"Hey, who left the light on?" A cleaning lady asked herself before turning off the light that illuminated the office.
For most people, the office was empty. Few could tell that there was a person there.
"This is the third time this week…" Shawn sighed to himself as he gave up on work and got up to leave.
Other people might have gotten offended at having turned off the lights while they worked, but Shawn was used to it. Since he was a kid, he was always ignored by everyone, as if his presence was nonexistent.
Sometimes it was a good thing. He had already avoided three rounds of assault because the robbers hadn't seen him. But most other times, it was a bad thing. No matter how hard he worked, no one ever noticed the effort he made.
Not a single girl liked him, and he could not call a single guy his friend. Shawn was 23 years old, but because of his limited interactions with other people, he talked even less in his entire lifetime than a regular 5-year-old would.
...
Entering a convenience store on the way home, Shawn glanced at the fat clerk watching porn on his computer screen. He casually grabbed a bottle of beer before turning and walking away without paying.
He didn't care about the clerk or stealing from him. The last time he entered the store, the man was watching actual r*ape porn on his computer, and when Shawn showed up to buy the beer 'out of the blue' the man started cursing him and threatening to kill him if he told this to someone.
Since then, Shawn came every day to the pervert's shop and grabbed a beer from the fridge before leaving without paying. Since the man didn't treat him well, Shawn wouldn't mind treating himself to some free beers either.
Not because the man gave these beers to Shawn, but because Shawn's presence was so small that the man didn't even notice that Shawn had entered or left the store.
"At least it has its perks…" Shawn sighed as he sipped his beer and walked down the street in bustling New York City.
Shawn didn't enjoy his situation, to this day he still envied others for living the life he couldn't. During high school, Shawn even went on to imitate a popular boy, changing his haircut to something boyish and mimicking the boy's way of talking. But none of that seemed to help Shawn, who still appeared to be invisible to the others around him.
After several years of acting like others, famous people, scary people, and all sorts of different personalities, Shawn gave up. No matter how much he tried, he felt that he could never be like them, he felt that he could never be an important person, a loved person, or even a slightly memorable person.
Even though his imitations really were perfect, no one noticed him, so it was better to just accept being transparent.
Until that moment...
Shawn heard a very loud noise. Looking around, he saw a helicopter plummeting between the buildings. The speed of the falling helicopter wasn't very fast, but was quick enough to the point where the people around would not be given the opportunity to dodge either.
Scared, Shawn saw that the pilot was asleep and threw the beer bottle on the helicopter's windshield in an attempt to wake the man up. Fortunately it worked, the man woke up desperate and tried to regain control of the aircraft to take off again, but it was too late, there was not enough time to take off again.
Not knowing what to do, the man looked for a safe area to land and noticed an area where there was no one. Relieved, the pilot directed the helicopter in the direction of the area and started to make an emergency landing.
Until something startled the man once more.
Blood!
Blood was spurting from the helicopter's blades, as if this were a meat grinder.
Startled again, the pilot looked at the source of the blood and saw the half of a male body cut in half by the helicopter's propellers.
"Holy shit, I swear that man wasn't there before! How did he show up out of nowhere?! I'm fucked… fuck, fuck!" The pilot despaired. He was hoping that he'd be able to keep his pilot license if he managed to land in a safe place, but who knew that in the safe place he landed, a man would appear out of nowhere and be sliced by the propeller?
...
"Son of a bitch! I tried to wake that bastard up and he repays me by aiming the fucking propellers at me?!" Shawn yelled angrily as he lifted himself off the ground and looked around for the pilot who had aimed the helicopter at him.
But there was no helicopter, no wounds, no pain, no blood, there weren't even buildings around. The only things Shawn could see were old stone houses and people dressed in clothes that looked like sacks of potatoes.
"What the hell is that?" Shawn asked himself with a little fear and curiosity. A part of him was still in shock from the pain he felt for a moment when he was cut by the helicopter, but being lost in an unknown place was even more frightening. It's one thing to believe he would die in an instant, it's another thing to believe he might have been kidnapped by someone.
Looking around, all Shawn could see were old houses and people who seemed to be in poverty. They were being surrounded by men wearing dull metal armor, as if they were knights meant to guard some sort of castle in the middle ages centuries ago.
Seeing the metal armor, Shawn was curious.
'Are they really knights?' he asked himself mentally.
As he faced the knights, one of the knights noticed Shawn. "Hey, what are you doing there?"
Confused, Shawn looked around and saw that there was no one else near him. 'Is he talking to me? Does he by any chance see me?!' Shawn wondered, growing more confused by the second. He wasn't used to being noticed on the street, or ever - to the point where the man yelling at him made him a little embarrassed.
"Are you talking to me?" Shawn asked as he pointed to himself.
"No, I'm talking to the wall. Idiot, of course it's you! Who else?!" The warrior yelled angrily. "Has the lord of the town not already decreed that all men must assemble in the town square? Why aren't you there? Do you want to die?"
Hearing this, Shawn gulped. 'Shit, what the fuck is this place? Lord of the city? Knights? Did I get thrown back in time to a medieval era?! Or these are just people role-playing to pretend to be like medieval people in this experiment?'
"I got lost on the way…" Shawn replied uncomfortably. He wasn't used to conversing with others.
"Idiot. Peasants are all stupid anyway. They've lived in this town since they were born, but they still manage to get lost!" The knight yelled even more angrily. "Come with us, we're going to the square, if you try to run away we'll cut your head off!"
