The wooden bar felt surprisingly soft against Jin's cheek. In the waking world, sleeping on a countertop would have resulted in a stiff neck and a headache, but here, it felt like resting on a cloud. He drifted in that comfortable haze between consciousness and the void, waiting for the familiar hum of his PC's cooling fan to wake him up.
Instead of a fan, he heard a soft, rhythmic thumping. It sounded like a wet umbrella being shaken out. Then came a sharp, panicked gasp that ended in a muffled thud.
Jin opened one eye. The tavern was gone. He was no longer at the bar. He was lying on a thin straw mattress in a small, cramped room that smelled of cedar and old dust. A single candle flickered on a rickety stool.
« Oh no. Oh, this is bad. This is historically catastrophic. »
The voice was high-pitched and melodic, vibrating with the kind of anxiety usually reserved for people who had just accidentally started a forest fire. Jin turned his head.
A woman was tangled in a heap of silver silk and pale feathers in the corner of the room. She looked like she had fallen through the roof, which was odd, considering the ceiling appeared perfectly intact. She had hair the color of moonlight and eyes that shifted between violet and gold. Her wings, which looked like they belonged to a very large and very confused swan, were currently pinned behind a wooden washbasin.
« Excuse me » Jin said, his voice flat. « Are you the manager? »
The woman froze. She disentangled a wing from the basin and scrambled to her feet, smoothing out a gown that seemed to be woven from literal starlight. She looked at Jin, then at a glowing parchment hovering in the air next to her, then back at Jin.
« Sato Jin? » she asked, her voice trembling.
« That's me. »
« Twenty-four years old? Professional gamer? Died of a localized power surge while hunting an obsidian construct? »
« It was a World Boss » Jin corrected mildly. « But yes. »
The woman let out a sound that was half-sob, half-hiccup. She dropped to her knees, her forehead hitting the floorboards with a loud thwack.
« I am so sorry! » she wailed. « I am Maelith, the Lesser Goddess of Transition. I was supposed to guide your soul to the Azure Plains! It's a lovely place. Very quiet. Lots of fluffy sheep and infinite tea. But the ritual... the essence alignment was off by three degrees! You weren't supposed to come to Eterrya! »
Jin sat up on the straw mattress. He rubbed the back of his neck. « So, I'm in the wrong world. »
« Terribly wrong! » Maelith looked up, her eyes brimming with divine tears. « Eterrya is a world of Conflict and Progression. It's a high-stress environment! You were flagged for Early Retirement! But because I pulled you through the wrong gate, your soul merged with the World Soul's administrative layer. That's why your status is... well... »
She gestured vaguely at the shimmering mist still floating in front of Jin's face.
« It says I'm a Mister » Jin said. « And my strength is a potato. »
« It's not a potato! » Maelith shrieked, waving her hands frantically. « It says Hot Potato! The System can't read you, Jin! Because you are an administrative error, your power levels are being processed through a corrupted translation table. The System is trying to describe a god-tier existence using the vocabulary of a confused baker! »
Jin blinked. « So I'm not weak? »
« Weak? » Maelith laughed nervously, a sound like breaking glass. « You are the Number One ranked entity on the continent. If you sneezed too hard in the wrong direction, you'd probably reformat the local geography. But because your status looks like gibberish, nobody knows! You're a walking apocalypse disguised as a tourist! »
Jin considered this. He looked at his hands. They looked like the same hands that had clicked a mouse for ten hours a day. He didn't feel like an apocalypse. He felt like he needed a sandwich.
« Can you send me back? » he asked. « To the place with the sheep and the tea? »
Maelith's face paled. « I... I can't. Once an soul is anchored to the World Soul of Eterrya, moving it again would cause a reality collapse. You're stuck here, Jin. At least for this reincarnation. »
Jin sighed. It was a long, tired sound. He had spent his entire life grinding, competing, and stressing over pixels. He had finally reached the end, only to be told he had been dropped into a different game by mistake.
« Fine » he said. « If I have to stay, I want a quiet life. No quests. No demon kings. No saving the world. I just want to open a shop. Maybe sell some omelets. Do you have omelets here? »
Maelith blinked, stunned by his lack of ambition. « You want... to cook? You have the power to level mountains, and you want to crack eggs? »
« Mountains are loud » Jin replied. « Eggs are manageable. »
The Goddess stood up, wiping her eyes. She looked at him with a mixture of pity and awe. « I owe you a debt, Sato Jin. A massive, divine debt. I can't take you home, but I can offer you a Compensation Gift. One wish. Anything within my power to grant. »
Jin didn't hesitate. He had spent the last hour thinking about the only thing that really mattered in that moment.
« I want a pillow » he said.
Maelith paused. « A... pillow? »
« A good one. Memory foam style, but magical. It should never get too hot on one side. I want both sides to stay perfectly cool, forever. »
The Goddess stared at him. She looked like she wanted to argue, to offer him a Vorpal Blade or an Infinite Mana Pool, but the look in Jin's eyes stopped her. He was serious. He was more serious about this pillow than most heroes were about their holy relics.
She reached into the air, her hand disappearing into a fold of golden light. When she pulled it back, she held a rectangular cushion encased in silk the color of a summer cloud.
