CHAPTER 3: Encounter

Once reality set in, Tanaka stood up. He turned the pages and found nothing more on it. Only chapter 1 was there. Would more chapters appear as the day passed?

He left those though for now and focused on what to do. Many questions were in his head. Why was he reincarnated and why this world? 

Everything, after all, had a reason, even accidents have. After all, a great turtle once said, "There are no accidents."

Though he doubted those questions would be answered this easily. He could make some guesses. From the many novels he read on situations like this, the goal of every reincarnated author would be:

To save the world.

That was just a guess, but still he needed something, a goal to strive towards. Not for the world, but for him.

'Fuck the world'

That was going to be his motto for survival.

And to survive, he needed skills, powerful than his right hook.

As if it was second nature to him, he uttered,

'Stats.'

A blue panel with words and numbers appeared in front of him. His heart beat rose. He looked away from the panel for a second, took a deep breath, and crossed his fingers.

'Let me have an op skill. Please let me have an op skill.'

Like a gambler waiting for a jackpot, he looked at the panel. But his eyes were glued to the [Name]. The new name, a name he was familiar with, and wished it never existed.

Lim.

"F*uuuuccckk."

He screamed on top of his lungs and again fell down on his knees. But the emotions behind it were higher and soared through his body.

'Anything, but this name.'

He hated that name, not because it sounded odd, but mainly because of the meaning or the abbreviation he had given to it and even his stats showed it. It was written next to Lim in a bracket. All in capital letters.

Lim's full form was-

 [LONELINESS IN ME.]

The seventeen-year-old didn't like his friends, and of course not his bullies. Friendship was just a burden to him. And he wasn't a donkey to carry all of that load without getting his share of rewards. So he lived the life of a loner.

At first it felt cool. Alone, the only one in class who hid his hobbies and stories. He felt like a main character. Except it wasn't an anime, but real life.

Nobody reached out to him. Everyone went for karaoke, made plans for summer holidays, talked about their crushes and shared porn.

He stayed at the back, listening. Never having the courage to utter a simple-

"Hi."

That's when the ego in him decided.

' Who needs friends? When I have... this loneliness. It's quite a friend, you know. It creeps on me, never talks to me, never listens. A perfect friend.'

And hence Lim was created. An avatar who he strived to be. A person who walked alone, ate alone, and sh*t alone...everyone sh*t's alone.

'If only I could strangle the past me?'

Being alone and lonely were completely too different things. He found out about it as he grew up, like everyone else.

And he was glad to be proved wrong. That he couldn't be Lim.

'To the end of my life, I won't let anyone see my name's full form, even if the world is to end.'

After he accepted his fate and his name, Tanaka, or now Lim, looked at the rest of his stats.

The finger he crossed turned into a middle finger. But he stopped before showing it to the panel.

'It could be worse. But still it needs work. A lot of it'

 Though before he could think of how, the bed next to him looked a lot alluring.

"Let's leave the future to the future me."

Said the lazy, as he jumped onto the bed for a good night's sleep.

******

'I can't believe I was that careless.'

Those were Lim's first thoughts as he woke up. To sleep in an unknown house in an unknown world without a care was stupid.

'But this bed- something is just magical about it'

He denied the fact; he was just a ball of laziness.

And now came the issue. Leaving the house and touching grass.

He couldn't just go out from a house that didn't belong to him.

The neighbours would call the guards or kill him, thinking of him as a thief. But he couldn't just hole himself in this room. He had nothing.

The stars were average, nothing much to help him in this situation. He didn't get a "system." Only him and the boxer he wore, which probably didn't belong to him either.

Once he put it on, he headed out with his right hand, ready for action.

'This time, surely I will use my mighty right hook.'

 But unlike how he thought to be welcomed with shouts and screams, arrows and swords, the atmosphere was different.

It was raining. Quite a lot. People rushed to hide from it. Umbrellas struggled to hold against the wind so they had to hide under the roof of the shops. Only the people with raincoats roamed the streets.

And for a moment, Lim forgot, he was in another world. It felt so familiar. The splatter of rain, its smell. The world he wrote was now alive.

As he basked in the new reality he was in, an old lady from the apple store in front called out to him.

"Lim"

Lim, with a frown, looked in front. Even though her voice was weak, because of her age, and the rain, the disgusting name still reached his ears.

The woman with grey hair and missing teeth smiled. She held a bag of apples and gestured for him to take it.

But he was hesitant. Nobody could be trusted. She wasn't a character he knew. Hell, he had questions about his own existence.

However, those red apples. They called to him to take a bite. He was hungry, not being able to eat anything last night.

'No, this is also how princesses die, but- I am a boy, so that doesn't matter.'

Hunger won. He ran, trying not to slip in the rain, and reached the vendor.

"Did you sleep reading till midnight?"

The woman said, pointing at the silver, cracked wrist watch. It was already 1 pm.

