Somewhere in the Amazon, three men gathered for their little circle vacation. Initially, there were more of them adventuring the jungle with a local guide, but these three got separated because they stared at some monkey for a bit too long. Once they realized that they were left behind, they immediately tried to catch up to their group but instead got lost. Now the night was already closing but this trio still doesn't know where they are.

"Bro, we're done for, right?"

"This trip wasn't worth missing out on the daily login streak."

"I should've done more cardio at the gym…"

Having no experience surviving in the wild, these three can only attempt to walk around hoping they get lucky and meet their group again. Luckily, their food and water were plenty since they packed a lot. True, these supplies were heavy and slowing them down, but they were more afraid of going on without them since they didn't know how to utilize the jungle's resources. In their mind, their search for food and water would surely end up with them being poisoned or bitten by a snake… or any predator present in this jungle. Knowing their lack of ability to sustain themselves in the wild, they endured the heavy weight of the supplies since their life depended on it.

Since they're still walking aimlessly in the jungle and won't come across anything anytime soon, there will be enough time to introduce these lost boys.

The one who was equipped with enough clothing to live in the Arctic was Arif Lukman, he was a full-time freelance who would accept any commission relating to engineering and electronics, he also accepted designing and digital creative works to some extent. Often called "The Giraffe Man", he was usually the tallest among his peers being 195 cm or around six feet tall for the American. Since the average height in Indonesia was 166 cm or 5.4 feet tall, he was like a titan and often used as a landmark by his friends. Despite being a freelancer with no fixed job schedule, his pocket was pretty financially well since some customer likes to pay him well for his job, especially a certain person in his friend group.

Next to him was Malam Jumat, his name in English can be translated to "The Night before Friday", named after the time he was born. Among the three he was the most scholarly person; he just finished his Master's degree six months ago. He was also gifted with a handsome face akin to a movie actor, his looks and his master's degree make him a desired son-in-law in his neighbourhood. A pity, he was a massive weeb and an avid keyboard warrior who loved to pretend and talk like a Victorian gentleman in cyberspace. He wasn't the kind of keyboard warrior that debates from morning to night. Still, he frequently appears in the comment section of a video with a pretty anime girl in it, voicing his "Gentlemanly" appreciation of the character in the video. A person who frequently Commissioned Arief Lukman to draw something from him, mainly a waifu portrait or his favourite anime pairing.

The last one is Atlas Salim part-time gym rat with no known source of income, nobody knows what he did but he was sometimes suddenly gone for some time and then back with a literal briefcase filled with cash. While not as much as Malam, he was also a weeb to some degree and also commissioned Arif Lukman for something, though his commission was more varied compared to Malam who only commissioned anime-related stuff. Atlas basically made Arif his go-to person if anything was broken in his house, from computers, pipes, and his home appliances. Fun fact, true to his name, Atlas had an uncanny ability to read maps or memorising the place he had been into.

"Hey, Atlas wasn't you some kind of expert in maps or something, I remember you can remember a city layout after visiting it only once."

"Arif, that is a city, so many landmarks and unique things that I could mark down and remember, unlike this jungle."

"Isn't this jungle also full of unique things, like that tree and that tree is different?"

"…when everything is unique, nothing is."

The three keep walking on until…

"Guys, Look!", Malam pointed out to something in the distance.

When Atlas and Arif looked at what Malam pointing to, they could only gawk and gape at what they saw.

0o0o0

Somewhere in the Amazon forest, exists a temple not known by the modern world, unseen even by the satellite in space. Nobody in the world knew about its existence except these three who happened to stumble upon it, by luck or misfortune. This temple had some similarities to the famous Aztec temple, so it was understandable if someone who saw them would draw a connection between the two. But they couldn't be farther from the truth… if someone could turn back time and ask the ancient Aztec people about the temple, they wouldn't know about it either.

