Rebirth?

Ronald, an ordinary otaku and gamer, was thirty years old. After he finished school he graduated from collage, he was unemployed and living alone. 

He was raised by his grandparents before they passed away, leaving him alone with no one to call family. After many hardships and time passing, he finally found a stable job. 

Because of his massive family debt, he could barely make ends meet. 

Currently, he is an ordinary guy who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work, only to comeback late in the evening. 

Because of his poor social skills, he didn't have any friends and a girlfriend is out of the question. The only solace he has is his favourite anime, shows, 'Content of culture' and video games.

One day, after work, without a car to call his own, he decided to pass by the bank and pay off the last of his family debts. To celebrate this small achievement, he treated himself to his favorite milkshake.

Wearing his business suite and an anime ninja headband, he was holding his briefcase and jacket. On his way back he took an unfamiliar rout, that was suppose to be a shortcut.

The area was eerily quiet, pitch-black, and barely visible. The surroundings seemed desolate, with decaying walls covered in graffiti, the street lamps flickered with lights as if they would die at any moment.

The whole place didn't look hospitable much less inviting. This street was rumoured to be a gang territory but Roland didn't have this information.

On his way, Ronald witnessed a girl being robbed, a somewhat common scene in this town. It would sometimes happened in certain areas, and most of the times the cops or people wouldn't interven.

'I don't want to get involved! There's no need for unnecessary risks, especially when my life is on the line! This dampened Roland's mood and quickened his heart, prompting him to walk faster and try to pass by the group of thugs unnoticed.

However, his attempt failed. The group of thugs noticed him and quickly surrounded him. Paralyzed with fear, Roland couldn't utter a word as the group berated him with phrases he couldn't understand like; 'Mandem', 'Get Chinged' and 'Wagwon'.

Roland stuttered for a bit before the group started beating him mercilessly. He tried to defend himself but his attempts, seemed futile.

Despite his desperate screams, the thugs showed no mercy and pummeled him to the ground. He didn't even have a chance to offer his money.

'What's the point of attacking someone you don't know without stating a reason.

Roland couldn't even struggle to get up, lying down on the ground, he looked up, only to see the barrel of a gun. His eyes widened as fear overwhelmed him.

'Why? What did I do to deserve this? I didn't even live my life properly, I don't want to die!*sob* I'm unwilling! It's not fair!' At that moment, multiple thoughts passed by Roland's head. Fear! Accompanied by a strong emotion, surging in his heart.

A bang sounded followed by a flash, he got shot in the head and died soon after. Roland didn't even get to ask why?

His body went limp and from his briefcase, a DVD of a new anime live adaptation about pirates fell out, something he looked forward to.

This was a common scene, a person dying for no reason, due to gangs. It was the first time Roland experienced it and it just so happens to be his last.

....

After some time, Roland struggled to opened his eyes, only to feel a terrible headache. He clutched his face in pain. He was confused as he could faintly remember about his beating and sudden death, but the pain had his fill attention.

There were currently many strange things 'flashing' on/in his mind and before he could think about them, he heard someone besides him saying, "You finally awake I see."

The room was dimply lit, spacious and the air was heavy with dust, a gym-sweaty pungent stench, and dampness. The smell was repulsive and Roland couldn't help but taste it.

Roland's eyes quickly adapted to the dark.

He turned around and saw a 'unique' face; pointy dog-like ears, sharp canines, bright yellow eyes, all accompanied by short white hair, all of this on a youth who looked to be around fifteen.

Demi-human, was the first thought Roland had when he saw the boy. 'I'm not gonna lie his cosplay looks incredible. Is he a wolf?'

Roland was impressed with the 'cosplay', from the canines to the fur, everything looked so realistic.

"Hey Human cub, what's your title and how many weeks are you?" the Demi-Human boy asked. The demi-human had a tired expression on his face as if he just worked an extra overnight shift.

What confused Roland was his manner of speech.

'Human cub? Title? Weeks? Is he asking me about my name and age? I watch a lot of anime but at least I'm not one of those people who take it to far.' Roland thought. From his knowledge, there were other people who watched anime just like him, unlike him though, those people often confused fantasy with reality and were very, 'enthusiastic' about it.

He didn't want to delve into it, as his head was still throbbing in pain.

Not only did he have a headache, Roland felt his ears ringing a high pitch sound, and his body felt sluggish as if he was sick or had the cold.

"Roland and I'm thirty years old or about one thousand five hundred and sixty weeks." Roland answered without thinking. He worked as a scientist so big numbers like second nature him.

"Absurd! Human cub Roland, you don't have to lie to me. Aren't we both locked up here." the Demi-human boy exclaimed.

"How can you be thirty, your obviously still a cub. Just be honest and tell me your tale and I'll tell you mine, I'm really curious. " The Demi-human boy said.

'Human cub? I'm obviously older then you!' Roland was confused by the 'youths' words and manner of speeh so he looked at himself. 

It was at this moment that he realized that he was in an unfamiliar body, the body looked to be around thirteen-years-old. His body was covered in bloody bandages.

