In the middle of night, Miguel opened his eyes with a dry throat. He was thirsty, so slowly and without much of a control he drew himself water from the bottle and drank it.
The big gulps created a soothing sensation in his throat, he continued drinking the water, relishing in its sweetness, in the fulfilling sensation it created, till his stomach felt full.
After he was full, he saw the light, white light of the moon coming from the window. It looked mesmerizing in his sight. The sheer presence of the moon’s beauty awakened him. After a few minutes in which he just stood as he stared at the night sky. Miguel finally returned to his bed. He took the headphones that had fallen onto the floor when he was asleep. And returned it to the table.
As he was walking back he saw another light, different from the moon light and even the room decoration light. For a moment he thought that he had just imagined it, but with pure curiosity he wanted to see the light again. What he thought was something of a reflection was not just that. It was that mirror, it was glowing right now.
Miguel had placed the mirror between his other different things. But taking his mirror out he saw that it was shining on its own under the night light, a shining reddish glow. He looked carefully in the mirror. The mirror was reflecting something, but it was not his own reflection.
Looking carefully it seemed to be showing rather different than the reflection you would normally expect. Miguel with the mirror in his hand, sat on the edge of his bed. He was studying it carefully, examining it from all possible angles. He even looked at the back side of the mirror, expecting there to be a battery of some kind responsible for it. But he found none. He even considered that the mirror might have been something of a new invention from the tech company which hadn’t yet been released in front of the world.
That was in between those thoughts, that he saw something else, he found out that the reddish glow was not exactly coming from the surface of the mirror but from whatever the mirror was reflecting right now. Now he was looking at what appeared to be a tree, or whatever it was.
‘This thing is such a unique piece’ Miguel thought.
‘It might work as a good showpiece in his shop.’ He even considered putting it on the shelf to attract customers. This mirror had fulfilled his curiosity, he was finally going to keep it back when he saw red things, falling on the other side.
At first he thought he was imagining things. ‘I guess I am just sleepy at the moment.’ Miguel yawned and took another look at it. No, he wasn’t imagining it, red things in the shape of leaves appeared to be falling on the other side.
Miguel's eyes couldn’t help but widen at that. Was it not just a static photo, but an actual animation? He extended his fingers to touch the surface of the mirror, as if trying to actually touch whatever was falling on the other side. But when he finally touched the surface. The world as he knew was no more.
He found himself being sucked, and it was not a slow process, in an instant his whole body was sucked inside the mirror. The mirror which had been in Miguel’s hands disappeared along with him. The room was empty, as if no one had just been there an instant ago.
The pulling sensation targeted his whole being, Miguel wanted to scream, splash along his arms and legs trying to grab something, but no it was a quick process. That which didn’t leave him a second to even think about those things. And then as he was able to interpret, he was somewhere else.
Miguel found himself safe, looking at the massive tree in front of him. The tree trunk was almost the girth of a big house, its canopy extending far and wide in the skies as far as he could see. This was such a humbling experience for him. He saw the same red things he had seen before, fall in front of him. He denied, it wasn’t possible at all. He came to realize that whatever the mirror had been reflecting on its surface stood in front of him, a tall tree, it was an insult to even say it was just tall. It was hugely massive, this thing didn't make sense in the real world at all. If he even was in the real world.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He looked toward his palm. He had been holding a mirror there just a minute ago. But now it was not there. Instead, what Miguel saw was a metallic band on his wrist. Honestly it looked cool, but as far as Miguel knew, he wasn’t wearing that band. So how was it on the same hand as the mirror? And why did it look so similar to the mirror’s frame? The same frame which had inscriptions embedded on it. Those same looking inscriptions were shining right now on the metallic band.
The panic had set in after the revelations. As far as it looked it wasn’t his home anymore. He might have thought of it as just a hallucination or such, but the sight and smell, and even what his body was feeling right now, was quick to deny it as that. And when he had lost all hope of returning and had sat on the ground filled with the leaves. He saw a red screen in front of him.
The red screen looked transparent, Miguel realized he was able to see through what lay behind the screen. Obviously the tree trunk. No, Miguel slapped his cheeks, this was not the time to be distracted with those things.
This time he looked carefully. The red screen was rectangular in nature, its edges as if made of sharp metal, there were inscriptions too. The same as the wrist band, they formed a sort of frame that encompassed the sides of the screen. The inscriptions were quickly changing, each different one from before. There was a text in the middle of the screen. The language was different but Miguel was able to understand it.
He read what was written on the text, and he swore he might have murdered whoever had been playing mr. good vibes with him. It said,
[Congratulations on being the first human to arrive here.]
But the text didn’t stop there. It continued.
[Authorizing imprint]
[Rig Initiated]
Miguel was encompassed in a reddish glow that started scanning his entire body, moving up and down in the form of a pattern.
[Mapping.]
[Mapping..]
[Mapping…]
[Mapping Successful]
The Reddish glow disappeared. The text disappeared along with it. In its place another one came into view.
[Synchronizing with the current era]
The screen started glowing brighter and brighter, for an instant Miguel was scared if the screen would explode in front of him. The reddish glow was so bright that Miguel had to close his eyes with his hands, even then the light was able to bypass it, drilling directly into his eyes. Even with his eyes closed, Miguel could see the veins of his eyes, even his hands that had shielded them. And then the glow disappeared altogether in a form of soundless blast, how he knew about that, well that was something Miguel thought might have happened. The screen changed into another message beneath the previous one.
[Synchronization successful]
The screen was replaced with another one. Miguel could see the image of his own body in the screen rotating akin to a 3D Model in space. Various parts of his body were labeled with conditions such as healthy and more. Miguel saw the meter in front of his stomach. It denoted how much he had eaten, and it was currently showing 30 percent, he guessed it might have been due to him having eaten less during the dinner time. All else was good, his condition was good, the system showed that he didn’t have any terminal disease or any kind of diseases for that matter.
The image became smaller until it only occupied half of the screen, the other half was taken by a vast amount of texts. It was mostly about him.
[Status Window]
[Name - Miguel Ohara]
[Age - 20 Years and 62 Days]
[Species - Human]
[Level 0]
[Innate Skills - None]
[Acquired Skills - None]
[Physical Condition - Cannon Fodder (52%)]
[Mental Condition - Weak]
[Missions Done - None]
Miguel's thoughts were a mess at the moment, how could it determine everything about him, when he hadn’t even told it anything about himself. This seriously was complex and what was the thing saying that I was weak. I was a normal healthy human being, and although it had been years since I had last played any kind of sports. His body was still fit. Rather than the unique nature of the screen, what it displayed about him irked him more.