Chương 1

Alex woke to rays of soft sunlight on his face. He squinted, felt around for his phone, slightly blinded. After a few haphazard attempts he managed to unlock it. 12: 36pm, it read. He yawned and propped himself up to an elbow. The details of last night came to him, quickly clarifying—he'd slept at 4-ish, he remembered, tinkering on a build for an upcoming league in this niche aRPG called Ark of Sky, currently in early release.

His tinkering was a gift to himself after several slightly painful hours applying for various summer jobs. It wasn't crucial that he get a job immediately—he was only in his second year of college, after all. He just figured he should fill the summer with something that'd look useful on a resume. It was the start of summer right now, and he'd only been applying these last few weeks, which… was maybe a bit of a late start.

It was just that he'd always had difficulty putting his mind to anything he didn't truly care about for an extended period—which, unfortunately, seemed to make a perfect, 1: 1 Venn diagram with 'things that were actually useful.' He was also exceptionally good at focusing on things he did care about—such as Ark of Sky—which also, it seemed to him, made an almost perfect 1: 1 Venn diagram with 'things that aren't actually useful.' It wasn't an ideal setup, career-wise. In his defense, he liked them.

And he didn't dislike how things were going, honestly. He knew this situation couldn't hold forever, and at some point—likely in the next year or two—he'd be forced to hunker down and make peace with the fact that he'd soon have to get business formal clothes. Start adulting, figure out his tax situation, and so on. For now, though… it was summer break. He wanted to enjoy it. He smiled a bit, eyes closed, just lingering there, bathing in the sunlight. God, that was a great sleep.

He felt like he'd just had an incredible dream, though the details were still a bit hazy. He made his way to the hallway bathroom, stretching a bit as he went. The hallway was filled with nice afternoon sunlight, filtering through a skylight roof. He brushed his teeth, took out his night-time contacts—all perfectly normal. He'd made it all the way back to his bedroom, his mind pretty idle, when he stilled. He noticed something he'd walked past, at first, on his way to the bathroom.

A picture perched innocently on his bookshelf—of a 7-year-old him at the 2012 Olympics, with his sister right next to him, and his parents there too, smiling—his mom in a light sundress, dad sporting an Olympics merch jacket. It was one of the last pictures he had of them all as a family before the accident; he'd considered replacing it when he'd moved back in for college, but he'd decided not to. He paused on the picture for a full second before he placed it. The background, he realized.

The stadium, the walls lining the arena—it was a little hard to make out from this distance. But he could tell there was some kind of… steel plate? With blue lines arcing through it, up-and-down, wrapping a blank white platform. … What? Had it been fencing they'd seen that day? This clearly wasn't that… And that wall was pretty striking, with those blue highlights. He definitely would've remembered seeing that. He blinked at the picture for a few seconds, wondering.

"Bella?" he said. His voice bounced through the house. Just in case his sister had come back early from her trip, and this was some kind of strange prank, but there wasn't an answer. She would've texted if that was the case, and she wasn't really the type… He made his way to his desk setup, still puzzled. He fumbled for a can of Diet Coke as he sat down in his comfy chair. Maybe he'd just… misremembered, somehow? It wasn't impossible.

He tried returning to what he'd been thinking about before he'd been derailed—specifically, his build idea, a swordsman—but he couldn't focus. He opened Youtube mindlessly, and was bemused to see four videos on his recommended which seemed to be on the same topic. A new game? Maybe not new, actually—the little thumbnail bar thing said he'd watched these videos before, though they didn't look at all familiar. Also strange, since he liked to think his memory was pretty good.

The title was,' Skills Showcase, X1 1 st team.' It was interesting enough to distract him from the picture, at least. Vaguely curious, he clicked. It wasn't an English video, but one in Japanese—thankfully subtitled. He saw a young, stylish-looking man in an equally stylish suit, an ' X1' emblem on his chest.

