Chapter 1:

The Beginning of the End

Another Freaking World


Once upon a tim-

Okay, okay, let not waste such a magical beginning on such an uneventful life like mine. Let’s start this over from the beginning. My name is Ryn Suzuki, also known as “The Lightning Swordsman” in a couple of mainstream MMORPGs. Coming to think about it, it's kind of sad when the only significant thing you can show off about yourself is your gamertag. Currently, in the real world, I am just an ordinary high school student with average grades and looks. My parents left me with my aunt to be able to pursue a new life with new lovers. My aunt then sent me to live in a run-down apartment by myself as soon as I began high school. Mainly, my whole life has consisted of me being alone except for-

“Ryn, what’s taking so long?! School starts in ten minutes!”

And that was my childhood friend, Luna. She was the type of friend you never find yourself making, but since we’ve known each other for so long, it works out.

“I’ll be right there!”

I screamed the entire time while frantically putting on my clothes, getting ready for the day. A short while later, I dashed out of the door to meet Luna, waiting patiently outside my apartment door. Thus begins my daily commute to school.

The day was sombre like any other day; the clouds conquered most of the sky, making the sun dimly lit my surroundings. Since it was still quite early in the morning, the dimly lit sun barely shown through all the clouds, contributing to the depressing atmosphere. Puddles formed here and there, leaving evidence of the rainfall from yesterday. Usually, accompanying rain was a light mist that would hinder your vision a little, but the worst that generally did was that it made it harder to read signs from afar.

“You are not getting a wife if you keep needing someone to wake you up in the morning,” Luna said in a playful tone while nudging my shoulder. Usually, anybody touching me in public would bother me, but since Luna is one of the more popular girls, it gives me a chance to show off to the other high school boys. I don’t know how low one has to be to flex their relationships, but it works out just fine for me. One of my daily satisfactions was watching other students gawking at me with jealousy.

“For your information, many girls want to be my wife, such as…”

I was blanking. Luna started to break out in laughter as if she thought that it was pitiful that I was so delusional. She then took a glance at my keychain collection dangling from my bookbag.

“You still have that keychain I gave you!”

Luna gave me a keychain of some famous mouse character on my seventh birthday; for some reason, it still feels exceptional compared to my other belongings. It was like an old video game console you don’t use anymore, but you always keep it around, a keepsake.

“Yeah, I’ve taken some liking to it over the years. And unlike you, I don’t throw things out once it turns a year old.”

“For your information, I’ve had the same phone for two years.”

“Okay, change of subject did you finish that his-”

“PLEASE GO OUT WITH ME LUNA!!!”

Huh, as I was finishing my sentence, one of the upperclassmen managed to appear right in front of us. He lowered his head and extended a box of chocolate towards her, which made him look like he was presenting the gods with a sacrifice. I looked over to Luna, but to my surprise, she didn’t look shocked or confused; she looked calm as if she were used to it.

“I’ve been watc- I mean, I’ve liked you for the longest time! DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT WITH ME?!?!”

Luna then looked at me with a sly smile; then she gave the upperclassmen his answer.

“Sorry, I’m technically already in a relationship with Ryn right now.”

While saying this, Luna casually hugged my left arm.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!”

I gave a response anyone would in a situation like this. Luna then gave me a glare that told me, “Shut up and follow along!”

“I mean, whaaat, we have more than just a relationship... h-h-honey.”

I broke in a nervous sweat just by saying those words. Then for some reason, both of us began to break into a burst of nervous laughter. The showcase of two people laughing for no apparent reason managed to creep the guy out enough to walk away, muttering, “Lucky bastard” under his breath.

Acting like nothing of significance just happened, we continued our way to school, accompanied by the casual small talk following the topics: "Did you do the homework" or "When was the project due?" The type of discussion only used to prevent any kind of silence, talking with no meaning or reason behind each word. Words that bore no purpose at all could have been considered to be silence, so one could say we continued the rest of the walk in silence.

Entering the schoolyard, met with the same old welcome, the entire school starting at Luna as if I didn’t exist. Each step we took, each student started clearing a path for us as if we were some royal couple marching down the castle, but in this case, I’m the servant carrying her bags. Making our way up the stairway, the doors causally opened by a couple of students. This was kind of overkill; they were treating us (Luna) with as much respect as a celebrity instead of a popular high school student. In most situations, the popular girl doesn’t usually get treated with such acclaim.

