“#### ### ####### ###, ## ########”
“Understood.”
As he spoke, he felt a sharp pain in his brain, like the sharp cold after suddenly biting into an ice cream. Rubbing his head, he ended the call.
He was worried that this was a harbinger of illness, so it would be better to be around people rather than staying at home alone.
He turned off the video he was watching before the phone rang and got out of bed. Even though it was the end of summer, it was still oppressively hot. He couldn't afford to buy a fan for his house, so going somewhere cool would be a relief.
It took him less than a minute to put on his clothes. He always preferred to dress up well because he wanted people to think he was charismatic and handsome, but since he was in a hurry, he made an exception this time and put on a few simple things and stood in front of the full-length mirror at the entrance of the house.
“Nineteen years in an hour and I still don't understand how the simplest thing I wear looks absolutely perfect on me!”
He was posing with one hand on the mirror and the other in his pocket. Although his clothes were simple, the smug young man admiring his reflection in the mirror was named Yu Valarfin. There was never a day when he did not praise himself. Especially when he was in front of the mirror, he would admire himself and vocalize his good qualities.
“I must be God's masterpiece, there is no other explanation for this marvel,” he said as he took his hand away from the mirror and spun around. He abruptly stopped his spin and struck another pose, running his fingers through his neatly trimmed brown hair.
At eleven o'clock at night, it was a phone call that made Yu sit in front of the mirror. Usually his phone didn't ring much and he hadn't received any calls at this time of night.
But a phone call from the orphanage had just been the thing that brought Yu out just as the minute hand was turning eleven. If he had been called elsewhere, he probably would have refused because he didn't want to leave his home so late, but for some reason he couldn't refuse calls from the orphanage.
Yu didn't like being tied down or feeling indebted. Of course, there were people he couldn't repay, people he didn't mind being tied to and people he loved very much, but he hate being tied down places.
He didn't like being tied to a place from her past, so he wanted to cut ties with the orphanage and focus entirely on the future, but his older sisters wouldn't let him break the bond they had.
After he left the orphanage, he went to live with his older sisters, and since his sisters didn't want to cut ties with the orphanage and leave it, Yu couldn't either.
Occasionally, Yu and other former residents who had kept in touch with the orphanage after leaving were called, usually when they needed help with plays for the children, fundraising or chores. Usually it was his older sisters, and since they answered the call, Yu agreed to help for their sake.
“It's not normal for them to call at eleven o'clock at night. Maybe they are preparing a birthday party for me.”
He was trying to make sense of the call at such a late hour. A birthday party was the first idea that came to his mind, but it was not convincing. August thirty was still an hour away and no one would organize a birthday party for someone at 00.00 at night. It was a bad idea to bother the birthday boy for a party in the middle of the night in the first place.
“If not for this, for what?” he thought. Yu could not find an answer as to why he had been called at this hour. Another idea that came to his mind was that he had been called because there was an emergency. ‘Emergency,’ was a valid reason to call someone in the middle of the night.
But if there was such a thing, they would have told him on the phone and told him to hurry up.
“Wait a minute, wasn't I already in a hurry?” he felt a tingle on his forehead.
Yu couldn't think of any emergency that would require him to be there. Besides, the voice on the phone was quite calm for someone in an emergency.
“Should I hurry?”
He was given no reason to hurry. He went along the corridor to get his backpack and entered his room at the end. He hadn't slept in his own room for a while. Or rather, he couldn't sleep in his room or anywhere else, even if he wanted to. At the end of endless nights, when he felt he could sleep in the morning, he threw himself on the canapé in the living room and used his own room only to put things away.
He didn't sleep in his room because his heart wouldn't let him sleep there. He had no bad memories of his room, it was the room right next to it that kept him from sleeping there. When Yu was next to that room, he felt empty, just like that room.
In fact, not only when he was near that room, but for a long time, he felt empty; the things that made his life beautiful had been taken away from him, leaving him an empty shell with no purpose and only appearances.
