Aiden opened his eyes to the brightest starry sky he has ever seen. His first thought was that his ceiling has been stolen, but that seemed unlikely since he lived in a dormitory with five floors above him.
"I don't recall getting drunk," Aiden muttered as his head threatened to split open. "Where am I?"
The last thing that Aiden recalled was going to bed after returning from an expedition to ancient ruins. His anticipated hot shower turned out to be a freezing hell since his roommate used all of the hot water.
"Did I die from excessive anger?" Aiden muttered to himself as he rose up. His hand felt the wet and rough edges of the bricks underneath it. As he looked at the ground, he found it a brick-layered floor covered with moss, grass, and ash.
The first order of business was understanding where he was. From a glance, Aiden gathered he was sleeping atop a circular platform of bricks. He rose to his feet and took the scenery beyond that.
Dark tall trees filled his view. Mist hovered between them, preventing him from seeing past a few kilometers. Aiden was at the summit of what looked like a giant altar, with stairs descending into the white fog beneath him.
[Welcome to the Shattered Realms, Aiden Valero.]
"What the–?" Aiden screamed as he jumped back, seeing a screen pop out of thin air. He stumbled back, away from the blue rectangle that appeared in his vision.
The screen moved with him, as if attached to a wall in front of him. Aiden flailed his arms to send it away, but his hands passed through them. After his initial shock, Aiden calmed down when he realized it wasn't threatening.
What the hell is this? Aiden thought. Is this some kind of dream? But it feels… too real. Have I simply lost my mind after years of academic abuse?
[New Quest: A New Beginning.]
Another screen emerged, making Aiden rub his eyes in confusion. But there was more.
[You find yourself in a strange situation. Danger lurks around the corner, and knowledge will be your greatest alley.]
[Objective: Explore the surrounding and understand what brought you here.]
[Reward: System Integration.]
"This has to be a prank, right?" Aiden questioned. His fingers pinched his skin, but the pain was very real. "It seems I have gone…"
Crazy.
Aiden couldn't reach another conclusion after a few minutes of looking around. The circular platform was empty, so he jumped down to visit the rest of the altar. It looked to be like a ruined temple that has burned to the ground.
This looks… recent.
The temple was vast, but it carried nothing but rubbles. Fallen walls were the only thing that survived, and anything that carried value was burned to ashes.
It seems that the circular platform is at the center of the temple. This looks like… some sort of ritual.
Aiden was filled with dread. If he was brought here as a result of a ritual, then zealous religious believers would not be a strange thing to encounter. At the moment, the scariest thing he could find in this place was another person.
The temple had four sides, from which two had stairs going down toward the mist. Aiden gave it one glance before spotting something shifting in the mist, and decided he wanted to live another day.
The other two sides were giant black trees, far larger than the others. However, these trees seemed to have burned down, which explained their appearance.
They are… still burning.
Aiden realized that whatever happened to this place has been recent. If the culprit finds him here, he would be a goner too. Therefore, Aiden found a secluded spot to sit down and think.
This looks real. I'm alone in this place, with nothing but these strange screens to keep me company. The smell, the air, and even the sounds are too real to be a dream. I need to treat this place as real life, better than believing it's a dream and ending up dead. My only chance at the moment is…
[Objective: Explore the surrounding and understand what brought you here.]
[Reward: System Integration.]
Aiden decided that his only path to understand what was happening is finishing this quest. He dusted himself and began exploring the temple. Other than ruins, he began finding more signs of civilization.
"This temple is… abandoned." Aiden realized.
As a student of ancient languages and a research-assistant for a world-renowned archeologist, Aiden could uncover whatever secrets this place had. His work began.
The brickwork technique and geometry of the altar told Aiden that a medieval civilization has built this. After careful study of the orientation of the entire temple, he realized they were aligned with the celestial bodies in the sky.
Aiden's father was an astrophysicist, giving him just enough knowledge to know that the constellations in the sky didn't belong to his world. They were more intense, with stars changing and flickering in color as if sending divine messages to those below.
During his research, Aiden found a group of symbols and runes inscribed on different parts of the temple. His shock came when he realized that they were similar to the ones he studied during the expedition.
"As I suspected, this place is related to the ruins," Aiden realized. "What is this place trying to tell me?"
Minutes turned to hours before Aiden translated a single paragraph, gathered from destroyed rubbles and pillars scattered across the temple. The message was short, but it was enough clue.
"Where the stars align."
Aiden muttered as his eyes looked above him. The pattern in the sky pointed gathered above a single place: the circular platform. He staggered toward it, climbed up again, and began pulling out the grass and scraping the moss away.
Runes began to appear. Words of an ancient language stringed together as Aiden began to decipher them. The resemblance they carried to the ruins they explored was unmistakable.
Something brought him here to finish the job.
After another hour of work, Aiden was able to read it aloud, breaking the still silence of the altar.
"The last shard falls when the seeker arrives."
As the words seeped into the surrounding, something began to sir. The altar beneath his feet began to glow with ancient lights. Aiden panicked, but a new screen appeared before he was able to flee.
[The Quest - A New Beginning - has been complete.]
[System integration has begun.]
"Now is not the time to—" Aiden wanted to stop what was happening, but blinding light emerged from the altar. An ethereal mist emerged from his chest, accompanied with searing pain.
[System is now binding to the new soul.]
Aiden screamed as the light drilled into his being, not with sound, but with sensation—like someone was burning his veins from the inside out. He collapsed, clawing at the stone, as if he could scrape the pain out through the bricks.
[Warning: Soul structure incomplete.]
[Shard potential detected.]
[Initializing Core Framework.]
"What are you doing to me?" Aiden cried out, voice hoarse as his vision began to flicker. It was like staring at an eclipse through his own eyes—darkness ringed with pulsing, golden light.
[You have no Shards. Shard Slots: 0/4.]
[No Crest detected.]
[Establishing baseline parameters based on soul resonance...]
[Academic Classification: Historian. Insight-based modifiers applied.]
[Hidden Trait Detected: Linguistic Resonance.]
[Unique Passive Unlocked: "Scriptseer" – You can decipher ancient languages and symbol-based magic at twice the normal rate.]
Aiden's breathing slowed as the pain receded. The light shrank into his chest, leaving behind a glowing imprint—a faint crest barely visible over his heart, like a tattoo made of starlight.
[System Integration: COMPLETE.]
[Welcome to the Shattered Realms, Seeker.]
[Status Screen Unlocked.]
A new screen flashed before him.
[Status Window: Aiden Valero]
[Class: None]
[Shards: —]
[Crest: Unformed]
[Trait: Scriptseer (Passive)]
[Titles: Seeker of the Last Shard]
[Current Rank: Unawakened]
Aiden stared at it, sweat still clinging to his skin despite the cold night air. "...I have a status screen."
He sat back, blinking at the hovering text, before quietly muttering to himself.
"I really am in a system-based world."
He looked back down at the glowing runes around him.
"And someone… or something… wanted me here."