[— ~ — ~ — ~ Status Window ~ — ~ — ~ —]
Name: Niern Callin
Level: 1. EXP: 0%
Class: None
Titles: Otherworlder
•—•
Stats:
Strength: 7
Agility: 5
Defense: 4
Mana: 10
Vitality: 11
Stamina: 8
Endurance: 3
•—•
Skills:
•—•
Talent rank: F
Talent ability: Hot Fingers
Talent potential: D
[— ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ — ~ —]
Niern stood still within a white space, his body completely white, looking like a ghost, as he stared at the status window before him.
He wondered what he should do now.
A moment ago, he was in his home, scrolling through his phone looking for anything to watch, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.
When he opened his eyes, he was already in this place with the status window greeting him.
Looking around, he examined the room for any exit from this place, wanting to get out of here, when suddenly:
[— • — • — • System window • — • — • —]
Hello Niern, as you already know, you have already died.
This world you inhabit is a safe haven for Otherworlder beings like you, and you are already accepted as part of its community.
The system doesn't ask you for anything to do in this world, except for — well, enjoy your life, live it the way you want it to be, and do whatever you want in this new world.
The only thing the system wants from you in this world is to be safe.
[— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —]
Reading the kind words from the system, Niern smiled and replied, "Thanks — I'll make sure to," in front of it.
Only for the system to reply with a message and a smiley face at him.
After that, a door opened behind him, letting him leave this place.
Hovering his ghost-like body, Niern made his way out.
***
Erein — one of the many cities where the Otherworlders appear every year, at the start of spring, the people of the world: Merlain.
Would make their way to this place to meet these people in the hope of recruiting them into their houses and guilds, to obtain a high talent rank within them.
At this time, hundreds of people were waiting for the tower to open for the Otherworlders to come out.
For what reason do these people want to recruit a newly arrived Otherworlder, who should be weaker than them?
That is — Talent.
Each and every single one of them is given a talent within the tower, and this talent can go from F to SSS rank, and even EX rank.
Those with F to D rank talent would have at least 3 abilities, according to their rank.
A talent with a C to A rank will have more than 6 abilities.
And finally, those with S rank to SSS rank talent would have more than 9 abilities at the very beginning when they enter this world, making them game-changing characters.
As the crowd waited for the tower to open, a bell rang out suddenly, signaling the tower's opening.
"Here they come!" a man yelled within the crowd.
As the tower opened, three doors appeared, alarming the people watching.
When the tower opened in the last couple of years, only two doors appeared, telling them that the batch of Otherworlders had only talents up to A-Rank.
With three appearing today, this meant there were people about to enter this world with S-Rank talent.
As the Otherworlders left the tower, those with influential power rushed over to them, to recruit those with C rank talent and above — mainly to find the person with an S-Rank talent before the others did.
"Shit! Why does the tower even make a third door if even those with rank D and below talent leave within them!?" a man in a black suit said, looking for this S-Rank talent.
As the man looked around for those with great rank, he murmured the talent abilities he was seeing with his Appraisal skill.
"Mountain Fist, Minor Heal, Barrier, Tame, Steal, Fireball..... There are too many of them!" he screamed, questioning how many Otherworlders there were this year, before continuing to look around.
"Double Limb, Adaptation, Arrows Creation, Hot Fingers.....? What?" the man exclaimed, looking at the last talent.
"Only one ability unlocked… must be a slow-awakening talent," he said, looking at the brown-skinned man's talent again.
As he stared at the weird talent ability, he found himself staring at an S-Rank talent man right behind him.
Without wasting any time, the man swiftly moved through the crowd and met the S-Rank talent.
***
"This place is crowded.....!" Niern exclaimed, after a man in a black suit walked past him.
Unable to bear the crowded area, Niern looked for the exit within this place.
After a few turns with his head, he found an area where there were barely any people.
Taking this chance, Niern pushed himself through the people and escaped from the tower area, finally having the time to breathe properly.
Watching the other Otherworlders like him being recruited by the people of this world, Niern wondered why he wasn't getting recruited too.
Checking his status window, he understood why: "Right, no one wants an F-Rank talent...." Along with realizing how weird his talent was.
"Hot Fingers? What kind of ability is this?" Niern questioned.
