Getting out of the convenience store into the open night air of the bustling yet quiet city, Abel took a deep breath, instantly coughing once the smell of cigars invaded his nostrils and mouth.
Looking to the left, he saw a group of teens smoking in the alley right next to the convenience store, laughing and playing like they owned the world.
'A bunch of losers...' Thinking nothing of them more, he began the trek back to his small apartment flat.
He walked through the quiet streets in the middle of the night, feeling a little chill with the early spring breeze.
The lamps were far and wide between each other, giving birth to places where the shadows were so deep and black it gave a person goosebumps to just look at them.
'Fuckers, how cheap are they to not light the streets properly for a person to see?' He thought as he cursed the city planners or whoever worked on this.
Looking at his phone while keeping a close eye on his surroundings in case he encountered a thief, he checked on Tom's messages.
'This guy, if weren't for his stupid actions, I wouldn't have to be a part of his "recuperation" nights.' Grumbling about the all-night gaming he was about to be a part of, he wasn't that excited about it.
A strong breeze ruffled his oversized black jacket, making him drop some of his snacks when he panicked at the appearance of the sudden strong breeze.
'Ah, shit!' because of his sudden reaction, his favorite bag of chips flew with the breeze into some local park filled with dead trees beginning to sprout leaves.
Standing there quietly, Abel was choosing between going through the dark path of the park with barely any lighting or continuing with his wide-open street and never looking back at this situation where it could make the news in the morning.
'A young adult viciously murdered in the Local park!!' Yeah, he could see that happening, yet there was a reason those chips were his favorite, more so they were expensive as hell.
'Is it worth it to lose my life over it?' one part of him asked.
'Aren't you overreacting a bit? just go inside for a bit, and if it's there retrieve it, if not come back to this street.' This part sounded more rational, and being the practical person, he eventually decided with reluctance to go after his precious bag of chips.
The tiny road in the park with little lighting from far away or malfunctioning lamps was as he imagined, scary and fear-inducing.
He turned on his flashlight on the phone, pointing it to the ground, looking for the bag of chips.
Just as he was faltering, and deciding to go back to the main street, another strong breeze passed by, a bag of chips rising with it just a short distance away from him.
'Fuck! how light is this bag?! did they only fill it with air or something?!!' Not willing to let this clear provocation by nature pass by, he ran after it, intending to get this bag of chips no matter the cost.
Running with one hand filled with snacks and another with the phone to light his way, he ran after the flying bag of chips for a while, his fear of the park getting overshadowed by the clear challenge of retrieving his bag of chips.
'Ah, fuck!!' as one would expect, running recklessly in a dark place with little lighting was the recipe for tripping, and he tripped hard, his ankles going sideways as he tried to jump when the bag of chips was lowering a little.
'Ah fuck!' the pain in his left ankle was excruciating, making him immobile, but after a minute of whining and laying splattered on the sparse grass, he surveyed his surroundings, realizing that he was lost.
"You gotta be kidding me!!", he was deep in the park, with no possible way to know where he was, and worse,... his old phone broke, completely falling apart when he used it as a landing pad for his right hand that was holding it.
'What was I thinking!?' He crawled on the floor with both of his hands, looking widely at his surroundings, afraid that some kind of monster would appear in the dark.
He reclined against the trunk of a big tree, looking left and right to make sure his sides were covered while he stuck as close as possible to the tree trunk.
'This situation is completely like those stupid characters in horror movies who would follow after some cute animal into a forest, only to be murdered viciously!' he thought with self-deprecation.
'I can't stay here any longer, the chances of me dying will increase by the minute of staying in this place.' After a few minutes of rest, he decisively stood up, limping with a swollen ankle to a faint light source he located on his left.
The ground had stones placed everywhere hazardously, along with twigs and a ton of almost black leaves from last autumn, making it difficult for Abel to walk on.
As he carefully closed the distance between himself and the faint light source, he began hearing strange sounds coming from the direction of the light.
This put him in his tracks, trying to discern what the strange sounds were.