We parted ways heading towards our classrooms, the moment Luna walked off to her class, all attention instantly disappeared around me, then focusing on her.

“Same as always.” I sighed as I went to my class. The school was the same as always, teachers cramming information down your throat before you can get a taste for it, then a second later, there a pop quiz on the taste of the data. It was endless hours of swallowing useless lessons then vomiting it out on a test, which was very similar to an eating disorder. So obviously, I found no use in the eating disorder called school. Surprisingly I did well in most tests despite hardly paying attention in class. Entering the classroom, confronted with the same glares, they viewed me as if I was a burning cross. Which then easily ignored as I set myself to my usual seat awaiting-

“Ryn, or should I say Luna’s porter. Did you stay up all night jerking again, I bet you’ll did!”

The class then erupted in whispers following the context of “gross” or “who does that.” The mastermind behind these words was no one other than Daisuke Rentaro, also known as the person responsible for my misery. Due to the many times, these confrontations happen, I just learned to awkwardly laugh along, as if he was messing with me playfully. Usually, people won’t mess with a popular guy hanging out with the princess of the school, but if someone were to see someone less then them hanging out with her, they would lose it. As if it was indirectly telling them that they are more worthless than me.

“I bet you did it to some anime character!” The class erupted in laughter, not at the joke but just to make fun of me anyway possible. While some stayed quiet, but that still made no difference in the situation.

“Come on guys leave him alone, well he does have his bad habits but it doesn’t define who he is.” And that was Watanabe Haruto, that one guy where he just appears perfect thanks to his famous cliche one-liners. And just like that, the class went silent for a moment until everyone eventually returned to their conversations disregarding anything to do with me. I guess the divine words of Haruto managed to shut everyone up. His influence over the school could have been just as strong as Luna’s, in other words, godly. Making them seem like the perfect and only acceptable relationship to everyone around.

“But, Daisuke has a point, Ryn. You do have many qualities that should be fixed, that can help you become a better person.” And just like that he walked away from my desk, to him, he just solved a conflict and gave his infinite wisdom to his peers. He had no negative motive with his words other than to inform. But to me, he just made it all worse, with his one-liners and seemingly perfect personality. Too perfect. His character was morphed by his high upbringing, creating him view himself as the ideal being. Believed that only his ideals and views were the only ones to ever exist, making it the only right one. So one thing led to another, and soon he was made unaware of conflicts happening within others, in other words, he was dense. Due to the environment around me, I never bothered to stand up for myself since I knew the statement, “Stand up to a bully and they’ll back down” only gave the bully the satisfaction of winning and the popular guy another chance to shine.

After listening to hours of lectures, it was finally time for lunch, my only time of the day where I can feel at peace. Due to Luna’s popularity, she’s usually swarmed with many students wanting to have lunch with her, meaning that I often had it alone. Thanks to my introverted personality, I came to like the time I spend alone at lunch. Just as I was thinking about how dense characters could be in rom coms, I was interrupted by a-

“Whatcha doing?”

Luna whispered in my ear, just when I was beginning to enjoy myself. The more I think about it, the more Luna exactly resembles the stereotypical childhood friend.

“What do you think I’m doing.”

“Ummmm… Having lewd thoughts?”

“Sure… we can leave it at that?!”

Luna just gave me a look that read, “Aren’t you supposed to deny it?”.

“So anyway, why did you come here in the first place?”

“I umm… wanted to a-ask…”

She started fidgeting and going all red as she was saying this. Was she sick or something?

“Ask me what?”

“Never mind I’ll tell you after school!”

And just like that, she ran off with a group of girls soon following her, following back to my train of thought before Luna interrupted me. Thinking about how dense characters are in rom coms, I bet if some girl ever confessed or tried, I would immediately know. Like that would ever happen. After lunch followed a series of meaningless lessons followed, each experience getting slower and slower by the minute.

“That would do it for today, remember to read over page 196 and answer the questions one to ten on the worksheet.”

And just like that, another meaningless day was over. Heading for the front exit, met with the usual group, the Luna fan club. How popular does one need to be to have their fan club filled with otakus, IN HIGHSCHOOL! To be fair, it wasn’t a club more like a gang of friends and or random students partaking in daily activity. Usually hanging there to get a glimpse of Luna’s butt as she begins her commute home, you know the usual.