"Hey guys, I'm Tomoyuki. I represent Team X1 in leagues, and in international competition." Tomoyuki dipped his head." My build is 'Arc Lightning Mage.'" A few accolades flashed up on the screen— League achievements: 2x World Cup Winner, open class 5x World Cup 2 nd, open class 2023 U21 World Youth Champion Delving achievements: Solo clear, 2-star D-rank rift (x3) Alex pursed his lips—clearly, not a new game.

But before he could parse it further someone off-camera said something in Japanese, which made the man laugh; when the scene cut back the man had composed himself. This novel's true home is a different platform.

Support the author by finding it there.

"I'm here to share the use of a key Skill of mine," the man said. At this point he held out a hand, and a white staff dropped into his hand. A staff that was surprising for a few reasons—the first, that Alex hadn't realized this was in-game. The man looked incredibly realistic, down to the glosses on the little highlights in his hair. It didn't look simulated at all. The second—that staff was absolutely gorgeous.

A proud, pristine length of marble-like wood—he thought it was supposed to be wood, at least—ending at a light bluish crystal which seemed a shard of jagged, clear ice. These graphics are insane, he thought. The man tapped his staff on the floor, and several thin silver pillars, each six feet tall, materialized in the background. He seemed to be standing in a very large cube of a space, whose floors, walls, and ceiling were white, with graph-paper-like blue lines crossing through.

There was a stylized X1 logo on the back wall.

"The skill is called 'Arc Lightning,'" said the man." It's the centerpiece Skill of the build." Then the man raised his staff, and the gemstone lit up with a bluish lightning. A brilliant and beautiful lightning, caught in seemingly 4k resolution, bathing the surroundings in its color. The man pointed. A length of pure lightning arc'd from the tip of the staff, striking a steel pillar.

Then it bounced between the pillars in rapid succession, all in under a second, before it struck the back wall and vanished without a trace.

"This Skill isn't just useful for clearing," said Tomoyuki, with a slight smile." That's a misconception. With the right supports, Arc Lightning can bounce 'back-and-forth' like this. I typically use it for single-target. As for the supports, with Arc Lightning, the first, of course, is the 'Chain' support…" Alex lost the subtitles because he'd scrolled down to the comments. He expected to see thoughts on the visuals—it couldn't be just him seeing this, surely. The first comment chain he saw was on the staff.'

that staff is fucking nuts''It's arcane, what did you expect?'

'hes like two years after his trainee contract and he owns an arcane rarity staff?' Then, a highly liked reply—'It isn't his, it's on loan from the Nippon Foundation.'' no dude that thing's like $4 billion,' with a crying-laughing emoji, replying to the question.' he can swing that''He makes like 200 mil/year max, tf? and like half that goes to the Guild''how do you know''You clearly have no clue how much these guys make, he's like 2 nd -tier in Japan, he's not Daisuke,' another crying-laughing emoji.

Alex kept scrolling. $4 billion? Other comments were along the lines of' holy shit,''X1 made this just to flex the staff,' and' buying Tomo stocks!' Half the comments were in Japanese; he just read the English ones. Suffice it to say, they raised more questions than answers. Why are they talking about this like it's real? And there wasn't a single mention of the game. He quickly gave up and just googled the guy—'Tomoyuki Ishida.' Wikipedia.

Tomoyuki Ishida (石田智之, Ishida Tomoyuki) is a Japanese Duelist for Team X1, and a Delver for X1 Guild. Throughout his career— He scrolled down and saw a list of medals on the right-hand side, like the kind they made for Olympic athletes. His brow creased. It isn't in the Wikipedia style guide to mention the game? He clicked the X1 link. X1 is a multinational Guild with particular presence in Korea and Japan, founded in 2011. It ranks among the top Guilds globally, and is among the newest of the top-class Guilds.

It fields Team X1 as its Dueling wing. He clicked Guild, and then Delving, and finally received an answer. He read for a bit. He paused at the end of the page. See: Awakened. Delvers. Classes. Professions—Skillscribe, Alchemist (general), Jeweler— He scrolled down, found the page had indeed ended, paused again—" What?" He clicked another link. The Awakening. This article is about the metaphysical event.

