A sunny morning, with the sounds of the chirping birds and rustling leaves from the calm breeze. He gazes outside, looking at the beautiful woods through a window. Inspite of the beautiful house and serene environment outside, he looks downcast and extremely gloomy.

*Flash back to a few days ago*

He is furious at some others on the other side of the table. There are plenty of guards surrounding him in case he displays any hostility, but he doesn’t seem to care.

“Bullshit! You lunatics have lost your minds! How hard can it be to give me a damn radio?! At this point I’ll settle for any unsecure channel even!”

……

“I will make sure you all pay for this stupid stunt with at least a 1000 hours of community service! This goes beyond a prank!”

“Sir, we are just as confused about this as you are. We do not know of the ‘authorities’ you speak of! You need to calm down!”

……

“Devian, do it! Put him to sleep! Quick!”

“Yes Lord!”

“What?! What are you doing?! You dare to assault an UN official?!”

……

“That took a lot of effort to put him to sleep. He is strong in mind.”

“Did we find anything about this UN and authorities he spoke of?”

“No sir! Not yet! It goes without saying that this force or kingdom doesn’t belong to our time. We’re looking into the archaic records we have access to. I think your suspicion may as well be correct at this rate”

“Hmm, an Ancient or worse, a System chosen, descending on our doorstep, with us caught unprepared. I really could have done without this additional burden. No matter. Make the arrangements for the next meet.”

“Guards! H$%#&*()$& )(*$&&. *&&$(#( ?”

One of the Guards steps forward.

“*&$!”

“I’ve made arrangements to let his mind heal. My lord. I still think you should not be this close, and even if we have confirmed he is an unawakened and he speaks the noble tongue, I still think there might be something else to him that kept him alive through the deep green.”

“I will not hear it Devian! My gut tells me I need to be here and I expect to not miss any of the meets.”

“Yes, my lord! I will go check on his Blood cursed hound that he somehow managed to tame.”

*End of flash back*

“Lord, your breakfast is ready.”

That bought him back from his deep thoughts.

“Ah yes. Thank you!”

The breakfast is much more luxurious that anything he had eaten before. Especially, the past couple weeks. But there is no enthusiasm. Only longing and emptiness. The spark in his eyes, from only a few days ago as he and his pet adventured through the forests, that didn’t go away even through his brushes with death more than once, is nowhere to be seen.

“I would like to meet Courage in the evening.”

“Yes Lord!”

Once he is done with breakfast, he moves to his study to gather his books and go through some of them quickly before he once again falls into contemplation.

*Flash Back to a few days ago*

“How is he doing?”

“Well, there is nothing inherently wrong with his mental health my lord. He just believes things that do not exist or maybe things we are not aware of”

“I care not for your speculations Devian. Only if he is ready for our next meet.”

“Yes lord! He is just sleeping off the spell I used to ‘Calm’ him down. He should be up anytime now though. I have everything ready should he wake up”

“Good.”

A few minutes later, in the same room from before, the same 3 on either side of the table with even more guards, standing around the walls of the room.

“So, that’s how it is. Your situation may seem incomprehensible to you, but we have records of past events like this. Please take a moment to digest what we just said.”

All three parties silently stare at each other. After an intense minute,

“So, you’re saying that this is all a fantasy, fictional world that has magic and is supernatural in nature. I was somehow a denizen of this world all along and somehow my memories were rewritten by this so-called goddess SAM of yours?”

“Well, that is the one with the most likely explanation yet and would be in accordance with our historical records. There is another possibility but unless we get some message from the High Circle, I cannot disclose you about it.”

The man starts laughing maniacally at the absurdity of it all.

“Fellow noble, I understand your distress and even though I do not comprehend what Dreams and make-believe tales have anything to do with our world, the rest of your assertions are correct. But what Devian has told you about you just now is very dubious even to me-“

“My Lord! No you can’t-“

The crowned man rises a hand to silence him.

“From the story you provided so far, I strongly believe that you have been a system chosen in the truest sense. You were taken from your world and relocated to here. I do not know what the High Circle is playing at by not notifying us, but the signs and stories all fit. You were just bought to this world through a so-called planar tunnel. If you need proof, it is all around you. What more proof do you need except your surroundings? By what you say, there is no mana in your world. This one does. Otherwise how do you explain the ward on the open window of your room?”

