Chapter 2: The world of games with one life

Welcome to the New World.

"Yup. That's what it says. No matter how many times I glance at it, it is written there, new world." I whisper as I look at the sign above the opened door. I peeked in and the hallway on the other side and it’s pitch black. I can’t even see whats at the end of it. I've been contemplating for the last thirty minutes if I should go through the door and brace the darkness along with whatever's inside or, find another way out. But I have to think of all different choices before I make a move.

"There isn't any other way out," I say to myself pacing back and forth. "The room has four walls and there isn't any other source of light except that orb."

Where is the air coming from? The hallway?

A lot of things are in my mind while I’m trying to find anything that makes sense. But, nothing makes sense except the fact that I was kidnapped and probably put in a room to be killed.

“Wait, shit, is there a time limit? Theres no TV and I don't see any jigsaw doll.” I say to myself as my heart pounds faster.

Keep calm Yasu. Don't go crazy. The minute you go insane, you'll lose the sense of direction and the ability to think logically.I whisper in my mind over and over again.

"But I'm not bound or anything," I say as I look at my wrist and ankles. "And what the fuck is that orb? The first time I see something like it."

The orbs just float in mid air above the door. It's just a light but I don't feel any heat coming from it. I was tempted to touch it.

"Wait, this place might be a lucid dream? If I am dreaming, how do I wake up? How did I fall asleep? I wonder if I’m still in school and never woke up when I was in the nurse office earlier." I say to myself remembering I passed out when my eyes were hurting at the first time in class.

I tried different ways to wake up from this dream. I tried going back to sleep but my body is too active. Falling asleep was impossible at the moment. And to be honest, I’m scared to fall asleep and wake up being operated on. I tried closing my eyes and meditating but I have never experienced a lucid dream so I'm quite baffled on what to do or how to wake up. I study the room some more pressing each tile to see if there's any hidden door but nothing.

“Should I go, or should I not go? I mean, what’s the worst that can happen to me right inside my own dream. Just 30 minutes ago, my eyes burned and I became blind inside an empty train along with someone who stabbed me and ripped my heart out. If this was real, being alive now is impossible. So this must be a dream.” I keep myself calm since I decided this is all a dream to keep my sanity.

Yes, a dream. I can't die. I can't leave my mother alone. I say in my mind. I started to get impatient. Even though trying to believe it's a dream can't remove the fact that I got my heart ripped out and probably died.

“NO! I'M NOT DEAD! ARGH FUCK IT!” I decided to push through the tunnel at a full sprint. But to be honest, I'm not scared of the dark. I'm terrified of not being able to see anything. I guess my experience before gave me a phobia losing my sense of sight. I sprinted through that so fast I never knew I could go at that speed. It’s so dark inside that I can’t see what's in front of me. If I run into something I wouldn’t know if there’s a wall in front of me.

BAM!

I hit something as I ran full speed to what felt like a wall. My forehead made the first contact since I was tilted a bit forward when I ran. The rest of my body followed right after. I was going so fast that I felt dizzy after hitting the wall with my head making me almost lose consciousness.

“Ugghh…” I groan while placing my hand on my forehead. My dizziness was quickly replaced with a headache. My nose doesn’t seem to be broken but blood started dripping out from my nostrils. I know its blood since I started smelling something metallic.

"Ugh…" I wipe my nose with my shirt. It's too dark and I can't even see if I'm staining my shirt or not. But then, everything around me was suddenly illuminated. As I look back, I thought I would see someone holding a torch but it's just the orb slowly passing over my head.

“Oh…was I supposed to follow that?” I whisper as I slowly stood up. My hand was covered with blood and my clothes were also covered with blood as I used it to wipe my nosebleed earlier. “Dammit.”

As I look up, I see the orb stopped exactly where I crashed and illuminated what I bumped into. It’s another door. I pushed myself up and touch the wooden door that has tribal carvings into it. I ran my fingers through the carvings as it seemed like the best artisan in the world with its fine details made it. Even though I have seen a lot of art exhibits, I have never seen anything coming close to this.

“Whoa…” I say as I touch the carvings and inspect it. Upon making contact with the door, it opened itself slowly exposing the bright room inside. For a moment I thought I was going blind again as my eyes were having a hard time adjusting from complete darkness.