Of course, his pride would not admit that Yu Valarfin was an empty shell. Neither now nor ever before had Yu made any attempt to humiliate himself. It was impossible for Yu Valarfin to look down on himself, to swallow his pride and admit that he was a failure.
But no matter how much he denied the feeling of emptiness, there was no way to change the fact that it was there. It was a dark pit, a black hole in his chest, always there, never going away and always, always, always, always sucking something in, never satisfied.
Yu tried to fill the emptiness that had consumed his life with insatiable appetite. At the end of his attempts, when he subconsciously realized that there was no way to fill the void, he tried to forget it. Although his efforts were completely in vain. Everything he did, everything he tried, was ridiculed by the dark hole in his chest, and all his efforts were swallowed up by it.
Being diligent, working harder and coming home successful no longer made sense to Yu. His mind was in a terrible state and he had found a new way to get his mind out of the terrible state it was in.
His method was called arrogance. Yu's arrogance had always been there, but in the last few months it had become more pronounced. To escape the loneliness that surrounded him and to defend himself against the pain that clawed at his chest, he tried to believe that he didn't need others, that he was too perfect to be harmed. He wouldn't stop trying, but his efforts were futile.
As he put his bag on his back and left his partially used room, he took one last look at the room next door. It was still the same as it had been four months ago. Of course Yu always cleaned it once a week. The care he took in cleaning there was the same care he took in nothing else in the last period of his life. He didn't move things around when he cleaned, he kept them the same as the last time he left them.
He shook his head to prevent his heart, which was trembling with grief, from causing him more pain, and took quick steps to the front door of the house and looked in the mirror once more. He rubbed his sorrowful eyes and placed a haughty smile on his sullen face.
As he always did before leaving home, he turned on his phone and checked the date and battery.
22.53 - 29.08.2019 - %95
His phone was almost fully charged as it had just come out of the charger. Since there was no problem with the phone, it was time to check his wallet. He took out the wallet from his back pocket and confirmed that it contained some money and his ID.
After looking through the contents of his bag, he finally checked the key in his hand. After a few unfortunate incidents, he had always been able to confirm that he had the key in his hand before he left the house.
When he was sure that all the preparations were complete, he put on his shoes and checked his hair in the mirror one last time before opening the house door. His hair was fine, so there was nothing to stop him from opening the door and going out.
“Huh?”
Yu Valarfin closed the door as fast as he opened it.
He turned around and looked again in the full-length mirror opposite the door. There was neither the sullen face he wore when he was alone nor the arrogant face he showed to people. Only a confused boy, trying to comprehend what had just happened, stood in front of the mirror.
After the phone call, the same cold that had been in his brain returned. More than cold, he had a terrible headache. Yu put his hand to his head as he fell to his knees.
“I'm fine, not alone...” he was trying to be strong. He was afraid of having a crisis when he was alone.
When the pain subsided a little, he stood up and looked out through the binoculars of the door. As he was used to seeing every day, his next-door neighbor's door was standing there.
“I have a headache, so I must have seen it wrong.”
When he felt ready, he put his hand on the doorknob but waited a moment before opening it. He was convinced that what had just happened was a trick his brain was playing on him. Nevertheless, he could not stop the momentary excitement in his heart from bringing all kinds of fantasies to his mind. He slowly lowered the doorknob and opened the door again.
The door of the neighbor he used to seeing all the time was not there.
In front of him lay a street he had never seen before. It didn't have the modern look of today's cities, but it didn't look like a village either. The buildings on the side of the long street were reminiscent of. On the sidewalk, a brown-haired young man about Yu's age was walking hand in hand with a short, pointed-eared girl in a one-piece black dress.
As the sound of the door slamming shut echoed through the house, Yu turned around and looked at his face in the mirror once more. The surprise on his face was even greater now, his mouth was open and his amethyst-toned violet eyes were even bigger.
