Pale silvery moonlight shone through the dim alley, making the night seem hazy and depressing. A few murmurs and footsteps from pedestrians could be heard through the slightly opened door.

"Damn, the night shift again?" A desperate sigh escaped from inside a small apartment room as a slightly thin hand slammed the door shut. He locked the door and tidied his uniform as he walked hurriedly along the dark alley.

The thin man was so busy checking the time on his phone that he didn't notice two people emerging from a dark corner. He accidentally bumped into them, causing one of them to groan and grab his jacket to steady herself as she almost fell.

"You...!" A tall boy beside the girl raised his hand to push him in anger, but they didn't notice a dim yet mysterious purple rune slowly appearing below their feet.

Suddenly, the three of them disappeared in a flash, leaving nothing behind as if they had never been in the alley.

"... Huh?"

The thin man blinked in confusion.

He remembered that he was pushed by the angry man, yet instead of falling onto hard concrete, he found himself sitting on soft yellowed grass with a bright sun hanging above his head.

Wait, why did the sun look so big?

He looked left and right, wondering where the couple had gone. Instead of finding them, he discovered only dehydrated and yellowish grass around him, with a few withering flowers scattered here and there. The cracked earth and bald trees looked so eerie, which made him wonder whether he had time-traveled to ancient times, perhaps during a dark period when natural and man-made disasters were prevalent.

His right hand rummaged through his pocket and found his phone, keys, and wallet. After checking the phone, he realized the digital clock was useless because it showed 6:33 PM, as if the bright and blazing sun in the sky were a fake prop.

"Is this the legendary transmigration? Or am I hallucinating?" He murmured in confusion as he walked to the shade beneath a towering tree. Although the tree was bald, the trunk was big enough to hide his body from the scorching sunshine.

He lay flat on the shriveling yellow grass, his dark brown pupils lazily staring at the clear blue sky with no clouds in sight.

Well, he was already late for the night shift at the factory, so he might as well take a nap here. Maybe he could return to his small apartment once he woke up.

He took off his gray jacket and draped it over his stomach. Before he could close his eyes, he noticed a large bird flying in the sky from the corner of his eye.

"... A big bird?" His eyes snapped open as the 'big bird' flew above his head and quickly disappeared into the distance.

"Damn! It's a dragon!" His breath hitched when he realized the kind of world he was in.

Although he was a bit slow and too lazy to care about his surroundings, the appearance of a dragon made him feel the pressure of survival. Maybe it was a kind of instinct that could only be felt when facing a higher-level creature.

He stood up and quickly put on his jacket before quietly walking behind a big tree. Then, he focused his hearing to detect sounds in the woods, and his sharp eyes scanned the surroundings.

Although he didn't encounter any creatures on the way, the absence of insect sounds made him cautious. He knew that no small animal would hang around a place already marked by a big guy.

"If I've indeed time-traveled into a Western fantasy world... there should be a system panel, right...?"

He took a deep breath before chanting a few words to activate the system in his head. After a while, he felt despair when he didn't see any system panel or hear mechanical sounds.

"Ugh...! Where's the system? Where's the cheat?" He bumped his back against the tree trunk, his dark brown pupils dim with disappointment.

After a while, he sighed and mumbled lazily, "System panel, open–"

[Ding!]

[Name: Mauri Antasena Lvl. 0

HP: 1000 / MP: 1000 (x100)

STR: 10

DEF: 8

INT: 12

DEX: 10

Title: Visitor From Another World

Skill: Universal Language Lvl. 5 (MAX!), Appraisal Lvl. 5, Dimensional Space Lvl. 2, Teleportation Lvl. 2, Stealth Lvl. 2, Growth Accelerator Lvl. 1

Blessing: God of Space and Time]

His eyes were wide open as he stared at the blue panel that appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

"What is this? A character profile?" He quickly read the words on the system panel, and his mouth gaped in surprise. "Blessing from the God of Space and Time? Who is that?"

Mauri raised his right hand and softly tapped the Blessing column in mid-air, and a long paragraph instantly appeared below.

[Blessing: God of Space and Time]

[>One of the Gods from the neutral camp found a poor person accidentally caught during the Hero and Saintess summoning (yes, it's you). He decided to give you a blessing to help you integrate into this world and avoid being treated as an intruder by the aborigines. As long as you do not change your camp, you will not lose your blessing.]

[>Note: Blue Panel is Neutral, Green Panel is Good, Red Panel is Evil.]

