None of this is making a damn sense! How come I'll die if I don't go to the location? And where did this screen suddenly come to appear?!

Tokuda felt utterly confused. But after a minute of sitting down and taking a breather to think about everything that had just happened, he knew what the right choice of action…

I need to find answers. I need to make it over to the location it's telling me.

Tokuda took a good look around and a marker of the location had appeared in his field of view. The marker was also very similar to one from a video game. He dashed through the streets of the capital, hoping that he would arrive on time.

People looked at him as if he was a madman, pushing himself through crowds. But he noticed that other people were also running to the desired location as well.

Are there other people that got the same thing as me? If so, why aren't all the people in the streets freaked out one bit of it?

Tokuda disregarded the thought and focused on his task of getting to the location.

***

After nine minutes of running, he had finally made it to the place he needed to be. As said in the event pop-up, it went away after arriving there.

He looked around and saw plenty of people surrounding the central hall he was at. But the thing that struck out the most was a timer that was in mid-air.

"I wonder why we're here?"

"Hey! How did I get here!"

"I swore I was at work."

Everyone was concerned about how they, like Tokuda, got to this world. All those present had one thing in common. They were doing something and had been teleported to this place.

So… That answers my question. There are other people who got the event pop-up other than me.

Tokuda looked at the timer that had been set for ten minutes in mid-air in the central hall.

The timer had started getting to its last few moments. However, it seemed that everyone had arrived at the event. A person was around the corner trying to make it on time before the timer ended. He rushed as fast as he could. His breathing was as loud as a dog running gasping for air.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

As soon as he got to the Central Hall he gasped as he threw his arms down in exhaustion. To his surprise, the timer got to zero when he arrived.

[ Event: Welcome to My World ]

[ Location: Central Hall | 0:00 ]

A boy in the distance who had rushed over and been around thirty seconds early looked over at the man who made it. He thought in his mind that the whole interface screens that are hollow are an odd thing. It wasn’t only him who had acquired this feature, many others had this hollow screen. He was struck in thought.

Could this be a trap of some kind? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Fantasy World having a sort of interface like this. Usually, it’s like Medieval sorts of things in these types of environments. But, if only these people and I got this… Why didn’t the other people in the streets get alerted to this?

Suddenly, the man who made it on time had cheered which interrupted the boy’s thought to be focused on the shouting. Everyone started staring at the man as if he was a madman. But, something odd happened soon after…

“Yes! I made it aliv-”

Unfortunately, those would be the last words that man would ever speak of…

Shnkkkk!!!

Blood sprayed the tough brick floor red as if a crime scene had occurred at that moment. The boy’s eyes widened as he saw the horrifying scene.

H-His body… it was… cut in half?

The boy had remembered one thing before arriving at the Central Hall, when he had looked at the message pop up about having to arrive at this event on time. In small lettering, it wrote…

[ If you cannot arrive on time to the Event, it will lead to your death. In other words, you would be eliminated from this world. ]

He broke a cold sweat running down his spine. He imagined the many deaths that could have occurred if he or others hadn’t read that small message like the man who had died. People around who had seen the scene screamed bloody murder, they were terrified as if they had never seen death before in their lives.

This isn’t a child’s joke at all… That guy… he’s dead!

The message that read the event’s name was still apparent but with a different tone of color. Rather than having the interface color blue, it had turned red along with a new box with “The Summoner” written clearly in a bold style. He looks at the interface in fear.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[ Event: Welcome to My World | Time Elapsed: 0:00:01 ]

[ The Summoner ]

A mere second after the event began, a weird silhouette appeared, formed from a weird distorting effect within the air. It wore a cloak that was made out of black leather that shined the sun. But, that wouldn’t be that long before the whole mood and weather changed. It had transitioned from sunny and clear weather to a darker, cloudy atmosphere.

“Who… is that?”

Everyone in the Central Hall soon turned terrified from the creepy figure. Most were confused about what was happening. Many shouted after the figure stood still for minutes in silence.

“What the hell is your problem!”

Then, the figure coated with a black cloak finally moved. Both of its arms rose as if it was about to fly. People stood there dumbfounded, confused at what it was doing. But, it spoke…

“I… Welcome…”

Tokuda’s eyes strictly focused on the figure in the distance and what it was saying. He gulped wondering what was left in his sentence that he paused. His heart rate gradually raised as the tension grew.

