Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Transported?

A figure lay on the ground, eyes shut, breathing peacefully. He cuddled the dirt with a bright smile on his face.

Pak.

Suddenly, a jolting pain assaulted his head, waking him, and causing him to open his eyes.

Raising his upper body in a quick motion, the young man clutched his head in pain.

Where am I? He put a hand on his knitted brows and tried to massage his temples.

 

Isabelle... Alex Miller... Magic..?

 

Recalling his last memory, he realized something…

What the fuck?

 

---

 

Noah wore a simple casual outfit for the afternoon's event—a white shirt with little black triangles paired with dark blue pants and black running shoes. He also didn't bring a backpack since he was attending an overly crowded event.

The zipped pockets in his short is enough to carry all.

As for protection against the summer—wearing a cap, a bottle of water and a small sunscreen that can be stored in his pocket would suffice, hopefully.

"Hah."

Putting down his phone, Noah leaned on his seat with a peaceful smile on his face... The line was long, but it was worth it after seeing thousands of people sitting inside the stadium and hundreds of thousands outside directly exposed to the sun.

Maybe I should've worked more hours last month. He thought. Nah, even if I did, the ticket probably sold even before that. Oh well. At least, she won't need to deal with this fucking smell everywhere. He turned around. "Get some deodorant. You all stink!"

Geez. Of course, nobody heard him. Everyone was too busy fawning over the host. To be fair, that's what he would be doing if not for this unbearable scent.

Noah's gaze landed on the man presenting above the stage. He came here to witness his last event. The black-haired man wore a formal western clothing, boasted a cool, cleanly trimmed black hair, and smiled with a wrinkled face as he spun and revealed his aspirations and—brought about his ultimate gift to the world.

 

It was the creation of the first magic system.

 

What? At first, Noah doubted his hearing. Magic? How is that possible? What the fuck?

That is, until Alex Miller spread his palm and raised it above himself, his head soon followed.

The crowd watched his movements, then they gazed up at the sky. There, a pale but silver-coloured circle twinkled. Filled with intertwining curves and shapes, the humongous circle stretched across the horizon. Shining predominantly, dim sometimes.

Woah!

Like country bumpkins entering their first city, the crowd gawked at the sight. Noah also felt the same.

What's going on? He wondered. Is this the magic he was talking about? Is magic finally becoming real?! He sucked air into his lungs as his heart thumped faster. Noah looked around to see their reaction.

A mix of expression lay on their faces, awe, worry, and confusion for most, but they were fine. They couldn't muster to do anything but look at the mystical man in front.

"Why is it so hot?" A voice whimpered.

What?

Before he could ask, the uncomfortable heat touched him and the venue soon turned hotter than normal. Then everyone instinctively blinked their eyes as the silver circle lit up.

A nuclear attack? Noah held his breath.

… But he wasn't vaporized, so that may not be the case. He calmed down and continued staring at the lit up sky.

It didn't take long before the circle to disappear and for the surroundings to cool down. So, the crowd's eyes shifted back to the man.

Suddenly, Alex Miller bent his legs and leaped into the unmoving air. However, he didn't come back down just as the laws of physics would dictate. Hovering above the stage, he soared and turned the world upside down.

Under the shocked gaze of the crowd, he exclaimed. "With the birth of magic, I declare the first rule.."

Another light came from above. Noah shifted his eyesight upward and discovered a series of large circles connected by lines. Strange curves and shapes of different colours lay on each one, moving in a mesmerizing way. In the middle, there were words in gold.

He tried to read it, but it was too far and blurry.

The man moved his head down, facing the crowd. He smiled. "For every thousand years from now, a random set of people will be 'transported' to the next millennium."

"[Grand Magic] Resurrection in a Thousand Years!"

The circles lit up; they weren't as bright as the first magic circle, but their light gave the feeling of warmth. It enveloped everybody that was inside the stadium and spread outside and onward. Noah gasped as it touched him.

After the light has disappeared, he gazed downward when he noticed multiple eyes looking at him. Some were in awe, while others were in confusion.

He frowned and hurried to ask when the light came from above.

... Huh?

Realizing that the light only came down around him, his body froze and his mind raced.

"W-Wait!"

As fear rose from his heart, suddenly, a restricting force stopped his movements.

