[A/N: This chapter is subject to potential changes and revisions, so if you see any errors, let me know.]
*****
It was a Tuesday afternoon, and Luxxan Balotelli came home with heavy steps, his shoulders hunched and his eyes brimming with glassy tears that glistened in the sunlight on the horizon.
Gritting his slightly yellowed teeth, clearly not properly cared for, the man opened the entrance to a dilapidated apartment on the outskirts of his town.
Frankly, it was evident that he was poor.
But it wasn't something the young man was ashamed of, so, huffing, the young guy in the frayed sweatshirt just ignored the suspicious looks people on the street shot his way.
"Damn motherfuckers…!" He cursed all the unfortunates who tried their hardest to destroy the only good things in his life.
Closing the front door with a thud, he let out a sigh and took a calming breath. His lungs filled with fresh air (not so pure, that is) as he grabbed a cold beer from his decrepit fridge.
Opening the metal can with a single movement of his index fingers, he quickly poured the refreshing contents down his throat.
''A shitty life...''
Depressed, the youth reminded himself how pitiful he was.
Not that it was his goal to play the victim and keep sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of sadness and regret, but fate seemed to want to remind him of all his mistakes, every damn day.
Misfortune, suffering, and severe anguish always seemed to cross his path, in view of some good opportunity for him to prosper — thus causing the poor man to reign supreme on the throne of the 'most unlucky' in the world.
He was a complete piece of shit, in his own personal opinion.
And that was why his life could only be described as total shit, to be quite honest.
To give you an idea, after helping to pay off the family debts, after his mother passed away and left him to pay for the hospital costs, he ended up depriving himself of sleep with so much nervousness and he came across a cruel point.
Luxxan was fired.
He had been evicted from his job, which he was so proud of having gotten—even as a relatively inexperienced college student—for failing to stay awake and work incompetently.
''Ugh...''
Walking through the house, he grunted seeing his reflection in the half-cracked mirror in the front corner of his room.
Analyzing himself, he tried to pull himself up.
"You can do it, Lux." He stated, tightening his grip on his hand. ''You were voted the smartest student in college! Just hold on a little longer, goddammit…''
The truth was, he would have liked to turn his head the other way, so that he could avoid his own gaze, which was filled with obvious self-disgust.
Nonetheless, he couldn't at all.
His naturally blood red hair, a little dirty, due to lack of time, fluttered while his blue eyes stared fixedly at the scrawny figure that returned the look in the object's reflection.
Fixing his gaze on his pupils, he felt cold.
They looked lifeless, basically dead inside.
The will and drive had somehow disappeared from them and the only eye-catching mark was the thick layer of purple circles that surrounded the boy's eyes.
''Maybe I can't, right?'' Lux wondered, crestfallen. ''But...but just like that freaking guy, I'll try.''
He hated himself, but so what? — that was a topic for another time.
After all, after more than twenty-three years of his dull, dreadful life, marred by misfortune wherever he went, Lux had had enough self-loathing for nothing.
Besides, from what his schedule said, the only thing he was anxious about after all the tragedies that had been part of his trajectory, a novel he'd been reading for years, would have chapters released that day.
''Cheer up, you freak in the head!'' He said, chuckling to himself as he downed more beer. ''At least I still have a few chapters to read from Lord of the Heroes.''
Lord of the Heroes: Odyssey to Godhood, or simply Lord of the Heroes for short, was an extremely good (cliche) novel — but not as popular as it deserved to be — that Lux had been reading for countless years.
His fanaticism towards the work was such that, to give a more in-depth idea, the man had been reading the novel since it was released, by the time he was finally entering high school.
Even though it was extremely cliché, he didn't care! That work brought him happiness, and that was all that mattered!
However, the problem was that the final chapter would be released today, after eight years of repeatedly reading and rereading LOTH.
At least it was a cool thing!
You see, despite all the terrifyingly harrowing circumstances going on in his life, at least there was that little remnant of something good that the college student could look forward to!
''It's nice to think it's been so many years.'' Luxxan said, slowly stepping out of the mirror. ''But still, it's hard to accept that this is the end...''
After years of being alone, with no one to guide him but himself, ever since his mother, Lillah, had left the world of the living at once, the romance was one of the things that basically made him yearn for life.
It was an essential part of his being.
It was not for nothing that, as a boy, he used to imitate the protagonist of the work, so that the bullies tormented him but he did not show his unhappiness or fear.
''Cahum...'' He coughed, turning slightly red. ''That's a thing of the past... it's been a long time since then.''
That was his favorite work.
The man's special getaway from reality.
His only escape route from the countless problems that surrounded him.
A romance that led him to keep going, to move on. And that was now sadly ending.
Without blinking any further, Luxxan opened the bedroom door and ran to her bed.
Now sitting on his bed, which was not comfortable, and also extremely old, he opened the website where LOTH was published and smiled, relieved to see the notification of the release of a new chapter.
