Chapter 2 - Chapter II

Everything around Li Jun became white. His body was light and he couldn't feel any pain he had before. 

"Is death… so bright?" He said faintly as he closed his eyes back again. He was certain that he was dead, and he must accept it. 

"Are you finally awake?" A deep female voice seemed to have come from in front of him. He slowly opened his eyes to the blinding light. A vague and blurry person stood in front of me closely; she was probably the source of the voice. 

"Excuse me, what- why-" He rubbed his eyes again, "Um, am I alive?" Jun said as he had calmed down a little. 

"We are also confused. Where exactly is this?" The woman was confused, but also surprisingly calm. She had dark skin and gentle light blue eyes that felt reassuring, yet soulless at the same time. 

A loud, young girl appeared from behind a woman. "No, like, I remember a LARGE meteor crashing on my school," She said. She was wearing a weirdly new and beautiful dress, very unsuitable for the end of the word. 

There are more people here?

Li Jun looked around this strange place. Everything looked white and endless; like he was trapped in a bright void. Only one table and eight chairs were present in this 'space'. On the chair, there were four confused people. Including him, there were seven people in the room.

Everyone looked really nervous and confused. But who the hell were they, Li Jun thought. They all were wearing fantasy-looking outfits – one of them straight up showed their inner side man-chest with strange colored eyes that didn't look like human's. Li Jun didn't remember getting invited to a costume party.

"Please sit down on designated seats."

Suddenly, a woman's voice echoed into their ears. She sounded soothing and angelic, like a real god's voice. However, no one in this room seemed to be talking, as if the voice just came out of nowhere. In confusion, Jun decided to follow the voice's instructions and went to sit next to the young girl with the puffy dress, and crossed his legs. The table had four people sitting on one side, and three on the opposite. 

After all seven seats were filled, all that was left was one empty chair at the head of the table. The same voice spoke up as if someone was talking from that chair. 

"Congratulations, you have been chosen to awaken a God Candidate." 

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The room was filled with confusion and disbelief, even without any uttered sound. The silence fell heavy, full of thoughts and perplexion. Li Jun looked around at the other so-called 'candidates' just in case they might know something, but their expressions were even more horrible than mine. 

The guy who sat next to him on the right had one eye blinded. He looked calm, but looking closely, he was sweating and his right eye slightly widened and narrowed. 

"I don't understand, explain!"

The young girl next to me was the first to speak up. She was sweating and looked very angry somehow. Her voice was sharp and loud, her eyes twitched and she slammed the table. 

Jun then looked across the table that had four. The first blondie looked genuinely carefree, he was playing with his nails and looked like he wasn't even listening. But most importantly, he had creepy orange-ish eyes. The blonde guy noticed Li Jun's gaze and then winked at him.

… what the hell? 

Anyways, in contrast to the blondie, the guy next to him was visibly puzzled. He had lustrous white hair and was staring down intently at the brown table, pulling on his hair. Next to him were two women. The first one was the woman Li Jun talked to earlier, and another woman…

wait. I think I recognize her. Isn't she the K-Pop idol Han Yoonah from 'V-LOVE'? 

"Strange… why can I understand you, this isn't even korean," The idol with blue hair and blue eyes asked. Li Jun nodded with approvement, he was sure he could only speak Thai with a little Chinese, but somehow he can understand, not to mention being fluent in this unknown language. It was not English, either. 

"Not again…please let me go," The guy with long white hair mumbled,

After figuring out that no matter how many questions we asked, no one would answer. Hence, they decided to just remain quiet. Following the silence, the empty chair finally spoke. 

"Have you ever heard of 'God'?"

 "...Who hasn't?" The young girl replied with an arrogant tone as she crossed her arms. Out of all of the people here, she seemed to be the most brave and talkative one. 

"Good. To put it simply, I am what you mortals might call a 'God'. My name is Gaia, the God of this planet."

Great. Another delusional person. I've been in an island cult, you can't trick me. Jun thought, as he looked around the room, trying to figure out where the voice came from.

"Nonsense! If you really are a God, then prove it right now!" Again, the young girl in gray carried the conversation for all of them who were freaking out; even Li Jun although he hated to admit.

"Humans are truly complicated. I shall prove myself, then."

Li Jun heard a small click, as if it was the sound of a fingersnap.

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Boom.

 

Jun didn't exactly catch what happened, but a loud explosion occurred, not anywhere, but right next to him. His vision was suddenly filled with red, as he fell off the chair in fright. The young girl completely blew up into scattered pieces on the table and the floor. Her body was still sitting up at the same posture, but without a head. There was no silence, this time, as everyone's eyes were locked at the headless body of the young miss with terror. 

"AAAAAAH!!!!"

"WHAT THE HELL?!" The large guy next to be abruptly stood up and stomped towards the empty chair, trying to find the person behind this. He looked at all of the people in the room with distrust, assuming that one of us was the one who killed her. 

