The air was cool as he sat silently atop the massive rock, the one he now realized had been his strange bed the moment he awoke in this unknown place. The sun filtered through the dense canopy above, rays of soft orange and pink light trickling down like gentle whispers from the sky. Around him, the forest was alive—leaves fluttered with the breeze, casting dancing shadows over the ground, and the distant chirping of unfamiliar birds blended with the occasional rustle of small creatures hidden among thick roots and glowing flowers.
He looked down at the items he'd emptied from the bag. The bag itself was ordinary—a dusty, worn black one he used to carry to part-time jobs in his last life. And yet, here it was. Real. Tangible. It smelled of the world he came from.
A pair of glasses, two smartphones, and a tangled pair of wireless earbuds sat in the grassy patch beside him. He stared at them for a long time, trying to understand—trying to believe.
How could these things have followed him here?
He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, hands dangling as his thoughts spiraled into a quiet storm.
> "Why am I here…? How did I get here…?"
Dozens of theories ran through his head like broken memories trying to rebuild themselves.
> Did I inherit this body? Was there someone else before me?
> Or… did I die and get pulled here as I was? Is this reincarnation? Transmigration?
He narrowed his eyes, the weight of possibility pressing on his chest. Or maybe… I always belonged to this world. Maybe I'm only now remembering it. A second life after a forgotten first.
He paused, holding his breath as if something would click into place—like a memory hidden in the folds of a dream. But there was nothing. Just silence and the distant hum of wind weaving through trees.
"I could be in a dream," he muttered. "Or a game… a world from a novel?"
The thought stirred something deeper. He had read a novel once—Chronicles of the Future, he recalled, faintly. A fantasy world. Politics, magic, mystery. The name of the world in that novel echoed through his mind.
Loria.
His breath caught in his throat.
He glanced up at the vibrant forest that surrounded him. Trees with deep violet leaves stretched toward the sky, their trunks thick and curled like ancient guardians. Glowing firefly-like specks danced lazily through the air, and strange blooming flowers dotted the field, their colors impossibly vivid—purples, blues, and golds never seen in his old world. The path he had walked earlier was now fading behind mist, as if urging him to only move forward.
It didn't feel like a dream. It felt more real than anything he had known.
With a deep sigh, he turned back to the items beside him and slowly reached out for the glasses.
They were the exact pair his parents gave him. He held them gently, the thin metal frame trembling slightly in his hands. His fingers brushed over the lenses, and his heart swelled with emotion.
> "Dad… Mom… You gave me these the year I started middle school."
His voice cracked with the whisper. The weight of that memory, of their warm smiles, hit him like a wave.
He held the glasses to his chest and closed his eyes. "Did I do okay?" he murmured. "Was I… good enough for her?"
His thoughts wandered to his sister—her laugh, her kindness, the way she always covered for him when he got into trouble. He wanted to cry, but something held him back. Not because he wasn't sad, but because he knew she'd want him to be strong.
> "If she saw me like this… what would she say?"
He strengthened his heart and brought the glasses up to his face. Just as he placed them on, he noticed it—a fine crack running along one lens.
A small sigh escaped him.
> "It must've cracked in the fall… during whatever brought me here."
He wasn't angry, but the sight of it hurt—like seeing a part of his old life damaged. Still, he adjusted the glasses. They sat awkwardly on his face, slightly too large for his current frame.
He frowned. "Did I shrink?" he wondered. "Is this body younger…?"
Just then, the glasses shimmered. Without warning, the frame began to shrink, gently molding to his face. The lenses adjusted perfectly, like liquid glass becoming whole.
He blinked in disbelief.
Before he could even react, a sharp sound rang in his ears—
"Dding!"
He flinched.
The sound came from the earbuds resting beside him. Slowly, cautiously, he picked them up. They felt normal—cool, slightly dusty, but normal. Yet the sound… it wasn't just a notification. It was intentional.
His heart began to race. With great care, unlike the carelessness he used to show in his old life, he inserted the earbuds, his fingers trembling just slightly.
Then he saw it.
A flicker.
In front of his eyes, a glowing screen appeared in mid-air—like a hologram, but far more vivid.
> Loading…
His breath stopped.
He yanked the glasses off. The screen vanished. He stared at the empty space.
Silence.
He slid the glasses back on.
> Loading…
His skin crawled. Goosebumps rose on his arms. He repeated the process twice more to make sure.
> Glasses on — screen there.
Glasses off — nothing.
Glasses on — screen again.
He sat still, heart pounding.
> "What the hell is this…?"
As the final "Loading…" flickered away, new words scrolled into place in a soft golden hue:
> Welcome.
The same mechanical voice echoed again in his earbuds, calm and clear.
"Welcome."
He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what this meant.
All he could do… was sit there, quietly, on the stone that had cradled his body when he awoke. The forest surrounded him, painted in magic and mystery, its colors deepening with the waning sun. A single bird soared across the lightbeam that pierced the treetops above, vanishing into the canopy like a thought escaping words.
The wind whispered against his cheek.
He didn't speak.
He simply watched—glasses on his face, earbuds humming softly in his ears—as the world of Loria slowly opened before him.