Chapter 2: Buzzing Fate
A slender figure, clad in brown leather armor, crumpled to his knees, his very being a canvas painted in red blood. Desperately clutching a broken weapon, he trembled with the weight of the moment.
Blood cascaded onto the ground, shimmering in the silver moonlight. The air echoed with pleas for help and the cries of innocent women and children. The village lay engulfed in flames, and amidst the chaos, a handful of men fought fiercely for their lives.
Crimson eyes, filled with trembling despair, surveyed the fallen comrades. The disobedient boy, now lifeless, lay barely recognizable. Ben's body shook, a lump in his throat silencing any attempt to speak. With each passing moment, his body grew colder.
"Ray...Freya...Alex.... How did it come to this?" Ben gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed on a monstrous wolf approaching. A red plasma of thunder danced on the wolf's jade-black fur.
"Why am I not feeling anything? Why won't my tears fall?" Ben breathed heavily, observing his fallen teammates. Yet, amidst death, he felt an unusual hunger.
The sweet scent of blood, metallic and coppery, tantalized his senses, causing his stomach to rumble. Gritting his teeth, two fangs emerged as he screamed in rage.
His screams persisted until his throat burst, blood staining the scene. Overwhelmed with self-disgust, he accepted his impending death without resistance. The last uttered words were, 'Just what have I become? '
As the world darkened, Ben's senses numbed. It was simultaneously frightening and oddly comforting, reminiscent of a forgotten day—a nostalgia from the past.
[Host...]
'This place is familiar. Have I been here before? What was that time?'
[Host...]
[Host, wake up!]
'Tsk...now I remember. It's the same day I died..."
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BEFORE 1 MONTH─»
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A crashing sound of a car reverberated through the plain, and the next second, Ben found himself waking up in a completely new place.
'Where am I? What is this place?" Ben thought, trying to look around, but everything around him was pitch black. Like an empty void, there was no sound, no light, just an empty blank.
'I remember...I was hit by a car...did I die? Is this the afterlife?" Ben thought daily as if his consciousness were hanging between awake and sleep. He was unable to see or move; in fact, all his senses were just numb, like his body was never a part of him. The only thing that he could do was think...
He chuckled at himself, thinking back on how he died. The dark void transformed into a vivid, albeit surreal, scene. Ben found himself standing at the exact spot where the car had struck him. The accident replayed before his eyes.
"Can I alter the past?" Ben exclaimed that he didn't want to die yet. There was so much waiting for him in this world. He had his friends; they were so worried about him. A nasty neighbor: who will he play pranks with? Or a scary old landlord letting him live in his apartment despite seven months of due payment.
A mix of emotions was rising inside Ben. What if he only jumped to the left? He could have avoided the accident. Even though he hated the world so much, he didn't want to die yet. He just wanted to continue living his abnormal life; he wanted to pay back his goofy landlord.
A mixture of emotions was stirring inside Ben; he wanted to cry, but he didn't have eyes. All he could do was keep those feelings inside his aching heart, with no way to let them out. Time passed, and Ben changed. He wasn't sad anymore; the feeling of sadness had completely transformed into rage.
He wanted to scream, but there was no mouth to scream; rage was dwelling inside him. He never did anything wrong in his life. Why did he have to die? Why live such a low life? It wasn't that he wasn't trying. If he didn't even give up yet, then why? Out of eight billion people, why did it have to be him?
How is it fair for some people to enjoy all the riches of life while they just keep failing? Again and again and again, why couldn't he even get a fair chance? Anger was dwelling inside him, and yet again, there was no way for him to let it out. He cursed and cursed and cursed...
Time passed in the black vortex. His anger was turning into desperation. Why is he stuck in this place for so long? 'Am I not going to heaven or hell? Or perhaps...is this hell?' Ben pondered; his thoughts were going through different possibilities. Maybe he is going to reincarnate in a new life; maybe he is about to be picked up by an angel or something.
