Rule Zero: The Village Mission

Teleportation

Chapter 2: Rule Zero and the Golden Loophole

The transition didn't come with the screech of tires or the searing pain of a terminal illness. There was no white light, no tunnel, and certainly no bearded god waiting to apologize for a cosmic mistake. For Luvia, the end of the world was remarkably quiet. One moment, she was sinking into the familiar, lumpy mattress of her studio apartment, the smell of stale coffee clinging to her skin; the next, the sensation of gravity shifted. The air changed from the recycled, dusty oxygen of a city apartment to something sharp, sweet, and terrifyingly cold.

Luvia’s eyes snapped open.

She expected to see the peeling grey wallpaper and the flicker of a distant streetlight. Instead, she was staring at a sky so blue it looked like a digital render—a vast, unfiltered sapphire expanse that made her lungs seize. She didn't move. She lay perfectly still on the ground, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Don't panic. Panic is for people with stories. You have rules.

Slowly, she sat up. She wasn't in a new body. She looked down at her hands—they were the same hands that had frothed a thousand lattes that morning, still tipped with the faint remnants of coffee grounds under the nails. She was wearing her black cafe uniform, the polyester apron slightly damp from the grass beneath her. This was no reincarnation. This was a displacement. She was Luvia, twenty years old, an orphan from a world of concrete, now sitting in the middle of a literal fairytale.

"Okay," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Rule check. Let's do a rule check."

She closed her eyes and began to recite her manifesto like a prayer, her voice growing stronger as she sought to anchor her reality.

"Rule Number One: Erasure. I asked for my existence in the old world to be deleted. If I'm here, then no one back there remembers I ever existed. The cafe schedule is full. The orphanage records are blank. I am a ghost."

She took a deep breath. The air was floral and rich.

"Rule Number Two: Language. I asked for English. I asked for a world that wouldn't force me to be a student again."

She looked around. There were no signs yet, no people, but the silence felt... understandable. It felt like a language she knew.

"Rule Number Three: Freedom. No mandatory quests. No chosen one status. No responsibility."

She stood up, brushing the dirt from her apron. She was standing in a geographical miracle. To her left, a river wide as a highway surged with crystalline water, the sound a low, constant roar. To her right, two distinct pools of water bubbled from the earth. One was shrouded in thick, dancing steam—a natural hot spring that promised warmth in the coming night. The other was still and dark, a cold spring tucked into the shade of a rock formation, its surface untouched by the wind. Ahead of her, a dense, ancient forest loomed, the trees so tall they seemed to prop up the sky itself.

It was exactly what she had visualized during those long shifts at the cafe. Between the cold spring and the river, she spotted a cluster of bushes heavy with dark, glistening fruit—blackberries, ripe and smelling of summer.

"It’s all here," she breathed, a small, hysterical laugh escaping her lips. "The Universe actually listened. It’s a historical world. No skyscrapers. No technology. Just... the earth."

Suddenly, the air in front of her face shimmered. A flicker of light, like a spark from a fire, expanded into a translucent, glowing blue pane.

[WELCOME, USER LUVIA.]

Luvia froze. Her breath hitched. She knew this. She had read this a thousand times in the "LitRPG" novels she used to hide under her register. It was a System screen. But as she read the words, her eyes widened.

"It's in English," she whispered. A wave of profound relief washed over her, followed immediately by a sharp sting of surprise. She had asked for it, yes, but seeing it—seeing the language of her escape manifested as a physical law of this new world—made her knees weak. "It actually worked. The language... it's really English."

But the screen wasn't done. The text began to scroll, the letters forming with a soft, melodic ping.

[ANALYZING MANIFESTO... ALL RULES ACCEPTED.]

[RULE 1: ERASURE - ACTIVE.]

[RULE 2: UNIVERSAL ENGLISH PROTOCOL - ACTIVE.]

[RULE 3: OPTIONAL MISSION STATUS - PENDING.]

Luvia frowned. "Pending? What do you mean pending? I specifically stated that all missions must be optional. I don't do chores. I don't do 'Main Character' stress."

The screen flickered red for a fraction of a second before returning to a calm, steady blue.

[NOTICE: TO ACTIVATE 'FOREVER OPTIONAL' STATUS, THE USER MUST COMPLETE THE FOUNDATIONAL TUTORIAL. UNTIL THE TUTORIAL IS COMPLETE, THE SYSTEM IS IN 'INITIALIZATION MODE.']

Luvia’s eyes narrowed. "A tutorial? You’re giving me a loophole? I’m the one who makes the loopholes!"

[MANDATORY ONE-TIME MISSION: RULE ZERO.]

