Yesterday was just a very normal day. Nothing was special as it was just one of the very much-needed days away from the monotonous daily grind. A break from work and the precarious tiptoeing around the pitfalls of modern times.
It had become something very crucial to him as the daily toil was driving him to the edge more than he would admit. The escape was more of a band-aid than anything else but the days like yesterday had helped a lot.
There was a unique sense of relief when the closest civilization was miles away and there was nothing all around but nature. Living out here for any extent of time was far from comfortable or convenient, but these were the only days he could breathe easily and felt very much alive.
His life had taken a huge turn when his former workplace had taught him a hard lesson about modern life. The whole shenanigans was a huge B-slap that he wasn't attractive enough to have any interaction with female coworkers. It was absurd, well, if anyone had asked him, but apparently, not even a friendly smile was welcomed if the man wasn’t Superman’s level of Chad.
Of course, he knew that he was just an average-looking guy, but for the record, he was just trying to be friendly. Despite what they claimed, flirting was the last thing he had in mind.
His end game was simple, any sort of teamwork would be easier if the workplace was a tad less pretentious. Everybody should already know that the office wasn’t the best place for relationships so he wondered why this even had happened.
And it was just a smile for god sake.
He wished he was smarter and knew earlier that the daily grind was not what he had previously thought it to be. This middle-aged man had finally had enough brain cells to figure out that not everyone had chosen or was passionate about their work.
It was certainly NOT his accumulated luck when the previous HR lady ‘took pity on him’ and didn't make a huge case out of it, well, if he quit. Something was telling him that something smelly was going on, but for his own mental health’s sake, he rather not point it out.
Why should he stay to fight a losing battle when the whole ship was already sinking by the looks of it? He had tried his best for the company and contributed but even had his limits. It all started almost a year ago when new management came in and even he could tell that it would become a nightmare if he stayed any longer.
And unnecessary conflicts would only lead to unnecessary headaches. He was sure many others would not agree, but he would rather avoid such the whole thing.
Confrontation was not his thing. It was just who he was.
It did, however, make him question the line of job he had chosen. It was probably a little too late, but maybe being a blue-collar probably would involve less drama in his life. He was also pretty good at it considering what could do on the side was all self-taught.
Regardless, his only objective now was to keep on with his new personal goal. What had changed was he was only in the new workplace just to make money to fuel his monetary-gaining gig outside office hours.
It was not like he was looking forward to one, but maybe someday when he could risk trying to find someone pretty and could tolerate him. This was the only requirement he had come up with after everything that had happened.
Anyone could have come to the same realization after they truly understood the truth of the interaction between human physiology and psychology. What could he say? He had a lot of free time to burn whilst in the boring cubicle.
Most of the handover works were done by the various impromptu scripts he wrote, and he had kept those only to himself for obvious reasons. There was no guilt lingering in his heart when the overpaid managers couldn’t figure the simple things out.
Nevertheless, during this self-study, he finally realized that what most called love was just a biological chemical reaction. The addictive butterfly in the stomach everyone seemed to be chasing turned to be a wild goose, and science had proved that no chemical reaction would last very long.
True love? soul mate? Those were just made-up words of a dreamer.
Real relationships would only last if each person could tolerate each other. This fact explains what had happened in the last relationship. He was able to leave it buried when he finally understood why it didn’t work out or why everything happened as it had.
But it was really surprising how his average guy manly appeal skyrocketed when he decided that he didn’t really give a fuck anymore. Suddenly, every girl he interacted with looked at him very differently than before. The whole thing didn’t make any sense to him, but he would still grab the pure benefit whenever it presented itself.
Please forgive this everyday office worker as he was no saint. Like others, he would need an outlet from such a surreptitiously hostile environment. The concrete jungle humans built was much worse than anyone around actually realized.
The saddest thing was, it was all just fun and games without any real fulfillment. All he could do to keep going was to bury the empty feeling every time he woke up in the morning.
He had learned to accept the fact that an average good samaritan no longer had a place in this modern society. All his expectations were dead wrong until it had come to a point where he didn’t know what to expect of the future anymore.