…because this temple wasn't supposed to exist… not in this world at least…

It was a temple that merely had some similarities with the temple of the ancient Aztecs, coming from another world. It has the ability to slip between the fabric of reality, the gap between dimensions, and the tunnel of time. The temple had changed place and time so many times its origin was no longer known nor traceable, the reason why and how it was made was also lost. At some point during its millennia of slipping between worlds, it gained some kind of sentience and took joy in inviting people into its chamber then brought them into another world and leaving them there after giving them a parting gift. The reason why it has this behaviour might have some relation to why it was made in the first place, it already has a lot of victims before and these three lost boys would be its next target.

0o0o0

Overcame by their curiosity and desire for shelter, the boys climbed the temple stairs and entered the main chamber. The chamber was spacious and filled with an unknown script, the floor, the wall, and the ceiling, their surface were filled with an unknown script or murals depicting people, probably those who made the temple.

"What… is this…"

"It's a temple for sure… Aztec? Mayan? There shouldn't be anything like this in the area we were supposed to camp at."

While Malam and Arif were busy admiring the murals, Atlas approached the centre of the chamber. There stood a stone tablet the size of an average adult, it had an inscription on it, made with a similar unknown script that was written all over the wall and floor.

When Arif and Malam had enough of scrutinizing the murals, they joined Atlas looking at the large stone tablet. What they didn't expect when they reached the centre was the sudden loud noise coming from the entrance.

When they turned to look at the entrance, the stone door was already closed. Not given the chance to run for the door to attempt to open it, all the murals and unknown scripts suddenly started to glow and float in the air.

"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, we're gonna die!"

"What is happening?!"

"Don't panic! Look! Something is happening to the stone tablet!"

Atlas being the calmest among the panic, noticed a gradual change on the stone tablet. The scripts which were initially unreadable slowly reformed into the language they know. It reads…

Don't be afraid, human friend.

I will bring you to the place you want the most.

Don't worry, I read your mind and thus know the perfect destination for you.

Such an exciting place that satisfies your desire for romance, action, and curiosity.

As expected of those who are from the same race as my creator.

Rejoice, I am capable of granting you power beyond human capability.

I will grant you this power named the "system".

I crafted this power after witnessing the extent of imagination from one of you.

This little gift from me, I hope you enjoy it.

We won't meet again.

Farewell, human friends.

"Huh what? What? Argh!"

"What do you mean?! AAHK!"

"What the… Argh!... my head!"

The camber started to shake violently, and the three unfortunate people were clutching their heads on the floor screaming in confusion, fear, and pain. Then everything went dark, they weren't given a chance to process anything that happened, they were writhing in pain for so long when suddenly they fell through the floor… the floor didn't collapse, it was just their body phased through the floor similar to someone fell into the backroom.

0o0o0

"AHK! GAH!"

"Ouch! Kuh!"

"Shit! Fuck!"

The trio after falling from the temple found themselves in some kind of ruin. Dusty sandy ruins of modern concrete buildings must have been left untouched for a long… long time. Aside from their headache and bewilderment, what they felt was years' worth of dust under their palm, further signifies how long has it been since the last time humans habituated this place. The first thing that came to mind was a disaster, maybe an earthquake or… whatever, they got a notification from the "little gift" from whatever entity that temple was.

[First Contact: Hostile!]

[You've been seen and weren't welcome. They're coming and don't have your wellbeing in mind, arm yourself with the starter arms given to you. You're given the choice to either; Defend your ground and endure the onslaught, Flee and hide from your pursuer, or enter the fray with guns blazing and arms swinging. What do you prefer?]

[Info: Respawn.]

[After death, you have the choice to immediately respawn for 15,000 points during live battle, or after the battle ended for 10,000 points if you completely lost your body and 5,000 if you have your body complete with a little blemish. Every defect in the corpse; such as missing limbs or bits will add more points required to the price for respawning with a maximum value of 10,000 points in case of complete body obliteration.]

Each of them was flooded with holographic panels that displayed various information, but they could've cared less for them when the warning for hostile was blaring the brightest red in front of them.

[Teammates]

[Arif : Alive. Well.]

[Atlas : Alive. Well.]

[Malam : Alive. Well.]