Roland was shocked and confused, he started hyperventilating as he started inspecting his body, from his arms to his legs and body, everything was 'shorter' or more accurately younger.

'Transmigration! Rebirth! Isekai!'

These thoughts ran in Roland's head. People dying and going to another world wasn't an unfamiliar concept to him. It was quite common... well more like in the content he consumed.

"*sigh* Looks like you might have hurt your head and forgotten. Why don't you take a look around." the Demi-Human boy shook his head and said in a degected tone.

Following the boy's words, Roland looked around. In the dark and damp room, Roland saw that he, along with a few others, were locked in metal cages.

The were a lot of cages, they stretched out to the darkness and out of his field of vision. The cages were neatly placed in rows all around him.

'What is this place? Who are these people and why are we locked up?'Roland frantically looked around the warehouse-sized room, like a parent who just realized their child was missing.

Roland noticed that the 'prisoners' weren't entirely human as far as he could tell. Some of them had hug bunny ears while others had horns and tails.

They were all wearing brown rags that hung on their shoulders like curtains.

Roland also noticed the hopelessness in their eyes and it seemed like they didn't have the will to live. 

'Human trafficking or rather people trafficking!' He thought of this term.

"Let me go!!"

Before Roland could think or ask what was going on, he heard a shout followed by a bright flaming light. 

Turning to look not far from him, he saw a girl engulfed in flames. The flames were so bright that Roland could see the entire room, but he couldn't directly look at the girl.

The girl kept screaming and shouting and the flames around her body burned even brighter. 

Oddly enough, although the flames were strong and looked hot, Roland didn't feel an inch of warmth, as if the realistic flames were an illusion.

"Yep, there she goes again. She does that a lot. Don't worry because of the special cage and restraints we won't get hurt, she'll tire herself out in a few minutes, what's impressive though, is that she can release so much flames even with these chaines and locks restricting our powers." the Demi-human besides Roland said.

Roland looked closer and indeed, he saw that the girl's arms and legs were tied up. He looked around and realized that everyone had the same 'accessory', including himself. 

'I really did die!' Roland felt conflicted and dejected, he hyperventilated for a while but ultimately calmed down. 

There wasn't a doubt in his mind now about his current predicament, he just felt like a fish out of water or rather out of place.

'There's still some anime I didn't watch. Looks like I'm not gonna play manspider 2, Damn it' My oven has a timer set to turn on at night, it's definetly going to start a fire hopefully it gets my neighbour who keeps stealing my papers.' Roland lamented a bit.

*sigh*

'Also this looks like a magical world, although I did die I'm currently alive and thats what matters.' Roland quickly comforted himself and found solace. A magical world had magic after all.

At this moment Roland pieced a few things together as his head ran with thoughts, he felt out of place and umcomfortable about the whole thing, but he shrugged his shoulders.

"What is this place?" After calming himself down a bit, Roland asked.

"I haven't the faintest clue. I was peacfully hunting some prey when a crazy old woman kidnapped me and brought me 'here'." The Demi-human boy lamented. There was a hint of regret in his voice, "Funny thing is, I don't even know where 'here' is *sigh*"

Seeing the demi-human's expression, Roland had a defeated expression, 'Brother please don't use hunting and peaceful like that, the person your 'hunting' won't agree to it.'

"On the bright side, I at least know that everyone here is special in a sense that they are rare. Take that girl for example, my guess is that she's a pheonix, which if you don't know are only seen a few times in history" the demi-human boy explained.

"Or that boy right there. My guess is that he's from the white tiger race, which is thought to be extinct" The Demi-human boy pointed towards a cage with a kid who had snow-white hair.

The kid was sitting with his arms folded and looked unbothered by the whole situation.

'These people are really resourceful if they can gather up so many rare people.' Roland fell in deep thought.

At this moment, two figures dressed in black robes appeared at the bottom of the hallway. The robes were embroidered with yellow outline and had no other designs. The robes covered them from head to toe and dragged on the floor.

When the others saw the two figures they tensed up and had fearfull expressions. Everyone anxiously followed the figures with their eyes, even the unbothered youth in the cage, opened his eyes and followed along.

The two figures walked in between the cells and quickly arrived at the cage besides Roland's, took out a key and opened the cage.

The middle-aged man who was in the cage started to tremble and his expression turned grim. 

The two figures quickly opened the cage and dragged him away, the man didn't even struggle and accepted his fate.

"Little brother, I'll give you a heads up, besides the toil everyone does, most people here get tortured, experimented on and some of them don't even return." Just as Roland wanted to ask what was going on, the Demi-human said, his mood had changed entirely.

Rolands expression turned sour. 'Why do I have such dog shit luck. I just got here a second ago and I'm aldready about to get spawn killed!'

Roland lamented as he thought back to how his life ended, he could only helplessly sigh. Sadly there is no medicane for regret.

At this moment he touched the metal collar that was tightly wrapped around his neck when suddenly a 'ding' sounded, followed by a mysteriouse voice.

[Fabric substance was found. Do you want to absorb and boot up the chaos system?]