The Place Where Everything Begins

Chapter 31 - Countdown

Eddie's POV...

*Creaks*

*Bam!*

"!!!"

'Is that the sound of a door being closed?'

*Yawnnn...*

'Why am I so sleepy...?' Eddie thought to himself and yawned while at the same time feeling very drowsy.

'...'

'Wait!? Sleepy? Where am I again? The cupid? The Status Window? The Tutorial? Oh shit! Nooo...'

Having thought of the possibilities of danger looming from all around, Eddie hurriedly stood up from the ground.

"Huu-uk!"

Having stood up too fast, Eddie suddenly felt dizzy into the mix of the prior sleepiness. He then cursed within his mind, 'The world is f*cking spinning. I stood up too fast; everything is black. Damn it!!'

After several seconds passed, he finally got a bit better after shaking his head lightly to lessen the dizziness he had felt. Afterward, he took a look around himself carefully.

At first, he felt surprised to see many people sleeping soundly around him...

Then, he finally remembered it...

He touched the green crystal to view the items and missions from the interface; then the commotion suddenly broke out. However, before it could proceed to another level, he and everyone unexpectedly felt sleepy, then eventually flopped down onto the ground helplessly.

'What a bizarre event. Did the cupid do something again?' Eddie thought puzzlingly to himself while using his foot to poke those still sleeping soundly around him.

Still, after realizing that they were not dead yet, Eddie felt quite relieved. At least, he still had some people inside this cursed place together with him. Otherwise, he would have gone crazy for real if he had to face those horrendous events alone.

At that time, he was having a gunfight with an infamous terrorist group in Afghanistan before he was teleported for the first time in his life.

Just like that, he was suddenly teleported out of nowhere into the Tutorial Space...

Afterward, he had faced with a very terrible event of people's heads being imploded from within altogether with blood and brain mass flying in every direction.

Some pieces of people's brains had even flown into his mouth due to him opening his mouth to talk to another person standing beside him.

Just like that, he was met with his third dreadful, anomalous incident in his life.

As for the first and second time, they were being teleported amidst gunfights and having seen a talking airborne cupid for the first time in his life, respectively.

Right after those terrible incidents happened, his mind had only gotten more and more disordered from the tragic truth revelations coming out of the mouth of that cold-blooded evil cupid.

Even with a career of a military man acting as his guts and spine, Eddie still felt scared shitless with the previous events that had happened to him and everyone here. Not to talk about those reality's revelations that they had to face from then on as the cupid had said.

The cupid then told him and everyone else that they could open a Status Window by only thinking...

He thought it was absurd at first when he heard the cupid said that, but after trying it for himself, he was so shocked once again.

At the time, he could only think to himself that, 'Did the reality was a 'game' all along? How could it had something like a Status Window like in those games?'

When he carefully looked at his Status Window, he also saw that he had an inactivated rank 1 title called 'Gunner'.

He somehow had that title within his Status Window. Also, he didn't know that it had something to do with him being a soldier or not.

Afterward, Eddie saw that it was in an inactivated status. So, he focused on the inactivated part. Simultaneously after, there was a window popping up in front of him asking him that...

[Would you like to activate the title?]

Of course, Eddie agreed without any second thought because of his curiosity...

Unfortunately for him, a tad bit too late to realize that after agreeing to activate the title, there would be a line of text stated as 'Gunner' appearing above his head all the time.

'That was lame...'

It was the only thought within his head at the time...

However, at that time, too many questions ran wildly throughout Eddie's head for him to care about that 'Gunner' thing.

So, he ignored it for now; after realizing that it couldn't be inactivated, he decided to focus on the various thoughts and possibilities within his head instead.

Still, the cupid didn't let him think everything through at all. It continued explaining some essential pieces of information. Right after that, it teleported everyone away like it was too bored to entertain them.

In the end, everyone was teleported into this place.

After that, the fatty 'Greedy Pig' touched the crystal, and then the man pissed him up with his trash attitude.

Afterward, the commotion almost broke out...

Finally, everyone fell asleep...

...

Shaking his head to clear his mind up for a bit, Eddie started to wake up the people lying around him first and foremost.

Many brains were still better than a single brain after all…

Then he squatted down and shook the body of the closest person lying next to him.

The guy had black hair while wearing glasses, a white T-shirt, and black pants. He looked to be around 26-28 years old with a well-balanced body build. Also, he didn't have a title above his head like many other people.

"Hey, you... wake up. Hey... Oy, wake up!!"

Eddie started with only a light shake, but it seemed like the guy was sleeping too deeply. So, he decided to shake the person harder and harder with each passing shake.

From Eddie's monstrous force, the guy's body was being swayed like someone having a seizure.

Not long after, the sleeping man's eyes twitched a bit before he finally woke up from his dream world. Then he slowly opened his two brown eyes to look around himself.

It seemed like he promptly realized that he was in no situation to be sleeping. He then hurriedly stood up from the ground, causing him to face the same experience of blackness as Eddie had encountered before.

"You finally wake up, dude. You indeed slept that deeply that I had to shake you so hard, bruh. By the way, I'm Eddie; how 'bout yours?"

After seeing that the glasses man had stood up, Eddie opened his mouth first while extending his right hand for a handshake.