……

“What? I won’t believe it! I will not! What magic? What fantasy world? This is just revenge from the green bastards! Are you trapped here too? Have they run mind altering experiments on you? Or may be this is a virtual world? Yes! That must be it-“

“Please calm down! We do not have any Green people commanding u-“

“Hahahahaha! It must have hurt! Must have hurt real bad! So, you’re taking revenge on me, who led the forces to foil your so-called invasion. Hahaha! Do you think I am afraid of you shit heads? Come on bring it on! Show yourselves!”

……

“Devian.”

“Yes! Lord!”

*End of the flashback*

“Lord, your transport is ready.”

Snapping out of his daze, he moves to finish up packing his things.

“Yes. I’ll be there shortly.”

As he is about to leave, he notices the various assortments of fruits on the table. Thinking of his Pet, he picks up a few juicy looking ones and stores them in his bag.

“I’m ready. Let’s go!”

He climbs the carriage and it is pulled away as soon as he is inside.

Looking through the windows, he can see the exit of his temporary accommodation, thankfully a bit more homely than the ones he was restricted to before. The carriage passes through some woods south of the Luthera, the first city he reached in this world. Soon, the woods open into a wide clearing, farms that cover most of the southern side of the city.

The unchanging view through the window soon loses his attention, as he once again moves his focus onto his internal thoughts.

*Start of Flashback*

“Lord, these past few times we met him were the least productive. We are unable to break his delusions. He is convinced this isn’t his reality.”

“Indeed. His first 3 were the most productive except for the end of the 3rd…. But, no need to worry over it. I can tell that he has finally accepted his reality, one way or another. Now, we just need to let him calm down and digest his situation. Only he can fight this battle. I’m sure he will be fine. Do not arrange anymore meetings for the next 3 days. And do not disturb him with any unnecessary spells. Let him stay awake when he can and sleep when he wants to. Make sure he recovers from his injuries and arrange for better accommodations.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

……

[What the hell is this mess?! I refuse to believe this bullshit! I refuse!]

[This is an Isekai plot?! What rubbish! It’s far more likely that those fuckers had done something to me. Although that is better than what I was afraid of, me being the one in danger instead of the rest of the world like I initially predicted.]

….

[But what is this weird magic? I doubt this is a fake VR simulation. The amount of computing that is required is mind bogglingly huge. The green heads for all their interstellar tech, still rely on quantum computing and aren’t that far off from the native tech. I doubt they can accomplish something like this even if this is even possible in the first place.]

[That leaves very few possibilities. I asked them to show me some proof and one of them is the “anti-gravity spell”. It worked equally well on the rock they showed it on first and the apple I was eating at that moment. There was no way to cheat and there is no Antigravity tech. Is this really a different reality after all? How does this universe even function? Any kind of weird Anti-gravity phenomenon alone would have wreaked our universe when it takes effect on a cosmic scale. But clearly, this one seems fine.]

[In the unlikely event this is actually a different reality,…….Will I never meet her? I promised her….I promised them all that we will meet after.]

*End of flashback*

“Sir! We-hear.”

“Yes. One moment. I asked to meet my pet in the evening. Were you informed?”

“Yes sir! I-make-arrangement.”

“Thank you.”

After which he steps out of the carriage to see a building in the front of which, there are a lot of teenagers flocking towards it. A large sign board on the side confirms it as the System Academy of the city.

‘^(*()!’

‘^(*()!^$&*(’

He still cannot make heads or tails of the local language, but he recognises it as ‘Morning’ or ‘morning teacher’.

He moves through the crowd without responding to the greetings. He comes across another adult near the entrance to the school and bows his head in greeting, and the other respond with a nod of acknowledgement.

He eventually reaches where he needs to be and the students that have already occupied most of the desks in the class, get up in greeting to their teacher. He pauses to look at all the students in class, and slowly moves in between desks and turns around, to look at the back of all of them, as he reaches the end.

After a deep breath, he moves to take a seat in one of the only empty desks. The class looks at him momentarily stunned.

*Flash back*

“So, let’s say I take it all in at face value, what now? What am I here for? Where do I go from here?”

[After a few days of contemplation and enquiry, I have concluded that all of these people believe whatever they told me. Either way, it’s pointless to antagonize them. If there are flaws to their story, I will discover them at some point. For now, I will play by the rules of my situation. Since it’s almost certainly not the green heads, there must be a third party involved. I will play along for now.]

“We are very glad that you have come to accept the predicament you are in. I do not expect for you to be happy about it but we will do everything in our power to aid you, in integrating into your new society. I must remind you that the city lord had taken great care in your situation. I hope you do not forget his benevolence.”

