"Good morning, sir Raf." I greeted our professor who was sitting on his chair while busy checking test papers.
"Morning, mister Jin." He greeted me back without even looking. "Did you come here to pass your missing assignments?"
"Yes sir. Here." I tried to hand him the stack of papers I was carrying. "Everything from midterms and early finals."
He pulled me a face for a brief moment, thinking I would not notice the slight change in his face.
"Good, place it on top over there then you may leave."
He gestured to the nearby cabinet full of stockpiled folders and envelopes. I did what I was told and placed my paperwork on top of the cabinet and slightly lowered my head to the teacher before leaving the office. When I got outside, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me from a distance.
"Jin! Hey, over here!" Waving his hand over his head, the young man was smiling and was eager to be noticed. He eventually ran up to me and offered his fist.
Our fists bumped and I gave the young man a forced smile. Not that I dislike the person, but because I was not in the mood to talk nor have company. But nonetheless, I tried talking to him since he was the person who understood my situation and helped me the most these past few days.
"Are you here to pass assignments too?" I asked.
"Nah. Mine was done since last week."
I forgot that my friend Marco, as well as my other classmates, always tend to finish the given tasks early unlike me who takes literally forever to finish one task. Embarrassed, I scratched my head and started walking down the hallway while he followed behind.
"Where do you plan to go now?" he asked.
Not bothering to stop in my tracks, I shrugged off my stiff shoulders. "Home I guess."
Marco frowned with worry for a second and asked me another question. "Eh? You're not gonna attend Professor Yoke's Anatomy class?"
I shook my head in response as I yawned. "I planned to. But something urgent came up. So yeah, I'll be off early again. Bye!"
A lie.
I waved my hands good bye as my feet strode off even faster, increasing the gap between us two. Finally, I got to the gate entrance of our school. Our school was located beside the highway road. So I patiently waited for moving vehicles to drop then I crossed the lanes. Not even bothering to use the overpass since there were no police around. I again patiently waited for a bus so I could finally go home. Not that I have somewhere to call home now anyway. Luckily, it did not take five minutes for a bus to finally show up. With that, I hopped into it and took a seat near a window. As the bus throttled forward, my mind began to wander off.
I thought about the miseries I've been getting caught up with lately. Not just to me. In fact, to my entire family. After my parents divorced and got separated recently, series of misfortunes came crashing down to my life. I had to deal with my father who, all of a sudden, bore hatred towards me. I was surprised by what he showed me back then when I visited him at his mother's house. If my grandmother did not stop him back then, who knows what could have happened to me. My father's face, the anger and resentment he showed me, that I could never forget because all the past years of my life, I saw him as my role model who had loved me and gave me the things I needed and wanted as a kid. Who shared time with me hiking and playing sports I wanted to play. Who served our family lime a real man. Now, what remains are broken shards of glass ready to cut me at the throat if I am not careful.
My mother was no different. She probably loved me more than she did herself. At least that is what I felt and that is what she made me feel in the past. But of course, there is no denying her love towards her husband. That I am sure of. The sudden divorce did not only affect her but also me, their only child. So I asked my mother when I had the chance. I remember it was near Christmas. We were in the backyard and she was busy shearing her bonsais we bought together. I got up to her and asked, "Mama. Why did you and papa suddenly broke up?"
The question caught her off guard. At first she was just crying but was still able to tell me the reason and causes of all the bad stuff that was happening lately that time.
There, I found out that I was actually an illegitimate child. At least to father, that is. My mother had been carrying me already when she was dating father. I was two weeks old in my mother's belly that time. And my father was oblivious of this fact. She explained to me how she accidentally got impregnated by a man she barely even know from a bar when she and her best friend decided to drink liquor to celebrate her bestie's birthday. After that incident, she could not rile up the confidence to tell my father. So she lied the entire time until I was born and made father believe that I was his legitimate son all these years.