“Hey, you’re not just going to stand there?!”

Luna said as she was jogging towards me with the usual amount of eyes staring daggers at her.

“Okay, whatever, I need to leave right now, everybody is staring right into my soul!”

“Do you want to head to the gas station for a snack?”

“Yeah sounds good, can we just get out of here already… seriously walk faster!”

As we started walking down the crosswalk, heading to the gas station, I quickly remembered something.

“What was that thing you wanted to tell me at lunch.”

“Oh yeah, Uh… the thing I wanted to say was… ummmm”

Clink

The keychain of that one mouse fell off my bag before I realized I was already on the other side.

“Oh, Luna, I dropped my keychain. I’m going to go fetch it real quick.”

“WAIT, they are only a few seconds left of crossing time left!”

“It’s fine, it’s right there, and they don’t call me The Lightning Swordsman for nothing.”

“THEY ONLY CALL YOU THAT IN VIDEO GAMES!!!”

I made my way towards the keychain, which was lying in the middle of the crosswalk. The remaining crossing time seemed to be deducting faster and faster as I made my way towards it. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3... As I bent down towards the keychain to swiftly pick it up and run back, I caught a view of the crosswalk meter and read the number 1. Immediately after, the sound of a blaring truck filled the air. Albeit there were lots of signs that I was endangered, my body froze in place... All of a sudden, I was face to face with a speeding truck. I could have sworn I heard Luna screaming as the truck inched closer and closer to me. Before I knew it, all I could see around me was DARKNESS.

After hearing some distant shouting, I instantly snapped back into reality. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with a very pissed truck driver saying some very unsavory words as he was running towards me.

“KID!!! DO YOU HAVE A DEATHWISH OR SOMETHING?!?!”

Suddenly, my breathing began to heavy as if something was applying pressure on my chest. Looking down, greeted with nothing but a lifeless body of a dear friend.

* * *

Several months have passed since the incident with Luna. When she was trying to save me from getting hit by the truck, it had hit her back when she dived onto the street to save me. Due to her multiple spine injuries, Luna has been in a coma ever since. As for me, I no longer have a reason to go back to school and do the activities I used to enjoy; they all seem like a waste of time now. My view of Luna also had taken a sudden 180. I never noticed until now that Luna played such an essential part of my life. The saying “you never know what you have until it’s gone” has never been more accurate. My view of Luna is that one annoying friend you just can’t shake, but with her gone, I started to notice how many parts of my life required her in it. She was the only person who nagged me about going to school, maintaining proper hygiene, and was the only one who’s ever cared for me. The one that put my life in motion started the events I see myself in today and a starting point for me… a catalyst. I should be happy I no longer have to attend useless lessons cramming down facts after facts in my head, but for some reason, I’m not… The more I thought through recent events, the more of a cliche formed in my head.

Currently, I find myself on my way to the hospital, awaiting my next visit with Luna. This was the first time I had managed to build up the courage to visit her.

“I’m Suzuki Ryn, and I’m here to visit Mochizuki Luna.”

“Okay, Mr. Suzuki, I need you to fill out this visitation form beforehand.”

“Suzuki Ryn! Don’t you dare go near my daughter!”

As the receptionist was handing me the form, Luna’s mom came barging into the hospital lobby.

“The last time you went near her, you caused her to go into a coma! Receptionist, don’t let this excuse of a man go near my daughter!”

“Uhhh… sir-”

Before the receptionist could say anything, I decided to leave before I started any more trouble. While walking back from the hospital, I thought if I could ever return to school. It would be less of a burden for Luna if she always wakes up. The words from Mrs. Mochizuki kind of showed me how much trouble I had caused her. So if I manage to improve myself now, I could cause her less stress in the future... My current situation reminded me of when a random anime protagonist realizes when his “useless comrade” is a lot more useful than he imagined when a said comrade is gone.

Then the day came for me to re-enter society, also known as the day I’m beginning school. I decided to resume school when the next term started. Turns out, waking up without someone screaming and banging on my door is more relaxed than I thought. The hard part was the commute to school. I’ve never walked to school without Luna before, meaning that I was following her the whole time. On my way, I managed to get to school by following other people wearing my school uniform. But on the bright side, I still got to school before homeroom started.