“Not again.” I curse trying to keep my eyes a bit open to help myself adjust faster. When my vision adjusted to the brightness of the room, I relaxed a bit knowing I didn’t go blind the second time. As I look around, I can see a bunch torches attached to the wall illuminating the inside. It looks like I was thrown into medieval times. As I step in, I notice the room is a circle because it lacks corners.

I notice that there are other doors that go all around the wall. Most of the doors are open and In the center is a statue of a person wearing a hooded armor. Well, it's not a person but more like an angel half demon hybrid. It has a wing of an angel on the left and a wing of a demon on the right. The hands of the statue are towards its front holding on top of the sword handle that is impaled onto a pedestal it’s standing on. The minute I laid my eyes on the statue I noticed what's underneath of it.

There are people! I shout in my mind. I wanted to go to a full sprint but decided to slowly walk to them. Seeing a guy with blood in his clothes running isn’t really a good first impression.

They're standing close to the statue. Almost all of them are wearing high school uniforms. Except for one man who is at the statue sitting on the floor leaning against the pedestal. There's also a person in baseball gear but he looks like a high school student.

As I approach the group I can hear them talking to each other. They all seem to be in the same boat as me based on the conversation they're having. I never really engaged to talk to people so I silently listen to their conversation and hope they notice me. Stick to small words when it comes to people not within my close circle. This is why it’s harder for me to make friends and harder for people who are trying to become my friend.

A girl with a familiar uniform was saying something. I had to get a bit closer to hear what it’s about and it seems like my presence is oblivious to them.

“...I don’t really know. I was on my way home and out of nowhere, something hits me from behind and I lost consciousness. Then I woke up inside a room.”

“Same here!" Another guy replies. He looks like your typical pretty boy all the girls go for. " After I woke up, some weird message popped up and told me to follow some orb.”

“For real! That orb was weird! I thought I was inside my game for a moment.” Another guy replied. This one seems like he has adhd. He seems too excited. He probably also likes manga. His shirt is green with a sentence ‘a-chan 4 ever' in caps. Not a shirt people would normally wear walking around outside.

What if he said is true and we're inside a game? I say in my mind as I continued to listen

"What if we're inside a game?" the guy in baseball gear says.

Wow, did he read my mind? Hello, my name is Yasu. I say in my mind but it seems like he cant read minds. Haha, what was I expecting?

"I mean think about it guys, somehow we all got knocked unconscious and was brought here. Oh my god. Is this like Battle Royale?!” he continues on.

“It can’t be, if we all got knocked unconscious, it might be a dream.” Another one replied. This one looks normal. No special features. I myself thought it was a dream at first, but as much as I want it to be a dream, it feels like it isn't.

“To figure it out, why don’t we tell each other our last moment before we lost consciousness?" The pretty boy says. "How about, we state our name, age, then the last thing we remember. We might find a clue from it.”

Wait, don’t they notice me that I’m standing here? Should I say something? I say in my mind. I kept quiet and just listened to their conversation.

“I’ll go first then. My name is Hiroko, age 17." Hiroko says and then paused. Probably trying to recall her last memory. "Last thing I remember…lets see…I was walking home from school with my friends. As soon as they left, something hit me from the back of my head which knocked me out.”

“Nice to meet you Hiroko. My name is Junpei, I'm also 17 years old and the last thing I remember, someone pushed me down the stairs causing me to fall I landed on my face and I lost consciousness because of that.” Junpei says after.

Ouch. I say in my mind as I touch my nose.

“H-hello, my name is R-Riki. I’m also 17 years old and the last thing I remember is taking a nap. When I woke up, I was inside this place.” Riki says nervously. I guess he's not used to people. He's kind of like me but for a different reason. His stuttering reminds me of my first day of school.

”Name is Sawada Hiteyoshi, also 17. Last thing I remember I got hit by a baseball bat in the head.” His shirt has the number 18 on it.

"Hi, I go by the name Tobi, also 17. The last thing I remember is being tazed.” Tobi says.

Whoa, tazed. That must have hurt. I whisper analyzing all of them are knocked out differently but, mine is the most gruesome.

