1 1.) A Wish

Writing Style:

'' = stand for characters inner dialogue like their thoughts

" " = stand for when the characters are speaking out loud

_ _

A petite girl with bronze skin laid in her bed. The light from her phone reflected in her brown irises as her fingers scrolled up the screen. The panel on the screen illustrated a beautiful raven haired girl, garbed in majestic clothing, holding a heavy decorated staff.

"So at the end, Ara became a goddess, ushering in a new age of peace," said the girl. The smile on her face slowly turned grim, eyebrow twitching with envy as she read the epilogue.

The final page showed the heroine, the cold, elegant, and beautiful Ara, donned with accessorized jewels, showing off her long slender legs that were crossed as she sat upon a lavish gold throne.

The raven beauty was surrounded by her harem of drop-dead gorgeous men. Their eyes held pure adoration and devotion as they stared upon Ara who was both their savior and the woman they loved.

"I feel so jealous!" vented the girl, who went by the name Dawn, a twenty-three-year-old college dropout, who currently lived in a one-bedroom apartment. She was a baker employed at a cute cafe a few blocks down the street from where she lived.

For the last four years, Dawn had been engrossed in a popular webtoon titled, World Savior. A story about how a girl, who got her life turned upside down when monsters invaded her world and nearly wiped out half of the world's population.

After facing a near death experience, Ara, the story's heroine, became empowered with the will to survive. Every adversary that came her way enabled her to become stronger. At the same time, she captured the hearts of four beautiful men who fell for her personality and beauty.

"As if becoming a goddess wasn't enough, Ara scored herself a reverse harem ending!" Dawn stared at the heroine with jealousy in her eyes, grumbling to herself as she made her way out onto the balcony of her apartment.

Peering up at the night sky covered with stars, Dawn leaned against the rail and was surprised when she saw a shooting star.

"If I had one wish, I would love to live the life of the female heroine of World Savior!" In the heat of the moment, Dawn closed her eyes for a brief second and made her wish. The only thing on her mind was the heroine's harem of sexy guys.

'Why does the heroine get all the hot guys!? I want a harem too!' Dawn childishly threw a tantrum in her head, but as soon as she walked back inside and got ready for bed, she thought nothing more about the wish she made as she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

- -

Come morning of the next day, Dawn got up and took a shower, putting on her clothes which consisted of jean shorts paired with a simple but cute short sleeve gray and pink hoodie with a cute design on the front.

Dawn tucked her phone in her pocket and slipped on her sneakers. Walking to the window, Dawn pulled back her pink curtains and froze.

Expecting to see yet another sunny day with people out on the streets either jogging or buying ice cream or even out at the park that wasn't that far away.

Dawn asked herself why she was seeing black clouds of smoke coming from destroyed buildings?

Why were giant monsters out in the streets terrorizing the city? She watched with wide frightened eyes as people ran for their lives.

"H-Huh?" Dawn gripped onto the curtains, trembling. Her legs were losing feeling, going numb.

"W- WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" cried Dawn and later asked herself if she was still dreaming.

"T-T-This's gotta be a dream, right?" Dawn couldn't even feel fear, doubting the scenes happening right outside her window. Instead of the sunny blue sky, the sky was dyed in orange that faded into an ominous blood red.

Dawn almost lost her footing and flinched when the screams of utter terror pierced the walls of her room.

Her body broke out into a shake when she saw hordes of giant rats and vultures destroying buildings, severing limbs, picking people off the streets before stuffing them into their giant mouths.

The actions of these monstrous creatures painted the streets and buildings in a shower of blood. "Oh God, this gotta be a nightmare!" murmured Dawn, entangling her fingers in the short strands of her brown hair as she clutched her scalp in hysteria.

"I'm dreaming! Yep, that's gotta explain it! I'm dreaming, right?" Dawn foolishly tricked herself into believing this mindset, convincing herself that everything she was seeing was nothing more than a dream and that monsters only existed in fiction.

