The fall feels endless.
I'm plummeting through darkness, wind screaming in my ears, my stomach in my throat. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I can't breathe. Can't think. Just falling, falling, falling—
And then I hit something.
Hard.
The impact drives all the air from my lungs. Pain explodes across my back, my shoulders, my head. For a moment, everything goes white, then red, then—
I gasp.
Air floods back into my lungs in a painful rush. My eyes snap open.
Blue sky. Real sky. Not the perfect, painted blue of the clouds, but actual sky with wispy white clouds drifting across it.
The sun is bright, warm on my face. I can feel it. Actually feel the heat on my skin.
I'm lying on my back on something hard and cold.
Cobblestones.
I can feel each individual stone pressing against my spine through my hoodie.
I don't move. Can't move. Just lie there, staring up at the sky, trying to process what just happened.
The goddess pushed me. I fell. And now I'm... where?
Slowly, carefully, I sit up.
Pain shoots through my back and I wince. Real pain. Not imagined. Not dream pain. Actual, physical discomfort from hitting the ground too hard.
I look around.
I'm in the middle of a street.
A cobblestone street lined with buildings that look like they're straight out of a medieval fantasy movie.
Wooden structures with thatched roofs, some two stories tall, with hand-painted signs hanging above doorways. A bakery. A blacksmith. An apothecary.
And people.
Real people walking past me.
Men in rough tunics and leather boots.
Women in long dresses with aprons.
A merchant pushing a cart full of vegetables.
A group of kids running past, laughing and chasing each other.
They glance at me—this weird guy in a hoodie and jeans lying in the middle of the street—but most of them just step around me and keep going. Like I'm not worth their attention.
I scramble to my feet, wobbling slightly.
My legs feel weird. Not weak, exactly, but strange. Like I'm wearing someone else's body and the fit isn't quite right. I look down at myself.
Same hoodie. Same jeans. Same beat-up sneakers. I hold up my hands, turning them over. Same hands. Same skin. Same bitten-down fingernails.
It's me. Definitely me.
But where the hell am I?
I look around more carefully, taking in the details.
The street is busy but not crowded.
The sun is high overhead, suggesting it's around midday.
The air smells like a mix of things—bread baking somewhere, horse manure, something metallic that might be from the blacksmith, and underneath it all, the earthy smell of unwashed bodies and old wood.
It's... real.
Too real.
I reach out and touch the nearest wall. Rough wood under my fingers. Actual texture. I can feel the grain, the imperfections. I press harder, feeling the solid resistance.
"Holy shit," I mutter.
A woman walking past gives me a strange look but doesn't stop.
This can't be real. This can't actually be real. The goddess pushed me and now I'm in some kind of... what? Hallucination? Coma dream?
I pinch my arm. Hard. Hard enough that it should hurt.
It does.
"Ow! Fuck!"
The word comes out louder than I intended. A few people turn to look at me, frowning, but they keep walking.
Okay. Okay. I can feel pain. That's... that's not good. In a dream, you're not supposed to feel pain, right? Or is that a myth?
I look around again, this time really looking. And that's when it hits me.
I know this place.
The layout of the street.
The buildings. The town square visible at the end of the road with a fountain in the center. The alley to my left that's just a bit too dark, too suspicious-looking.
This is the starting town from the game.
The exact starting town.
"No fucking way," I say out loud.
I start walking, moving down the street toward the town square.
Each step feels real.
The cobblestones are uneven under my feet. I can feel my weight shifting, my muscles working. Real. It all feels real.
I reach the town square and stop.
The fountain is right there.
A simple stone structure with water flowing from the mouth of some kind of fish sculpture.
The same fountain where Luna—my character—spawned every time I died in the game.
There's the notice board where I found the rat quest. The wooden posts with faded papers pinned to them.
There's the inn with the barmaid who wore that low-cut dress.
There's the general store where the shopkeeper stabbed me when I tried to steal.
Everything is exactly where it was in the game.
But it's not pixels on a screen anymore. It's real. Solid. Three-dimensional.
I'm standing in the game world.
Actually standing in it.
"This is insane," I say to myself. "This is actually insane."
A man walking past me pauses. He's older, maybe in his fifties, with a scraggly beard and tired eyes.
"You alright there, lad?" he asks.
I stare at him. He's talking to me. An NPC is talking to me. Except he's not an NPC anymore, is he? He's a person. A real person with wrinkles and scars and—
"I... yeah," I say. "I'm fine. Just... confused."
"Ah," he says, nodding knowingly. "First time in Millhaven?"
Millhaven. That's the name of the starting town. I saw it on a sign in the game but never thought much about it.
"Yeah," I say. "First time."