Kay found himself floating in a completely bck space,

  There was absolutely nothing except himself and… a strange, faintly glowing blue dispy, simir to the ones he had seen in video games, floating before his eyes.

  It was truly strange for him to be floating like this in a vacuum without even the slightest discomfort—no struggle to breathe from a ck of oxygen, no freezing from the cold emptiness of space, or anything worse...

  But instead, he felt very comfortable, light, and drowsy, as if he were lying on a luxurious bed—if he had to be honest.

  Taking another look at the dispy…

  [System Notification]

  You have been transmigrated to the World of Vaelthar from an unknown world outside the Magical Worlds Circle—a vast realm that spans the entire multiverse, encompassing all magical worlds. This event was triggered by the unintentional activation of the recalled stone (unknown).

  You are currently inside a temporary bck box, positioned at the edge of the circle. The time limit for this bck box is 100 minutes. If the time limit expires, the bck box will disappear, and your transportation will continue regardless of your current situation. Please complete your selections before the time runs out, as any unselected options will be considered forfeit.

  There may be a dey before your mind fully awakens from the bckout induced by traveling through space, as compared to your physical body, which has already been transported.

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  The white words appeared on the blue, ethereal, transparent dispy. The nguage it used was indeed the same as his, and the words were written in a way that was very easy to understand. Yet, the content seemed codified or something, as it was too difficult to digest.

  Deciding to ignore the nonsense for a while, he reached out his hand, trying what he had always wanted to do since the moment he found himself floating in this strange space: to touch it and see what would happen, dodging the "Next" button, of course.

  As expected, his hand simply passed all the way through the other side of the dispy, without causing even the slightest change.

  'Was this that 3D thing or something? It was completely passable, and not only that—it looked like a ghost...' he thought.

  'If I remember correctly, there was a movie that used this 3D thing and was really popur a year ago... right? What was it about again...? Hah, forget it. Let’s think of something else... And then there were the 3D TVs... oh, and the 3D games from the city too. I really wish I had enough money to buy and py them, to be honest... Too bad, I'm just a jobless loser...'

  He tried his best to figure out what the 3D thing was again by recalling the popur movie about the blue aliens wearing primal clothes, fighting off the invaders' machines; the TVs that made things on the screen look like they were popping out or going deep inside when you wore special gsses, making movies seem more real, like you were right there in the action; and the 3D games that some stores near his pce had just brought back from the city, which captivated and distracted him for a little while, starting from the moment during yet another fruitless job-hunting attempt when he happened to pass by a game store with a few new posters for those games. But midway through his delightful recollection, he was reminded by reality that he was just a jobless loser, forever hunting for jobs in the countryside, not knowing how to live for the days to come, not to mention not having money for something so expensive and modern—things that only rich kids in the big city could have.

  Someone like him, just knowing that those things existed, was an accomplishment in itself, let alone anything beyond that.

  Oh. And now that the subject of being a jobless loser was mentioned, wasn’t he being transported here while he was still on his way to hunt for the shipper job?

  Kay tried to remember his memories as he realized that, for some reason, his mind felt very tired and heavy, as if he had just woken up from a long sleep. His recent memories were vague and blurry.

  'Oh, my motorcycle broke... then I met the... kitty! And the stone it brought!'

  '... and the column of light, then I was here...' he thought with difficulty, finally able to remember the whole thing.

  '... Ehm, so... the kitty was the ultimate culprit in all of this?' he thought, recalling the cute kitty that had naively appeared from the field and brightened his sorrowful day. Then, he remembered the st unforgettable moment—when it dashed off with all its might, its tail between its legs, but was frozen in the air like a flying squirrel. He found his thoughts a little funny, if he had to be honest.

  But just the fact that he was floating in midair without face-pnting to the floor—ass up—was enough to make him think twice about everything. The bck box could be contributing to the totally bck room, and the dispy could be linked to the 3D technology, but the floating... there was no expnation for that at all.

  'So, the truth was... the kitty was... a magical cat with the ability to transport someone to another world just by letting them touch a stone?' He imagined the kitty, wearing a big witch's hat, lounging zily on the empty street near the wheat field, in the shadows of the tall stalks. A sweeper was somewhere nearby, automatically sweeping, and, by chance, it swept a glowing stone towards the kitty. The cat, in annoyance, flicked it away with its front paw using magic. Meanwhile, a poor guy—somehow looking a bit like him—was pitifully walking his broken motorcycle back home and just so happened to come across the kitty. One coincidence after another occurred, creating an odd chain of events that seemed to transcend the mortal understanding of the world, producing a cosmic effect not much different from the Big Bang. The only person who could understand it was the guy, his face filled with terror as he stared at the flying stone. Seconds ter, he disappeared without a trace, except for the fact that he left behind his motorcycle. The sweeper kept continuing its work, and the kitty kept continuing its sleep, as life turned back to peaceful, as if nothing had happened.

  He thought like that, but he found that this idea was even more nonsensical than the one he had just made fun of.

  'Or maybe... it just happened to come across the Recalled—or whatever—stone in the field and unknowingly brought it back to me because it thought the stone looked nice and that I would like it, without knowing what the stone could do? And if so, why wasn’t the kitty transported like me? Why did nothing happen to it? ... And was there anyone else in the same situation as me?'

  Kay was filled with confusion but found this reasoning indeed more reasonable than the possibility of the kitty being a magical cat.

  After thinking about random things for a little while longer, he came back to his senses.

  'Hah, let's stop thinking about those things now—not like it could change anything. Oh right, let's focus back on the present. Haiz,' he thought.

  Using his hands, he pushed himself closer to the dispy while remaining in a posture that resembled sitting—just as he had been before, with his hand resting below his chin. But for some reason, from a distance, it simply looked like he was trying to push the invisible wheels of an invisible wheelchair.

  He conveniently forgot about his me posture—since this was the best he could do—and focused back on the dispy. After all, no one had ever taught him how to move in a vacuum before. This time, he started reading it properly.

  '...'

  'Hm... System... Another world... Vaelthar... Unknown world... Magical Worlds Circle... Unintentional... Recalled stone... Bck box... Hah!—my head!'

  Midway through his reading, his skimming habit kicked in again, and he clicked the next button. This time, however, to avoid making the same grave mistake as when he skimmed the shipper poster before, he skimmed properly—specifically, only focusing on the words "a dey," as they seemed kind of important.

  [System Notification]

  Your location after being transported was an unknown, designated location based on the preset information of the recalled stone (unknown).

  The system was unable to analyze the recalled stone’s information to pinpoint your exact location.

  You may choose to use the Transport Modification function, which will slightly adjust your location from the preset destination to a nearby, safer pce—if such a pce is found.

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  '... location... unknown... hell... based on the recalled stone... wasn't able to analyze... modified function... safer... wait... if such a pce was found...'

  He read the nonsense on the dispy, yet his heart filled with dread. Midway through his serious reading journey, as he was about to scream in frustration and skim again, he accidentally caught the words "if such a pce was found" at the end of the message, which seemed too vile for him to ignore. He recoiled in fear and went back to reread the whole thing again... or maybe just the tter half, where he had left off before.

  After a while, having finished reading, he clicked the Next button again.