He slapped his cheeks a few times, put his hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever. There was no fever, he felt healthy despite the headache he had just had.
He took out his phone and looked at the time. He connected to both wifi and mobile data to check if he was still in the world. As soon as he connected to the internet, he received two notifications from mail.
22.56 - 29.08.2019 - 94% / Signal Strength: Full
Message: The opening date of your school...
Message: ** ******* Change your card password...
He quickly pushed the notifications aside. Yes, he was still in the world.
“Are you kidding? Is that why you called me at midnight?”
He shouted loud enough to be heard throughout the apartment building. The possibility that it was a joke was the most logical of all the ideas he could think of, but it didn't make much sense to him either.
“Who would prepare such a big-budget prank?”
He lived in a narrow apartment and building a wide street inside the apartment was against the laws of physics. And he didn't think that a YouTuber or a TV channel would create a high-budget, ultra-realistic prank with denying the laws of physics, especially on an ordinary citizen with no recognition.
He ran on tiptoe without taking off his shoes and went to the balcony of his house to check the street he was on. He was still on the street he didn't like. An ugly dog urinating on a car tire, a few uncivilized stooges passing under his balcony while talking in a loud voice.
“I'm sure I'm not dreaming. The edges of my field of vision are not blurred and I can think and read freely. So...”
He ran on his tiptoes again and stood in front of the door. He took a deep breath. He was torn between going out and not going out.
“Actually, what I'm seeing now is something that most people dream of, but if I go out there, I can't come back.”
If he couldn't come back - it didn't matter. “Or does it matter?” It was hard to decide. “What if he's not there when I open the door?” he didn't know which would be better.
“Wait a minute, why am I thinking like this? Do I want to go out? But what if I can't come back?” He wasn't sure what he wanted, but the excitement in his heart was growing.
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He could no longer enjoy anything he did in this world. The things he cherished in the world had turned into sweet but painful memories. All his hard work, all his efforts were for the appreciation of only two people, and they were no more.
“Do I want to go out?” he thought.
He wondered what would happen to this house, to that room, if he went out for a look and did not return. Even if it was not used, he wanted it to remain clean, not neglected, and as a sign of respect for them, it was his duty to keep it as it was, even if it was impossible to keep it forever.
“I will just take a quick look and come back.”
He slowly lowered the door handle. His heart was beating faster and faster. He was afraid that when he opened the door he would not find the scene that he could not believe was real a moment ago. It was as if everything he had put his life on the line for would be in vain if he couldn't see it again.
He was afraid of being disappointed after preparing himself. Even though there were many emotions that were making him feel uneasy right now, Yu was slowly forgetting what those emotions were.
And there he was. He opened the door and there was this mysterious street he didn't recognize. Now there was no one on the street. He looked up at the sky, there were many more stars than on earth and the crescent moon was much brighter than the moon on earth.
“I thought, what if this is not a gateway to a magical world, but a gateway to the Renaissance? I don’t want to find myself in another boring world. Of course, the girl I saw on the sidewalk had pointy ears. Is it? Is it a parallel world thing?”
He didn't want to be trapped in a boring world like this. There was so much potential in a magical world, but an ordinary world would just be boring.
“But a magical world has its drawbacks. What if the world in front of me is magical but it is Dark Souls level? What if I have no magical powers in the world I enter? How will I survive? These are questions to think about.”
Even if the door opened into a fantastic world, it had to have its own rules. It could not be a world where everyone was endowed with magical powers. Yu was an ordinary person, and in such a world, there was a high chance that he wouldn't have magical powers. What could he do as an ordinary person?
Despite his negative thoughts, he was afraid to even close his eyes because of the fear that the world in front of him would disappear. He was undecided whether to enter it or not, there was an irresistible doubt inside him. It would be a problem to regret it and not be able to go back. Even though he convinced himself that there was nothing left in the world that he loved, it was not certain that he would feel that way in the future.
“Should I go back and take things with me?”