[OBJECTIVE: ESTABLISH A PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.]

[REQUIREMENT: BUILD THE FOUNDATION OF A VILLAGE. CLAIM THE FERTILE LANDS BETWEEN THE SPRINGS AND THE RIVER.]

[REWARD: PERMANENT DEACTIVATION OF ALL FUTURE MANDATORY QUESTS. ALL SYSTEM INTERACTION BECOMES 100% OPTIONAL.]

[FAILURE TO COMPLETE: SYSTEM REMAINS IN TUTORIAL MODE INDEFINITELY. USER CANNOT ACCESS 'FREEDOM' PROTOCOLS.]

"You’ve got to be kidding me," Luvia snapped, pacing the grass. "You want me to build a village? Me? An orphan who barely managed to pay rent on time? I wanted peace! I wanted to be a background character!"

The System did not argue. It simply waited, the blue glow reflecting in her startled eyes. It was a perfect trap. The Universe had followed the letter of her law but ignored the spirit. To get the life of zero responsibility she craved, she had to take on the ultimate responsibility first.

She looked at the blackberries. She looked at the hot spring. This wasn't a wasteland; it was a paradise. But it was a paradise with a price tag.

"Fine," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "One mission. Just one. And then you leave me alone forever. Tell me about this world. If I’m building a village, who am I building it against? Is there war? Is this one of those 'fight for your life' worlds?"

The System screen shifted, the text becoming more dense, explaining the structure of this historical reality.

[WORLD OVERVIEW: THE LAND OF THE FIVE PATHS.]

[THERE IS NO TRADITIONAL WAR OVER TERRITORY. THIS WORLD IS GOVERNED BY THE COVENANT OF THE FIVE GREAT CLANS.]

[CONFLICT IS RESOLVED THROUGH THE 'CLAN EXAMINATIONS.']

Luvia paused. "Examinations? You mean... like school tests? For clans?"

[EXPLANATION: EVERY FOUR YEARS, THE HEIRS AND LEADERS OF THE FIVE GREAT CLANS COMPETE IN TRIALS OF STRENGTH, INTELLECT, AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. THE CLAN THAT RANKS FIRST BECOMES THE TEMPORARY SOVEREIGN.]

Luvia felt a chill that had nothing to do with the river breeze. "And the catch? There’s always a catch."

[THE LAW OF THE FIRST: THE LEADER OF THE FIRST-RANK CLAN IS DECLARED THE 'SUPREME TEACHER.' THEY ARE LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO TAKE THE HEIRS OF THE OTHER FOUR CLANS AS PUPILS. THEY MUST TEACH THE COMPETITION THE VERY SKILLS USED TO DEFEAT THEM.]

Luvia stared at the screen, her overthinking mind already dissecting the madness of that system. "That’s... that’s insane. You’re telling me the winner has to train the losers so they can try to take the crown in four years? How does anyone trust each other? If I build a village, I’m just an outsider. I’ll be crushed by these 'heirs' and 'teachers.'"

[CORRECTION: A NEW CLAN MAY ENTER THE EXAMINATIONS ONLY IF THEY POSSESS A 'UNIQUE DOMAIN' NOT CLAIMED BY THE FIVE. THE USER CURRENTLY STANDS ON THE UNCLAIMED LAND OF THE TWIN SPRINGS.]

The screen began to glow brighter, the text pulsing with a final, heavy message.

[THE CURRENT EXAM CYCLE IS ENDING. THE RANKINGS ARE BEING SET. IF THE USER DOES NOT ESTABLISH THE 'VILLAGE OF THE ZERO RULE' BEFORE THE NEXT CYCLE BEGINS, THE LAND WILL BE FORFEITED TO THE WINNING CLAN.]

Luvia looked at the vast forest, the rushing river, and the steam rising from the hot spring. This was her fertile ground. This was the place she had imagined while pouring lattes for ungrateful strangers. And now, she learned it was the prize of a world-wide competition she didn't want to be a part of.

The System screen gave one final ping before fading into a small, hovering icon in the corner of her vision.

[TUTORIAL START: STEP ONE—SURVIVAL AND SHELTER.]

Luvia stood in the silence of the new world, the English words still burned into her retina. She was in her own body, in a world that spoke her language, standing on the perfect plot of land. Everything she asked for was hers—but it was locked behind a gate she had to build herself.

"A village," she whispered, looking at the blackberry bushes. "I have to build a whole village just to be allowed to take a nap."

The historical world of clans and ancient laws was waiting. The Great Clans were finishing their exams, oblivious to the fact that an overthinking cafe worker had just crashed into their world with a set of rules that were about to break everything.