"Why did you do that and…who exactly are you?" The nice woman with light blue eyes asked the question, fear audible in her voice. No one could be calm in this kind of situation where someone can kill you with a small command. Li Jun would have never expected that in his life, someone's head would explode right in front of his eyes. 

"Do you humans trust that I am a 'God' now?" She said, but everyone went silent. God or nor God, blowing up a girl's head was just horribly disgusting. 

"It doesn't matter if you mortals trust me or not. You can't deny this anyway." The voice spoke, but emphasized the last sentence. Li Jun heard a voice that resembled a snap of the finger and the young girl's head came back at an instant. There was no scar to be seen on her neck, and the scattered blood was nowhere to be found. How was this even possible?

"Good Gracious-! What in God's name was that?! It's like, my head got blown and it was super painful for a moment." She rambled straight away right after she came back to life. It's kind of creepy seeing someone who was dead talking again. 

"I don't like wasting my time, so I'll get to the point. If someone dares to interrupt me, then you should already know the consequences." 

No one dared to utter a word and they heard the 'snap' again. Li Jun looked around just to make sure everyone was alive, and luckily they all were. He looked back to the table and there appeared a phone out of nowhere, and everyone seemed to receive one.

What is the scientific explanation for this? What the hell?

 "There are eight planets in our Solar System, and each planet has their own 'God'. I am the God of Earth, but I might disappear soon."

 "Each of the other Seven Gods had chosen a human avatar to represent them and inherit their powers. We call those avatars 'God Candidates'"

"Ah, yes, and the most important thing… The goal of this 'Battle Of The Seven Candidates' is to find a human to replace me. You can win by being the last one here to survive, or clear all of the evaluations. Just do whatever you need to win, candidates." Jun couldn't even see her face, but he heard a smirk in her voice just now. 

"So basically I can become a god?" The strange blonde guy spoke up for the first time, biting his lips and looked slightly excited. 

"That is correct, Jupiter. Moreover, you will get to learn about the truth of the universe; the start and the end of it all. Interesting, no?"

Quite interesting. No, incredibly interesting. Li Jun thought. He didn't realize it, but he grinned the moment he heard the word 'truth'. 

I can gather all the knowledge in the world, like mom wanted me to. I won't need to read for explanations, since I am the explanation myself! 

Out of everyone in this room, Li Jun looked the most excited and delighted. He realized it with embarrassment and regained his composure. 

"And what can a 'God' do?" The tall man next to me asked. 

"Determine the fate of the world…" She paused, looked at the humans and continued, "...and maybe fix what went wrong in the past."

The atmosphere suddenly changed. Li Jun could feel the urge of winning suddenly lit up in everyone's heart. Maybe even more than my thirst for knowledge.

 It's either be God, or die. What other choices do we even have? 

"Wait, I don't understand, what is the meaning of this? And why do you have to kill everyone – except us, I mean." A guy who sat across from me finally spoke up. His voice was sturdy and clear, which really suited his clean look with his long, white hair. 

"Worry not, Saturn. You will understand soon." She chuckled and continued, "Humans are stronger when they have nothing to lose, aren't they?" her tone suddenly sounded mischievous.

 "Go fourth, children of Cosmos. May the stardust in your eyes guide you." 

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The scenery around Li Jun changed in the blink of an eye. The blinding white space turned into a dark ceiling with only one hanging light. The temperature in the room was warm and humid, unlike when he was in the 'void'.

Was all of that just a dream? 

He blinked a few times and then looked around. It looked like a very old and retro physics lab inside a garage – which admittedly made his heart beat like crazy. No matter how much he wanted to mess around in this very cool lab, he must figure out what in the world exactly was going on first. Jun looked out of the window of the room and saw a familiar street in the middle of Bangkok, Thailand. People were walking around, chatting as if the apocalypse did not happen at all. Even the buildings and land were fully repaired like a fantasy.

This is really strange, didn't everything in Bangkok was blown into pieces? Why are organisms still roaming freely? He took a deep breath in, and exhaled out to calm down. Li Jun didn't know what exactly to do, so he figured he should leave the room for now. He headed towards the exit, bent down to lift the garage door, however, it would not move even an inch. 

Although Li Jun was aware that his physical strength was definitely inferior compared to men his age, he was confident he would be able to lift the door. After many more attempts, he decided to give up. 

"I guess I have no choice but to break through the window." He sighed in tiredness. 

Suddenly, before he could find a hammer to shatter the window, he heard something buzzing inside his pants. 

A smartphone?

It looked like a normal App*e smartphone but instead of a logo of a bitten apple, it was a 4k ultra-HD image of Venus. He opened the phone to see only six apps inside and a notification. Not knowing what to do, he clicked on the notification which came from an app called 'Skills' in which he saw a small text on the screen. 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skills:

|Poison Resistance: Your body will not get affected by harmful chemicals|

|Lv 1. Poisonous Hesperiidae: Summon 2 butterflies that can inject Cyanide into target|

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What is this, an RPG game?

