Prologue

What does it mean to be truly alive?

I always wondered about that because I felt dead inside. So the question always lingered in the back of my mind, 'Am I living my life or am I just a breathing yet empty shell of a man who once was?'

No real purpose, no profound meaning, no true friend, no deep love... Such was the way of the world. Such was the world we had created, at least where I lived.

I could not fit into this kind of world, and so I did not. I had stopped trying long ago.

Where did it all begin? I couldn't remember... It had always been this way, I was a loner by nature yet yarned for love and company. A paradoxical being in a mad world, what could go wrong?

Yet, I was not abandoned by what some call fate, others as destiny, and few as lady luck. We can never know what awaits us in the future, that is perhaps the only reason life is worth living, even in such a mad world; For miracles might happen, and everything might just become good.

Hope is stronger than all emotions except love, and the unknown tomorrow gives hope to people who live in darkness...

It was a normal day, the sun shone in the sky and people went about their lives like every other day; I was the same.

I woke up when it was noon, and the 1st thing I did was neither eat nor drink, I turned on my computer to continue watching the rest of the series I had been binge-watching the night before.

It had been this way for a long time, just entertaining myself in the world of imagination and fantasy; Whether through games, series, movies, novels, etc. I wanted an escape to a place where I could live happily in excitement, for a short while at least, since reality was usually bitter and disappointing.

That day, despite it being like any other day, was somewhat strange for me. The neighbor with anger issues did not yell at his wife, the loud delivery man did not interrupt my sleep like usual, and there was no loud car horn to make me angry.

I, of course, did not notice these things until it was night and my stomach protested to my watching marathon. I had no choice but to stand up and prepare myself to go to buy some food.

I couldn't cook and neither did I like cold food, so I had to buy food. Such is the life of a university student unless they learn to cook for themselves, something I was too lazy to try.

When I went out, the streets were emptier than usual. I stopped and carefully looked around, that was when the strangeness occurred to me.

'Why is it so empty? Now that I think about it...' I thought and frowned.

Noticing a passerby hurriedly walking by, I stopped him and asked, "Hello, why are the streets so empty?"

"You don't know?!" He asked in exasperation.

I shook my head.

"A small meteorite crashed into a man's house and directly landed between his legs, funny fact is, he was cheating on his wife as it happened." He explained quickly.

I was puzzled, "That is interesting and all but it doesn't explain why it's so empty?"

He seemed to remember something as he took my hand and dragged me along as he said, "We should hurry, the meteorite was made of pure diamond and before crashing it broke into many pieces, people are on the sight hoping to get lucky. We should go quickly before they loot everything!"

"I am going ahead. Good luck..." He quickly took off.

I was interested so I followed him to the site. Many people had gathered there, but seeing no diamond anywhere, I returned home disappointed after buying some food.

When I entered my room and started to eat the food, I caught sight of something unusual in the corner of my eye.

'When did I own a Dungeons and dragons dice? A 20-sided one at that? I don't remember buying one...' Thinking along those lines, I put aside the food and picked up the dice that lay on the floor.

I noticed the Dice felt very warm to the touch, and it was crystalline in nature with the numbers written on it in a creepy red color, the ground beneath it was damaged and scorched. I looked at my window and noticed it was open, I remembered I had left it open days before and never closed it.

Looking at the ground then at the window in my room, a thought occurred to me.

'The trajectory fits... Did someone throw this in my room? But that can't be, it doesn't explain the scorch mark...' I inspected the crystal dice in my hand carefully.

"Could this have come from the meteor that man talked about? It does resemble a diamond in structure... But the odds are slim to none! And why does it have numbers on it? Is it some sort of alien dice extraterrestrials used for games and it landed here?" I muttered in interest.

Many questions flowed into my mind, yet no answers could be found. I decided to deal with it later since I was hungry and playfully tossed the dice on the bed.

It rolled and rolled till it stopped on 6, I sighed.

'My luck is indeed bad.' That was the last thought I had in my room because when I blinked, I suddenly found myself in a dark alley.

I fell to the ground due to imbalance, my eyes widening in shock.

"What the hell?!"

The chaos had begun.