“How about you sir?” Junpei looks at the older man sitting at the foot of the statue.

“Name is Rikimura. 35 years old. I got drunk, passed out on the street, then I woke up here, kiddo.” Rikimura says. It looks like he's still drunk. Everyone looks at each other. Hiroko has a facial expression that clearly says, what a loser. Kind of irked me. Why judge him, he might have had a long day and decided to drink to unwind. I hate it when people judge others based on what they look or do with their lives.

“Wait….who are you?" Finally, someone noticed me. It was Sawada who asked me who I am.

“U-u-uh...I’m Yasu. I-I just got here a few minutes ago.” I reply back.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Junpei ask me. Now I’m thinking whether I should tell the truth or lie and keep it subtle. I chose the truth.

“I got on an empty train. When I noticed it was empty I tried calling someone and then my eyes burned from the inside and I became blind. Next thing I know someone stabbed me from the back and ripped my heart out. Since I can’t see, all I could hear is my own heartbeat outside my body. Then it whispered something about being reborn I must die first stuff and I lost consciousness.”

.

.

.

.

Did I say too much? Was that weird? Should I have stuck to small words and lied? I whisper in my mind as I look at them. Most of their mouths are wide open. Even the old man who was listening from a distance has a surprised look. When Junpei was about to say something, the whole place started shaking violently like an earthquake was happening. In most cases like these, we run to a table and hide underneath. Since there's no table here to hide, everyone got on all fours. Some holding their head trying to brace themselves just in case the ceiling collapse. A couple more minutes and the earthquake stopped.

“Everyone alright?!” Junpei asks everyone. I see their heads nod and it seems like Junpei was shielding Hiroko.

Wow, what a gentleman. I whisper as I look at him taking extra care of her.

“What the hell was that?!" Hiroko asked which is something anyone should have known by now what it was. An earthquake.

"It's Meeee~" A voice rang out loud everywhere as if someone turned on a loud speaker. We all looked around to see where the voice is coming from but nothing. We couldn't find the source. We looked around and once we found the source, we all froze. The statue in the center of the room was waving at us.

“T-the statue is talking!” Hiroko screams and even Rikimura-san who was sitting below the statue ran towards us.

"HAHAHAHA! Don't act so surprise you, little babies. Now, since all of you introduced yourselves to each other, let me do my introduction. Hi, my name is Luro. I'm ageless and the last thing I remember was bringing you all here together! Now before you, all go asking me why and what's my purpose and all that yada yada, let me beat you to the punch and tell all of you why you're here. And the sole reason is, for my own amusement~"

When Luro said that last line, he tried singing it. We all didn’t say anything. Or rather, we couldn’t. Our body is frozen solid and none of us can move or talk as if he froze our bodies and speech. The only thing we're doing is looking at the statue continue it's rambling.

“Well then, without further ado~ Let me tell you all where you're at and what you need to do to get back home. You guys are on the planet that is floating in the sky. You guys have probably seen it from your planet. What was that called again? Plizzanet earth? Hahaha.” He joked and laughed at his own joke.

“Ok little babies, as I was saying, this place is what I call, new world. Copying the infrastructure of the earth is how this planet was made. The only difference is~ anyone wants to take a guess?" As soon as he asked that question, our body loosened up and we all fell to the floor.

“How about you there? The guy with a funny looking shirt? What is the difference between this and earth?” We all look at Riki waiting for an answer.

“T-t-this place i-i-is d-dark?” Riki says back to him nervously.

“Well duh, theres no electricity here or moder lightbulbs. You play video games more than you eat, you should know what this place would be the minute you saw my notifications. Now, try again~”

“T-t-this place is a g-g-game!” Riki says stuttering while closing his eyes anticipating for something to hit him in the face if he gets the wrong answer.

"DING! DING! DING! DING! We got the right answer!" The statue started clapping but no one is clapping with it. "Basically, it's a game but it's not. Have you guys ever read a light novel where there the main character gets transferred into a virtual reality realm? Well, this is not a realm but a real planet. And you all are the players inside of it. In a few moments from now, your all going to be picking a class that suits your taste. You all have only one life, which means~ you die when you die! Yay!” Luro held his hands like it's some nice grand surprise he gave us. No one said anything. I know what they’re feeling since I'm in the same position as them. Fear. We're all feeling fear.

