Chapter 64: Life and death

Sigh~

A lazy and somewhat tired sigh came from a dark-skinned young man. Sitting on the bench, he looked at all the other students doing their own thing on the lawn.

"What is the meaning of life?" The young man asked himself

It was a question he had been asking himself lately. Of course, he already knew the answer. Or rather, he has heard of what is likely the meaning of life.

As an avid manga reader and anime watcher, the young man had long come across what was interpreted as the likeliest one.

The meaning of life is to enjoy it as much as you can by doing what you like. You, as a living being, bring meaning to your life by living it.

This was the best answer he had found, and he himself believed it to be true. Only...

"Is that it? Being happy?"

Although he agreed with his answer, he just felt like there should be more to life than that. He found it hard to believe that from birth to death, all they exist to do is be happy.

"What if what makes me happy can't be reached? Or maybe I die before I can reach it? Would my life then have no meaning?"

"Guess who it is?"

Suddenly, the young man had his eyes covered. But he didn't panic, even though his eyes were covered out of nowhere. So he answered calmly.

"My non-existent girlfriend?"

"Guess again," the person behind him said, clearly trying to discuss their voice.

But he didn't comply this time. He just took the person's hands off his eyes.

"Next time you try that, make sure I'm not wearing my glasses. I can see your chubby fingers right in front of me."

"Gee, you're no fun." From behind the young man, another young man, only with lighter skin and a plump body, came out.

"What are you doing here?" The young man asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. You've been coming here a lot of times these past few weeks."

"I've just been thinking."

"About?"

"Life. What is its meaning?"

"You're thinking about the meaning of life?" The young man's friend asked.

"Yeah, like, why do we exist?"

"Does it really matter? Isn't it enough to just be happy with your life?"

"You're a chicken." The young man suddenly said

"What?" His friend's face twisted in confusion.

"The chicken lives its life in the chicken coop. Like the rest, it was born and raised in the coop. For humans, it lays eggs every day. One day, the chicken will no longer lay eggs and will be taken and killed by humans. But it doesn't worry about that because the coop is all it knows. When other chickens are replaced every day, it will say, "Oh well, that's how life is. As long as I enjoy staying in the coop until it is my time,"

"What are you trying to say? That we are all like chickens, living until we have reached our use."

"That... I don't know."

"So..."

"I want to know what is beyond this world. Beyond the sky's above and beyond even death itself. Beyond the coop."

"And how are you supposed to do that? You're not even an astronaut."

"I don't know, but I want this to be the meaning of my life."

"Well, I don't know the meaning of your life, but I do know the meaning of the next hour of your life."

"Oh yeah?" The man turned to look at his friend.

"Yeah." His friend reached out to his pocket. Out of it, he took a stash of money. "It's your turn to buy groceries."

Sigh~

The man sighed as he took the money. He and his dormmates have had this sort of tradition. Every week, the four would gather their money and get one of them to buy groceries for the week.

Because of their longstanding relationship, the four trust each other enough to do this.

And it seems like today was his day to stretch his legs.

"I'll do it later."

"Just make sure you do it before dusk. Even the leftovers from last night are gone. See ya."

With that said, the young man's friend left the bench and went on his way. The young man continued sitting on the bench. He looked at all the people as his thoughts started churning once more.

But suddenly, two people, a young man and a young woman, sat on the opposite bench. The young woman sat directly on the man's lap and swung her arm over his head. The two looked at each other lovingly.

Looking at these two people, the young man looked like he had just eaten a rotten egg. But he could not be blamed; as a single dog with no hoes, such a sight always manages to stun his heart.

"On second thoughts, I'll do it now."

With his hands in his pockets, the young man left the campus and went off towards the nearest market.

But even as he walked the slightly busy streets, his mind couldn't help but wonder further about these questions.

'What happens when we die?

'Do we go to another place where a god will welcome us? Ready to judge us for the deeds we have done here on earth?

'Or maybe nothing happens afterwards. With our bodies dead, we would no longer be able to think or remember. So we seize to exist intellectually.

'Maybe we will reincarnate, becoming new.

'But what does reincarnation mean?" Our soul? Does it exist?'

While thinking of these questions, he ended up at a traffic light. At that moment, the light was red, and the people nearby had stopped. There weren't many people at the stop, so the young man was able to stand at the edge and see the passing cars.

And one seemed to have pulled his attention.

'Ahh~ Truck-kun. The Japanese god of death, I wonder, if I were to get hit by you, will I be isekaied?'

The truck grew closer at an unusually high speed. Seeing this, the young man backed up slightly, but something made his eyes widen.

"Hey, stop..."

A little girl wearing weird clothes suddenly went forward. Passing through, she went directly into the road, on that lane where a certain truck was speeding.

Seeing that the little girl was just about to get hit, the young man wanted to jump out and push her away. But he stopped himself before he could.

"She dead."

Bam!

The little girl got hit by the truck. Upon impact, blood splattered on the ground, and pieces of her flew out.

For a moment, silence covered the streets.

"Ahhh!"

Only to be broken by a shrill scream heard from someone near the young man. Hearing the scream, everyone seemingly awoke from their stupor.

"Oh no!"

"Oh my god, that girl just..."

"Help, somebody help!"

"Somebody call the ambulance!"

Looking at the managed body, the young man couldn't help but say sarcastically, "Should we give her CPR while we're waiting for it?"

Looking at the faraway dead body for a little while longer, the young man sighed. The traffic light turned green, and the young man continued on his way.

"Like a weekend, life seems to always pass too soon. That little girl probably didn't even get the chance to explore who she is and what she is here for.

"Maybe tomorrow that will be me. Will I too disappear from this world without finding the answer to these questions?"

Suddenly, the young man stopped. As the crowd ran to see the mangled corpse, the young man took off his glasses and looked at the sky. It was almost as if he could see the stars hidden in the sky and the uncountable number of galaxies above. Then a young man asked a question that seemingly rang throughout the universe.

"Who am I?"

Crack!

A loud cracking sound was suddenly heard. The young man touched his head and winced in pain.

"What a headache! I guess this affected me more than I had thought."

The young man shook his head slightly and went on without another thought.

...

AN: This is something that actually happened to me once. Is it not normal for someone to do this? To just walk away when there is a body just a few meters away?

To say, "As a family," in Vin Deasil's voice, as a family of people suddenly had their car flying lile they are in fast aj furios and crashing on the ground to their deaths?

Anyway, as you an see, the stories has changed and it'll stay like this for a little while. And I don't think I need to tell exactly what is going on, I've clearly left an obvious hint at the end. Anyway tell me how you like this so far