A New Dawn (Solo-leveling / Multicross)

[ First person POV ]

I am Magnus Rex, for years now, I've been slaving away as a branch manager at a reputed bank. It isn't all that bad, the pay's good enough to save plenty for a happy retirement and I get to boss around the employees working under me...hehehe.... but.... it gets to you, you know ?.... 10 years of waking up to an empty house, cooking for yourself, cleaning your apartment, getting ready for the job...and when I do get there all I see are the soulless faces of the employees working under me. Overall not a healthy work environment, I know.

The thing is, the society shapes everyone to fit in, to become a part of the system...from your childhood, you're slowly brainwashed to graduate college, find a stable job, get married, produce more workforce, brainwash them to fit in.....and repeat.

But I yearn for something more! Hence my addiction to web-novels, anime and manga...you know, every otaku's dream is to get isekai'd to another world....it could be for various reasons - to be the strongest and have people fawn over you (ugh, not a big fan of this one tho, on a smaller scale, being the branch manager, my employee's already do enough boot licking for a lifetime) or to create a harem of powerful women, who'd support each other in whatever adventure the world throws at them (I would love this one for sure!).

I digress, I want to live in a different reality, I want to study and use magic, I want to fight strong beings, I want to stand atop a tall mountain and shout out to everything out there in the vast cosmos, that - "I'M ALIVE!!"... to be able to exist and live are two vastly different things and I'm sure that beneath the countless thoughts that go through every human's mundane lives, they want to live too...in the truest sense of the word.

By the way, all these thoughts are a result of me looking at the mass of people walking at the Shibuya Crossing, so many people, so many wishes and dreams, yet restricted by this reality. Sigh, what's the point... just another day at work.

[ Third Person POV ]

While our ignorant protagonist was day-dreaming, he spotted a particularly stand-out-ish young lady, nay, a woman around the age of 35, standing at a nearby pavement looking at her watch, she had silver eyes that hinted at a dignified yet playful and compassionate character, a slender face with a strong jawline, wavy shoulder length hair, darker than the night sky on a new moon. Sporting a full sleeved beige trench coat, a black inner shirt and wearing black gray pants that accentuated her long legs, she looked divine, like she didn't belong in this reality.

[ First person POV ]

A bit stunned, I look around to see that no one else seemed to be aware of her presence, I then turned back to look at her only to see her staring right at me with a gentle smile, like that of a Goddess, like she knows me and understands my troubles.

I was immediately pulled in by her charm/charisma whatever you want to call it... like two stars orbiting each other, like the Yin and Yang in the symbol of Taoism, like the half of my soul, that I've been yearning for, for years, like the one missing note in a symphony to make it perfect....it was her! she was the one I was missing.

As I made my way towards her to understand this feeling I seem to have, I hear screeches of wheel's drifting by and guns blazing...crap this looks like a shootout, I need to find somewhere to hide..but..that lady, the one my soul yearns for...damn it! I'm saving her too, to hell with it, so many years later, I've finally found someone who resonates with my very soul, if I don't even explore the apparent connection between us then I'd rather just die now and not have to go through my mundane life any longer.

I run towards where I thought she stood, amidst all the other common people running around due to the sounds of guns blazing and people dying as collateral damage, it was utter chaos, somehow I arrive near where I previously saw her, since she was standing a bit further away from the crossing there were not many people here, but where is she??? wasn't she right there a few seconds ago??? and then it happened...

Fate being the ever fickle mistress that she is, decided to slap me in the face again, just when I thought I'd found the one that shone so brightly for me...I blacked out, my legs turned to jelly and I looked at my chest to find a bullet wound right where my heart was supposed to be...fuck...ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME ????....Darkness, Death, ever so gently pulled me in to its soothing embrace, whispering in my ears to let go, what more can this stupid mundane reality offer you, it said.

I think of that woman, my apparent other half and wonder if she managed to get away, if she'd ever miss not exploring this connection we seemed to share.....I yell back out at this darkness, this death that seems so comfortable, where I'd have no worries, I shout out with all my remaining willpower - "GIVE ME A SECOND CHANCE!" " I WANT TO LIVE!"

"I want to live a life so beautiful and adventurous, with people that I would come to love and have stories of great feats and wonderful places to tell my children, a life so fulfilling that in my dying breath I'd look back and think, there couldn't have been no better."

I pray to any and all higher powers out there...

"Please, give me another chance...cough..cough..cough...."

and even then, in the end... the sweet embrace of death envelopes me.

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