『Seth Ravenswood, welcome to Falling Stars Online. At the peak shall be your reward… a mighty wish of no consequence.』
".... okay," muttered Seth.
This wasn't as dramatic as he expected.
Somehow, he expected some sort of grand introduction or a forceful mind jumping. They could even go extreme and kidnap him in real life to project some sort of warped realism, not that he was complaining.
The panel changed once again.
『Beginning transference in three… two…. one…』
"Wait… the fuck?! Surely, this is just—"
At the last count, Seth felt a wave of dreaminess hit him. He lost his balance and crumbled to the ground.
Before he could even feel the physical impact, his mind went blank.
By the time he opened his eyes, he found himself in a strange location.
'Where am I?'
He looked down.
The floor was invisible, which would explain why he couldn't see any ground.
He seemed to be on an invisible platform that was surrounded by stars. Multiple stars hovered around this platform.
There was one particular star that caught his attention. The star lost much of its shape, as a quarter of it was gnawed by a gigantic space beast.
However, that didn't deter the grandiose aura that the star exuded. Faced with this star, Seth felt his mind descending into madness.
A crazed look appeared on his face as he spoke like a mad fanatic, 'What a profound appearance?!'
Following his words was a wave of nausea that hit from nowhere. He went to his knees, vomiting the content he ate the other day.
*Bleurch!*
In the process of emptying his stomach, Seth noticed something.
'Wait, I am not the one making that sound.'
He glanced to his right side.
He could see other people just like him vomiting.
But the strange thing was that nothing came out of their mouths. No material substance could be seen on the weird ground.
'What is this? A mass… prank? Also, why the heck are some of them dressed in underwear?' mentally screamed Seth.
His cognitive process had shut down. This was just too much for him to process.
A young boy walked up to him, "Uncle, do you know what is happening?"
"Did you just call me 'Uncle?'," Seth squeezed his face.
Now, Seth was basically a young master.
He had that the whole arrogant young master's arrogant aura. Even his handsome face was always overshadowed by his scumbag persona.
While he merely asked a question, from the young boy's perspective, he could see multiple veins popping on Seth's face.
The young boy stuttered, "I-I-I- I am sorry."
The boy couldn't keep his composure again, so he ran away in the blink of an eye, leaving a trail of tears on the ground.
Seth was caught off-guard by this.
'Why did he run away? Is he a very timid person?' He wryly scratched his head.
Another person approached him.
This time, it was a lady in underwear.
She wrapped her hands around her body to protect herself from the attention she kept receiving from the surrounding people. Of course, that wasn't working well. Even Seth could only manage to keep his eyes away from her body after five long seconds of staring.
The lady said, "I have seen you before. I think we live nearby. Do you have any idea of how we got here?"
Answering her question, Seth profoundly gave his theory, "I believe it is just a dream."
"Huh?"
"I am uncertain if it is a shared dream or just my dream. In the case of the latter, it must mean you are all manifestations of my thoughts."
"Huh?"
"A bikini girl in my dream. Hmmm… is this my mind telling me to rejoin the bachelor gang? I miss those b*stards."
"Oh… I see."
"The mind is truly profound. It can give hints. Professor Instine once said, 'The mind is as vast as electricity'."
After saying total nonsense, Seth looked upwards as he said, "So, young lady, you look familiar. I think I recognize you from the night I spent in that night bar. Oh, that wild night. Does that strike a bell?"
"..."
There was no reply from his side.
Seth looked sideways. He couldn't find the bikini girl.
After a brief moment, he found her. She was conversing with the other guys.
She actually left him while he took their conversation serious!
Reve's face formed a twitch.
'How rude?'
Somehow, everyone was now avoiding him.
Anyway, Seth had found a few intriguing things.
'I didn't want to believe this, but it seems like we are in a physical location. But we might not be truly here…'
Looking at his translucent body, Seth sighed, 'Is this my soul? Immaterial yet possessing substance and feeling. It fits the theorized description of souls.'
He went over the second thing he noticed, 'Also, the amount of people here is increasing marginally.'
Before, there were only about fifty people. Presently, Seth could only estimate the gathering to comprise a thousand people. This number was not constant!
*Boom!*
Suddenly one of the stars came into view.
It shot forth a beam of energy that transformed into a colossal scroll.
There were many symbols on the scroll. Yet, the foreign characters written on the scroll seemed to be readable by everyone.
When Seth glanced at the scroll, he found that he could easily comprehend the meaning.
╔
In the beginning, the Goddess Rylenta had found a patch of primordial void.
She cultivated it into a vast world devoid of life and emotion.
Her seven breaths created life as we know it, and the myriad races ushered into existence like tiny moths chasing light.
She lived with her children happily, treasuring them more than anything else.
Time passed like fine faery wine. Her world entered the age of blossoming.
However, she vanished ultimately …
╝
'Where is the other content?' complained Seth.
That was where the scroll stopped.
'Is this the highest form of troll— What the f*ck is that?'
From the corner of his eye, he caught the broken star shaking intensely.
While others were attracted by the scroll, a gigantic tail broke out of the star. It immediately swatted one of the nearby stars, breaking into countless asteroids that attacked the safe platform Seth was in.
By now, the sound generated by the attack was too loud to be ignored.
"Oh, goodness, what is that?"
"Are we going to die?!"
"Is this how I go?!"
It was believed that an array of asteroids was responsible for killing the dinosaurs that once lived on Earth.
If that was the case, how were they to feel about the asteroids heading their way?
The destructive force the asteroids carried created spatial waves that swept the gathering away from their feet.
All of them lay on the platform's invisible ground as they watched the asteroids collide with the platform.
They closed their eyes!
*Boom!*
Suddenly, the platform shook as a barrier was erected around it to protect it from the asteroids. However, the density of the barrier was tested multiple times as the asteroids proved relentless.
All Seth could see were brilliant lights flashing above him.
Fear struck him and he dug his head into his arm.
He felt blood streaking down his ear.
Touching it, he muttered, "Even the sound is affecting me."
Still, with his eyes closed, Seth used his hands to cover his ears.
The terrifying sound stopped and everywhere became quiet.
Seth opened his eyes to observe around.
The barrier was still erect, albeit, there were now many cracks on it.
*Boom!*
Something hit the barrier!
It was too fast to catch. All Seth saw was a black silhouette, longer than any form of measurement he could think of.
*Boom!*
The thing struck the barrier again.
This time, Seth saw it for what it was. It was the tail that had come out of the broken star earlier.
*Boom!*
The barrier began crumbling.
Seth looked down to see cracks appearing on the invisible ground beneath him.
He could already see a thousand ways he could die.
*Boom!*
On the fourth try, the barrier got destroyed.
The long cosmic tail flexed its muscles above the platform. It seemed to be capable of intelligent thoughts as it hovered above them for quite a while.
Soon, it came down on the platform like a god declaring judgment.
As it came to be, Seth was the first to get swatted by the tail.
The lower half of his body disappeared instantly.
His mind wavered as he felt a soul-wrenching pain.
*Splint!*
The platform ground finally broke.
Only a few people had survived the attack from the tail. Most of them had died, while a smaller percentage were in the same state as Seth; almost dead.
As they free-fell in the empty space, the tail came for them again.
It was then that many spatial holes appeared beside every single person. It sucked them in before the tail could strike their soul bodies again.
As Seth was absorbed by the spatial hole, his eyelids wavered and he blacked out!