Ba-Dump! Ba-Dump! Ba-Dump!

“To… My…”

His heart kept racing, he was truly terrified of where he had been taken.

Ba-Dump! Ba-Dump! Ba-Dump!

“...World. Or if you humans don’t like the sound of that, call it the trapped world…”

Silence filled the entire premises as those words were finally spoken. Tokuda's eyes widened as he heard what the silhouette had spoken.

What is this guy talking about? His world? The Trapped World? It doesn't make sense!

"You may be freaking out, asking where you are, how did you get here, and why you're here. I'm here to explain everything to you at this very moment."

The Silhouette raises his arm and then makes an imagery of news liners online.

"Today, I have selected many of you to be in this world, a world of only the usage of Ren. Everyone who arrives here also holds hostages in a world known as the Trapped World. Think of this as an experiment on my newfound discovery of the power Ren."

People were thoughtless at the words the silhouette was saying. However, many of the people recognized the term Ren from history classes that taught them the term.

"We're trapped here?! Why so!"

People tried to escape, but a barrier blocked it from the hall.

"Why can't we leave? I have a family to feed send me back home!"

"People who inherited the power of Ren have been brought here. You may wonder how to escape this world. The answer is to find the missing pieces of the prompt. They can destroy this world and return you to Earth."

Tokuda broke into a cold sweat upon realizing that this was reality and that everything was real.

Missing pieces is the key to leaving.

"Ren?!"

"Didn't it go extinct back in the old era?"

They're right it did go extinct, but this person... just by being in this world tells enough that he's speaking the truth.

Shit... This can't be any good...

There were claims online that scientists were researching the power source. But, many believed it was fake since there wasn't evidence that proved the claim was true.

Tokuda felt shocked and didn't know what to do. But for some reason, his family came to mind. His mother, and his sister. He remembered all the good times with them and he shed a tear thinking about it.

"You may think this is a bluff, but I warn you, this is reality. I go by the name of the Summoner. I wish you the best of luck in getting out of this place,"

The crowd standing around the fountain had fallen into silence. The summoner had already vanished within the second the speech ended. Although the speech was short, people cried. Others lost their mind to the fact that they weren't gonna be able to see their loved ones.

But, Tokuda Hajime felt differently about it. A fire lit in his eyes, and a goal had appeared for him. The goal is to save the hostages of this world and to achieve something for once in his forsaken life.

This is my chance, I will complete my goal. I will do something that will be great for society.

I won't be a disgrace anymore.

At that moment, Tokuda's view of his life had changed forever. He was set on this motivation of his. Since leaving school, his dream was to be in a different world. Finally, it came true.

Tokuda looked to his side. A sword lay against a brick building. It was very new and clean. As he grabbed it, his adventure began.

He ran into the streets, and like always, everyone looked at him with a weird gaze. Tokuda didn't care, then he ran into the fields of grass outside the village and saw wild beasts with axes out in the wild.

***

"Four Beasts."

He focuses all his attention on the blade and strikes the first beast with no hesitation.

Schlickkkkk!

"Three Beasts Left."

The third one tries to attack him. Somehow, he dodges it and counters by piercing the beast's guts. Blood splattered everywhere.

Thump!!!!!

He fights off the two with a fierce fire in his eyes, and he takes both down successfully.

Tokuda yells as he feels great in the moment.

Wosshhhh!

The fields of grass were blowing in a direction due to the intense wind that had appeared.

A pop-up appeared yet again, but the dialog on it was very much different than the previous one he had.

Ting!

[ You have achieved Level 2! ]

[ Unlocked: Skill Tree ]

"So, there's a leveling-up system in the game."

He clicked the dismiss button at the bottom of the pop-up.

This work is exactly like a game, if I want to win in this trapped game. I'll have to grind and max out the skill trees as well as my levels.

Once he also closed out the pop-up that involved the skill tree, a yet odd one popped up afterward.

Ting!

[ Hello, Tokuda… Welcome to the Trapped World, I've created. ]

“T-The Trapped World… A-And how do they know who I am?”

All of this was very confusing for Tokuda, it felt like he was getting personally targeted or being spied on.

____________________________________

Thank You For Reading, Chapters Come Out Daily!