Earlier inside the tower, he had been so focused on what he should do, after understanding that he had died, that he hadn't even realized his talent at the very bottom of the window.
Now, here outside, he was left speechless at the sight of it, at how useless it sounded.
Taking this new reality, Niern moved to another topic, and that is — resources.
Looking at the other people like him, he found them carrying some kind of bag, unlike him who didn't have anything on him.
Tapping every corner of his body, Niern stood still, seeing how he truly did not get anything from the system, unlike the others.
"Not even a single coin or anything," he murmured, trying to hold back his tears.
Not wanting to dwell on this further, he decided to leave the area and find anything that could help him now.
Moving through the streets of this new world, he found himself admiring them.
Within the sky, all kinds of creatures and people were present.
From the simple birds, like the dove and the sparrow, to an airship that is impossible to see in the world he had lived in.
To creatures like griffins, wyverns, dragons, and even some humanoid beings with wings, and people with staffs.
"I'm... really in another world... huh!?" Niern muttered, staring at them, before moving once again.
Niern then explored the cities of Erein, from the north, where a large plain was, to the south, where a large forest was; east, a large open area; and to the west, a small forest good for collecting herbs and wild vegetables.
During this time, Niern was focused on the new sights he normally wouldn't see and experience in his original world, forgetting that he was essentially homeless.
Sitting back near the center of the city, where the tower he was in was set, he contemplated what he should do now.
Bored and not having any idea of what to do, he called up his status window and checked his talent ability once more.
Reading the simple words of it, he raised a brow, still weirded out by its name.
Staring at his fingers, he thought of using it.
There before his eyes, he found his fingers lighting up like hot, flaming iron rods; he felt a warm sensation running through his body, like a warm bath after spending a long time in the cold.
As his fingers lit up, he realized that the heat within them was too much, before he screamed in pain:
"Ahhh! It hurts!" he screamed, realizing that activating his own talent ability was hurting himself, before turning it off.
"Ouch, ouch, that hurts so bad. Why do I have an ability that hurts me?" he asked, shaking his fingers in the air, before putting them to his mouth to cool them down.
[Endurance increased by 1]
"Huh? My stats increased by using my ability?" He felt stupid looking at the panel, thinking that his own ability would hurt him and even increase his stats.
Understanding how bad his situation was — having not a single coin on him, and even his own ability being essentially a burden.
Niern, for once, understood that he needed to do something about this.
Standing up, he made his way to the west side of the city, where the adventurer guild was.
Earlier in his exploration, he found that the adventurer guild was on the west side of the city.
Where people were wearing some kind of clothing that he would normally only see on the internet.
Making his way, he went through a small alleyway to avoid the main street, not wanting to get involved in any trouble.
If he found the alley he planned to go through had people, he would avoid it and find another area to go through, making sure to avoid unnecessary fights and trouble.
As he was about to enter another alley, he found that it had a bunch of women in it.
Just meeting other people was bad, but having multiple women in the same area was worse.
Not wanting to escalate this situation, Niern peeked once inside the area, before moving away, putting his head inside the area.
He found four people standing up, kicking, punching, and hitting another one on the ground.
From the looks of it, the one on the ground was a homeless person, having ragged clothes that looked like a sack used to hold potatoes.
From the face of the person being hit, she was a woman, with jet black hair that went down to her waist, covered in mud, dirt, leaves, and other materials you could find in a forest.
Her skin was ragged with all kinds of filth, and her body showed signs of starvation.
Finally, her face was covered in dark spots showing she hadn't gotten any proper sleep.
Though Niern felt bad about her situation, he couldn't have the courage to go help her; after all, he was still level 1, with stats barely reaching 10 points.
While these people could have higher levels and stats, and, most of all, skills.
Taking one last good look, Niern prepared to leave. As he was about to pull away, one of the four women suddenly kicked the homeless lady in the stomach, making her sputter out blood.
Seeing this, he knew leaving now would be horrible.
Though he was scared that these people would be much stronger than him, he still made his way toward them.
Standing behind the lady who threw the kick, Niern squatted down, grabbed her legs, and pulled her legs into the air, causing her to trip to the ground, alerting the other three.
"What! Who are you!! And what do you think you're doing!?" the woman with red hair, named Mia, screamed, seeing her friend on the ground.
"No one, but stop, will you!" Niern said, grabbing her arms and tightening his grip.
