When Kai woke up, everything hurt.
His head throbbed. His body felt like it had been thrown into a washing machine full of bricks. His ears rang so badly that, for a second, he thought he had gone deaf.
Groaning, he reached up and rubbed one of his ears.
His fingers came away bloody.
“Fuck!”
That single word was followed by several more, most of them creative, all of them heartfelt.
Kai forced himself to breathe.
He didn’t want to die.
Not now.
Not when he had been so close.
Three days. That was all he needed. Three more days and he would have been free from the orphanage. Free to go wherever he wanted. Free to finally get a pet of his own.
He pushed through the pain and started patting around for his phone, planning to call an ambulance.
Then he finally looked up.
Trees.
Lots of trees.
Massive trees.
The kind of trees that looked like they belonged in some fantasy movie where people wore cloaks, carried swords, and spoke in dramatic riddles.
Kai slowly lowered his hand.
“Where am I?”
[The Great Forest of Wyn.]
Kai froze.
Someone had answered him.
The voice sounded like a woman, maybe in her early thirties. Calm. Slow. Almost lazy, like she had all the time in the world and expected everyone else to keep up with her pace.
The problem was that Kai could not see anyone.
He looked left.
Trees.
He looked right.
More trees.
He looked behind him.
Still trees.
No woman. No road. No city. No hospital. No drunk driver. No anything.
Just forest.
Kai sat there in silence for a long moment, trying to decide whether he was injured, hallucinating, kidnapped, dead, or all of the above.
Finally, he swallowed.
“Lady, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know why I can’t see you, but could you at least tell me how to get back to the city?”
The voice did not answer that question.
Instead, it began talking.
And talking.
And talking.
For at least ten straight minutes, the mysterious woman droned on about destiny, legendary monsters, heavenly titles, reincarnation, and several other things Kai immediately filed under “crazy nonsense I do not have the mental stability to deal with right now.”
Naturally, he ignored most of it.
Because, in his defense, he was a reasonably sane person.
Reasonably sane people did not listen to random voices in their heads telling them about monsters and destiny. That was how people ended up either in padded rooms or as the first victim in a horror movie.
Unfortunately, by complete accident, Kai started paying attention at the worst possible moment.
[—to sum it all up, I am the system you received shortly after reincarnating, and you are the Heavenly B—]
“Wait!”
The voice stopped.
Kai sat up so fast his vision blurred.
“Please, Miss System, or whatever your name is, could you repeat that last part? I think I misheard you.”
There was a pause.
[Please do not interrupt me, host. As I was saying, you are the Heavenly B—]
“No, no, no. I don’t think you understand.” Kai’s voice cracked slightly. “I need to go back. I was so close.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
He had been so close to freedom.
So close to having a life that was actually his.
[Host, if you continue interrupting me, I will assume you do not need the rest of my explanation.]
Kai opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Then opened it again.
“But—”
The voice went silent.
Completely silent.
Kai waited.
Nothing.
The forest around him rustled softly in the wind.
His brain started working overtime, trying to piece together what had happened. He remembered the alley. He remembered the woman he saved. He remembered walking back into the sunlight, whistling like an idiot.
After that…
Nothing.
“Did I pass out?” he muttered.
Then it hit him.
Literally.
The truck.
The sound.
The impact.
The sudden blackness.
Kai’s hands curled into fists.
“Dammit.” His voice shook. “Why now?”
He looked up at the canopy of trees above him.
“I was so close! Three days! Three goddamn days!”
For the next few minutes, Kai handled his grief in the healthiest way possible: by angrily insulting every bad driver who had ever existed.
“People who drink and drive should be launched into the sun,” he muttered. “Actually, no. That’s too good for them. Make them retake their driving test forever. In rush hour traffic. With a screaming baby in the back seat.”
Somehow, that made him feel slightly better.
Not good.
But better.
Once he calmed down enough to think, Kai realized something deeply unpleasant.
The voice had probably been telling the truth.
After all, he should not have been breathing. He definitely should not have been sitting in the middle of some giant fantasy forest with only minor injuries and a mysterious woman talking inside his skull.
Which meant he had probably ignored the most important explanation of his life.
Kai squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember what she had said.
Nothing useful came back.
Just words like destiny, monsters, and heavenly something.
Great.
Perfect.
