Gula

"Hey! Wake up!"

After feeling his lungs being pounded by a sledgehammer, Lucas found himself being woken up by someone.

Looking around him, he found himself to be sitting in the middle of an empty white room.

The room seemed to be made out of an unknown material and the white color was so spotless that Lucas thought that he had found himself in the middle of an empty white space.

"Stop staring absentmindedly and start learning! Don't you want to change your life!?"

The voice once again called out to him, and Lucas turned his head left and right, trying to find the fox girl as he could recognize her voice.

But no matter where looked, he couldn't find the little girl despite clearly hearing her voice earlier.

"I'm down here!"

Her voice called out to him once more.

And this time, Lucas looked downward to see a glowing red pendant hanging from his neck.

"Are you-"

Before Lucas could ask, the fox girl answered,

"Yes, I'm taking this form right now because I can't show myself at all before you finish the elimination round."

"And stop calling me fox girl! My name is Maya!"

After Maya finished speaking, the glowing necklace laid dormant once more.

Looking at this, Lucas gulped.

"You can read my mind…?"

Hearing a clicking of a tongue, Lucas heard Maya's voice once again,

"Boy, I can see what you have been through these past few years and you still wonder if I can read minds or not?"

Recalling the moment when she touched his hand and scenes began flashing in his head, Lucas scratched his head.

"Sorry, I forgot about that."

The necklace glowed once again.

"No, you're right actually. Currently, I can only read your mind because of the contract between us. Without it, I need to regain my powers first to be able to do it."

Hearing her answer, several questions popped up in his head.

But before he could ask any of it, Maya spoke right through his mind without making the necklace glow.

'We really need to start preparing. Although I chose you because of your high affinity with mana, I don't know how good you actually are.'

'And I want to keep my word. I don't want you to fail this.'

Lucas tilted his head,

"Maya, I don't understand anything at all about what is happening here."

'We don't have much time for any lengthy explanation, Lucas.'

"But how can I prepare for anything if I don't-"

She cut him off once again, 

'Yes, I've seen your thoughts and confusion, so let's quickly get this explanation out of the way.'

As if to make her explanation as clear as possible, Maya began talking out loud again as the necklace glowed.

"We are currently in another world, away from your world, the world you called Earth.

We are currently in the world of Gula which is a different kind of world from Earth.

Instead of countries, there are kingdoms and empires in this world. 

With Gula's size about several times bigger than Earth's, there are hundreds more of those different factions in this world compared to Earth's countries.

These powers continued fighting each other and there was never a day a faction didn't want themselves to get stronger and mightier than the others.

And that's where your world comes in.

Not only is the number of people in your world about the same amount as ours despite being much smaller in size, but the people from your world also somehow have a higher average mana affinity than ours."

Lucas cut her off.

"Then what you mean is…"

Reading the thoughts in Lucas' head, Maya confirmed his guess.

"You got 100 points for that!"

"By establishing a connection between the two worlds, the people in this world planned to bring people from your world as soldiers and manpower."

Lucas stayed silent this time, but his head continued thinking.

'Does this mean I will go to war? Do I have to kill people? Can I even do that…?'

The necklace glowed once more.

"Lucas, you have to do it whether you can or not."

"If you really want to change your life and do the impossible, you must do it."

Maya suddenly stopped speaking as if she sensed something. 

Then she continued,

"And heck, I believe you have to do that very soon."

After she said those words, Maya stayed silent once again, making the necklace hang still. 

She stayed very quiet as if she tried to completely erase her existence.

"Maya? Don't you leave me hanging after saying those kinds of words!"

Lucas was about to poke the necklace and ask her more questions when another voice, one that he didn't recognize before entered his head.

A sweet, alluring mature woman's voice spoke aloud in his head.

"Welcome to Gula, mortals! We congratulate you on getting the chance to step onto this world and get the chance to become an immortal."

The woman stopped speaking for a while, taking her sweet time as if she would be enjoying the words that she would say next.

"But not just anyone can take upon this once-in-a-lifetime chance."

"As there are many of you now, let's cull down your numbers a bit and let only the worthy use this golden opportunity!"

Then a mechanical voice replaced the woman's voice.

"Eliminate each other and survive until only 100 of you remain."

After the mechanical voice said those words, the woman's voice returned saying,

"We'll give you all a freebie to help you a little."

The woman's voice then completely disappeared before a thin book suddenly fell from above and landed in front of Lucas' feet.

"Ha…."

Lucas heard Maya's sigh from the necklace and asked,

"Why are you trying to hide from her?"

The necklace then glowed bright, even shaking a little as if to convey Maya's emotion.

"Me? Hiding from her? Are you trying to humiliate me, boy?"

"Come on Maya, even a child could see that from the way you disappeared completely and heaved a sigh after she went away."

"I'm not hiding from her! I'm hiding from the ruler of this kingdom who might pose a threat if they ever ran their mouths to those emperors and empresses!"

Lucas tilted his head once more.

'The more I interact with her, the more questions I have about her…'

Reading his thoughts once again, Maya spoke,

"Yes, I'm aware of that, but we really don't have much time now."

"As you've heard, you will be eliminating your own kind after this, so you need to prepare yourself so you won't be the one that gets eliminated."

Lucas then got pulled back into reality as he was reminded about what he was to do.

He was half expecting himself to do something unimaginable considering Maya had asked him whether he was willing to do anything, whatever it took to change his life.

But after being told to kill people, Lucas needed to reorganize his thoughts first.

Or at least that was what he was about to do.

"Keep your moral dilemma for later, I don't want you dying anytime soon."

"Pick up the book in front of you."

Lucas wanted to ask her how she could be so calm after hearing someone was being told to kill another person, but he knew that she was right.

If he had to do it whether he could or not, then he wouldn't want to be the one that got killed.

He still had to cure his grandma and give her the happy life she deserved.

So Lucas grabbed the book in front of him.

After his hand touched the book, words began appearing in his head.

'Basic Body Strengthening.'

"Wow, they really give out shit to their future army."

"Throw away the book now."

Maya said as the necklace began glowing brighter than before.

"Use this instead!"

Another book then appeared right in front of the necklace.

Instead of a basic-looking book that just looked like any ordinary bundle of paper, the book that had just appeared in front of the necklace was completely purple in color.

Not only was the cover of the book shining purple, but even the paper inside it was purple.

Another thing that made the book look incomparable to the freebie book given by the unknown woman, the book that appeared from the necklace stayed afloat in the air even though nothing was propping it up.

Without being told what to do, Lucas reached out his hand and grabbed it.

Same as before, words began appearing in his head,

'Coercive Figment.'