"What would you do if you woke up one day and found yourself in a body that wasn't yours?"
The reflection seemed to ask that very question.
A pale young man with ash-colored hair, crimson eyes and a skinny body that seemed like it was at the verge of death was staring back at the boy whose expression was filled with terror.
"It...it can't be.."
Neo's voice trembled.
The stranger somehow was perfectly mimicking his actions.
It wasn't just the body or the voice. Everything felt wrong, as though he had woken up in someone else's life.
As if he was in a different body.
He stumbled backward, clutching his head.
His eyes swept across the room — a messy bed sat at the centre, a shelf to the right and a window covered with curtains to the left.
This had to be a dream.
It had to be.
Yet nothing felt like one — the cold sensation under his bare feet, heart pounding in his chest, the dry taste in his mouth.
All of it felt real.
Too real.
He looked back at the stranger in the mirror.
"No... NO!"
Unable to accept the reality, Neo drove his fist forward.
The reflection shattered.
CRASH!
The shattered mirror scattered all across the room.
A sharp pain shot through his hand.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Blood fell from his hands and hit the floor, painting it dark red.
Neo stood there, frozen.
The pain was real.
And in dreams, there was no such thing as pain.
As the blood continued to fall, his eyes landed on a jagged shard lying among the wreckage.
The reflection stared back at him.
Ash-colored hair.
Crimson eyes.
And a stranger's face.
And for the first time, Neo could no longer deny the truth.
***
It took him two days to accept the it.
"Ah...fuck this shit."
Neo cursed as he dragged himself from the bed.
Two days of intense thinking and searching had given him two conclusions.
First — he was alone. No one had come here in the past two days, either he was a runaway or an orphan.
Second — he is inside the novel he was reading, The Last Magic Swordsman, and it wasn't a normal novel at that. This FUCKING NOVEL is where people die as if they were mosquitoes.
And this body? He knew exactly who it belonged too.
Neo. He was an extra. His appearance was so minor that he didn't even last a full chapter.
Yet his death changed the course of the story.
His death became the catalyst for the protagonist's character development.
As if his situation wasn't bad enough, Neo's life was already falling apart. He was suffering from a life-threatening disease that had left him with no more than six months to live.
So was he destined to die?
"Bullshit."
Neo wasn't the type to roll over and sacrifice himself for some greater good.
Fuck that shit.
But if he did nothing, he'd end up dead anyway.
He knew what he had to do.
He grabbed a bag from the shelf, threw in the essentials, and walked out.
"Hell, this place looks expensive."
He muttered it under his breath as he stepped outside and turned to look at the building he'd just come from.
From inside the room it hadn't seemed like much. But standing at the base of it now, looking up, it was massive. He had been on the 98th floor.
The top floor.
He started walking.
As Neo walked forward, he could clearly see the magnificent view — towering structures, mana lamps and flying carriages that were straight out of fiction.
He opened his pager and after seeing his bank balance, his footsteps came to a halt.
{Current Balance}: 27,481,522 ₡
'What.' His eyes were fixed on the screen. He transformed the pager into something similar to a smartphone.
He checked once again.
Twenty-seven million credits.
27 million credits.
a family of four could easliy live in luxury for the rest of their life.
'just who the hell is he?' neo contemplated.
he searched his contacts,messages but he could found none like he deleted all of the contacts.
though he wanted to search more about neo, he had no time left.
opening one of the apps he coniued to book an taxi.
a heartbeat later a huge carriage stopped right next to him and that carriage was tied to several deers in front, however the the animels and the carriage were not on the air but were hovering in the air.
he tapped his pager on the entrance device of the carriage and the door swung open, prompting him to step in.
but the problem was there was no driver.
'self driving car huh' neo mumbled under his breadth as he climbed onto the vehicle.
as soon as he sat the doors clicked shut and it started moving towards the air.
the deers starting walking as if they were walking directly in the air.
neo gazed outside, he could clearly see the city now, thought i somewhat mimcked his previos home but this was far frmo it.
as he sat there, he opened his pager and started searching "Astral academy entrance examination".
several articles popped up, but all of mentioned the results of the examination.
and then he checked the date of taday.
"13 nov 8448"
'ah shit' neo cursed inwardly, but he knew this was coming.
the entrance examination was over.
but no worries, he has a plan for that too.
neo opened notes and started typing, in midway he took breaks and glaced at the outside view and he went back to type again.
On the Inefficiency of Mana Circulation in Modern Authority Holders
and began typing it's body,
"Modern magical theory incorrectly assumes that all Authority Holders benefit from identical circulation patterns. Evidence..."
and he typed, typed again and again until his hands hurt.
and after 3 minutes later he stopped typing and sent the message to a discrete mail.
this was the mail of the esteemed proffesor at the academy.
"and if he sees the message well.... we'll see what happenes" neo smirked.
well it isn't like this was his only way, he still has some "serious" methods but he don't want to reaveal them too early.
adn in the next second he was in his destination.
YOU HAVE RECHED YOUR DESTINATION. the voice from teh carriage resounded.
and the door clicked open and neo opened the carriage and went outside.
and as soon as he clib=mbed down the air taxi dissapeared instanlt and now neo was in middle of nowhere,
and infront of him laid a huge mountain differentig from others .
and so started climbing up..
after 6 continuos hours of hiking, he finnaly reached the top of the mountain.
where a huge pit laid there. neo gazed down, there was nothing but pitch darkness, but he knew there was a gateway for the first trial.
as gazed down he took one glace at the sky, it was almost dusk and he could see the sun setting far above and looked at the pit again and murmered
"now, now, now... it's show time".
and then he let himself fall from the ground tqo the pit.
and slowly the color in his eyes gradullay faded and several stars shone around him.
and from that thin air several silver strings came infront of him forming some strange letters,
and just then he heard a strange voice in his head.
and he could see the same words infront of him sormed by the radiating strings from earlier
[greetings aspirant! welcome back to the first trial!!!]