[Hostiles: 13...17...18...24]

Steadily, the number of hostiles was rising fast and soon they could hear and feel the ground near them rumbling. Whatever confusion they had was immediately knocked out of the window, it wasn't that they were used to this kind of situation, but their fear for their safety forced them to take immediate action, and having the "little gift" pointing out what to do and the choice they could take there was only a little panic among the three. They hurriedly explore the functions of the "little gift", searching for a way to arm themselves like they were told.

It wasn't long before they discovered the inventory function of their system and found the starter care package that contained firearms and some healing consumables. The firearms…or the blasters were something the three of them were very familiar with… an E-11 Blaster, the standard issue rifle for The Imperial Stormtroopers. The Imperial Stormtroopers favoured this iconic blaster rifle due to its versatile design and three power settings; lethal, stun, and sting. The lethal power level was self-explanatory. The stun setting was meant to incapacitate targets without harming them. The sting power setting had no known appearance except the wiki, it was probably meant to be used for riot control by inflicting non-lethal pain on targets and scaring them away.

This blaster was the perfect weapon for these nerds who had always preferred the imperial side in the franchise. They have no problem with the rebels, they are just like the Imperial's aesthetic better, that's all. With the fairly simple operation of the weapon, they were quickly able to reload the weapon with the accompanying plasma cartridges provided to them.

Then there are the healing consumables, they weren't sure how this particular item would work in the real world, but here they are…

[Flask of Crimson Tears]

[A sacred flask modelled after a golden holy chalice that was once graced by a tear of life.

Filled with crimson tears, this flask restores HP with use.

Rest at a site of grace to replenish.

The one washed up on the gravesite was sure to die, until this flask offered its gift of rejuvenation. To seek the Elden Ring.]

[This item restores users' status to (Well.)]

Those three also know this item dearly, their poor skill forced them to witness the repeated usage animation of this item plenty of times.

Questions were made in droves but so did the enemy they had to face, they wanted to ask many questions while the hostiles wanted to ask for their life. Atlas was the one who spotted the first figure of their opposition, it was a humanoid creature with a blooming neck(?) for a head, inside the bloom was a pitch-black sphere of unknown material nor causation. The creature seems to be… familiar. The form of it rang a bell in Atlas's mind…

"Wait a minute… Ethereal?"

Ethereal, hostile creature originating from the newly realised game Zenless Zone Zero that he and his friends have just started to play a few days ago. This creature existed and was created inside a supernatural disaster called "Hollows", Hollows came in the form of spherical dimensions which swallowed everything they touched and trapped them inside a disorderly dimension where the time and space inside the sphere became abstract due to unknown influences. Ethereal roamed the area swallowed by the Hollow and attacked any living being unfortunate to be trapped inside. The Ethereal also directly correlate with the level of the Hollows where larger hollows mean there are more Ethereal and more stronger variations of the Ethereal roaming the inside. This also means that reducing the number of the Ethereal by defeating them could directly affect the size of Hollow with multiple written accounts of reducing the size or outright removing the smaller hollows by exterminating the roaming Ethereal.

What was written above was all these three knew about Zenless Zone Zero Ethereal and Hollows based on the lore they read inside the game. Being only released for a few days globally, the documents and articles needed to satisfy the lore enthusiast were severely lacking and only covered a small area of general knowledge. Despite lacking, it was more than enough to identify the creature in front of them and the dozens coming behind it as hostiles to fight and hopefully defeat.

"Arif! Malam! Get inside the building!", Atlas upon spotting dozens of approaching Ethereal monsters suddenly screamed at Arif and Malam commanding them to take cover inside a ruined building nearby.

"W-what?!"

"Don't ask questions! Get inside! We will search for defensive positions and try to create choke points!"

Not questioning any further how Atlas was able to form a plan quickly, Arif and Malam followed him into the most intact ruin nearby, entering the underground parking lot. The parking lot being underground only has one entrance which provides an easy choke point… but also traps them inside. Luckily, there was a door that led into the building and while the door was locked, a single fire from the E-11 blaster was enough to destroy the lock that prevented the door from being passable.

