Monday.

The alarm clock on the bedside cabinet started to ring loudly, with sharp and painful bell tones. While his eyes were still closed, Hal threw his limp arm towards the deafening sound of the alarm clock, attempting to hit the snooze button, but his hand accidentally hit his glass water bottle, which was beside the alarm clock, which made it fall onto the floor and smash into a million tiny pieces.

Hal realized what he had done, which killed his drowsiness and made him bolt up from his bed.

"Fuck!" He cursed loudly, as the alarm still kept on ringing.

Thankfully he was living alone, so he didn't need to worry about anyone else hearing that loud swear word. He turned off the alarm and went to his storage cabinet to grab a broom and clean up the mess he made.

'Bad luck already,' he thought. His mind was screaming at him to not go to school today, but he knew he would regret it if he did.

Why though? Why would he regret not going to school?

What causes premature regret to occur in the first place?

Doing something that would possibly be disadvantageous to him later on.

What was the disadvantage Hal would get for not going to school today?

Since his grades were on the higher side of the usual average, he didn't worry about missing out on lessons, and he could get away from the lonely feeling he had at school due to his lack of friends. His attendance rate was very good too, so it won't hurt to take a day off. So, therefore, it would be kinda advantageous to him not to go to school!

Then what was this pain that was gnawing at Hal's insides?

His conscience.

Every human child who was brought up by sensible parents with care has a conscience that restricts them from doing what is defined as 'wrong' by society. Harold 'Hal' Meyers, who is the son of the previous CEO of the famous MeyersTech Corporation, was a good example of this type of child, because forget about TRUE wrong acts like drugs and murder, Hal wasn't able to even not go to school.

In Hal's point of view, however, this conscience is a barrier for people who wanted to achieve more, to excel at society, and to live a carefree life, because it is immensely difficult to play the game of life by the rules. By subtly breaking the rules, without harming society, one can improve his position by leaps and bounds while at the same time, helping the society around him.

Hal was said to be extremely talented at memorizing and learning since his preschool days, so his parents hammered him into being a 'learning-slash-working machine', making him a top ranker in grades in his early ages. Unfortunately, since he was pressured to work so hard, he virtually had zero time to socialize with kids of his age group, so his communication ability was at a minimum. This workaholic mindset wasn't completely erased away from him, even after his parents passed away in a car crash a few years ago, and even after he started living alone in an apartment, doing nothing but reading manga and watching anime. Therefore, even if he doesn't care about his grades, he knew he would feel guilty afterwards if he didn't go to school because he would miss lessons.

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Hal was also a very reflective person, almost like a philosopher, because when he has absolutely nothing to do (when he doesn't even feel like watching anime and reading manga), he just stares into space and gets lost in his thoughts, thinking about life, reality, and existence (this often happens at school as well).

After the passing of Hal's parents, his uncle took over their corporation, and Hal received a pretty generous monthly allowance, so he didn't have to worry about money.

After cleaning up the shards of glass from his bottle, he ambled towards his bathroom to brush his teeth. He went downstairs to the dining room of the apartment, where a few of his fellow 'inmates' (Hal thought of his apartment as a kind of prison, since all of its rooms, even the kitchen, were so incomprehensibly small, it triggered his claustrophobia), who were already eating, looked up at him and greeted him with an emotionless and dry "mornin'". With a small nod to them, he plated up some toast and eggs and went back upstairs to eat.

He disliked every form of social interaction, even eating with his fellow apartment members in the dining room, because he felt insecure about opening himself up to others, fearing that he will be manipulated by others if he did so. A weird mentality indeed, but an 18-year-old kid needed to survive in this dark society.

'Ah, what an abomination I am…'

He knew that he was living life the wrong way, but it was too late to change that now. He was 16, and a virgin to boot, so the habits he built up since his childhood will stick with him no matter how much he tried to let go.

He also knew that he was kidding himself into thinking that he can't change the way of his life, because he believed in the saying, 'When there's a will, there's a way', but he was someone who gave up on life. If life was a game, he would have already quit playing and started from the beginning again. He didn't want to risk suicide because if hell was real, or if reincarnation was real and he'd be born again with no memories of his previous life whatsoever, making him start again from square one, he would be f*cked up. So, since living wasn't an option, and dying wasn't also an option, he was stuck in a moral stalemate.

People who are addicted to anime and manga are birds of a feather. Why? Because they were all losers in life, and by watching anime and reading manga, they would temporarily escape into a different world, where even trashy characters like them are winners in life, getting powers from gods and hot girls. Hal was also one of them.

In these worlds, minimal effort yields big results, and reality is sugarcoated to the point of type-1 diabetes. The only REAL way to win in life is to bite the bullet, work hard, and be confident in front of girls. Hal knew this too, and very well so, but he decided it was too late for him to change.

Little did he know, on this gloomy Monday Hal will get another chance to redeem his life, to become a real hero, saving not only humanity, not only the universe but the whole of reality in itself…