The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor filled the sterile white room. A soft hum from the IV drip machine accompanied the steady pulse of the monitor. Groaning, he slowly opened his heavy eyelids.
"Hmmm…." Victor mumbled, his voice raspy and dry. He blinked a few times, the fluorescent lights above him assaulting his sensitive eyes, forcing him to squint.. His head throbbed like a drum solo, growing stronger with every sluggish blink.
His hand instinctively tried to reach up to rub his forehead when the sterile white ceiling of the room finally blurred into focus, but a jolt of pain stopped him short. Victor looked down, eyes widening. His right arm, from wrist to bicep, was encased in a bulky white bandage.
"What the..." Victor rasped, his voice hoarse and barely a whisper. He tried to sit up to have a better look at the bandage, only to realize the effort sent a fresh wave of nausea crashing over him.
"Damn it...ugh…" He groaned, suppressing the nausea as much as he possibly could with his left hand covering his mouth. As Victor tried to move, another groan escaped his lips as a sharp pain shot through his stomach. "Hmmm…?"
"What the heck?!" Victor yelled out, looking down at his torso, to see bandages covering his stomach after lifting the blanket. His confusion deepened even more as his gaze darted around the room.
The hospital bed, covered in crisp white sheets, creaked slightly with his every movement. A tangle of tubes and wires snaked their way from his body to various machines, their blinking lights casting an eerie glow over the room. An IV drip, suspended from a metal pole, slowly dripped a clear liquid into his arm.
"Am I…in a hospital? How did I get here?" Victor muttered quietly, trying to figure out the situation and he even tried to recall the last moments that happened in his memory that led him up into this situation.
However, as he attempted to do it, Victor felt like he was trying to grasp blurry smoke in his head—a vague image of several cars swerving, several loud screeches from unknown creatures... and then nothing.
Badump~
"Ughhh!!" Victor exclaimed, grabbing his forehead with his left hand when a painful headache suddenly came out of nowhere while he was trying to dig deeper into his memory.
As his mind was calming down from the pain, Victor was surprised to find a thick white bandage swathed his head when his fingers felt something rough and quickly noticed the edges wrinkled and stained with a faint brownish-red.
"Honestly…What the hell is g-wait a minute, huh?" Victor muttered feeling really annoyed before finally realizing something was off.
It was his voice.
It sounded different and unfamiliar.
More like it's less worn, more smooth, and almost youthful sounding.
Victor frowned, a shiver running down his spine. Tentatively, he spoke again, but more carefully. "Excuse…me?"
The words came out in a smooth baritone, rich and young. Panic clawed at his throat. This wasn't his voice. It couldn't be.
His voice, the one that Victor knew and hated, was a gravelly mess, a testament to years of cigarettes and bad decisions.
"No, no, no, this isn't right…" Victor hissed at the bedsheet, his voice cracking with a hysteria he couldn't control. He then immediately tried to get off the bed, ignoring the dizziness that threatened to topple him.
!!!!
The movement sent another jolt of pain through his bandaged abdomen, forcing him to gasp.
"Okay, okay," Victor murmured, sinking back down while trying to quell himself and the uncontrollable hysteria within him. After a while, he tried again, whispering this time, but the unsettling youthfulness still remained.
"Maybe it's temporary," Victor forced the words out of his mouth with his voice barely a whimper despite desperation fueling him.
"There must be…some rational explanation," Victor rasped, trying to remain optimistic in this situation with his eyes squeezed shut, and covering his face with his left hand.
"No…don't be stupid, there will be no real comfort thinking like that" Victor croaked, slightly shaking his head and his voice trembling. A sob soon escaped his lips, a pathetic mewling sound that mirrored the terror gripping him. Was this some bizarre punishment? A cruel joke?
With a sob that turned into a choked cough, he scrambled to sit up again, ignoring the stab of pain in his stomach.
After a while, Victor's sobs began to subside, replaced by a trembling silence. His eyes, still squeezed shut, were filled with a mixture of fear and confusion. A new wave of nausea washed over him as he tried to steady his ragged breathing.
Suddenly, a sharp intake of breath escaped his lips as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A dark rectangle, a television, sat across the room. With trembling hands, he turned his head towards it, his heart pounding in his chest.
A cold dread settled over him as he caught his reflection on the black screen. A younger face stared back at him, a face that was unfamiliar yet undeniably his own. The lines around his eyes were gone, replaced by smooth, youthful skin.
"What the hell?" he whispered, his voice hoarse. A chill ran down his spine as he tried to comprehend the impossible and a couple of wild theories began to form in his mind. Could this be some sort of strange dream, a fever-induced hallucination? But the sharp pain in his side and the sterile hospital room argued against that.
"No, this can't be real," he muttered, his voice rising in panic. He scanned the room frantically, searching for any clue, any explanation. His eyes landed on the remote control, and he immediately reached for it with his fingers trembling. He turned on the TV, hoping to find some news, some explanation for this bizarre situation.
