Alexander awoke to a sense of disorientation, his mind shrouded in confusion as he found himself lying in bed. Something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
“Oh! Shit.”
He hastily reached for his phone, fingers fumbling with the screen as he anxiously checked the time. As he feared, he was already too late.
After a brief period of contemplation, he let out a deep, weary sigh. He was just wasting time, there was no hope of even entertaining the thought of going now.
He roused himself from bed, feeling the need to freshen up. The absence of his parents' usual wake-up call puzzled him, but he couldn't discern the reason behind it.
"One missed day won't spell the apocalypse," he mused silently, pushing himself up from the bed and setting off toward the en-suite bathroom adjacent to his chamber.
The feeling of something off still lingered. As if something was there that he could not touch it. But he did not put it to mind.
Observing his reflection in the mirror, Alexander took a moment to complete his morning routine, transitioning from one task to the next with practiced ease. Watching his face, taking a dump, brushing his teeth, etc.
As per routine, everything unfolded in its expected manner. No cause for concern or overthinking arose; what transpired had already come to pass. Despite any fervent desires for alteration, events remained immutable, firmly entrenched in the past.
Thinking of the moment of the kiss, Alexander felt like something heavy pressing on his heart, not allowing it to beat. No matter how much he wanted or how much he wished for it, it was not a dream.
And as for what happened next, despite the vivid memory and the intense emotions it stirred within him, Alexander couldn't shake the feeling that it was all just a dream. The events seemed too fantastical, too surreal to have actually occurred. Yet, amidst his doubts, there lingered a part of him that yearned for the experience to be real, despite the rational insistence that it couldn't possibly be so.
As the weight of yesterday's events settled upon him, Alexander found himself acutely aware of the reality he faced: Ana, now belonged to another man. And that’s when it hit him, it was the surrounding, it was the surrounding that was off it was too quite.
Living on the first floor, he was accustomed to the usual sounds filtering in from the street below. Sensing an unusual stillness outside, he decided to open the window of his room, a rare occurrence in itself. True to his suspicions, the road lay eerily quiet, with only sporadic cars passing by, a stark contrast to the usual hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Though he pushed the thought down until now, he could not wait anymore as he opened his phone and saw what he thought was impossible. Everything that happened yesterday was not a dream. It was as real as real could be, all the news covered the incident.
The thought sent shivers through his spine. Did he do all that, but he did not remember anything after falling from the 901-story building and bits and fragments of that strange boy's journey, heck he did not even know how the hell he reached home and when.
And will he be dragged down with the incident. The thought was enough send shivers through his spine.
[Congratulations, you have successfully awakened crazy cultivation system.]
At that very moment, Alexander's gaze fell upon a transparent screen materializing before him, reminiscent of the high-end holograms he had only witnessed before.
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He attempted to prod at the screen, but it remained unresponsive. Ten minutes passed, yet there was no change. Frustration crept into his thoughts as he stared at the device, pondering whether his fall had caused a head injury. He getting ready to search the net for hallucination-related brain damage.
‘it has been so long, but this damn thing had not yet being extinct. Mother was right, one day it will be the phones that use humans. An old, wizened, wise voice filled with vicissitude, sigh, and knowledge rang out in Alexander’s mind as he was startled.
‘What the fuck, why are you not jumping in joy!’ the voice rang out again this time with irritation and impatience.
Alexander remained motionless, lost in contemplation. He weighed his options carefully, deliberating on which doctor to consult and the potential cost involved. It was truly foolish to think he could fall from that height and remain unharmed. It was as though the silence itself magnified the voice's irritation, amplifying its exclamation in frustration, "Have you never read a litRPG, or a cultivation novel for that matter? You should be brimming with excitement by now."
At that moment, Alexander heart raced as he swatted at empty air, his mind racing with thoughts of the supernatural. The voice that echoed in his ears spoke of things beyond his comprehension, sending shivers down his spine. Could it be that he was encountering a ghost, much like those depicted in the horror movies of yesteryear? Fear gripped him, threatening to turn his legs to jelly as he grappled with the terrifying possibility.