"..."

"..."

The glasses man took a bit of time to realize his situation before he reached out his right hand to shake with Eddie's.

"Hello, I'm Mitchell. It's nice to meet you. And... thanks for waking me up. Also, why is everyone sleeping? Are you also the same?" Mitchell introduced himself while probing Eddie.

'He seems smart from his cool composure and accurate questions.' Eddie was feeling surprised inwardly by the man's demeanors, but he didn't express it outwardly.

Meanwhile, Eddie spoke, "Well, nice to meet you too, Mitchell boi. As for the first question, I don't know. Maybe it's the cupid's doings? For the second one, it's a 'Yes', I am the first person here to wake up, then I wake you up after as you can see."

Mitchell nodded his head after hearing Eddie's words. Then he frowned a bit to recall the events before everyone had fallen asleep.

'Did I see someone with black clothing walking up to me before I fell asleep? Or is it a dream? Hmmm... strange... it is too vivid to be a dre...'

"Hey, Mitchell, don't just stand still over there. Come and help me wake everyone up first before we decide our next course of action." Said, Eddie who was now trying to wake up everyone around him.

After hearing Eddie's call, Mitchell could only think to himself, 'Let's not think about those things for now'.

*Sigh*

"Okay, okay." Mitchell sighed inwardly and answered back.

Just like that, they started to wake everyone up.

...

Around 15 minutes later...

"Hey, you have been touching it for five minutes already. Isn't it enough? Just let other people see its content too." Said a man with white casual clothes.

The man's tone was nothing but sarcastic...

Actually, he was the same middle-aged man who had almost caused a commotion since half an hour ago.

This time, he was the first one to open his mouth yet again.

'This guy… he is a true-blue troublemaker...' Eddie, who was standing right beside Mitchell, frowned and thought to himself after hearing the man's voice.

After taking a quick look at the man's title, 'Bad Mouther', Eddie could only shake his head helplessly and then took a brief look at the 'Greedy Pig' whom was touching the crystal from the other side. He really hoped that this guy would not cause any more trouble.

One troublemaker was enough for their current situations...

After hearing the voice of 'Bad Mouther', everyone else decided to ignore the man's words for now.

After all, it was only three minutes that the time had passed by, not five minutes. Still, no one opened their mouth to correct the man's statement at all. There was nothing good coming out of arguing with someone like him.

As of now, ten people were standing in the close vicinity of the crystal and were touching to see its contents. Meanwhile, there were 4 to 5 people lining up in a straight line after those ten people. They were waiting for their turn to touch the crystal.

That was an agreement that was decided upon themselves after all of them had woken up from Jeremy's spells.

As for the way used to determine the sequence of people, they decided to use 'Rock-paper-scissors' to resolve it.

Also, it had been agreed between themselves beforehand that each one of them could only use the crystal for no more than 5 minutes. Then they must let other people, whom were queueing after them, touch the crystal with no given excuse.

After seeing that no one had paid him any attention, the same white casual clothing man with 'Bad Mouther' title went at it again.

This time, he chose a teenage boy whom was touching the crystal standing in front of him as his prey, "Oh, c'mon!! Kid, it's been five minutes already. It's my turn, it's my turn, alright. Didn't we agree that each one of us could only touch it for 5 minutes? Can you move out for me now?"

Hearing the words of the middle-aged man, the boy trembled a bit, then prepared to move away from the crystal. After all, he had just turned 16 this year. He was still too young to babble back at the fearsome middle-aged man.

"Can't you stop talking shit, please? You are disturbing everyone here right now. Also, aren't you afraid that everyone would join hands to trample you to the ground?"

Before the boy could even move from the crystal, a woman's voice could be heard from the side.

She was someone in her 40s; she had blonde hair, brown eyes, wearing a black suit with a white shirt inside like an ordinary office worker.

Furthermore, she was also the one who had first fought verbally with the Bad Mouther guy before everyone fell asleep.

For all that, she was the first person who had confronted the white clothing man. So, she felt most irritated out of everyone here when she saw that the man wanted to create trouble again.

Moreover, when she saw that he wanted to take advantage of a teenage boy, she couldn't stand it anymore.

That's why she decided to interrupt the man's lame scheme…

Right after everyone else had heard the words of the blonde hair woman, some of them promptly turned their heads to give the Bad Mouther a cold stare to express their standing in this situation.

"Tsk!"

The man in question couldn't help but click his tongue after hearing the woman's words and realized that many people were faring against him.

He was clearly outnumbered…

So, he decided to stay quiet right after that and chose to wait 'impatiently' for his turn to come.

Then the status quo went on, with everyone taking a turn to touch the crystal.

*Sigh*

Here again, Eddie had sighed more than his past week within just a short time frame after being teleported to this cursed place.

'This guy is indeed super-duper troublesome.' Eddie, who had been standing nearby, acting as a bystander all along, thought to himself depressingly.

Meanwhile, his eyes were staring fixedly at a countdown timer floating above the crystal that was acting as everyone's remaining time for touching the crystal.

The time numbers were showing in light blue color stating...

00:01:15:36...

00:01:15:35...

00:01:15:34...

'There is only around 1 hour and 15 minutes before something terrible transpires here.'

Eddie frowned deeply and thought to himself...