The sun was at the peak of its glory; it generously gave away an overwhelming amount of light and heat to whoever was not under a shade. The ground under the feet was smouldering and all the eyes could see was a wavy illusion above the desert sand produced by the immense heat from the sun. A lone man was on the verge of dying from heatstroke, dehydration, and the gashing wound on his stomach, whichever got to him first his fate was already sealed. Forcing himself to drive across the American desert with a broken AC turns out to be a bad decision, the man learned the hard way.

His name was Arnold Swanlake, a nerd who for whatever reason decided to drive across the desert during summer with a wheeled metal oven. Even Arnold doesn't remember anymore why he decided to drive today, but it wasn't important anymore, he was dying and his brain was too boiled by the heat to think clearly. The adrenaline from the crash has long worn off leaving him in immense pain, but right now he doesn't have any more energy to spare to care about the pain. He tried to use his own shirt as a makeshift bandage, but being a nerd who has zero first-aid knowledge Arnold's attempt to fix the wound fixed nothing besides drenching his shirt in blood. He tried to call for help earlier, but his phone was left in the car which had already become a flaming ball of fire some distance away from him.

"Oh God, I'm done for."

He could feel his breath starting to get short choking his dry throat, his sight was slowly becoming blurry either from tears or because he was closer to death. His heart was beating very fast, but it felt more like a supernova of a dying star than a fierce fight for life. Fear gripped his mind like a horror vine subduing him slowly from his feet slowly working itself upward. Arnold's body was no longer responsive to his mind's command, his mouth couldn't even mutter the name of the God he believed in any longer. The final moment of his agony was when darkness robbed him of his sight while he could still scream for help in his mind. His heart stopped beating first while his falling mind spoke his last prayer.

0o0o0

Once he died, Arnold expected himself to end up in purgatory but he wasn't. He instead regained his senses, his nose smelled the scent of wet dirt, his limbs could feel again the ground under him, and his eyes could see the things around him. He wanted to move to find out where he was but his body was still frozen from the lingering feeling of death that had certainly claimed his life before. He was sure… sure that Arnold Swanlake had died alone in a desert after a car crash, yet he found himself alive in a wet gloomy forest with none of his previous injuries present. His body was cold, weak, and wet because of the rain that may have been pouring on him before he woke up. Arnold was about to pass out again when someone found him, a woman in white clothes with a red cross patch on her sleeve. Upon finding him, the woman immediately checked his condition, by this time, Arnold was already blacked out again.

0o0o0

It has been 6 months since he found himself in this world. He experienced death yet he lived for a second time, but in a world completely different yet similar to the Earth he knew. The main difference was the existence of Dolls, in simple terms, they are humanoid android which was made to closely resemble a normal human, they are even capable of emulating accurate human emotion and behavior. Arnold faintly remembers that dolls initially came from the discovered relics of extinct civilizations. There was also something about collapse technology or whatever it was called, Arnold doesn't really remember, not anymore after all this time. He already left the game for almost a year so even if he was obsessed about the game before, he barely had any recollection of the lore by now. Though, he probably could use some of that knowledge now… Well, there was nothing he could possibly do now that he was physically stranded in that very world.

The current problem he had right now was neither food nor shelter, but his status in this world. Not long after he was saved by the nurse who turned out to be a medic doll, a rather stupid (in hindsight) series of events and poor decision-making made him officially recognized by the medical staff as "Crazy due to head trauma". He tried to convince them otherwise but it hasn't been working well so far… at least the hospital food was kind to his taste buds and so far, nobody has served his medical bill to his face. Being thought of as crazy is hurtful but free food and free of bills and tax really does make him feel rather comfortable with his current situation. He still tried to convince them that he wasn't crazy though… but it seems like lately his admission to being not crazy was working like a reverse psychology for the nurses and doctors that occasionally checked on him. He wonders how long he will be staying in this mental ward, coddled by caring and pretty nurses is relaxing, but their pity keeps drilling into his conscience as a healthy and mentally stable adult. But he doesn't know what he wants to do or what he could do if he gets out of this facility, the world of GFL out there isn't a very kind one, he could try his luck being a civilian… his skill as a programmer might not hold up in this world where things were more advanced and complicated than what he knew back home. He doesn't even have the proof to prove his qualifications and a history of being a mental ward patient doesn't help either.

"I'm really hopeless, aren't I?"

While he was lamenting his condition, he suddenly remembered something odd that had been brought with him into this world. It was a weird candy with weird wrapping with colourful "Eat me!" on it, he never really paid attention to it due to how insignificant a piece of candy was compared to what had happened to him, from crashing his car, dying, and then transported into another world. Now that his life was more or less stable and calm (despite being called crazy), he just recognized the oddity of the candy that he didn't remember ever buying before, he wasn't a fan of sweets after all.

Reaching for the bedside drawer, he took out the candy and started inspecting it from every angle. Nothing stands out other than its lack of brand, when he opened the wrapper, he smelled the candy.

"Smells like a ginger candy… I think Grandma and Grandpa loved to eat these before. I never liked it; it tasted like a mint but deviated and weird… Maybe I could give it another chance?"

Believing that it was only a ginger candy that he accidentally pocketed from home, Arnold ate the candy without hesitation. As expected, it was a ginger candy, the difference was that he might actually like it this time, not very sweet and a bit spicy with an aroma that felt nice… he doesn't know how to explain it. His enjoyment didn't last long before a sudden bout of drowsiness assaulted his head, he quite literally flopped to his bed like a marionette whose string was cut. He doesn't know what happened and his sleep was dreamless… but when he woke up, he found something weird floating in front of his eyes.

It was a holographic pane-

"Oh, come on! A system!?"

His incredulous scream alerted the nurse and doctor in charge of him this week. They were relieved when finding out that Arnold was fine, but Arnold's status as a crazy was a bit heightened that day…

0o0o0

A/n: After being away from GFL for so long I came back after GFL 2 Exilium came out, and I also have some free time right now (It's December yay~). My beginner's luck awarded me Suomi and Ullrid so in my happy state, Inspiration popped out~ I decided to place out our guy (Arnold Swanlake) during GFL 1 time and give him a system because my brain doesn't have enough wrinkle to do one without it, lol.

AI made the cover picture, the gun looks wrong, lol