The intense light blinded me for a moment. As I tried to open my eyes again, I felt a slap on my hips. I didn't know how, but I was naked, so the slap stung quite a bit. Normally, I would've been angry, but I just started crying.
After a few moments, I finally got used to the light. That's when I saw giants in the room. The room looked old, ancient even. As I was still trying to process everything, I realized I was being held in a woman's hands.
I struggled to understand what was going on, when suddenly, a burst of memories came flooding back.
I died.
Whether it was a heroic or idiotic death, I can't say. I was a volunteer astronaut, trained to be part of the first manned mission to Mars. One of four astronauts aboard the Starship. I was ecstatic, floating in zero gravity, watching Earth shrink into a blue dot. There wasn't much to do—resources were limited, reserved mainly for Mars-based experiments.
Aside from routine checks, contacting Earth, and reading mission briefs, I spent most of my time immersed in books or rewatching shows like House of the Dragon.
Then it happened. We received an urgent transmission from Earth. A strange anomaly had been detected in deep space—what scientists described as a concentrated beam of unknown high-frequency light, something that hadn't been recorded before. It wasn't a gamma-ray burst. It wasn't any known form of radiation. Just a ray of light—brighter than anything we'd ever seen—moving directly through our flight path.
The Voyager probe, thousands of kilometers ahead of us, was the first to encounter it. The probe's systems overloaded instantly, and then all contact was lost. Its final transmission—barely decipherable—warned of a light beam with a complex wave structure, carrying frequencies across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
We had less than a minute.
The light wasn't just bright. It carried energy—radiation, heat, magnetic disruption—far beyond what our shielding could handle. It was as if the fabric of space had been sliced by a scalpel of energy. We didn't even have time to orient our ship away.
That was all. Not nearly enough time to activate any countermeasures or fire up the engines.
And then... nothing.
Info: Higher-dimensional tool or system, interpreted based on host's understanding.
Current Planet: KL-346, also known as the World of Game of Thrones
System Capabilities:
Allows the user to receive rewards based on achievements.
Rewards depend on the nature and scale of the achievement.
Examples include:
Becoming a Knight
Joining a noble household
Joining Kingsguard
Being born into an ancient noble house
Joining the Night's Watch
Being named Hand of the King
Bonding with a dragon
Awakening as a greenseer
Becoming King of the Andals and the Seven Kingdoms
...and more
Achievement – Born into a higher world than the previous one.
Reward (Choose one):
Complete understanding of the Common Tongue (Andal tongue)
Complete understanding of the High Valyrian language
Complete understanding of the Bastard Valyrian / Low Valyrian Dialects
Complete understanding of the Dothraki language
Complete understanding of the Summer Tongue
Complete understanding of the Ghiscari language
Complete understanding of the Old Tongue
Basic understanding of two languages – Choose
After being placed on a small bed, I finally had time to look through the options. Seeing the list confirmed it—I was really in the world of Westeros. It felt magical, yet surreal. The system described this planet as being outside of the observable universe, which implied something terrifying and beautiful. If the universe truly was infinite, as many Earth studies suggested, then this was entirely possible.
More importantly, it confirmed the existence of consciousness or a soul. Life wasn't just a random combination of atoms.
Focusing my mind on the reward selection, I decided it was wiser to choose partial understanding of two languages instead of full mastery of one. As a baby, my brain would adapt and learn both more easily. And considering achievements like Dragon Rider listed in the system, I prioritized High Valyrian as my first language. The second, naturally, was the Common Tongue.
After making my selection, my mind froze—or something like it—as time clearly passed. The man who had been near me was suddenly on the other side of the bed with my new mother. As I began to think in these new languages, I realized it felt just like how I had learned English in school.
No, it was more than that. According to the system, "some understanding" meant I'd learned each language to a level equivalent to a 10th-grade education—more than enough to communicate fluently and adapt quickly.
As I let those thoughts settle, I focused on my mother. I could finally understand them.
Mother: "We should name him Willem or Rowley."
Man: "Well, I've thought of names like Perin, Pedrik, Sammon, and Derik."
After some back-and-forth, they finally settled on the name Willem.
That was it. With the knowledge from my old world—the books, the shows, the theories—I could confirm I was a commoner. Not a noble. No silver spoon. Just another face in the crowd.
Thinking about the difficulty of achieving anything significant as a commoner in this brutal world, I sighed deeply and closed my eyes to rest. Within moments, I fell asleep.