"Hey, you okay, lard-butt?"
A handsome guy aka Gary asked while giving some light kicks to the stomach of a very fat boy who was sprawled out unconscious on the ground right next to the school building aka Dennis. Around him were pieces of smashed watermelon—maybe two of them in total—and his head was bleeding enough to form a puddle on the pavement. A crowd of students gathered to look at the unconscious fat kid.
"Someone call a teacher," one girl said.
"Damn, his body is huge," a boy added.
"Is he still alive or is he dead?" another girl asked.
"I don't know, if a bowling ball fell on him he'd be dead for sure," the boy next to her answered.
"Thud," suddenly the fat body sat up. "Waaaaaa!" The entire crowd of students jumped back in shock. Dennis looked around, confused to find himself surrounded by students staring at him with confusion, fear, and various other looks. As his mind cleared, his face filled with terror; he looked up and the school building was perfectly fine. Then he checked his back and didn't feel a single bit of pain.
"Wait... how? Wasn't I just in class and Plane-kun hit the school?" Dennis wondered to himself.
"Hey... you okay?" Gary asked.
Dennis looked at Gary, who had been kicking him to wake him up and was now leaning over slightly next to him. He immediately smiled.
"I'm fine," he said.
"Okay, he's fine, break it up, move along," Gary shouted.
In an instant, the crowd dispersed and the spot where Dennis sat suddenly went quiet, leaving him alone, still confused and dazed. Dennis held his head; he immediately felt a sharp pain and saw his hand covered in blood. But what caught his attention more was Gary, who was now walking away. Gary was carrying a sword at his waist. He also saw several students carrying axes and spears on their backs, pistols at their waists, rifles on their backs, and so on.
"Hold on... this is... weird... why is everyone suddenly carrying weapons? And not just that, they look like weapons from a game?" Dennis wondered to himself while thinking.
"Tap... tap," suddenly someone touched Dennis's shoulder. He spun around and saw two girls who looked like underclassmen jump back in surprise when they saw him.
"Um... are you okay, Senior?" the first girl asked.
"I'm okay... it hurts a bit, but I'm okay," Dennis answered while holding his head.
"We're so sorry, we accidentally dropped two watermelons and they hit you right on the head," the second girl said with her head down, deep regret clear on her face.
"Yeah... it's fine," Dennis replied. "By the way, a plane just hit our school, right? You guys know about that, right?"
The two girls immediately looked at each other. Their faces looked confused and suddenly turned very frightened because they were sure the senior in front of them had lost his mind because of their watermelons. Slowly and with faces that looked like they were about to cry, they both looked back at Dennis and shook their heads as if to say, "Sorry, Senior went crazy because of us."
Even though they didn't say it, their faces said it plainly to Dennis, so he didn't ask again. Then Dennis looked at the waists of the two girls who were carrying swords.
"What are you carrying swords for?" Dennis asked bluntly because he was truly confused.
But instead of answering, tears started to fall from the two girls' eyes, making Dennis feel awkward and regretful for asking. Then both girls bowed.
"Sorry, Senior, we'll go call the nurse. Please just wait here and don't go anywhere, okay? Please... seriously," one girl said.
Without waiting for Dennis to answer, they both turned and ran, leaving Dennis sitting there stunned because he truly didn't know what was happening. A few minutes ago he was hit by a plane, and now he was sitting in the middle of his own blood mixed with the red of the watermelons. Suddenly, "blam," someone smacked the back of his head. The stinging and throbbing immediately made Dennis's head spin; tears even came out, stars sparkled in his eyes, and his mouth grimaced in pain.
He turned to see Bella standing behind him with her hands on her hips, chewing on a straw and staring at him coldly. She looked at her hand which was full of blood, but her expression remained casual. She flicked her hand to get rid of the blood and looked back at Dennis sharply.
"What's with you? Why are you bleeding?" Bella asked curtly while flicking her hand.
"Watermelons fell on me, right on the head where you just smacked me... ow... it hurts," Dennis answered.
"Don't be a baby, I hate whiny guys. Where are your notes for today? I need to borrow them, I didn't take any earlier," Bella replied, staring at Dennis rudely.
"You can see for yourself, I'm not carrying a bag. It's probably in class," Dennis said while wincing from Bella's smack.
"Okay, I'll grab them from your bag. And... do you want to go to the infirmary? I'll take you," Bella said.
"No need, I'll go by myself later," Dennis answered.
"Okay, bye," Bella replied without further ado and turned to walk away like someone without feelings.
Dennis's eyes followed Bella as she got further away. He saw Bella carrying a large katana crossed over her back.
"I should have asked about the sword earlier... but... Bella talked to me? It's like I'm in another world... things that shouldn't happen are actually happening. I guess I should head home too," Dennis muttered.
But when he tried to stand up, he felt his legs go weak and he stumbled, while his head became even more dizzy. His vision blurred; the nearby wall looked very far away. Finally, his hand reached the wall and he leaned back. He saw his hand trembling and covered in blood; his hand looked so blurry that it seemed to split into three.
Then he slumped back down the wall and sat. However, when he looked at the sky, he realized that the sky above him wasn't the same as what he usually saw. The sky he saw now looked completely artificial.
"Huh... weird... is it because my vision is messed up? But... why does the sky look like a screen... and what are those lines? A dome?" Dennis wondered to himself.
His head became so dizzy that he could no longer lift his hand. He thought he was definitely going to die from the pain. His vision grew cloudier, and then his eyes started to close. But just before he closed his eyes completely, he heard footsteps and saw a pair of feet standing in front of him. After that, everything went pitch black again.
Suddenly, other memories began to flow into his head—a reality different from what he had known. It turned out he was in another world that was indeed different from Earth, even though the school conditions were the same, like being on Earth in another dimension or a parallel Earth.
The city he was in was no longer Columbus, Ohio, but a moving domed city called Emerald, one of the five major cities in the world. It turned out the entire Earth had been swallowed by a black dome that suddenly appeared in the Atlantic Ocean, or more precisely, in the Bermuda Triangle. After that, everything looked the same as the game he played, the VRMMORPG, Eclipse Saga.
"Huh... so... that's it... the real world and the game... merged... interesting," Dennis muttered one last time in his head before he lost consciousness completely.