« The Frost-Breath Pillow » she whispered. « It is woven from the wool of astral sheep and enchanted with a permanent low-tier ice ritual. It will remain at exactly eighteen degrees Celsius until the end of time. »
She handed it to him. Jin took it, felt the incredible softness, and pressed his face into it. It was perfect.
« Thank you » he said, his voice muffled by the silk.
« I'll be back » Maelith said, moving toward the wall. « Every week. To check on the... the stability of your existence. Please, Jin... try not to destroy anything. Especially not the princesses. They're very important for the prophecy. »
« What princesses? »
But Maelith didn't answer. She walked straight into the stone wall. There was a sound like a gong being struck, a flash of silver light, and then a very distinct crack.
Jin looked up. Maelith was gone, but there was a massive, spiderweb-shaped hole in the masonry where she had exited. The night air was now whistling into the room.
« She's going to be a problem » Jin muttered.
He stood up, tucked his divine pillow under his arm, and walked toward the door. He needed to find the innkeeper. If he was going to live a quiet life, he needed to start by making sure he wasn't charged for the wall a Goddess had just demolished.
He stepped out into the hallway of the "Sleeping Dog Inn." It was dark, save for the faint moonlight filtering through the windows. As he made his way toward the stairs, he passed a tall, ornate mirror standing against the wall.
He stopped.
In the reflection, he saw himself—the same tired face, the same messy hair. But behind him, in the depths of the glass, a woman was watching him. she was pale, with translucent skin and eyes that held the weight of centuries. She wore the tattered remains of an explorer's outfit.
The ghost of the inn.
Jin stared at her. The ghost raised a spectral hand, her mouth opening as if to let out a blood-curdling scream that would drive a normal man insane.
Jin simply adjusted his pillow. He looked at the ghost with a level of boredom that was statistically impossible. He didn't scream. He didn't run. He just looked at her as if she were a smudge on the glass.
The ghost's scream died in her throat. She looked at Jin's status screen, which was reflecting in the mirror.
[SKILL 2: EMPTY GAZE — ACTIVE]
The ghost saw the [ERROR 404]. She saw the void behind his eyes. She saw a power so vast and so indifferent that it made her own death feel like a minor inconvenience.
She didn't scream. She turned around and vanished into the woodwork, her spectral form shivering with a terror she hadn't felt since she was alive.
Jin continued down the stairs.
The innkeeper, a burly man with a permanent scowl, was cleaning a mug behind the bar. He looked up as Jin approached.
« You're the one who fell asleep on my bar » the man grunted. « Room 4. That'll be five coppers for the night. »
« About the room » Jin started. « A Goddess just walked through your wall. »
The innkeeper stopped scrubbing. He looked at Jin, then at the empty pockets of his sweatpants. « Listen, kid. I've heard every excuse in the book. 'A dragon ate my purse.' 'The tax collector is my uncle.' But 'A Goddess walked through my wall'? That's a new one. »
« I can show you » Jin offered.
The man sighed, put down the mug, and grabbed a lantern. « Fine. But if this is a prank, you're sleeping in the stables. »
They walked up the stairs. When they reached Room 4, the innkeeper pushed the door open. He held the lantern high.
The wall was perfectly intact. There was no hole. There was no silver dust. Even the dust on the floorboards seemed undisturbed.
Jin frowned. He touched the stone. It was solid. Cold.
Did she fix it? he wondered. Or is divine property damage invisible to mortals?
The innkeeper turned to him, his face reddening. « You think this is funny? Making an old man climb stairs in the middle of the night? »
« I... I must have been dreaming » Jin said. It was the easiest explanation.
« Yeah, well, dreams don't pay the rent. Five coppers. Now. »
Jin reached into his pocket. He felt something cold and hard. He pulled it out. It wasn't a 7-Eleven receipt. It was a single, heavy coin made of a metal that seemed to swallow the lantern's light. It was etched with the image of a falling star.
The innkeeper's jaw dropped. He dropped the lantern. Luckily, it didn't break.
« Is... is that an Astral Mark? » the man whispered. « Where did you get that? That's enough to buy this whole street! »
Jin looked at the coin. Maelith must have slipped it into his pocket when she gave him the pillow.
« Is it enough for the room? » Jin asked.
The innkeeper began to bow. He didn't just bow; he practically folded himself in half. « My lord! Please, forgive my rudeness! You can have the whole floor! You can have my daughter! No, wait, she's married. You can have my best wine! »
« I just want to sleep » Jin said. « And maybe some breakfast tomorrow. Omelets, if you have them. »
« Omelets! » the man shouted. « I will go to the market at dawn! I will find the finest eggs in the kingdom! I will find the golden hens of Vareth! »
The man backed out of the room, still bowing, and closed the door with the reverence one would show a cathedral.
Jin sat back down on the bed. He placed the Frost-Breath Pillow at the head of the mattress. He lay down. The cool silk immediately began to soothe his mind.
He was in a world he didn't understand. He was ranked #1 for reasons he couldn't explain. He had a coin that could buy a city and a pillow that defied the laws of thermodynamics.
« Tomorrow » Jin whispered to the dark room. « Tomorrow, I find a place to cook. »
He closed his eyes.
Outside, in the sky above Vareth, the stars seemed to shift. In the royal palace miles away, a Great Crystal of Augury suddenly cracked down the middle. In the depths of the forest, an ancient dragon opened a single, golden eye.
The world was screaming in anticipation of its new King.
Sato Jin just started snoring.