Jin's eyes opened groggily, with dark bags visible underneath. He stared at a blindingly bright screen, feeling mentally and physically depleted.
Jin yawned and stood up from his office chair, cracking his back with a groan. He had been working nonstop for over twenty-four hours to meet the deadline for an extensive chain of reports.
"Ugh… I dozed off… Barely made it… I need to go pass out…"
Jin turned off the monitor and looked at his deep ebony eyes in the reflection, his face battered by the exhaustion.
"Oh man, I look so morbid…"
Jin looked at his desk, which had several comics stacked neatly on top of it, with his phone over them, and to their side was a picture frame of Jin happily hugging a girl in a black cap who had a wide grin - his younger sister.
Jin glanced behind him to his apartment room. It wasn't anything special with only a bed, wardrobe and work-desk. It was akin to a prison cell more than anything, except a prison cell was still cleaner; his room had several takeout bags stacked over each other and clothes strewn about messily.
Jin sighed and grabbed his phone before hopping down on an empty spot on his bed. He scrolled through his phone with a tired gaze, exploring his social media feed almost on instinct.
[Possible Gamma ray bursts turning people into mush! Read more down…]
[Jacob is getting married on the 22nd! Invitations are…]
[Mass reports of disappearing people! Alien abductions are real…]
[Oh my god, Sarah and Wilson are such a cute couple! Picture thread!]
[How my six year old made one million in two days! It all started when…]
Jin sighed and tossed his phone away.
"Just one more year… I've been saving for so long, just one more year and I can finally afford a house... Then I can rent off half of it and use that to get into house flipping… or something much more fun than my current job… And then…"
Jin laid down on the bed, a faint smile creeping on his lips as his eyes closed.
"Then my life can finally start… Then I can focus on getting married and… all that… good…" Jin slowly drifted to sleep.
But then the ground shook as the overpowering sound of something crashing rattled the room from outside.
Jin jumped awake and looked at the curtains, a soft amber hue pierced them and brightened his cramped room with its vibrant color.
"An earthquake? No, is that fire? What's happening?"
Jin unsteadily walked to the door and opened it.
His eyes widened, he didn't expect to see the building across, which was a proudly tall apartment complex, reduced to rubble alongside everything near it. The source being a burning sphere embedded in the amber-hued earth.
"Is that a meteor…?"
Jin walked out with parted lips, looking at the screaming people running away, at the cars filling up the streets while recently arriving vehicles crashed into the back of the waiting ones. Most of them were honking their horns as some ditched their cars to run into the crowd.
Finding the orange hue strange, Jin's eyes sought answers in the sky.
But that only amplified his confusion, transforming it to fear as Jin watched a barrage of blazing rocks racing towards the earth, the small shapes rapidly growing bigger and bigger until they crashed into the streets, into buildings, into the masses of running people, without any feasible pattern.
Not that Jin's brain was capable of finding that pattern in his state.
'I need to run, I need to go somewhere underground, a strong bunker or something!' Jin jumped onto the sidewalk and got immediately shouldered into the ground.
"Move it! We're all going to die!" a man screamed as he ran past him.
Several others stepped over Jin's stomach, shoulder and legs, the weight of their bodies making him wince from the deep pain.
Jin quickly sat up and crawled between two cars to avoid everyone's hurried steps, his hand squeezing his pained stomach tightly.
"Ugh… These bastards… I need to run too…" Jin used the back of a car to pull himself up and looked at where everyone was running then back at the meteors, his eyes landing on a very small circle.
"I need to go somewhere…"
But unlike the other meteors with their blazing trails behind them, that one didn't have any tail of fire Jin could perceive.
"...where the meteors can't touch…"
The small distant ball was growing bigger at a steady pace, even though it was slower than the ones that quickly whizzed by and smashed all around the city.
'...me… Wait, that meteor… If it's that slow then that means it's big... How deep underground do I need to go…' Jin's vision became blurry as tears invaded his eyelids.
"What am I saying…? It doesn't matter… It doesn't matter how deep underground we go! That meteor's going to destroy this planet completely! It's colossal!" Jin gripped his head with a horrified expression.
Images of a large comfortable house flashed in his mind, of a happy woman staring at him holding a baby lovingly, of a group of smiling faces welcoming him, of his sister holding a can up to him with a wide grin.
"I'm going to die… I'm going to die without doing anything… I haven't lived my life yet… I haven't lived! I still haven't lived! Why am I going to die now!? I didn't even do a single thing yet!"
Jin's eyes darted to the people still running away in all directions.
"Why are you all running!? Don't you see that thing!? There's no point! We're all going to die!"
