In the heart of the Lamdal Capital, Starlight Castle stood tall as a monument of power.
Inside the meeting room that served as the base for the Pioneer Guild, a giant round table of ebony wood was surrounded by twenty-three chairs. At the head seat, carved with greater grandeur, sat the guild master, Alphonse.
Right by his right hand, the Stella Obscura—a pitch-black crystal containing a miniature nebula—hovered calmly.
Seeing all members present, Alphonse glanced at the clock in the corner of his system interface. He tapped the ebony table twice with his knuckles. The knock was not loud, yet it was enough to bring all chatter to an instant halt.
Twenty-two pairs of eyes now fixed upon him. The atmosphere in the room completely shifted in the blink of an eye; from a casual gathering of friends, it turned into the command center of a warlord.
Alphonse's golden eyes glinted. He raised his left hand.
[Tier C - Holographic Display]
A giant holographic map now covered the entire table. Mountains, valleys, and rivers of an unseen land lay spread out clearly.
"The server update arrives shortly," Alphonse said, his voice heavy and commanding the room. "Vrischil, liquidate all our treasury funds. Buy out every Mana Stone circulating in the market right this second."
Across the table, Vrischil nodded slowly. her pointed Elf ears twitched slightly. her beautiful face radiated a stern resolve through a pair of piercing eyes.
"When the update completes, the core forces will not hunt the World Boss. Secure these three chokepoints: Obsidian Gorge, Silvery Cove, and the Fractured Plains," Alphonse tapped three points on the map that instantly glowed red.
"Other guilds will deplete their Mana Stones while contesting the main territories. When that happens, they will have to buy Mana Stones from us at exorbitant prices, and pay a toll to pass through the routes we control."
On the other side of the table, Arcus smirked widely.
"Double extortion. A beautiful scenario," Arcus chuckled.
Yet, Alphonse's smile did not bloom. He leaned back, interlocking his fingers in front of his face with a furrowed brow.
"Something else bothers me," Alphonse continued, his tone lowering, driving away the laughter in the room. "This update feels highly irregular. There are no patch notes from the developers. There are no leaks on the official forums."
He stared sharply at the holographic map. "A new continent this massive announced so abruptly. My instincts tell me... this is not merely an ordinary territorial expansion."
An uncomfortable silence enveloped the room. Before anyone could respond to the leader's premonition, the grand toll of a bell echoed from the castle ceiling.
In the field of view of every player, a semi-transparent red UI interface forcibly appeared.
[SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW ERA UPDATE COMMENCING]
[TIME REMAINING: 00:03:00]
Three minutes.
Alphonse rose from his chair, his aura turning sharp to cast aside his doubts. "Meeting adjourned! Equip all your primary gear!"
The relaxed atmosphere evaporated instantly. The scrape of clinking metal rang loud as all members of Pioneer stood up in unison.
Vrischil quickly inspected the scabbard of her Fractal Ruin sword, while Arcus gripped his bow tightly, his laughing face shifting into the sharp focus of a predator.
"See you on the other side, Pioneer," Alphonse said firmly.
As the string of numbers hit zero on the UI screen, a blinding flash of white light swept across the entire room.
The stone walls of Starlight Castle, the grand pillars, and the bodies of the 23 players faded, shattering into millions of glowing pixels forcibly pulled into the sky before the server disconnected entirely into darkness.
In an untouched corner of the universe, Planet Orion spun on its axis. This place was no collection of system data or digital simulation, but rather a real world possessing raging oceans, ancient continents, and a beating civilization.
Suddenly, the veil of the sky across every corner of that world tore open simultaneously.
Thousands of light projectiles cleaved the atmosphere like a rain of falling stars. Brilliant colors—blood red, sapphire blue, emerald green, to bright silver—plummeted freely, trailing long magical tails.
Those streaks of light crossed the night sky above frozen mountains, pierced storms in the open ocean, and dazzled the eyes of the natives staring resignedly from behind their windows.
