NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
The floor began to glow with great intensity, and strange symbols were written all over. This glow, which was only on the ground at first, began to spread into the walls and then the roof.
The desks and everything inside disappeared, as if popping out of existence. Even the chairs which me and some others had been sitting on faded away, making us fall into our butts.
“IT’S HAPPENING!!” I heard Tae-min yell with excitement.
All my classmates were shocked and fascinated as I was, until the glow seemed to stabilize, leaving us in a white room void of anything.
“Where-where is this?!” One of the girls in the class asked in a nervous and scared manner.
Everyone began to make a fuss while I just sat on the fulminating floor.
“Hyun-woo are you okay?” asked Joon-Seo while offering me his hand to get up.
“Yeah…I think so…” I answered while getting up with his help.
“Guys holy crap” said Tae-min in excitement, “Our moment has come!”
“Lee Tae-min!” a feminine voice shouted grabbing the attention of the rest of our classmates, “Lee Tae-min explain! What did you mean by it’s happening?! What’s happening?!” it was the classroom president Ji-eun.
“Haven’t you ever read a comic or a manga, class pres?” Tae-min responded.
“I don’t see how that has to do with anything” she answered.
But before Tae-min got a chance to respond, another student, the popular guy of the class Jun Dohyun would intervene, “We’re being summoned to another world, aren’t we?”
“Precisely!” exclaimed Tae-min.
“Another world…?” the class president said in a low and confused voice.
Everyone in the class began discussing amongst themselves, it was obvious to tell who had read an Isekai manga before and who had not.
But the discussion was cut short by a loud and ethereal voice.
“Heroes from another world! Please heed our call!” A mysterious figure floating on one side of the room caught everyone’s attention and everyone gathered around but I stayed the furthest back.
“The forces of evil have risen, and this world teeters on the brink of destruction. You have been selected for your strength, your courage and your potential!”
Joon-Seo who had stayed next to me said in excitement “Waah~ This reminds me so much of dragon quest!”
“As a reward for answering our plea, you shall be granted powerful skills and blessings, gifts from the divine, to aid you in your quest…”
A shiver ran down my spine, and as I turned around, off in the distance, opposite to where everyone was looking, a strange black figure was also present.
It was a weird place; I couldn’t tell if the figure was too far away or too small to see. Regardless, it seemed to just be there observing us.
“Hey pay attention man” Joon-Seo said as he bumped me from behind, “you’re gonna miss out on important lore dump!”
“Yeah whatever” I said, but I continued to observe the figure, which seemed to have a humanoid form.
As I squinted my eyes, trying my best to see, the figure which had remained still until then, seemed to turn their head in curiosity, to which I decided to mimic.
“You will each receive unique powers…skills that will-will- guide you through this world.”
“What the? Did the god just stutter?” I could hear some students ask.
But I was fully concentrated on the figure, there was something uncanny and unsettling about that thing. The figure twitched, and without realizing it, it made me flinch as well.
It began to twitch, more and more often, until its humanoid body bent backwards and folded itself in a creepy manner, as if it was breaking its own bones in the process.
“What the fuck… Uh Joon-Seo I have a bad feeling about this…” I said as I tugged on the back of his uniform.
“Dude shut up we’re getting to the best part”
“With the blessing of the gods, your strength will know no bounds, your-your abilities unmatched, and your-“ The voice which was clean and ethereal began to sound as if it was glitching and distorting slightly before continuing, making me turn briefly to see it.
Unrest began to foment amongst the students, who began to grow worry, “Uh, Ms. Or Mr. God is you good?” one of the students would ask, but the deity seemingly ignoring him.
I turned back after that to the black figure, but right then it had disappeared. “Alright not troubling at all” I thought to myself.
“To save this world from… darkness… and… chaos…” The voice began to break and cracks of static creeped into the deity’s speech.
Everyone started slowly backing up, looking at each other clearly worried and scared.
“Hyun-woo… what were you saying about a bad feeling…?” asked Joon-Seo while turning to look at me with a pale face.
“Blessings… have been… gr- granted…” A loud crackle of static echoed through the empty space followed by a distorted silence.
“Is this supposed to happen?” Asked the class president looking at Tae-min.
“No… not at all…” answered Tae-min.
The voice then returned seemingly as if nothing had happened but began to halt and become progressively more distorted with each word. “These powers will aid you in your-your-your-your-your-your-your-your”
A loud beep ringed through everyone’s head, causing me and many others to fall to our knees from the pain.
In front of everyone a window riddled with many red question marks popped up.
[SYSTEM: STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Kim Hyun-woo
Class: ??? ERROR ???
Level: 1
HP: 00000/00000
MP: ??? ERROR ???
Strength: 12
Agility: 15
Endurance: ??? ERROR ???
Luck: 00000
Skills:
- ??? ERROR ???
