The void was dead silent, save for a pale tear hovering in the dark.
Lilitha looked small enough to fit inside a trunk, her frail frame practically swallowed by the giant chair she sat in.
A soot-stained dress swirled around her ankles, and her silver twin-tails—dipped in ink-black at the tips—swung back and forth as she crunched angrily on a hard candy.
On the screen, a young man lay face-down in the dirt.
"Come on," she grumbled, crossing her arms. "Wake UP already. I’m getting bored."
She leaned forward, her huge, lightless eyes glued to the glass.
On the screen, his fingers twitched.
A mean grin split her pale face, and her small feet kicked the air.
"FINALLY," she giggled, tapping a tiny black nail against his forehead on the glass. "Took you long enough, you miserable bastard. Show me what kind of hero you’re gonna be."
On screen, his eyes slowly opened.
Her voice echoed through his head, loud and harsh.
"WAKE UP!!"
***
I stood in the middle of a dense pine forest, freezing.
The morning air cut straight through my damp clothes.
My head throbbed with a dull ache, and every breath tasted like wet dirt and pine.
Huge trees towered around me, blocking out the sky, while a narrow dirt path disappeared between them.
In the distance, wood cracked once. Then silence.
I pressed my fingers to my temple, trying to understand what had happened.
The last thing I remembered was sitting at my desk late at night, finishing another Chapter of Miracles.
Before that, I’d been talking to my sister.
She needed my help with something the next day, and after a little arguing, I’d finally agreed. She’d made me promise not to forget.
I remembered laughing at her before opening my laptop again and finishing the Chapter.
I saved it, closed the laptop, and went to bed.
That was it.
Everything after was a blank wall.
A flicker of silver appeared in front of my face. Thin lines crossed through the air, forming a translucent box.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SIGIL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Aseren Voric Azthal
Classification: Human
Status: Unawakened
Rank: —
Evolution: —
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stared at it before reaching out.
My hand passed straight through the box, which rippled like water before dissolving into tiny points of light.
"...What?"
I dropped to one knee and grabbed a handful of dirt.
Cold. Rough. Mud pressed beneath my fingernails.
It was real.
I looked at the Sigil again.
The design was familiar.
I’d seen it before in the Wiki whose setting I’d later turned into Miracles. The terminology was the same. The system was the same.
My stomach tightened.
"No..."
The realization came slowly.
If the Sigil was real, then what about the rest of it?
The Gates.
The Horrors.
The world I’d been been writing about.
A nervous laugh escaped me.
"No, no, no..."
I stared at the empty space where the Sigil had disappeared.
"There’s no way."
But there was.
I knew this system. I knew the world it came from. I’d spent countless hours studying it before taking its setting and turning it into my own novel.
Then another thought surfaced.
Maybe this was the wiki.
Maybe I’d somehow been thrown into the world that had inspired Miracles.
But that wasn’t the only possibility.
What if I wasn’t in the game at all?
What if I was inside Miracles?
My blood ran cold.
I’d taken the game’s setting, changed it, expanded it, and built an entire story around it.
I’d borrowed characters, locations, lore, and monsters, then convinced myself that changing enough of them made it something original.
I’d plagiarized the damn thing.
And now I was here.
I looked around the forest.
"Is this because of that?"
My voice came out quieter than I expected.
"Did I actually get punished for plagiarizing?"
I swallowed.
"IS THIS SOME KIND OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT!?"
The thought sounded ridiculous, but standing in a world that should never have existed outside a screen, I couldn’t exactly dismiss it.
Maybe whoever owned this world had finally decided to collect the debt.
Maybe this was the price.
I’d stolen their story.
Now I’d been thrown into it.
My eyes slowly widened.
"...Did they send me here?"
The forest remained silent.
I let out a shaky breath.
"Fuck."
If this really was [Miracles], then It was fine.
But if this was [The Fallen Realm], then I was as good as doomed.
That damned wiki was filled with monsters beyond comprehension, and to make matters worse, the entire setting was dark fantasy.
Humanity was barely surviving, the Horrors were anything but predictable, and death was practically woven into the world itself.
I didn’t even want to imagine what could be waiting for me out there.
Panicking wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I had to move. Touching the ring in my pocket one last time, I picked up the pace and headed toward the sound of chopping wood.
The smell of fresh-cut timber reached me before I saw anything, mixed with wood smoke drifting through the trees, warm enough to stand out against the cold forest air.