When mother and her "supposedly" best friend got into a misunderstanding and ended up in a huge fight, that is where it all started crumbling. This "bestie" of hers told my father the truth, digging up their past to ruin their relationship. My father eventually had me DNA tested. The result was obvious.
Now I know why my father resented me when I tried to visit him.
Even though all the years have been all but love, he probably felt betrayed by the first or second person he loved the most. Failing to vent his frustration to his wife, he decided to pour it all on me instead, an illegitimate son.
She suddenly bursted into laughter. I thought she was still fine and wanted to me to see her happy despite all the negativities. But I was able to note the slight change in her gaze at me. And the laughter kept going, it was hysterical. As if going crazy, finally having a break down after depressing over and over the fact that the family she built, the best friend she had, are all gone. That I, the illegitimate child of her husband, was the cause of their divorce. That If only I was not born to this world, maybe they would have still been a happy family. That my very existence, ruined the family.
I barely dodged her attempt of stabbing me with the scissor she was holding. She was frantically trying to kill me. If I had been a little closer to her, I would have been fatally wounded. But I managed to outran her with the help of adrenaline rushing all throughout the corner of my legs. Nowhere to go, no place to call home, I slept the entire night in a street. My mother did not even bother calling me nor came looking for me. After only convincing my friend to take me in for a few days, was I able to get a comfy place to sleep. Marco the hero.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
It sucks that I could not treat him better in my situation.
I told nobody else what happened that day, not wanting the police to arrest her or to make her life even more miserable. I wanted to blame myself but as a rational man, I also knew how close minded both my parents were in regards of this matter. They should have thought about it more. Talked about it further. Tried to understood each other's shortcomings. And all in all, as their only child, they should have stayed together and moved on as a family who had showed nothing but love during my growth. But nonetheless, I loved them both. Not the parents that threw me away. But the version of them who gave me love that I needed when I was just a child.
Pushing all those thoughts in the back of my head, I began to take notice of my surroundings. The bus was filled with more passengers. I even failed to feel the presence of the person sitting next to me. Not that I care anyway.
Deprived and exhausted, I again let myself drowned by my negative thoughts and tried to reminisce what lady bad luck had tossed over my life. By then, mild shouts could be heard inside the bus. But as someone who has his eyes closed, I paid no attention to any of it nor tried to listen. I wanted to think what should be my next step going forward in my life.
Since I can not stay forever in someone's house without paying rent, I needed countermeasures for my situation.
For a 20-year old college student who has no job, I have no choice but to step out of my comfort zone or else I will get nowhere.
Distinct voices from earlier are now becoming clearer and louder. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed my mind and opened my eyes. Only then I realized that there is a gun pointing at me. And that the shouts from earlier was from this hooded man, trying to rob the person in front of me.
And now, fresh shouts are coming out of his mouth. All meant for me.
"You there too! Hand over that bag now!"
My mind became hectic but I managed to stay still. Blood started rushing all throughout my entire body as I began to breathe heavily. But I could not move at all.
The hooded man wearing a mask pressed the gun to my forehead. The tip of the gun was cold, it slightly made me shiver and brought sweat to my temples as he roared another warning. "Fucking hell! Gimme your bag you brat or I'll pull the trigger!"
Finally, my body found the strength it needed to move my hand. I reached out my bag to him using my left arm while my voice started to crack. "H-here. Take a-all of it."
He quickly yanked my bag from my hand. But he was not done yet. He pointed to my other hand.
"That ring in your finger. Take it off."
Shit. I cursed in my mind. I should have used my right arm. But I did not have a choice. Or was that really the case? If I let him kill me now, all my troubles will be gone.
Sudden wild thoughts began hopping onto my brain. "I have nothing to lose." "Eternal rest is the best I could hope for." "Did god gave me this opportunity to escape my current situation?" "Is this the solution I am searching for?"
But then, cold sweat started dripping down my spine. The thought of death overwhelmed my sense of dauntless.
The unknown is scary."
