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Chapter 1: One-Way Ticket to Another World
Luck always played fair with me.
Whenever something good happened, something bad was never far behind — like the universe was obsessed with balance. If I found money on the street, I'd lose my wallet the next day. If I got a free upgrade in a game, my phone would glitch or crash. It was almost funny.
Almost.
For the last ten years, I sank hours — no, years into a busted mobile RPG called Tales of Arcania. A gacha game with the worst drop rates imaginable. Pay-to-win whales ruled the rankings. PvP was a joke. And the devs? Pretty sure they forgot the game existed. The last real story update had dropped over a year ago.
Still, I kept playing.
Not out of loyalty. Not even fun.
It was habit. Comfort. A familiar grind at the end of a long day. Where the numbers always went up eventually. And when the updates stopped, the player base didn't quit. We got creative.
No-armor boss runs. One-stat builds. Farming mobs with spoons. Okay, not literally, but close. One guy beat the final dungeon using only a frying pan and Fireball I the weakest spell in the game.
Victory became secondary. It was all about style.
Me? I built characters that looked good. Cool armor, smooth animations, flashy spell effects. Didn't matter if my builds were trash. I wanted aesthetic. Fashion over function. Drip over DPS.
Then came the event.
Realmwalker's Gambit: One-Time Gacha.
No warning. Just a cryptic patch note that said:
"One spin. One winner. One fate."
The rules? Collect a bunch of hidden coins scattered across the world map. If you found enough, you could spin the wheel just once. No second tries. No rerolls.
The prize?
A unique item. Only one copy. First come, only served.
The community went wild. Forum threads exploded. People datamined everything. Created spreadsheets. Theorycrafted coin locations. Some claimed to have found a few by accident, others gatekept like their lives depended on it.
I didn't care about winning.
Really, I didn't.
But I joined the hunt anyway. Something about it called to me like chasing one last high before the game inevitably shut down. I didn't have a guild. Didn't have a strategy. Just logged in and started walking.
It took me three days of near-nonstop play. Barely ate. Barely slept.
And then, late one night, I had them all.
I was lying in bed, phone above my face. Screen cracked down the middle. Room dark. Only the soft hum of a dying charger and my thudding heart in my ears.
I tapped "Spin."
Bright white light filled the screen.
Then... nothing.
Just black.
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I opened my eyes to silence.
Couldn't move. Couldn't even feel my limbs. There was no phone in my hand. No bed under my back. Only warmth. Pressure. Like I was wrapped in something.
A notification appeared not on a screen, but in front of my vision.
Floating text. Glowing. Real.
> [Congratulations! You have obtained the Unique Item: One-Way Ticket to Another World!]
> Initializing Transfer Protocol...
Complete.
Welcome to Arcania.
[Status]: Rebirth Successful.
...Excuse me?
The words shimmered away, replaced by a single option:
[Open Status]
I didn't even need to blink. The screen just responded to my thought.
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[Status Window]
Name: ???
Tier: Colorless
Class: —
Title: —
[Stats]
Health: 20/20
Mana: 5/5
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1
Agility: 1
Dexterity: 1
Endurance: 1
Intelligence: 1
Perception: 1
[Skills]: [None]
[Quest]: —
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That's when it hit me.
I wasn't just in the game.
I was a baby.
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I heard voices. Footsteps. Leaves crunching. Something someone approached.
A shadow loomed above me.
A man, wrapped in a heavy coat. Beard streaked with gray. A massive greatsword strapped to his back like it belonged there like it was part of him.
He crouched beside a body.
A woman. Lifeless. Her arms stained with blood. My mother I somehow knew that without needing memories.
The man placed a hand over her chest and whispered, "May your soul find peace."
He didn't cry. He didn't gasp.
But I think, deep down, he understood the weight of what had happened.
Then his eyes turned to me.
His brows furrowed as he studied the brooch tucked into my wrappings. He plucked it free, inspecting the faint glow pulsing from the gem.
"A veil charm," he muttered. "Strong one, too. Not bad."
He gently tucked it back into my cloth and lifted me.
"You've got guts, boy," he said, voice low and rough. "Looks like the world doesn't want you dead just yet."
And just like that, he turned and walked into the woods holding me like I meant something.
Like I mattered.
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Time passed in strange pieces. Hunger. Sleep. Cold. Then warmth. The feeling of cloth against skin. The rumble of footsteps. The smell of smoke and wood and rain.
The man Aeren, I'd later learn took care of me.
He fed me. Bathed me. Wrapped me in old blankets and muttered quiet things by the fire when he thought I was asleep.
And when I was strong enough to crawl, he started testing me.
Grip strength. Eye tracking. Reaction speed. Awareness.
He wasn't just some loner with a sword he was a swordmaster. You could see it in how he moved. In how he trained. In how he never lowered his guard, even when cooking stew.
His past clung to him like a second cloak.
One night, while sharpening his blade, he finally spoke more than a few words.
"You weren't placed in that tree by accident," he said. "Whoever left you knew someone would find you."
Sparks flew from the whetstone. The sound was harsh in the quiet.
"You're weak now. Colorless. But that can change."
That was the first time I heard about the Tiers.
Turns out, in Tales of Arcania, power wasn't just about stats. It was color coded. Like levels but different.
Each color was a threshold. A gate. And no amount of raw strength could skip one. So to sum up what Aeren said
Colorless: Weak. Barely human. Could cast basic spells, no aura control.
Red: The first true tier. Aura awakens. Real combat begins.
Orange, Yellow, Green: Trained warriors, elite magicians. The backbone of kingdoms.
Blue, Indigo: Rare. Feared. Often revered.
Purple: Heroes of legend.
Transcendent: Myths. Fabled legend
And here's the kicker even if a Colorless had 99 in every stat, they'd still lose to a Red with 1s across the board. Tiers weren't just numbers. They were rules.
The world had rules.
And I was at the very bottom.
But not for long.
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[Quest Panel]
Category: Main
Title: Beginner's Path
Clear Conditions:Survive to Age 10
Reward:
Stat Allocation +10,[System Adaptation I]
Bonus Objective:
Complete Basic Physical Training with Aeren
Bonus Reward:
Unlock Red Tier Potential
Penalty for Failure:
Permanent Death
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For the first time since I woke up in this strange new world...
I smiled.
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