Life felt so wrong until he was hoping that the end of the world was just around the corner.
Perhaps it was a huge mistake, but this was what got him here, in the middle of nowhere, for better or worse. This misadventure into the honest but unforgiving nature was the only thing he could find peace in. The genuine struggle against the weather, nature, and scouring for food were the only moments he felt truly alive.
The fact that he was living in a mobile home made such things effortless. He had never thought being homeless could be very convenient.
The activity also kept him busy enough during holidays and taught him a lot about more important things. He had never thought he loved building things with his hands. Fixing the truck left behind by his late father had taught him mechanics while turning it into a mobile home had taught him both carpentry and electrics.
If he added those to the years of experience in computer software and hardware, he would say if the apocalypse came, he would fit right in as the post-apocalypse handyman.
Of course, he already knew the world didn’t revolve around him. It won’t move or end on his whims either. Instead, the universe would try to screw him over whenever he was beginning to enjoy this new routine with his kind of luck.
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This proved to be true right at the moment.
Today he woke up inside his tent with a gun pressed on his forehead. The US president’s masked person didn’t say a word before excruciating and numbing pain hit him on the side and the world went dark.
He probably had been tasered to a long sleep before he suddenly woke up tied up in a dark cell along with a few others. The distinctive smell of iron and piss was thick in the air, and unlike a few, he could tell that these people were not playing around.
It was then he knew this would probably be the end of him. No rescue would ever come as he had no one significant who would have noticed his disappearance. The clueless people he called friends at the new workplace probably thought he had finally given up.
Time passed without a care in the world as one by one the captive was dragged away and never to return. Who knew how many days had gone by with no food or water before it was his turn to be dragged away in the darkness?
At that moment, he was almost thankful for it as he already had enough. The sheer pain of his gut eating itself was so horrible until dying under whatever these scums’ plot felt a lot better than anything else at the moment.
Everything was hazy by that time as he was dragged away and thrown onto the floor. He was probably hallucinating when the people around him acted crazy as if they were performing some sort of ritual. The smell of blood was never thicker than at the moment.
He wished they would just hurry up already right before everything went dark.
But of course, nothing went his way.
The next time he woke up again, he found himself in another dark damp cell. The flickering flame from a torch revealed not many survived, just a few adults and some teenagers. Everyone was in rags for whatever reason.
A few of them were sobbing quietly while others kept a tight lip for another.
Some even had their own hands clamping their mouths shut.
The worst thing of all, he couldn’t even remember his name or who he was. His memory was choppy at best and jumbled up at worst. Things that he couldn’t have done before kept overlapping with his other memories as if there were two people inside his head.
‘Finally, I’ve gone insane, huh?’ he mused.
Whatever they had done had messed with his mind. Then again, would an insane man know that he had finally lost it? His thoughts were clear other than the overlapping memories. He couldn’t be insane, right?
Or maybe that’s what an insane person would have thought. Does an insane person know he is insane or not? It would be an interesting thing to search-
A loud clang echoed as something solid hit the bars.
“Shut the fuck up or I swear to the Goddess of Death, I’ll burn whoever making those noise!”
Gasps spread between the prisoners and the reason why many kept their lips tight soon showed itself. A person with a sword on his back stood menacing on the other side of the metal bars showing off his, what, burning hand?
“Any more noise and I’ll cook you real good,” threatened the man as he turned around.
He couldn’t tell if the person was human when there was a thick appendage, a lively tail swung behind his back. His scaly back, he might add.
Disbelief questioned his sanity as he shook his head a few times. What he saw couldn’t be real, right? Was he hallucinating all of this?
“Relax, these few will be the lasssst of them,” said another voice in a short distance.
The person didn’t have any ears, his nose was almost flat, and a forked tongue escaped his mouth as he talked. Great, now he couldn’t even trust his eyes anymore.
“I swear to Hela, these lots are useless, what kind of world do these even come from? The last batch had much more backbones than these crybabies.”
“Meh, according to the boss lady, this bunch isss from a world without a trace of [Ether], what can you expect?” The person chuckled. “Soon, we won’t be doing this crap job anymore, well, after this place turns into a huge crater.”