"Get him!" Seeing the horror on his face, the crowd tried to get him out, but another force repelled them back away. Some was sent tumbling to the ground, others pushed back into the people behind, stopping anybody else from reaching Noah.

They tried once more, but to no avail. They could only watch him with helplessness.

Similarly, Noah could only gaze with his terrified eyes as the curtain of light swallowed him. Soon, it turned into an oval shape and raced up to the sky, and became a dot, leaving behind his belongings.

In the other areas of the city, there are also light pods moving across the sky and disappearing into a dot. Zooming out further, tens of hundreds of thousands of light pods streaked across the wide atmosphere of the world.

 

---

 

"Ugh…" Noah grunted. Still, he could not believe it.

As someone within the top twenty of his class, he easily deduced that he might have just been picked as one of the people picked by the first rule.

But why? Noah tried to rack up an answer. Nothing. Nothing at all.

Unable to do so, he thought about his family and friends. Did he just leave them? Will they be fine? How could he get back to them?

What the fuck? Sir Alex, I would like a refund!

It took a while for his headache to disappear. Though, seeing that no one has come to him, he stood up and looked around him. It was night. People must have gone to their homes already.

In addition, he seems to be in front of a broken-down office building. Noah grabbed the door handle, and sure enough, the door was locked. Looking from its small window, he saw the messy reception area and the partly crushed left side of the first floor. Then his gaze landed on a large hole leading outside. Hit and run?

Noah turned around and saw the streetlights and light from houses dying the building in front of him with its glow. Good, there's people. Still, it couldn't erase the eerie feeling inside him.

So, he started walking.

"HELLO!"

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Damn. Noah quickened his pace. Nobody is here.

It was only a few minutes of travelling when he heard a man's voice. The man sounded absolutely terrified, so Noah halted his movements. After thinking for a moment—Ah, fuck it.

When he turned left, facing the stairs, he saw a man dressed in winter clothing run down. It was the middle of July, and the heat was at its peak, so Noah stared at the man with strange eyes.

He couldn't see it clearly, but he could tell the outline of the man's face. Noah also noticed he seemed to flee from something.

Intrigued, Noah called out, "Hey! What are you doing?"

The man stared at him in horror. But when he saw Noah wearing a casual outfit, he breathed out a sigh of relief. Then he shouted.

"RUN!"

The confused Noah came closer when he saw the man's grim face. He asked what it was all about when he heard a shrill cry from where the man came from. He followed the cause of the cry.

A monster.

An oversized chameleon came running towards them. It was as big as a regular truck and had claws the size of a medium-sized short sword. Its blood-colored spiked tail dragged on the stairs as it moved downward. He admitted it looked like a beast from a certain monster slaying game.

Its bloody right eye and limping right hind leg prevented it from moving fast, but from the perspective of normal humans like Noah, it moved quicker than the fastest man in the world.

A roar came from the monster's mouth. Its eyes glittered as it stared at two of the humans in front. Then its claws punctured the ground, and its limbs moved, propelling the monster towards them.

"OH SHIT!"

Grasping to each other, both screamed and ran away with their lives. After turning right at an intersection, they heard a heavy collision. Noah looked back and saw it crash on a bus stop shelter. However, the monster's movements were only hindered. It soon recovered and chased them.

They kept turning between the streets. Seeing as there was an XXXL-sized monster behind them, Noah cursed why no one has yet to come save them.

This is not good. We can't outrun it.

"We need to hide." Earlier, Noah noticed the monster couldn't properly change directions because of its injuries. So, seeing that they wouldn't be able to shake off the chasing monster even if it's injured, he decided they needed to hide.

When he was walking earlier, he found some dark places that anyone could hide in. They should be able to reach them if they kept running the path in front.

"Turn left here!" Noah sped up, leaving behind the man for himself, and turned to the left. He checked the door of the washroom building.

He went inside to see if there was a monster inside the restroom.

"You mongrel… ­shit!" The man could only curse when he didn't see Noah as he turned left. "YOU BASTARD!"

Behind him, the low-rank monster couldn't properly turn and crashed into a vehicle parked near the washroom building. He hoped the owner had insurance since the monster wouldn't clearly pay for it.

"Fuc-" Suddenly, he felt a powerful pull on his left shoulder.

Thud!

"Ouch!"

"Sorry." Noah apologized, and they went inside one of the toilet stalls near the end of the room.