Li Jun frowned at the sight of the skill 'Poisonous Hesperiidae'. Combining two things he hated the most: Butterflies and Cyanide was a really good idea; thank you, God. Although he doubted that the skills would actually work, since the world looked normal so far, he must test his hypothesis. 

Nevertheless, he was really not in the mood to see butterflies right now; they were one of his biggest fears. 

I'd rather drink Gasoline than to see those disgusting creatures… 

That's it!

He looked over the corner of the garage, and as expected, there were many gallons of Gasoline cans. He smiled a little out of excitement; he had always wanted to know what hemorrhaging inside internal organs felt like; however, his mom didn't allow human experiments. 

Jun opened the lid of the gasoline tank and gulped a small amount; it stung a little on the throat, and the flavor was definitely unpleasant. 

Jun was fully aware about what exactly to do if his poison resistance skill didn't work, since he read about it before. 

Nothing seemed to be happening as poison crept down his body, so he was ready to go on with his treatment. But then after a few seconds, the same voice resembling God's came out of the phone and said "Poison Resistance has been automatically activated." He could feel the pain fading away, but the sharp taste of gasoline still lingered in his mouth. 

As Jun was closing the 'Skills' app, the voice spoke up again: "Extra items and skills can be obtained by completing "Evaluations"."

Li Jun was a self-proclaimed fast learner, so he believed that he had probably figured everything out. Basically, they want us to treat this 'Battle' thing like a game, and to do "Evaluations", which are probably equivalent to quests. By completing Evaluations, I would get items that would be useful, and completely all the evaluations is the main quest. 

Or… kill all the other God Candidates.

Sure, Li Jun was a person that had already lost everything. But that didn't mean that he wanted to make other people lose like he did. He firmly believed that each life has more value and one could ever imagine, and to lose that would be one's biggest tragedy. Hence, killing people was definitely something he would never consider doing. 

That was why, to find out about the truth of the universe, and to continue living, he will clear all the evaluations, and become a God. 

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"Wh- Why would dad give me that? I don't get it…"

"I don't know, but I do know that I really miss him."

Li Jun turned back to the metal garage door, where two men opened it together from the outside. He could hear some voices seeping through the gap of the door. 

After the door was fully lifted, Jun saw the vast scenery of the outside clearly for the first time. It was absolutely unbelievable how things turned back to normal. No broken buildings or people dying in the streets; it made him feel complicated, because he saw those buildings explode in front of him. 

By the way, the two Thai men also spoke in the weird, unknown god-language that Jun was suddenly fluent in. It was strange how Jun didn't feel weird with this new language at all, as if he had been speaking it his whole life. 

"Huh? Who are you?!"

As one of the guys looked into the garage, he saw Jun standing in the middle of the room, one hand holding a big bottle of gasoline. The guy had short hair and seemed to be a little older than him; probably in his early 20s. 

"Seriously, a fuel thief?!" Another guy that resembled the guy next to him shouted as he approached Li Jun. They were probably brothers. 

Jun didn't know how to prove himself, so he just dropped the gasoline and defended himself, "Wait, it's not what it looks like. I didn't drink any gasoline,"

"What? You drank gasoline?!"

… Why did I say that?

"Are ya outta your mind? You're weird like dad…Wait. Are you one of dad's students?" The guy on the left scanned through Li Jun's outfit and made the assumption. 

"Huh. Uh, yea. I'm the professor…'s student."

Can I really get away with this? I don't even know that guy's name.

"Ah, then you must be the student coming for the thesis experiment. Please, use the lab as much as you want."

Wait, I can actually get away with this?

Once the brother with the long, black hair believed that he was not a thief, he was significantly more nice. 

He continued, "Ah, Professor Tian… My dad might have mentioned me already, but my name is Bill. Here is my younger brother, Bonus." 

Bill introduced Bonus who looked a little shy. Bonus had short black hair and was slightly shorter than Bill. 

Professor Tian… Professor Tian from the number one university in Thailand, M*hi***?! Li Jun was suddenly thrilled to be standing inside the lab of such a famous physicist. 

"The way you dress really resembles dad… I really miss him." Bonus said with a quiet voice full of sorrow. 

So their dad died, and I'm his student? Li Jun thought. He had no idea what direction this situation was heading to. 

Still, he was curious how he looked, so he searched for a mirror in a pile of lab equipment, then looked into his reflection. 

"Holy moly," He said as he widened his bright orange eyes. The brown shirt and pants looked aesthetically appealing along with a warm gray-colored long suit. There were also fashionable pins on his suit, and the pins resembled the Earth and Venus. Most importantly, he was wearing black gloves that covered the butterfly tattoo on his left hand. Li Jun nodded by himself, acknowledging in his mind that he really loved this outfit. 

"Wait, bro. Do you think he might know that?" The shy younger brother, Bonus, said as his face lit up. 

"He's dad's student, I think he might know that." The older brother with long hair replied.

Okay. What's the 'that' you guys are talking about?

  1. So please don't try this at home