Chapter #01: A Normal Day
In a small apartment, on one of the busiest streets in the city, slept a young man on his lumpy, uncomfortable mattress. The room was a picture of simplicity at its bare minimum, as what can be expected from a lone bachelor in his adult student life. It was a typical day in the life of the young man. Waking up late as usual. The seventh alarm, currently making its presence known, indicated the stubborn nature of its owner. When the young man wanted to be lazy, no one could beat his laziness. However on the flip side, when he wanted to be productive, no one showed more heart in his work than him.
As the seventh alarm ended, and the warning for the eighth, threatened to rear its head, an experienced swipe from the finger erased it immediately. The motion was executed with such professionalism, that a bystander would think it was practiced a thousand times. In a Chinese cultivation story, the young man would have already acquired the indomitable sword Dao of Swipes. Whereas in a Japanese shounen, it would be dubbed plot armor by the fans. Another turn in the sheets and the young man was asleep once more. Ten minutes later, another alarm rang, annoying the heck out of the sleeping parasite. He let out a massive yawn and tried to stretch his body, while still in the sleeping posture. The young man was quite self-aware of his laziness.
*Crack*
*Crack*
*Crack*
Two, three subdued knuckles sound gave out from his bones. Feeling enough exercise for the time being, he let out another yawn, looked at the alarm clock with hazy eyes, "Eh, still seven". The eyes followed suit in closure as they approached shutting off again.
Letting out a massive yawn, he realized, he probably should start getting ready for the day. He wondered which comedy series he should replay this week.
'BBT or maybe Friends or...Two and a half men'.
'Ah, fuck it!. 10 more minutes'.
Still yawning, he took a side turn in the bed and went to sleep again. Due to the influence of absorbing fiction, anime, and light novels as if he were a sponge, he had started to even dream about it in his dreams. Often, he found himself dreaming vividly, whether of conquering empires, inventing new techniques, or navigating through a harem of women, only to abruptly awaken to the bleak, chilly reality of a German morning outside his window.
The student had a stringent schedule that needed to be followed daily step by step, starting with preparing breakfast, eating like a bear, and then heading off to either University or the part-time job he had gotten as soon as he arrived in the country.
In the next moment, the boy's eyes opened wide at the realization.
"Oh...Crap...Crap...Crap... Damn it", the young man exclaimed, jolting awake at the prospect of being late once more.
Picking up his mobile, Keeping to his daily traditions, he cursed his alarm clock. 'Ah, screw breakfast. I have to get going'.
As usual, the room observed a blur, doing three or four tasks simultaneously. Toothbrush clutched in his mouth, clothes being flung on with one hand, and a frantic attempt to cram study materials and a laptop into his bag. The scene depicted the daily morning mayhem of a university student.
A typical outsider would think that having left in such a hurry, the student was in a rush to reach the class. However, absorbing fiction, anime, and manga had its ups and downs. It made him a weeb, that's for sure but on the other hand, it also cautioned him to ingrain the Golden Rules of Transmigration.
Rule #01: Avoid the truck and buses. Stay far away. If it is not the truck kun, it is the bus kun.
Rule #02: Cross the road with extreme vigilance. Waste precious class time if you have to.
The young man looked vigilantly at both sides of the road. The passer-byes looked strangely at the awkward behavior of the young man. Yet, this was Germany — if you weren't causing a spectacle, folks generally weren't too bothered. They might even find it entertaining if in a good mood.
Crossing the road, and reaching the bus stop, he let out his customary sigh of relief. True to form, he had missed the tram in his road-crossing escapade. With ten minutes until the next one, he promptly opened a light novel site to catch up on his reading.
After ten minutes had passed, the tram stopped in front. Filled to the brim with people, there was hardly enough space. The meager amount of space created due to the people leaving was already filled again in an instant. He sighed, tightening the shoulder straps of the bags and crossing his arms, he maneuvered his way inside. He managed to make some space for himself. A nauseating odor attacked his senses. The smell probably originated from some child or a couple of children, he didn't care enough to look back and be assaulted more directly.
Blessed be the cold weather, for he shuddered to think of that odor festering in the summer heat.
Forty minutes later, the tram halted at the University Haltestelle. As the door opened, he prepared to bolt, since it was nearly eight am and half of the class time was already over. He darted towards the building and ran up the stairs to the second floor.
Slowly taking off his jacket's zipper, as doing it in class would make unnecessary noise in the class, gaining him extra attention from an already dissatisfied German teacher. He entered the class while slowly moving the door handle. Slowly and surely, he moved inside. Seating himself amidst the indifferent crowd, he muttered a quiet "Shukar Alhamdulillah" at the lack of reaction.
Taking a survey of the class, every student had a bored look strewn across their faces. The topic of the lecture? "Resources and Recycling" in an engineering course.
The young man held back a massive yawn about to come out, thinking, 'Why is the teacher spouting political jibber jabber? What do global climate issues and citizen laws, have to do with an engineering course? I didn't come to Germany to study politics, for crying out loud. Give me a break ...Ugh...just wanna sleep'.