Maybe some cosmic entity was looking at his past life and feeling sympathy for him. What if he died in this life? He can always start better. Maybe some god will take him to a fantasy world, and he will reincarnate as the son of a noble or something similar to those novels.
Time kept passing, and the hope inside Ben kept fading. No one was coming to pick him up; no one was coming to get him out of his misery... 'Is this hell? Am I being punished in hell for my sins?'
Even with all the unlucky life he spent on earth, Ben couldn't recall a single moment where he committed any crime to be punished in this hell. Hours pass, days pass, or perhaps a week? Ben didn't know; there was no way to see time. There was no way to see any light...
Floating through the endless emptiness, Ben's mind started playing illusions on him. The moment he stopped thinking, his brain started imagining different kinds of sounds. The silence was painful. It hurts to be alone.
"1...2...3..."
In a desperate attempt to remain sane, Ben started to count, one number at a time. He kept counting. Till hundred, till thousands...till hundred thousand.
All kinds of imaginary sounds started to sound in his head, like countless people screaming in his ears at once. Countless images flashed before his eyes—weird, distorted figures—as if each one of them was picked up from his wildest nightmares.
Ben wanted to scream; he wanted to shut those voices; he wanted to scream his lungs out, but he couldn't. He wanted to cry and cry and cry, but he couldn't. All he could do was keep counting, one number at a time, praying that somewhere, in some corner of this universe, maybe some cosmic entity could hear his prayers and take him out of his misery.
All he could do was keep counting: a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand... Ben had lost all hope inside him; he wasn't sane anymore. No voices or images were haunting him anymore. He was like a machine whose only task was to count.
The only thing he had in mind was numbers—countless numbers—and him counting.
"Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-eight."
"Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine."
"...Million..."
Ben gasped as if a sudden shock had entered his mind. It came with a realization. Everything is now over. He is stuck in this dark prison, all but himself. With nothing to hear, nothing to see, and nothing to feel,
This was the end of Ben. He gave up on counting; he gave up on being sane; he gave up all his hope. Floating in the endless null, he gave up everything except the void. He was the void now—nothing.
With a blur of countless images flashing inside Ben's mind and countless noises screaming in his ears, all he could do was endure.
[To find that there is still a conscious soul in the null void, isn't it interesting?]
It came with a surprise—a voice that held meaning. It's been an eternity since Ben heard another human sound; he couldn't believe it was real. All the images flashing inside his mind stopped, and all the sounds ringing in his ears fell silent. And a ray of hope was lit in Ben's desolate heart.
'Who is this? Tell me, whose voice is this? Can you hear me?' Ben tried to speak in a desperate attempt, but all he could do was imagine out loud. Fortunately, it seemed that the other entity was somehow able to read his mind.
[Hahahahaha... I see, so you are not just conscious but sane as well.]
[Tell me, do you remember your name?]
'My name...' Ben thought he had almost forgotten his existence in the emptiness, but there was one thing he had preserved from the very beginning. The feeling of self He thought in his mind, with a sense of unknown pride, 'My name is Ben Franklin'.
[Ben Franklin, you survived 5 seconds in the null void. You are strong—stronger than any gods or demons I have faced.]
Ben was shocked; his whole reality was crumbling before him. Five seconds? This voice just described the eternity of my misery as 5 seconds. Ben was shocked beyond comprehension. He didn't know what to say anymore.
[Tell me, Ben, do you want to live?]
'I can...live? Is this possible for me...'
[Yes, you can, but in return, you will have to do something for me.]
'It will depend on what you want me to do.' Ben responded with a calculated answer. His mind was urging him to accept the offer and do whatever it was to survive. But this was just the response that intuitively came from him.
[Tsk..now I see how you managed to survive this long.]
[I will give you a chance to prove yourself; try not to disappoint me. ]
"Wait..." Ben wanted to ask; he had a lot of questions in his mind, but the voice didn't wait for him.
The last words Ben heard before losing consciousness were...
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