Time had slipped by unnoticed, and when Kane's eyes fluttered open again, he found himself in a hospital room without any recollection of how he got there.

"I didn't expect anyone to have the heart to take me to the hospital... I thought I would wake up still lying on the street," he mused to himself.

Attempting to rise, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him.

Instinctively reaching for his forehead, his fingers found a bandage wrapped around his head and a slight sting on his brow.

Had he been injured?

With that thought, Kane turned his neck to survey his surroundings.

The privacy afforded by the blue curtains hanging between each bed prohibited him from seeing if there were other patients in the room. His gaze settled on a girl sitting next to his bed, her head resting on the mattress and her natural-looking auburn hair cascading down her shoulders.

Despite the angle that concealed her face, Kane recognized her unique hair color and sighed inwardly, "I thought it was some kind of Samaritan, but it's just Bella, that kid."

Instead of waking the university sophomore who had been working a summer job at his shop for over a month, Kane quietly stared at the ceiling.

He reflected on the conversation he'd had in that dark space with his thirty-years-later self. Unlike his usual dreams, where the details would blur upon awakening, this memory clung to his consciousness, stirring a strange hope inside him: "This time, I wish you were just a dream..."

Well, it's natural to feel a touch of melancholy when you learn that the world you live in might be on the brink of destruction or doomed.

"Huh? Kane, you're awake~"

It was Bella, roused from her slumber by his monologue, lifting her drowsy face and looking relieved.

"Have I been out for a long time?"

"Yeah, for over two hours. You were bleeding quite a bit. Your face was covered in blood when I helped you up—scared me to death. If I hadn't forgotten my phone at the shop and gone back for it, who knows how long you would have been lying there... But thankfully, the ambulance arrived quickly, and I came with you to the hospital... By the way, how did you faint all of a sudden? You seem so fit; is that all just for show?"

"Okay, enough... I've got a headache," Kane cut her off, knowing if he let her continue, she might just blurt out something even more embarrassing.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Holding up his hand to signal her to stop, he asked, "Hold on, did you use my phone to call Anthony?"

Anthony, of course, was his close friend and business partner at their shop in Evington.

While Anthony and his wife took care of the original shop, Kane opened this new branch.

"I wanted to call Anthony, but when we were in the ambulance, I checked, and your phone and wallet were gone," Bella lamented.

"What?"

Kane couldn't help but feel speechless upon realizing someone had taken advantage of his unconscious state to steal his belongings. He was equally frustrated by the thief's lack of morals and the indifferent onlookers who must have seen everything yet did nothing.

"Alright, Bella, thanks for bringing me to the hospital. Could you do me a favor and head to the nurse's station to call Anthony? We were supposed to have dinner tonight. Not hearing from me all day, they must be worried sick. I'll give you the number—wait, you've got paper and pen in your bag, right?"

Upon catching Kane's prompting glance, Bella turned to look at her bag and then back at him, a hint of exasperation flickering across her face. "Kane, do you think I'm as forgetful as you? Just tell me the number, I can remember it."

………………

The following day, after a thorough examination, Kane's body showed signs of minor ailments due to a lack of regular exercise. Yet, the fact that the physical report revealed no serious concerns visibly relieved Anthony, who had accompanied Kane throughout the check-up.

Nevertheless, following the doctor's advice and with the full support of Anthony and his wife, Kane agreed to a two-day observatory stay in the hospital.

When the time came for his discharge, it was already the morning of August 15th at eight o'clock.

Kane chose not to worry his parents about the incident, so he didn't ask Anthony to inform them. Instead, Kane took advantage of Anthony's willingness to act as his chauffeur and first visited the police station to report his stolen wallet and phone. After that, they headed straight for his rental apartment.

Finding a vague pretext, Kane managed to send Anthony on his way.

Alone in his two-bedroom and one-living room rental, littered with unwashed clothes and ash, Kane slumped onto the couch in the main hall. Lighting a cigarette for himself, he sat in silence, waiting.

With a name as grand as "The Chosen's Game," one would expect some sort of prelude surely.

Disregarding whether Kane's prejudgment was correct or not if what he experienced in his consciousness wasn't just a vivid dream, then everything would be verified today.

After a while, an idea struck him, and Kane rose from the couch. He grabbed some paper and a pen from the coffee table.

“Please don't worry, I fancy taking a few days off for an impromptu trip.”

He jotted down these words onto the paper and drew a smiley face at the bottom right corner before holding up the note to examine it.

Placing the note strategically on the coffee table and anchoring one corner with a water glass, he left what he thought was the most suitable precautionary message, explaining his potential sudden disappearance—to avoid alarming his friends and family.

Content with this temporary solution, he resumed his quiet vigil on the couch.

However, as the evening drew near and twilight began to fall, the feared yet eagerly anticipated calamity Kane had in mind had not materialized.

Ignoring a call from Anthony, who had offered to go out for a meal, Kane could only give the note on the coffee table a wry, helpless smile, his head still bandaged thickly.

But in the next instant, a sudden bout of vertigo hit him hard, sending his head plunging towards the solid marble floor—no, towards the coffee table.

At that very moment, elsewhere in the world, eleven others, just like Kane, passed out and their bodies vanished from this realm instantly.

Indeed, the so-called "Chosen's Game" had officially begun.