In the middle of the morning, the sky turned dark.
It wasn't the blackness of night but as if the sun had been covered by something.
Across the continent, across the kingdoms, across the seas, mountains, and deserts, the sun vanished strangely.
It was a solar Eclipse.
But it was wrong. The moon was not in position. The calculations of astronomers, the predictions of priests, the ancient records of forgotten dynasties — all of them screamed that this was impossible.
Yet the sky darkened anyway.
And in that darkness, a faint circle of pale light remained, burning in the middle of the gloom.
***
In a small, beautiful church, a woman knelt alone.
Her white hair cascaded down her back like moonlight. Her eyes were red as blood, sharp and ancient. She wore the robes of a priestess, but they could not hide her body's curves.
Her hands were clasped in prayer. It was unclear which god she worshipped — or if she worshipped at all.
Then the shadows of the Eclipse crept through the stained-glass windows.
She opened her eyes.
Her hands unclasped slowly as she turned her head toward the darkened sky.
A smile spread across her lips.
"So... one of them has finally awakened."
***
In a meadow of pale flowers, beneath a sky of faded yellow, a man walked alone.
The place was empty. No animals, no birds, no wind. It had been empty for thousands of years.
But now, it had a visitor.
He wore a tattered black robe. His black hair, streaked with gray, fell to his shoulders. His face was handsome, but his crimson eyes burned with something that was not quite sanity.
He stopped walking.
The Eclipse was happening. Not in his time, but he could see it anyway, as if he had stepped outside the flow of time itself to witness the day the eclipse happened.
His expression twisted — grief, rage, madness.
He clawed at his own arm, drawing blood.
After a few moments, the madman calmed down, then continued walking in this strange place.
Ahead of him, a great mountain rose like a wall. It seemed endless, stretching to the right and left and upwards like the edge of the world.
***
In the middle of a barren desert, a castle of black stone rose like a mountain.
It was larger than a city. No rivers, no towns, no life surrounded it. Just a barren desert stretching in all directions.
Inside it, creatures walked through its halls — humanoid, but no longer human. They moved with purpose, but they did not look up.
None of them seemed to care about the Eclipse.
Except one.
In the heart of the palace, in the great throne room, a figure sat upon a black iron throne. A crown rested on its head.
This creature lifted its gaze to see the eclipse through the large windows, staring at it without saying a word.
***
On a floating island high above the clouds, a palace of white stone sat surrounded by twelve towers. Rivers of clouds flowed beneath it like water.
Inside one of the towers, a man with white, soft hair stared at the darkened sky. His eyes were liquid gold, beautiful and cold.
But when he saw the Eclipse, his expression changed to deep regret.
***
At the edge of the world, a tower rose toward the heavens.
It was impossibly tall, impossibly ancient. Its peak could not be seen — it seemed to reach for the gods themselves.
In the depths of one of its infinite floors, there was a great door that had not been opened in centuries.
It looks like something beyond human understanding is trapped behind the door.
Silence had reigned there for longer than memory could recall. For countless ages, nothing had moved.
But now, as the Eclipse darkened the sky, the door trembled.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence returned.
***
At the same time, but in another world entirely, the eclipse occurred.
There was a young man lying on his bed in a small dorm room. He opened a new novel, unaware of the eclipse that was rising outside.
Suddenly, he yawned as his eyelids grew heavy.
His phone slipped from his fingers.
.
.
.
The young man opened his eyes at the ceiling of twisted branches, and felt that the ground below him was cold․
He turned his head slowly and the first thing he saw was a squirrel very close to his face and looking at him․
"Ah!" He groaned as he pushed himself up off the back of the ground․
The squirrel ran away startled. The man looked after it for a moment before looking around where he was․
The ground was covered with trees forming a huge forest․ He could see sunlight shining through the trees and could hear birds somewhere in the distance․
"Where am I?"
He tried to think what had happened, but his head pained him and all that he could do was to raise his hand to his head.
Several minutes later, the headache subsides, and he was able to recalls that he was in his dorm room reading a fantasy novel in bed․ Then, a sudden pain shot through his head and he collapsed onto the floor․
Then he ended up here. Lying in the midst of a vast forest that appeared to go on forever. He was also naked. Totally naked.
Before he could do anything, a blue flash appeared before him.
[System activation in progress...]
[Basic objective: Survive the forest.]
[Reward: Unlock the system.]
His eyes widened after seeing that see-through blue screen just hanging there in front of him.
"Is this... a system?"