''There it is.''
Clicking on his cell phone screen, after selecting the chapter notification, Lux couldn't contain his excitement as he saw the words filling his phone's screen.
For a second, the problems seemed to disappear completely.
He felt like he was floating away from the surface itself.
Away from everything.
Away from everyone.
The magic that took over his being whenever he read that work, was impossible to be controlled or mediated by himself.
''Continues a masterpiece…''
LOTH was a novel set in a fantasy world filled with elemental powers and aspects similar to some famous magical systems, albeit mixed in a somewhat confusing vastness.
The main character, Qilin Styr, an extremely talented, honest and hardworking martial arts and magic prodigy - who secretly hides the secret of being a reincarnator - had everything a normal person would want to be.
Like his companions, Qilin possessed numerous powerful talents and enviable abilities, being skilled even in extremely random and useless fields.
In addition to all this, the author seemed to make it clear just how handsome the boy was.
A feature of the story that Lux actively disliked.
''If I could live a second in his skin...'' Was a recurring thought of the college boy.
It was a shame that the story's villain shared some very similar aspects with poor Lux, while Qili was the complete opposite of all university traits.
At the very least, knowing that it was impossible to become a fictional character, since he didn't live in the world of a novel, manga, or anything similar — this was real life, after all — he wanted to have something similar to the hero and not the villain.
But there was nothing to be done.
It was obvious that the villain had always had the worst life in the first place.
The main villain, LOTH's second protagonist, and also initially Qilin's main rival, Aaron French, was a stubborn and greedy person who didn't mind doing horrendous things to get what he wanted.
Not that Lux judged him, he even liked the character.
If need be, perhaps he too would follow a similar path, in a world as dangerous as Excedia.
The problem was that there were some points in the story that he considered that Aaron had already crossed the line.
Anyway, Luxxan already knew how the romance would end.
It would likely be the novel's villain being defeated by Qilin, and then the main character ending up with the main female love interest, Lissandra Yoon.
''But what?'' Confused, he shook his head.
He was almost halfway through the finishing chapter, however, when he swiped down to read the rest of the novel, the website suddenly redirected him and a message notification appeared on his phone.
His first reaction was one of confusion and then a mixture of bewilderment and anger.
Growling, he swiped the screen and paid attention to the mysterious message that made LOTH's website crash.
[6Last_Seed7: Sorry to interrupt your reading, but allow me to ask you, dear guest — if you had to live in a world, would you live in the world of LOTH or on Earth?]
Frowning, Lux looked at the message strangely.
For some reason he couldn't leave that tab and was forced to respond to the strange message.
Honestly, normally he would have just closed the tab and locked it in the settings so the user wouldn't be able to contact him again, but this time, Lux didn't feel the need.
The message was of no harm, anyway. The only thing that really worried him was how the person who sent the message knew he was reading LOTH.
''Well, fuck that.''
Typing nimbly, he sent the reply without much thought.
[Lullipop: Certainly in the world of LOTH, Excedia.]
The receiver barely received his message and responded in record time.
Lux was startled for a second by the abnormal speed, but quickly regained his composure.
[6Last_Seed7: So maybe you were born in the wrong world after all.]
[6Last_Seed7: By the way, thanks for letting me know. That clears things up, I appreciate it immensely.]
Finishing the conversation, the other user exited the window, finally allowing the option to close the tab to appear on Lux's screen.
Lux stood there as he tilted his head in confusion, but soon shook his head and closed the app, then restarted it to go back to the site to read the novel.
''There it is!'' He exclaimed happily.
Fortunately, everything was back, but instead of the normal chapter he used to see available on the site, there was a big icon of a red eye, accompanied by some black strokes, with the word ''next'' right underneath.
Exhausted, Lux clicked on the icon without any hesitation because he thought he was going to the final chapter, but as soon as his screen started to load to the next page, a surreal event unfolded.
[By this agreement, the candidate has accepted the terms and conditions.]
[Through the sponsorship of ''Fable'', the candidate received an invitation to the new experience.]
[By clicking the 'next' button, the candidate agreed to live in Excedia.]
''H-huh?''
Not understanding any more, he stumbled backwards from his bed, falling to the cold wooden floor.
Lux didn't even have a chance to reason or think twice about what it all meant.
As soon as the blank page on his cell phone utterly finished loading, his vision suddenly started to blur and a dull ache shot through his entire body, stopping at the top and making the side of his head throb.
''S-shit...''
He couldn't help but close his eyes as the world began to spin maddeningly around him.
''Urkgh…''
[The transfer will start immediately.]
When he finally started to lose consciousness for good, he swore he could almost see a tall dark silhouette of a person approaching him.
To his dismay, his eyelids finally closed for good when a person's high-pitched, shy voice rang out in the room.
"Whatever you do, boy." Said the voice. "Just please don't forget who you really are."