By the time Link came to, he had no idea how much time had passed.
"Huh? I fell asleep on the desk? How long was I out…? And none of you guys woke me up…"
He sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes, expecting to see his roommates—but the sight in front of him nearly scared the life out of him.
Lined up before him were a row of CRT monitors, humming faintly. Through the window, he could see blinding sunlight and thick clouds outside!
The roar of the engines was deafeningly real, and the whole fuselage vibrated subtly. With current technology, not even full-motion simulators could recreate such immersion.
He was on a real A320 aircraft.
"Holy shit—wha—where the hell am I?!" Link pinched his own cheek, then looked around, stunned by how tangible everything was.
"Did I... transmigrate? But to a plane? How does that even work?!"
With practiced hands, he adjusted the LCD displays, switching to the primary flight display. When he saw the barometric altitude, even someone as familiar with flight sims as he was couldn't help but be shocked.
36,100 feet. Roughly just over 11,000 meters.
The good news was—that's the standard cruising altitude for an A320, meaning the aircraft was currently in stable cruise. The AP1 and A/THR indicator lights were both on. Autopilot was working.
Good. There was still a chance to land this thing.
Link wasn't a licensed pilot, but he'd logged hundreds of hours in flight simulators. With a fully functional airliner in stable flight, he stood a decent chance of landing it safely.
Worst case, he could always attempt a forced landing at an airport.
He checked the remaining fuel next—thankfully, about 15 tons left. That'd last quite a while. Somewhat relieved, he turned to the navigation display on the right. But the high-altitude route was filled with waypoints he didn't recognize at all.
"YNZ03, YIN09, BLY12…? Never heard of any of these."
Fortunately, the autopilot was still following the flight plan as programmed. And the destination—"YNZG"—even had an ILS approach available.
ILS, or Instrument Landing System, is an automated landing aid that significantly reduces a pilot's workload when landing at equipped airports. The system had been modeled in-game too, so Link was very familiar with how to use it.
Exhaling deeply, Link decided to inspect the aircraft. Maybe he'd find some clues.
He opened the cockpit door and peeked out. The cabin was completely empty.
"Great. I'm really screwed now. This has to be an actual isekai… Transmigrating with an entire airplane—what the hell does that even mean…"
"Please just be a dream…" he muttered, walking to the lavatory at the front of the cabin to splash some water on his face.
But when he looked up at the mirror after drying off, he was stunned by his own reflection.
Shoulder-length golden hair. Deep blue eyes. And the blue Champion's Tunic he was wearing…
"No way. I've actually turned into that adorable Hyrule guy?!"
Link couldn't believe it. His name had always matched that of the Hero of Hyrule, Link. When Breath of the Wild first came out, people had joked about the coincidence non-stop. But unlike his love for flight sims, he'd never really gotten into open-world games.
He forced himself to calm down. If even his appearance had changed, maybe this really was some kind of fusion between The Legend of Zelda and… something else?
He returned to the cockpit, eyes falling on a briefcase he hadn't noticed before. Curiosity piqued, he opened it—and found a tablet inside. On its screen was a flight planning app, and the title read: Huanglong Flight Navigation Points Compendium.
"You've gotta be kidding me. Huanglong?! So they turned me into Link from Zelda and then dropped me into Wuthering Waves?!"
He looked closer at the app's navigation chart. Some of the place names stood out: Whining Aix's Mire, Mt. Firmament, Port City of Guixu, and the borders of Jinzhou…
It was all so familiar.
"Is this supposed to guide me to Jinzhou?" Link muttered as he studied the unfamiliar waypoints.
He opened the CDU's route page, trying to cross-reference the data with the aircraft's active flight plan.
After some trial and error, he realized the MCDU had already been programmed with a viable route—one that actually made sense. And the destination? An airport coded YNZG: Northern Whining Aix's Mire Airport!
He wasn't sure of the airport's exact location, but he remembered something. Whining Aix's Mire lay just south of Jinzhou's city borders. It wasn't remote, either. Tiger's Maw Mine wasn't far to the north.
"Doesn't matter—let's just focus on landing this bird first." According to his estimates, there were still about two hours until arrival. He got up to search the plane for anything useful.
Heading toward the rear of the cabin, Link opened overhead bins one by one. Most were empty. A few had small bags—clothes and books with illegible writing, nothing of value.
While rummaging, he glanced forward—and spotted something under the last row of seats: a black box. It was engraved with strange runes and emitted a faint blue glow.
Link reached out and opened it.
A surge of strange energy burst forth, enveloping him instantly. Inside the box was a peculiar device—two asymmetrical joysticks on either side of a square screen. It looked almost like a handheld gaming console.
"The Purah Pad!"
Link instantly recognized it.
In the Legend of Zelda series, the protagonist—also named Link—relied on this very device during his quest to save Princess Zelda. It had been an essential tool. And now, here it was.
While information was scarce, one thing was clear—this pad would be important.
"Alright, let's see if it turns on."
He pressed the power button on the top. The screen lit up with a soft blue glow before displaying the Sheikah symbol. A few seconds later, the light dimmed, and a line of text appeared:
"Traveler from another world, the gates of Solaris-3 now stand open to you."