Kai slowly regained consciousness.
For a few peaceful seconds, he forgot everything.
Then the glowing screen floating in front of his face reminded him.
Right.
Dead. Reincarnated. Forest. Petty system. Possible monsters.
Great.
Kai groaned and pushed himself up from the ground. His body still ached, but at least nothing felt broken. The screen hovered silently in front of him, waiting like it had all the patience in the world.
He stared at it.
The first thing he noticed was that it looked nothing like the stat screens he had seen in games.
There was no health bar.
No mana bar.
No stamina bar.
No convenient numbers telling him how close he was to dying.
Honestly, that last part felt important.
The only things he recognized were a personal information page and a skills menu. His personal information was basic enough: name, race, age, height, and other details that were only mildly horrifying to see listed on a floating magic screen.
The skills menu, however, was a mess.
There was a section labeled class skills, but the first unlocked skill was covered by a thick black censor bar.
Below it were four more skills, all locked.
No explanations.
No requirements.
No hints.
Nothing.
Kai stared at the censor bar.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
He tapped it.
Nothing happened.
He tapped harder.
Still nothing.
He tried swiping, poking, dragging, pinching, and even whispering “open sesame” like an idiot.
Eventually, after several minutes of fighting for his life against a floating menu, he accidentally swiped across the screen with two fingers.
The page changed.
Kai blinked.
“Well, that would’ve been nice to know.”
A new list appeared in front of him.
System Functions
XP Bar: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Quest Page: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
HP Bar: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Stamina Bar: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Mana Bar: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Bestiary: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Class Information: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
World Information: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
World Map: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Companions Menu: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Kai read the list once.
Then twice.
Then a third time, just in case his brain had somehow missed the part where it became useful.
It had not.
Everything was locked.
Everything needed “insight.”
And, of course, the system had not bothered to explain what insight actually was.
Kai rubbed his temples.
“So, let me get this straight. I died, got reincarnated into a monster forest, received a system, and the system came pre-installed with microtransactions?”
The screen did not respond.
“Fantastic. Love that. Very fair and balanced.”
He continued messing with the screen for a while, hoping there was some hidden tutorial button or beginner package.
There was not.
Eventually, Kai gave up.
The system had told him to climb the mountain to his right. Since that was the only advice he had, and since sitting around in a forest waiting to be eaten seemed like a bad long-term plan, he decided to follow it.
“Fine,” he muttered. “Mountain it is.”
The moment he made up his mind, the screen flashed.
[Insight Gained: Quest Page Unlocked!]
Kai froze.
He stared at the message.
Then he stared harder.
“What?”
The screen waited innocently.
Kai immediately tried to figure out what he had done.
Had he made a decision?
Was that insight?
Was insight just thinking hard enough?
Did he need to emotionally grow? Learn life lessons? Touch grass? He was already in a forest, so that one seemed unfair.
For ten long minutes, Kai stood there trying to reverse-engineer magic user interface logic.
After getting nowhere, he finally sighed.
“Okay. Either I accidentally learned something important, or the system took pity on me.”
He paused.
“Probably pity.”
Kai swiped back to the menu and found a new page waiting for him.
Quest Page
Current Main Quest:
1. Fulfill your destiny and defeat {Redacted}
Current Side Quests:
1. Follow the final advice of your system
2. Win your first fight
Rewards:
Reward Information: Locked
Requirement: Insight Required
Kai stared at the first main quest.
Defeat redacted.
Not a name.
Not a title.
Not even a vague description.
Just redacted.
He slowly inhaled.
Then exhaled.
“What the fuck is wrong with this piece of garbage?”
His voice echoed slightly through the trees.
A bird somewhere nearby took off in a panic.
Kai pointed at the screen.
“No, seriously. How am I supposed to fulfill my destiny if my destiny has been censored? Am I fighting a person? A monster? A nation? A particularly aggressive squirrel?”
The screen did not answer.
Kai’s eye twitched.
