"Haah"

Smoke came out of his mouth and nose as he exhaled.

He stared outside his window, the busy morning of the city.

After looking for a while, he took his phone by the side and immediately saw a notification on his email about his rejection of his job application.

"Fucking hell"

Just seeing that he threw his phone away and continued to smoke while watching the city from his window.

When his cigarette was burned to the butt he said.

"All right, let's do this again"

He took a towel from the cabinet next to the bed, went outside the bedroom, and took a shower.

A couple of minutes later, he covered himself in a towel and saw himself in the mirror in the sink.

Black hair, deep black sharp eyes, messy hair, lean build, and about 180cm tall. If he were to act in a movie then he'd be 'that one gangster who looks like a dick and deserved to get killed in movies.

People often mistook him for a thug for his appearance, the way he moves, and especially his crude mouth.

But other than smoking, he had no bad habits, sure, his mouth can be a little crude sometimes but deep down, his heart was made of the finest gold, so why do people still judge him?

He complained to himself.

Just as he was about to brush his teeth.

Words suddenly started to appear in the mirror

"What the fuck?"

He was stunned at the words being written in the mirror, seeing this, he tried to read it. For some reason the words weren't any language that he knows of somehow, he could understand them.

"You have.. been.. chosen.." he mumbled.

After that, the words started to disappear from the window.

"What the shit was that??" Confused he couldn't help cursing out.

"Am I hallucinating??" Not sure yet if what he saw was real or not, he washed his face in the sink.

He closed his eyes as water runs down his face. But when he opened them...

He found himself in a completely different space with nothing but his towel on.

"Wha-" now he was completely shaken up. He was just in his bathroom, now, he was here, 'What the hell happened?!'

He observed his surroundings.

He seemed to be..... Inside a cave? It was a bit dark and he could see some lights in the distance but the place seemed desolate with nothing but rocks.

"Is this a prank?" Fear and anxiety slowly crept up his spine.

"Hello! What's going on?!" He shouted.

But he got no answer. Only silence and darkness are there.

Creeped out of the atmosphere, and having no choice, he slowly walk towards the lights.

Leaning by the wall he slowly finds his way toward the light.

It wasn't long before he found himself in what seemed like a room.

The lights were coming off some mushrooms that grow from the ground but his attention was somewhere else.

At the end of the room, there, a giant monitor lay, along with what seemed like a keyboard and mouse.

"What hell is going??" Baffled by the weirdness of the situation he could only say those words.

Then as if answering his question. The large monitor opened and a blue screen appeared.

Before he could react, words started typing on the screen.

"Welcome to the void, Alexander"

He, Alexander, was shocked when he read that.

"Or at least, the space between it"

"Outside of this space, is what I'd call a broken world that intends to devour yours."

"Things have changed. Gates will appear all over your world."

"Through these gates, monsters will come through and assimilate yours"

"To stop it is simple, venture to the broken world and..."

"CONQUER IT!"

"Conquer it Alexander!"

"Or else, it will conquer yours"

"!!" Alex was stunned to the core when he read that. His mouth hung open by the information given to him.

"To help you, I have granted you an authority"

"As well as a few gifts to help along the way"

"If you can't take the responsibility, kill yourself and the authority will be transferred to others"

"Oh, and I've left you a very useful helper"

"I look forward to your progress, Alexander"

Then Alex noticed his right hand was glowing, At a loss for words, he simply stared at it as something like a spiral, a tribal symbol appeared on his right hand before disappearing.

After that, the monitor turned into something like what you'd find on a computer display screen except there's only one icon. It was a green globe.

Alex couldn't speak for a while and just stared at the monitor.

It took half a minute before he could snap out of his dazed state.

He took a deep breath and processed the information that he just read. While he was pondering, in the corner of the room, something was moving.

Alex then shook his head, there was too much to process, But he figured now was not the best time to think about it, especially since he was only wearing a towel.

He rubbed his right hand where the tattoo appeared, finding nothing, he approached the monitor but that's when...

A black ball suddenly appeared.

"Ah!" Surprised by the sudden appearance, he instantly took a step back as he saw the thing that surprised him.

It was... A black octopus with human-like, large golden eyes. Then it lifted one of its tentacles and waved it at him as if it was saying hi.

Immediately, Alex felt a mental connection with this creature and felt its intention.

It was trying to welcome him as his master... Or at least that's what he understood.

The octopus seemed to present itself to him and waved its tentacles as if saying something.

"You're.... the helper?" Alex said, understanding its intention.

Then the octopus nodded. It continued to wave its tentacles conveying its intention through their mental connection to Alex.

"Your gonna help me conquer this world? You'll answer my questions?"

The octopus nodded.

Looking at the enthusiastic black octopus, he didn't know what to feel. Then a thought came to him and he asked.

"How can I go back??"

The octopus pointed one of its tentacles to his right hand and conveyed its thoughts.

"I see... Make my mark appear?" As Alex said so, the spiral abyss tattoo appeared again, this time it was glowing.

He mumbled.

"And think about going back?" It was as simple as that but as the words left his mouth, space distorted for an instant and he found himself inside his bathroom once again.

No words came out of his mouth and he just stood there dazed at what just happened.