On a highland where the wind blows, the only sound is the rustle of the breeze passing through the tall grass.
Beneath a large, solitary tree on a hill where the winds pause and rest, someone lies as if asleep, eyes closed.
It was a man with black hair, draped in a white robe. As a few gentle gusts brushed across his face, he stirred as if waking from a dream, sitting up and looking around.
"Where am I… Why am I outside…?"
Squinting against the sunlight that illuminated his face, he tried to make sense of his situation, retracing his actions before he fell asleep.
"Last night, before I went to bed… I defeated the Naga Queen in Grand World… and then I slept… I'm sure I was in my bed…"
He turned his head, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings. Then his gaze fell to his hands, which had felt strangely heavy when he sat up.
Instead of the crude knight's gauntlets reinforced with thick iron plates, he wore ornate silver gauntlets, intricately crafted with small metal segments adorned with delicate patterns and tiny gemstones. Each piece was so finely made that they seemed to move effortlessly with even the slightest motion of his fingers.
As he studied the elaborate designs, the gauntlets looked less like armor and more like a work of art.
Turning his hands over, he noticed a large blue gem embedded on the back. A sudden realization hit him, and he muttered to himself, "This is… definitely Naan's Gauntlet… But why is it on my hand…?"
Lowering his head to inspect his clothing, he was interrupted by the sound of someone approaching from the other side of the tree.
"You're awake, Gravel."
The name sounded familiar, though he wasn't sure if it was meant for him. Turning to identify the voice, he saw a female knight with faintly blue-tinged black hair, clad in silver-white armor, holding a helmet in one hand. She walked toward him with a faint smile.
"Huh? Wait, you're… Iris?!" he exclaimed, pointing at her. "And I'm Gravel?"
His mind reeled with confusion. The woman before him was Iris, an NPC companion from the online game Grand World Online, which he had been playing until just yesterday. There was no mistaking her—she wasn't a lookalike or a stranger.
In Grand World Online, the NPC recruitment system was unique, unlike any other online game of its era. NPCs aged and died with the passage of time, and new ones were born. Players interacted with these living, evolving NPCs, building rapport to gather information, complete quests, or even recruit them as personal companions. This system fostered deep bonds with recruited NPCs, setting Grand World Online apart from other games.
The effort he'd put into recruiting Iris and the countless adventures they'd shared flashed through his mind, confirming beyond doubt that the woman before him was indeed Iris. Though she was a game character, her presence in this strange place brought him a small sense of comfort.
"Iris? Is it really you?" he asked, though he knew it couldn't be anyone else.
"Yes," she replied. "I am Iris von Reutern, your knight, Lord Gravel."
"You're calling me Gravel?"
"Yes, Lord Gravel."
Gravel was the name of his character in Grand World Online. His mind spun, caught between reality and illusion, as countless thoughts swirled within him.
"This place doesn't look familiar at all. Did you wake up here too, Iris?" he asked, gesturing toward the tree.
"Yes, just a short while before you opened your eyes."
"Then what's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"
Iris closed her eyes, focusing as she tried to recall every detail. "I remember… we defeated Shaditirasi, the Naga Queen, together. After leaving the Naga's domain, we arrived at a small, unfamiliar village. We stayed in a rundown inn above a tavern, and I fell asleep there. When I woke, I was here."
"That's similar to what I remember," he said. (After all, I logged out and went to bed there.)
Their memories aligned, which was a good sign. The problem was what came after logging out of the game. He was certain he'd turned off the game and gone to bed, maybe taken a shower, or even gone out. But he had no memory of anything beyond that—no recollection of his life outside the game.
Who am I? My name, my age, whether I'm a man or a woman… I can't remember anything about myself.
He knew Gravel was the character he'd played in Grand World Online. His memories of the game were intact, and general knowledge about the real world came to him easily. The only thing missing was the answer to one question: Who am I?
It wasn't a philosophical musing. The memories of the person who had controlled Gravel in the game were gone, as if surgically excised from his mind. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall them. As he grappled with the pain of this void, Iris spoke again, as if something had just occurred to her.
"Oh! There's one more thing I remember."
"What is it?"
"Last night, at the tavern in that village, you kept taking out that sword to look at it. You were so happy, saying you'd finally obtained it."
"Oh… you mean this," Gravel said, glancing at the scabbard half-hidden beneath his robe.
The Sword of East End, one of the rarest top-tier items in Grand World Online. Acquiring it required vast amounts of information and resources, and the final hurdle was defeating the Naga Queen, Shaditirasi, whose location changed randomly. Failing to track her meant starting the process from scratch. It was an item with a difficulty befitting its status as one of the game's ultimate treasures.
"Haha, yeah, yesterday was a lucky day," Gravel said, his tension easing thanks to Iris. His tangled thoughts began to unravel.
The first thing he confirmed was that this place wasn't a dream or another game world. The scent of grass with every breath and the feel of the wind on his skin solidified that conviction.
This isn't a game. So where are we? And the fact that I'm Gravel, my character from Grand World… it's still hard to believe.
His mind remained a mess, a tangle of threads mixing memories from the game with the absence of his real-world self. From Gravel's memories as a magic-based character, he recalled the fundamentals of magical theory, the construction of magic circles, and the control of mana flowing through his body. What had been mere game lore was now organizing itself in his mind. Thankfully, it didn't take long for these fragments to find their place.
Shall I test it?
Muttering to himself, Gravel summoned a blue magic circle above his palm, which flickered and vanished. A faint aura shimmered around him briefly. As he experimented with the theories in his head, he suddenly locked eyes with Iris, who had been watching him. Startled, he apologized.
"Sorry, I was lost in thought, trying to sort things out."
"It's fine," Iris replied. "I've seen you deep in thought before. My duty is to protect you during those moments, so it's no trouble."
It seemed that when he'd left his character idle in the game to check strategy sites, Iris had interpreted it as him being lost in thought.
"Let's see what else we have besides our equipment," Gravel said.
Iris rummaged through a small bag hidden under her cloak and the pouches on her belt, listing their inventory: eight healing elixirs, two portable food pouches, a water skin, and three magic scrolls. Gravel checked his own robe pockets and the small bag at his waist.
"A coin pouch… maybe about thirty coins?"
He didn't have much either: two mana potions, three healing elixirs, some food and water, and a few rings and earrings he'd obtained from the Naga Queen's domain.
"If only this were a normal online game…" Gravel muttered under his breath, expressing his frustration with Grand World Online's inventory system. Unlike other games of its time, it didn't feature unrealistic mechanics like dimensional storage or infinite bags. The developers had mocked such tropes, insisting that every item in Grand World had weight and volume. Players needed bags to carry them, and characters had limits on how much they could transport. For combat, it was common to travel light with minimal gear to avoid encumbrance.
Sigh… All those treasures I spent tens of thousands of hours collecting… are they gone now?
Gravel let out a hollow sigh, reflecting on the years he'd spent in Grand World. Strangely, his memories of the game were clearer than anything else. From the moment he created Gravel to now, every detail was vivid. Yet his real-world self—the person who had played Gravel—remained shrouded in fog, completely out of reach.
"They're still there, Lord Gravel," Iris said. "Safely stored in the treasury of the Skyhold."
Her words sparked a flash in Gravel's eyes. He'd been so caught up lamenting the monsters he'd defeated and the treasures he'd earned that he'd forgotten where those hard-won riches ultimately resided.