The mountains didn’t make a sound. They just sat there, dark and brooding, under a cold, hooked moon.Up above, stars glittered in every direction—scattered like pieces on some endless chessboard. Down in the valley, mist crept across the ground, thin and pale, giving everything that ghost-town vibe, as if the world itself had walked away and forgotten this place.Still, it wasn’t completely dead. Flowers pushed through the earth in little patches, trees stood tall and stubborn, and the air carried a heavy mix of smells—sweet blossoms tangled up with the raw, sharp scent of grass. It was the kind of air that made you breathe a little deeper without thinking, though it was almost too much, like wine that went to your head.Then the silence cracked. A bird screamed, high and sudden. A second later, the horizon darkened. Crows. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, surging upward like a black tide that swallowed the sky whole.And in the middle of that lonely valley? A camp. Or something pr

A gamble.That’s what it all came down to. Kaelen was literally betting his life on whether a few burning sticks could scare off the wolves circling in the dark.It could go one of two ways. Either the beasts snapped, their bloodlust boiling over until they ripped him apart, or fear got the better of them and they slunk back into the night. Fifty–fifty. Heads or tails.Those odds were enough for him. Nothing in this world was ever certain—never a hundred percent. He knew that much already. And with half the chance tilted in his favor, Kaelen tightened his jaw and committed.His gaze stayed fixed on the glowing eyes in the dark. Four wolves, circling, patient. He knew full well he wasn’t strong enough to face them all at once. Not yet.The burning sticks arced red through the air, hissing as they fell—but not one connected. He wasn’t trained for this. No special talent for throwing, no uncanny precision. His movements were smooth enough, practiced even, but the wolves slipped away with

Kaelen stopped dead in his tracks. For a second, he couldn’t breathe. Right there, glowing faintly in the shadows, was a green treasure chest.He sucked in a long breath, trying to steady himself. Joy threatened to break across his face, but he forced it down. Calm. Stay calm. One step at a time, he started toward the chest.Anyone who’s ever played a game knows the golden rule: treasure chests mean loot. Gear. Skills. Coins. All the good stuff.And this one? To Kaelen, it was like a lamb laid out for slaughter. Helpless. Tempting. Practically begging him to take it.Gear had always come in colors—white for junk, green for decent, blue for rare, purple for epic. Chests followed the same logic. Green, blue, purple. Simple enough.Finding one here, though? Even a green? That was insane. His pulse quickened. Then it hit him why nobody had found it before.Back when this world was just a game, players never bothered to search. They’d either jump straight down to revive or rush off along t

“No weapon.”“No… wait. There is a weapon.”The chest creaked open, and Kaelen leaned in, eyes narrowing as he peered inside.It was a big chest, plenty of space inside—enough to fit something bulky if the system had been generous. But it wasn’t. The interior looked almost hollow, barren, as if it had already been looted. Only three things lay at the bottom: a glove, a ring, and a thin little book.Not exactly the kind of haul he’d been dreaming about.The book was barely more than a pamphlet, less than a centimeter thick. The glove looked soft, delicate, and thin—when he picked it up, he could feel the smoothness under his fingers. Put all three items together, and the chest still looked embarrassingly empty.The glove shimmered faintly, a gentle green glow that matched the chest itself. Kaelen recognized it instantly—green equipment. Decent, but nothing extraordinary.Then the ring caught his eye, and all thoughts of the glove vanished.It didn’t just shine. It blazed. A pale, misty

The hit came out of nowhere. Brutal. Sharp. Savage.Kaelen didn’t even see it coming. One second, he was braced for the fight; the next, he was airborne, slammed by a wall of muscle.The Tusked Wild Boar had triggered its special move—Savage Charge. The name said it all: a wild rush, pure brute force. Kaelen had expected something like that, sure. He just didn’t expect it to come without warning. No wind-up. No chance to prepare. Just a sudden twist of its massive body, and bam—a devastating strike right in his chest.The blow knocked the breath out of him. His vision flared white as his HP bar free-fell. By the time he hit the dirt, he was down to fourteen.Fifty points of damage, minus four for his defense. Forty-six gone in a blink. And that defense was based on his full stamina stat, not his weakened one. It didn’t matter. The result was the same—he was wrecked.His health nearly empty, his body buzzing with numbness, Kaelen lay there for half a beat. But he wasn’t the kind of man