It was already 11:57 PM.
Three minutes until I turned twenty-five.
I sat alone on the worn sofa of my rented one-bedroom apartment, the kind of place that smelled faintly of instant noodles and broken dreams. In front of me rested a small vanilla cake—half a kilogram of cheap supermarket sweetness—its single candle still unlit. Beside it stood a faded photograph: me at six years old, squeezed between Mom and Dad, all three of us grinning like the world would never end.
It had ended for them in a car crash two months after that picture was taken.
I could still hear her last words, clear as yesterday.
"My sweet little child… you must live well. Just because we're gone doesn't mean you stop living. We were orphans too, so we wanted to give you the family we never had. But even if we couldn't… live for us, okay? Live well."
My chest tightened. I muttered to the empty room, voice cracking just a little.
"Don't worry, Mom. No matter how tough it gets… I'll live. I'll live well. And I'll be happy."
One minute left.
Outside, fireworks cracked across the night sky. The city was already screaming its welcome to 2026. I slid the cake box open, picked up the plastic knife, and laid it beside the untouched dessert like some kind of ritual. Then I grabbed the remote and flipped on the smart TV, killing time while the whole world counted down.
A recommended video caught my eye—thumbnail of a wild-eyed man in a tinfoil hat. The title read:
"THE 25 CURSE – 250 People Have Vanished Since 2000. You're Next."
I snorted, but curiosity won. I clicked.
The man was ranting like a lunatic.
"Every single year since 2000, exactly ten people disappear the moment they turn twenty-five! Five men. Five women. No bodies. No traces. Two hundred and fifty souls gone—poof!—just like that. And tonight? Tonight we hit 2026. Another ten are about to vanish. Mark my words!"
He cackled, spittle flying.
"Aliens? Government experiments? A black hole in time? Who knows! But it's real. And it's happening again—"
I rolled my eyes and switched to music. "Christmas carol of the bells" started playing—my guilty pleasure even in late December. The familiar chimes filled the lonely apartment as the countdown outside reached ten seconds.
Ten…
Nine…
I picked up the knife.
Eight…
Seven…
The blade hovered over the soft vanilla surface.
Six…
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
The clock struck midnight.
I sliced downward.
At the exact same second, a glowing circle of pure white light erupted beneath my feet—runes I'd never seen spinning like living code. My heart slammed against my ribs.
"What the—?!"
I tried to jump back.
Too late.
The world folded in on itself. Light swallowed everything. The knife and the piece of cake I'd just cut stayed clenched in my hands as my rented apartment, the TV, the fireworks, and the year 2026 all disappeared.
The last thing I heard was the distant, frantic voice of that same madman on the TV, now screaming at the top of his lungs somewhere far away—running toward a police station, desperate to prove he wasn't crazy after all.
He was right.
And I was gone.
I don't know how long I was out.
The moment that glowing circle swallowed me, something inside my body just… broke. Like my bones and soul weren't built for whatever the hell that was. Time-space fluctuation, I guess? One second I was cutting birthday cake in my shitty apartment, the next—nothing. Blackout.
When I finally opened my eyes, it was already morning.
Golden sunlight poured across an endless sea of the softest, thickest grass I had ever felt in my life. It came up past my knees, cool and velvet against my skin. My bare skin.
I was completely, gloriously, terrifyingly naked.
A shiver ripped through me. The morning air was crisp, almost cold, and every tiny breeze felt like a slap. I pushed myself up on shaking arms, grass blades tickling places that definitely did not want to be tickled.
"What the actual fuck…?"
I cupped my hands around my mouth and screamed until my throat burned.
"AHHHHHHHH! You motherfuckers! Whoever did this—at least give me some goddamn clothes!"
The words echoed once, twice… then died. Nothing answered. Not even an echo. Just wind whispering through the grass like it was mocking me.
I dropped back down, chest heaving. A few minutes later the tears came—hot, ugly, unstoppable. They poured down my face like a broken dam no matter how hard I wiped at them.
