I was in my room, in the comfort of my space, surrounded by books and notes scattered across the desk. Just another ordinary day, my phone vibrated in the corner of the desk, but I wasn't in a rush to check it. It was just another monotonous day, with nothing new.
Sitting at my desk, I was taking notes from class, scribbling stray thoughts in the corner of the notebook while trying to understand a concept my teacher had explained far too vaguely. The pen moved mechanically over the paper, guided more by habit than by focus. My thoughts wandered between formulas and theories until the phone's persistent buzzing pulled me out of my trance.
I rolled my eyes, picked it up, and saw a lit-up message on the screen. It was from Ana, my childhood friend.
[Where are you, Noah?]
I let out a soft sigh.
"She again..." I murmured, with a tired smile on my face.
I paused my notes and started typing a reply. But before I could send anything, a strange sensation filled the air.
It was sudden.
The once calm and familiar environment grew heavy. A wave of cold ran down my spine, raising the hairs on my arms. The air felt denser, as if something invisible was compressing it around me. I turned my face toward the window, the world outside looked exactly the same. Calm. Stable.
But I knew.Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
My heart sped up, as if trying to warn me before my mind could catch up. And then... it appeared.
In the middle of my room, like a tear in reality itself, a pulsing portal began to form. It distorted the space around it, vibrating with colors that shouldn't exist, shades of violet, blue, and gold, twisting like living smoke. The light flickered at a frantic pace, like a heart about to burst.
"What... is that...?" I murmured, stepping back, unable to take my eyes off the anomaly.
My mind went blank. Completely paralyzed. The phone was still trembling in my hand. On impulse, I looked at the screen, as if expecting some sort of explanation.
But what appeared wasn't a notification.
The words floated in the air before me, glowing with a purple light that shimmered as if it were part of reality itself. Twisted, holographic letters, as if they were being projected directly into my mind.
[ENTER THE PORTAL OR DIE IN 4 SECONDS]
"What...?" I whispered, unable to blink.
[3]
My body froze.My mind... panicked.
"This has to be a joke, right? Some weird dream… right?!"
But there was no sound at all. Only the pounding of my heart, louder with every beat.
[2]
"Crap... crap, crap!" fear gripped my chest, suffocating.
I tried to step back, but my legs wouldn't respond. My thoughts were in shambles. Everything felt unreal, but... the danger was palpable. I could feel it, if I stayed, I would really die.
[1]
"No... I don't want to die!"
That was when something snapped inside me. A click. As if a part of me had awakened.Adrenaline exploded in my veins, and my feet moved on their own.
"I HAVE NO CHOICE!"
I ran. The sound of my heartbeat echoed louder than my own steps. As if being pulled, my body crossed the portal at the last second.
And then, everything disappeared.
1 second later… New York City.
It was an apparently normal morning in New York.The sky, painted with golden and pink hues, embraced the glass towers of the skyscrapers, reflecting the glow of the sunrise. The streets pulsed with their usual hurried life: footsteps pounding on the pavement, honking horns like the city's heartbeat, steam rising from manholes, and the frantic back-and-forth of yellow cabs cutting through traffic.
And then…
Time stopped.
It wasn't just a feeling, literally, everything froze.Steam from coffees hung suspended in the air, birds mid-flight became statues in the sky. Even the chime of bells at a bakery's door was stuck, like a musical note frozen in time.It was as if the world was being watched by something... or someone.
In that absolute silence, without wind, sound, or movement, a faint light began to shine before the eyes of every person on the planet, regardless of age, nationality, or condition.
A newborn in a Tokyo hospital.An old shepherd atop a mountain in the Andes.A prisoner in solitary confinement.A king. A beggar.
They all saw the same thing:A translucent screen floating before them, glowing with a soft cosmic blue. Its edges danced as if made of liquid light.
Then, golden words began to appear, written in a language that each person instinctively understood, even if they had never seen it before.
POV – Background Character
'Why can't I move...?'
'What... what's happening to the world...?'
