An endless dark surrounded Tanuki. His perception was still active, he could feel something cold behind his back, and the emptiness of everything around him.

"Is this the atheist afterlife? If so, is it too late to become religious? M-Maybe if I pray hard enough… uh… OH, HEAVENLY GUY WHO ART THOU HEAVEN! PLEASE COME AND… uh… JUST BRING ME TO HEAVEN, DAMN IT!"

Suddenly, bright white letters formed in the dark.

[ Choose a starting grid! ]

[ Field ]

[ Forest ]

[ Hill ]

Tanuki looked at it in silence for a while, before muttering:

"What?"

This certainly wasn't any god answering his prayers. More strangely, the way it floated in mid-air reminded him of VR games. It wasn't uncommon for those to have the user interface as floating bubbles of text, that only the player could see.

"Uh… field, maybe?"

The text disappeared and a bright yellow ball appeared in the blue sky. It was just like the sun, though it didn't hurt the eyes when directly looking at it. The sky too was just like on earth, if not a bit brighter colored.

Tanuki was, rightfully, confused. Surrounding him was short green grass. It was as natural as any other, no signs of being cut before, and touching it revealed it to be dry, though the plants showed no signs of dehydration.

Forcing his limbs to move, Tanuki slowly stood up. He wore the same clothes as in his last memory: a black hoodie with blue shorts and slippers. Even his glasses were with him. His bad eyesight forced him to wear those even while using VR machines.

"This is not a fever dream." He muttered to himself while wandering the field. "I'm completely lucid and I feel pain when I pinch myself. Then what is this place? Heaven? If so, I'd like to go to Hell––"

His eyes suddenly widened. He jerked his leg away just in time to avoid the next step, which would've possibly been the last he ever took.

"UWAAH! What the... the world just ends there?!"

The field suddenly ended after a certain point with a cliff leading into... nothingness.

It looked like the edge of the world. Everything after it was just a blue void.

"If I cannot leave this field, then what am I supposed to do? Just jump off and die?!" He forced his yelling to halt with a deep sigh. "Come on, think straight Tanuki! You've seen at least a hundred animes with a plot like this! It's not uncommon for a young adult to experience some sort of rebirth! But damn, mine looks like the worst of the bunch! I'm stuck on a floating piece of land and I didn't even get a cool system by some god! Or... did I?"

He quickly sat down, closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and focused all his attention.

"System window, appear! Open sesame! Menu!"

Nothing happened.

"Oh come on!" He lay back in the grass.

The situation was strange, but not that confusing. Tanuki has seen his fair share of isekai before, and one of his secret dreams was to become a victim of such shenanigans.

But this was different than what he saw online. There weren't any well-endowed elves or cute furry daughters ready to yearn for his love. There wasn't even a medieval kingdom or heroes' guild!

There was only him and his floating island.

"That message from before…"

He was presented with three choices. The one he picked appeared in the blink of an eye. Could that have been the work of God, or rather 'a' god?

There was one more explanation for that miracle. Maybe it really was a system, but one bound by different rules than he's used to. Perhaps it wasn't bound directly to his soul, but something connected to it.

This hypothesis gained further support by the faint text appearing at the bottom of his vision.

[ System available only at Gaia Core ]

"Yes! I knew it was a system!" He smiled with satisfaction and raised his fist into the air. "B-But wait, what is a Gaia Core?"

Turning his head to find something, the plain field revealed only one distinguishable feature: a small, purple obelisk. It was at the exact middle point of the field.

As Tanuki approached, he could feel the air grow heavier. This phenomenon seemed the strongest when he got so close to the obelisk, he could see his face reflect in the purple surface.

"Woah! This thing is so pretty! Also, it has an aura, that's for sure! Feels like my head is about to pop in any second."

Touching the obelisk caused a burning sensation in his palm. It was warm and ticklish. Neither good nor bad, just unusual.

Suddenly, an interface appeared in Tanuki's eyes. It had 'Menu' at the top and two options were present below.

[ – – – Menu – – – ]

[ -> Expansion ]

[ -> Waves ]

Tanuki gazed at the two options. It wasn't that he couldn't understand them, but rather he was surprised by what that made him remember.

"Aren't these options from tower defense games?"