Vast blue sky without any clouds, crystal clear water that reflected the sky, so perfectly reflected that it blurred the line between real and fake sky.
The sky and water stretch far beyond the horizon. Xiao was standing in the middle with his image reflected under the water.
"Wh-where am I?" Xiao looked around in confusion.
There was no wind blowing in the atmosphere, no waves traveling on the water, no sound echoes when Xiao breathed.
This strange space gives Xiao a quiet, peaceful, yet lonely feeling.
"Don't tell me that this is the point where I awaken my hidden Hero potential?" Xiao made a deduction while continuing to look around until he found out that someone was staring at him the whole time.
And that person was just right under his feet, his reflection.
"Don't be stupid!" Xiao's reflection shouted in an aggressive tone and a smirk on his face.
"Wha-what the hell?!" Xiao was taken back by the sight as he took a few steps back.
Xiao's reflection doesn't follow his movement as he continues staying at his original position, with his face smirking.
"So what? Are you going to help me in awakening my hidden power or guide me on how to get it?" Xiao asked the man in the water curiously, believing that he was in a phase of getting new power.
Upon hearing Xiao's question and seeing how innocent his face was while asking, the man under the water looked down as he covered his face with his hand.
"HAHAHAHA! How stupid and naive can you be?!" He burst out laughing while insulting Xiao.
"Power? Potential? Listen to you babbling about nonsense like that makes me want to puke!" He continues insulting Xiao, the tone while he was speaking, and how he acts was utterly different from Xiao.
(This man, what the hell is he? He may have the same face as I do but...)
As Xiao was thinking by himself, the man in the water completed Xiao's thought.
"But I act differently from you, right?" He answered, showing his smirk expression like he was looking down on Xiao.
(How the hell can he read my mind?!)
"Read your mind? How stupid can you be?! Of course, I know what you're thinking." He answered again right after Xiao monologues in his mind.
"What do you mean? Who the hell are you?" Xiao asked suspiciously.
"Who am I? Is your eye blind or what? I'm you, of course." He answered with his usual smirk expression.
"Then, why am I here? If it's not about awakening my power, why do you call me here?" Xiao continues his question.
The man got extremely irritated by Xiao's question, he clicked his tongue while shaking his head, showing disbelief.
"You know, you're a real pain in the ass. First, you storm into my sanctuary, second, you talk about awakening, and nonsense shit like that, and third, you're acting like you own this place already." He goes on ratting angrily, which took Xiao by surprise.
"N-no, I didn't mean to..." Xiao tries to clear the misunderstanding as he stopped him.
"It's my kind way of telling you to get the fuck out of here!" He yelled back without waiting for Xiao to finish his explanation.
Xiao was getting annoyed by the way he got treated.
Typically, Xiao was someone who won't get angry easily, he moved into reason and logical thinking first before getting work up with what the surface was showing.
But, when someone who has the same face as him keeps giving him the attitude while also looking down at him, even Xiao will get annoyed and angry.
"Listen here, you prick, I'm not the one who wants to get into this...boring ass place, and if I know someone like you is stuck in here, I would even risk my life to avoid coming here." Xiao dropped the pleasant man attitude and started to talk to the man in the water harshly.
"Then hurry up and get the fuck out of here!" He gets even annoyed by Xiao's attitude and tries to chase Xiao away.
"I would have done it right away if I knew how!" Xiao replied loudly, as he could no longer contain his anger.
Both of them stay silent for a while staring intently at each other.
"You REALLY have no idea how you get into here, right?" The man in the water breaks the silence as he questions Xiao.
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Xiao stays quiet as he doesn't know how to answer the question.
The man in the water lets out a disappointed sigh, he then continues.
"You want to die, so you run away like you always do."
"Run away? What are you getting at...." Xiao tries to ask him back in confusion, but the man in the water continues on without a care.
"No idea on what I am talking about? How about the time you give up your chance to represent the school soccer team, or the time you purposely failed the exam, so dad and mom won't expect anything from you."
"....shut up." Xiao was blown away by his words, all he could do was give out weak refutes, telling the man in the water to stop talking.
"Afraid of losing faces? Afraid that you've reached your limit? That you're not that special at all, that you're just an inferior version of your brother, Kang, that you're just a nobody if you're not standing beside your family."
Each fact, each word spurt out by the man in the water was like a nail hammer down into Xiao's heart.
"SHUT UP!" Xiao lost his composure as he shouted furiously to the man in the water, who kept on laughing as he enjoyed making Xiao suffer.
"Admit it, you're a coward, all you're good at is running away from things, and this time, you make yourself an even bigger wuss by forfeiting your life."