“Ewww what a boring group. Oh well, no worries. All of you will only have one goal and that is, to kill me~. Kill me and I will release all of you~ Now, let's stop wasting time and start picking classes!"

Luro was about to snap his fingers when Junpei interrupted him, “w-w-wait! Kill you?! WHY?”

"I knew you would ask that. Well here the thing, if all of you die, I will crash this planet to your planet and we will all die! YAY!" Luro opens his arms happily.

“Wh-what?! You can’t do that! We have families on earth! Bring us home now!” Hiroko demanded the statue.

“Nuh-uh. No can do missy. Only when you find me and kill me, you can go home. So no bueno. Please try again later. Now, instead of worry about menial things, you should worry about your current situation. Do you know where you guys are right now?”

“Yes?” Luro asks pointing at Riki who raised his hand like it was a classroom.

“w-w-were in a dungeon?” He replies to him and Luro started clapping.

“CORRECTO! You are all in the middle of a dungeon! Yay! If you guys don’t pick a class now, trust me, you all will die very fast. So, let’s get to class-a-changin shall we little babies?” After saying that, Luro snaps his fingers and a new window popped up in front of us.

Welcome to the class Window!

Please read all the class carefully! Once you’re ready, say, “READY.”

Knight

Archer

Assassin

Blade

Healer

Berserker

"I see a lot of familiar classes the same as those MMORPG games I played. What I remember, knights would be good if I need to defend myself. I played RPG games before and this type of class is what they call a “Tanking class”. A class that can take a lot of damage. But sometimes knight is only good to take hits and will deal less damage. Archer is basically Robin Hood status. You climb trees and do a lot of sensing. But it's not good for close combat. Assassins are probably good with stealth. The blade is a versatile class. They do a lot of damage and have enough defense to be able to do "soloing" which is when a player does quest and dungeons all by themselves. Healers are healers. They heal and stuff. Berserkers are a lot like a blade but specialize in two-handed weapons. They run on rage, which makes them angry all the time. Their defense is a lot less since I think they are focused on offense." Riki says explaining each and every class we see in the window.

Pick blade. A voice came ringing out of my mind. What? Did I just think of that?

“Hey uh Riki was it? What is the blade class usually like?” I asked him and he was flustered seeing me talk to him.

“O-oh uh like I said before, b-blade usually consists of dual wielding swords and m-mostly in charge of doing damage.” He explains to me. “H-how about this e-everyone. W-we cant pick class based on w-what we need a-as a team.”

“That sounds good.” Junpei replies to him and even though it sound good, I don't like the idea of being pushed a class I don't like.

I guess the safe class I should pick is healer; I’m not much of a fighter. I say in my mind.

“Ok, I’ll pick knight and tank for everyone, we need a healer, Hiroko, can you pick a healer?” Junpei asked her and I can see she didn't like it.

“Ugh. I don’t want to. I want to be an archer.” She tells him. “Ready, archer.”

Wow, she picked without thinking. I say in my mind.

“Well, I guess I’ll pick b-berserker.” Riki says and he decided to initiate his choice.

I guess healer is mine. I say in my mind.

“Ready.” I say and all of a sudden the place started rumbling again.

“Oh oops, minor glitch. Don't worry this wont cave in.” Luro says as he sat on his pedestal. As soon as I regain my footing, I look at the options and somehow, the class healer is missing.

“Huh, where did the healer class go?” I asked and Junpei decided to check it out.

“Ready.” He says and I see him looking for it also. “Huh, it is missing.”

“Ah, probably the limit exceeded for the class. You guys aren’t the only one picking so pick fast.” He says laughing.

Dammit. I’m not much of an assassin I think, and I’m not a fighter so blade and berserker is out of the question. Only class good for me is archer or knight but somehow I don't want to be an archer. I say in my mind.

“What class are you picking?” Junpei asked.

“Probably knight, I’m not much of a fighter so I guess knight have shields.” I say to him.

“Don't pick knight because I’m going to be a knight. You should pick blade so you can help us deal damage.” Junpei tells me and I’m beginning to not like him for telling me what to do.