He reached out toward the blue screen, but his hand passed through it like air.
"Did I... fall into that damn novel?!" he muttered.
"But I just started reading... I haven't even finished the first chapter yet!"
"And what is this?" He looked back at the blue screen. "Survival? What the hell am I supposed to do? Fight a bear?"
Despite his many questions, the system offered no answers. All he heard was the roar of a distant creature that made his body tremble immediately.
Time passed as the young man tried to find his way out of the forest. He moved silently among the trees... or tried to. His bare feet were bruised from fallen branches and rocks.
His stomach growled with hunger, but he tried to study the plants before eating anything.
`Yellow berries? Probably poison... Those serrated leaves? It will definitely cause an allergy.`
When he finally found a river, he moved closer slowly and drank carefully from the same place where he had seen a deer drink.
He kept walking beside the river. After all, most human civilizations have existed near rivers.
"Okay. You've read thousands of novels. Let's analyze the situation... You're naked and alone in the middle of an unknown forest." He muttered thoughtfully.
"You haven't seen any dangerous creatures yet. But since the system said to escape the forest, there might be a dangerous creature—"
A loud snort broke the silence.
Kyle froze immediately.
Twenty steps away, there was a wild boar roughly the size of a small car slowly trotting around trees. Large muscles bulged out underneath its coarse black skin, and its tusks curved like sickles.
Suddenly, the wild boar raised its head and noticed him.
`Don't breathe... Don't move...`
Both stood there for a few moments. Then, without warning, the boar sped toward the man. Its hooves ripped up pieces of soil as it ran.
`Fuck!`
He rolled out of the way before impact and watched the boar crash into a tree trunk, causing it to shake, violently.
`If it hits me, I'll definitely die!`
He scrambled up and started limping deeper into the forest.
he figured the trees would slow that huge boar down since it's so big... but honestly? he was totally wrong.
just thudding hooves getting closer and closer.
He tried to zigzag through the trees to get away. but then his foot caught on a root or something and he just slammed into the ground.
He knew he was dead after making that mistake. He looked up to see the boar charging in anger towards him.
Thwip.
An arrow grazed through the boar's shoulder. It screamed in pain and stumbled. Another arrow went through its head, and the boar dropped with a hard thud mid-step.
"Wh-what..." The young man muttered, his heart was thumping hard.
He saw something move off to the side and just snapped his head that way.
Two people stepped out from the trees. The man was tall and broad shoulders, look around thirty. He was holding a bow.
Right next to him was a girl, looked maybe early twenties. Her arms were lean and kinda muscular, and she had her brown hair up in a ponytail.
She stared at him. But when she noticed the naked thing between his legs, she quickly looked away with her cheeks red.
The man walked over to him and reached out his hand to help him up. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Y-yes․․․ thanks․" He took the man's hand․
"What are you doing alone in the middle of the forest? And naked?" The man handed a piece of cloth to him to cover himself with․
The young man stopped for a moment, then cracked his mouth open․ "I․․․ I don't know․․․ I don't remember anything․ I woke up all of a sudden, naked in this forest․"
`I'm definitely not going to tell them I'm from another world... It's better to pretend I've lost my memory.`
The woman furrowed. "You don't remember anything? How strange."
"How about coming to our village?" The man smiled kindly. "You can stay there until you remember."
The young man smiled. "Can I? Thank you."
The woman came over to him. "I'm Luna, and this is my brother Garrick... What's your name?"
"Kyle."
***
They ran swiftly through the trees into the darkness as the sun set. Kyle pushed himself to continue with them through agonizing pain.
He had been running nude for half a day with no proper food. He had nearly been killed by an obese boar too.
He kept moving until finally, through a gap in the trees, he saw dim lights. The closer he got, the brighter the lights became, until wooden houses appeared clearly.
He had reached the village.
Suddenly, the system screen appeared before his eyes.
[Basic objective completed: System unlocked.]
A new screen popped up in front of Kyle's eyes.
[Choose your class from among 99 classes.]
Kyle blinked for a moment.
"Huh?"
The list of classes flooded Kyle's eyes.
[Paladin, Necromancer, Dragon Slayer...]
`Damn!` he thought, `There are so many!`
"Kyle?" Luna's voice interrupted his thoughts. "You seem distracted. Is something wrong?"
Kyle closed the system screen. `I'd better take my time choosing.`
"I was wondering where we were going?" He smiled anxiously.
"The mayor's house." Garrick pointed his thumb toward a two-story wooden house on the edge of the village. "He'll be able to help you."