Hearing this, Shawn followed the man as he thought of various possibilities of what was going on. Firstly he must have gone back in time, which was something he didn't even know was possible, secondly people here could see him normally.
'Am I not invisible here?' Shawn wondered as he walked towards the square.
Upon arriving there, Shawn saw a group of 400 men all dressed in potato sacks, 45 knights wearing worn metal armor, a knight wearing shining armor with gold ornamentations, and a large fat man wearing a colorful costume.
"That idiot was the only one we found on the way." The knight who called out to Shawn said in a respectful way to the knight in shining armor as he leaned into the man.
"Very well, join the other peasants." The knight in shining armor said in an indifferent way to Shawn before going back to talking to the fat man in the colorful attire.
As he approached the group of peasants, Shawn wondered why these knights knew he was one of the peasants too. But looking at his own clothes, Shawn noticed that he, too, wore a thick cloth as a garment.
"Hey, who are you?" one of the peasants asked as he approached Shawn.
"I'm Shawn, what about you?" Shawn asked the bearded middle-aged man who approached him, still a little uncomfortable as he still hadn't gotten used to people seeing him.
"I'm Peete, are you new around here? I've never seen you in town." Peete, the bearded man asked.
"Yes, I just arrived and was summoned to the square, what's going on?" Shawn asked.
"Sigh... too bad boy. I don't know if you were lucky or unlucky. Lucky to arrive now and not get attacked, or unlucky to arrive now and have to defend the city." Peete said regretfully. "Anyway, in three days the first wave of monsters in the city begins, so the Captain of the city guard and the Baron are deciding what will be the strategy for the defense of the city."
But that left Shawn with more questions than answers. "Monster wave, what is it?"
Hearing Shawn's question, Peete looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean you don't know the waves of monsters Shawn? This happens in all cities. Anyway, the wave of monsters is the night that monsters attack the cities, and we citizens have to defend. Usually the citizens who participate are rewarded with some silver coins and those who perform well get better things, but that's just for talented people, we normal commoners just want to survive and protect our families."
"What do you mean monsters?" Shawn asked with wide eyes. He didn't care about rewards, what scared him were these monsters. As far as he knows, even in the medieval period there were no monsters, at most animals that people didn't know about, but monsters?
"Monsters, have you never seen them? Three-foot-tall rabbits, wild boars with metal tusks, those kinds of creatures... How have you never seen a monster before? Did you crawl out from under a rock?" Peete asked Shawn confused, as if that was an obvious thing that even children would know.
"I'm sorry, I think I hit my head when I came here and I forgot about the monsters, now that you mention it, I can remember!" Shawn said, perfectly pretending to remember what Peete was saying, as to not arouse even more distrust in the man or attention, but internally, Shawn was panicking.
'What the hell is that? What do you mean monsters?! 1 meter rabbits? Boars with metal tusks? Isn't this place Earth? Am I in a world full of warriors and stuff? Holy shit... I'm fucked, I don't even know how to use a firearm, let alone use a sword to defend myself.' Shawn despaired inwardly, but on the outside he still wore a thoughtful expression, as if he was remembering the monsters.
This was something Shawn developed over time. Since he spent a lot of time imitating other people to see if anyone would notice him, imitating reactions, feelings, or anything else was extremely simple for Shawn, who was able to practically transform himself into the person he wanted.
"Silence!" The fat man in colorful clothes said in an authoritative voice.
From what Shawn heard from Peete, this fat man seemed to be the Baron of the town, meaning the most powerful figure in town.
Hearing the Baron's cry, all the peasants shut up and paid attention to what he was about to say.
Satisfied with everyone's silence, the Baron continued to speak. "Everyone knows that three days from now is the day of the monster wave, so I hope there will be no panic. Last semester, I ordered weapons from other cities for us to use in defense in three days, so everyone can choose a weapon they prefer. At the end of the battle, everyone will be able to keep these weapons, but 5 years from now, you will have to bring these weapons to the defense of the city again."
Hearing this, the peasants were excited. Many dreamed of having a sword, but because of the very high price, they couldn't even think about buying one, they could only dream about it. But now they would get a sword from the Baron of the city, everyone was happy.
Seeing these humble commoners happy with only one sword, the Baron quickly showed a trace of contempt, but he hid it and continued to explain. "Those with the greatest contributions will have the privilege of training for a few days with the knights in town. If someone shows talent, they can even become one of the knights full-time."
"My god, is this true? Will I be able to become a knight?!" One peasant said excitedly, which provoked the other peasants to also comment excitedly.
Everyone had dreams of being heroes, knights were the best things commoners could become. Besides, a knight's salary was much higher than the income these commoners currently had. Unfortunately, no one thought they could die in this wave of monsters, everyone thought they would be the heroes while only others would die.
"Anyway, as well as the sacrifice I'm making for you, I hope you'll also fight for us alongside the city's soldiers, you're the heart of Silver Dust, don't let the blood stop pumping around here, let's kill those monsters! " The Baron shouted excitedly.
"Let's kill those monsters!"
"Let's kill those monsters!" The commoners shouted even more excitedly than the Baron.
'This person can speak very well, it might be useful for me to observe him and learn his eloquence.' Shawn thought as he watched the Baron, who was apparently excited to fight the monsters, but as far as Shawn could tell, he just wanted the commoners to die protecting him.
"Now I will pass the floor to the Captain of the City Guard." The Baron said as he went to the side to give the captain room.
But before the captain could say anything, a message rang in Shawn's ear.
[Doppelganger System is being activated!]