Lim didn't have any idea about time. There was a clock on his house, but because of what happened yesterday, he couldn't care less about time.

Also, how could he understand the woman? The language she spoke was different. But it sounded natural.

'So I too got the power to understand this world's language.'

"Just felt under the weather. The long sleep kicked it out."

Lim sounded-tried sounding as casual as possible. He was sweating. It just looked like he was wet from the rain.

"Hmm."

The old woman touched his forehead and closed her eyes. A surge of warmth entered his body. He wanted to push the hand away. It was something unknown, but was calming.

She pulled her hand away and gave the bags of apples to him.

"Eat well, and wear some decent clothes."

Lim looked down. He was out on the street with a shirt on and a pair of black boxers.

Embarrassed, he looked down

"Um-how much?"

He asked and felt a smack on his forehead.

"We will do the calculator later. For now, go inside and wear something. That bulge is ruining my mood."

"You have quite the powerful fist for an old woman."

He ran back after saying that. And slipped this time right on his butt.

"Haha. You have quite the balance for a young one."

The old woman said, laughing her teeth out.

'What a morning.'

As he was about to get up, there stood a man in front, wearing a raincoat and a hat underneath.

"Lim, right?'

He nodded.

The postman then scrambled inside his bag and took out an envelope.

"You have made the village proud."

The man patted Lim and went away.

Confused, he walked inside his home and set the bag of apples on the table. 

Eating one without washing his hands and the apple, he opened the envelope.

The first four words he wrote were enough to forget about the wonderful taste running in his mouth.

'I am not ready for this.'

"From The Arcadia Academy"

Those words were about to change his whole life, that he never had a day to have a grasp on.

He kept reading the letter, which stated he had passed the exam. And he needed to do some tasks before coming to the academy exactly after a month. He needed to tailor the academy's uniform, get the books, and arrive at the academy. 

'Classes haven't even started and they are already giving us homework.'

But the fundamental question was, how did he pass the exam? The key question was- how in the hell did 'he' even give the test?

The letter clearly stated that he gave the exam fifteen days ago, so who gave the exam?

Lim tried to solve these mysteries but gave up...after 15 minutes.

'I need to focus on the now.'

Now that it was clear where he was healing to, he needed some more cards under his sleeves. And being an author came in the clutch.

He sat down at the table, took a piece of paper and pen, and started jotting down the location of every skill he knew of.

The Academy would start in a month, so there was plenty of time to gather them.

He chuckled, knowing the skills he could have. And the more he thought, the chuckle turned into a laugh, which he thought sounded like a villain's.

He sounded more like a hyena.

******

Clad in a simple black suit, adored with a jewel in the pocket with a white shirt, Felix walked towards Section V of Arcadia.

Nobody was around him. After all, the welcome party started 30 minutes ago. 

'Trying to use an iron for the first time didn't work out.'

He almost burnt a hole in his pants. And the creases on the suit were still uneven.

However, walking alone without faces surrounding him was good. He hated crowds, so much so, that he didn't want to come.

But he wanted to meet that person. So much so that he was ready to face his weakness.

'It's just an illusion. Nothing else.'

He readied himself to jump into a swamp of his nightmares, but then-

*Ting*

The sensation was here again. And it was ahead of him. Even though Levi couldn't see the person, he knew where they were.

Once he reached towards the bushes decorated with strings of lights at the border of the large hall in Section V, the sensation got stronger, and the person was in front of him.

'A stalker?'

The person in front hid behind a bush crouched. He was lifting his head up from the bushes, then peeked inside the hall from the window and then hid again.

Felix walked towards the person, not making any noise. Careful not to step on any of the branches and dry leaves, he walked towards the person and stood behind him.

Now he just waited for that person to turn back. But he kept peeking ahead.

'How can he even see through the window in such a long way?'

To Felix, the window was too hazy, and he could only see bright silhouettes of people moving.

Felix, feeling impatient, coughed.

"Heek."

The boy startled, made a weird sound and looked back. Felix was there, staring at him, especially the suit he wore. The boy stood up and brushed off the leaves on his suit, which was a lot more tidy and well ironed than Felix's.

He remained silent and coughed a bit. 

 Felix then watched the boy's hand move towards him for a handshake. That was weird. 

Shaking hands with someone who was just spying on someone felt odd, but this could be a step to get answers.

Felix, without making eye contact, reached out, but the boy pulled back his hand back and instead threw a right hook.

It was inches away from his face. Felix stepped back. The punch flew past him. Felix didn't speak further and just punched the boys right in the chin. And it landed.

*Bam*

There was a crunch sound, probably the sound of the chin breaking. The boy, like a rag doll, fell on the ground without signs of moving.

'It wasn't fast'

Felix used the same bit of speed and force as the fallen boy, but never thought it would land.

He crouched and sighed at the sight of the boy he just met getting knocked out.

'Good start to my academy life.'