Cheng Han Shin or Hanshin Cheng was your average nerd with a face full of acne. He wore that same business suit every day to work, he lives in a crappy, weathered-down apartment in Kowloon that only cost $1000, and he works at a game corporation called A.E. And he has had enough. Bullied by his colleagues since they have higher pay and fired by his boss since he could do nothing right.
Since he has no other skills other than playing video games, he left the house and went down the road after getting the letter from his boss. Not even addressing Hanshin, two words are written on the paper. "You're fired."
Tears started dripping onto the envelope as Hanshin walked onto the road. A self-deprecating smile appeared on his face as the headlights of a truck approached. He looked at the moon, shining so brightly, "What a beautiful moon." Then, the impact of the truck slammed right into him.
At that moment, everything looked like it stopped. "Wait, what the hell?" Hanshin looked around. He was in the air, blood coming out of where his body got hit by the truck, but he felt no pain. He was frozen in mid-air. Suddenly, a voice appeared. "Hello, Cheng Han Shin."
Hanshin screamed. He tried to calm himself down, but all he did was make himself more terrified. "I will give you one more chance, where your skills will be useful." A beautiful, pale-skinned girl said.
After that, she touched his forehead, and he was in a barren wasteland. "What the hell!" He screamed at the air, but there was no response. He rubbed his stomach, which was healed completely, even though it was punctured through before and guts spilled out of it. He was wearing ragged clothing instead of a suit. He stood up, and his knees buckled. A screen showed up in front of him:
(Choose a class.)
The beautiful pale girl appeared in a smoke of black, smelly, burnt dust, and Hanshin's eyes watered. He proceeded to scream, "You! Y-you sent me here! Stay the hell away!" The pale girl smiled, with a hint of mischief in it. "This is your second chance at life, you wouldn't want to waste it, right?" Hanshin gulped. He started to think about why he was sent here, "Holy crap! This is like those manhwas and novels!" He noticed the girl was wearing a pair of headphones, with a pair of headphones on her head, with an oversized shirt with the word "ZOOM" on it and this was the game Hanshin used to play in his past life. There was a logo of two scythes on it. Cheng was confused since the game was from his past life.
Hanshin's muscles were shuddering with excitement, "Finally! I can be the main character!" The pale girl cocked her head with a childish-like, confused expression with her index finger poking her face.
Hanshin looked at the girl and blushed because the girl looked beautiful. "Hehe, do you know where you are?" Cheng shook his head, as he actually does not know where he is. The girl pointed at a dusty road sign and Cheng immediately ran towards it.
He wiped the dust off it, and his face dropped. Written on the sign was one word, "Kowloon". Hanshin Cheng started to break down. A tear dropped from his eye. He now understood why the girl was wearing that shirt.
The girl's face darkened, as she walked slowly towards him. She yanked him by the collar, and through clenched teeth, she growled, "I didn't waste half of my life trying to summon a Talented, just to get you, a useless crybaby!"
Hanshin was alarmed by the shift of tone by the girl. He asked, trembling, "W-why am I here? What's a Talented?" The girl sighed, her face back to normal, and she grumbled," A Talented is someone from the past that can restore peace to our world. And you are one. Though I see nothing talented in you."
The girl giggled as if it was a funny remark. "B-but you said that my skills could be used in this world!" Hanshin retorted, "They probably will after you've chosen a class." The screen popped up again, and Hanshin looked through the options: Fighter, Tank, Forger, Swordsman, Archer. These were classes that you found in games except for forger! Hanshin thought to himself. He decided not to dabble in forger, which he was unfamiliar with.
"Get a move on, I'm bored..." The girl said in a childish manner. Why was she acting like this? Hanshin thought. He decided on swordsman, which was his familiar territory in video games. As he went on to press "swordsman" his hand slipped from the sand that was on his hand and his hand went on to press forger, which was right next to the swordsman. Hanshin's eyes widened in shock, and then anger. "FU-" He was about to scream when the girl yanked him by the hand this time. "By the way, the name's Lee Chu Wen." Hanshin blacked out right afterward.
Hanshin woke up with a splitting headache in a huge room. "Finally awake, eh? The journey taking you to this place took one month." Lee Chu Wen said, and Hanshin flinched, "Probably the after-effects of transporting to the future with fatal injuries mended. " Lee said, "Come." Cheng got off the bed and followed Lee wearily. He followed her to a small room with a glistening crystal ball. "Put your hand on it." Hanshin did as told.
