Creek...
The young man coughed violently while sleeping on the bed, his body almost completely wrapped in thin sheets.
Multiple drips were connected to both his arms and his legs, snaking away like translucent vines. Just from staring at his pale, gaunt face, one could tell he was deathly ill.
Yes…
'I am going to die soon.'
The sound of the door opening soon drew the young man's attention.
His friend, a woman in her 20s, stormed into the room with a worried look etched onto her face.
She was the same age as him, and yet, she looked ten times younger and more vibrant. Her silver hair fell behind her back, contrasting with her casual attire of jeans and a black top.
Once she was close to him, the first thing she did was place her hand on his cheek, her silent way of offering him comfort. She then looked toward the monitor to make sure his vitals were reading just fine.
All the young man could do was stare as she kept pressing the keys on the computer, all while tears threatened to fall from her eyes.
He never really understood it.
The sickness he had was one that had not been discovered before; it was the sole reason why multiple doctors from all over the world had chosen to experiment on him.
And every time, they would all give the same boring, clinical diagnosis—
"He won't survive a month."
But even with this knowledge, the same knowledge that pushed all his family away from him because they were afraid of losing a son they grew too close to, Lauren, his childhood friend, never once let the thought of leaving him cross her mind.
It wasn't like she was getting paid to do it. Neither was she receiving any type of attention, since most people didn't even know she was the one taking care of him; everyone assumed it had to be the government.
So why does she do it?
Aron would always notice the pain on her face when she looked at him, which she was never quite successful at hiding. At the very end, Aron could not really decipher the 'why' of it. It was yet another mystery to his already fleeting life.
'Maybe… if I rest a bit, she can finally be happy and live the life she deserves.'
He slowly closed his eyes, allowing the familiar weakness to take over his body.
It was 8 pm anyway, past the time he needed to sleep to manage his dwindling energy.
However, what happened next was far from what he expected.
…
Blink!
Aron suddenly found himself somewhere entirely different from where he had fallen asleep.
His back was pressed against a tall tree, and he was still dressed in the same patient uniform he had been wearing in the ward.
'W-hat? Where am I?'
He looked around for a while and noticed the only thing he could see was a large expanse of grassland, dotted with a few trees and stones here and there.
Unlike the Earth he knew, this particular sky was weird; it was harsher, and almost impossible to look at without feeling a sharp strain in his eyes.
Following that, Aron also noticed he could feel the heat from the sun biting on his skin.
There was also a suspicious, neutral air blowing against him—just the right weather, not too cold or too hot.
'This isn't a dream?'
Before he could further explore his thoughts, more and more people began to appear all around him in sudden flashes of light.
Some looked to be office workers, others were mothers, doctors, and various people from all walks of life.
Aron saw the number of people that arrived and watched as they began to act desperately, murmuring to each other for answers as to how they had arrived in such a strange place.
Being as introverted as he was, he wanted to stay away from the clash of voices. He took a cautious step back. But that movement drew his attention to something else entirely.
'I can walk?'
Ever since he had been diagnosed with the unknown sickness, he had always had issues with his spine, which of course led to him not being able to walk for the better half of his life.
And yet, in that very moment, he could actually move without falling to the ground.
It seemed like he had completely forgotten about his current predicament as a smile suddenly appeared on his face. Though it disappeared just as quickly when a notification flashed before his eyes.
[Congratulations on making it to the new world. All players have been accounted for.]
Aron froze at the sight of the glowing dark runes that appeared before him.
The other strangers around him fell silent when they saw the message as well. After all, strange as it may seem, it was also probably the only way they could get answers to their current situation.
Again, the system notification glowed before them, the former one disappearing right after.
[You have all been chosen at random to participate in the creation of this new world. Many of you will suffer, many will win, and many of you will meet your end too quickly. That said, do not despair, as this is a way to further improve your lives.]
Immediately after that, a woman screamed at the far end of the crowd.
"What is happening here? I want to go home, I want to go home! My husband… all I did was fall asleep waiting for him to come home. So how did I end up in such a weird place?" she wept heavily.
It was understandable once you looked at her. She looked fragile and weak, and most of all, she was definitely not young. As though her words were the key to some mystery, another voice echoed.
This time, it was from a man who looked like a plumber.
"Same here! I fell asleep on the job and somehow I ended up in this place!"
The chain continued from then on, with many people claiming the exact same thing.
They had all fallen asleep only to suddenly find themselves in this new world. It made everyone calm down a bit, knowing there was at least a pattern to this event.
But that peace didn't last long.
[You have all been given a role in this new society by random. Check your inbox to know what it is.]
Another system notification flashed. Aron looked toward the interface and noticed there was a button at the side. He pushed it, being one of the first people to act while the others remained in a daze. Eventually, many of the younger people who were quite familiar with the gaming world soon found their way around it as well.
[Inbox: You have been given the role of the Extractor.]
[Extractor: You are to enter zones and extract as many items as you can through scouting, killing bosses, or stealing from your fellow extractors.
You do not need to pay taxes.
Failure to extract within a week will lead to the destruction of credit points.
Do not let your credit points hit zero, as that would lead to your death as soon as it is detected.]
The more Aron read the description, the more he realized one fundamental fact he had missed since arriving in this world.
'Is this… the game, Global Extraction?'