Bab 4: Arc 1 - Chapter 1: The World Behind the Door (2/3)
He turned around and looked again in the full-length mirror opposite the door. There was neither the sullen face he wore when he was alone nor the arrogant face he showed to people. Only a confused boy, trying to comprehend what had just happened, stood in front of the mirror.
After the phone call, the same cold that had been in his brain returned. More than cold, he had a terrible headache. Yu put his hand to his head as he fell to his knees.
"I'm fine, not alone..." he was trying to be strong. He was afraid of having a crisis when he was alone.
When the pain subsided a little, he stood up and looked out through the binoculars of the door. As he was used to seeing every day, his next-door neighbor's door was standing there.
"I have a headache, so I must have seen it wrong."
When he felt ready, he put his hand on the doorknob but waited a moment before opening it. He was convinced that what had just happened was a trick his brain was playing on him. Nevertheless, he could not stop the momentary excitement in his heart from bringing all kinds of fantasies to his mind. He slowly lowered the doorknob and opened the door again.
The door of the neighbor he used to seeing all the time was not there.
In front of him lay a street he had never seen before. It didn't have the modern look of today's cities, but it didn't look like a village either. The buildings on the side of the long street were reminiscent of. On the sidewalk, a brown-haired young man about Yu's age was walking hand in hand with a short, pointed-eared girl in a one-piece black dress.
As the sound of the door slamming shut echoed through the house, Yu turned around and looked at his face in the mirror once more. The surprise on his face was even greater now, his mouth was open and his amethyst-toned violet eyes were even bigger.
He slapped his cheeks a few times, put his hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever. There was no fever, he felt healthy despite the headache he had just had.
He took out his phone and looked at the time. He connected to both wifi and mobile data to check if he was still in the world. As soon as he connected to the internet, he received two notifications from mail.
22.56 - 29.08.2019 - 94% / Signal Strength: Full
Message: The opening date of your school...
Message: ** ******* Change your card password...
He quickly pushed the notifications aside. Yes, he was still in the world.
"Are you kidding? Is that why you called me at midnight?"
He shouted loud enough to be heard throughout the apartment building. The possibility that it was a joke was the most logical of all the ideas he could think of, but it didn't make much sense to him either.
"Who would prepare such a big-budget prank?"
He lived in a narrow apartment and building a wide street inside the apartment was against the laws of physics. And he didn't think that a YouTuber or a TV channel would create a high-budget, ultra-realistic prank with denying the laws of physics, especially on an ordinary citizen with no recognition.
He ran on tiptoe without taking off his shoes and went to the balcony of his house to check the street he was on. He was still on the street he didn't like. An ugly dog urinating on a car tire, a few uncivilized stooges passing under his balcony while talking in a loud voice.
"I'm sure I'm not dreaming. The edges of my field of vision are not blurred and I can think and read freely. So..."
He ran on his tiptoes again and stood in front of the door. He took a deep breath. He was torn between going out and not going out.
"Actually, what I'm seeing now is something that most people dream of, but if I go out there, I can't come back."
If he couldn't come back - it didn't matter. "Or does it matter?" It was hard to decide. "What if he's not there when I open the door?" he didn't know which would be better.
"Wait a minute, why am I thinking like this? Do I want to go out? But what if I can't come back?" He wasn't sure what he wanted, but the excitement in his heart was growing.
He could no longer enjoy anything he did in this world. The things he cherished in the world had turned into sweet but painful memories. All his hard work, all his efforts were for the appreciation of only two people, and they were no more.
"Do I want to go out?" he thought.
He wondered what would happen to this house, to that room, if he went out for a look and did not return. Even if it was not used, he wanted it to remain clean, not neglected, and as a sign of respect for them, it was his duty to keep it as it was, even if it was impossible to keep it forever.
"I will just take a quick look and come back."
He slowly lowered the door handle. His heart was beating faster and faster. He was afraid that when he opened the door he would not find the scene that he could not believe was real a moment ago. It was as if everything he had put his life on the line for would be in vain if he couldn't see it again.
He was afraid of being disappointed after preparing himself. Even though there were many emotions that were making him feel uneasy right now, Yu was slowly forgetting what those emotions were.
And there he was. He opened the door and there was this mysterious street he didn't recognize. Now there was no one on the street. He looked up at the sky, there were many more stars than on earth and the crescent moon was much brighter than the moon on earth.
"I thought, what if this is not a gateway to a magical world, but a gateway to the Renaissance? I don't want to find myself in another boring world. Of course, the girl I saw on the sidewalk had pointy ears. Is it? Is it a parallel world thing?"
He didn't want to be trapped in a boring world like this. There was so much potential in a magical world, but an ordinary world would just be boring.
"But a magical world has its drawbacks. What if the world in front of me is magical but it is Dark Souls level? What if I have no magical powers in the world I enter? How will I survive? These are questions to think about."
Even if the door opened into a fantastic world, it had to have its own rules. It could not be a world where everyone was endowed with magical powers. Yu was an ordinary person, and in such a world, there was a high chance that he wouldn't have magical powers. What could he do as an ordinary person?
Despite his negative thoughts, he was afraid to even close his eyes because of the fear that the world in front of him would disappear. He was undecided whether to enter it or not, there was an irresistible doubt inside him. It would be a problem to regret it and not be able to go back. Even though he convinced himself that there was nothing left in the world that he loved, it was not certain that he would feel that way in the future.
