Chapter 1: Servant of God

One year has passed since that day and Shiro has yet to be found. It's honestly quite disturbing that someone close to me just suddenly vanished like that. A part of me was mad that he just disappeared, leaving me all alone. And another part of me wishes to find him and hangout like old times. That thought alone keeps me up at night. It's been three nights since I last slept. My eyes are in pain just from keeping them open. I closed my hoping to ease the pain and fell asleep.

I woke up to the sound of people scurrying around. Confused, I open my eyes and found myself not in my usual bedroom but outside of an enormous temple. I look around the masses and notice a classmate from school. Akane Yuki, one of the most beautiful girls at school, is standing among the masses with anxiety plastered on her face. I ended up calling out to her after debating whether I should call out to her or just let her be.

"Akane-san!"

She let out an "Eh?" and looked around before finally noticing me. 

"Ah! Ito-san!" she said with her face beaming of relief. "I'm so relieved to find someone I know in this whole mess."

"I'm more suprised you actually know who I am than the situation we're in." I said jokingly while looking flabbergasted. Now I wouldn't exactly call myself a loner nor was I popular. I am one of those types that could hang out with anyone without it being weird. Though I am easily forgotten since I dont hang out with people all the time.

"Why wouldn't I know you? We even went to the same middle school!" she said while puffing her chest. 

"Eh? Really? We went to the same middle school?" I was genuienly shocked by ths statement.

"Whatever. It's fine if you don't remeber." she said whilst puting.

I let out a light chuckle after seeing her reaction. She really does remind me of Shiro from the way she acts. It'd be nice to see how she and Shiro would act around eachother. As I get lost in thought a bright light suddenly shone upon us. Descending from that bright light was a horrifying creature with eyes all over its ring like body.

"Welcome to Astea, a realm for people to compete against eachother for a chance of getting your desires be it good or bad to come true. You could call it a sort of death game. We servants of God will give each of you an ability to make sure the scenarios could be completed as smoothly as possible."

The people got anxious once they heard that we'll be forcibly participating in a death game. The majority of people however was excited to have their desires fulfilled. They are the type of people that would do anything just to have their desires come true. All that's stopping them is the law that's set in place. 

"Uhm, what's gonna happen to those that gets eliminated in this 'death game'?" I asked.

"It depends on the scenario you're in but you'll mostly return to the place you came from. However we can't gurantee your safety during or between scenarios since this whole place is lawless."

I see. Its basically implying that the most dangerous thing here are the people. Which means that the majority of people here are dangerous. I should be more cautious going forward.

"Now if there's not any questions left lets begin the first scenario." as it said that two scrolls appeared. One with information about the first scenario while the other a list of abilities.

The scenario we're about to participate in is a labyrinth that's different for each individual and last to finish the labyrinth gets eliminated. This means that forming a group is useless. It seems my quality time with Akane ends here.

The abilities that's present are pretty straightforward. Most of the abilities listed are pretty generic such as magic and combat based skills. There are however abilities that's specific for the scenario such as 'Pathfinder' which basically makes it so you never get lost. However a specific ability caught my eye.

"Ito-san which ability will you be picking?" Akane asked.

"I don't know yet. 'Pathfinder' is probably the best bet right?" I replied indifferently.

"Ah yeah, I guess you're right. I'll choose that then."

"Sure."

I am however leaning towards another ability. 'Increased Luck' which is quite straightforward and looks easy to use. I do like the fact that my luck just increases just like that without doing anything. I can't say the same for other abilities however. Sure you can use magic and stuff like that but who says you'll get instant mastery of that ability? It's best to choose an ability that doesn't require mastery.

I prick my finger with a needle that came with the scroll and smeared my blood over the ability I wanted as the instruction say. The scrolls burned up once I finished selecting my ability.

"We will now proceed with the scenario. You will each get teleported to your starting points. May luck be on your side."