Jin slammed the car's hood in front of him and let out a trembling wail.
"It's not fair! I just had one more year! Why!?"
Jin looked up at the streaks of gold and azure trailing behind the meteors, giving them an appearance similar to shooting stars.
"I don't want to die… I don't want to die… Oh please… The world is ending… I wish… I wish I could live despite it all… I still want…" Jin let out a pitiful cry as his dark eyes glowed a vibrant gold.
Jin looked up at an enchantingly beautiful meteor whistling through the air as it went straight for him.
"No! Please–"
The sphere smashed into the ground, scattering everything away as it exploded several cars in its wake and reducing whatever remained of Jin to burnt paste.
***
Jin's eyes snapped open and he quickly gasped and sat up.
"Noo!" he screamed and gripped his pants while looking up at the vibrant cerulean sky with tears slowly cascading down his cheeks.
But it was quiet, the screams that raged around him earlier had died down, the meteors had disappeared.
Jin's terrorized eyes slowly took in his surroundings as he panted and tried to relax his shoulders. He was on a parking lot connected to a large supermarket, surrounded by a deep rich azure ocean which undulated gently and a sunless sky that somehow showered the earth with a soft light.
There were other islands around with different structures like houses, police stations, schools and other buildings.
"Huh… That… wasn't a dream? The meteors shattered the world? I thought that'd be the end of everything… How am I alive?"
Jin stood up and looked at a palm tree, its trunk made of ebony and its leaves made of shimmering gold. It somehow managed to sprout from the concrete patch underneath.
"Whoa… That looks so beautiful… But no… What am I supposed to do in a situation like this?" Jin scratched his head. And as if reacting to his thoughts, a golden ethereal panel unfolded in front of him with a snap.
"Oh god!" Jin jumped back and moved his hands up to defend himself.
But after a short pause with nothing happening he inched closer to the semi-transparent screen.
"What's this?"
_________________________
Welcome, Jin Shikabane!
Your desire has been granted to you to
enrich your essence and allow you
to evolve beyond your humanity.
Read below for instructions to help
you evolve into a supreme being.
1. Please eat the Plant of Life to start
your…
_________________________
Before Jin could fully read the words, the wind picked up and spiraled around the ground behind the panel as ivory particles of energy manifested and coalesced into the silhouette of a person.
With a final pulse, a handsome and muscular umber-haired man flashed into existence. He was wearing sandals, maroon shorts and a casual cyan jacket with colorful floral patterns on it. His clothes failed to hide his well-toned chest.
The man's eyes instantly darted to the supermarket.
"Oh, lucky! I hope this one wasn't completely looted," the man chuckled then looked behind him at the deep cerulean sea.
"Whoa, I've never seen a planet's core this condensed before. It doesn't even look like it's glowing, what a wonderful place!"
Something about the man's upbeat attitude scared Jin, but he still had questions he wanted answers to. So Jin quickly pushed the panel away to talk but his touch made the window disappear.
Jin glanced at the disappearing panel then at the man who finally noticed Jin and smiled at him.
"Well, hello there, stranger. Is this supermarket yours? I don't mean to intrude," the man grinned casually.
Jin didn't like that expression, he spent too long within a corporate environment so he knew it was a cheap facade meant to get behind Jin's guard. More importantly, what kind of question was that?
"No, it's not mine… It's the supermarket's property… That aside, who are you? What are you doing here? Actually… What even happened here?"
Jin's glare faltered down to confusion as he looked around at the sea. Did the meteors cause a tsunami? But then how did he survive? He wasn't wet when he woke up…
"Oh, did you just wake up after making a wish? Aaahh… You must be really confused then… Sure, your buddy Ron will explain it all to you, but I'm hungry, so how about we go into that supermarket and look for some snacks while I give you the rundown?"
Jin warily nodded as he watched the upbeat man walk away. He really hated his attitude.
***
The man grabbed a battery-operated lamp and put it in a cart so they could see better within the dim supermarket.
"Alright, let's see… Jin, you said your name was?" the man pushed the cart and walked around.
"I don't know the specifics but… You're familiar with the idea of wishing upon a star, right? That's not a tall tale, it's real. But it only works for some people, I don't know why," Ron put a few snacks, junk food and a large amount of sweets in the cart while Jin attentively listened.
"Heh, this brand is so good… Oh, uhh… In my case, I fell off my fishing boat and started drowning. I remember struggling so hard to remain afloat but my muscles gave up on me eventually. Heh, I was crying, praying and begging for anything to save me until I eventually saw a flash in the sky, a beautiful blue shooting star…"
Ron glanced at the freezers that lacked the power to keep running.