Mauri tilted his head in confusion after reading the explanation. Hero and Saintess summoning? Were they the same people he bumped into in the alley?

He carefully read the note below; if his blue panel meant neutral, then what should he avoid to prevent changing camps?

Maybe... just maybe, he shouldn't kill people from another camp?

How could he know another person's character panel?

Oh, there's an Appraisal skill here.

From the skills he currently possesses, it's clear he's still a weakling with no attack power. Even his health bar looks pitifully low, with only a hundred-times BUFF added to his blue bar to assist his skills.

Dimensional Space is just an inventory for inanimate objects, and Teleportation is used to escape from desperate situations. As for Stealth... It sounds like an assassin's skill, but without being paired with a quick attack skill, it's useless.

Growth Accelerator... well, it's only level 1, almost negligible.

Mauri sighed softly. At least these skills are useful for a peace-loving and lazy guy like him. He doesn't want to spend his time training hard and shedding blood for the world, well—it's not his original world, anyway.

Even if the sky falls and the planet cracks apart, he doesn't care. His family members aren't here, and the only thing he should guard is his well-being.

"Ugh… I should go somewhere safe before it gets dark." He glanced at the big sun hanging right above his head, and he changed his phone time to 12 PM before he moved into the woods.

Although the ground looked so dry and the towering trees were almost bald, he knew that there should be a human settlement near the water source. He had to find slightly damp ground, although it was a hard task for him.

He had been walking for almost two hours, his lips chapped dry, and his breath becoming rough as time went by. He hadn't found a trace of green since he arrived here, not even fruits and nuts.

If the Teleportation skill could be used to teleport into places he had never stepped into, he wouldn't be so embarrassed like this.

As he climbed a small hill with heavy steps, he found a stone house right at the center of the hill. He quickly ran there, even though he was so exhausted that he almost fainted from the lack of water.

The stone house was… well, very broken. It might as well be called a ruin instead of a house. The beam made of logs was cracked and almost fallen, the stone walls and pillars were broken as if they had been knocked down by a gigantic hammer, and even the roof was totally incomplete.

Mauri knew that there would be no one who dared to live inside the ruin, but he carefully used the Appraisal skill to determine whether the house was occupied or not.

[Stone House (Durability: 4/100)]

[A resting house built by hunters from Yonda Village, destroyed by warriors from the Orc Tribe, has been unoccupied for seventeen years.]

Wow, that's a lot of information for such a broken house.

Yonda Village? Orc Tribe?

Although Mauri noticed that there weren't any small animals during his journey, he didn't find any footprints, blood, or any trace of civilization left. He guessed that the animals were frightened by the dragon's breath. But the dragon left this area hours ago, which is why he dared to venture into the woods alone without worry.

Mauri carefully walked into the stone house, avoiding the broken walls and pillars.

When he stepped inside, he found some broken furniture and scattered molted grains on the dusty floor. He went into one of the rooms near the front door and found an almost intact drawer near the cracked wooden bed.

"Appraisal!"

[Wooden Drawer (Durability: 87/100)]

[A drawer made by an Apprentice Carpenter from Yonda Village.]

[Contents: Two sets of men's linen clothes, one small leather sack, five bronze coins, one silver ring.]

"Huh? A silver ring?"

Mauri quickly opened the drawer and took out the contents. After he stored the clothes and coins in the Dimensional Space, he focused his sight on the silver ring.

Well… He didn't find any gem or rune embedded on the surface. Instead, he found a very small name engraved inside the ring.

"Maria?" He whispered in doubt. "Ugh, appraisal!"

[Silver Ring (Durability: 77/100)]

[An engagement ring given by Hunter Charles to Maria Berulla, the daughter of the village chief in Yonda Village. DEF +3]

His eyes widened when he saw the bright yellow words at the end. Increasing defense?!

Although it's only 3, this is the first item he has found that adds attributes!

He didn't care whether the owner would find the silver ring. After all, this broken house has been unoccupied for years, and the ring's simple design can be found everywhere.

"I guess the owner died long ago." Mauri smiled softly as he walked out of the room. He roamed through every room in the house, but he only found broken tiles and wood. Not to mention finding a treasure box; even a penny was nowhere to be found.

He sighed and walked outside. As he stood on the hill and looked around the woods, he vaguely saw fumes rising straight into the sky from afar.

Did he finally find a human settlement?!