“Hey, Lei. You’ve been absent from school for two days. Anything wrong?” said Tobias who was next to Leighton.

  “Nothing actually,” replied Leighton. “What about you, Toby? Aren’t you bored in school?”

  “Hmm, no,” replied Tobias as they stroll along the pavement. “Seriously, you should show up in school this Monday. You may be smart, but it’s useless if you don’t go to school.”

  Leighton slightly chuckled.

  “You’re contradicting yourself. If a man is already smart, why would he bother going to school?”

  “Just what had gotten into you recently?” sighed Tobias.

  Leighton Grenville, a 17-year-old high school student who was outstanding in school. Not too long ago, he had become bored from attending school when he learned about software programming. It was interesting for him because of how it needs logical reasoning to solve a bug. Although it genuinely piqued his interest, he also started to program because it makes him look like a hacker.

  “Don’t worry about me, Toby. I’m doing fine!” Leighton patted him. “I’ll at least go to school on Monday.”

  “That’s good then.”

  “But only in the morning.”

  “…”

  Tobias Ingham was Leighton’s best friend. Aware of how talented Leighton was, he couldn’t help but feel a huge loss by his sudden change, wasting his good future. From primary to middle school, Leighton had always been on the top one, but after he entered high school, he became erratic — sometimes not on the rank, then suddenly appearing in top one on the next term.

  “Say, can you hear something, Toby?” asked Leighton.

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  Tobias had a confused look.

  “This one. It goes like ‘kwe kwe kwe’. Not sure, but it sounds weird. You can’t hear it?”

  Leighton was hearing a strange sound, like how a small speaker sounded when playing a single note while moving back and forth from him repeatedly.

  “I don’t hear a…”

  Tobias’s voice gradually became muffled as if they were underwater.

  What the fuck?

  Leighton let out a voice and patted both of his ears twice, but they all still sounded like they were underwater. Suddenly, he became nauseous, forcing him to kneel on the ground.

  The hell is happening? It’s like the world is spinning.

  Tobias knelt as well, asking Leighton if what was going on. He shook him as if waking him up — but of course, Leighton couldn’t hear him clearly.

  And then, it happened right before Leighton’s eyes.

  The surroundings became distorted as they slowly formed into different shapes. Even Tobias, who was just next to him a moment ago, shapeshifted into a palm tree. The former asphalt ground underneath Leighton had turned into grass as well.

  Slowly, the nauseous feeling he had started drifting away. Feeling that he was already in a good shape, he stood up unsteadily and looked around.

  He just stood there, stupefied.

  “Where am I…?” a question escaped from his mouth.

  In front of him was an antique-looking house. The door was open, but there wasn’t any person inside. Leighton turned his head over his shoulder, only to see a dirt path, steepening down as it leads to a certain direction.

  Just as he was about to say something, a voice of a man that sounded like it came directly from his head had reached him.

  Is this what I think it is?

  Leighton did not utter a single word.

  Magic abilities…?

  That said, after Leighton had pondered over for a minute, he decided to play along and chose Iridescent. He knew that Iridescent isn’t actually a color, but an effect that changes an object’s color when viewed from different angles. In truth, he was having a hard time choosing the color, that’s why he chose Iridescent — and more importantly because it sounded cool.

  “Iridescent,” Leighton said aloud.

  Noticing that the discussion will take quite a long time, Leighton sat on the ground while leaning his back against the antique-looking house’s wall and continued to listen.

  “Elimination? By how exac—”

  Leighton was cut off when The System suddenly spoke.

  “What kind of crap is this?” Leighton tried asking The System in doubt, but he didn’t answer the question.

  Leighton checked his waist, surprised. There was indeed a knife.

  The System paused dramatically.

  Leighton stood up from the ground, fed up.

  “What a load of bullshit! What kind of hallucination is this?!”

  He ran down the slope along the dirt path and kicked a tree. He was trying to test if it was a hallucination, but unfortunately, he could touch and feel the tree.

  “This got to be a joke,” he began wandering around and shouted, “Toby! Stop hiding! This isn’t funny anymore!”

  While he was walking, he happened to bump into a brown cat, lying on the ground. He simply studied the cat, checking if it was real.

  As if the cat had sensed something, it jolted upwards and hissed at Leighton.

  Leighton walked towards the cat, surprised that the reaction was realistic. It made him start to doubt that this world was only his hallucination. Because of that, a knot was formed on his throat.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me…” his face paled.

  Suddenly, the cat’s mouth opened wide. Its tongue elongated towards Leighton, strangling him, and was pulled towards the cat.

  “AAAAARRGHHH—”

  Leighton screamed and coughed a few times, trying to get his neck out of the tongue’s grasp. But as soon as the cat’s mouth was already near his neck, it bit his neck. He did not scream, or rather, he couldn’t because his voice box was rent to shreds as the cat chomped non-stop.

  Just like that, Leighton’s first life was taken.

  After a few seconds, Leighton spawned into a forest. He immediately reached out for his neck, horrified. He was having a hard time breathing. And then, he heard a voice, startling him.

  Upon hearing that, Leighton shuddered in terror. He tried thinking of different things in hopes of getting that experience out of his head. But then, he realized that escaping was futile, that’s why he had decided.

  “If this is how the game is played… then so be it!” he said with an angered and determined look on his face.