2 Chapter 1: The acciden (1/2)
”NOOOOOO!!!!!!!”
Howling, I held my head in both hands as I stared at the screen. The words ”Game Over” flashed across the scene that was darkening with blood, indicating my death. An option appeared for me to respawn in five seconds, but I ignored it.
Instead, my eyes were drawn to the chat screen. Mocking messages filled my view, with the enemy team taunting me.
”Ha ha ha, NOOB.”
”Weak. L2P.”
”Get rekt!”
It wasn't just the opposing team, though. My teammates were spamming me with angry messages.
”Wtf r u doing?!”
”If u don't know how to play, gtfo.”
”Dun drag us down!”
”Ugh!” I growled, feeling the frustration well up inside me. Shaking my head, I left the game, leaving my teammates to fight an increasingly uphill battle. To be honest, my departure wouldn't make much of a difference. My incompetence was handing the opposing team too many points in terms of kill count.
They were right. I was causing my team to lose with my inept play.
Why the fuck did they group me up with such high-level players anyway? I grumbled to myself, cursing the matchmaking system. The game should fix that and put me with players on my level. Bronze league players should be placed with other bronze leaguers. There was no point pitting me against diamond league gamers unless they wanted every game to be a one-sided massacre that boosted the ego of these elitist ”hardcore” gamers while crushing the self-esteem of ”casual” gamers. Then again, the possibility that these guys were Smurfs looking for an easy time and having a laugh over destroying newbies was high.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I exhaled deeply before switching the game off. Grudgingly, I abandoned the attempt to get at least one win after a ten-match losing streak. It seemed that I was not destined not to win even once today.
Bloody f…!
”I should go cool off.”
After slamming my fist on my desk, the resulting pain cleared my head a little. Rubbing my temple, I sighed again and rose to my feet. The heater hummed in the background, but it was still a little chilly. Winter had descended upon Cheng Shi City with a harsh embrace, and even with the heater at full blast I could still feel her chilling touch.
But I've no choice…
I had run out of snacks and drinks. I needed to run to the convenience store a few blocks away from my apartment to replenish my supplies. Chocolate and coke were great for keeping me awake while studying, and munching on chips while watching anime was a guilty pleasure. Glancing at the clock, I realized I had spent a little too much time on the game. I had been obsessed with getting at least one victory that I had lost track of time.
This doesn't mean I've given up! I'll get back at you guys tomorrow, I swear…you had better watch out!
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I knew it wasn't possible. Those hardcore gamers spent countless hours every day gaming and honing their skills to the max. I only spent three to four hours gaming a week. Sometimes I didn't game for months at a time, too caught up with homework and studies. That was the fate of being a university student. And not just any university student – I was a graduate student chasing a PhD.
In other words, I had even less time for games…
Good thing I finished my assignments and readings earlier today, or I'll be in trouble.
Having been raised by my father, I had inculcated a habit of finishing my homework and duties before gaming. It was just an impulse, sheer discipline. Gaming or watching anime came as a reward to finishing my studies. It was just that simple. If anything, I was at least proud of my iron will that resisted all temptations to detract away from my studies.
I didn't apply for graduate student because I was lazy and easily distracted, after all.
Since I'm planning on writing the popular culture paper on web novels tomorrow, I need to stock up on bottle iced coffee or coke…anything with caffeine. Chocolate would be nice too…
Locking my door, I stepped out of my apartment and proceeded downstairs. Shielding my eyes, I squinted at the bright morning sun. Oh, crap, I forgot to sleep. After finishing my homework at around 3am, I spent the next 3 hours gaming (and getting my ass kicked), and before I knew it, dawn had arrived. Good thing my classes were in the afternoon, which meant I could grab about 4 hours of sleep before noon. After I watched today's anime episodes, of course…
”?”
My planning was interrupted by an unusual sight. As I strolled to a stop at the traffic light junction, I spotted him. An old man hobbling across the junction despite the pedestrian crossing clearly being red. Perhaps he was color-blind. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he was blind. His eyes were veiled by dark shades and he was poking at the front with his wooden walking stick. I didn't know they made sticks out of wood like that anymore. These days everything was made out of plastic. Even football fans, particularly my fellow supporters of Blackburn Rovers.
Normally I wouldn't even have noticed, but this particular old man stood out like a sore thumb. For one thing, he must have emerged from some backwater rural farm somewhere and fell behind modern fashion. I swear, if he wasn't just randomly wandering about the streets of Cheng Shi City, he looked like a character out of a historical drama.
Hell, he behaved like one. The way he walked seemed to indicate that he was a fish out of water. Clearly he didn't understand how traffic light signals worked.
And that was dangerous.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!!!!
