Chilling in the classroom while playing games on my phone should've happened today, a daily part of my life for the past few years.
It's nothing grandeur nor something to be proud of, but that's just how a Holder like me should be living, hiding and lying low from the people's watchful gazes.
However, today was different.
Aside from myself, everyone's daily life of repetitive actions came to a halt.
Our professor, who was merely teaching seconds ago, grew quiet. My classmates were busy doing their own thing, fixed their gazes up front, not to our homeroom teacher but to 'something' hovering through the air.
[Crisis: Escape the Hansok University
[The Fall will start in 3 minutes in Earth's Time]
[Time: 3.00]
[2.59…]
'What is this? A screen'
What appears to be a holographic screen, something similarly described as the ones from the game's system, manifested into reality.
Waving my hand in the air seems to be useless since it didn't disappear.
Just when I thought I was the only one who was able to see this holographic screen, our professor spoke out loud to the students.
"Is it just me, or am I seeing some screen in my front that says we have to escape the University?"
The class turned hectic once each one of them realized not only were they seeing things, and began chatting with their peers in the discovery. Even the professor was taken aback, but decided to join in with the students.
[2.00]
'Uh, is everyone forgetting about the fact that it had a text that came after that, which says the fall will start within three minutes? Whatever that thing is, there's less than two minutes left!'
I don't understand their carefree actions… or is it because I'm the different one here, especially since the holographic screen is involved with Time?
[1.30]
The buzzing sounds of my excited classmates had reached through the roof as they continued chatting and came up with theories as to why this was happening.
I eavesdropped on some of them even though my chest was pounding in nervousness as the timer went down.
One of the students spoke.
"It's like those webnovels I've read! This is a system and we, the normal humans, a Non-Holder, will be given special powers as well!"
His buddy sitting behind him chimed in as well.
"Oh yeah, like those people who have been ostracized for a decade now? I don't think so. I believe this is the work of a Holder who can manipulate the minds of the people! They are now taking revenge for everything that has happened to them!"
Lastly, a buddy of theirs from the other rows approached and cut in mid-conversation to interrupt.
"You guys. What if a gaming company just managed to make a breakthrough and somehow their invention slipped within their grasp? Oh, they are so screwed now. The neighboring companies will try to steal whatever invention they cooked up. Well, whatever, as long as I get to play it!"
[0:50]
The three of them were shrugging off the matter as if it wasn't important, which the same could be said of anyone.
All except me.
'This is so weird. Why am I sensing a familiarity with this screen? It's nothing but a mere fucking hovering screen!'
For some reason, my powers are reacting to the projected display on my front.
As if it was calling me.
[0:01]
'I have to go home. There's something dangerous about this screen. Whatever this is, I have to be with my grandparents.'
[The Fall had started]
I shoved the screen at the corner of my eyes, picked up my bag. With hurried footsteps, I walked to the exit.
Standing in front of it, I slid it to the side, thinking I would just be leaving peacefully.
Not until a towering, gigantic figure was blocking my way out.
The second thing I blinked, I was pushed to the farthest side of the room.
My whole body ached. The holes in my body were bleeding profusely as I coughed out blood nonstop.
I couldn't hear anything or make sense of what was going on.
A few seconds later, I was able to retain a bit of my consciousness and gazed into the far front of the room where the entrance resided.
There, the towering figure slowly used its humongous hands to slide the door open, crushing it in the process.
The jolly atmosphere that was within the room earlier vanished almost instantly, replacing them with fear and dread as the figure revealed itself to everyone's view.
My eyes shook.
The figure's head had two protruding horns that had eyes at the end of them. It doesn't have a face, but it had a mouth in a shape that can't even be described through human language.
'Monster…'
"Hey, what the fuck—"
The student near the monster, who was about to complain, was easily crushed by its hands as it swiftly grabbed the student's head.
The monster crushed it, popping it like a balloon.
No one made a noise as they witnessed that scene until the very same monster opened its mouth and spoke.
"Delicacies…"
Suddenly, the monster began to talk as he slowly raised a hand it was carrying before eating it with a hideous smile on his face.
Its smile grew even wider once its two protruding eyes were looking in my direction.
"So many of them are here. Hehe."
I coughed out more blood, and that's when I realized that at the corner of my eyes, my right arm was gone.
The arm that the monster was eating was none other than my own.
When I was blown over, the monster pulled my hand out of my body in the process, leaving me incapacitated.
'Damn…'
I was only alive by now, probably due to the adrenaline coursing through my body, but I wouldn't last a minute because of my injuries.
But the case was also applied by my other classmates.
Splash—!
The monster started wreaking havoc by playing and killing everything that tried to escape the classroom.
It was pure carnage.
'Fuck, what is this?'
As blood splattered and limbs were being thrown in every direction, I was left with a thought as I watched it all happen through my eyes.
'Just as life was getting easier. Fuck it, dude.'
My eyes lingered on the monster for a few moments, yet somehow, it managed to sense my gaze and redirected its eyes on me.
'I'll… have to break our promise now, Mom.'
The monster takes leisurely steps to walk in my direction before standing in front of me once more, this time looking to me as if I were a struggling insect ready to be crushed.
But it didn't faze me one bit.
"You…cock…sucker."
I let out a small smile.
"I'll be back—!"
The last thing I knew before my death was my head being crushed by the hands of the monster.
I have to fulfill two conditions for my ability, Time Slip, to work.
The first condition is to exchange a memory that I stored within my mind, which is equivalent to the day that I would be time slipping.
The second condition is… well, it's kind of harsh.
I had to die.