Xiao was speechless by his answer, he knew what the man in the water was talking about.
During the battle with the Chimera, it ended with Xiao getting toyed around.
Xiao's undying ability made him stuck in a loop of dying and living. He lost count on how many times he has lost consciousness and wakes up again because of the pain.
Xiao literally shut off his mind so he could die to stop experiencing more pain and humiliation from it.
(So the reason why I am here was that I tried to kill myself?)
"What's wrong? Nothing to say already?" The man in the water questions Xiao with his usual smirk.
"Just stop talking already!" Xiao lashes out at him.
He didn't say anything back, he quietly enjoys Xiao's painful expression with his usual smirk expression.
Tired of thinking and getting work done over nothing, Xiao sits on the water and looks at the cloudless sky, making a dry chuckle as he talks to himself.
"What the hell am I doing? Thinking of dying to end my suffering, Arguing with my mirror self, I've been losing my mind every day ever since that day."
Though it has passed for quite some time ever since his family's tragedy, Xiao felt that he could not move on from it. It feels like he left something vital about him behind, something that defines who Xiao truly is.
"So, what now? Not thinking of dying anymore?" the man in the water questions Xiao while also assuming a sitting posture like Xiao.
"Knowing that you'll be here talking shit about me every time I try to kill myself, I rather let others kill me instead." Xiao sarcastically replied.
"Hah! Listen to you talking shit like that." The man in the water chuckled lightly as he mocked Xiao.
"To get out of here, all I need to do is to think of not dying, to be afraid of dying again, right?" Xiao ignores the provocation and continues on with his assumption.
"Something like that, except that you're just all talk, you don't have the guts to think that way." The man in the water confirms Xiao's theory, but not without mocking him again.
Xiao ignores his insult and focuses on wanting to live again. Still, he remembers the way the Chimera toys around him.
(Shit! My mind is still preoccupied with the fear of pain and the sight of that abomination.)
"See what I've just said, you're just all talk." The man in the water mocks Xiao again with his usual smirk face.
"Then how do you suppose I kill that thing? Someone as weak as me kills something who can easily kill me a thousand times." Xiao lashes out at him.
The man in the water looks at Xiao with a confused expression, like he was disbelieving at what Xiao had just said.
"Weak? Strong? What are you talking about? It's not like you care about that trivia stuff. All you care about is the face they make when you crush all their hope." He replied with a straight face, there was no doubt or element of jokes in his words.
"What?" Xiao was taken back by what he had just said.
The man was shocked in disbelief by Xiao's response. He lets out a disappointing sigh while shaking his head.
"Oh my god, so this is what you've been missing the whole time." He says it as he has figured out something.
"What the hell are you going about again?" Xiao asked in confusion.
The man in the water stays silent, and then his demeanor changes. His usual smirk expression has changed to a serious face, and his tone has reverted to how Xiao sounds.
"Drag them down, break their will, make them beg."
Something strikes a chord in Xiao's heart when he quotes those words. Something was trying to claw its way out from where Xiao buried them.
"For this is what I'm good at." The man in the water continues with the quote.
"For this is how I have fun." Xiao ended the quote, for he knew this quote far too well.
This was Xiao's usual quote whenever he played any online games. When he faces off with someone who rivals his skills, he'll get overly excited to trample them by any means necessary.
Whenever Xiao plays games, he doesn't need to care about reputation, faces and any responsibility. He doesn't need to worry about any expectation from anyone, he can be free, do whatever he wants.
"You used to hate this game so-called "Real life", but in this world, you've got what you desire, magic, monster, sword, and a cheater ability that prevents you from dying. What else do you want?! why are you so afraid of taking things up a notch?" He continues on.
Each word from him cracks something open, something that Xiao kept buried within him, for it will only bring shame and more disappointment to his family.
Slowly, Xiao's demeanor changes, he begins smirking, similar to the man in the water.
"As far as I hate to admit, I REALLY act like a spineless wimp for the past few months. Time to take back all the fun that I've been missing out on."
As soon as Xiao has set his mind, the scenery begins to slowly fade away. The sky and the water slowly turn into a glitter of light, evaporating in mid-air.
Xiao knew he would be getting out of here anytime. Before he goes, he looks at his reflection one last time, who's still smirking at him.
"I hope we never see each other again, fake me. And don't you worry, one day, I'll definitely go down there and drag you out to give you a good beating."
Right after giving a nickname to the man in the water and his warning, Xiao disappears from the space, leaving his reflection behind.
"That will be the last thing you'll regret doing."