“Uhh-“

“Yeah, you can still use other weapons including shield, you might not be able to have skills for shields but at least you’ll get nice skills on swords.” Riki tells me.

“Since healer is gone, should we pick all knights? So this way we can protect ourselves and each other?” I tell them and some of the guys weren’t even paying attention.

“Well I already picked berserker and Junpei picked knight. Hiroko picked archer.” Riki says looking at the rest of the guys who hasn’t made a choice. “What are you guys going to pick?”

“I’m going for assassin.” Sawada says.

“I’m going to pick archer.” Tobi says and somehow Hiroko didn't like it. I can see her a bit frustrated.

“I’ll pick knight.” Rikimura says and no one said anything.

“See, we have two knights already, you should pick blade. You’ll be our main guy for attacks. And blade moves fast and are super agile.” Riki says.

Pick Blade. A voice appeared in my head again after my own thought.

"Ok, I’ll pick blade.” I tell everyone. “Ready."

Great! Which class would you like? Please say it out loud.

“Blade.”

Congratulations on becoming a blade!

You are now able to use item bag and skill window. To use item bag say “item bag”. To see your skill window, say “Skill window.” As you progress throughout your journey and level up, you will gain new skills that will help you fight the evil lord Luro!

Have fun and don’t die too fast!

It feels like I'm inside a game. As everyone else finished picking their class, they all seem to calm down. I guess they are all in the same mindset as me now. No time to waste on useless chatter. I decided to try out the command I read the congratulatory message.

“Item box.” The minute I said it, a bag came out of nowhere and dropped in front of me.

“Ah, that is a multi-dimensional bag!" Luro says to me. "You can store as much as you want inside as long as it’s not a living thing. Cool isn’t it?”

“Why us? Why is it us you brought here?” Junpei asked the question we’ve been thinking.

“Well little babies, no particular reason. Kekekeke." Luro replies back. "I just did it randomly. Having high school kids run around is better than adult conspiring to take over the world. To which is why there is only one adult in this room. In this world, you make the rules and laws. You’re the first players but remember, you’re not the first inhabitants.”

"First players?" Junpei asked again.

"Yes, first players. Meaning~~ you are the first players from another world! There are already other living creatures in here but you’re going to have to find them out yourselves.” Luro replies and nobody said a word. "Ah, before I forget. You're not the only group I brought here. There is also another group along with you guys that I have summoned to this world. Makes the game more fun if two groups are racing against each other to kill me! Kekekekeke.”

Another group? I say in my mind hoping none of my friends are here. I still cling to the theory this is a dream but, the reality is slowly creeping up into me destroying my theory.

"I already talked to them and they are probably on their way out. I placed them in a different dungeon similar to yours so their circumstances aren't any better than you guys. Since I made two groups, I decided to create a guild based on the group you’re on! The other group, which consists also of 6 high school kids and 1 adult, are named Gold District. While you guys will be named Diamond District! Awesome right?! I think I like the Diamond District better than the gold district. Diamond sounds much more, fancy~.” As the statue laugh, none of us find it funny. I bet we're all thinking how our lives are in the hands of this maniac.

"Oh, and one more thing, if you use the command 'Show class description' this will show you your class description. On other news! You should have done this before picking that class. kukukukukuku but I think it's better this way! Don't we all like surprises?” He says looking at me and somehow, I feel nervous.

“kekekekeke~ Now, this command is just a small hint on what you’re supposed to do with your class. Oh my, I'm trying to help the people that will kill me, aren’t I nice~” He says the last sentence and I notice him still staring directly at me. I averted his gaze trying not to make it seem I know he’s looking at me.

Why is he looking at me? I asked in my mind.

His head tilts left more than the normal neck can handle creating cracks on the statue’s neck. After a few minutes, he went back to his original position and sat on the pedestal he was standing it. Everyone started saying the command one by one.

"Show class description," I whisper to myself and I wish I didn't. “No fucking way.”

My mind just completely went blank. I don't know what to think.

"What the fuck is this shit!" I shouted in anger as I read my class description while my heart beats faster than usual. Everyone looked at me and I didn’t care if I was making a scene. The description in front of me is something I didn't expect catching me off guard.

“This is a fucking cooking class!!”