A short young man, with dark hair, a rather pale skin and a tired face with deep bags under his eyes left his high school— where he is in his final year— to go home. He did not wait for anyone to go with him. His earphone were blasting music in his ears.
He walked without paying attention to anyone or anything, barely dodging the obstacles in his way.
Once home the young man— whose name was Ren— immediately changed himself into a more comfortable outfit and opened his computer.
"Come on... tell me it's done... Yes! Finally!"
He said contemplating his screen where the words [Download complete] could be read. Ren let his computer download a huge game he was dying to play while he was at school and refused to wait any longer so without further ado— he launched his game.
He played for hours on end, without ever looking away and barely blinking. You could hear him scream words such as "COME ON!" Or "FUCK OFF" from outside his home.
Despite having classes the next day, Ren did not even consider going to sleep. After passing 4 AM and barely eating anything, he finally decided to take a break and take a walk outside to breath fresh air.
"Brr it's cold out here..."
Trembling while contemplating going back inside, Ren finally strengthens his resolves and start walking in a random direction.
"I am so fucked during class tomorrow..."
While thinking about wether or not he should skip school tomorrow, the ground started to shake.
"What the- a earthquake?? For real? Wait where am I supposed to go-"
Surprised by the unexpected earthquake Ren tries to hold on to something but the earthquake's power quickly rises to unnatural extent.
"SHIT-"
Some sort of ravine forms beneath Ren's feet, he tries to get away from the rapidly opening ground but the power of the earthquake, and the confusing screaming of everyone from inside their homes makes him lose balance and he falls into said ravine.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"
Ren screamed in confusion as the ravine kept growing and other people fell after him. Ren then lost consciousness.
Later when Ren woke up, he jumped up gasping for air and coughing.
"H-holy shit! Where the hell am I?"
Ren looked around, confused, he was alone, in a completely dark dome. A timer for one hour at the top and a small stone tablet at one of the side of the dome.
"What the hell is this place?"
After some more investigation, Ren started walking towards the stone tablet.
"What is this? Is this... stone?"
As he got closer, the stone tablet immediately flew at full speed towards his chest.
"What the- ARGH??!! FUCK..!"
Immense pain flooded Ren's body as the tablet entered it— somehow not even harming him, despite it entering his body there was no wound, no trace, no scar, you couldn't even feel it inside his body.
After finally calming down and examining his body, he started looking for any trace of the tablet, and just as he thought about looking for it, it suddenly appeared in front of him.
"What the- What the heck is this? What is this place? That's… not fucking normal..!"
Just as Ren spoke, his gaze landed back on the timer, 54 minutes. That was the time he had left before whatever was supposed to happen once it reached 0.
"I don't know what the hell this timer means, but it's probably smart to try to gain as much info as possible before it reaches 0..."
Ren sighed in frustration and confusion, and looked back towards the stone tablet. Despite its weird magical prowess the tablet was rather normal, the stone was nothing special and it looked just like average polished stone. There were inscriptions on the stone.
[Name: Ren Gray]
[Title:]
[Skill:]
[Level of growth: 0]
"What the hell?? It's just like in a video game?? Am I getting reincarnated or something???"
As Ren said those words Ren almost sounded excited before realizing that even if this was true, the whole situation was way too ominous for it to be a good thing, or at least for it to not have a catch. If the reincarnation thing was even real because last he checked he wasn't the only one who fell here.
"Where even are the other people? I'm sure I heard and saw other people fall too. Well at least I think? I know it was pretty late but some habitation fell so some people must have fallen with them..."
Ren shook his head, he wanted to find out more but sadly all he could do was study that tablet and wait for the timer to reach 0. And there wasn't much else to study on the tablet.
After studying it for over 20 minute all he managed to find out was that he could make it appear and disappear at will. No other hidden message and no other uses.
What the hell... what am I even supposed to do..
As Ren cursed his luck, his gaze met the timer again, only 30 minutes remained. After contemplating his options Ren decided to catch up on his already lacking sleep for the time he had left, hoping to have as much energy as possible if needed.
So he lied down on the peculiar black ground which was weirdly comfortable and quickly fell asleep. Waking up only a few seconds before the timer reaches 0.
*Yawn*"What the- oh yea that's right... well, it's almost time."