I was a nobody in the real world, drifting through empty days without a steady job, barely scraping by on part-time shifts restocking supermarket shelves.
Until that afternoon.
“Hi.”
A woman with fiery red hair and striking purple eyes stood in front of me, dressed in a simple green top that accentuated her fair skin. I recognized her immediately. She was Clara, an internet sensation who had exploded on TikTok overnight, racking up tens of thousands of followers in a matter of hours. Easily one of the most stunning rising stars online.
I usually avoided talking to people like her because my words tended to trip over themselves.
“Me?” I managed to ask, forced into the conversation.
“Yes.”
“Uh… what can I help you with?” I assumed she was looking for a specific aisle.
“Can I ask you out for dinner?”
“What!?”
“I’m sorry, it’s out of the blue, but please say yes.”
“Are there any hidden cameras on you right now?” I looked around cautiously. “Drop it, I don’t want to be in a prank YouTube video.”
“No…” She pleaded softly. “I promise, I’ll explain myself, but not now.”
“Nah.” Panic flared up inside me. “There’s no way you want to date me. Just drop it, okay? Again, please don’t tape me for your YouTube or TikTok channel.”
I turned around and walked away.
That night, I tossed and turned in bed. My mind spun in circles, endlessly reviewing the interaction, debating whether rejecting Clara was a stroke of rational defense or the absolute pinnacle of stupidity. On top of that, the lingering memory of her beauty and the subtle, clean scent that drifted from her presence kept my chest tight and restless.
Eventually, I drifted off. What followed was my very first crossing.
At the time, I thought it was merely a vivid dream, but everything felt brutally real.
A translucent blue status screen flickered into existence right above my palm.
[Status Screen]
Name: Lee
Level: 1
Class: None
Attributes:
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Endurance: 0
Intelligence: 0
Perception: 0
Charisma: 0
Combat Skills:
None
General Skills:
None
I was still wearing the loose cotton T-shirt and grey sweatpants I had gone to sleep in, and when I tapped my pocket, my foam earplugs were still tucked inside.
Before I could process the absurdity of it, a guttural snarl broke the silence. A mangy hound rushed out from a shadowy alleyway, barking violently at me. The surroundings were straight out of a bleak medieval nightmare: crooked timber houses leaning precariously over narrow lanes, the heavy stench of rotting straw and damp wood smoke hanging thick in the freezing air.
I stumbled backward in sheer panic, caught my heel on a wagon wheel, and plunged face-first into the mud. The impact knocked the wind right out of me, and darkness swallowed my consciousness almost instantly.
Right as I blacked out, faint notification boxes blinked into my peripheral vision.
[Pain Tolerance increased to 1]
[Natural Resistance increased to 1]
What the hell…
I bolted upright in my own bed, gasping for air and sweating through my sheets. The sting on my forehead and the bitter cold felt entirely too vivid to be a trick of my imagination.
Driven by an inexplicable urge, I drove down to the local gun shop the next morning, paid cash, and walked out with a Glock 19 and a loaded 10-round magazine. Pure curiosity gnawed at me. I wanted to see if that world would pull me back.
That night, I kept the loaded Glock inside my sweatpants pocket and closed my eyes.
The world shattered and reformed, plunging me straight back into the cold, muddy air of the medieval realm.
As I took in my surroundings, the sound of horse hooves and clashing metal caught my attention.
A squad of fully armed knights marched across the square. They wore heavy plate armor and carried longswords at their waists, pushing the surrounding civilians back with vigilance. A woman wearing a dark velvet cloak walked in the center of the knight escort. She clearly held a very high status, and the townspeople moved out of the way.
"Countess... my lady." They quickly bowed their heads.
Countess?
When the group reached the center of the square, the countess suddenly stopped walking. She turned her head, and her gaze cut straight through the crowd to lock onto my exact position.
She walked straight toward me, and her knight bodyguards followed immediately. They rested their hands on their sword hilts and stared at me with hostile eyes, clearly suspicious of my strange clothing.
Oh damn… It doesn’t look good, I was thinking.
She stopped about three steps away from me and reached up to pull back her hood.
Bright red hair spilled out, revealing her fair skin and those familiar purple eyes.
It was Clara!?
“I finally found you.”
I froze in place. “You know who I am?”
“I know. You’re Lee.”
“What the hell is going on? Why are you here? You’re Clara, the influencer, right?”
"I will keep it short," Clara said quickly. "Recently, I started crossing over to your world every time I went to sleep. I had no friends in your world, so I had to rely on my appearance to gather resources. The court witch and her crystal ball showed me that our souls were tethered. I do not know who cast this high-tier magic, but the witch predicted that you would soon be pulled by this force and cross over here as well… And here you are."
“But you did hell of a job gathering resources; I bet you’re richer than most of us.”
“That doesn’t matter.” She said, “I just want everything back to normal.”
“Ah… that’s why you wanted to grab dinner with me.”
“I wanted to prepare you,” Clara said, scanning me with a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness you didn’t die.”
“What happens if I die here?”
Her expression darkened. "Our souls are bound. If you die in this world, I will die too."
“Oh shit,” I muttered, letting out a dry breath. “Good thing I only knocked myself out yesterday. If that dog had bitten my neck, we would both be finished.”
“Dog?”
“A… a very big and deadly dog, of course.”
"Anyway, it is not safe here, because border wars and heretic cultists are everywhere." Clara took a step closer to me, and her tone grew firm. "Since you have crossed over, I will do my best to protect you in this realm. My knight order will ensure your safety. You need time to adapt to the rules here."
I looked at her serious expression and the heavily armed knights surrounding us. They looked well-trained, and they certainly provided a strong defensive force. However, I knew it was foolish to place all my hopes of survival in the hands of others.
Wrapping my fingers around the textured polymer grip of the Glock, I replied: “Don't worry about that. I brought something a lot more practical than swords.”
Before she could question my words, a hooded figure darted out from the surrounding crowd, brandishing a poisoned dagger aimed straight at Clara’s throat.
I drew the Glock, leveled the barrel at the assassin's chest, and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
A deafening crack tore through the square, accompanied by a bright muzzle flash. The heavy nine-millimeter slug punched through the attacker's leather armor, dropping the assassin instantly to the stone floor in a heap of limp limbs and dark blood.
A chime echoed in my ears as text materialized before my eyes.
[Processing…]
[Shooting Proficiency increased to 25]
[Level up!]
[Status Screen]
Name: Lee
Level: 2
Class: Marksman
Agility: +5
Perception: +5
The sharp smell of gunpowder filled the air. All the knights stood frozen in place as if they had turned to stone, their hands hovering over their hilts, while the entire square fell into stunned, dead silence.
Clara stared at me, breathing heavily.
[Charisma increased to 10]
[Reputation increased to 20]
Fuck... what just happened?