Of course he had things he wanted to take with him. What prevented him from going back and taking the things he wanted was the fear of “what if the world is not there when I return?”
He was afraid he would get lost the world that front of him, but he was not sure he had the courage to walk out the door. Doubt and anxiety filled him.
“#### ### ####### ###, Yu Valarfin.”
“Yes.”
At a moment when time stopped flowing, Yu Valarfin's mind stopped working, and he had taken his first step out of the door.
“To you... I... Yu…”
The voice echoed in his mind. Then he couldn't resist the urge that arose inside him and put his other foot out. Now he was in an unfamiliar street.
Nekoveiner 23.00 - 29.08.2019
---
Nekovezwei Later in the Night, August, 39 Years after the Battle of Heroes.
Suddenly a burning sense of regret washed over him and he could not resist the urge to go back. The regret was mixed with the fear of the unknown. As he turned to go back and reconsider his choice, the door slammed violently shut and disappeared, leaving Yu outside.
He was completely alone in this unknown world. Fear made it difficult for him to breathe and he felt the hot tears streaming down his face. The closing of the way back turned into a flame that burned him. As sweat poured down his head, he put his hand to his chest as if trying to suppress his heartbeat. He looked around, searching for a way back. There was nothing more than a strange street.
“What have I done?” he said with great concern.
He wished it was a joke. He was just realizing how stupid his action had been. “Please let it be a joke,” he mumbled as he crouched down and put his head in his hands.
“You can't do something so stupid...”
He still couldn't understand how and why he did it. He tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths in and out. He swallowed, then swallowed again when he felt the urge to swallow again. He reconsidered the possibility that this was a dream. He stood up and jumped a few times to check reality, slapped himself, ran his hand over his body.
“#### #### you, Yu Valarfin.”
He finally accepted the reality of his situation.
“Okay, okay, calm down!” his voice was loud enough to wake people up. The more he tried to calm down, the more his stress level increased. “Worrying won't help, let me check my stuff.”
He already knew what was in his backpack, but he opened it, hoping that looking at it again would help him calm down.
“Spare T-shirt, underpants and sweatpants. A magazine for scientific purposes, a book I left halfway through, a bottle of water, playing cards, chocolate wafers with nuts, deodorant and epilepsy pills...”
His illness was completely out of his mind. He had been seizure-free for a long time thanks to the medication, but what would happen when it ran out? Was there a cure for epilepsy here? He would not be able to manage it forever and if a seizure came, he would be in a very difficult situation. Moreover, after a long time he felt that a seizure was coming.
“What did people do before modern medicine?”
If he was in a fantasy world, which he thought he was, maybe there was such a thing as a healing spell that would make Yu's worries disappear, but it was foolish of him to jump in here without thinking about his illness.
Other than that, that's all he had in his bag. There was a family photo of the three members in the book, which he wanted to keep. The spare clothes he kept there in case he needed them would also come in handy. He didn't want to walk down the street in sweatpants or a T-shirt with a waifu on it, but a pajama would do. And the magazine... It was good to keep for some situations.
“23.05, my battery is ninety-four percent. I can use my phone. Even though it will last for a week at most, I can sell it before it turns off and earn enough money to cover my needs,” he said, closing his phone and putting it in his pocket, taking out his wallet from his back pocket.
“In the wallet there is some money, ID card, school card, bank cards and three photos... Keep these photos too. The only thing that matters in the wallet is the photos.”
Besides these, he had two other things with him. The most precious things he had, two rings left to him by his older sisters. He threaded them on a string and wore them around his neck as a necklace, hiding them under his clothes. He could never lose the last things he had left from the only people he loved.
“All right, all right, all right! Not bad for a start. Sell the phone, find a place to stay. First mission.”
After some thought, he realized that the way of thinking he was using to calm himself was very dangerous. The word ‘mission’ made him think of it as a game, and if he thought of this world as a game, he might not have a chance to live for long.