The trail beneath my feet widened, the dense pines gradually giving way until I finally stepped out from the tree line.
A village stretched across the valley below.
Timber houses gathered around a wide square, smoke drifting from stone chimneys.
Farmers unloaded grain sacks and split logs near stacks of firewood. A blacksmith worked under an open forge, each hammer blow resonating in the morning air.
Children ran between wagons, oblivious to anything beyond the walls.
It appeared calm, almost too calm.
A weathered wooden sign stood beside the road. Millhaven.
I frowned. The name didn’t have any significance to me; I hadn’t come across it in the wiki.
Still, something about this place made my shoulders tense.
It might have been the feeling of isolation, or the fact that I woke up alone in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe it was simply because my instincts hadn’t stopped screaming since I opened my eyes.
I glanced back. The forest behind me stood completely still.
Then someone shouted.
"HEY!"
A man stood beside the village gate, waving both arms. Gray beard, heavy hunting coat, a rifle resting across his shoulder.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE?!"
Before I could answer, his face drained of color. His eyes weren’t on me anymore. They were fixed somewhere behind me.
"RUN!"
He sprinted toward me. The forest erupted.
Branches snapped. Trees bent violently as something enormous forced its way through them.
The hunter grabbed my arm and shoved me forward. "Move!"
The gate burst into motion.
Villagers rushed to either side, throwing their weight against the thick wooden doors. Others dragged a heavy timber beam into place.
The instant I crossed the threshold, a loud impact rattled the walls, dust drifting from the beams overhead.
Children cried out. Another crash followed almost immediately.
The hunter kept one hand against the gate, breathing heavily.
"You’re lucky I found you." His voice barely rose above a whisper. "If I’d found you any later, you’d be as good as dead."
Silence reigned. They just waited patiently.
Then the church bell sounded once, and the hunter closed his eyes.
A cold sense of dread settled over me.
I tried to push it aside, but something in my gut refused to let me.
"Guess you owe me one," the hunter said with a tired grin. "Another few seconds and that abomination would’ve gotten to you first."
I swallowed and said, "Thank you."
My thoughts were a mess. Fear, confusion, disbelief.
I latched onto the first question I could. "Just where am I?"
The hunter let out a weary sigh, eyes never leaving the gate. "Hell."
Wait... what the fuck does he mean, hell?!
A few uneasy laughs broke the silence before quickly fading.
He shifted the rifle on his shoulder. "Each night, those creatures emerge from the forest."
Oh... so it’s just Horrors. Probably.
Still...
I’m not even awakened yet. Hell, I don’t even think those people are awakened either.
...Am I fucked?
His expression darkened. "That’s about all we know. We don’t know where they came from or why they showed up."
He glanced toward the walls. "We’ve tried leaving."
A humorless chuckle escaped him. He nodded toward the gate. "There’s only more of them."
I’d consider myself lucky, then.
I wandered through that forest without seeing a single one until I got close.
"...You’re saying an entire village is trapped due to whatever’s happening outside? Has anyone managed to get through? Or is everyone who’s tried just... gone?"
"Everyone who tried either got eaten or never returned," the hunter said, his voice tinged with sadness.
"I see. My condolences," I said, lowering my head in contemplation.
A rugged man with a shaved head and rough stubble shouted from somewhere nearby. "WILLARD, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO LET THIS KID STAY?"
Another man beside him clenched his fists, his expression tense. "We’re already short on rations. Adding one more person means we’ll run out even faster. Before long, we’ll all be dead."
One thing was certain. I wasn’t on the original Earth. Maybe this was the False World. They looked human, but their clothes and mannerisms felt unfamiliar.
I had to find a way to return.
"SHUT UP!" Willard snapped back, disappointment clear in his tone. "Would you rather I leave a kid outside the gate to fend for himself? To die when I could’ve saved him? Is that something you could live with?"
The men fell silent.
"That’s not what we mean," the rugged man muttered. "If we take him in, we’ll burn through our supplies faster. Eventually, we’ll be forced to make choices we don’t want to make."
"Yeah... that’s what we’re saying."
A moment passed before the rugged man sighed, lowering his gaze. "Sorry, Willard. I panicked. With everything happening..."
"It’s fine." Willard shook his head. "But you all need to get your heads straight."
His eyes moved toward the sealed gate, beyond which the horrors of the outside world waited.
