The first thing Yuuta noticed was the silence.
No car horns. No hum of streetlights. Just wind—long, whispering gusts rolling over fields of gold. The grass swayed like ocean waves, stretching endlessly under a sky too vast, too blue, to be Earth's.
He blinked. One moment, he'd been crossing the street, earbuds in, the neon sign of the 24-hour ramen shop flickering behind him. The next—**white light**. A voice like thunder. Then… this.
No panic. No screaming. Just a slow exhale as he took stock.
*Okay. Not Earth.*
His clothes were the same—worn sneakers, a hoodie, his work apron still stuffed in his back pocket (he'd forgotten to return it after his shift). His phone was gone, but clipped to his belt was his deck box, the one thing he'd never leave behind. He thumbed it open.
All cards accounted for.
Then he saw the pendant.
It hung around his neck, cold and smooth, a teardrop of glass with a flickering ember inside. When he touched it, words flashed in his vision like a hologram:
**[System Initialized.]
[User: Yuuta. Status: Summoned (Error-Corrected).
[Location: Arvandor, Echo Plains.
[Mana Pool: 24/24. Deck: Active.]**
A voice, soft and synthetic, spoke directly into his mind.
*"You were brought here by divine miscalculation. Compensation has been provided."*
Yuuta frowned. "So I *was* kidnapped."
*"Terminology disputed. This unit prefers 'accidental transference.'"*
"Right." He rubbed his temples. "And the compensation?"
*"Your deck has been bound to this world's magic. You may summon its contents."*
Yuuta looked down at the cards. His Red-Green Aggro deck—the one he'd spent years tweaking, the one he'd used to scrape out wins at Friday Night Magic even when rent was tight. Now it was his lifeline.
Typical. The one time a god messed with him, it turned his hobby into a survival tool.
### **2. First Summon**
The plains were empty. No roads, no people, just ruins in the distance—collapsed towers swallowed by vines. A shimmering skiff hovered nearby, shaped like a leaf with a crimson hull, its surface etched with glowing runes. His "starter vehicle," apparently.
Yuuta crouched, flipping through his deck. He needed information. Shelter. A guide.
His fingers stopped on **Elvish Archdruid**.
*"Summoning protocol,"* the System chimed. *"Place card on natural ground. Declare name aloud."*
He pressed the card into the soil.
"Elvish Archdruid."
The earth **breathed**. Roots erupted, weaving into a figure—tall, ancient, with bark-like skin and a staff of living wood. The elf's eyes opened, green as crushed emeralds, and locked onto Yuuta.
"...A *human* planeswalker?" His voice was rough, like wind through dead leaves. "No. You're something else."
Yuuta stood. "Summoned. Not a walker."
The Archdruid's nostrils flared. "You smell of grease and concrete. Not a spark of nature's wisdom in you." He tapped his staff. "Why call *me*?"
"To learn," Yuuta said simply. "I've got magic now. No idea how to use it."
A beat of silence. Then the elf snorted.
"At least you're honest."
### **3. The First Lesson**
The Archdruid—who refused to give a name ("Call me 'Druid' or don't call me at all")—led him to a crumbling stone circle. The System hovered at the edge of Yuuta's awareness, silent unless addressed.
"Your kind of magic is *artificial*," the Druid grumbled. "Treating spells like tools. But here, mana is alive. It resists being forced."
Yuuta sat cross-legged on the grass, barefoot at the elf's insistence. "So how do I 'convince' it?"
"Listen." The Druid slammed his staff down. A pulse of green light rippled outward. The grass shivered; insects froze mid-crawl.
And Yuuta **felt** it—a hum beneath his skin, like the world's heartbeat.
*"Leyline resonance detected,"* the System murmured. *"Mana alignment: Green (Nature)."*
The Druid smirked. "There. Now you've felt it. Remember that."
Yuuta flexed his fingers. The energy lingered, warm and wild.
*This isn't a game anymore.*
### **4. The First Night**
By dusk, Yuuta had learned three things:
1. His mana regenerated at dawn. No cheating the system.
2. Summons could disobey if he was reckless (the Druid's glare when he asked about dragons made that clear).
3. This world was **broken**.
The ruins weren't just old—they were *scarred*. Melted stone, claw marks thicker than his arm. The Druid called it "Demon War fallout."
Yuuta set up camp beside the Sky Skiff. The System projected a flickering map:
*[Region: Echo Plains. Status: Uninhabited (Last Conflict: 12 Years Prior).]*
He chewed on dried fruit from the skiff's supplies (courtesy of the god's "starter pack") and watched the stars. No Big Dipper here. Just unfamiliar constellations, sharp and bright.
The Druid didn't sleep. He stood sentinel, staff planted in the dirt, eyes on the horizon.
"You're waiting for something," Yuuta said.
The elf didn't turn. "The plains are quiet. Too quiet. The demons are gone, but their stains remain." A pause. "You'll see tomorrow."
Yuuta leaned back. For the first time since arriving, he smiled.
*Guess I'm stuck here.*
*Might as well see what this deck can do.*