“And the rewards are locked too? Of course they are. Why would I be allowed to know what I’m risking my life for?”
He grumbled for another minute, mostly because complaining was the only thing stopping him from screaming.
Still, nothing about the quest page changed his plan. The mountain was still his best option. And apparently, following the system’s last piece of advice counted as a side quest.
Maybe he would get something useful when he reached it.
Or maybe the reward would also be censored.
Honestly, at this point, Kai would not have been surprised if the reward was “character development.”
With a final glare at the menu, he closed it.
This time, it stayed closed.
“Small miracles,” he muttered.
Then he started walking.
The forest was strangely quiet.
Too quiet.
Kai had spent enough time outside to know that forests were not supposed to be silent. There should have been birds, insects, rustling leaves, or at least something moving in the underbrush.
Instead, there was only the sound of his footsteps and the occasional breeze passing through the trees.
It made every step feel louder than it should.
After about ten minutes, Kai heard something.
Fast.
Very fast.
Branches snapped somewhere ahead of him. Leaves shook violently. Something heavy was moving through the forest at a speed that made no sense.
Kai’s heart dropped.
“Nope.”
He dove behind a bush just as something burst through a wall of trees.
It was a wolf.
At least, Kai thought it was a wolf.
It was much bigger than any wolf he had ever seen. Its fur was jet black, so dark it seemed to swallow the light around it. Its shoulders were broad, its legs powerful, and its teeth were far too large to be reasonable.
Blood dripped from its jaws.
A lot of blood.
Kai pressed a hand over his mouth.
He loved animals.
He really did.
Dogs, cats, snakes, birds, rats, lizards—he loved them all.
But this thing?
This thing looked like it ate bears for breakfast and still had room for dessert.
The wolf stopped.
Its ears twitched.
Then it sniffed the air.
Kai’s entire body went cold.
Slowly, the wolf turned its head toward his hiding spot.
Their eyes met through the leaves.
Kai’s soul briefly attempted to leave his body a second time.
The wolf padded toward him.
Not charging.
Not growling.
Just walking.
Somehow, that was worse.
Kai stayed frozen as the massive beast stepped around the bush. It lowered its head and sniffed him. Its nose brushed against his sleeve.
Kai did not breathe.
The wolf circled him once.
Then twice.
It sniffed his hands, his shoes, his hair, and the blood on his ear. Despite the blood coating its own mouth, it did not seem aggressive. It almost seemed… curious.
Unfortunately, Kai was far too terrified to notice that.
The moment the wolf’s head came close again, Kai’s courage abandoned him completely.
He jumped backward.
“NOPE!”
Then he ran.
He ran like his life depended on it.
Which, to be fair, it probably did.
Branches slapped his face. Roots tried to murder his ankles. His lungs burned. His legs screamed. At one point, he was pretty sure he jumped over something that hissed at him, but he refused to look back and confirm it.
After what felt like hours, Kai finally stumbled to a stop, leaning against a tree and gasping for breath.
He looked behind him.
No wolf.
No glowing eyes.
No giant teeth.
Nothing.
Kai slid down the tree and sat on the ground.
“Okay,” he wheezed. “First enemy encounter survived.”
He paused.
“Not heroically. But survived.”
He took a few more breaths, trying to convince his body that it did not need to pass out again.
When he finally looked around, he realized something surprising.
The mountain was much closer now.
Its base rose not far ahead, cutting through the trees like a wall of stone. The sight made his stomach twist with both relief and dread.
He had made progress.
Accidentally, while fleeing for his life, but progress was progress.
Kai stood on shaky legs and dusted himself off.
“Great,” he muttered. “Only had to nearly get eaten to find the right direction.”
He glanced back into the forest one more time.
Somewhere far behind him, a low howl echoed through the trees.
Kai went stiff.
Then he turned toward the mountain.
“Yeah. Climbing suddenly sounds amazing.”
And with that, he began walking toward the base.