It was dark—too dark.
In a dark room filled with trash—chips, pizza crusts, empty soda cans—the only sound was the faint clicking of a keyboard. The faded light of the computer screen illuminated Jun, a gacha addict around the age of twenty-one, who sat in a scruffy gaming chair.
He was so focused on his favorite gacha game that he didn't have a care in the world. He was wasting money buying the game's currency—funds sent to him by his parents, who were abroad for work.
Jun had dark circles under his eyes. He was as skinny as a skeleton, eating only packs of chips and drinking more soda than water.
"SMASH!"
"Fuck!" Jun shouted as he punched the wall in frustration, having lost another 50/50.
"I want to pull Altier so badly," he said, putting his head on the table and closing his eyes. "She could easily solve the synergy problem of my entire team."
He tried to think of ways to get Altier, having already spent nearly his entire pocket money for the month.
He had already spent over 50,000 dollars on Altier, and he still couldn't get her. His head was throbbing in pain because of the lack of sleep and the growing frustration of not getting the character he wanted so badly.
As he continued thinking about her, he muttered, "Altier is such a good support character. She can revive the entire team with her ultimate, and she's also very tanky. That's the main reason I want her on my team.
"I still have Maria as a support, but the main problem with her is that she's a 2-star unit that I pulled. Unlike Altier, who is a 5-star unit, Maria can only revive one character on the team and isn't that tanky."
He continued thinking about it. The frustration and the thought of not getting Altier were haunting him.
He grabbed his head, pulling his hair, and gritted his teeth. Suddenly, out of frustration, he punched the computer with full force. The computer screen turned black, and cracks showed up on the entire screen.
He still wasn't done. As he stood up, wanting to let all of his anger out, Jun's heart suddenly stopped beating. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to the ground unconscious.
While he was unconscious, the wind started to get cooler and chillier. The lights of the entire city began to flicker as an unknown black fog covered it. A red light moved inside the fog at high speeds, darting from home to home in a matter of seconds.
Suddenly, the red light appeared in front of Jun's unconscious form. It took the shape of a big eye. The eye glowed and laughed. "I've finally found him," it said in a menacing voice, even though it had no mouth.
The eye created a pure red portal under Jun's chair and began casting in some unknown language. When it stopped, it laughed one last time menacingly before vanishing into thin air.
"Master, please wake up." A smooth, calm, and gentle voice called out. Jun stirred from his sleep, slowly waking up, yawning, and stretching his arms in the air.
Jun rubbed his eyes with his left hand. His vision was still blurry from his sleepy state.
Once Jun was completely awake, his eyes widened in shock. He wasn't in his house anymore. He was sitting on a throne made of human skulls and covered in blood. Looking around, he realized he was in a deep, dark room—clearly not his own, more like a castle.
His eyes landed on the woman in front of him. Jun tried to compose himself and sat up straight on the throne.
"Where am I? What is this place?" Jun asked. Surprisingly, his voice wasn't thin like before but deep, heavy, and dominant.
The way he had just spoken wasn't like him. He was still conscious and able to control his body, but it felt as though someone else's soul was inside him.
(Chapter 1 End)