“Have you heard? He was the guy that caused Luna’s injury.”

“She risked her life for him?”

“He cost me my date with her!”

“I heard that Luna was able to save him from dying, isn’t the cliche supposed to be the other way around?”

Whispers surrounded me as I entered the schoolyard. I tried to walk to my homeroom class while blocking out the whispers until a group of overweight men suddenly blocked my path.

“Well, well, well, look who it is, The Light- I mean Ryn!”

The gang of overweight men erupted in laughter at the elementary joke.

“How does it feel to be responsible for our goddess’s death?!”

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they’re Luna’s fan club consisting of perverts and, for some reason, an overwhelming amount of obese people.

“C’mon guys, get out the way or suffer the consequences.”

While saying this, I realized that I could probably take on a couple of obese students in a fight. Acknowledging this makes me believe I can take them on, five versus one (pride is a scary thing).

“You better watch yourself, pal. Don’t get all cocky just because you’re some sort of skinny legend! It’s four against one, you think you can take us on?!”

“In my freaking sleep!”

Before I knew it, I found myself in the school dumpster with a black eye and a bunch of bruises all over my body. The worst part was that I missed the first class of the day, making my self-improvement motivation go down the drain. BURRRRRR, BURRRRRR. My phone started to ring like crazy inside my back pocket. It was an alert from Luna’s hospital. Have you ever felt this feeling after a long conversation, how that 20 minutes of non-stop talking could have been summed in one word? Looking through the message, I received only one word stood meaning out of all the rest, one word that could have summarized the entire message. That word was… “better.”

* * *

“Suzuki Ryn, welcome to the heavenly realm. Unfortunately, due to recent events, you have died because of head injuries caused by a speeding truck.”

“...”

There I was, standing on an invisible platform in the starry night sky, standing in front of me a goddess-like being dressed in a long white dress with silver hair extending down to her waist. The thought of me losing my life when everything was going so well made me speechless. What was going so well?

“Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

The goddess answered in such a calming tone that it was enough to make you feel calmer by listening to it; it was similar to ASMR.

“What is going to happen to me now that I’m dead?”

Saying it aloud, the more I couldn’t believe it, I was… dead. But the question was still left unwavered, “what was going so well.”

“Okay, first things first, my name is Iris. I am the goddess in charge of sending souls to the afterlife. You are probably wondering why you are not feeling sad or angry after losing your life, because right now you are communicating with your soul not your physical body. Meaning there are no chemicals that can replicate emotions in you. And to answer your question, I will give you a choice of three options. The first option is to be sent over to heaven, this is a popular choice since most people like to wait for loved ones. But apart from that, heaven is a boring place where you can only fly, relax, and chat. A hell for otakus and NEETs like you. The second choice is to be reincarnated back to Earth, but there is one out of five chances for you to be an animal or a bug. Now you can have the choice to choose to go to heaven or go back to Earth.”

How would I feel if I could feel emotions here, would I be sad, angry, or relieved. Before this whole incident, I thought about how I would react if I would one day find myself dying or if I were to find someone close to me dead. I would simply assume that I would be sad, but when something happens to you feelings change. It’s like thinking about how easy a task, maybe, but it would turn out to be quite a hard task. Basically would being dead give me a different emotion than just thinking about it. Having the choice between going back to Earth and going to heaven, heaven seemed to be the better option since I’m not going to risk being a bug in my next life, making heaven the safer option.

“Didn’t you mention that there were 3 options in all.”

Iris then gave me a look of confusion, similar to my emotions when I talk to the female species. Immediately after 5 seconds of staring at each other, Iris gave me a look of realization and embarrassment.

“Oh sorry, this choice is pretty unpopular, so I’m not used to mentioning this option. But in your case, I think you would like this one.”

“What makes you think that.”

“You are insignificant otaku, right?”

“Y-y-yeah, I guess.”

“The third choice to be reincarnated into a fantasy world a lot similar to mainstream MMORPGs. This world consists of many physical challenges, it’s under certain doom, and did I mention physical challenges.”

“... damn that cliche.”

“What did you say, something?”

The premise of the fantasy world was undoubtedly intriguing, but having to go against certain doom and physical challenges seem like suicide. I wonder how many others fell for this trap of a world and died instantly?

“Ummm… can you explain the part about certain doom?”