To his surprise, the ball started doing something to his body. His senses got sharper, and he felt more power in his body than ever. Three gigantic hammers appeared before him. Hanshin grumbled at his misfortune.
"Hmm." He thought and decided to choose the yellow glowing hammer, but what happened next is Lee's fault. She grabbed his arm and slammed his hand onto the red sinister hammer. Veins popped on Hanshin's neck. Another option wasted.
"Dammit! Why the heck would you do that?" Hanshin screamed. "It seems you have never heard of a forger. A forger is someone who creates and crafts the road to peace by just using powers, like this.
"You control blood, solidify blood, and manipulate blood. Thank me later." Hanshin immediately changed his expression and hugged Lee in a bone-crushing hug. "Okay okay, I get it you can let go. Follow me to the Tower of Greed." Hanshin followed, and his hopes were up once again. "By the way, do you-" Lee asked. But she realised Hanshin wasn't listening. He was looking at the huge tower, with a huge monstrous eye swerving on the top. "What the freak is that?" Hanshin asked, his heart beating so fast he felt like floating.
"That is the Tower of Greed, also known as the Tower of Tan Lan. The reason for Hong Kong's collapse. A mysterious tower from space that just annihilated all life that contacted the shockwave it produced. And that included technology."
Lee Chu Wen's face darkened again, and Hanshin backed away again. But then her face relaxed just then, and asked, "Ready to go to the tower?" she laughed.
Hanshin blinked and followed. But he screeched to a halt when he saw the scythe blades grow from Lee's back once they got in the tower. "Why am I not surprised?" Hanshin said, and then followed Lee to the register. "That's my power, now follow me." The inside of the tower was murky and stinky and the walls were covered with moss. Hanshin could hear fighting on the higher floor.
"Ma'am, it is an honour to meet you." The clerk at the counter said, trying to please Lee. He switched his attention to Hanshin Cheng, "And who might this young man be?" Lee smirked, "A new talented. I want to put him in the rankings."
Hanshin asked, "Since rankings exist, where are you in the rankings?" Lee scoffed, "1st. And you are at the bottom since you are new here." Hanshin now understood why the clerk treated Lee with respect. His knees gave way and he fell to the ground. " I will never be able to catch up." Cheng thought, disheartened.
Suddenly, there was a commotion near the entrance to the dungeon. "Hey, since we are done with registering, let's go check it out," Lee said. She noticed Cheng looking and feeling down, and sighed. "You'll catch up soon, cheer up now!"
Hanshin laughed at his new friend trying to cheer him up, so he obliged and stood up. He walked with Lee towards the crowd who were shouting at something. "Good luck!" They were shouting. "Hey!" Lee asked, " What's going on?"
A middle-aged woman with a wide body turned and said, "Oh my god! It's Lee Chu Wen! Can you sign this please?" The lady gave Lee a pic of Lee herself. She smiled warmly at the lady and signed it. "Can you tell us what is going on please?" Lee said and smiled brightly. "Oh yes, we are sending off some of the talented into the dungeon."
Lee looked at Hanshin. "Don't look at me! I'm new here, I won't have enough experience to go in!" Lee looked at Hanshin with a defiant stare, " Go, this will give you more experience on the basics!" Lee said, then pushed him into the group. "Welcome!" A muscular, red-haired man said. "I'm the leader of the group, Wang Du! I'm a fighter!" The remaining three people introduced themselves.
Vlad Erik, the tanker. He had a big beard and hair shaped like a Viking. He had his bare chest out, with camo pants. Camille Milon, the archer. She was wearing a hoodie with the letters T.B.S, the popular boy band in Korea. Ishaan Kumar, the swordsman. He had saggy clothes on with a pair of shades. Seeing the group's warm welcome, he also introduced himself. When Hanshin said that he was a forger, the members except for
Ishaan gave him an ominous look for a moment but then their faces went back to smiling.
The dungeon gate opened. Hanshin walked in with the others nervously, and when he looked back, the gate was closing and he saw Lee waving her hands and smiling, his heartfelt warm in it and he waved back. Little did he know, things were about to change for him. The sound of monsters growling could be heard.