The sun was starting to set in Seoul, the orange light started to reflect in the water left by the previous thunderstorm. Many people walked down the streets, some protecting themselves from the occasional splashes caused by reckless drivers with colorful umbrellas, others even played with it as they rotated it clockwise or counter-clockwise, making the puddles their stage, occasional droplets of water their public and some happy children their crew.
A grocery store's door opens automatically as Cho Jae-Hwa leaves with a plastic bag in her right arm, carefully holding her retractible umbrella and opening it using her left hand. Gazes of many different types and directions returned to her figure, an usual daily occurrence to her due to the stunningly long and unusual white hair she had.
Having gentle green eyes and pale skin, despite her smallish height of 153 cm, strangers have always thought she was a foreigner, although after around 5th grade she stopped caring about that.
With a sigh she kept walking towards the apartment she was currently occupying, at least until she found a job now that university was finally finished. While it took her five years to finally complete her degree, one more than the usual, she was somewhat comfortable with the way life lead her... That is until the moment her leather boot stepped on a puddle that obstructated the crosswalk.
After sixty seconds, the light finally turned green, but as she hopped to the other side to avoid the water, a bell suddenly rang inside of her mind. It was not her phone, no vibration was coming from her pocket and nothing seemed to make sound around her body. Jae-Hwa attempts to stretch her fine and pristine hands, but no movement came from her bones, not even able to rotate her head and look to her surroundings.
In front of her stood men in place, ready to walk but unmovable, screaming at their lungs with confusion and looking astray with eyes filled with despair. The bell returned and rang three more times until it finally came to a halt and movement returned to their body.
As everyone's bodies fell slowly to the ground, a voice resonated inside their mind: "You have been selected." Mystery enshrouded Cho Jae-Hwa's mind, as well as everyone else. Not only she did not know why or to what she was selected to, but she also wondered who that voice was. Unfortunately, comparing to her usual luck, her mind went blank before she could even mutter a single vowel.
========
On the cold hard floor, Cho Jae-Hwa slowly opened her eyelids, looking at the rugged texture of the bricks that are substituting as a floor. "Ouch... What the..." In her grunts she looks around to her surroundings, finding a simple room that had no more than a few simple furnitures and a tiny bed. Gazing at a puddle that is right in front of the tip of her nose, she sees herself once again.
Not much has changed, but the waning moon earrings she proudly bought with her own money when she was thirteen had somehow vanished, looking closer even her rose lipstick was gone.
As she slowly rose from the hard floor, looking down at herself, her clothes had also changed, becoming a white simple shirt and blue skirt, along with white sneakers that fit her size perfectly. From the dark of the room she currently stood inside, only being lit by strange blue light that seemed to travel from one corner to the other of the strange place, something abruptly hits the side of her leg carelessly.
Now with sharpened eyes adjusted to the light, a hand brushes her and violently falls to the bricks without restraint. Soon to be discovered, Jae-Hwa slowly covers her mouth to avoid vomiting and ready herself to the sight of several bodies laying down around her.
Are they dead? Had gone through her mind, being the first thing she ever thought before her racing mind tried to find an explanation to this situation. It was only then that she remembered... if the arm moved, how could they be deceased? Upon closer inspection, everyone seemed to be breathing, merely sleeping, but they all had something similar to each other. Their clothes.
A simple shirt and either pants or skirts depending on whether they were men or women, with some other variations, but there were nineteen humans to her count, who knows if there were more. She had no pockets or bags that could store something for her to bring, only her clothes which at this point only served as mere shields to a pervert's eye.
"Where am I? I was supposed to be outside, not even my groceries are here..." Her confused green gems that made replacement for eyes look around looking for an answer, but only a door seemed to appear. "Is it even safe to leave...? But if I do nothing, then it will only become like university all again. If I drown in my dark feelings in a place like this, who knows what might happen."
Unlike most of her colleagues, Cho Jae-Hwa was doing more than her mind could handle, from driving classes, to part-time and university classes packed with extra work due to the incompetent forced group mates, her psyche could barely handle and forced her to drown in sadness and mind-breaking headaches that made her incapable of doing any further work. Instead of four, she needed to take five years to complete her economics degree, seeing weirdly by others, unafected by just her foreign appearance.
She had promised to herself that she would not repeat it again, that no matter what she would not drown herself again in that place, and yet her arms slowly embraced her knees to protect her vision from the outside world.
"I'm the worst."
With a sudden burst of forced energy, she lept up from her spot and slowly travelled around the sleeping bodies, attempting to not wake them up. From those snoring to others just sleeping soundly, sometimes it became hard to her giggles, but thankfully she was able to move towards an open door at the end of the room.
Upon the ocurrence that one were to wake up, surely they would attempt to tag along, no matter how useless or annoying they would be. Not only would be bothersome to Jae-Hwa, it could also lead to more problems depending on the person.
Now at the exit to the unknown, all that was needed was one step, one step and she would discover what awaited all of them, that is until the bell resonated inside of her head once again.
She could not forget it, it was impossible considering that must have been the cause that brought them to this strange place, however, not only was her mind not being tricked, it came to a point even her eyes seemed to be lying. As soon as such bells had stopped, a near semi-transparent dark panel appeared in front of her vision, as if something that came out from a fantasy novel, talking to her personally without a body existing.
—CONGRATULATIONS———————
!YOU WERE THE 7TH PERSON TO ENTER THE FIRST DOMAIN - VOLTAIC SLUDGE!