An irate driver honked his horn at the old man furiously and swerved out of the way in time, carving a beautiful arc around the pedestrian that would have made any Formula One driver proud. Flashing a finger at the oblivious old man, the driver then continued to speed forward without any other incident.
However, the old man wasn't out of danger yet. I told you earlier, didn't I? I got hit by a truck, not a car.
Said truck was barreling forward right after the car vanished out of sight. While the truck driver wasn't as rude as the previous car driver, he neither possessed the skills nor a light enough vehicle maneuverable to pull off what the other guy did earlier. Evidently he hadn't read enough Initial D or something. Tires screeched as he slammed on the brakes, but the truck wasn't slowing down fast enough, its massive momentum hurling itself forward lethally at the old man.
And the old man still didn't notice the danger, blissfully plodding on at his maddeningly slow pace with that stupid stick of his.
”HEY!”
Before I knew it, my body had reacted and I threw myself at old man. I succeeded in pushing him out of the way in time, but not before I felt a sickening crunch. The next thing I knew, the sky had flipped itself up and was spinning around, replaced by the ground, which was subsequently taken over by the sky again. Then a sharp pain surged through my body as I slammed into the ground and skidded several meters across the road.
”Ugh…”
I let out a groan, feeling fiery hot agony flare through my body. I couldn't move my limbs. They seemed twisted at an unnatural angle, and I could vaguely feel my blood pooling beneath me. Gasping for air, I felt something stab through my chest and strangle my throat. Perhaps the tremendous impact had broken my ribs, which were now rupturing my lungs.
In any case, it didn't seem that I had long to live. With one final shudder, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to sink into the cold darkness of oblivion.
*
And that was how I found myself in line, waiting behind a snaking queue that was hundreds of people long. The line was so long that it stretched past the bridge, which was several miles long, and spilled over to the coast where it began.
This was going to be a long wait.
I watched the people who were ahead and behind me. There was a very faint quality to them, almost as if they were transparent. Their complexions were ghastly and inhumanly white, but that was probably because they were no longer quite human. None of them had legs – all of them were floating a foot or so above the ground or bridge. Dressed in white hospital gowns, the majority of them wore forlorn, downcast expressions as they bowed their heads gloomily.
Noticeably enough, the vast majority of the people in the queue were old, with a few of them actually being so old that they were literally ancients. There were a few young ones, a few middle-aged ones, and many kids, but their numbers were dwarfed by wizened, wrinkled seniors with white hair and ghostly airs of resignation. Several of the kids were looking around dumbly, unable to believe where they were.
I didn't blame them. Just a day ago, if someone told me I was going to die, I would have laughed it off. Yet here I was in the underworld, queuing upon a bridge. Not just any bridge, mind you. The Naihe Qiao or Bridge of Helplessness. At the end of the bridge was a massive gate, and guarding the gate was an ancient lady.
Standing right in front of the massive, red double doors, the old lady was scooping tea out of a bubbling cauldron and handing it to the ghosts in line to drink. One by one, the ghosts in line accepted the cup, albeit with bitter expressions on their faces, drank the liquid before walking through those gates and disappearing from the underworld forever.
”Heh, so did you kill yourself too?”
A ghost my age elbowed his way to my position, earning himself a few glares from otherwise patient and tolerant seniors. He must have spotted someone from his generation in the long line, and wanting to alleviate the tedious boredom of standing in the queue with nothing else to do for days, he decided to fight his way toward me. I wondered if I should be touched.
However, one of my veins twitched at his rude question.
”Of course not…”
Then I blinked and calmed down as I recollected on the events that led to my death.
”…technically, you're not wrong.”
In a way, I did end up killing myself, after all. I sacrificed myself to save that old man's life, even though I knew it would lead to my death. Now that I calmly thought about it, when the guy put it that way, he wasn't mistaken at all.
”I know, right? Living is horrible.”
The guy threw an arm over my shoulder. I flinched and tried to pull away, but he held on tightly. What was wrong with this guy? Why was he acting all friendly with me? I was pretty sure I didn't know him and had never met him before in my life.
”I'm Xiang Si,” the guy introduced himself without me asking. ”I was being bullied in school, and driven to suicide by those bastards…you know what I'm talking about, right?”
”Uh, sure…”
While I did experience bullying at the hands of several of my classmates, it was never so bad to the extent I was driven to kill myself. But I didn't have the chance to tell Xiang Si that, for he was already launching into a long rant.
”This world sucks. If only the human race will all die! If only there's a way to destroy the world! I'm tired of living in this world.”
”We're already dead,” I reminded him. ”We're no longer in that world. We're in the underworld.”
Xiang Si plainly ignored me.
”Most people are alive only because it's against the law to kill them.” he cracked his knuckles. ”If I have it my way, I'll allow people to execute motherfuckers for being motherfuckers without needing to wait for the police.”