Slowly, I took the ring off of my ring finger. As I slowly stretched my arms to give the ring, I took a quick glance on what was fully happening inside the bus. Both in the front and at the back had other robbers stationed. It seems this hooded guy in front of me was not alone. There were seven of them in total. Again, my eyes caught the attention of what was in front.
The windshield has dark stains smeared on it.
Blood.
And on the ground, there was a body of a man.
Dead.
A part of me wanted to escape. But unfortunately the window design of this bus is not something that can be opened with bare hands.
Giving up with the thought of escaping, I clenched my jaws with regret for not taking Professor Yoke's class. In my mind, I thought maybe I should have listened to my friend Marco the hero.
I tried to relax on my seat. Waiting for a miracle to happen. Then one of the men, large in build like men from a military camp, began shouting. His voice, very commanding.
"NOW EVERYONE! LISTEN! NO ONE HERE WILL DIE IF YOU ALL STAY STILL. GOT IT? WHATEVER WE SAY, IS LAW. UNLESS YOU WANT TO END UP DEAD JUST LIKE THAT MAN THERE—" he pointed to the front, at the driver laying on the ground. "THEN YOU ALL HERE STAY QUIET AND DON'T TRY ANYTHING STUPID. YOU HEAR?!"
No one actually responded back but whimpers of both men and women haunted the interior of the bus.
Outside, flashes of red and blue lights can be spotted from afar. It seems that the police were able to respond quickly. But what can they do in this situation?
I felt the unfair judgement of the world again towards my existence and I cussed whoever is manipulating this fate of mine. I closed my eyes as tears began to shed from my eyes, slowly trickling down to my cheeks. I cursed and cursed and cursed. Not just to god. But to all the gods and goddesses there exist.
At that very moment, something popped up in front of me. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me since my eyes were closed and that my mind was clouded with grief so I thought it was probably a random bullshit.
I opened my eyes, and the strange blue screen was still there, in front of me.
So I began to take it seriously and tried showing it to my seatmate in which, I received no reaction from her.
This can't be real now right?.
But I still chose to read its content.
----------------------------------------
SYSTEM NOTICE
YOU ARE A SUBJECT TO BE ONE OF THE PEOPLE TO BE CHOSEN FOR THE BETA TUTORIAL. DO YOU WISH TO ACCEPT?
WARNING!!
ONCE YOU ACCEPT, YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO THE LOCATION RIGHT AWAY AND LEAVE THE CURRENT POSITION YOU ARE IN. FAILURE TO SAY "ACCEPT" MEANS YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE PART OF THE CHOSEN ONES.
COUNTDOWN: 30 SECONDS
----------------------------------------
"Huh? Beta what now?"
Still, I was not sure if it is something I should ignore. More sweat from my back and forehead began to race with the ticking countdown.
23 SECONDS
Shit! Is this actually real?
20 SECONDS
I somehow remembered this type of occurrences. But it only happens in novels and TV shows, and as someone who partly believe in god, I carried the thought with hesitation.
But I also remembered that I had nothing to lose even if I accept this stupid blue screen floating in front of me.
I quickly thought of the gaming system I usually read online.
"Damn hell, whatever! If I can get out of this situation and has a chance to change the course of my life."
I stood up, still staring at the blue window only I could see.
"Then I will!"
All passengers suddenly shifted their focus on me. The robbers quickly pointed the nozzle of their gun at my direction.
6 SECONDS
The men started to shout. "HEY YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? SIT DOWN OR I'll GUN YOU DOWN!"
I did not care. Intense feeling swelled up inside my body. I could not control myself and emotions got the better of me. Before I could stop myself, my mouth erupted with vulgarity. And I gave them a middle finger. "FUCK YOU!"
BANG!
Big mistake. Their leader, the large built man, reacted too fast.
I felt the searing pain in my chest. My gaze started to get blurry as the world started spinning. With a thud, I heard my body fell to the person sitting beside me as she screamed in terror. I could see her face agitated with the sight of a dead man right beside her.
2 SECONDS
I...acce..
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CHAPTER 1 END
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