Amazing.
He had died, reincarnated, received a fantasy system, and immediately failed the tutorial.
Kai cleared his throat.
“Excuse me, Miss System?”
No answer.
“I am ready to listen now, if you wouldn’t mind. Also, I apologize for interrupting you earlier. In my defense, I had just woken up bleeding in a forest after apparently dying, so I feel like a little panic was justified.”
For a while, there was only silence.
Then, finally, the voice returned.
[Thank you for the attempt, host.]
Kai almost cried from relief.
[However, I am not like those other systems that forgive their hosts after being ignored, interrupted, and treated like background noise.]
Kai’s relief immediately began to die.
“Uh…”
[Therefore, I have decided to lock the nonessential information you ignored behind a paywall.]
Kai stared blankly into the air.
“A paywall?”
[Correct.]
“A paywall.”
[Yes.]
“You are a voice in my head.”
[And you are a dead orphan in a monster forest. We all have our issues.]
Kai had no idea how to respond to that.
[That being said, I am not heartless. I will provide you with the basic information necessary for survival. Perhaps this will teach you to listen properly in the future.]
Kai wanted to argue.
He really did.
But considering he was stranded in an unknown forest with no food, no phone, no map, and no idea what kind of monsters existed here, he decided that maybe arguing with the only being willing to explain anything was a terrible idea.
So he swallowed his pride.
For now.
“Understood. Please continue.”
The system sounded almost pleased.
[Host, you possess a unique class. The exact nature of that class is information you will need to discover on your own. What I can tell you is that it is powerful when used correctly, and no one else in this world possesses it.]
Kai frowned.
“A unique class?”
[Correct.]
“That sounds important.”
[It is.]
“And you locked the details behind a paywall.”
[Also correct.]
Kai rubbed his face. “I hate it here already.”
[You were chosen to reincarnate because of the good karma surrounding you shortly before your death. It seems you performed a significant good deed less than ten minutes before your life ended. Because of that, the ones in charge looked favorably in your direction.]
Kai thought of Tasha.
The alley.
The pipe.
The man on the ground.
His stomach twisted slightly.
“So I got reincarnated because I helped someone?”
[In simple terms, yes.]
Kai looked down at his hands.
He did not know how to feel about that.
[Regarding your current condition, you have several minor injuries, but nothing permanent. You are bruised, scratched, and bleeding slightly, but you are not in immediate danger from your wounds.]
“That’s… good, I guess.”
[As for your location, you are inside the Great Forest of Wyn. More detailed information about the region was included in the explanation you ignored.]
Kai winced.
[For now, you only need to know that if you wish to leave this forest, you should climb the mountain directly to your right.]
Kai turned his head.
Sure enough, beyond the endless trees, he could see a mountain rising into the sky. It was not impossibly huge, but it was still big enough to make his legs hurt just looking at it.
If he had to guess, it was probably around the height of an average skyscraper.
“That’s the way out?”
[That is the best place to get your bearings.]
“That is not the same thing as a way out.”
[Congratulations. Your listening skills are improving.]
Kai narrowed his eyes.
The system ignored him.
[Finally, your mission.]
Kai went still.
[Host, you have been selected as someone destined to play an important role in this world. Under normal circumstances, I would guide you through the early stages of your growth.]
“Under normal circumstances?”
[Unfortunately, due to your earlier behavior, I will now enter dormant mode until you have made enough progress to warrant further assistance.]
Kai stared into the empty air.
“You’re leaving?”
[Dormant mode does not mean I will disappear completely. You will still have access to basic functions such as status, missions, and other minor features. However, you will need to learn how they work on your own.]
“That seems harsh.”
[So does ignoring someone who is trying to explain why you are not dead.]
“I had just died!”
[And I had just introduced myself.]
Kai opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
He hated that he did not have a good response.
[Do your best, host.]
The voice faded.
“Wait, hold on—”
A translucent screen suddenly appeared in front of his face.
Kai screamed.
To be fair, anyone would have screamed if a glowing window randomly popped into existence two inches from their nose after they had already been hit by a truck, reincarnated, lectured by a petty system, and abandoned in a monster forest.
His brain, having apparently reached its limit for the day, made an executive decision.
Kai’s eyes rolled back.
And for the second time in less than an hour, he passed out cold on the forest floor.