"Damn it… damn it… I was scared. Where the fuck am I? What the fuck is this?!"
I cried like a baby for what felt like forever. Alone. Naked. Twenty-five years old and already dead on some alien planet. Mom's last words rang in my head again and I cried even harder.
But hunger doesn't care about breakdowns.
My stomach twisted into a painful knot, sharper than the fear. I couldn't sit here forever. Sniffling, I forced myself to my feet, wiped my face with the back of my arm, and started walking.
Toward the forest.
It loomed in the distance like something out of a fantasy painting—trees so tall their tops scraped the clouds, trunks wider than houses. Two or three kilometers of open grassland separated me from it. Easy walk, right?
Wrong.
Every step was torture. The grass wasn't just soft—it was thick and deep, swallowing my feet up to the ankles with every stride. It felt like wading through warm syrup. Each footfall sucked energy straight out of me. My legs burned. My lungs started to rasp. I was panting like I'd just run a marathon after only a few hundred meters.
And the silence…
There were no mosquitoes. No crickets. No birds. No distant animal calls. I kept scanning the plains for any sign of life—zebras, elephants, bison, anything—but the grassland was empty. Completely, unnaturally empty.
This wasn't Earth. This wasn't anywhere that made sense.
Fear slithered up my spine and wrapped around my throat. The forest ahead suddenly looked less like shelter and more like a mouth waiting to close. But turning back meant starving in an open field with nothing but grass and my own tears.
So I kept walking. Naked. Exhausted. Hungry. Terrified.
Unwilling, but moving.
Because what other choice did I have?
I finally staggered to the edge of the forest.
The moment I got close, the world changed. Golden sunlight died. The canopy overhead was so thick that only faint, sickly rays managed to stab through, painting everything in shades of twilight gloom. The trees here weren't just tall — they were impossible, trunks wider than cars, bark ancient and glowing faintly with veins of silver. The air smelled sweet. Too sweet. Like honey left out to rot.
My stomach twisted so hard I actually considered it.
Just… rip up some of that soft grass and eat it like a cow?
I slapped my own forehead, hard.
What the hell am I thinking?
I shook my head like a wet dog and stepped inside.
The temperature dropped instantly. The ground turned to thick moss that squelched coldly between my bare toes. Every breath felt heavier. High above, clusters of deep-crimson fruit hung like forbidden jewels. They looked almost like oversized apples, but shinier, almost glowing.
Eat them? What if they're poison?
I wasn't Bear Grylls. I had zero survival skills for whatever nightmare planet this was. But the hunger… God, the hunger was winning.
Sorry, Mom. I tried to live well. I really did.
I bent down on shaky legs and scooped up a fist-sized stone. My arm felt like it weighed a hundred kilos. I took aim at the lowest hanging fruit and threw.
Miss.
Again.
And again.
Each throw was weaker. My shoulders screamed. My vision swam. On the seventh desperate heave, the stone clipped the stem perfectly. The fruit broke free, tumbling through the branches and landing with a soft, juicy thud in the moss.
I practically fell on top of it.
The thing was bigger than any apple I'd ever seen — deep blood-red with a faint golden shimmer. It smelled like heaven and sin at the same time. I wiped it on my bare thigh (still completely, gloriously naked) and brought it to my cracked lips.
Fuck it. If I die, at least I die tasting something good.
I sank my teeth in.
Sweetness exploded across my tongue — pure honey and summer and something electric that made every exhausted muscle in my body sigh in relief. Warmth flooded my veins. The fog in my head lifted. For one beautiful second I felt alive again.
Holy shit, this is actu—
A blinding blue light detonated in front of my eyes.
A translucent window materialized in the air like it had always belonged there.
[Ding!]
[System Activation Complete]
[Welcome to Aetheria, Traveler]
[Soul Binding: 87% Successful]
[Unique Title Acquired: "The One Who Ate First"]
[Error: No Clothing Detected]
[First Quest Generated]
More windows were already loading behind it, glowing softly in the dim forest light.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I thought it would crack.
"What… the actual fuck?!"