"T-That's r-right! This is the real world! No way monsters can exist, right?" Just as Dawn was on the verge of believing this delusion, a pounding on her door made her jump and scream.

"Nononono! God, please no!" The tears that had gathered in her eyes began to fall down her brown cheeks. Fear sunk into her heart as Dawn could hear her instincts ordering her to run, and that was what she did.

Not wanting to waste more time, Dawn opened her window and raced down the fire escape. Once on her feet, Dawn took off running.

'What the hell is going on? Why has the world suddenly turned into one of those cliche fantasy/apocalypse webtoons that suddenly became popular on the internet? I'm not ready to die, especially not a virgin!'

Witnessing the world ending before eyes, Dawn began regretting so many life choices. Such as her boyfriend in high school who cheated on her after three months of dating.

The dream she had when was seven and wanted to be a fashion designer. For being a wimp and not trying out that new ice cream flavor at Baskin Ribbons, and the list continued.

Dawn didn't know how long she ran, feeling her legs and lungs burning, yet never stopping. The smell of burning smoke and flesh penetrated the air.

The streets were in mayhem as everyone was running for their lives or suffered a tragic fate by the hands of those giant monsters.

It was a scene straight out of a horror movie where in the sky above, a burst of yellow light split a section of the sky, and from it emerged a cute girl with blonde hair and a blue dress with an apron tied at the front—reminding Dawn of the character Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

"U-Umm, can I please have everyone's attention?" the girl meekly murmured, voice unheard over the mayhem happening on the streets. The girl tried for a second time before a frown marred her pretty face, noticing no one paying her any attention.

"Silence!" The girl snapped her fingers, and everything, people and monsters, froze in place. "Now that's more like it! Greeting Players! I am the announcer for the tutorial stage, Alice!"

"Welcome to this magnificent stage orchestrated by my master. A bloody exciting game filled with thrill and excitement!" The girl's voice dripped with excitement, showering everyone with a joyful smile.

"Before I tell you the rules of the tutorial, first, let me explain a few things to you," said Alice.

"The people of this world are what we refer to as Players and starting from this point forward you all are now participants in a very fun game! A game orchestrated for the pleasure of beings who exist in a higher realm than this tiny waste of existence world! The game itself is very easy; if you don't wish to die then all you gotta do is win! Easypeasy, right?" Alice simply explained.

Dawn wanted to scream. 'Nothing about this whole thing seems easy!' Not to mention the fact that this woman obviously cared nothing about their lives and disregarded them.

Despite the bizarre scene playing right before her eyes, Dawn was caught with a sense of familiarity.

"Each of you has been given a system which provides the Player's info, such as their name, rank, coins, skill, and the username of their banker." A blue hologram screen appeared before every person's eyes.

"Bankers are those who observe the game, and will sponsor humans who have caught their interest. Bankers sponsor Players by giving them coins, such as when Players level up and complete missions. To make the game more interesting, bankers will bestow a portion of their powers upon the Player they sponsor. But do be careful. With great power comes great drawbacks~!" There was an evil glint in the girl's eyes as she giggled.

"Now you see that blue hologram screen floating in front of your face? That is your system. Players can not see each other's status screen. The system can help identify the rank of monsters and other inhabitants that now lurk in the lands of this world. Other features of the system are a built-in compass and map that will help you along your journey!"

Dawn clicked on the map icon located on her system, and an illustration of the layout of her city appeared that she found somewhat strange.

"The system also provides an inventory and two types of shops. One for items and the other for clothes."

"If you are looking at your map, you should see three areas lit up in green. Those areas have safe zones, meaning in those zones, creatures will not attack. Each round will have a limited number of safe zones. Your mission for the tutorial round is easy! The first stage will occur in three months. To reach it, Players must survive these next three months~!" Alice explained before snapping her fingers.

The monsters that were frozen regained mobility and continued their rampage. Alice's blue eyes gleefully took in the carnage.

"I wish you all the very best! Bye-Bye~!" Alice left in the same fashion she arrived.