“Note to self, this is not a game. At least not if I don't have superpowers.”
After catching his breath, he started to feel better. He stopped sweating.
“I guess it does not matter what world I am in, I am always awesome.”
He placed his arrogant smile on his face to comfort himself. Even though he was still in a bad mood and half of his mind remained in his own world, he was getting used to it.
“Besides, I can’t sit forever, I have to get used to it. For now, I have to figure out what to do in the morning. I don’t think I can sleep, so I can walk around... Fuck!”
Yu had perhaps forgotten the most important thing. There was something much more important than money, accommodation, illness or magical powers. Did the people of this land and Yu speak the same language?
If there was a language difference, he wanted it to be limited to a simple dialect or at least English. That way he could express himself and soon be able to converse fluently. If the people here spoke a different language that was completely foreign to him, he would not be able to get along with them.
“If there is a language difference, I can go no further than begging on the street.”
If the language he spoke was different, he would be deaf and dumb in this world. He could neither sell his phone nor ask for food and lodging.
Maybe he should try to be a little optimistic. In a novel he’d read, an alien race had overcome the language barrier by inserting a bug that translated sound waves into their ears and mouths. Yu loathed the idea of having a bug crawling around inside his body, but if such a method existed, he might have no choice but to use it.
Thinking would not help him solve the language problem, so he decided to look around.
The buildings lining both sides of the road were not neglected and looked like places where people would want to live even in a twenty-first century world.
Judging by the quality of the buildings and the length of the street, he decided he is in a city. There was also the smell of the sea.
“So we are in the coastal area. Should I look for the city center or find the sea?”
If he considered himself lost, it would be easier for him to find the sea he could smell than the city center where he did not know where it was.
He started walking, following the scent he smelled. He didn't want to stop on the street he was on and take different roads. He didn't even think of something stupid like going into the alleys. He had some things with him that might be valuable in this world and he didn't want to lose them to a few punks he might meet.
“More important than my stuff is my life. It would be bad if some asshole in the alleys pulled a knife and stabbed me.”
When he was sure there was no one around to watch him, he shadow boxed and threw a few punches into the void.
“I don't feel stronger than usual, I can think quickly because of my high level of intelligence, but my physical characteristics don't seem to change.”
So when a thug with a knife approached Yu, the chances of being stabbed were very high.
Yu had an athletic body, but being a good boy, he was not much experienced when it came to fighting. So he wasn't going to be stupid and try to play the hero. Someone he fought here could easily beat the crap out of him and send Yu packing, or even kill him.
Which would have hurt his pride more, being beaten or running away when he realized he was going to be beaten? He tried to listen to his head rather than his heart, but he was still taking orders from his pride, which he could not ignore.
Then he decided surviving against all odds was more important than his pride. There was no point in being beaten or dying for nothing. He would stay away from fighting and dangerous places.
Except for the light of lanterns that served as street lamps, the only source of light was the moon and stars in the sky. Almost all the houses were dimly lit. It was normal, in a world without television and internet there was no reason to stay up late at night.
Since people probably wake up with the sunrise, staying up late would ensure that they start the day sleepless and continue sleeplessly in the morning. People who couldn't sleep would be inefficient at work.
With this knowledge, Yu would also have to adjust his sleeping patterns. He could no longer stay up late into the night. He had to get used to going to bed early and getting up early as soon as possible.
“The sidewalks are wider than in most cities of the twenty-first century, and so is the road. The city planner must be a visionary.”
He was commenting on the city while following the salty smell of the sea. The city planning was definitely very good. Even if there were small differences, in general the buildings were close in size and similar in shape. Their distances from each other were also perfectly spaced. Apart from that, this could have been the tidy part of the city where the rich live and the other parts would have been disappointing.
In the middle of the night, he continued walking on the straight road without meeting any people. He admitted it was a bit scary. The absence of anyone made him feel uneasy.
His nose was getting used to the smell of the sea when the occasional sound of waves mingled with the sound of dogs and he realized he had reached his destination. He quickened his steps and moved forward to see the sea.
He was sure that if he found the sea in such a well-planned city, he would discover something useful there. Maybe where he was walking was not the main road and when he reached the sea he would see the main road.
Once he found the main road, he could find a way to get to the city center, and maybe he could meet someone, make contact.
“Surely there must be a city center here? Of course there will be a city center, even villages have a center. If there is no language problem, I will definitely find something useful in the city center, maybe I can sell my phone.”
He didn't know how long he had been walking, as he had turned off his phone to conserve its charge, but he could tell it was closer to half an hour.
When he finally reached the sea, he saw that it was a harbor and when he could see the waves, he realized that all this walking had been worth it. The sea was beautiful.
But above his head was a much more spectacular sight.
When he looked up, he saw more stars than his eyes had ever seen before. Above his head, on a midnight blue canopy, countless stars shone. It was mesmerizing to watch the view in the light of the moon hitting the sea, but the most breathtaking, the most beautiful was the arm of the galaxy in the sky that Yu could only describe as ‘magnificent’.
The breathtaking landscape scene he had expected from a fantastic world was completed in the very first moments of his story. Thanks to what he saw, Yu thought that the world he was in might be round and that they were in a similar universe. If the arm of the galaxy was visible, it would mean that they were in a galaxy.
If there are galaxies, it was normal for him to take into account that he was in a similar universe and to assume that the earth was round, but if there were fantastic elements in the world, he could also find out that he was in a flat earth built on a tray.
For hours he could watch the sky above his head, accompanied by the sound of the waves, and not be disturbed by anyone. Right now this sky belonged to him and him alone. As he watched the sky, he thought about looking for a safe place to stay, but he had a strong feeling that he should keep walking. Besides, if he wanted to go back, he could find this place now.
He found a street connected to the harbor and wider than the one he had used on his way here. He thought he could use it to reach the city center. It would be great for him if he could find the center and find some kind-hearted people to communicate with.
The air had suddenly turned cold. When he started to feel the cold and the idea of staying up all night sounded difficult despite all his excitement, he decided that he had to find a place to stay and that he had to move forward.
If he was going to ask for help, he had to ask for help from someone he didn't know and could easily be tricked. If he had a choice, Yu would never have agreed to take care of another human being, but now the situation demanded it, so if he could ask someone for help, he would do it.
As he was walking down the street, he saw a few people walking away from him. He could have gone up to them and tried to communicate with them, but he didn't. It wasn't that he didn't know them or that he was afraid, it was just that they were far away from him and he had to run to catch up with them.
When the people in the distance disappeared from sight, he continued walking and examining the buildings.
!?!?!?
First a meaningless sound came from beneath his feet. Not only did he hear a sound, but he also felt the ground tremble. By the time Yu realized that the ground was collapsing, it was too late. The road he was walking on collapsed and he fell down.
***
He could think of nothing as the ground gave way and he fell down. He hadn't even realized what had happened when he found himself in indescribable pain. At least through the pain he could understand that he was miraculously alive.
His skin was peeling from the stones and his body was covered in blood. His shirt was blackened by the red blood. There was a pain in his leg that made him scream. A large piece of stone had fallen on his stomach, preventing him from standing up.
Using all the strength in his arms, he pushed the stone away. A force of unknown origin helped him to stand up.
As he stood up and put his weight on his left leg, which hurt less, he turned to a huge four-armed gorilla with orange scales standing in front of him. Far away from the creature stood a little girl with red eyes, white hair and cat ears.
“Neko! Run now!”
A red-eyed, white-haired woman in crimson clothes jumped in front of the cat-eared little girl and without waiting she threw a purple orb at the creature.
When Yu's violet eyes met her red ones, it was too late. As the orb she threw grew larger and reality faded, Yu could only think of one thing.
“Fuck - What a pretty girl.”