1 The Golden Button

The once bustling city was unusually quiet. The streets were empty. Commercial establishments were closed. Both humans and vehicles have long been gone, animals rarely seen.

Chaos ensued. The world as we knew it was in a standstill, no longer operating as it used to. Everyone was locked in their very own homes, anxious and frightened, forbidden to go out unless necessary.

Governments ceased to exist, leaving everything to the military. Those wealthy and corrupt politicians had long retreated to their underground bunkers, prioritizing their very own safety more than others.

Despite the strictly imposed martial law, some rulebreakers still opted to blatantly defy the order to stay at home. Most of them were already dead even without military intervention. Their corpses rotting away with no proper burial. The others were on the verge of death.

"I've let myself down," the unemployed middle-aged man pondered, looking out the large window nearest him. Stuck in his small rented apartment all alone, he reminisced on his past failures and mistakes. His whole life flashed by like a B-roll movie.

Lying on his deathbed, he couldn't help but be regretful of all the decisions he deemed unwise. Choices which looked promising in the beginning, but ultimately became duds in the end.

His impulsive and self-destructive nature, he realized, were the main culprits for his lack of success. With procrastination added to the mix, his life was like a neverending roller-coaster ride filled with more setbacks than opportunities.

Unfortunately, there was no one else to blame for all his misfortunes, but himself.

The man's latest predicament, however, was simply a tragedy. He was one of the unlucky few billions of people stricken by a certain deadly virus. Sadly, the airborne pandemic currently wreaking havoc on the planet had no cure. Only death awaits those who got afflicted with it.

Resigned to his fate, he knew he no longer had that much time to live.

"If I had chosen a different path, would the outcome be any different?" He thought, mulling over other possibilities. "Would my life be any better?"

Him asking these questions already had a sense of finality in it, fully aware that he really wouldn't be able to find the answers he was looking for in this lifetime. The man would be dead sooner rather than later anyway. His body left to deteriorate in this tiny space just like his peers.

At some point that night, the man closed his eyes, seemingly falling asleep. He finally breathed his last, eventually losing consciousness. He never woke up the next day, dying peacefully in his sleep.

***

"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?" – Sun Tzu

***

"Am I already dead?" He woke up dazed, his vision a bit blurry. It took him quite a while to get his bearings back.

"Hmm… Something's different though," he immediately noticed, glancing at the same white ceiling he had been staring at for the past two weeks in quarantine.

His place seemed a bit bigger, the ceiling higher, and the light dimmer. The absence of noise made the room eerily quiet. The space looked familiar yet foreign at the same time.

He tried to move his head, but he couldn't. He apparently didn't have any motor control yet. Despite trying so many times, he still couldn't move a muscle.

As time passed by, he was already close to reaching his limits. With his movement restricted, the feeling of discomfort was a little too overbearing, overwhelming all of his senses to the extreme. He felt totally suffocated to the point of claustrophobia.

Out of frustration, he shouted at the top of his lungs. He immediately heard someone cry. The annoying sound reverberated throughout the once silent room.

"Did I just cry like a baby?" He thought, realizing that the wailing sound practically came right out of his mouth. Before he could even process what was happening, he suddenly heard a man speak, startling him out of his wits.

[Congratulations Alden! You have been chosen to participate in the Annihilation X project.]

[Main Goal: Emerge as the final victor. Outwit your enemies. And eliminate all the other participants from the game. Rewards: Unknown.]

[Tap here for more details.]

"Oh…," the robotic sounding voice playing in his head instantly rendered him speechless. The message floating right in front of him was crystal clear, definitely not a figment of his imagination. He was undoubtedly alive and well.

"Did I just get reincarnated?" He started contemplating, realization slowly dawning on him.

Having read a ton of webnovels in the past, the whole concept of reincarnation was no longer new to him. In fact, he constantly wished to live a different life. However, reality was not so kind to his poor old self. Never in his wildest dreams that his wish would indeed be granted right after his death.

"Did I reincarnate into my past self?" He wondered, thinking about some viable options. "Or did I reincarnate into someone else's body?"

[Still waiting for your input.]

[Kindly tap here for more details.]

Completely dumbfounded by his present circumstance, he ignored the strange message.

If he was indeed a baby, he figured, how could he tap on the golden button right in front of him? As a baby, he was most likely tucked inside a blanket or similar clothing, limiting his every movement.

Without moving an inch, he stared at the golden button helplessly. It hovered over his head, radiantly flashing as if mocking his inadequacy to reach it.

"Am I going to lose this chance of redemption just because I can't hit that goddamn button?" He sighed, frustration clearly written on his face. The baby's expression changed as though he was about to cry.

[Times up. Input failed.]

[This is the end of your journey.]

[You have been eliminated from the game.]

***

[Just kidding. :D]

[Scanning the participant's body.]

[Progress bar… 10%... 20%... 50%...99%]

[Scan complete.]

[System initialized.]

[Loading Settings.]

Without warning, his consciousness got sucked into a mysterious vortex bit by bit. On the outside, the baby looked as if he was falling asleep. Inwardly, however, he felt helpless.

Despite totally losing control, he surprisingly felt at ease. Unable to do anything with his current strength, he fully immersed himself in the process. He finally let go of any inhibitions he had left, anticipating an exciting new beginning.