Beyond the Path

My name is Charles, I am 23 years old and I am a police officer. Today I started my shift, as I have done for the past 2 years. I have walked this city from north to south, and everything seems so familiar. I've been walking for hours, my legs are starting to give out. I decide to take a short break. Suddenly, I feel something strange inside me, a unique sensation I have never experienced before. A feeling of frustration floods my being. But, suddenly, that feeling fades away, giving way to a melancholic and ephemeral feeling.

Throughout my short life, I have never been driven by my instincts. I have always acted in a sane and sensible way. I don't understand why I experience such drastic changes. At that moment, a small light guides me to the bottom of an alley, and I do not understand why my steps have led me to this dirty and filthy alley.

As I go deeper into that place, my heart beats faster and faster, until I reach the end of that funereal place. There is nothing around me, only the cold darkness of an eternal night. Suddenly, that light fades, and guides me to a small piece of paper, everything indicates that it is a letter emaciated by time and adverse conditions. Written on said paper one can read.....

"Hello, my name is, well, it doesn't really matter. This is just the letter of someone evicted and fed up with his miserable life. I have spent most of my life in endless lethargy. Little by little, the world took me in its jaws and slowly forgot me, while everything around me went on as if nothing had happened. You will probably find this letter next to a dirty, emaciated body, which has been eaten by maggots. But before you go on with your life, I would like you to be able to understand a little of my life and how I came to this sorry end."

With this small piece of paper, Charles was a bit confused. He had too many doubts about who the person was who wrote this paragraph and why he was relating his life in such a wretched way.

Charles' intrigue stands out, and he decides to continue reading this story. Little does he know that what is to come exists only in the imagination of the letter's author.

I lost my family, and wandered for a long time, I knew endless places, each time even worse, but I still held out hope of finding a place for myself. I don't remember my life losing meaning, when I woke up I wondered why God had abandoned me, a thought full of melancholy intoxicated me, I couldn't believe that the author of the letter was so desperate.

Charles kept reading, intrigued by the story he was imagining. I surrendered myself to the vices of the flesh and abandoned all traces of my humanity, I only wished to die, I had no soul to care for, I was dead in life, until I tried to hang myself in an alley with a black cord like my soul, I only wished to end my pathetic life, when I was about to lose consciousness, that cord was cut in half and while I fell lamenting my bad fortune a circle full of light appeared in front of me and I do not remember what happened next.

Charles, incredulous, could not believe that the person who wrote this letter contemplated ending his life, I am really intrigued by what happened to that mysterious man, thought Charles as he found himself exhorted in that fantastic story.

I woke up in a distant place, I was surrounded by trees, this picturesque place was strange to me, I did not know everything around me. It was such a strange place that it seemed unreal to me, for an instant I thought I had died and reincarnated in another life. But I think I got carried away by some of the manga my brother showed me in his childhood.

Charles went inside and imagined that landscape that was detailed in the letter of that mysterious guy.

I would like to tell you that I was not afraid, but I would be lying, I was terrified, because I do not know any of the creatures that surround me, although it sounded very fantastic the idea of traveling through space time to be able to travel to another world and find what I had lost, it became even more real. But my sanity resisted it and I told myself that I was probably dreaming of this landscape.

Charles was trembling with fear and his face changed to a pale color filled with the stench of death at the thought that this fantastic event could happen.

The only thing that seemed normal to me was a huge lake that was surrounded by a beautiful field of flowers, I just wanted to wash my face and make sure that all this was not a figment of my imagination.

I could not believe what I saw reflected in that crystal clear lake, the face of a young man no more than 25 years old, even though I was more than half that age.

His face had changed, his features were different. I could not believe that this face and body were mine. After some time admiring that enchanting landscape, I decided to venture out in search of some human being other than these beasts that surrounded me. Suddenly, memories of my youth came to me, when I spent hours and hours imagining what it would be like to travel to other worlds, like in those light novels my brother used to lend me.

As I tried to remember over and over again, those 'Commands' that the protagonists used in those novels came to mind, words like 'System,' 'Stats,' 'Open,' and many others that made them look cool. I tried again and again, but it was a waste of time. Then I thought maybe they needed some kind of gesture or something to activate them.

After hours of failed attempts, I held out my hand, and before me appeared some kind of panel, a hologram with my name and a list of attributes. As I looked at it closely, I realized that it resembled a role-playing game from the 1990s. On that panel, I could see a small section that mentioned the words 'skills.'

Suddenly, my inner child was beginning to resurface, full of excitement and euphoria. But that excitement slowly died down when I realized that I only had two skills. One was called 'the Weakness Hero,' 'The Hero of Weakness.'

The description stunned me: 'By slightly changing vitality points, it increased resistance to the state of fear.'The other skill was locked, which prevented me from understanding its workings. I walked for hours until my soul was about to faint. Finally, I could see the silhouette of a beautiful woman, and behind her, something that resembled a rural village.In disbelief, I found myself, Charles mentioned as he thought that it was impossible that someone from this world could be transferred to another. It all seemed illogical and out of touch with reality.

The person who wrote this letter probably had an extraordinary imagination.