“You're right,” the man chuckled. “All of this will be one of those ‘magical accidents’,” said the man before both of them laughed at the statement.
He simply couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They were going to cover this up with a huge explosion? Was he losing it or these guys were just trying to mess with everyone’s head? It didn’t look like they even cared what he and the others thought about them.
The brightly burning hand came into his mind.
He couldn’t think of any and if it was a trick then how the hell did the man do it? The flame had even winked out as if it was on command. What kind of advanced prop could do that?
‘Is this how crazies see the world?’ he chuckled before a hand clasped onto his mouth.
He turned his head toward a rather small girl. The lovely redhead shook her head from side to side and used her finger to signal him to stay silent. The big green eyes stared into him and she only removed her hand when he nodded towards her.
He must be hallucinating when he noticed the slightly pointy ears before the girl then pulled his head into her. His face sank fully into the warmth. The pair of bulging womanhoods was surprisingly soft and ample.
He tried to push her away but her hold was like vice. The hold didn’t even bulge a bit. Anything he tried was to no avail as she shushed him as if he was a kid. It became pretty obvious that the girl was somehow way stronger than how slender and small she was.
Maybe that’s the point she was trying to convey.
Or he was just crazy and imagining this inside his head?
“I’m sorry for this, but I really need your help,” the girl whispered as she stroked his head as if she was trying to calm him down.
The stranger’s cheeks were red even when he peeked a look. He found it adorable when it was her who had pushed his face into her chest.
Obviously, what she was doing was just an act and somehow she sounded a lot more mature than he had first assumed. There was very little light to see anything but she being much older than her size had suggested would also explain the bulging full and matured racks. He could stay in them forever and never complain.
His first thought it should have been fake but what his face felt was all natural. The situation also spared him from the stench as she smelled wonderful for whatever reason.
“Help with what?” He mustered a whisper back.
She guided his hand to wrap around her tiny waist as if it were all a part of the act. He had to admit her unrestrained share of warmth had helped him to calm down quite a bit. At least, he was able to breathe much easier thanks to her.
“Help is coming,” she said very quietly after his breath settled down. “But I need to send a signal out, and to do that, I’ll need your help.”
“But- but why me, and how?”
“Well, you are the only one who has not given up hope,” she whispered as her eyes looked around. “Or lost their damned minds.”
The girl then turned him around and hugged him from behind so he could look around and see for himself. Of course, she was right. All he could see around were dead eyes and maybe a few manic smiles.
But it was odd when his head fit snugly in between her round bubbly chest. His head was huge the last time he checked, and hers were bulging full but weren’t as big.
The only other explanation was somehow his head was somehow shrunk? What in the world have these kidnappers done to him?
Are those two guards space aliens?
“The cell has a mana suppression sigil, I just need you to trigger it,” she continued to whisper into his ear. “It rearms after a short moment, but it will be enough for me to send a signal out. I can’t do it twice as the sigil was set up to rob any leftover mana.”
He was taken aback. Had she just said ‘mana’?
It sounded like crazy talk, but then he realized her body was shaking. The girl was scared too. She probably had tried and her previous attempt had failed.
In the matter of fact, this also pointed out that the girl probably had let herself be captured on purpose. It was the oldest tactic in the book.
However, there was one other problem.
“But I don’t know how to help you, and won’t the guards notice it?”
“The guards won’t notice it as they are just simple guards, and don’t worry, I already prepared the solution to your other concern,” the girl said as she turned around, her other hand digging the tiled floor for something.
His thoughts lingered on something else as he looked away. How could a guard be simple when he got a magical burning hand? It was ridiculous, but at the same time, made a lot of sense somehow. What the two had done wasn’t very smart, to begin with.
Regardless, he began to have a sinking feeling that all of this was not some sort of complex hallucination. There was a tiny hope that he wasn’t clinically insane just yet.
The girl’s softness, warmth, and fear couldn’t be something inside his head. The contrast of the cold floor and warm body felt too real to be a daydream. He also couldn’t ignore the gnaw in his guts and it was not only from the fact that he was starving.
And a small palm revealing a pair of magical crystals might just confirm either of them.