"Tsk, another loss! I keep getting these trash teammates all the time. Why can't you just plant the fucking bomb when I tell you to!"
I quickly close the game tab, since I can't be bothered to listen to all the screaming that will ensue in a couple of moments. Instead, I stand up to go and take a quick break from my 14-hour gaming marathon. I've been playing non-stop for a while now, trying to grind to max rank, although it hasn't been going too well.
I stood up and stretched, feeling all the blood return to my legs in a moment, leaving me slightly dizzy. I leaned my hand against the desk.
"Fuck, I really should've gotten up more."
Once my head cleared up, I took a final glance at the time on my monitor.
4 A.M was brightly displayed in the bottom right.
I sighed heavily while rubbing my eyes before a bright smile bloomed on my face.
"I got another lifetime ahead of me to do this, luckily!"
Slowly, I stumbled through my room filled with messy dishes lying on the floor and random piles of clothes. I had already gotten used to the dryness and sweat in the air, so I barely noticed it.
I eventually make it to the door.
I'll have to clean all of that up...probably.
I stumble down the stairs and make it to the first floor, where I immediately lock eyes with my target - an old, crumbling white machine radiating a constant low hum.
"Caffeine!"
The refrigerator filled with my beloved energy drinks! I stumble to the fridge and swing the door open, quickly pulling out a white can. A satisfying crack sounded in the kitchen before I took a big sip of the drink, and the taste of pure chemicals invaded my tongue.
"Nothing like 160mg of caffeine to keep the body nice and healthy!"
I laughed to myself before I wiped the stupid smile off my face.
"Man...I'm a loser, aren't I?"
I don't really have any friends, and I dropped out of college, due to 'stress', when in reality I was just too lazy to do any work. I'm living off my parents' support, since they believe I'll bounce back eventually. What if I don't? It's been almost a year, and it feels like it's going to stay this way forever.
I'm a complete failure who hasn't achieved anything with his life!
"Oh well. It is what it is."
I sighed and put the self-depracating thoughts to the back of my mind. Those ranks aren't gonna climb themselves!
"Maybe I'll go pro..."
As I was having those thoughts, a sudden pain flashed through my skull, and my vision went white, followed by a dull thud on the side of my head.
I saw a pool of blood forming under me. I wasn't dead somehow, but I knew it wasn't far off now. I was going to die any moment now. I felt strangely relieved and didn't question the situation.
'Maybe this is for the best. I'll finally stop being a burden to everyone. Shit, I wish I had done more for my parents, hell, more for myself. How unfortunate, I'll be dead in a moment.'
I felt tears well up in my eyes as a comforting warmth enveloped my whole being, and my vision went dark.
***
Suddenly, a rift opened in the kitchen, spreading out a vibrant azure across the white walls of the room.
A portal.
A pair of strangely dressed men stepped out. Both scanned the area as the portal behind them closed, and the surroundings were covered in darkness once again.
"Did I hit him?" a man with a long dark cloak and white hair spoke, his eyes filled with excitement. He leaned on the intricately engraved rifle he was carrying.
The other man was dressed in animal furs and had skulls adorning every possible free space on his body. He was much older than the first man. He scolded the man in blue.
"No, Shin, you dimwit! How did you manage to miss so badly!?"
"Well, how was I supposed to know my calculations were off?" Shin rebuted, rolling his eyes at the walking pile of carcasses.
"I told you to hit your mark from up close, but no! You had to make things interesting," the fur-covered man reproached Shin.
"Well, I'm sorry for wanting to have a little bit of fun, you old fart."
"Don't speak to your master like that! Also, you have to take this young one with you now, too," the old man said, his lips pulling into a wry smile.
"What! This loser? No, I don't wanna," Shin complained.
"You missed your shot and cut somebody's life short, even if it may not have amounted to much in the end... Now you have to send him over to your World. Take some responsibility for once. Not to mention, Zena will not be happy if she finds out we did not kill the person agreed upon in the contract. She cares about her people, even this failure."
"Tsk, fine. But I'm not gonna watch over him. I'll go and grab the original guy next."
"That's acceptable, just make sure to give him something as compensation. And don't be stingy!"
"Yeah, yeah, will do. Not like he'll survive for long."
Shin waved his hands over the youth with long, messy hair wearing only his underwear and a musty old t-shirt, and a blinding light enveloped him. His body slowly began to fade into white sparks, along with all the blood on the floor.
"Guess, I'll give him this one. Seems to suit his reincarnated form well."
Another brilliantly shining light detached itself from the man in blue and floated towards the slowly fading youth on the floor. The fresh, glowing light merged with the rest of the fading sparks. Soon, the sparks in the kitchen faded, leaving the two men alone in the desolate room.
"Now, with that settled, let's go and grab the right guy," Shin said eagerly, having already forgotten about the poor loser he'd just killed.
"Yes, but this time you're going to shoot at point-blank. You got it!?"
"Yeah, yeah, understood o' wise one."
The old man rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers to open another portal, filling the kitchen in luminescent light once again.
"Let's go, and don't miss this time!"
Before entering the portal, Shin picked up the white can the loser had been drinking from and took a sip.
'Mm, not bad."
Shin walked through the portal while sipping on the newly discovered drink and ignoring the old man.
The old man rubbed his temples before taking a deep breath.
"That little brat..." he mumbled to himself before following after his young apprentice.