"Son, go and touch some grass."
"Of course, Dad. Your good son will do as you say."
Lex Canor was a young man in his late teens. He had black hair, brown eyes, and the kind of face you could easily forget — painfully ordinary.
He strolled down the street until the park came into view. And without hesitation, he walked over to the nearest patch of green and crouched.
His fingers brushed against the grass, then naturally, he pulled out his smartphone.
'How obedient I am. My family's lucky to have me,' he thought with pride, rubbing his nose like a modest hero in a cheap webnovel.
Lex opened a game titled Academy & Adventure.
He was obsessed with it. Despite the name, it wasn't really about adventuring in an academy. No — the main "adventure" was capturing girls.
Yep. A blatant wish-fulfillment gacha game where you had to spend money just to get a single heroine.
But A&A was a little different from the typical gacha. You could interact with all the heroines without spending a dime. The catch? You couldn't actually progress your relationship with them without paying.
It was a cursed game, and it had been running for nine years since launch.
But recently, the company had pulled an insane stunt no one thought possible. Probably because profits had been dwindling for the last two or three years.
They announced a one-year window where you could get any girl without spending a single dollar. The downside? They cranked the difficulty up to hellish levels.
Gamers took it as a challenge, racing to see who could finish the game. Most dropped out long before the end, convinced it was impossible to achieve the true ending.
But Lex was a different breed. He'd been playing for four years, and there was no way he'd quit now.
For the last three days, he'd been glued to A&A without sleeping. His father had finally kicked him out to "touch some grass" — no doubt under orders from his dear mother.
'It's 8 AM. The server will go down at 12 PM… that gives me four hours.'
His fingers flew over the controls. He was in a hurry as story was at 70% completion, and he had almost unlocked all the girls.
Don't think 70% was low. For A&A, where getting more than 30% completion was considered a rare feat these days, it was insanely high.
He kept playing, laser-focused, as he approached what he believed to be the true ending.
The protagonist he'd chosen was now standing beforethe Silver Throne of Forgotten Heaven,locked in battle with the final boss.
Its name: Hollow Star. Strangely enough, that name reminded Lex of a side character from the early and mid-game. He didn't have time to think about it, though — victory was the top priority.
The fight raged on. After a series of intense events, he finally landed the last blow.
Lex couldn't describe his joy. He wasn't sure if this was the true ending, but it was definitely a good ending — and that was more than enough to make him happy.
'It's already 11 AM. I should head home. Father will definitely be jealous if I show him this… hahahaha.'
Like him, his father was also a gamer, one
who shared his love for video games.
Stretching his back, he stood up slowly, ready to head home.
He started to cross the road and then froze.
A cat was stuck in the narrow bars of a storm drain grate.
It wasn't the usual black or white street cat. No, this one had a whitish-blue coat, the kind of color he'd only ever seen in anime, video games, or webnovels.
A truck barreled down the street at dangerous speed, and Lex knew it would hit the cat.
'No… I have to save it.'
Lex was a cat lover. No matter what, he had to help.
He rushed toward the animal and tried to pull it free, ignoring the scratches on his hands. But its paw was wedged tight and refused to come out.
The truck roared closer.
'Is Truck-kun gonna transmigrate me? … Damn, why can't I be serious for even a second?'
The grill of the truck loomed right in front of him and then—
it stopped.
The driver, a man in his thirties, stepped out of the truck and said,
"Brother, I understand you were trying to save the cat—believe me, I'm a cat lover too. I was already planning to stop and help, but you should be more careful."
Lex gave an apologetic smile. "Well, sorry for the inconvenience. And… thanks for stopping, fellow cat lover."
The driver crouched beside him, and together they worked to free the cat. After a bit of struggling, the small creature slipped out from between the bars.
They exchanged a few more words, nothing too important, before the man returned to his truck and drove off.
Lex looked at the cat in his arms.
'Did someone… paint it? I hate people who do crap like that.'
The bluish fur was unnatural for a cat, and Lex suspected some idiot had decided it would be funny to dye a cat.
Shaking his head, he adjusted his grip and started going toward his home. If it was paint, he'd wash it off himself.
But then—something unexpected happened.
The ground trembled violently, as if the whole world was about to end.
'What the… am I destined to die today or what?'
He fumbled for his phone to call his family, panic rising in his chest, but before he could, the earth beneath him cracked open.
The fissure was massive—too wide to leap over. The ground gave way under his feet, and he plunged downward, the cat still clutched tightly in his arms.
His eyes squeezed shut, his heart pounding, then he opened his eyes to steal one last glance at the bluish cat.
'Looks like we're dying together. Don't worry, I'll take you to heaven before going to hell…Also, I hope Dad destroys my computer instead of… y'know… looking inside it.'
Dozens of ridiculous thoughts like that flashed through his mind, until there was nothing left but darkness.
"nyaa, you can open your eyes."