"What you're doing is too much now," he continued, glaring into her eyes, making the other two move back a few steps.
"Asshole! You think you can order me around because you're a man?" Mia said, activating her skill, [Fireball], in her palm.
"I'm level 18, while you're level 1 only," she said, grinning. "You think you can stop me by grabbing my hands only??"
"No, this will," Niern mused, activating his talent ability.
As his fingers lit up, Mia felt intense heat in her arms, understanding what Niern was doing.
She whispered: "Stop! It hurts..." trying to pull her left arm away from Niern's grip.
"No, not unless you promise you'll leave her and me behind without trying to fight back," he demanded, putting more pressure on his grip.
Niern was feeling the intense heat in his fingers and wanted to turn it off, but knew that if he did.
These four would definitely attack him the moment he let go of his hostage.
"Promise it," he demanded once again, seeing Mia still trying to pull her arms away.
It had been more than 15 seconds since he activated his talent ability; during this time, the heat in his fingers was enough to make both his and her skin smell like it was burning.
"Alright!!!!" she screamed, panicking as her skin burned, "We'll go away and won't attack you guys, so please stop it...."
Letting go of her arms, she fell to the ground, as the other two helped her with her wound.
[Endurance increased by 5 points.]
A panel appeared before him. Ignoring it, he turned his attention to the homeless lady and helped her to stand up, dusting off the dirt and sand on her.
"Sorry, I kinda watched you get beaten up for a while before helping you," he said to her.
"No... thank you.... for helping," the homeless lady said, wiping off the blood on her face.
"Asshole and freak, fitting for each other," a voice called out behind them.
Turning around, Mia was holding her burnt arm in her stomach, as the other two used their skills on her.
"You think you're some kind of hero?" she said to Niern. "Guess what? That woman is a curse. Because of her, everyone in her family died."
"..... So? That doesn't mean you can just beat her up without a problem," he replied. "Besides, I don't believe in such a thing."
"Huh!?" Mia exclaimed.
"So...? Will you take her in as your wife, to prove that she isn't a curse? Because if you do, you'll be dead in one month," she said, confidently, in a mocking tone.
Driven by the moment, Niern didn't hesitate to answer, "Sure, I do. After all, having someone like her would be better than being with you, bitch."
"Heh. That's so, Saya," she screamed, her voice filled with malice and hatred, at Saya behind Niern.
"You heard him, so do it, if you don't want me to kill you," she said, threatening Saya, hiding behind Niern.
Niern, confused about what was happening, raised a brow only, then suddenly, Saya, behind him, whispered: "I do."
After that, Mia asked Niern again:
"What did you say again? That you're willing to have her as your wife rather than being with me? If so, promise it then, just like how I promised I wouldn't attack back."
Annoyed by her tone, Niern answered, "I'd rather have her in every possibility than be with you."
Hearing his answer, the two grabbed the one on the floor who had passed out, while Mia stood up and smiled:
"Congrats! I hope you two have a wonderful life!" she screamed, running away with her friends.
".... What!?" Niern exclaimed, in complete confusion, not sure what she had accomplished, when suddenly:
[Congratulations!!!]
[You have both accepted each other as wife and husband. From this moment on, the two of you are now married.]
"What!!" Niern screamed, looking at the system panel, telling him he was married.
Looking back, he found Saya on the verge of tears. Seeing her, he asked:
"What's this?" Before she answered:
"I'm sorry, I was just afraid of her, so I followed her plan."
"What? What plan, and why is the system telling me I'm married?"
"You said you'll have me as your wife if it means not having her. When I said 'I do' a while ago, that was me accepting your proposal. When Mia asked you again, and you answered that you would rather have me in every possibility there is....."
Saya took a long pause before continuing: "The system recognizes it as a pledge of us being married together."
"... Huh...!?" That was the only thing Niern could utter at that moment.
To think he would accidentally get married to someone within ten hours after getting into another world, because some lady annoyed her.
Now, left in the alleyway they were in, the two stood still beside each other.
He was in complete confusion about what just happened.
While Saya was trying to find a way to apologize to him for her actions.
[Congratulations!
You have earned the title: Love at First Sight.
Effects: Anything compatible and fitting for you will glow.]
[ :) The system is happy for your marriage.]