For the Christian revival, see Great Awakening— No, Wikipedia, I'm not asking about the Great Awakening, fuck's sake. Then— The Awakening, also known as the End, or the Beginning, or the System Event, is associated with the 2002 arrival of Rifts, Classes, and Skills, and with the 2015 and 2026 arrival of Towers. The cause of this event is indeterminate. See also—Labyrinths. He closed his laptop, and then his eyes. This makes zero sense. He paused, and corrected himself.

It makes zero sense, unless you fundamentally accept a series of things which… also make zero sense. He wasn't sure that was any better. He was struck by a thought. He paused, stood up, went over to the picture on his bookshelf. He pulled out his phone, searched up 2012 Olympics Delving—2012 Olympics… Dueling? He tapped images.

"Holy fuck." And then—"No," he decided. He was pretty certain he wasn't dreaming, because his dreams, at least, had some kind of internal logic. At least they didn't make sense in a way that made sense, whereas this just didn't make sense. Everything in his room looked the same—the exact same. Except for that picture. And also everything online. He stood there for a solid minute, eyes closed, trying to think of an explanation that'd account for both the picture and the internet.

If this is an insanely elaborate prank, he thought. Who'd go out of their way to prank me, of all people? There was an explanation to this, he was sure. He just needed some space to think. Time for a walk. He went downstairs, went outside—sunny day, lawn, the neighborhood was typical suburbia. Exactly as he remembered it when he was a kid. Everything seemed the same. He walked. Just a quick lap around the block.

It occurred to him halfway through that maybe his aunt and uncle could've tampered with the picture, since they were the only other people who'd ever had access to the house, but they were hours away. He wasn't sure why they'd be here, and it wasn't their style either. He passed a very ordinary mail truck on his way. … He also wasn't sure how they could've tampered with the Times, which was the source of several of the Olympics pictures.

He concluded his lap, making sure everything he saw was as he knew it, which it was.

"So," he said. He didn't look at his phone again—he felt he should answer some questions before he raised new ones, and every time he looked online he found new proper nouns.

"This is weird," he decided.

"… This is really weird." Another few seconds. Ah, screw it. He bolted his way through the door and upstairs, and opened his laptop and started to read, skimming through. Timeline—2002. The arrival of Rifts, Gates, Classes, Skills. 2003—Delver's Association (D. A.) & first Guilds founded. V-dueling technology discovered—2007, establishment of first Dueling leagues shortly after—"Okay. What's a rift?" A rift is a magical incursion into reality, the website helpfully supplied.

It is its own pocket dimension, and typically contains rift creatures, treasures, and a Boss. If left unDelved, a rift is at risk of rift break—unleashing its rift creatures into reality.

"That's simple enough. Makes sense." Then—" Does it make sense?" Have I gone insane? He wasn't even sure it was a rhetorical question.

"You're telling me," he said.

"I'm in another world." Everything seemed to be screaming it at him. It was hard to come to any other conclusion.

"Another world which is… almost exactly the same as mine. Also, I'm just the same me. Somehow." A pause.

"Everything's the same, except for the magic. I'm just supposed to accept that." Or maybe the whole world's changed overnight? And…everyone's memories have also changed overnight? He wasn't sure how that was any different, functionally. And then, idly—"The mailman's here," he observed.

"…" He went down the stairs, feeling a bit silly. The man seemed to be just finishing up—closing the latch, smiling a little to himself. He noticed Alex walking up as he left.

"Just—enjoy it, alright?" Chuckling, the man got in his car, and left. In the mailbox, there was an envelope. A sleek envelope. Stark City Delver's Association It was addressed to: Arden, Alexander.

"…" In that envelope, there was a letter. Congratulations. It is my great pleasure to inform you that you, Alexander Arden, are endowed with the potential for Awakening. Please visit the Stark City Delver's Association at your convenience, and present this letter. On behalf of the Association, welcome. The world needs people like you. President Coldwell New York Delver's Association A silence." Okay— what the fuck is going on?"