The three people once made an escape route, they took a stand behind a car wreck as a barrier and aimed their blaster rifles at the entrance where the enemy would make their entry.

The first of the Ethereal entered their sight bringing some friends and a pet dog Ethereal monster, they weren't welcomed though since the first thing they saw was multiple red bolts of light being fired rapidly towards them.

Arif and Malam, not having any battle experience at all missed a few of their shots but since they were firing at a choke point there weren't many bolts that missed their targets. Atlas on the other hand fired less rapidly than his friends but didn't miss a single shot. The three of them were holding their ground pretty fiercely despite being outnumbered by the opposition that numbers multiple dozens. The provided plasma cartridge offers more energy to feed the blaster compared to the normal cartridge allowing them steady sustained firepower, the E-11 being made with an advanced cooling system also helps prevent the blaster from overheating too quickly from prolonged rapid fire.

Despite their effort and the enemy coming from a chokepoint Killzone, the power of numbers soon prevailed due to the lack of firepower to effectively deal with the tougher Ethereal that came in. The initial wave of lanky humanoid Ethereal was relatively easier to deal with using the combined firepower of three E-11s but once thicker and tougher Ethereal started to come in, the time needed to deal with the tanky Ethereal was too much allowing multiple others to pour in making the chokepoint no longer effective. This forced the three men to abandon their position and withdraw back to their escape door.

"Atlas! What do we do next?!"

"I don't know! …Ah! Take the stairs!"

"The stairs?! All of them are above grounds!"

"They're probably too busy flooding the underground parking lot! We'll try to escape to the next building if possible!"

Not having any other idea, Arif and Malam followed Atlas taking the emergency stairs and headed upstairs. Behind them was the door which was luckily being blocked by the larger Ethereal trying to get in and was stuck by the door frame preventing them from freely entering the door, but the door frame wouldn't last long or more like the wall around the frame was close to giving up under the monstrous pressure from the raging Ethereal trying to force their way in. This gave enough time for the men to ascend the floor safely to the ground floor, once they were there, they first made sure no Ethereal was around. When they were sure the way was clear they made a run for it into the nearby building and then to the building next to it, they passed by a few more buildings trying to get away as far as possible from the rampaging Ethereal crowd.

They ran until they were out of breath, and only when they were out of breath, they decided to take a rest in one of the building ruins. They hid themselves inside the more intact building, closing every door shut and then blocking any possible entrance with whatever they could find around them. Once everything was barricaded, albeit shoddily, the trio dared to relieve their tension, even then they were still wary of any sound coming from the outside. The image of flooding monsters trying to kill them was still fresh in their mind, preventing them from being completely calm.

They were in the middle of catching their breath when a notification came from their system.

[First Contact: Hostile!] [Complete!]

[You survived the onslaught, Congratulation! A suitable reward has been given to your account.]

The system talks about rewards given to them but none of the trio was interested in finding out what it was, because they still felt uneasy from the abrupt development of their situation. Barely an hour ago, they were fumbling their way inside the Amazon forest then suddenly they were transported away to another world by a temple-like unknown multi-dimensional entity. Moreover, the world they were transported into was the new game they'd been playing for a few days.

"Malam, is this the place we wanted the most, just like that stone slab said?"

"I'm not sure, Arif, but I assume that he mistook one of our daydreams as a wish and well… I can't deny that I've been imagining myself inside this world for some time now since its' release."

"It said that it reads our mind, right? So, if like you said the temple mistook our daydream as a wish, doesn't that mean all of us have the same fantasy?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really, but now I'm curious about what you guys daydreaming so much that it was mistaken as a wish."

"Arif… don't you know that what going on inside a man's head is a Pandora box that shouldn't be opened?"

"Come on, Malam. You're exaggerating things too much, surely it wasn't something really bad? Then let me start with myself, I like robots and… the waifus… The robots in the game so far are cool and the waifus… you know what? I agree with you, let's not talk about it."

"Your unique interest in legs and midriff isn't a secret any more you know?"