Yet after intermittently hearing them for a while, he couldn't associate anything with it, Just as he turned around and leave the place quietly,
BOOM!! BANGG!!
Loud explosions echoed from a close place to his right, and another explosion happened, this time he saw a big tree getting shattered to smithereens.
'Yeah, Fuck this!!' He limply run to the light source and away from the exploding trees, using his swollen ankle making him wince in pain.
Explosion after explosion kept happening all around him as he run his mind a mess, fear, and terror clutching onto him as he run with all his might to the light source, the only thing he instinctively thought could save him.
Yet just as Abel was about to come out of the clearing of the trees, he stopped involuntarily, his eyes glued to the impossible scene happening in front of him.
A man was getting chased around by 3 figures in dark robes, while...flying, going around in circles, bright lights emerging as they collided in the air.
The 3 figures' dark blending robes were shined by the light source behind them.
'...This can't be real...' The light source shined from a crack in space, its insides vaguely depicted titanic trees and stone monuments.
Abel stared with a lowered jaw, his mind trying to rationalize what he was seeing.
He looked to his sides and back, seeing no film crew. Just destroyed trees and steamed and cracked surviving trunks of trees.
He looked back at the 4 flying figures, still colliding in the air at high speeds, releasing bright lights on contact.
He stepped back slowly behind a tree trunk and lowered himself, terror apparent on his face.
After a few seconds, he stuck his neck out to look at the 4 figures fighting, wide-eyed with fear, a huge explosion flung the 3 figures fighting the lone man to a great distance away.
'Shit!!' eyes directly meeting with the floating man, he snapped his head behind the cover of the trunk instantly.
"Hey kid, you wanna be a hero? Hold this for me will you, I have some unfinished business." standing in front of him was a man in light purple armor, purple hair, and a stoic face without emotion.
In a stretched right hand, the man held an earthy moss-covered stone, dropping it in the right hand of Abel that he held with his left hand.
"Wait!! I don't wanna be a hero!! I don't wanna be a part of whatever th-" The man vanished from his view, sweat raining down from him as his heart beat fiercely.
Explosions echoed from far away seconds later, before a loud explosion bigger than before ripped through the surrounding air, Abel looked behind the tree trunk, a confused expression on his face as the loud explosion stopped in half, completely disappearing in an instant.
...
'FUCK THIS!!' Abel stood up and began to run through the park, his swollen ankle's pain overridden by intense adrenaline and fear.
He ran like a professional racer, sidestepping trees, ducking under low-hanging branches, and leaping over rocks without stopping for a second through the darkness reaching a street he was familiar with in a minute.
He didn't stop, running with everything to his apartment flat.
'FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!!' he fumbled with his keys, panting heavily, his hands shaking badly, the key dropping from his hands.
Picking it up, he looked to his sides and back, fear in his heart of someone coming out of nowhere and ribbing his spine from his back where he stood.
Entering his flat, he shut the door with force, locking it and taking measured steps backward as his breathing deepened.
...
Waiting for a few minutes standing behind the door, vigilant with a running stance, everything was quiet save for his breathing.
He stumbled, running out of fumes, the pain in his ankle overtook his mind rapidly.
He got on his bed and wrapped himself in his blanket, his body shaking like a leaf.
'This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening..' He began repeating a mantra, and in a minute, exhaustion took him to sleep.
The mysterious stone was clutched in his right hand, to the point the stone showed some cracks, cracking fully, revealing its crystal insides.
The mysterious stone entered the hand holding it as if it were fluid, causing Abel's right hand to glow with an emerald-green shimmering light.
[An Essence Crystal has been used by A non-Recorded Human...]
[Establishing A Record for the non-Recorded Human...]
[Record:
Name: Abel Lucian
Race: Human
Jobs:
Main: None
Sub: Server
Ability: None
Skills: None
Attributes: Nature
Stats:
Body: 0.7
Spirit: 1.3
Affiliations: None]
[Congratulations to the newly Recorded Human: Abel Lucian. From this day on, you are hereby a member of the Hidden World: The Underlayer.]