“Yeah, the world is under the rule of seven demon kings that represent the 7 sins. There is the demon king, Lucifer of pride, Mammon of greed, Asmodeus of lust, Leviathan of envy, Beelzebub of gluttony, Satan of wrath, and Belphegor of sloth. To me their tactics are unknown but it has been rumored that they usually influence people to act against each other. But on the bright side, if you manage to defeat all the 7 demon kings, you can be reincarnated back into your old life, or you can be reincarnated into a new life, your ideal life.”

“... damn that cliche.”

“What, you said it again, I couldn’t hear you come at me again!”

The world she was explaining to me did seem exciting, but the fact remains, it was facing certain doom. The only pro I could see was me wielding cheat powers.

“Since most people in modern ages are just obese or NEETs, you would be able to get 1 out of 3 perks. The first one to choose from is to be average in every stat, the second one to choose from is to be immensely strong in one stat but be very low for the opposite stat, like you can be outstanding in strength but weak in defense. The last perk is to be really low in stats, but when you are in a situation when you need power the most, it will skyrocket your stats. But here the thing, the perks won’t be chosen by you. A specific perk would be given to you depending on your natural traits and characteristics.”

With perks, it could make my time there simpler.

“Now that you have all the options presented, what would be your final choice?”

Given the option to live a boring life in heaven, a new life on Earth, but there is a chance I won’t be human again, and the final choice is the fantasy world, where I have the opportunity to wield fantasy like powers. However, there still was the fact that it was under certain doom. So I believe the answer is clear…

“Heaven sounds fun.”

Answered without any hesitation, why bother with a new life when given a choice to relax in heaven.

“Wh-Wh-What!” Stammered Iris in utter confusion upon hearing my answer.

“I said, heaven sounds good.”

“Are you serious! In the fantasy world, you can have your wildest dreams come true, uhhhhh…”

“I’m fine living in a fantasy world seems like too much work. I’ll rather live a boring carefree life in heaven than live a hard fun life in a fantasy world.”

“Fine, let me give it to you straight. There are not many people going into the fantasy world lately, so it caused overpopulation in heaven. And if I don’t send more people to the fantasy world, I would be fired from my position.”

“No, I’m good. HEAVEN, PLEASE!”

“C’mon please, I know you are a caring guy at heart! Uhhhhh… I let you play with these, you’ve been eyeing them ever since you got here, not many people have the privilege to play with these babies!”

It was true I was looking at them ever since I’ve arrived at this place, back when I had a life I always found them to be interesting. Plus, they were tough to get your hands on, most popular guys managed to get a hold of them. So saying no to a chance like this one was crazy talk!

“You got yourself a deal, Iris!”

A few minutes of playing with them quickly turned into hours.

“Urgh, why do you always keep beating me like that, I’ll prefer if you went a little easier on me.”

Yes, I was playing with Iris’s old game consoles games. They were hard to obtain since most of them are no longer made and sold at high prices, such famous people like bloggers are the only ones who usually had them. So playing with one now is a once and a lifetime opportunity.

“Okay, you just got what you want now it’s time for you to fulfill your part!”

After Iris never beat me once, she decided to call quits. Meaning now it was my turn to fulfill our deal. Thinking about it, was I that influenced by games, or did I have a desire to go to this world.

“Before we do anything I still have to give you your perk. Judging from your past experiences I think the best perk that would fit you is perk 3.”

Perk 3 seemed to be the most useless since most people already have this perk when they’re born, fight, or flight mode.

“PERK 3 Implement!”

Immediately after Iris finished her sentence, a beam of yellow light shot right at me. The more I think about, the more cringy spell incarnations hearing it aloud.

“You’re ready.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“SOUL TRANSFER! LOCATION, CODE NAME: RAGNAROK! REINCARNATE!”

Upon hearing these words, my body started to levitate. As if I was heading towards the beam of light shining above me. A bright flash of light then surrounded the area me, a light so blinding, causing me only to see the light. All of my senses began to disappear as I levitated further from the ground until the only thing left was Darkness.

End of chapter 1

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Thanks for reading chapter 1 of Another Freaking World, At times I could change some details in the chapters but I won't add anything that too heavy of a change. My upload schedule would be random due to school work and other hobbies. Thanks again for reading and I hope you read the next chapter soon to come. I would love any comments or feed back from you guys! 

Ana Fowl
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Ryn
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