My eyes darted around frantically, but my body was completely paralyzed.Time had stopped.No... the entire world had stopped.
New York, loud and lively just seconds ago, was now plunged into terrifying silence. People were frozen in strange positions, like statues captured at the exact moment of a step, a gesture, a scream.
And then… they appeared.
Golden words, floating in front of me, in front of everyone, like a divine message. Even without understanding the written language, I... knew.I knew exactly what was being said.
[The Earth is ready to receive a source of energy called Mana.]
[But the beings of this world are not ready.]
[Each being will be transported to a Class 1 World.]
[There, you will have one year to learn, survive, and awaken.]
'Mana...? This has to be a joke...? Like one of those RPGs or web novels...?'
I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't even do that.My heart was pounding so loudly it echoed in my head.
As if saying: "Brace yourself, you're going to die."
Blue circles began to form beneath our feet, runes... mystical symbols that spun slowly like living gears. The light coming from them was soft, almost comforting... but something about it felt off. Unnatural.
'Is this really happening...?'
All around me, people trembled in silence. I saw a mother with teary eyes reaching for her son beside her, both frozen. I saw an old man leaning against a pole, eyes closed, as if accepting everything in resignation. And I saw people who, even without being able to move, cried with their eyes.
[Transferring now.]
[Good luck, everyone.]
The final message appeared.
And then...
The light rose.
From the circle beneath my feet, a warm energy, like an invisible river, enveloped me completely. I felt my body float... and at the same time, it felt like I was being torn apart into particles. There was no pain. But there was fear. A deep, primal fear.
'Am I going to die?'
'Is this... the end?'
One by one, everyone was taken. Little by little, the world became empty.
Silent~ ~ ~
POV – Noah
The moment I emerged on the other side, I realized something was terribly wrong.
There was no ground, no sky. Nothing but a thick, silent darkness surrounding me, like I was drifting at the bottom of an endless ocean. No sound. Not even the sound of my own breath. It was like the world had forgotten I existed.
I couldn't move. My body seemed suspended, floating in the void, as if even gravity had abandoned me. The only thing I could feel was an intense, suffocating pressure, crushing my chest from all sides like an invisible weight.
Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed me. I couldn't see it, but I felt it. Like immaterial hands pulling me away, yanking me out of the darkness like a forgotten rag doll from the abyss.
And in an instant, everything flipped.
The darkness shattered into shards of black glass, like a mirror breaking from within. Light exploded into my vision, white, hot, almost painful, and before I could scream, my body was hurled backward violently.
Thud.
I fell. Onto my own floor. My room. The same wooden floor, the same messy books on the desk. I was back.
"W-what...?" — my voice finally came out, trembling and weak, like I'd spent days screaming into the void.
I sat up with effort, my muscles still stiff like stone. I looked around, searching for any sign of what had just happened.
The portal? Gone.The pulsing light? Nothing.No trace of that cosmic distortion.
But as my eyes dropped to my chest, something made my heart falter.
There, resting against my skin, was a golden necklace, finely crafted with intricate geometric figures I'd never been able to understand, like symbols from an ancient, indecipherable language.
In the center, a red gem glowed softly.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
As if a heart was beating inside it. For a moment, all the chaos, all the strangeness, even the portal and the disappearing light... all of it vanished from my mind.
That necklace...
"That necklace... It's impossible..." I whispered, my voice cracking.
It was the last gift my mother gave me before she passed away.
And even without knowing how it had ended up here, since I had kept it safely stored away, far from sight — at that moment, all I could do was stare at its silent glow... As if the jewel itself was staring back at me.
"What th—?!"
A red flash exploded before my eyes, interrupting my thoughts. The light blinded me completely. It was as if a thousand suns had ignited inside my head at once. My eyes burned, and my body froze, paralyzed by some invisible force.
I tried to touch the necklace, but my fingers wouldn't move. The chain was stuck to my skin. As if it had fused with me.
And then, the last thing I saw... Everything turned white.