"Even if those things are roaming out there, we’re still human. If it comes to that, I’ll give him part of my rations."
I approached Willard and lowered my head slightly. "I’m truly grateful you’re letting me stay. I’ll do whatever I can to help. I won’t be a burden."
Willard looked at me for a moment before letting out a tired sigh. "I’ll take your word for it. Just ignore those old bastards. They’ve been stuck in this place for too long and started losing their minds."
His tone was sharp, but there was no real hostility behind it.
I couldn’t help but laugh internally.
Coming from him, that was almost amusing. He wasn’t exactly young himself. If anything, he looked just as old as the people he was calling senile.
"It’s fine. I understand where they’re coming from. I’m a stranger who suddenly appeared and expects to be taken in. I’d probably have the same concerns if I were in their position. Besides, I’m not even part of this village. I can’t blame them for being cautious."
Willard studied me for a moment, as if deciding something, then looked past me toward the houses deeper inside the village. "Since you’re willing to help, I’ve got something you can do."
I raised an eyebrow. "Something?"
He nodded. "One of the women here is pregnant. She’s been having a rough time lately, and with everything going on, we don’t have enough hands to keep an eye on everyone."
His gaze returned to me. "Could you check on her for a while? Make sure she has what she needs. If anything seems wrong, find me."
I glanced toward the direction he was looking.
A strange request. I had just arrived, knew nothing about this place, and the first thing they trusted me with was looking after someone vulnerable.
Either Willard was far too trusting, or he was the kind of person who had no choice but to rely on strangers when things became this desperate.
"I can do that," I said.
Willard gave a small nod. "Good. Her name’s Eliza. House near the eastern wall. You’ll recognize it." He paused. "And don’t worry about what the others said. They’re scared, but they’re not bad people."
"I understand."
The village was bigger than I’d thought.
I made my way east, taking my time instead of rushing.
People were busy wherever I looked.
A pair of men patched a damaged roof while another hauled buckets of water across the street. Someone was splitting firewood beside a stack already taller than him. Near the wall, a few hunters sat in silence, sharpening blades and checking their rifles.
No one was idle. They worked because the work had to be done.
I kept walking, quietly looking around.
The place wasn’t abandoned, nor was it bustling. It simply carried on, as though everyone had already accepted that this was their life now.
Soon enough, I’d reached the woman’s house.
It was a modest wooden home near the eastern wall, its roof patched together with mismatched planks. A small pile of chopped firewood rested beside the porch.
I knocked and waited.
The floorboards creaked from inside, a few slow footsteps approaching the door before stopping just behind it.
The latch clicked, and the door opened just enough for a young woman to peek through.
She looked to be in her twenties. Her face was pale, with tired eyes and loose brown hair falling over her shoulders.
One hand rested protectively against her stomach.
She studied me for a moment, clearly confused.
"...Can I help you?" she asked quietly.
"Eliza, right?" I asked.
Her brows furrowed. "...Yeah. And who are you?" Her eyes swept over me. "I don’t recognize you. You’re not from the village."
There was more caution than hostility in her voice.
"I’m not," I admitted. "Willard found me outside the gates this morning."
Her expression stiffened. "Outside...?"
I nodded. "He asked me to check in on you. Said you weren’t having an easy time with the pregnancy."
She didn’t answer immediately, studying my face, weighing my words.
Then she let out a quiet sigh and opened the door a little wider.
"I see... Willard’s always been thoughtful." Eliza smiled faintly, though the exhaustion on her face made it hard for the expression to last. She stepped aside. "Come in."
I stepped inside.
The house was small. A single table stood near the center of the room, a wood stove crackled quietly in the corner, and a few shelves held neatly stacked jars that looked emptier than they should have been.
Eliza eased herself into a chair, one hand resting on her stomach before letting out a slow breath. "Sorry. I would’ve cleaned up if I’d known someone was coming."
I shook my head. "It looks fine."
She gave a tired smile. "Willard sent you to help, didn’t he?"
A beat of silence passed before she glanced toward two empty buckets leaning against the wall. "...If you really don’t mind, could you fetch some water from the well?"
Bold. I’d barely stepped through the door, and she was already putting me to work.
Then again, I wasn’t really in a position to complain since I was about to eat their food, stay behind their walls, and hadn’t contributed anything yet.
Fair enough.
"I can do that," I replied.
A look of relief crossed Eliza’s face. "Thank you," she said with a faint smile.