"Oh, meat wouldn't be bad… I hope it isn't rotten yet… Yeah, so I remember thinking to myself, 'Oh, I wish I was somewhere else!' and bam! Next thing I know, I was in a freezing country drenched in water! I didn't understand why I was there so I didn't use my wish again and froze to death! Hahaha!" the man laughed as if he was telling a joke yet Jin couldn't help but raise his brows bewilderedly.
"You mean like metaphorically or…"
"No, I actually froze to death. It's very uncomfortable, but mostly at the start, everything just disappears after a while. Oh and your body starts fighting you because it wants to live."
Jin stopped in his tracks with a horrified look while the man picked up frozen meat with an awe-struck grin.
"Wait… But then why are you alive then? Does that mean I died too? Is this… the afterlife?"
"I don't know but this is our second chance at life, and from what I gathered, there isn't a third. Oh, do you want one or are you more into chicken?" the man waved a packet of frozen minced beef around.
Jin shook his head while pressing his thumb against his mouth thoughtfully.
'A second chance at life? Wait… That message said something about evolving beyond humanity if I followed instructions…'
Jin looked up to see the man grabbing a collection of knives and nonchalantly tossing them into the cart.
Jin grimaced. No one takes a large amount of knives unless they were a psychopath or deranged in some form.
"What about you, Jinbo? What did you wish for?" the man asked while moving the cart back out.
Jin followed while shaking his head.
"I don't know… I don't think I made any wishes, I just didn't want to die…"
"The fact you're here and your glowing eyes show that you made a wish. So it could be immortality? That's a good one! Not exactly uncommon, so I guess immortality is in high demand, hahaha!"
Jin grimaced, the sound of the man's laughter grated his skeptical ears.
On their way to the exit, they passed the tools and DIY section, where Jin paused momentarily to look at a chainsaw.
"Oh right, Jinbo, you can check your wish if you think about it while swiping the air, it took me a while to figure that one out, hahaha!"
Jin tilted his head and swiped the air in front of him, summoning the golden panel that glimmered brightly even in the dimly lit supermarket, but it didn't offer any surrounding light.
________________________
Name: Jin Shikabane.
Energy Remaining: 2 days, 3 hours.
Wish: Undying Life.
Grade: –
Titles: –
Skills: –
[Warning: Collections Inactive.]
[Warning: Reward System Inactive.]
________________________
"Wait, what is this timer? It says two days."
The man paused and looked back at Jin with a cocked brow.
"Oh… Then you only have two days left to live."
"What!?" Jin's face twisted with a mix of fear and anger.
The man looked at Jin with a pitiful smile, simply staring at him quietly.
"Wait a minute, you said this was our second chance at life, what can someone even do in two days!?"
"That's strange. I had three months when I first came back to life, even though–"
The rest of the man's words trailed off as Jin stared at him with parted lips and a horrified look.
Jin powered through the most painful aspects of his job for a comfortable future, but that was robbed from him when the meteor struck, and even the strange notion of a second life, a second chance, turned out to be a well fabricated illusion. Jin felt like fate mocked him for trying to live.
"Well, that's unfortunate. I was hoping to make a new friend but if you're going to die so soon then I shouldn't let you go to waste…" Ron bent into the cart and picked up one of the knives.
"Wh-What do you mean?" Jin stepped back, even if he didn't fully understand Ron's intentions, his body did.
"In the long months that I lived, I met some wonderfully resourceful friends in this new world. The type of people that can make miracles using duct tape… and they taught me how to refresh our little timer of death… You see, we now have these cores in our chests, and consuming them gives us more days to play with. So be a pal and give me your two days, Jin!" Ron rushed him, instantly ramming the knife into Jin's chest and pushing him against the aisle with a loud thud, shaking it all.
Jin's eyes shot open as blood leaked into his lungs and trickled out of his mouth. His chest raced and struggled when his breath quickened.
"Just die, it's better that way. You won't suffer anymore, right? Hahaha!" Ron laughed in Jin's terrified face.
'Die again…? But why? So a bastard like you can live!?'
Jin's expression darkened hatefully and he quickly grabbed a nearby hammer to smash it against Ron, but the well-built man was ready for it and grabbed Jin's arm.
"There's no point in-"
But Jin still used his other hand to impale a screwdriver through Ron's head with a wet squelch.
Ron instantly fell to the ground, with Jin falling on top of him.
Jin coughed and threw up blood, and then weakly pulled the knife out of his chest.
"Kill me… Why would you kill me? Why does the world want to kill me!?" Jin gripped the knife with both hands and stabbed Ron angrily.
