**Earth – 21st Century, Ravaryn Country**
Deep in the heart of the city's slum, on the twelfth floor of a crumbling thirteen-story apartment block that should have been condemned years ago, stood a structure barely clinging to existence. The concrete exterior was stained black with mold and rain rot, chunks of plaster had peeled away to expose rusted steel bars beneath, and entire sections of the outer walls were webbed with deep fractures wide enough to wedge a finger into. Several balconies sagged at dangerous angles, their railings eaten through by corrosion. Broken windows were patched with cardboard and plastic sheets that flapped violently whenever the wind blew. The stairwell lights hadn't worked in years, leaving the interior in permanent gloom, and the elevator had long since collapsed down its shaft and been abandoned. If a government inspector were to so much as glance at the building, they would likely declare it a disaster waiting to happen.
Inside apartment 25-B on the twelfth floor were heaps of trash varying from instant noodle packs to spoilt half-eaten pizza and boxes to scores of tissue which were obviously used in fapping. There were also cans of beer and other drinks which, even by the logo, you could tell were very unhealthy. The apartment was very tiny and poorly furnished, with just a wooden bed which was creak away from falling apart. The walls were filled with posters of beautiful and curvy women which were clearly material used in relaxation. The only other furniture was an old wooden table and chair. On the table contained only a laptop and a framed picture of three people, an older man and woman and a young boy who look similar. On the chair in front of the table was a young man in his early twenties who looked exactly like the boy in the framed picture, with black hair and very ordinary feature that could make him invisible in a crowd. That very ordinary young man is precisely our protagonist, whose parents died in a very tragic accident six years ago, leaving only him in this world, and none of his relative bothered to adopt him. Lucky enough, his parents left him a fairly substantial amount of savings, so he moved out of the suburbs and into a cheap apartment in the slums where rent was cheap, and dropped out of school to become shut in. Six years later, the savings have almost been completely used up.
He woke up this morning and started thinking of how he could get money to survive, since he didn't even finish high school and so had no high school diploma, which was the minimum requirement for getting a job. He suddenly began to regret dropping out of school.
"Haa!" he said, frustrated, seeing that he was getting nowhere after thinking about it all morning. It was late, so he decided to blow off some steam using his computer and was now heavily invested in an intimate action between a man and a woman being displayed on the laptop, his hand under the desk jerking back and forth furiously in rhythm to the video.
"HUFF! HUFF!" he grunted and further increased his hand speed, mimicking the male actor's speed.
"HAAA!! Just a little bit more—" He begins feel the familiar feeling of building up to euphoria, but just when he was about to ascend to the peak, his whole body stops, unmoving for a few seconds. Then he collapses backwards on the floor, clutching his chest tightly, his body convulsing.
"HELP!!" He tries to scream out, but his voice barely above whisper.
"Shit… not now… not like this."
"Really dying while fapping," he says while feeling the life drain right from his body.
"Come on, God, at least let me delete my search history and close the video playing. The people can't walk in here to carry my corpse and see what's play… so embarrassing," he thought as the final life signs were extinguished from his body. But strangely, all he felt in that moment was relief.
**Somewhere in the void**
A soul floats like a single speck of light in the all-consuming darkness.
Suddenly, Lin Feng's soul stirs awake and he looks around, confused and stunned.
"THIS…"
"Where the hell am I? Aren't I dead?"
"Ehnn… could this be what comes after death? Just darkness and emptiness? Everyone always said you go to heaven or hell. Well, guess they were wrong."
"Hello? Is anybody here?" he yells, but receives no reply.
"I guess I'm alone again," he says, then tries to move but can't.
"Well, I guess that's what happens when you're a soul. You can't move."
And he waits, over and over and over again.
Decades pass; he still remains in the void.
Centuries pass; he still remains.
Ten thousand years come and go in the blink of an eye. He has long since lost track of time, yet remains.
A million years arrive, and he starts to feel despair creeping into his heart.
"What if I remain here forever? Could I actually be in my own version of hell?" he said as he starts to despair.
Suddenly, a loud sound interrupts his thought process.
"BOOM!"
A sound louder than an atomic bomb of his previous life—not that he knows what an atomic bomb sounds like; he just guess.
Then suddenly, his previously stagnant soul starts to move forward, slow at first, but it picks up speed fairly quickly.
"Shit! What the hell is going on?!" he yells confusedly.
The speed his soul moves at suddenly doubles, like a spaceship in hyper speed.
"OHHHH NOOO—"
His yelling was interrup
ted as his soul lost consciousness and fell into a blinding light.