To view your personal information, please state your intent to view your status.
Although it did not talk, not even a single jingle after the traumatising bells, it almost gave the impression that the text was manifesting itself and screaming with happiness at Jae-Hwa.
"To view your... What is this? It is in english but I can perfectly read. I was mediocre at best at english."
After a pause in the middle of her surprise to catch her breath, she slowly rearranged her mind, attempting to understand it best or even achieving something similar to accepting. "View my status?"
Seconds after reading the lines, the current floating panel disappears and another resurges, now being accompanied by her name in the strange text.
—STATUS——————————————
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 0
BLESSING: none
TITLE: none
HEALTH: 100/100
DAMAGE: 5 // DEFENSE: 10 // ENERGY: 20/20
WEAPON: Fist
ARMOR: Simple Uniform
SKILLS: none
CREDITS: 0
A short scream left her mouth, be it of excitement or concern, mixed with a slight sense of confusion. "A player? But this feels so real... how can it be?" With a more throughout look and analysis, along with some back and forth walking, her mind seemed to finally be more at ease.
"If I am in a game, then there are sure to be monsters, or else these stats would not exist, so this must be some kind of rpg. Besides health, the other stats seem quite low and I also don't have any skills or money... if those credits are what is considered money here."
In the midst of her intense thinking, she unconsciously steps forward without noticing her path. One step after another amidst her rambling, her forehead comes into contact with a random corner, hitting it strongly against the rugged stone. "OW!" This time a loud scream that seemed to produce grunts from the first room she woke up in.
"It hurts so much... Why does it hurt so damn much! This is supposed to a game—!" The possibility of this being reality has resurfaced into her mind, not knowing how to react. With two light slaps Jae-Hwa attempts to brush the pain, trying to convice herself that that was merely a trick of the mind.
"No, this is a game, it just has to be... I have to be more careful, or else I might hurt myself again. Did I lose any health?" With her status panel still open, she checks once again her current health.
HEALTH: 98/100
"That definitely hurt way more than just 2 health." With a light-hearted laugh she attempts to brush away any inconsistency to the game world, rubbing her forehead with great care, stopping half-way as a strange voice echoes from afar, as if the wind itself was wispering.
"Someone! Please!" It belonged to a young woman, perhaps younger than Jae-Hwa herself that turned twenty-two in March. To this moment, it would surely be dangerous to go after the voice, meaning that whoever is suffering would bring hardships and pain to whoever save them, however Jae-Hwa's mind was not set on such thing.
For now the only thing she wished to do was rid her mind of any doubt she has about this new life of her, no matter the outcome, as long as it would prove that her life really has turned into a game. No matter the denial, as long as she could find some proof that this was not reality, everything would be solved in her mind, or so she thought.
Hurriedly, she runs to the voice, taking a left turn towards west, going through corridors of the same stone she had been seeing for the past few minutes, being illuminated by the strange blue lights, until eventually she found a glow emanating from a corner.
"Please, someone! Cedric! Martha! Someone help me!"
Upon discovering it's origins, Jae-Hwa finds a young girl laying on the ground, dressed in brown rags with pale skin and red hair paired with a strange, otherworldly fluffiness to it."Animal ears!? A tail too!? A wolf...? No, she looks human enough so perhaps a hybrid of some sort."
To her surprise, the little girl had fluffy beastial features while maintaining most of her human counterparts. Ever since she was young, she always wanted a pet, be it a cat or a dog, but as long as it was something fluffy, she would not mind — the sudden realization of the possibility that beastpeople exist in this place was enough to set her mind even more to help her.
"Are you okay? I will help you now!" No answer came from the little beastgirl's mouth, only a mere tear escaping from the corner of her eye as her hand stretched to the invisible sky, wiggling her fingers as if she was trying to reach a hand that was never there.
On top of the unknown person, a slimy substance tightened around, as if trying to suffocate her. It squirmed and struggled trying to place more strength in the suffocation. Without thinking, Jae-Hwa grabs a small red sphere that stood inside that substance and kept hold of the slimy body. As soon as it was forcefully moved, so did the rest that strangled the young beast girl.
"If it is this much, then even I can do it! If I can just pull it away from her...!" she muttered, straining with all her might.
Near the finish of her throw, the substance suddenly clings to her arm and stretches itself as if made of magic, creating a concentrated mass of slime and launches itself towards Jae-Hwa's stomach with great strength, hitting her on an exact spot that made her throw up blood, consequently sending her towards a wall at the end of the current corridor.
In her eyes another panel had opened, her status being closed for quite some time without noticing. Not only did that surprise her, but it replied to all her questions without making any of them known to others.
—WARNING—————————————
Failure to defeat enemy
A short moment of madness passed through her mind. In a game, it always starts with the easiest monsters that anyone can beat, there was no way she would instantly lose, or so she thought. She had convinced herself that when a battle comes, she would be the first to act, that she would be brave enough to fight... but in the face of true danger, all she could do was make her legs tremble and mutter some words.
"This is bad, this is not a game at all!"
—CURRENT STATS——————————
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 0
BLESSING: none
TITLE: none
HEALTH: 87/100
DAMAGE: 5 // DEFENSE: 10 // ENERGY: 20/20
WEAPON: Fist
ARMOR: Simple Uniform
SKILLS: none
CREDITS: 0