Once I passed completely through the dimensional gate, the air touched me first.
I stopped where I stood.
The wind blew.
It smelled like the edge of a forest.
The scent of earth, grass, tree bark warmed by sunlight. Somewhere, insects chirred, and far away, a bird gave a short cry.
The wind brushed past the ends of my long sleeves and over my legs, hidden beneath my pants.
It didn’t hurt. It wasn’t cold, it didn’t cut, it didn’t crush me.
I pressed the ground once with the tip of my foot.
Dirt. Real dirt.
A few dry blades of grass lay scattered over it, mixed with some tiny broken stones. It wasn’t glass, it wasn’t flesh, and it wasn’t some bizarre metal.
Just an ordinary dirt floor, felt through the soles of my sneakers.
I slowly drew in a breath.
My lungs were fine. My ears weren’t ringing, and my eyes didn’t hurt. When I lifted my head and looked at the sky, there was no black curved surface.
Blue sky, slowly drifting clouds, sunlight.
That was all. Truly.
At that moment, a blue window calmly appeared in the center of my vision.
[Record Updated]
Real Time: 2026-03-26 20:38:11
Dimensional Entry
Astrania-1337
[Record Updated]
Local Status: Daytime
Location: Surface Zone Adjacent to Forest
Environmental Scan Initiated
[Record Updated]
Local Status: Daytime
Long-Term Stay Possibility Confirmed
[Record Updated]
Local Status: Daytime
Social Structure Exists
Civilization Sphere Confirmed
I read those sentences for a long while.
Long-term stay possibility.
Those words stuck in my eyes to a strange degree.
‘Long-term stay.’
Not surviving for a few seconds.
Not returning the moment I entered.
Not running before I died.
It meant I might be able to stay here for a long time.
“…For real? Is this for real?”
The words came out almost reflexively.
The window paused for a moment before displaying the next line.
[Privilege Grant Notification]
[You have safely arrived in the sixth dimension.]
That single sentence lodged itself in me with strange vividness.
Safely.
That really was the right word.
I felt my heart thump hard once.
And beneath that.
[Astrania Dimensional Trait Acquired]
[Cheonma Body (天摩之體) Lv.1 (0.1%)]
I looked at the screen twice.
‘Cheonma Body?’
For a moment, my heart leaped.
‘Am I… going to use Heavenly Demon martial arts now? Fuck, am I the Heavenly Demon? Am I finally getting rewarded? After enduring all those bullshit worlds, enduring and enduring and enduring… am I finally getting compensation for lawyer fees and emotional damages too?!’
At that moment, as if the Archive had kindly anticipated my misunderstanding, it displayed one more line.
[Ma (摩): Mana refinement. Unrelated to evil nature (惡性).]
“Ah…”
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
“Ha, seriously.”
It wasn’t so much that I was disappointed it wasn’t the direction I’d hoped for. It was more that I felt like an idiot for expecting that first.
Still, I didn’t feel bad.
Cheonma Body.
The name was grandiose, but at least it was the first trait I’d obtained in this world.
It wasn’t a message telling me only to run, like at the Human Ranch or the Flesh Book Corridor. It meant my body had received something here.
I looked around again.
The forest was denser than it first appeared.
Ahead, there was an empty space that was hard to call a path, but if I turned my eyes even a little to the side, branches and bushes were tangled together as if shoving against one another.
My first thought was that if I’d been wearing short sleeves and shorts like before, I would’ve been scratched up for sure.
My next thought was that it was a relief I’d come in wearing long clothes and sneakers.
A moment ago, the first thing I’d felt was relief that I might survive, but right after that, another thought followed.
‘Fuck. It’s a forest.’
I turned around.
The dimensional gate was still open.
A rectangular, square-shaped rift.
Floating in the middle of this perfectly normal forest scenery, it looked even more alien.
Looking at it, I came to a very simple conclusion.
‘This is the place.’
At least for a while.
If I’d found one world that was normal, where long-term stay was possible, where people lived and civilization functioned, then it was only right to see this world through first.
There was no reason to leave this world behind and look at another insane dimension.
Human Ranch, Glass Beach, Flesh Book Corridor, Atlantis, Black Universe Livestock Farm.
If I opened another door while leaving a sane world behind, that wouldn’t be curiosity. It would be close to suicidal impulse.
I muttered softly.
“Done…”
It wasn’t meant for anyone to hear.
“I’m not going anywhere else now.”
After saying it, I realized myself just how desperate those words were.
“At least I’m seeing this place through to the end!”
Standing in front of the dimensional gate, my mind settled a little.
I looked over Astrania once more.
Blue sky.
Dirt.
Forest.
Wind.
Normal air.
‘Now this is the shit.’
I looked at the dimensional gate, then turned my gaze forward again.
This time, I didn’t feel the need to return to my one-room apartment.
I was already fully dressed, and this world wasn’t trying to kill me.
