Life was always a curious thing. Those who thought that it was boring clearly did not have eyes, so be my opinion. The careful harmony of nature. The nudges of evolution creating something new across millennia. The certain beauty of the struggle for survival and its countless tragedies, a rose covered in thorns.
I say all of this behind a glass window of course, safely separated to all it entailed. Who would want to? I value my life and rather not go risking it for the sake of “adventure.” Many call me a coward, a lurker, weak-willed, but I believe myself to be rational. The whole point of stories and what-not was to experience something tucked away behind the fourth wall and not be on the stage ourselves. Those who wanted to suffer the tragedies that played out on the stage were either fools or lunatics. So much work for it all just to end behind the veil of curtains. I will sit in the comfortable seats watching it however. After all, it was interesting.
I say this to express my complete outrage at whatever damn deity or cosmic force subjected me to this fate! I had been going through dozens upon dozens of health issues despite being a twenty something. Honestly, anyone who saw me could easily mistake me for a zombie at this point and make a tortured artist green with envy. My skin was pale and dark bags hung under my bloodshot eyes. I was so lanky that the outline of my bones could clearly be seen on the surface of my skin. No doctor could diagnose what I had and none of the medications given to treat the symptoms worked. I was always sickly in life with a weak immune system, but this was different. It felt as if my soul was gradually being taken somewhere else. This was, of course, ignored by medical professionals as some superstition of mine, but I could hardly blame them, I thought I was going crazy at this point myself. If it were not for the very visible effects of the unknown disease, I am sure that doctors would think I was feigning the whole thing.
Despite the lack of results, my determination continued to shine in my heart. I wanted to live! It is the innate desire of any creature! It did not matter that it seemed hopeless, I would struggle to the end! I could do nothing else after all. I did not particularly adhere to any religion and did not believe the afterlife existed. Once one died, or so I thought, that was it. You were no more.
Yet day by day, I withered, becoming a husk. I was eating cereal sat at the small counter nearby the kitchen of my creaking, run-down apartment as my heart stopped and my body went limb Terror gripped my heart as the world grew dim. Is this how I die? From cardiac arrest and drowning in a bowl of cereal? Perhaps I could have received aid, but I did not have anyone around to seek help for me. I had severed ties with my family, tired of their countless toxic dramas. I had no real friends either as a result of my reclusive nature and “creepy eyes” as many have brought up in hushed conversation that I just so happened to overhear at my workplace. It did not bother me however, what they thought had no bearing on my enjoyment of life. Games, books, music, and shows are all I needed to be satisfied in life. Nothing more, nothing less. But this sort of trivial talk was beside the point, I was dying a humiliating death.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Clawing towards the multitudes of bottles of medicine as if any of it would stop cardiac arrest, I was resisting pointlessly. It was not like I could take any of it with my face submerged in milk and corn flakes. However, I was not thinking of those things, all that went through my racing mind at that point was to survive, no matter how slim the chance. I could not give up, but what I wanted is not what the world gave. What it gave me was darkness. Was this death? Drifting in an endless void? It was certainly not what I was expecting. I thought total oblivion was what awaited me, which was a fact that I was glad I got wrong. I spent an indeterminate amount of time in this vast darkness. Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? I lost my perception of time with nothing to measure it with.
Finally, something happened. A dim, blue glowing text box appeared before my consciousness, reading: “Welcome user. You have completed the one year preparation process for dimensional transfer. The administrators have designated your transfer to World 64756e67656f6e. Thank you for your patience, preparing to convert your soul now.” Uh, I get to live again? Breath air again? Fuck yeah! Whoever this administrator is the best! It's a mirac– wait… year long process? I just got the disease ten months prior to my “death.” Are you telling me that this whole thing was the result of this “process.” Who granted you consent, you tyrant of an administrator, to ruin my life for ten months and then end me to put me somewhere else! The only thing I have signed was the apartment agreement from the creepy, ancient landlord ten months ago… wait no. Was it that? The apartment had been linked to several disappearances, many calling it cursed. This was rather suitable for myself, not because I want to disappear, but the rent was dirt cheap, absurdly so. I was not the superstitious type so I did not really care for the rumors. I felt like an idiot for not connecting it sooner, but this supernatural kind of stuff was unthinkable to my mind. How could a room give you a curse? My logical way of thinking could not even fathom it before.
Yet the system before me did not wait for me to sort everything out, suddenly making an audible ding… wait no I do not have ears. It just sounded into my consciousness and then disappeared from my perception as I went to my new world.