On one hemisphere of the continent, right beneath the blazing midday sun, a light projectile with a golden glow dove down.
The falling star parted the white clouds, shooting soundlessly, then pierced the dark green leaf canopy of a dense forest far from human touch.
There was no fiery explosion or crater of ruin when the light touched the earth. Its glow merely dimmed slowly, evaporating gracefully with the air's moisture, and returning the forest's tranquility as it was before.
The scent of wet earth, fresh grass, and pine leaves stung his olfactory senses.
Alphonse regained consciousness. His eyes opened slowly, narrowing as sunlight broke through the gaps of the lush tree canopy above him.
The chirping of birds echoed, accompanied by a cool breeze sweeping across his face.
This was not his gaming pod.
He sat up, looking around with a furrowed brow. Rows of towering trees, wild shrubs, and moss clinging to wet rocks filled his vision.
"Where is this?" he muttered softly.
Right by his right side, the Stella Obscura hovered calmly. The miniature nebula inside the black crystal spun slowly, emitting a familiar magical glow.
Alphonse touched the monocle on his face, then felt the wolf-fur collar of his attire. He was still wearing his game character's body.
Shouldn't the system have performed an automatic log out and sent his consciousness back to his original body on Earth when the server update began? Why was he still here?
His gaze focused straight ahead. Clean.
There was no User Interface (UI). There was no red HP bar, no blue Mana bar, no mini-map in the corner of his eye, and no digital clock.
His vision was completely real, without the augmented reality filter of Orion Online.
Alphonse tried waving his hand in the air, performing the specific gesture to open the menu. "Menu."
No panel appeared.
"Log out. Status. Guild," he called out in succession.
All was void. There was no response at all from the system.
Facing this anomaly, Alphonse did not panic. His analytical and rational brain immediately processed the available variables.
He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. The oxygen entering his lungs felt pure. He could feel the humidity in the air against his skin and the warm sensation of the sunlight.
This realism went far beyond the neural simulation capabilities of even the most advanced gaming capsule.
He opened his eyes again. An absurd speculation crossed his mind.
Did I transmigrate? Into a real world that operates on the same laws as the game?
In the past, Arcus used to ramble at length about fantasy novels with plots like this. Alphonse had always ignored it as cheap fictional nonsense. But now, he himself was the actor in one.
Alphonse stood up. The moment his feet touched the ground, he realized something. His body felt as light as cotton.
The chronic fatigue, stiff posture, and physical weakness of his modern human body on Earth had evaporated. In its place, he felt a flow of pure energy pulsing rapidly through every vein. A new power lived within his body—a dense and vast magical strength.
Curiosity seized him. He walked over to a giant oak tree measuring two meters in diameter.
Drawing a short breath, Alphonse clenched his right fist and threw a straight punch at the tree trunk without using a single skill. Purely an instinctive motion.
BAM!
The sound of exploding wood echoed. His fist punched through the bark and the dense fibers inside as if the tree were made of wet paper.
The tree trunk shattered into pieces at the point of impact. The upper structure of the tree lost its balance, groaned loudly, and finally fell with a heavy thud that shook the earth and sent surrounding birds into flight.
Alphonse pulled his hand back. He stared at his knuckles. There were no scrapes, not the slightest bit of pain. Only wood splinters clinging to his gauntlet.
He fell silent for a moment, amazed by his own physical prowess.
"Damn it... am I Superman now?"
However, that momentary euphoria was instantly snuffed out by his logic. Physical strength alone was not enough. He needed to know how much of his equipment had carried over to this world.
Alphonse raised his hand, attempting the downward swipe gesture usually used to summon the Inventory space.
In Orion Online, this gesture would open a panel screen containing hundreds of dimensional storage boxes.
His hand merely cleaved empty air.
Alphonse's brow furrowed. He repeated the gesture faster. Once. Twice.
