One night Leo is coming back from a class at college.
While walking doen the light filled path along the dorms of other college students, he notices a cat sitting at him dorm buildings door and he decides to give it a quick pet before going in.
Leo looks into the cats eyes as he pets it and the cat stares back into his, in this moment Leo hears a whisper in his mine "Your despair is only starting". He has a moment of shock and the cat ends up scamping off into the night.
He thinks not much of it to himself and decides to keep on and goes into his dorm, as he passes by people in the hall way they seem to give him mean glares and he releases not alot of people in college like him...
There's no real explanation as to why everyone started to dislike him, but he knew that no one liked him from the beginning of his college days. He just kept thinking to himself that he will finish his courses and get a good job to put all this behind him.
Once Leo was at his dorm he through down his back pack and put on the latest anime episode of his fave tv and went to make a pot of Ramen, as he was cooking up the food and listening to the show he started to hear that voice again and it felt like it was pressing against his skull as he heard it, "Your despair is only starting".
Leo immediately paused the TV and stopped for a brief moment wondering where this voice is coming from, he though maybe he is just humiliating and that its properly from staying up over 24 hours while studying for exams.
He decided to finish making his food and watching the rest of his episode he had on TV, thdn it was off to bed and classes in the morning.
But for Leo he had no idea who this voice was or that it was actually a warning for what will be happening.
The next morning he woke up like normal, got dressed and ate a quick bite before heading out to early classes, he had some exams today and he knew that he studied enough to pass them.
The first class he had an exam for was Mathmatical Equations, he wasn't the best at this class but he wasn't failing. The exam was about 2 hours long but after around 1 hour into the exam he started to hear the voice again, "Your despair is only starting". It startled him and he jumped from his seat, all the other class mates started laughing at him and the teacher asked him what was wrong.
Leo calmed down and started back up on his exam...now he knew something wasn't right, its the beginning of the day. He got enough sleep, he ate enough food and he has been exercising like nor.al yet somehow he keeps hearing this voice in his head.
He finished the first exam after another hour and had a quick break before his next class. He decided to sit by the water fountain in the middle of school, it was a nicer area where alot of people hangout playing Frisbee and hacky sacks, but most of all it was very noisy and he hoped to be able to drown out the sound of that voice he kept hearing.
But it was enough...instead it came through noe louder and more clear than in the last 24 hours he heard it. A very blurry and almost fuzzy prompt shifted into Leo's vision and he read it to himself while feeling anxiety and overwhelming fear...
[System Protocal - Activate]
[User - Leo]
[Message - User will begin true despair in ××:××]
[FAILURE SYSTEM]
Leo started freaking out and sweating, 'system protocal?' And ' User will begin true despair?'..."what do these mean and why is there a time limit I cant even see?"
After Leo calmed down slightly he noticed everyone at the fountain was staring at him and he started to get really embarrassed, he could over hear them talking about him and making petty comments.
He picked up his stuff and walked to his next class to take another exam now, this one would be Science and the exam is about 1 hour long so he was gonna try to finish it fast and get out of there.
Again in the middle of this exam the prompt flashed into his vision but this time is didn't say anything...instead it was a timer
[24:00]
Leo stared at it for over a min and in doing so he saw it move.
[23:59]
He knew this was not gonna be good and he finished up the exam and ran out of the class as fast as he could panting al the way to his dorm. He sat there on his bed facing the wall and staring at the time for hours
[21:32]
All he could think about was the voice about some kind of true despair, what could it mean? Was he going to die? Leo could not come up with any good scenarios in his mind...
He stayed up almost all night pacing and sweating over the possible idea that this timer is how much time he had left to live and it made him freak out more and more...
The next day in the morning he had no classes and decided to go for a walk in an area he knew there wouldn't be anyone around. He sat there in a nice nature area surrounded by plants and bugs in an almost tranquil place.
But he could not stop looking at the time he saw in his vision.
[03:52]
He had barely four hours left and he didn't know what to do with only four hours, he didn't have any friends and his family never really picked up the phone when he calls. He decided to spend the last 4 hours by himself just lost in thought as he probably will just drift away and fade out from this life
He thought about all the little things he had done and all the bigger accomplishments, he thought about the friends who actually cared for him and his cousins who enjoyed spending time with him back home.
These thoughts may not seem like alot but to Leo they were all he had in what he thought were his final moments and they made him happy and smile.
[00:12]
As he drifted into day dreaming and the time was counting down he got so lost in thought that he actually stopped focusing on the time and was happy for a bit.
Then it happened and a new prompt flashed into his vision and with a new louder voice.
[True Despair Awakening]
[Player Transporting - Activate]
[System Protocal - Failure System]
[Description - The player will only rank up, gain points and succeed through failure. This is how the player will win, the greater the failure the greater the success]
[WELCOME TO Aethelgard]
[Weakling]
Leo thought he was going to die, but instead now transported to another realm? A giant purple and bright green portal opened and sucked Leo in within seconds...