Abel opened his eyes as the sun shined directly on his face. It was a rare occurrence for him to receive the rays of sunlight this early in the morning or so, he thought, but it was already noon time.
'Ugh.. should've closed the window blinds..' As he thought so, he turned to the other side of the bed, hiding behind his blanket.
As he was adjusting himself, he stopped moving entirely, and seconds later, he quietly sat up in bed as the situation he experienced last night suddenly dawned on him.
'There is no way such supernatural things exist in the real world. It must have been a realistic dream only..' He looked at his surroundings, then at his hands before sighing with relief, finding everything normal.
Stretching lazily, he had to get ready for his afternoon to night shift at the restaurant he worked, so he got up from bed and walked normally to his small bathroom, his ankle seemingly completely fine.
As he washed his face in the sink and prepared to brush his teeth, he stopped in his tracks when he saw his face staring back at him in the mirror.
'... Is that my face? Why is it so clear and different from my acne-filled face before?' He traced his hand across his cheeks. It was the most clear and smooth since he was a kid.
'What the hell is happening here?' As he tried to search if he used some new face-washing product that he possibly bought, he found himself able to see everything clearly, something which should have been impossible just yesterday.
He went back to his messy room, trying to find where he had put his glasses on since he didn't wear them last night when he went to buy snacks.
'Wait, did I leave last night to buy snacks?' He vehemently denied these allegations and kept looking for his glasses, finally finding them at the edge of his pc desk.
He put them on and found his - 3 subscription glasses murky and disorienting to look through after a minute of wearing them.
As he distressingly removed his glasses, he saw something at the edge of his vision, a tiny dot constantly following his eye movements.
Before he could form more thoughts about what it was, it revealed itself on its own.
[Record:
Name: Abel Lucian
Race: Human
Jobs:
Main: None
Sub: Server
Ability: None
Skills: None
Attributes: Nature
Stats:
Body: 0.8
Spirit: 1.4
Affiliations: None]
[Congratulations to the Recorded Human: Abel Lucian. From this day on, you are hereby a member of the Hidden World: The Underlayer.]
"I-I can't be hallucinating this as well, right?!' he stammered as he fell to the floor on his butt, making the old floor creak hard.
These 2 messages came one after the other in the form of a floating screen of golden color, a screen often seen in depictions of holographic technology in media.
He pinched his forearm hard, finding it painful, still not believing what he was seeing, he got up to look for his phone, trying to desperately believe what happened last night was just a dream, but he couldn't find it anywhere.
Finally relenting that this situation was happening in real life and not a dream, he calmly sat on his bed and again focused on the dot just at the edge of his vision that before disappeared the moment he was no longer paying attention to it.
As it manifested again with the same 2 messages, he wondered why this second notification-like message wasn't disappearing.
'I get the first notification is like a status panel or something, but why is the second one still there?' He played and read enough games and books to know what was happening in front of him, as deep down excitement began to bubble from his deepest part that was buried when reality smashed him in the face a long time ago.
Suddenly, the second message expanded into a whole new page, and it read like an introduction page to a game or something.
[Congratulations to the Recorded Human: Abel Lucian. From this day on, you are hereby a member of the Hidden World: The Underlayer.
You have stepped into a world where reality intertwines with the extraordinary, where truth and lies can't be distinguished. Your journey from this point on will be what makes you either the greatest or the worst recorded human this world has ever seen.
Being a part of the Hidden World, you're from this point forward, not recognized as a mortal and will no longer be under the protection of the Recorder. Your life will be entirely in your hands.
In return, you are presented with the greatest opportunity, and it should be in your best interest to not waste it.
At last, The Recorder advises you to get affiliated if you wish to survive for the coming week.]
....
'What kind of cryptic ass introduction message is this? Firstly, what are the Hidden World and the Underlayer? What protection did I just lose? What opportunity is it talking about? Lastly, why does affiliation matter to survive for the coming week?' The message disappeared entirely this time, not reappearing when he focused on the dot in his vision.
'I have too many questions and not one answer at all..' Just as he laid back on the bed trying to calm his overthinking mind, his door rang, causing him to sit up at full attention, as his heart began to beat rapidly while the warning of the Recorder kept appearing in his mind.
'Calm down, it's probably some salesman or delivery or something, I'm probably still hallucinating, yeah, that must be it, I should probably go to a doctor and check my head, I must have damaged my brain while running through the park last night.' As he kept coming up with excuses about the strange things that have been happening since last night, he opened his door, a surprised expression coming over his face instantly.
'Why is she here?' The person in front of him was his next-door neighbor, but they weren't on good terms at all. They were enemies.
"Hey, could you keep your presence in this world minimum? because of you, I had too little sleep time with your banging and screaming. What were you even doing that for?" With a dead and expressionless face, she talked as if everything was beneath her.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Abel with also a dead and frown-filled face responded calmly, the best strategy to talk to this enemy that caused him to be called a pervert around the neighborhood when she accused him of improper acts when he just wanted to help her with her groceries.
She was insufferable, finding every opportunity to make his life hell whenever they met face to face. And was she good at it, taking advantage of her barely clothed body to accuse men of being perverts at the slightest glance or getting near her thick and stacked body.
"Did you grow a spine or something pipsqueak? you better be careful how you talk to me or else.." With a still-dead expression, she slightly lowered her string crop top, showing a large amount of her cleavage.
'This bitch!! How fucked up can she be?' even though he was swearing, his neurons were entirely focused on her huge boobs, this was one of her main techniques for accusing men of sexually assaulting her, and he saw the consequence of its devastating results when a middle-aged man who lived on a lower floor was sent to prison because of her accusations.
"Fucking pervert, stop looking before I scream," she said as she adjusted her crop top string. She watched Abel from up to bottom, a question seemingly appearing in her eyes.
"Where did your ugliness go? Last I remembered, you looked like a total nerd and a loser." She raised her hand slowly toward his face, which caused him to snap out of his reverie as he closed the door instantly and locked it away.
'That was close, she would have framed me for something if I had let her get too close.' He sighed, feeling frustrated a moment later when he discovered his member was completely erect.
'Fucking bitch, it's a crime to have a stacked body like that.' He went to the bathroom and started to get ready for his job while using a few minutes to jack off and get rid of his hard-on.
He was barely surviving as it is, he didn't need more trouble by getting close to that insufferable woman. His server job was what he relied on as it was easy and paid a good salary, enough to let him live comfortably in solitude.
While in front of the door, Lucille watched her hand that was stretched, where she held a single thread of hair from Abel, her murky hazel eyes turning to deep almost black-blue.
'...' she didn't say or thought of anything when she coated the hair with blue light, extracting a little green glow as the thread of hair disintegrated.
The green glow that dispersed in the air shortly after was all she needed to know about the strange aura she felt last night, as she walked away and back into her apartment right next door. Her jiggling ass swayed in the tight, short blue jeans she wore.
30 minutes later, Abel was a completely new man, his previous haggard, nerdy look completely vanishing with a new clear and shining face, and clean clothes, even his body seemed sturdy and less skinny than he previously thought.
Running late, he quickly got on the road, took a bus to the city center, and had to walk for a few minutes to reach the restaurant he worked at that was located in the back and rarely visited the location a short distance away from the city center.
Just as he was going through an alley, one where there were no other people visible, a message appeared in his vision.
[You've entered a protected Underlayer, proceed with caution.]
'You've got to be fucking with me....'