Chapter 1: Last Day in the Old World
Ekaterinburg, 18:47
The rain pounded on the roof of the bus stop as if the heavens had opened. Dmitry Sokolov, eaten up with fatigue, massaged his aching temples - eternal overwork, endless sleep deprivation. The phone in his pocket vibrated annoyingly: Anna, as always, was asking him when he would be home.
- "Soon," he muttered back, stashing the phone back in his pocket as if from an unwelcome interlocutor.
And then, as if out of nowhere, the air shook.
A ghostly window flickered in front of his face, like a smartphone screen, but without the device itself. Like a vision from digital hell.
[⚠️ ACCESS ERROR ]
■ A user from an unauthorized world has been detected.
■ A transfer procedure is initiated....
- "What the hell..."
He instinctively reached for the dancing symbols, but his fingers pierced the shimmering veil, meeting no resistance, as if through ghostly smoke.
The world suddenly turned upside down.
The last thing he saw was his own body collapsing on the wet pavement and the horrified faces of the people who rushed to him screaming.
And then the darkness.
A new world. The first awakening.
My eyelids felt like they were stuck together, unwilling to open.
His body wouldn't obey, shackled by invisible chains.
But his hearing picked up - muffled voices, quiet footsteps, whispers like the splashing of waves.
- "He was born..." - said a man's voice, deep and commanding, like a roll of thunder.
- "My son..." - The woman whispered, and there was a tenderness in her voice like the rustling of leaves.
Someone's touch, barely perceptible, touched his tiny body, and at the same instant a text flashed in his inner gaze, brighter than the sun:
[WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM]
■ Name: **Romul von Argelion**
■ Race: **Human (aristocrat)**
■ World: **Hernasia, Age of Sword and Magic**
■ Feature: **Reincarnation with memory retention**
A painful stab of realization flashed through my mind.
He's dead.
And now... he's just an infant, abandoned in a foreign, hostile world.