Old man

'Is this place safe...?'

Kai might not be a genius, but he could guess the man was quite suspicious, Kain didn't ask, but the man was the one who talked to him as if saying all that for Kai not to become suspicious about the woman's state. Well, that was exactly the meaning behind the man's words.

'I should mind my business.'

Kai was not sainted, but if he could, he could help anyone, even in the smallest things. But Kai's current situation didn't allow him to mind others' business, especially in this unknown world, where he didn't know what kind of danger lurked around every corner.

He gave one last glance at the man before walking up the stairs.

The man kept his smile, even while talking to his wife.

Many rooms lined up on each side, with a number attached to each door.

Kai searched for his room; a second later, he found it easily.

As he was about to open his door, the next room's door opened, and an obese young woman trudged out. Despite how harsh her condition was, even though she was walking very hard, the woman couldn't stop biting the chicken in her hand. Her face was oily and while biting some of her saliva flew out into Kai.

Kai took a step back in disgust as he wiped the saliva off his face and shirt.

'What the heck… This place is sure filled with strange people. If the next room was obese, what about the others? With curiosity in his eyes, Kai took a glance at the left next room.

The young woman ignored her as if she didn't see him at all. She didn't even say hello or anything. She just trudged down the stairs.

Shaking his head, Kai opened the door and went inside the room.

The room has one bed and a desk and a chair near the window, with a lamp standing at the desk.

It's just a normal room, nothing else, nothing more.

"Finally, a place to stay." Kai stretched out his body with a relieved smile on his face as he threw himself onto the bed.

A thought suddenly came to his mind, "How about the food? Bath? I want to ask that woman... However, I am afraid to ask again."

Kai was just, of course, a normal student on Earth. That was the natural reaction when one was in an unknown place with suspicious people, adding to the fact that all the horror fiction he had watched or read on Earth was flashing in his mind.

Kai lost his motivation to go.

"Hmmm, it's already night?"

Perhaps because of the stress, he didn't notice that the sun disappeared, but one thing, all the strange things that happened hit him, making him sleepy.

---

"Grandpa, are we alone in this universe?"

At the peak of the mountain, there was only one tree that stood tall. Sitting on it was a girl that looked ten years old and an old man with long white hair. They gazed at the shimmering, uncountable stars in the sky.

The grandpa rubbed his beard and laughed, his eyes reflecting the universe. "I don't know… Perhaps we are, perhaps not. I'm just an ordinary old man. The only one that could answer your question was... an alchemist."

The girl turned her head at her grandpa and said, "No old man would say he was an ordinary old man."

The grandpa just laughed it off.

"I want to become an alchemist! I want to explore space and I want to bring you there before you die! And watch the stars together!"

"You cheeky girl. What dies? Your grandpa still has a hundred years to live." The old man chuckled while caressing the girl's head. "I wait, so don't forget it."

At that moment.

"NO! Please, stop!"

The tree was burning; the sky was pitch black with no stars to be seen; the mountain was crumbling, and the girl was floating in midair, eyes closed, blood flowing out of her body, hair burning, and screaming in pain and agony.

The grandfather kneeled on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes, tears of sadness, and screams of desperation escaping from his mouth.

The scene changed again.

There's no tree or mountain, or a sky, only a girl with no limbs stabbed into a spear, while beside her, demons in human form laugh while some drink their beer.

The grandfather was in a cage. His eyes were lifeless. His limbs were bound tightly on the chain, and the only words he could utter were.

"No…"

Snow fell into his hand, then melted, as the grandpa was lying in the snow, naked.

He was shivering as the cold wind blew into every part of his body.

"Achoo!"

Close to him, his granddaughter was standing frozen like a statue, her body snow-covered. She was like a statue.

"Not again!" The grandfather laughed, then cried. His expression flashed between the two, laughing and crying. He seemed to become crazy while punching the ground.

"I want to leave this place! Please, somebody, he-help me!"

Snow continued to fall, cold winds blowing, the sun pulsing with light, yet it didn't bring warmth, it only brought light. In the middle of nowhere, the grandpa's lonely figure slowly turned into a frozen statue.

But suddenly.

The snow ground melted, liquids fell into the grandfather's body, and the cold atmosphere started burning.

The grandfather slowly stood up, and what he saw was burning lava, black rock, and a pitch-black sky.

"Again…" He laughed.

And then suddenly, fog formed above the lava.

Without a second thought, he ran into it.

…

"Where am I?"

Kai was stunned as he stood up. He was speechlessly shocked; a fog was swirling around him, and a desk with a lamp stood before him.

"D-don't tell me, I traveled to another world again! No way!" Kai grasped his head as he shook it. He couldn't believe it was happening again. However, this was just a guess. Kai quickly breathed calmly as he tried to reflect.

After regaining his calm, Kain sat at the desk and saw a black book. He opened it only to find the content was blank, with no written words or text.

"What is this?" Kai glanced at the lamp beside it. He doubted if he was transported to another world again. He then looked at the black pen.

"Why do I always see black? Is this a sign of my tragedy or something... or perhaps the one who put me here is black?"

Many questions emerged in his mind, but no one could answer all of them.

"In the beginning, why am I even here? What is my purpose?" Kai asked himself, but too bad, no one could answer this.

Looking around for a second, making sure that he was alone, Kai turned to the black book.

The black book was just a normal book; the pen, the desk, and the lamp; everything was normal except for the fog that kept swirling around him.

"Since there's no one around, and I don't know how to get out of this place, I should write something to pass the time."

There was one thing he didn't try that was went to the fog, inside or outside the fog, but Kai didn't know where it led, perhaps to space, perhaps to hell, in his mind he was already afraid.

Of course, if the time came when Kai had no choice but to swallow his fear and go into the fog.

"What to write?" Kai muttered while rolling the pen in his hand.

'So comfortable as if I was lying in a heavenly bed with an air conditioner and a woman feeding me grapes.'

Kai's feelings were unexplainable. He knew that in his mind, the things before him were not him, but for some unknown reason, he felt all of this was he already used and did not feel nervous when using it.

"Am I a god or something in my previous life?"

It was a sudden idea, that made Kai almost believe it.

At the time he was on Earth, Kai didn't believe in reincarnation, God, or heaven and hell because he believed that all this was created by humans to fulfill their entertainment and satisfaction.

For example, the bible. Kai thought the bible was created in the past by some person with a God complex, or perhaps, the person who wrote it lost in the bet, but when he wrote, he realized he had writing talent, and he loved it. There are many reasons, and Kai could list them one by one.

And now all of this was thrown into oblivion when he realized he had been transported to another world.

However, there was no use in believing or not; he needed to first survive in this world.

"Help-eek!"

A voice rang in his ears. Kai looked over and saw a disheveled and skinny old man.