“Yes. I will remember it. Please express my thanks and apology to the city lord. I will meet him personally to show my gratitude once I am an independent man.”

“I will convey it to the lord. As for what you need to or can do now, I’d say start by integrating yourself into this world. I will make arrangements to inform you all you need to know to survive in this world and give you a brief general knowledge course, but before we get there, there is something else you need to learn about this world.”

“There is more? I already understand that this world functions in tandem with both laws of the universe and the so-called Mana and that superhuman abilities are possible, either directly or indirectly by the use of mana.”

“Yes, but that was a very vague description to put it mildly. For instance, you saw the antigravity magic, performed by one of the city mages. If it was so easy to create such phenomenon, in this vast universe, it can easily occur naturally due to sheer coincidences, and the breaking of such important laws could spiral out of control, and easily destabilize many things about this world.”

“Absolutely! How does this world maintain its stability even with all this mana, a fantastical type of energy that changes up things so much, being intricately involved?”

“It appears I don’t have to worry about explaining the implications to you. That is good for once! There is a guiding, nurturing and maintaining entity in this world that keeps the stability of things. It also gives boons to those who live in harmony with it and guide those lost. She is the goddess SAM.”

“Goddess?! You have seen this goddess? I was hoping this was going somewhere more meaningful.”

“Please do not speak low of Goddess SAM. This is no imaginary entity that populace seek in despair to keep their sanity. To answer your question, I have both met and have not met the goddess.”

“What do you mean?”

“None have had the fortune of meeting her in person but almost every soul in this world have met her in a way.”

“Wait REAL Gods exist in this world?! I guess that’s not unreasonable. Considering the rest of the things.”

“Although there are other faiths, Goddess SAM is universal. Even if a faith tries to say otherwise, they cannot deny her existence after meeting her. We are going off in the wrong direction here. Some of the academic circles have started to refer her blessings on us mortals, comprehensively as, ‘The System’. It guides and structures both our soul and body throughout our lives and in return, does not demand anything off us. Today I am here to primarily introduce you to it.”

“What? What do you mean by system? That sounds ominous.”

“You will understand once you see it. Place your hand on this stone and concentrate on it for as long as possible or till I tell you to stop.”

After doing as told by the mage,

“Okay what did that do?”

“You’ll see momentarily. Let me project the recordings onto the wall behind you.”

System Details:

-Unawakened individual

-Name: ??????

-Age: 29 yrs

-Health: ??/??

-Mana: ??/??

-?????: ??/??

Personal stats:

?? Unawakened ??

“Wow! What is that?”

“Those are the stats currently accessible by this recall stone. You are an unawakened and so, you will have to find out a way to awaken the system and become part of it. Otherwise, your survival in this world is very difficult. I am still baffled by how you claimed to have survived a 10 day walk through the Great woods.”

“Wow! That just sounds too orderly and quantified to be real. It feels almost artificial, like a video game.”

“I do not know what that game even is but yes it’s one of the most significant features is the ability to quantify things that once seems impossible to quantify.”

“So, I’m guessing that awakening will let me see those things that are yet uncovered, and I suppose makes it possible to access this info without that expensive looking stone to be used? So, how do I ‘Awaken’? and why did the city lord keep calling me a noble?”

“Yes and Yes. You will be able to access your personal details on your own and without having it shown to another too.

The City Lord as you can tell, is considered a noble. One of the important traits of being considered noble is to speak the noble tongue. There are a few things that identify one as a noble and you qualify in a few things.”

“Noble tongue? English?”

“Yes the language you are currently speaking.

To awaken, you need to activate a dormant part of your brain that is connected to the system. You can sort of learn to activate this….’Mental Muscle’ once you turn awakened. Normally, this happens when you are in your mid-teens. Some are born prodigies that do not even need any training to awaken and activate their mental muscles or are ready to be awakened at a younger age. But your case is going to be different. You will need to undergo education in one of our system schools, but I am confident we can awaken you. We have dealt with much worse situations. Let alone yours.”

“Wait…School?!”

*End of flashback*

He sighs amidst the silent class, that is standing up and staring at him, dumbfounded.

‘Sigh’

Their daze is disturbed at the sound of a bell, followed by a teacher entering the class.

“Morning class! Today we have a special student amongst us! Mr. Inan, please Introduce yourself to the class!”

-To be Continued.