For the first time, I became curious about this world.
‘Nice~’
I slowly scanned the edge of the forest.
Rather than blindly going deeper in, it was right to head toward where people lived. After all, the confirmation that a civilization sphere existed had appeared.
The problem was direction. There were no signs to show where the village was and where the mountains were.
After walking a little, I noticed a narrow dirt path where the grass was especially flattened.
It was different from an animal trail.
Its width was consistent, and there were traces of the ground being packed down by many footsteps.
A human path.
I immediately turned that way.
The dirt beneath my feet pressed down softly under the soles of my sneakers. Tree shadows swayed over the path. Somewhere, a bird took flight, and from inside the bushes came the sound of a small animal fleeing.
Strangely, I felt good.
It wasn’t anything special, but just the fact that these were traces left by people made my chest feel a little lighter.
Civilization.
Social structure.
The smell of people living.
Things like that were unbelievably welcome right now.
‘Ah~ whether not a forest but the sea~’
I’d been humming a song inwardly for a few minutes when the direction of the wind changed.
This time, mixed in with the forest smell was something else, very faint.
Smoke.
The smell of burning wood.
And something like the smell of food.
I stopped walking.
It was the smell of people living.
My heart sped up again.
There really might be a village.
I really might meet people.
I really might be able to live here.
That was when it happened.
A scream tore through the forest. Short and urgent. It sounded like a woman’s voice.
It was an unfamiliar language. I didn’t know the meaning, but I could immediately tell it was urgent.
Right away, the Archive reacted at the edge of my vision.
[Translation Initiated]
[Recording Language Pattern]
“Please, no…!”
My heart dropped.
‘Damn it.’
My body moved first.
A normal person would’ve stopped here, but I was already throwing myself toward where the scream had come from.
The underbrush brushed against my clothes. Low branches passed by close enough to scratch my face. The terrain underfoot gradually changed.
There was less dirt, more stone.
Boulders, a slope, dark shade.
And soon, I saw a black opening gaping like a cave.
Blood was spreading across the ground in front of the entrance.
I stopped where I was.
A corpse lay collapsed there.
At first, I thought it was a person. But it wasn’t.
It was small. As puny as a child, but its proportions were twisted. Its arms were long, its legs were bowed, and its skin was a murky green.
Torn ears, short fangs, a cheap leather vest.
Its belly had been deeply split open.
“A goblin?”
The word came to me far too naturally.
‘Wow… this really is an isekai.’
Strangely, that one thought calmed me down a little.
Wherever I went, it would probably be an insane world. But at least this wasn’t a genre I knew absolutely nothing about.
A forest, a cave, a goblin, a scream.
At the very least, I could guess what I’d be dealing with.
At that moment, another sound burst from inside.
“Ah, aaah…!”
It cut off short.
‘No time.’
I reflexively scanned the surroundings.
Going in barehanded would be insane.
That was when my gaze went to the goblin’s hand. It was clutching a short dagger. The blade was a bit worn, and there was blood on it.
“Better than nothing.”
I swallowed.
And suddenly, the message that had appeared a moment ago flashed through my mind.
Cheonma Body.
I didn’t know what it was, but at the very least, it was a trait that had appeared in this world.
‘It’s gotta be better than being a total normie… please.’
I pulled the dagger from the goblin’s hand.
It came free more easily than expected.
The handle was rough and crude, but it was lighter than I’d thought. If things got desperate, I felt like I could stab something with it once.
From inside the cave came the sound of stones striking together. Mixed with it was ragged breathing.
If I was late, it was over.
I adjusted my grip on the dagger.
My palm was wet. My heart was pounding like mad.
I was scared.
Fucking terrified.
But if I ran away here, I felt like I’d remember it for the rest of my life.
I gritted my teeth.
“Fuck… let’s go.”
And I stepped into the cave.
✧ ✧ ✧
The inside of the cave was darker than I’d expected.
It had looked dark even from the entrance, but once I took another step in, the outside light quickly died.
The smell of damp earth and blood stabbed at my nose, and the uneven floor and low ceiling made it hard to breathe. Here and there on the walls were palm-sized patches of moss-like growth, giving off a faint wet glow.
I held my breath.
From far off, I could hear rough breathing.
There was also a short scraping sound, like claws scratching against the stone floor.
My heart sped up again.
Sweat gathered in the palm holding the dagger.
A damn pathetic dagger.
But right now, just having this made things a little better.
A voice came from deeper inside again.
“Ah…! Don’t come closer…!”
This time, the meaning came to me almost immediately. It felt like the language pattern picked up earlier in the forest was continuing as it was.
I carefully moved farther in.
‘This is fucking scary.’
The cave was narrow at first, but after I went in a little, it split into two paths.
The right side sloped downward, and the left was a little wider.
The sound came from the left.
I pressed myself against the wall and slowly moved forward.
Step.
Just then, a sound came from right beside me.