Shane felt his stomach churning as acidic liquid climbed up his throat again, urging him to be released from his mouth. He stumbled back only to hit the cold wall behind him as he stared at the horrifying scene outside the door. He covered his mouth with his hand as if it would stop him from feeling nauseous.
"What the heck….. That might have been us!"
Even Frank wasn't calm. After a few seconds, he couldn't handle it anymore and threw up in the corner of the room.
These two people were just youths who, for some reason, felt a special connection with one another. Even though they often watched horror movies filled with gore, this was the first time they saw something like this.
Both of them had their faces pale as they turned their heads, unable to watch any longer. But the sound of chewing something crisp and hard entered their ears, making it hard to stop their minds from imagining anything.
Shane took deep breaths, and a mixed smell of Frank's vomit, blood, and dust entered his nose. It made him feel on edge.
No, he couldn't stay here any longer. He would have to escape as soon as possible!
Frank was also done with puking his guts out, but he still felt uncomfortable all over his body. He leaned against the wall as he took in deep breaths and wiped his mouth with the back of his hands.
He wished there was some water here.
A screen appeared above their heads:
[System 12254801, you have been offered 2,000 Crana]
[System 12254799, you have been offered 3,669 Crana]
Just then, a familiar female voice rang in their ears.
[Live stream has ended. Congratulations, system 12254801 and 12254799, for surviving this ordeal. You can pass through the continent Septo through this portal behind you for further instructions. My work is done here. Have a happy journey. Try not to die this time.]
Shane and Frank tilted their heads as they glanced behind them. A portal had opened at an unknown time where Shane had hit his back. It was a round space with a whirlpool of thunder going inside. Except for the thunder, everything else was dark.
"What the…. We have to enter this?!" Shane exclaimed, but even then, something in his heart told him to enter this portal as soon as possible. Since he was a guy who would listen to his intuition a lot, he took a deep breath and suppressed a surge of emotions in his chest as he stepped forward.
Frank turned toward Shane and followed the man without hesitation as if he were the former's underling.
They felt their bodies pass through a stream of water as they passed through the portal. Other than that, none of them felt any pain.
Shane was the first one to open his eyes. As soon as he did, he first saw the dust-covered ground. It almost felt like he had somehow landed in the desert. He stood like that with Frank beside him on the street filled with people wearing old, ragged, ancient western robes. Except that the ladies also wore shirts and pants.
On both sides of the street, they could see shops selling God knows what. They only saw a few people standing on the other side of different counters, but none of those shops had items to be sold.
All of a sudden, one of the men with ragged robes approached a shop closer to Shane and said, "Give me a bear."
"Five Crana," replied the shopkeeper.
Crana again….
Shane frowned after hearing this.
"F*ck, so expensive?!" The buyer spoke as a frustrated expression appeared on his face.
"In Meridio, five crana means nothing," replied the shopkeeper with a stern look.
The man hesitated for a while before he said, "Fine! You better give me something good because I've got a lot on my shoulders!"
After saying that, he muttered, "Menu." Under his breath. To Shane's surprise, he saw a screen appearing in front of the man's eyes, but the items inside were blurred so that Shane and Frank couldn't see anything inside.
The shopkeeper also opened a similar transparent window as they both clicked on something Shane couldn't understand. After that, the man walked away with his hands in his pockets.
Shane watched this scene with his eyebrows raised, "Are we inside a game or something?"
"No. You're in the system world, Imperium," spoke a soft female voice out of the blue.
Shane instantly glanced at the owner of this voice only to see a girl, wearing robes similar to lolis in games, standing in front of him with a smile. Her silky pink hair waved behind her back as she smiled sweetly while staring at him through her ocean blue eyes.
Any guy would fall in love with her cuteness if they happened to stare at her for a long time. She almost looked as innocent as a small baby, but for some reason, Shane felt a trace of vigilance in his heart. He frowned as he opened his mouth, "This is the second time I'm hearing this word. What's Imperium?"
Since his intuition told him that this little girl wasn't good, he would stay away from her.
"This world is between the mortal and heavenly realm, just like Earth. We have access to the cosmic energy that can be supplied to the mortal realm for repairing several disappearing worlds with the help of hosts."
"What is a broker?" Shane suddenly remembered this word from before.
"Brokers guide the hosts, dead people of different mortal worlds, to complete their missions. Viewers will also arrive at their profiles, and every action of the hosts will be live-streamed publically. You can act as a viewer and gift Cranas to your favorite broker, but livestreams aren't limited to that. You can even come live whenever you're doing something exciting to earn Crana."
"So basically," Shane pondered for a while, catching up to the loli's words quickly, as his eyes squinted, "We're supposed to become a system of different hosts, help them finish missions, and increase viewers of our livestreams. But, what will the broker get if the amount of viewers is increased?"
"Crana, the coin system of this world."
"Then-"
"Please follow me. You'll learn everything in the institute."
"Come."
The three of them continued to walk down the street. Shane took his time observing his surroundings as he continued to follow the loli. There were a few houses, but they were all shabby as if he had entered a slum area. Even with the clean street, everything else made the scene look poor and old.
They stopped when they came across a huge school-like building with multiple floors. Shane frowned. It almost felt as if he had arrived in a military institute. In front of them was an iron gate with 'The Imperium Institute' written there in bold letters. This building made the entire slum area feel like it was in a different dimension altogether.
The loli stopped and said, "Let's enter this place. We have to get you guys registered as new systems."
"What the hell is up with the system? No one told us about it."
The loli smiled as she pushed open the door. An invisible wall seemed to have been removed the moment she opened the door. She turned and said, "You'll learn everything in this place. Please, follow me."
As they continued to walk through the street, toward the main building, a few people wearing dark blue shirts and pants of ancient style, but the luxurious type, on the playground doing God knows what stopped their practice and glanced at the newcomers. Shane could swear they were doing something with their hands. He had seen something shining at that time when they had just entered the gate.
'They should have a torch, right?' he thought to himself as he continued to walk.
Just as he was following the loli, someone rushed from the building and directly collided with Shane's body, making him fall flat on the ground. A wave of pain appeared in the muscles of his back.
"F*ck, can't you see…." Shane couldn't say anymore as he swallowed the rest of his words when he saw the person above him who had also fallen because of the impact.
It was a beautiful girl wearing the same school uniform with her red hair scattered all over the place. She also stared at Shane with her eyes widened as she opened her mouth, "Brother, what the f*ck! Did you end up dying too?!"
"Tess…." the name blurted out of the young man's mouth as he lay there in a trance.