"I just wanted to live a normal fulfilling life, is that a sin!? Can't I just be happy for once!?" tears cascaded out of Jin's glaring eyes as he kept stabbing Ron over and over again, venting his frustration on the lifeless corpse.
But then his expression softened.
"I don't want to die yet… I want my life back… I worked so hard for it…" Jin sobbed and covered his face with his bloodied hands.
"Two days… I'm going to die in two days... unless I eat the core he spoke about…" Jin looked back at Ron's corpse, his chest was brutalized horribly enough to expose a radiant glow through the wet and stringy mutilated wounds.
Jin covered his mouth, feeling the contents of his stomach racing up.
'Relax… I've been to the butcher before…' Jin gulped and closed his eyes.
Jin forced his hand down through the warm, slimy and wet interior of his chest.
Jin gagged but quickly covered his mouth with his other hand and tightened his eyes shut.
'I'm touching balloons at a carnival, water balloons covered in icing… Think of that, think of just that, nothing else is happening… Water balloons and water... Water balloons and water...'
Jin's hand pressed against something hard and smooth and he quickly yanked it out from beneath the ribs, feeling an odd surge of electricity when he did that.
Jin held an enchantingly glowing sphere of gold with mystical etchings on it, tainted by strings of viscera and fleshy tissue strands connected to it.
"I won't die here, not yet, not until I'm satisfied! I suffered too much to just die a dumb death!"
With a deep breath, Jin pushed the core against his mouth and bit into it. Despite its hard interior, his teeth still managed to crack it easily, which unleashed a scorching blast of iridescent fire from it that quickly engulfed Jin's head in a mesmerizing display of iridescent flames.
Jin screamed and thrashed around helplessly.
"It hurts! It burns!" Jin let out a prolonged cry and clawed at his face, but it only made the pain worse.
Jin tumbled and slammed against the shelf then rolled and squirmed around.
Jin let out a gut-wrenching scream while kicking around, the pain was unlike anything he experienced in his entire life or even everything painful he experienced combined. Even getting stabbed felt pleasant in comparison.
Jin rolled into the aisle and slammed against it again, which broke one of the shelves and slid the chainsaw down into Jin's neck.
Jin gurgled his boiling blood and struggled to reach up so he could pull it off.
But when his hands finally grasped his neck there was no injury, no chainsaw, and most importantly, no more searing flames that burnt him on a cellular level.
Jin gasped for air and wheezed. He was somewhere with a soft salmon-hued sky, unharmed.
His tearful eyes were wide open with terror and his rapid breaths were shallow and labored. He kept patting and squeezing his neck for the dreadful chainsaw, then quickly switching to his head which was intact.
'A dream? An illusion…?'
Jin sat up and retched, feeling his stomach in his throat. He aggressively shook his head and shakily swiped the air.
________________________
Name: Jin Shikabane.
Energy Remaining: 8 months, 1 day, 18 hours.
Wish: Relocated Life.
Grade: –
Titles:
Devourer of Stars.
Skills: –
[Warning: Collections Inactive.]
[Warning: Reward System Inactive.]
________________________
'No, it was real… I really killed him… But that fire… What happened to me?'
The sound of footsteps scattered his thoughts. He quickly jumped up to his feet and looked at a happy man walking to him wearing all black.
"Heh. I knew it, you really are immortal. But… what even is that scent? I wouldn't have found you if not for it... It's so interesting," the smiling man tapped his nose.
The man was wearing a tacky fedora and round-framed glasses with bright scarlet tinted glass. They matched his dark goatee and slicked back hair. He had a black jacket on that barely hid his strange combat bodysuit and his golden necklace that held the King of Hearts card.
A group of armed men walked behind him, wearing similar bodysuits with varying levels of armor, and gas masks with a similar tint to the man's spectacles.
Jin looked at their arm - near their shoulder - at the insignia of a sixth-legged octopus posed against a golden triangle background.
"Heh. What do you say, Walter? He looks like someone you'd want, right?" the man turned behind him at one of the masked figures who walked closer. Unlike the rest, the man's silver hair accentuated his combat suit nicely.
"Very well, we'll break him in," Walter walked closer to Jin, pulling out a silver revolver with masterful engravings and aiming it at him.
Jin reflexively raised his hands up.
"But why!? Can't I just walk two steps without someone trying to kill me!?"
"Hahaha! He's funny, I like him!" the fedora-wearing man roughly smacked Walter's back.
Jin trembled and gulped as the group stepped closer to grab him, feeling powerless against their weapons and organized appearance.