He focused his mind, trying to force a mental connection to the dimensional space where he stored hundreds of millions of gold coins in guild funds, high-tier materials, and dozens of backup weapons.
Void. There was no spatial distortion. No interface screen responded to his call.
Alphonse's breath caught in his throat. His jaw clenched so tight that the muscles in his temples bulged. His right hand, which had been swiping the air, now balled into a tight fist until his knuckles turned white.
He stood frozen, his chest rising and falling to suppress the wave of cold fury that suddenly choked his airways.
"Damn it! You've got to be kidding me!"
The empire he had built with tactics, blood, and sweat over the years... evaporated without a trace.
With slightly stiff movements, he looked down and felt the leather belt at his waist, finding a small pouch he had set as an equipped item for quicker access to emergency potions.
He opened the pouch; inside were only two glass vials filled with red liquid and five thumb-sized mana crystals.
Alphonse stared at the contents of the pouch in suffocating silence. His golden eyes sharpened behind the monocle's lens, radiating the gaze of a king whose throne had just been usurped.
A bitter reality struck his ego mercilessly. He had just transmigrated carrying physical strength akin to a superhuman, yet he was destitute.
Not merely poor. He was truly at ground zero. Utterly bankrupt in the middle of a world he knew nothing about.
A rough rustling sound from behind the bushes cut through his dark reverie.
Alphonse turned slowly, channeling his frustration toward the source of the sound. From behind the thick, dark green foliage, a pair of glowing red eyes stared at him, full of hunger.
A wolf the size of a pony stepped out. Its fur was a dirty grey and sharp as needles, while sticky saliva dripped from its gaping jaws.
Just by seeing its silhouette, Alphonse's memory instantly recognized the creature. A Dire Wolf.
In Orion Online, it was merely a Level 15 monster often used as a training dummy for beginner players to level up. The giant wolf growled low, baring fangs the length of daggers.
"Even a low-tier monster like a Dire Wolf looks quite intimidating when it becomes real," Alphonse commented with a flat tone that contrasted with the threat before him.
As if provoked by its prey's composure, the Dire Wolf howled in anger and lunged forward. Its massive body leapt through the air at high speed. Its jaws opened wide, aiming for his neck.
Alphonse did not dodge. He merely raised his left arm to protect his face.
The wolf's jaws snapped shut with bone-crushing force right onto Alphonse's left arm. Yet, those sharp fangs scraped harshly against the fabric of his legendary-tier robe.
Instead of tearing flesh, the monster's teeth slipped, halted by the robe's fabric. Alphonse did not even feel pain; he merely felt a pressure akin to the bite of a puppy.
The Dire Wolf's eyes widened in confusion. That opportunity was not wasted by Alphonse.
With his right hand, he gripped the wolf's thick scruff. Exerting his newfound physical strength, Alphonse hoisted the hundred-kilogram monster's body into the air, then slammed it hard onto the clay earth below.
CRASH!
The earth trembled. The sound of cracking ribs and spine rang out loud and horrifying.
The Dire Wolf coughed up black blood, howling in despair and agony as all its internal organs were crushed by gravity and the force of impacting the ground.
Alphonse stood tall, leaving the wolf to convulse beneath his boots. He looked down, observing the left sleeve of his robe, which remained intact without a single thread scratched.
However, his brow immediately furrowed in disgust upon seeing the foul-smelling saliva sticking to his luxurious fabric.
With a cold expression, he raised his boot, then stomped down on the dying wolf's neck with one powerful strike.
CRUNCH.
The monster's neck bone snapped. Its body went limp instantly and died completely.
Alphonse brushed the remaining dirt from his hands, staring at the giant carcass with a condescending gaze.
"I hope in your next life you become a pet dog," Alphonse said casually, "so your master can help you brush your teeth."
Awoooo!
A long howl pierced the forest's silence, followed by the sound of numerous rapid footsteps trampling on dry twigs. Alphonse turned toward the source of the sound.