He looked around again, among the students, some of his acquaintances were playing mobile idle games or binging Netflix using the University Wifi. Others, even less invested, whispered among themselves. Either the teacher was too passionate or blissfully ignorant of the rest of the class to notice these activities. Anyway, the young man about to sleep on the desk didn't care enough to even try to find out.
'Just end it already. I can't listen to you droning on anymore about climate change and your activism bullshit.', He thought, while trying to block another yawn.
These thoughts had been recurring to the student, who had started to consider seriously, dropping the course in its entirety. Perhaps, an another teacher in the new semester would inject some humor in the dry course.
Rubbing his weary eyes, he sighed in relief as the class finally ended. He was still tired after the previous day of work at the part-time job. As the professor left the class, the young man decided to leave the pit of boredom, not caring or even willing to talk with others, after the fresh dose of migraine.
'Not him, not him...no', the student mentally pleaded as his self-proclaimed friend intercepted him near the exit.
"What's up, Hamid?" he inquired wearily.
"Bro, how you doing?", Hamid asked enthusiastically.
Attempting to stifle a monumental yawn, the student replied, "I'm heading home."
"Ah, got it. Was wondering if you were signing up for German this semester," Hamid persisted.
"No."
"Swimming lessons?"
"No."
"Football?"
"No."
"Cricket, then?"
"No."
Both students, fresh faces in the country and enrolled in the same program, faced a lull in conversation. Hamid's crestfallen expression hinted at his numerous failed attempts to engage. "Uh, how about lunch? Come on...let`s have some fun...we can play Fortnite after."
Knowing what would happen next, the yawning young men immediately refused. The guy was nice, but, he had a habit of turning lunches into extremely loud sports debates, a topic with which the fiction swimmer was sadly, heavily unequipped.
Bading farewell to his new acquaintance, he darted towards the upcoming tram at the nearby stop and boarded it quickly. He still had to do a bit of shopping to survive this week. Going through the mall, he wondered what he should make this week. He had already mastered the art of Biryani, Karahi, and Macaroni. All those long hours of video-calling his mother for instruction hadn't been in vain.
'Bah.... I need something new', he tiredly thought, fatigued by four months of repetitive meals.
After getting the essentials, nothing too fancy. Eggs, bread, milk, butter, a combo of necessity in every student`s breakfast, his eyes landed on a miraculous sight.
'Ahhh, It finally happened'.
"..."
"..."
"..."
'They have a halal frozen chicken pizza, finally'
'I was so done with those disgusting tuna ones'
'Hmm, I can hibernate for three more days now.', he decided as he placed three of these in his cart, and strutted out of the supermarket.
As usual, he silently watched the raindrops patter against the tram window, creating intricate patterns on the glass. An eerie quietness settled over the tram, interrupted only by the occasional cry of a baby a couple of rows ahead. The trams were nice after the first few morning hours of traffic. For the past week, the rain had become a mundane part of his routine, adding to the endless monotony that weighed on him.
He let out a sigh of deep exhaustion.
*screech!!*
The tram halted at the stop, prompting him to exit. Opening his umbrella, he dashed for the nearest shelter as the rain poured down relentlessly.
Looking at the bleak atmosphere, around him, with nary a person even on one of the biggest streets in the city, he sighed wistfully, reminiscing about his country where there was hustle and bustle in every street of every town. Here, the people looked more like robots than humans. Perhaps, the socio-economic situation had stolen the very thing that made humans, be humans.
His apartment was located in the middle-class part of the city, a good thirty minutes away from the university, if the tram didn't linger for so long at each stop. The rent was affordable and the room was surprisingly spacious. The roommates were the only downsides of living in his current apartment, as he had to be the superintendent when it came to cleaning and the warden when it came to any violation of the posted rules.
He opened his door, placed the groceries in their intended locations, and plopped down on his mattress.
Noticing the hard downpour, he murmurred softly, "Hmm... hard rainfall again, it's getting colder and colder"
He turned the heater on, finally getting some warmth after half an hour. He opened the anime site on his laptop. For some reason, he wanted to rewatch an old series again. He couldn't explain it, it was just a feeling.
The site loaded, but before he could start the episode, he lost the motivation and just closed the laptop again. He moved on to another light novel series that he picked up.
The day drifted by in a blur, transitioning from one activity to the next until he felt the drowsiness creeping in. Glancing at the time, he muttered, "Damn, it's already 1 am."
He placed the mobile in charging mode and went to sleep.
A normal, mundane day in the typical life of a student. His expectation for the morrow was to repeat the same thing he did today and the next day. and the day after that. Never changing for the foreseeable future.
However, as he stirred from slumber, little did he know that an unexpected twist awaited him.
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Author Note:
Hello Everyone,
Per my promise, I have completed the rewrite for this first chapter. Took a bit longer than expected, But anyway, I am committed. There might be a disconnect in writing quality up till Chapter 10. I am a newbie author, thus you will find that the writing quality constantly improves throughout the novel. Please power through, as the writing significantly improves starting from chapter 25.
Admirers_Quill