It had been over three weeks since Ayla found herself trapped in Cryssa’s body. Neither of them understood how it had happened, nor did they have the means to investigate the cause.

  Until five days before the official launch of Dream Land Online.

  Cryssa was sitting at her desk, quietly flipping through an old Stelluna swordsmanship manual. Ayla’s translucent form hovered nearby, reading over her shoulder.

  Then suddenly, without warning…

  The long-dormant game system came back to life.

  A glowing blue window flashed into view before Cryssa’s eyes.

  ? Connecting the system to the essence of the world… ?

  (“Huh?”)

  “Huh?”

  Ayla and Cryssa reacted in unison, startled by the sudden appearance of the floating interface.

  ? SYSTEM CONNECTED ?

  They exchanged wide-eyed glances. Cryssa shut the book without a word.

  Then another message appeared:

  ? SYSTEM ALERT! ?

  ? A problem is detected. ?

  ? Starting analysis of the world’s condition… ?

  ? 0%... ?

  ? 1%... ?

  The progress bar crept upward, slowly but steadily. A heavy silence settled in the room as both girls’ expressions turned serious.

  Cryssa stood, walked briskly to the window, and shut the curtain. Then she opened the door.

  Just outside stood Glacia, deeply engrossed in a spellbook.

  “Master? Do you need something?”

  “Glacia, I don’t want anyone disturbing me until I come out. No one. Understood?”

  Though surprised by the abrupt command, Glacia didn’t question it.

  “Understood.”

  Cryssa nodded once, closed the door, and returned to her desk. The glowing system window continued its scan.

  ? 99%... ?

  ? 100%... ?

  ? Analysis complete. ?

  Cryssa swallowed hard. She and Ayla leaned in closer as new lines of text appeared:

  ? Mana overflow is detected. ?

  ? 1,000,000 dimensional gates are cracked. ?

  ? Attempting to repair damage… ?

  The room was still. Seconds ticked by.

  Then…

  ? Repair failed. ?

  ? Searching for alternate solution to prevent world collapse… ?

  Cryssa’s breath caught. Ayla’s brows furrowed.

  They didn’t fully understand the implications, but it was clear this wasn’t just a bug or a system glitch. Whatever this was, it threatened the world itself.

  ? Solution found. ?

  ? 800,000 dimensional gates can be stabilized through controlled opening. ?

  ? Destruction of 200,000 dimensional gates is unavoidable. ?

  “...Dimensional gates?”

  They had no idea what they were. But if the system was using terms like "collapse" and "unavoidable destruction," then there was no mistaking it.

  A catastrophe was about to happen.

  Then…

  ? Solution received from Administrator. ?

  ? Preparing emergency dimensional channel… ?

  “...Administrator?”

  Cryssa blinked, tilting her head in confusion.

  ? Success. ?

  ? A dimensional channel between Oneiria and Earth will open in 120 hours. ?

  (“Earth!”)

  “Oneiria!”

  They both shouted at once.

  Ayla recognized Earth immediately, it was the name of the world she’d lived in before being reincarnated.

  And Oneiria was where they were now.

  They had no idea what a dimensional channel really was, but they understood what 120 hours meant all too well.

  (“Dream Land Online is really going to launch in five days...”)

  Ayla muttered as the new lines appeared.

  ? 200,000 dimensional gates are projected to collapse in 12 hours... ?

  ? Attempting to delay destruction... ?

  (“Wha?!”)

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  “Wha?!”

  Ayla and Cryssa were taken aback when they read the time of the destruction.

  But then…

  ? Operation partially successful. ?

  ? Destruction now set to occur in 86 hours. ?

  Cryssa let out a shaky breath, visibly relieved that the destruction had at least been delayed. Ayla quickly glanced at the wall clock.

  10:00 AM.

  (“That means... The gates will be destroyed one day before the game launch. Right at midnight.”)

  The math was simple. Dream Land Online was scheduled to launch in five days at exactly 10 AM. The gate destruction would happen a day and a half before that… at midnight.

  The game’s setting had always been a post-catastrophic world.

  Which could only mean one thing.

  “…The catastrophe is real.”

  Cryssa muttered under her breath.

  ? Suggestion received from Administrator. ?

  ? Searching for locations with the lowest risk for visitors… ?

  Visitors.

  Ayla and Cryssa immediately understood what it meant.

  They were… Players.

  ? 15 locations found. ?

  ? Granting protection to chosen locations... ?

  Ayla’s eyes went wide.

  Fifteen. That was the exact number of starting towns in Dream Land Online.

  But then…

  ? Operation partially successful. ?

  ? One chosen location received only partial protection due to mana disturbance caused by the presence of a visitor nearby. ?

  ? Locating the interfering visitor… ?

  A chill ran through Ayla.

  If visitors meant players, then there was only one in the world right now.

  Her.

  Ayla was the interference. Her presence had disrupted the protection spell. And she already knew which town had been affected.

  Stellar.

  The town she and Cryssa had poured everything into protecting… was now only partially shielded… because of her.

  ? Visitor located. ?

  A new notification appeared, pulsing faintly at the center of the screen.

  ? Message from Administrator ?

  Cryssa and Ayla exchanged a tense glance, then Ayla gave a small nod.

