As I finally finished filling my lunch plate made out of cheap foam material, I looked below to see the final product.
One pizza, as the main dish, while the sides consisted of probably outdated milk, an apple, and orange juice. It wasn't much, well that was an understatement, but regardless, it was what I had become accustomed to.
Once I finished checking in with the lunch lady, I walked to the corner of the cafeteria, where I laid my eyes on my table, which I called home for this period since my junior year.
Nobody sat next to me, and there was a garbage disposal a couple feet away, but that was the beauty of the place. Far far away from civilization, no actually, it was the cradle of civilization, untapped by high school drama and everything else that came with that.
Period 5, the only part of school that I actually enjoyed.
Even then, it wasn't protected from the feeling of boredom that I had ever sense I was a little child. Watching all those superhero movies, seeing the villain's hopelessly lose, or maybe the movies that had a system of magic in place, where the main character had to fight a certain evil, or even better, supernatural shows where the main character, for once, was a gray character, not good without reason, and not bad without reason.
Any scenario I would choose in comparison to this world. I mean what was there to do? There weren't any superpowers, no monsters to defeat, or heroes to defeat, depending on preference.
There were only a couple routes to take in life, go to school, get degrees, have a job, buy a house, get kids. Maybe it could be switched up a bit, taking some parts of the equation and putting some new ones in, but essentially its all the same.
I took a bite of my pizza.
Yuck.
But I took another bite, and another bite, I got used to school food a bit too much for my own good, my standards for good food has fallen drastically sense I stopped getting homemade lunch.
Without hesitation, I was about to open my milk carton and drink its contents, before it appeared in front of me.
[System has been activated; please choose your card]
Time limit has been activated; 1:00
1: Swordsmen
2: Mage
3: Healer
4: Shields-men
5: Assassin
6: Archer
7: Necromancer
8: Barbarian
9: Occultist
10: Theif
11:Celestial Linemen
12: Jester
What's this?
Oh video game roles? But why are they floating in front of me?
Below each card was a basic description of the roles attributes, some of which I already knew without reading. There was also stars above the text which can go anywhere from 5 stars to 1, the lowest one being Jester and the highest being Celestial Linemen.
Then without warning, the Swordsmen card disappeared, leaving no trace behind.
"Guys! This...this sword it just appeared in front of me?"
//Player Sanjin Hiroyoshi has chosen the role "Swordsmen"\\
"What does this mean?" I heard the various voices of my confused peers as the cafeteria erupted with the sound of muffled whispers and loud exclamations.
It was a loud robotic-like voice that was heard throughout the cafeteria.
Sanjin was the student president if I remember correctly, regardless it was clear what this was about.
It wasn't a normal card game, that was obvious when these cards appeared out of thin air and started floating in front of me, stuck in place like something was holding them together.
Clicking a role translated to something happening in the real world.
In this sudden realization, I felt a huge dopamine reaction happening, a chill throughout my body. This was what I needed, action in my life. The boredom that lingered in me was dispersing.
Soon, the voice came back on and off, as more and more cards disappeared.
The one card I was most attracted to was Jester. I could feel a weird aura from it that was drawing me closer to choosing it, perhaps this was a part of the game, or system, or whatever it was called.
I heard and felt it calling to me, and reading the description made me choose it as my role.
[Description: Who is called the fool but fools others? This is a role that if used correctly, can propel it's user upwards!]
The description was, unlike for the other cards, written in red.
It had only 1 star, which was obvious why, it didn't hold the same glamour that other classes had. It didn't even have a specific reason for its existence.
Fooling others? How does that help? Well one thing was for sure, it was a role that the player complemented, not the other way around. I chose it, right before the timer ran out.
[Player 16 has chosen the final role "Jester": Unspecified players may be given a second round of choosing to acquire their roles]
"There were only 15 cards? Yo who chose that role?" someone yelled out.
Weird, it didn't say my name like the other ones, perhaps this is a role that isn't meant to be known by others. And it seemed as if I was the only given the role of Jester as an option.
So was it some sort of an imposter class?
My thoughts were interrupted when the voice came back, this time for a much more different reason.
//The match has started, defeat the boss monster\\
"What is this nonsense? Monsters? Those aren't real everybody," The lunch assistant said, in her grimly voice. "Whoever is using the speakers will be punished! Same for all of you who have weapons, that is illegal to have in public, especially school! Whoever is pulling this prank, just know the police are going to be-"
Just then, a booming THUD was heard. It was so deafening, it was louder then the voice.
For the first time, the cafeteria was bone chillingly quiet.
The atmosphere was uneasy, enough to cause people to go under their tables and hide. Something was coming, everybody knew that.
It was a good thing that I had a garbage can near me, because I jumped right into it.
Whatever was coming wasn't there for food, well at least not cafeteria food, understandably.
Then, in the split of a second, the sound of rapid footsteps assaulted my ears.
I peered my head a bit high, high enough to see what was happening but not enough to disclose my position as easily.
Idiots, why were there more than a dozen of them just standing there? Only two of them were lucky enough to be one of the few with a role.
One of them had medieval styled armor and a large shield, while the other had a pair of knives and shuriken-like weapons showcased in their belt and not as protective armor as the other one.
If I were to guess they probably were a duo of a shieldsmen and an assassin.
It didn't seem like they were going to fight though, they were stuck in place, I could notice they were trembling.
The wall on the other side of the Cafeteria exploded, no literally exploded. What was left was a huge circle-ovalish hole that now made a pathway to the hallways. Convenient.
Rubble was everywhere, and as the dust slowly went away, the shadowy outline of a large figure, too large to be human, with oversized arms and legs became apparent. This was the boss monster the voice talked about.
The closest human to the monster was the lunch assistant.
Then, in a sickly alien-like matter, a large pink tube swept through the dust, and landed on top of the lunch assistant, slowly venturing all the way down to her legs, the sound of blood curdling screaming that was cut off as soon as it started.
The monster started to walk out of the dust, revealing that the tube was an extension of its mouth. It had the form of a large, maybe 7-9 foot tall humanoid creature, with blue skin and a defined body. Its nails were that of sharp knives, and it had seemingly no neck, its head an addition of its shoulders. It had one bulging eye and no hair.
Abruptly, its tube came back to its face in the blink of an eye, revealing the remains of the lunch assistant.
It made a disturbingly terrifying crooked, revealing its razor-sharp teeth that were painted red.
In a panic frenzy, everybody started running as fast as they could to the other entrance, which was a couple tables away from where I was. Realizing that hiding in the garbage can probably ensured certain death, I jumped out and joined the crowd running towards the entrance.
I was one of the few that came out first.
There were two hallways on opposite directions. Then we saw them, to the left was a band of students running as fast as they could, with small greenish creatures trailing right behind them.
Everyone started running towards the other hallway, the sound of devilish creatures laughing and snickering as the screams of my peers rang my ears like police sirens.
Soon we made it to the end of the hallway, which was in turn cut into two. One was connected to the music room, gym, and the library, while the other housed extra circular classes. In front of us were stairs for the upper floor, reserved for school clubs and for both the student and school representatives.
Everybody ran in any way possible, completely disregarding thoughts about their options in pursuit of getting as far as possible from danger.
The sickening nose of loud THUDS coming closer and closer, like death itself was running towards us.
There was really no time to think, so I simply just let the tides push me to my destination, which led me to getting pushed towards the stairs so hard I almost fell. There was no time to look back on whatever commotion was happening behind me.