"Should I go back and take things with me?"
Of course he had things he wanted to take with him. What prevented him from going back and taking the things he wanted was the fear of "what if the world is not there when I return?"
He was afraid he would get lost the world that front of him, but he was not sure he had the courage to walk out the door. Doubt and anxiety filled him.
"#### ### ####### ###, Yu Valarfin."
"Yes."
At a moment when time stopped flowing, Yu Valarfin's mind stopped working, and he had taken his first step out of the door.
"To you... I... Yu…"
The voice echoed in his mind. Then he couldn't resist the urge that arose inside him and put his other foot out. Now he was in an unfamiliar street.
Nekoveiner 23.00 - 29.08.2019
---
Nekovezwei Later in the Night, August, 39 Years after the Battle of Heroes.
Suddenly a burning sense of regret washed over him and he could not resist the urge to go back. The regret was mixed with the fear of the unknown. As he turned to go back and reconsider his choice, the door slammed violently shut and disappeared, leaving Yu outside.
He was completely alone in this unknown world. Fear made it difficult for him to breathe and he felt the hot tears streaming down his face. The closing of the way back turned into a flame that burned him. As sweat poured down his head, he put his hand to his chest as if trying to suppress his heartbeat. He looked around, searching for a way back. There was nothing more than a strange street.
"What have I done?" he said with great concern.
He wished it was a joke. He was just realizing how stupid his action had been. "Please let it be a joke," he mumbled as he crouched down and put his head in his hands.
"You can't do something so stupid..."
He still couldn't understand how and why he did it. He tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths in and out. He swallowed, then swallowed again when he felt the urge to swallow again. He reconsidered the possibility that this was a dream. He stood up and jumped a few times to check reality, slapped himself, ran his hand over his body.
"#### #### you, Yu Valarfin."
He finally accepted the reality of his situation.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" his voice was loud enough to wake people up. The more he tried to calm down, the more his stress level increased. "Worrying won't help, let me check my stuff."
He already knew what was in his backpack, but he opened it, hoping that looking at it again would help him calm down.
"Spare T-shirt, underpants and sweatpants. A magazine for scientific purposes, a book I left halfway through, a bottle of water, playing cards, chocolate wafers with nuts, deodorant and epilepsy pills..."
His illness was completely out of his mind. He had been seizure-free for a long time thanks to the medication, but what would happen when it ran out? Was there a cure for epilepsy here? He would not be able to manage it forever and if a seizure came, he would be in a very difficult situation. Moreover, after a long time he felt that a seizure was coming.
"What did people do before modern medicine?"
If he was in a fantasy world, which he thought he was, maybe there was such a thing as a healing spell that would make Yu's worries disappear, but it was foolish of him to jump in here without thinking about his illness.
Other than that, that's all he had in his bag. There was a family photo of the three members in the book, which he wanted to keep. The spare clothes he kept there in case he needed them would also come in handy. He didn't want to walk down the street in sweatpants or a T-shirt with a waifu on it, but a pajama would do. And the magazine... It was good to keep for some situations.
"23.05, my battery is ninety-four percent. I can use my phone. Even though it will last for a week at most, I can sell it before it turns off and earn enough money to cover my needs," he said, closing his phone and putting it in his pocket, taking out his wallet from his back pocket.
"In the wallet there is some money, ID card, school card, bank cards and three photos... Keep these photos too. The only thing that matters in the wallet is the photos."
Besides these, he had two other things with him. The most precious things he had, two rings left to him by his older sisters. He threaded them on a string and wore them around his neck as a necklace, hiding them under his clothes. He could never lose the last things he had left from the only people he loved.
"All right, all right, all right! Not bad for a start. Sell the phone, find a place to stay. First mission."
After some thought, he realized that the way of thinking he was using to calm himself was very dangerous. The word 'mission' made him think of it as a game, and if he thought of this world as a game, he might not have a chance to live for long.
"Note to self, this is not a game. At least not if I don't have superpowers."
After catching his breath, he started to feel better. He stopped sweating.
"I guess it does not matter what world I am in, I am always awesome."
He placed his arrogant smile on his face to comfort himself. Even though he was still in a bad mood and half of his mind remained in his own world, he was getting used to it.
"Besides, I can't sit forever, I have to get used to it. For now, I have to figure out what to do in the morning. I don't think I can sleep, so I can walk around... Fuck!"
Yu had perhaps forgotten the most important thing. There was something much more important than money, accommodation, illness or magical powers. Did the people of this land and Yu speak the same language?
If there was a language difference, he wanted it to be limited to a simple dialect or at least English. That way he could express himself and soon be able to converse fluently. If the people here spoke a different language that was completely foreign to him, he would not be able to get along with them.
"If there is a language difference, I can go no further than begging on the street."
If the language he spoke was different, he would be deaf and dumb in this world. He could neither sell his phone nor ask for food and lodging.
Maybe he should try to be a little optimistic. In a novel he'd read, an alien race had overcome the language barrier by inserting a bug that translated sound waves into their ears and mouths. Yu loathed the idea of having a bug crawling around inside his body, but if such a method existed, he might have no choice but to use it.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone