Tik-Tok....
Tik...Tok
Tik...Tok ....
An old shabby clock embedded deep in the wall chipped away at time as the second hand moved towards twelve and the hour hand approached eight o'clock.
The air within the room suddenly stilled, and a pair of eyes fluttered open, showing fatigue and a little confusion as they peered up at an unknown ceiling. These eyes belonged to a young man lying across a stack of old wooden tables. The stiffness and pain he was feeling from lying on the hard wood woke him up completely and brought clarity and focus to his mind. He sat up and calmly took in his surroundings.
Am I still dreaming or is this an illusion?
To his surprise he was no longer within the comforts of his bedroom.
He was sitting in the middle of a classroom. An old, empty classroom that smelled of mold and dust. The blackboard on the wall was damaged and dressed in cobwebs like almost everything else in the room. It hung off the wall lopsided, hanging on it's last nail. The black color of the board was chipping away but in the middle of it, written with chalk in bold, read the number 44.
The writing was odd. It was written too conspicuously inside a place that appeared to be abandoned.
With that in mind he slowly turned his head further around and discovered that the classroom was covered in graffiti. Decorated in words and symbols unlike anything he had ever seen before.
All of the wooden tables and chairs were disarranged and piled up on top of one another, except for the two desks under him. As if they were purposely put together just for him, and him alone. The lamp light above his head flickered off and on repeatedly, causing a loud clicking sound to echo throughout the room. A room that was filled with an eerie foreboding silence.
Nope. My mind isn't that creative to make this all up.
He shook his head as he came to a silent agreement with himself. He quickly understood that he in fact, was wide awake and everything he was experiencing at the moment was all real. The how part was irrelevant to him right now, what he cared about more was why. Why was he put here?
He began to recall his last actions leading up to this exact moment. If he recalled correctly he had come directly home from school, entered his bedroom, threw his bag to the floor and fell face forward onto his bed because he was tired and went straight to sleep. Only to then wake up here, in an old abandoned classroom.
Could this be one of those weird kidnappings?
He once again shook his head. No... can't be.
As quick as the idea came was as quick as it left. It was impossible for him to be kidnapped in his own home without knowing. He lived in a penthouse on the 10th floor with high tech security locks that were personally installed by his parents. Unless someone was full of energy to scale a 30 story building or had wings, it was simply impossible. If it was under normal circumstances, that is.
Don't tell me I died in my sleep and then reincarnated.
As cliche as it was, the young man was a book reader. The most trending novels in his country were full of themes like reincarnation, Isekai, transmigration, systems, and many more. He wasn't an expert when it came to these type of genres but he knew enough to understand the gist of it all. And right now the more he thought about it the more he leaned towards the idea of transmigration. As crazy as it sounded it was the only explanation here.
Interesting.
Within seconds his life was turned upside down over night.
[Ding!]
[Archive Loading In....3...2...1]
[Archive Online.]
[Archive Welcome's Record 1001, Lui Huang.]
[All Records must make their way to the Lobby Of Truth within 10 minutes.]
[All Records must make their way to the Lobby Of Truth within 10 minutes.]
A cold mechanical voice responded through his ears and a fluorescent red light appeared high up in the room. Revealing a countdown mid air for all to see.
[Time Frame; 00:09:59s]
[Failure to follow command will result in a penalty.]
[Penalt: ???]
Shrugging, Lui Huang slid off the desk, strode towards the main door of the classroom and opened it. Unleashing a cold air that carried the scent of pine and wood. Unlike the moldy classroom the scenery in front of him now was far different. It was like he had opened a door to a whole different dimension.
He was standing in a corridor with towering, beautiful mahogany walls that connected to a smooth beige ceiling adorned with enormous crystal chandeliers that loomed above an endless red carpet. He was no expert but he was sure that such exteriors belonged to the rich.
Just where in the hell was he?
At that moment a loud noise could be heard from afar, drawing his attention forward as he could now hear a small crowd of voices in the distance.
...People?
That ment that the Lobby Of Truth must be ahead then.
He followed the loud screams through the corridors and the further he walked the clearer the voices became until he eventually reached a huge double door. Hearing chaos pursue on the other side he leisurely opened the door and walked in. Only to be met with a huge group of young adults and teenagers, roughly around the ages as young as 13 to what looked to be 25 years old. Some were in school uniforms like him and others in job uniforms, regular cloths and even pajama's.
Discreetly, he walked deeper into what looked to be like a waiting room and casually leaned against a wall. Folding his arms across his chest he quietly watched the room unfold.
A young boy who looked to be around his early teens had yelled in panic. "Where the hell am I? Am I kidnapped?.... Tell me what's going on here!"
"How the hell are we supposed to know? If you looked around and used your brain for a bit kid. You'd see that we're all in the same boat as you!" An older boy with green died hair replied. The look on his face was full of ridicule.
There were a few girls who seemed to know each other as they sat in a corner together crying.
There were kids who were nervous but said nothing. Then there were those who were having full on mental break downs. Some refused to acknowledge their situation and either decided that it was some twisted prank or an illusion. Others screamed to be let out while banging on doors one after the other.
Noise rung rampant throughout the room. In this waiting area silence did not exist.
It was a perfect dysfunctional set up.
Soon another person came through the front door with a shocked expression. "There are more people? What's going on here?" She asked worriedly.
The teen from earlier looked up towards the door with measuring eyes before sneering. "Great... another one." He rolled his eyes while pulling out a cigarette and lit it. "Do me a fucking favor and stop with the questions. As you can see no one knows what's going on here. Just shut up and come in."
The young woman was clearly offended by the young boys words and began to reprimand him. An argument quickly broke out and the noise in the room had increased.
After awhile five more people entered before a loud mechanical sound was heard. The main double doors had slammed themselves shut. Preventing anything from coming in and leaving out.
"Ahh!" A teenage girl screamed in panic as she kicked away at the double doors. Trying her hardest to break them open. "You can't do this- it's against the law. Just let me out of here! Let me out!... Please let me out!"
"Let us out goddammit!"
"This is crazy..."
One after the other disapproving voices were heard. But the mechanical voice that was robotic and felt nothing continued on ignoring all complaints.
[There's an imposter amongst you all. Find them before they find you. You have 24 hours.]
Before anyone could react, a fluorescent red light appeared high up within the room. Revealing a countdown that floated in mid air for all to see.
[The Archive wishes you a happy Game.]
{Timer: 23:59}