"This... you!"
Jay Collin exclaimed with a spear pierced through his side. In front of him, a large orc wielded a small tree for a weapon. Clad in iron armor, its physique towered over Jay. The battle which had been raging on for hours reached an unexpected conclusion.
His companion, a person whom he recently recruited into his group had suddenly thrown a spear right into his side before cowardly running away.
With another swing of its club, the massive orc fighter hit him right in the abdomen, throwing him into the wall causing small pieces of rocks to fly everywhere.
"This battle... IT'S SO FUN!"
Jay spat out a mouthful of blood after saying these words before standing back up. His red hair and well-defined face seemed to brighten in a mysterious red glow as he unsheathed a bright red sword he was wearing on his belt, a bright smile covering his face.
Smiling despite his serious wounds, this was how a man should fight!
He jumped forward, swinging his swords around like a madman. A normal adventurer would've never kept going like this after suffering the wounds he had. Yet, this man kept fighting, unable to do so much as think of retreat in his current state.
However, no matter how ferocious someone is, they still die. After a few minutes, the fight had ended. After suffering numerous wounds and emptying his mana supply, the orc collapsed. Despite his victory, the damage had been done. He had suffered dozens of cuts and dozens of bruises. Not to mention the internal injuries he had suffered.
Standing atop the orc Jay was elated, but when he intended to go grab his backpack which was outside of the cave his limbs refused to move. Despite trying with all his might he was unable to move a single step, furthermore, a few moments later he collapsed, falling off the corpse he had created.
"Ah, I'm dying aren't I. Well I guess I had a good life. It's not like the others will have long to live anyways."
With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes, passing away without regrets.
--------------------------
"You have to be f*cking kidding me."
This was Jay Collin's first thought as he woke up. He felt as if someone took his brains out, stabbed them a few times, shook it up a little and then harshly threw it back into his head.
Despite the pain dulling his senses he quickly opened his eyes, after all, since he was alive now, he just might survive the calamity as well.
"Red walls, a regular wooden door, a comfortable bed and a poster of some celebrity... Hold up... Huh... HUUUUHH!!!" Shocked, he stared at the room in front of him. This room… this was his room back on earth! Noticing he was on the verge of truly freaking out, Jay closed his eyes, taking deep breaths and calming his mind, going through all the possibilities in his head. After a few minutes had passed he once more opened his eyes.
He immediately dismissed the idea someone might have rebuilt this place, the working phone in his pocket was proof enough for that. Creating such technology shouldn't be possible.
With his eyes flickering around the room Jay decided to affirm his location. He started by walking to the poster on his wall, closely analyzing it. The poster depicted some of the characters of a rather popular movie franchise, and when he looked closer he could see the extreme details on it.
This simple test confirmed he wasn't in an illusion. Illusions always had certain restrictions on how detailed the surroundings would be.
After spending a few more minutes in silent thought Jay tried to think of the next step to take. Right now there were only a few possibilities remaining. Either it was an event or he was reincarnated into his former self. But he was sure he died so the event part was even more unlikely than reincarnation.
He should currently be living with his little sister. They were rather well off thanks to the money their parents left them and they lived in a rather small town. The poster on the wall let him know that the day of the culling wasn't far off. Knowing this, he opened his door.
As expected he saw the faintly familiar sight before him, it had only been 5 years since he had to leave this place but it felt like a lifetime ago. Planet hope was so incredibly different and he had been so busy, having a goal nearly every day, in those 5 years he had done more than the rest of his life combined.
Seeing the chandelier on the ceiling and the metal decorations on the walls, he started heading downstairs. Once he immediately moved towards the computer which wasn't far away from him. After simply moving the mouse he managed to see the date.
"Well damn…"
The first of October. Jay sighed once he saw this date, it was the morning of the culling. He had only just returned yet he would have to leave once more, heading towards Planet Hope.
Despite he wasn't really dissatisfied either. He knew in this new life he would be able to accomplish many more things. He always wanted to walk the path of a Lord, yet last life he was rather unluckily starting as an adventurer.
But this was a matter he would have to consider later, now he would once more meet, and say goodbye to, his sister. When he got downstairs he could already hear the television playing. And as he came closer he could hear the news anker speaking about the situation.
"It has been one month now since the rifts appeared on earth, two weeks after this happened every government in the world suddenly announced that 500 million people of the earth's population would be sent through the rifts."
"Anyone who stood up against this idea or tried to stop it from happening got killed mercilessly even by the gentlest of governments, today is the day of the culling and the day a tenth of the world's population will disappear from this earth. I wish those that have been selected the best of luck."
The news anker himself was stumbling over his own words at times, scared he would say something that would anger the world's governments.
Hearing this broadcast Jay got lost in thought, he thought about all the challenges he was to face in the future. But his thought process was soon interrupted by his little sister who had just gotten up from the couch.
"Hey Jay… how are you?"
Li Collin looked at him worriedly, for the last week she had been crying every night dreading this day. Seeing her Jay too wavered, in his last life he had made drawings of her so he wouldn't forget her face, and when he lonely he sometimes even took out a drawing and pretended to talk to her. Seeing her face now was something that caused him to freeze up and his thoughts to slow down, he had assumed she had died in his previous life and even built a grave for her.
"Hey sis..."
Letting out these difficult words he couldn't help but tear up. For a short moment, he wished he could just hug her and never let go. But he knew he would soon be separated once again so he made sure to deeply engrave her face into his mind once again. This time he would find her, once she came to planet Hope he would make sure he had grown powerful enough to find her, no matter where she went.
"I'm going to miss you."
After saying these words, he turned around. Afraid that his resolve would weaken if he spoke with her he headed straight out of the main door leaving his sister behind with a complicated expression. Right now he couldn't say anything. He knew of a way he could teach her what needed to be thought when he was on planet Hope, but here and now he wasn't in a state to explain anything.
He even decided not to say goodbye since he knew he was bound to meet her again in the future. After all, this time around he was sure he'd be able to find her, no matter where she was sent. But for the time being, he would be sent to planet Hope while she would have to stay on earth, not knowing what was going to happen.
He only had to walk a few minutes before he arrived at the closest hyperloop. This was a public transport system that traveled over 600 km/h. In just over an hour he arrived at his stop. Normally the place he was at now was a small desert, with nobody in sight.
Today was obviously different. Millions of people were standing all around him. With thousands of soldiers and dozens of attack helicopters and tanks in order to keep the peace.
After several hours of lining up, he could see the rift. A few months ago a number of these massive black holes had appeared. Soon after the government had said these rifts were portals to another world and forbid anyone from entering.
Until a few weeks ago when the population was informed half the population would be sent, chosen absolutely at random, be it politician, doctor or elder.
Once he was only a few meters away from the rift, he could clearly see inside.
The inside of the rift wasn't total darkness like many had thought. It was actually gorgeous, it was as if there were a million stars down there, no matter how long you would look into the rift you would never stop being amazed by its beauty.
Thanks to this the soldiers didn't have to push people in, most of the people walked in voluntarily bewitched by its beauty.
A moment later he was at the edge, without hesitation he jumped forward, he felt a sting on the back of his neck when he entered the rift, a metallic liquid heading towards his brain.
A moment later he lost consciousness.
|AI-chip successfully connected, entering illusion.|