"Did it see you come here?" Noah asked.

"No. But I saw it hit an SUV headfirst… It probably didn't."

Noah breathed out a sigh of relief. But he stopped when he realized that the monster outside might have some other abilities as well. Since it became a big-sized lizard, then what is stopping it from developing launchable paws like a G****m or flying like Sir Alex?

"Let's just hope it can't smell us well." He made a wry smile.

Becoming quiet, Noah looked at the man's grim face. He had blonde hair and black eyes; with a western type of clothing and a strange accent, Noah wondered whether he was from Europe or North American like him. But a roar and some rustling came from the outside, interrupting his thoughts.

Noah heard it sniff, so he prayed.

The two kept still, fearing for their lives. Suddenly, he had a scary thought.

If the monster outside is a hungry child waiting for his mother's spaghetti, could they have just brought themselves on a plate for the monster to eat?

After all, once they made a noise, that is surely telling the monster that mom's spaghetti is ready!

They stared at each other. Noah signaled the man to be quiet.

No shit! The man mouthed.

..

The monster walked around in a circle. It sniffed for a trace of smell. The monster stopped for a while, pondering its next action. But it did not take long for it to use one of its hands to grab a piece of the smashed car and threw it into a garbage bin, creating a loud noise. The monster suddenly roared. It didn't help locate its prey.

It thought that it could scare the humans into moving and creating noise, but it couldn't hear anything. It tried the same method twice on different parts of the block, but it still received the same result.

Next, it put power on its legs to smash the building next to Noah's with its body. The monster has given up on scaring the two humans, so it directly tried to snuff them out by destroying the buildings themselves. Still, it couldn't find them.

Begrudgingly, the monster soon stopped and left after it destroyed many buildings in the block.

..

The two let the dust settle first to make sure the chameleon has gone away.

Quietly, they voted Noah should scout first in case the monster was still tricking them. After all, he was quicker than the strange man.

Before opening the door, he heard a voice outside. It was muffled, but he could hear movements. And it's not just one, but a group of people picking up debris from destroyed buildings. Leaning closer, he realized they were discussing the monster that had attacked them earlier.

"It's chasing something. It must have gone that way." A rough voice said.

"Yes. It must've been chasing a Transported, seeing the light pod come down earlier. How unlucky…" a girl's voice replied.

Transported? Are they talking about me? No, the stranger probably is a Transported too. Noah thought.

"Transported? Aren't they worth three grand?!" a male's voice exclaimed.

Three grand! I could buy a gaming PC with that money. Don't tell me these guys are here to capture us and sell us to bad guys. No, wait, they are already bad guys.

He soundlessly sighed. I should get my head checked. Still, he couldn't help but be wary of anything that moves within his eyesight.

First off, Sir Alex created magic out of nowhere. Next, he got transported to the future and dealt with the grief of potentially not being able to see his family and friends ever again. After that, an oversized lizard across an abandoned part of the city chased him. Now, he couldn't help but think of the worst and the wildest reasons something happened. After all, a person can fly, and a giant monster can exist. Back then, there was still a substantial amount of crime in his hometown even after the world was united, so it won't be too strange if there are still evil people left in the world.

Stepping back, he slowly retreated and waited for the group of people to disappear.

"Rudolph, Allie, and Ivan. Follow the destroyed buildings. The Spike-Tailed Chameleon must have not gone far yet. We'll check the buildings here. It seems to look for something." An old male voice declared. He should be the leader of the group. Noah thought.

However, Noah didn't see the leader stare at the building they were hiding in. When the man scanned the place, he sensed a resistance in his authority inside the building. It should be one of the Transported that Allie mentioned.

He called one man with him and whispered something. The man nodded and went back to search around the block.

Nothing. They found nothing other than the blood that belongs to the chameleon on a smashed car and in the direction of the broken-down buildings in the alley.

"Let's go! The monster isn't here." The leader ordered, all while giving a quick glance at the two's hiding spot.

…

After another boring time of waiting, Noah inched toward the door before stopping. He pondered for a moment, then he stared at the man and whispered.

"Hey! I'm Noah. What's your name?" He asked.

They did not have time to talk when getting chased by the lizard. Now that no one or something was following them, now was the time to strike up a conversation and learn where the man came from, as well figure out what the heck happened.

Sticking his head out, the man replied inside the stall. "I'm James."

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