- Basic Attack: 00000
- Healing Light: ??? ERROR ??? (Skill not recognized)
- Fireball: ??? (Skill unavailable)
Titles:
- The Chosen One ??? (Corrupted Data)
- Hero of ??? ERROR ??? (Title not assigned)
“Your path… to glory has been…” the voice continued before being cut of by unintelligible static, and the beep continued to ring painfully through our heads.
“… gifts… from… the gods… broken…”
The voice faded completely, and the ringing in our heads had stopped. It was now complete radio silence.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!” exclaimed one of the guys.
“I just wanna go home!” began to cry another girl afraid of what had just happened.
Dohyun got up from the floor and tried to calm everyone, “Please everyone don’t panic! We gotta remain calm!”
“How are we supposed to remain calm after what just happened you doofus?!” another girl retorted back.
Then, in one final loud burst of static, a flash of white light blinded me and everyone else causing everyone to scream in unison.
“Hyun-woo!” A faint voice kept saying to me.
“Hyun-woo wake up!” My body began to be violently shaken by someone else. “We just spawned in bro, you can’t die already man! THINK OF THE BABES!”
I slowly opened my eyes to the figure of Tae-min relentlessly pushing me around, while Joon-Seo looked worried.
“I’m… still alive dude…” I said slowly recovering my consciousness.
“Oh thank the lord, you see that Joon-Seo? That’s the power of the babes!” In response Joon-Seo would simply slap the back of his head, “knock it off, stop saying dumb things”
I sat up and looked at my surroundings. Like me, other students were barely waking up looking dazed and confused.
We were inside a rather large golden room. It was filled with many banners that had regal designs and fancy ornaments but also furniture with complex and intricate designs. Below us was a red carpet that had a magic circle inscribed on it, and on one end was a pedestal that had a single book lying on top of it.
Despite it looking like a clean and royal room, the air felt musty and damp, with a mushroom-like odor.
“HELL YEAH!” suddenly exclaimed Tae-min, “WE MADE IT TO ANOTHER WORLD!”
Everyone turned to look at the commotion he was making and realized that indeed we were probably no longer in our original world.
Some students looked around in fascination, while others remained still, thinking and discussing what was happening amongst their groups.
“How can you even celebrate?!” interrupted the class president. “Did you not just see that deity thing begin to glitch out like a creepy lost and found video?!” She said in an irritated voice with hints of fear.
“Relaaaax class pres, I know that may have been hella creepy, but its not unheard of in Isekai stories right Hyun-woo?” he said as he turned to look at him.
“Yeah… I guess…” I said hesitantly.
“So what is this supposed explanation provided by your stupid Mangas” she inquired.
“Well, we actually lucked out!” Tae-min said excitedly.
Everyone began to gather around the conversation that was happening between Tae-min and the class president.
“First everyone bring up your status window”
As me and the rest of the class tried bringing up our status windows, some by calling it out loud and others with a simple hand gesture, we were greeted once again with the same window infested with errors.
“I’m surprised we even can even see each other’s window’s” I said to Tae-min.
“Yup, that make’s explaining this a lot easier!”
The class president began looking and comparing her window with the others, “Alright… it says ‘error’ in a lot of parts Tae-min, how is that a good thing?”
“Listen, that glitch thing that occurred with the deity? Classic isekai trope. The bugs our stats have? That just means we are overpowered now! This glitch basically made us demi-gods in this world!”
“That does make sense…” Joon-Seo said as he crossed his arms, “It would explain a lot of things and it has happened in stories before.”
But the class president, began looking riled up “No it doesn’t. This doesn’t explain ANYTHING! You just explained what happens in those stories, not why it happens! That’s the most important part!”
“Sheesh Ji-eun, calm down. Don’t fret over the small things.” Tae-min replied, as he put a hand over Ji-eun’s shoulder trying to calm her down.
But Ji-eun would brush his hand off aggressively, “They aren’t small details.”
“I mean to be fair; most stories don’t even explain why those things happen.” Intervened Joon-Seo.
“Explain.”
“Uh… well, they just do… most stories don’t even reach that part of their plots because they usually get axed before getting to that point, and the few that do make it, basically narrow down to ‘OP protagonist is coolest protagonist’”
“Huh?” Ji-eun said with an annoyed frown on her face.
“Lazy story writing I guess...?” Said Joon-Seo with a timid expression.
The class president began to pinch the bridge of her nose and shook her head side to side, “So basically we don’t know anything.”
“What’s the big deal? We are overpowered now anyways, and we all probably have some broken ability that makes us invincible” questioned Tae-min.
While they continue to discuss, I began to re-examine my stat’s window.
[SYSTEM: STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Kim Hyun-woo
Class:??? ERROR ???
Level: 1
HP: 00000/00000
MP:??? ERROR ???
Strength: 12
Agility: 15
Endurance:??? ERROR ???