As Victor fumbled with the remote, he channel-surfed frantically, his eyes darting across the screen. None of the news channels, reality shows, soap operas made sense. The world seemed different, somehow. The faces, the voices, the language—it was all off. He couldn't quite place the difference, but something was undeniably wrong.
After a while, he stared blankly at the screen, the remote forgotten in his hand. A wave of nausea washed over him again, and he pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt dizzy, and disoriented.
"This can't be happening," he muttered to himself, his voice barely audible. "This isn't real."
He discovered that there existed a phenomenon known as "Gates."
These mysterious portals suddenly appeared across the globe, serving as gateways to otherworldly dimensions filled with monstrous creatures. These creatures, diverse in shape and size, possessed extraordinary abilities and posed a significant threat to humanity.
The unpredictable nature of the Gates' appearance made them a constant danger. They could open anywhere, from bustling city centers to remote wilderness areas, unleashing chaos and destruction. As the monstrous creatures poured forth, they attacked and consumed everything in their path.
The emergence of the Gates marked the beginning of a global conflict that would last nearly five centuries. These otherworldly beings, with their immense power and insatiable hunger, wreaked havoc on the planet. Entire cities were reduced to rubble, natural landscapes were irrevocably altered, and humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction.
In response to this existential threat, humanity rallied together, forming specialized task forces to combat the monstrous creatures. Equipped with advanced weaponry and exceptional training, these task forces fought tirelessly to contain the creatures and protect the remaining human settlements.
However, the war against the creatures was far from over. The Gates continued to open, unleashing wave after wave of monstrous beings. Humanity suffered countless casualties, and the conflict scarred the world. The ecosystem was thrown into chaos, with many species on the brink of extinction.
"It's like something out of a cheap sci-fi novel," he muttered to himself, fear and disbelief mixing in his voice. "A world where monsters are real. And I'm stuck in it."
"Could this be reincarnation?" Victor wondered, recalling the novels he'd read for fun. The idea had always seemed like a creative plot device, not a real possibility.
"If this is reincarnation, whose life am I living? Was I a good person? Do I have a family waiting for me somewhere?"
These questions swirled in his mind, causing him unease. But he shook his head, deciding to push the thoughts aside. "Let's not think about it for now," Victor sighed.
"Bu still, it is crazy to think that beyond that normal beautiful sky, danger can happen anywhere, everywhere," he uttered, glancing out the window at the clear blue sky, his voice filled with a mix of disbelief and resignation. "That is the reality of this world."
He then picked up the remote that fell from his hand, and with his fingers trembling, Victor flipped through the channels, hoping to find something to distract him.
"Honestly, how could I have ended up in a world like this?" " Victor muttered, skipping past several channels but at some point, he couldn't help but sigh. "What a shitty luck,"
Each channel offered a different kind of entertainment: a reality show, a sports game, a news broadcast. None of them seemed to grab his attention or spark his curiosity. After a few minutes of aimless channel surfing, Victor stumbled upon a morning talk show in full swing.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" the host, a woman named Olivia, announced cheerfully, her smile infectious. "Today, we're going to be discussing the devastating gate disaster that occurred last week."
"And joining us today is a special guest," Olivia announced, her voice filled with excitement. "He's one of the renowned hunters, who survived after braving the most dangerous yet extraordinary mission and confronting leagues of the most terrifying creatures."
"Please welcome the captain of the third hunter division from The White Tiger guild! Captain Marcus Turner!!!" Olivia's voice resonated through the studio, and the applause of the audience filled the room. The camera panned to the entrance, revealing Captain Turner entering the stage, dressed in tactical gear with a hardened expression. He nodded appreciatively at the audience before taking his seat opposite Olivia.
"Captain Turner, welcome to the show!" Olivia greeted, shaking his hand. "Now, tell us about this high-grade gate you and your team just faced and cleared after a week alongside other guilds. It's been making quite headlines."
Marcus leaned back in his chair, his gaze steely and focused. "Thank you for having me. The mission was very intense. We were dealing with a level of threat we hadn't encountered before. Honestly that disaster that we faced was unlike anything we've seen."
Olivia leaned forward, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "Can you walk us through the operation? What challenges did you and your team face?"
"When we first received the news…." Marcus said took a deep breath, recalling the harrowing details. "I felt really horrified to hear that it was really unexpected to everyone in the area when the first gate suddenly happened in the densely populated area and unlike usual where there is time to prepare for the mayhem, that gate breaks open and hundreds of monsters pouring out that affected the surrounding greatly."
"And when my team and I finally arrived at the scene, our team had to face a lot of aggressive monsters like those hordes of harpy that target our archers and hordes of basilisk that our tanks are having difficulty dealing with after discovering almost hundreds of gates suddenly appeared out of nowhere."
"You can say it can rivaled the first era where it was a battle of both strategy and sheer human will to survive." Marcus then said, shivering a little recalling that horrifying moment. "Fortunately, we managed to minimize the damages that were caused by them as much as possible with the coordinated effort of many including the other guilds, the unaffiliated awakened hunters, and the authorities."
Olivia nodded, absorbed in the narrative. "And how did your team manage to close those gates? What was the turning point in the operation?"
To Be Continued