The voice, as if anticipating his thoughts, interjected once more, its tone tinged with a weary sigh. "Rest assured, I'm no Ghost," it reassured him before pausing, as if pondering its own nature. "Well, in a sense, I am though Ha, ha, ha…”
The sudden laughter echoing in Alexander's mind sent him spiraling deeper into panic. Despite his rational adulthood dismissing notions of ghosts and supernatural occurrences, the eerie presence of a laughing voice inside his head shattered his sense of logic.
Feeling no way out, he decided to reach out, his voice trembling with uncertainty. "How did I end up back home?"
"Huh!" The voice in his head sounded utterly bewildered by his inquiry. “WHAT THE FCUK! Seriously? You've got an actual system screen right in front of you, and your biggest concern is how you ended up back home?.”
"Wait, Wait, Wait, don't tell me you're clueless about LitRPGs," the voice exclaimed, tinged with disbelief. Then, it softened, a note of melancholy creeping in as it lamented, "There goes my plan of diving into a stack of LitRPGs after all this time." This time, the voice sounded almost despondent, weighted with sorrow.
"You're fixated on this LitRPG stuff. Is it very important to you revival or something? Is it the thing that will finally set you free?”
As soon as he asked the question the voice fell silent, and Alexander was sure he hit the hammer right on the nail.
“pfffttt…ha…ha…ha…,,,haa” but in the next moment, the voice laughed as if it could not hold it in anymore.
Though at first a bit embarrassed it soon turned into irritation as the voice did not stop laughing.
"Well, then what exactly is this object? Some sort of sacred relic?" he inquired, his voice tinged with obvious annoyance.
The laughter stopped as the voice said, now declared with a solemn voice, “yes, yes indeed it is a holy object. It is the most powerful antidepressant there is for a depressed man, the most enticing thing for the innocent mind, the place of dreams, colors, and hope, the place where you soar into the sky and borrow benith the earth, the place of….”
“So it’s a drag then. Tell me where can I find it; should have known you are a drag addict.” Alexander said with a granted face.
The voice fell silent again, this time truly out of shock. Alexander, on the verge of launching another tirade, was abruptly interrupted by the voice's return, this time with disappointment. "I thought you were messing with me, but to think a person of my bloodline actually does not know about LitRPG. What has the world come to? SIGH." Though the voice was inside his head, Alexander could easily feel the sigh filled with disappointment, as if a mountain was pressed on the owner of the voice.
Alexander at this time somehow felt a little apologetic, but then remembered this guy was the one forcefully occupying his head, but then it hit him, the voice said someone of my bloodline.
But before he could ask further, the voice said with a sigh, “Yes you have guessed right, I am that legendary ancestor that you have told about who captured more than half of the known universe. And the one that you have been waiting for.”
“What the fuck, I though the family inheritance would be some kind of powerful tool to make me a powerhouse in one go.”
After the voice spoke, it created a solemn atmosphere, which was overtly broken by Alexander in a sentence. Even the voice was dumbfounded.
“sigh.” He sighed again; if people from his time knew how much he sighed in one day they might actually think everytihg is an illution, and they might commeat sucide.
"I shouldn't be surprised; after all, tales tend to morph as they pass from one tongue to another," he remarked, his tone implying a subtle shake of his head.
"Hear me, boy, and hear me well. I am an emperor, a devourer, a ruler, and all the things my enemies used to call me, or who knows, they still do. And above all, I am your ancestor. And I will reshape your life." This time the voice was solemn, filled with the weight of experience and wisdom, under which even the air itself trembled. It was as if the declaration reverberated through heaven and earth, shocking not just the area, not just the world, not just the universe, but the soul itself, the life itself. It was as if a tyrant had spoken, holding domination over everything in its wake.
Alexander was truly stunned, unable to say anything. To be honest, he felt fear, unbounded and restraining fear, even though the voice did not say anything sinister toward him. He felt it—the terror, not of being harmed, not of dying, but the terror of power itself.
And unable to process, his mind went black.
"But in the next moment, the voice became soft and lamenting, 'to think you do not know about LitRPG after I waited all that time and resources to make the system like so.'
'Elder, can you tell me what you mean by this LitRPG?' Alexander asked, this time his tone much more respectful.
Again, with a sigh, the voice started..."