  “…Open the message.”

  The screen responded instantly, and the message window unfurled before them.

  【Hi, Ayla… or should I say, Frostina?】

  Ayla flinched.

  “They know my in-game nickname!”

  Her translucent body shivered slightly as she leaned in to read the rest with Cryssa.

  【I don’t have much time, so I’ll keep this brief.】

  【I don’t yet know why the Goddess reversed time, or why you, of all people, were transported into Oneiria.】

  A shadow crossed Ayla’s face. Her lips parted slightly.

  So it really was a Goddess.

  That part, at least, was no longer a theory.

  【But because of your presence, the number of cracked dimensional gates in your location and in the surrounding territories is much higher than it should be.】

  【As a result, Stellar has only received partial protection from the system.】

  A hollow pressure gripped Ayla, like a cold ripple through her soul. Even without a body, the weight of those words hit hard on her mind.

  【That said, I’ve noticed you’ve already begun preparing for the upcoming destruction in both Stellar and Selini, with the help of Cryssa Stelluna.】

  A small flicker of validation lit in Cryssa’s chest, even as tension deepened around her brow.

  【I’ll try to adjust the level of the byproduct creatures in those areas to better match your current state of readiness.】

  【Here’s my advice: move half of your current preparations from Stellar to Selini if you want to have a chance at protecting both towns.】

  Cryssa’s eyes narrowed slightly.

  “Strategic advice... from the Administrator?”

  【Do your best.】

  【I’ll come find you when I have the time.】

  【—Administrator】

  As the message dissolved into the air, a deep silence filled the room.

  Ayla whispered.

  (“…They know about everything.”)

  Cryssa’s voice was quiet but firm.

  “And we’re not alone in this. Someone’s watching.”

  Startled at first, they now understood more than they had dared to hope.

  The system hadn’t solved everything, but it had finally begun to answer the questions that had burdened them.

  Dream Land Online.

  The full-dive virtual reality game from Earth that once seemed too vivid to be fiction... was no game at all.

  It was a real world.

  Oneiria.

  Ayla had long suspected it. Now, Cryssa too shared the same realization. For her, it came as a quiet relief, a validation of something deeply personal. She, and everyone else in this world, were not just programmed lines of code.

  They were not NPCs.

  They were real people.

  Even if the players never saw them that way.

  But in hindsight, it was understandable.

  Dream Land Online’s true purpose wasn’t entertainment.

  It was survival.

  A hidden effort to recruit Earth’s help to save Oneiria.

  The only way to inspire that kind of help, freely given and without reward, was to present it as a game.

  To the players, it was just an adventure. To the people of Oneiria, it was survival.

  Now, both Ayla and Cryssa also understood the system’s terminology.

  When the system mentioned “dimensional gates,” it wasn’t speaking abstractly. It was referring to dungeons, the very same as those found in the game. And the “byproduct creatures” were the monsters that spawned within them.

  As for why Ayla had been transported here in the first place, she had a theory.

  It had something to do with the item she obtained just before dying in her past life, The Essence of Dream Land. The clue had been there from the start, in the very first message the system displayed: “Connecting to the essence of the world…”

  It was all connected.

  As Ayla and Cryssa mentally pieced together the puzzle that had haunted them for the past three weeks, a familiar sound echoed in the air. A new window appeared.

  ? Exclusive Quest Unlocked! ?

  ? Stelluna’s Destruction Prevention ?

  ? Rank: Mythical ?

  ? Rewards: ?

  ? Frostina’s Physical Body ?

  ? Partial System Authority ?

  ? The life of Stelluna is in your hands, Cryssa Stelluna! ?

  ? Monsters will invade the world in 85:50:57 ?

  ? Defend the towns of Stellar and Selini for 24 hours! ?

  ? P.S.: Don’t expect too much from the rewards. ?

  Ayla’s eyes widened.

  (“...An Exclusive Quest?”)

  That had never existed in Dream Land Online, not even once. And the quest wasn’t assigned to a player, but to an NPC?

  She shook her head slowly.

  (“No, they’re not an NPC.”)

  Even more shocking was the rank: Mythical. In all her years playing, she had only ever seen that rank appear once, attached to the most mysterious item in the game.

  And now, this quest bore that same impossible rank.

  But what truly stole her breath was the rewards.

  Frostina’s physical body.

  There was no mistaking it. It was a direct reference to her. The system had acknowledged her presence, her identity, and her disembodied state.

  The other reward, a portion of system authority, was just as astonishing. Not something given lightly.

  Their eyes returned to the final line on the screen.

  “P.S.: Don’t expect too much from the rewards.”

  Ayla blinked at the unexpected note. It almost sounded like a joke. The tone was informal. Not something you’d expect from an all-powerful system.

  She and Cryssa didn’t know exactly what it meant, but they both had the same feeling: this wasn’t sarcasm or dismissal.

  It was the Administrator’s way of grounding their expectations while still giving them hope.

  A quiet, subtle reminder that help was being given, but nothing would come easy.

  Ayla and Cryssa exchanged a long look, both understanding exactly what this quest meant.

  The Administrator had intervened directly. This quest wasn’t just a system response.

  It was a personal message…

  And a call to action.