline rushing through my limbs. Then, I scraped the fallen leaves and grass littering the forest floor just to pull myself into a momentum.

I was back to running.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw flashes of dark fur and different shades of metal glinting in the pockets of sunlight streaming through the canopies and undergrowth. My feet slapped solid cobblestones the moment I leaped over the last curving trunk. The city. I made it. It should be easy to lose them here.

I had never been more wrong.

Not only did they stay on my tail like tics that wouldn't just piss off, they seemed to be herding me somewhere based on their positions on the roofs, the alleys, and the main street. I've never been in enough street fights to have any idea how to get myself out of this mess, and looking at my stats, it didn't look like I could lean on magic too.

A knife streaked past my face, halting me on the spot. It fell to the ground with a hearty clatter. My cheek stung.

Oh, fuck it. Magic, it was. I didn't even realize I was running blind all this time, with the menu blocking most of my view of my surroundings. I focused on the skills list and on the little triangle on the lower left. There were more pages, which meant there were more skills past the starting ones. I might be able to find something.

I turned a random corner, bringing me to a narrower alley. My skills list flitted further and further, but something separated the next pages from the first page. All the latter skills were muted gray. The starting skills were in a white font.

In the gaming world, that could only mean one thing—locked. Inaccessible.

Magic and weapons rained on me from everywhere, making it some sort of miracle. The only injuries I have now were the pain creeping around my shoulder and my neck as well as the stinging cut in my cheek. Would it scar? I was about to find out. Or not.

Because while I was lamenting about my locked skills, I had brought myself into a cul-de-sac.

A dead end.

And like its name, it looked like I would be that too.

"For a skimp, you sure gave us a hard time," the man's familiar voice dripped with venom. I turned and there he was, on his feet, like me using his own strength against him didn't happen. The sound of metal sliding out of a leather scabbard rang into the early morning light. "This ends now. Give us everything you own and we might let you live."

The underlying tone was that if I refused, they'd kill me and take whatever I drop anyway. How do I even say I didn't have anything worthwhile with me? Hey, want a shovel that I'd probably take to the grave with me?

Also, now that I was thinking about it, they didn't look or sound like the game's NPCs. Those programmed dudes wouldn't attack players, much less attempt to rob them. Their function in the game was to provide quests and point users in the right direction. The only villains I could remember from the top of my head were the Monarch and her followers. Other than that, country bumpkins like these fur-coat guys shouldn't have been cornering someone who was basically starting from scratch.

How much has the game changed? How much of these changes was I unaware of?

The man stepped forward, a sword as tall as me pointed forward. "Time's up, boy," he said. "I'll make sure your death is quick."

Then, he charged—just a blur of silver and black fur. I fell backwards, my arms covering my head by instinct. Pain should come soon. A shadow flickered in my vision, blocking most of the sunlight streaming past my eyelids. No pain.

Slowly, I wrenched my eyes open expecting a sword to be jutting out of my body. Instead, a swish of a blue cape and strands of long, blond hair flying with an inexistent breeze greeted me. "Watch and learn, blue boy," she said, turning to me with a grin. Against the sunlight, half of her face was shrouded with shadows, leaving only her teeth glinting. "This is how you deal with bullies."