"As Atlas said, your fetishes are a public secret, I also remember you said some stuff like sweat and necks?"

"…You guys… you commissioned a lot of things from me, don't you know that some of you guys' interests are nothing better or even worse? Want me to spill it out, huh?"

"No need, Malam's interest isn't even a public secret, it's a public library, you ask him and he tells you."

"Then how about you Atlas? Something to share?"

"Nah, you guys also already know what I like so no need to elaborate further."

"This dude… really… well, no matter. We are stuck here and don't know how to get back, what do we do?"

What will they do? Sure, they know where they are and already have a little knowledge of the world they've ended up in, but since the game just came out, they lacked the essential pieces of knowledge to delve deeper into the world and have an information advantage to survive this dangerous world. The system that was given as a "little gift" for them was a massive boon that gave them a lot of edge to use to confront their problems. So, they might just be surviving on gaining benefits from this system.

Earlier, they got a reward for completing a mission and they glimpsed some kind of battle report detailing the battle they just did, probably displaying some kind of evaluation and hopefully giving them rewards for the Ethereal monsters they slain. They haven't checked the details about what they got and they might have to check it sooner while also inspecting the system to make things clearer. What they don't understand could be asked for the help function that provides a detailed explanation of how things work in the system.

First, they take a look at the status panel that displays their body condition and their stats number. They have levels and parameters just like a game character and after some more reading, they arrived at some conclusion that the levelling system was pretty similar to the dark souls game that they were suck at. There was some difference but the general mechanism of the levelling function was mostly the same with "enhancement point" being this system version of "souls", the currency needed to level up. They could increase their parameter naturally by working out or doing other things but levelling up was definitely the easiest way to increase the parameter by assigning "enhancement points" to a certain stat that increases corresponding parameters. There was a catch though, just like the dark souls, once died the revived body didn't have the enhancement anymore reverting to the unenhanced version but the natural growth coming from the exercising and other things outside of the system influence was unaffected by the death penalty.

Other than showing stats and conditions, the status panel also displayed the equipment on their body and allowed a quick switch out by choosing to equip other wearable items inside their inventory.

The next function is the inventory which functions like the common inventory in many other games. Limited to a whooping 1024 items blocks, they were basically spoiled by the system to not worry about overburdening anymore in their life. This was truly a "Gift" that significantly increased their future quality of life, especially since the trio was famous for being greedy item goblins in every MMORPG game they played. Arif with his unique item-collecting addiction, Malam with his multiple costumes and accessories always ready to be worn and taken a screenshot of, and lastly Atlas with his "Never armed enough" motto and if possible, always brought enough weapons and offensive consumables to start a war. The inventory also becomes the place where the reward items are placed after the completion of a mission.

Then we came to the mission panel, where various missions would automatically generate to fit the situation. How in the world this function works was unknown to our trio, but all they needed to know based on what was written in the explanation was that the mission only rewards items and not enhancement points. So, if they wanted to level up, they needed to defeat enemies while if they needed free items, they needed to do missions or else they had to pay for it.

Lastly is the store where they could spend "points", a currency that could be received from both defeating enemies and completing missions to acquire the item they fancy from the store. Where this item came from was also a mystery the trio refrained from thinking about for now.

There was not much for them to do except talk among themselves and tinkering with the new toys they got, hunkering down inside the barricaded building to avoid attention from the roaming Ethereal.

0o0o0

A/n: This story was written when the game was just launched, so there wasn't much of lore nor world-building to latch upon. Fortunately, the general basic knowledge released to the public was solid enough for me to draw a story on.

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With that aside, not much planning went into this story that I wrote on impulse. So... like the other story on my library that has been left to gather spider webs in months without updates, a similar fate will likely befall this one, unfortunately. Any promise I made for a stable release schedule has been nothing but an empty promise, so I won't be handing empty hopes anymore to those who read my writings.

Edit: I get something wrong, typo here and there, and somehow missing untyped word here and there also. Fixed them and hopefully I didn't overlook anything after this.