Intelligence: 14
Luck: 00000
Skills:
- ??? ERROR ???
- Basic Attack: 00000
- Healing Light: ??? ERROR ??? (Skill not recognized)
- Fireball: ??? (Skill unavailable)
Titles:
- The Chosen One ??? (Corrupted Data)
- Hero of ??? ERROR ??? (Title not assigned)
It did have the typical look of the average broken system you see in stories, but something was off to me.
“I get where you’re coming from Tae-min” I finally began to say, while I looked closely at the so called ‘bugs’ of the system, “But… don’t these types of stories give us a clear indicator of what this broken ability is? I mean we all have the same ‘error’ message, and I straight up have zero health out of zero health… “
“Huh… I guess you have a point, I think we all have the same title so that can’t be it…” Tae-min began to also look closely at his own status window.
“Well, you might be immortal Hyun-woo, you have zero health so maybe that’s your op ability?” said Joon-Seo with an unsure voice.
I looked over at Tae-mins stats which were identical except for the skills and stats, “Yeah well Tae-min over here has 0 intelligence, and I don’t see him any more stupid than he already is.”
“That is true” Joon-Seo nodded in agreement, to which the class president and some other classmates would also agree.
“You guys’ suck.” Answered Tae-min with an annoyed voice.
Dohyun who had been listening closely until then began looking around and suddenly tried to grab everyone’s attention, “Guys.” But nobody paid him any attention, and the discussion continued.
Seeing that nobody listened to him, he got on top of one the nearby tables and finally yelled, “GUYS!”
Everyone turned to look at him.
“I get that you’re all into this mystery system and all, but we’ve been in this room by ourselves this entire time. Isn’t someone supposed to greet us or something?”
We all began to look around and collectively agreed with what he had said. The room had two doors, both on opposite sides but not once did someone come in to welcome us.
I slowly approached the podium with the book, while Joon-Seo continued to talk, “That is strange… we should’ve met like a king, a princess or a representative or something but none-“
As he was about to finish his sentence, the table that Dohyun had been standing on began to creak and make snapping noises. As the creaking continued, its legs collapsed, making Dohyun fall on top of it and making a loud crash in the process.
“DOHYUN!” Some of the girls yelled, quickly going to him to check if he was okay.
Most of the class began to ask him if he was alright while he slowly got up from the broken table he laid on.
“I’m good, I’m good” he said as he looked at the wood below him.
“Shit Dohyun! You broke the table!” Said one of the students near him, “You think we’re gonna get in trouble with the owners of this place?”
But instead of answering, Dohyun got up and looked at the table, going to the other end of the table which was more intact. He stared at it for a bit more, and then with just his thumb and index finger, snapped a large chunk off, surprising everyone with what looked like inhuman strength.
“DAYUMN!” exclaimed Tae-min, “Dohyun got the strength stats going for him.”
“It’s rotten.” Dohyun answered abruptly.
“What?” said Tae-min confused.
“The wood, it’s rotten. This table looks fine on the outside, but on the inside it’s completely rotten.” Dohyun explained.
Everyone began to look at each other, and many students got close to other types of furniture and tried recreating what Dohyun did, and as expected they began to break off pieces of furniture as if breaking a cookie in two.
“Alright this is getting weird.” Commented Joon-Seo.
“Too weird, and I’ve just about had enough.” Responded the class president Ji-eun. “If nobody is coming to greet us, I’m going to go find them myself.” She boldly declared.
We all turned to look at Ji-eun who began to take confident strides towards one of the doors. Opposite to the one which was closest to me.
As she got to the other giant door, she stopped in front of it and took a deep breath before exhaling. She fixed her posture, standing upright and began to knock on the door, a sound which was echoing throughout the room.
We waited for a bit, but nobody opened the door. Ji-eun then turned to face us, “Should I open the door now?”
But before any of us replied, the door which Ji-eun had knocked on began to make the same snapping and creaking noises the table had made. Ji-eun began to back up slowly, as the noise grew louder, and the hinges supporting the side of the door broke off.
Until eventually, the door with no support, would slam the ground, and fall towards the outside of the room, creating a large cloud of dust.
As we all waited for the cloud of dust to dissipate, and everyone looked in bewilderment. Tae-min screamed, “JI-EUN BROKE IT! JUST FOR THE RECORD, WE ALL DID NOT TOUCH THE DOOR!”
Ji-eun turned around and looked at Tae-min with an angry expression, “shut up idiot!”.
As the smoke particles began to clear up, we looked in the direction of where the doors used to be, and Ji-eun, who was closest, let out an audible gasp.
“What!? What?!” questioned Tae-min and as we all got closer to see what was behind the door, I could only think “Oh shit…”.
It was a throne room… or the remains of one that is.
Right outside the door, resting on the ground, were the remains of a tattered-up flag, with the insignia of a golden lion, covered in splatters of dried-up blood.