“And… done! I can’t wait to go on a trip for summer break.” I say as I get up from my desk.

“Don’t forget to submit your work Genji. Remember what happened last time.” Says my co-worker.

“Ah right, I forgot to do that again. Thanks for always reminding me.” I say as I submit my work.

“You never change do you? And don’t mention it, it always has been my job to remind you anyways.” My co-worker answers.

“Ehe, sorry for always bothering you Shouko.” I say in a funny tone.

“Like I said, don’t mention it.” She answers.

I grab my stuff and begin to walk towards the elevator to go to the bottom floor of my office. I open my phone whilst heading my way back home.

“Hey Ryo wanna go on a trip to Komodo Island?” My friend texts me.

“When?” I text him back.

“Next week during summer break, I already asked Rokuto and he said he’d come. If you want to go then I’ll buy you the plane ticket.” He texts me back.

“Have you researched and planned about the trip?”

“I have. We’re going to go to El Tari airport, the plane is going to fly at 1 P.M. and after we've arrived, we'll pick a place to stay and take a boat to go to Komodo Island. If you want to go, then I’ll buy the ticket.”

“Have you researched on where we’ll stay?”

“Uh… no?”

“I knew it.”

“Ehe” He answers in a light hearted tone.

“Alright, I’ll research about where to stay and I’ll pay for the hotels, I don’t want you to pay for everything.”

“Alright alright, Rokuto’ll pay for the food expenses.”

“Alright, see you then.” I say as I close my phone, arriving at the front of my apartment room.

I take a shower and watch some anime before going to sleep at 12 A.M. midnight.

(The next day)

I wake up and check my phone to see what time it is and to my surprise it’s still 12 A.M.

“What the hell. Did I really just sleep for a second?” I say to myself in confusion.

“My phone must be broken.” I say as I open my window, and I was surprised to see that it’s completely dark outside, with only lights from buildings illuminating the outside.

“I really did sleep for a second.” I say as I lay down in bed trying my best to go to sleep.

(A few moments later)

I wake up and instantly look out my window.

“What the actual f*ck? How can it still be dark?” I say in confusion and frustration.

As I start to pay more attention to the buildings I began to notice strange things, such as how the buildings aren’t the same as the buildings before, and how each building seems to be completely empty and barren with only little furniture and no people at all.

“Is this a dream? Am I going insane?” I say to myself in complete confusion.

I immediately open up my phone and began to search the internet looking for answers, and to my surprise the internet was completely empty, no posts, no websites, just nothing, even though my phone’s connected to the internet. I began to panic even more.

“Okay, this has to be a dream. There’s no way any of this is real. This has to be a lucid dream. There’s just absolutely no f*cking way any of this is real.” I say as I go to my kitchen frantically searching for my kitchen knife to slice a bit of my hand.

I grabbed my kitchen knife whilst at the same time, knocking everything down. I sat down and begin preparing to slice my hand.

“Should I really do this?” I asked myself.

“I mean, if it is a dream then, I won’t feel pain right?”

Suddenly one of the objects that I knocked down fell from the kitchen counter and scared me, which made me accidentally slice my right hand.

“Ow sh*t that hurts!” I yelled as the knife slices my right hand.

“So is this not a dream?” I say in confusion and frustration.

“Alright I must be going crazy, none of this has to be real.” I say angrily.

“Take a deep breath and relax yourself, none of this is real.” I tell myself to try to calm myself down.

As I calmed myself down and began cleaning my wound, I try to look out the window and it turns out that nothing has changed.

“Alright f*ck it! I’m going outside to check the goddamn stupid buildings. Maybe they’re still the same and I’m just sleep deprived.” I say in frustration.

I change my clothes and go outside of my apartment room.

“Wait, what if I ask my neighbours? They’ll probably think I’m crazy but the more I look at the surrounding buildings, the more obvious that they’re not the same buildings that were there before I got to this… whatever f*cking hell this is.” I say to myself as I knock my neighbour’s apartment room.

I waited 5 minutes and got impatient and tried to open the door, and to my surprise it opens, revealing an empty room with no furnitures and the lights still on, flickering. The bathroom of the apartment consists only of a shower, a sink, a bathtub, and a toilet with no lid.

“Okay, what in the actual f*ck. This has to be a dream.” I say as I began nervously sweating.

“What about my friends? What about the f*cking vacation? Why me? Where even am I?” I whimpered.

“No, no, now’s not the time to panick. You’ve lost everything once, you can go through this, you are strong, you just need to find a way to get out of this stupid place.” I try to encourage myself.

I finally got outside of my apartment and I begin to look inside the buildings. The buildings were indeed, completely empty and barren, containing little furniture with no one to be seen. The weirdest part about it wasn’t that it was completely empty, but it somehow felt very familiar.

“Have I been here before?” I ask in confusion.

“I feel like I’ve been here before? Why does the inside of the building look so familiar yet unfamiliar?” I say confused.

“Are the other buildings like this? What kind of world is this?”

I begin frantically looking inside the other buildings. The other building interiors were different, but they all have one thing in common, they all feel familiar.

“Okay, if this is a lucid dream, then this is a very weird one.” I say as I try to think of making something to try and test if this was truly a dream.

“…”

“Well that didn’t work.”

“Alright let’s just try to survive until I find a way out of this f*cking hell.”

“Okay, it looks like all the buildings are empty with little to no furniture.”

“I should just head back to my apartment to plan what I should do.” I say as I head back to my apartment room.

“Alright… what to do now?”

“Let’s just eat first.”

I head to the kitchen and grab an instant ramen and start cooking some hot water.

“Hmm… where can I get water and food here?” I say as I start eating my instant ramen.

“Well, the city seems to be infinite so maybe I’ll find some convenience store if I just walk for long enough.”

“Wait, but if the other buildings are mostly empty, then wouldn’t the convenience store be empty too?”

“Eh, it’s worth a try.”

(A few moments later)

“Ahh… nothing beats the taste of instant ramen when you’re hungry.”

“Ok, back to reality… or whatever this f*cking place is.”

“Should I just stay here until my food or water runs out?” I say as I open my phone to check the internet.

“What was I expecting, of course there’s nothing on the internet.”

“Hah, I think I’m just gonna lay down here for a bit. I just wanna relax myself and calm myself down.”

“Wait, can I play online games?”

I open my phone and instantly start opening Counter Hit.

“There’s no one here either. I can’t even play a match because there’s no one here other than me.”

“So online games are a no no huh..”

“… What a sh*t world.”

“You know what, instead of slacking off, I should try and find a convenience store and try to find food and drinks..”

*yawns*

“After a little nap.” I say as I begin to doze off.

(A few moments later)

I wake up and instantly check the window.

“So it really is not a dream..”

“Well, time to try and find a convenience store.”

I begin preparing to explore the city to search for a convenience store. After preparing, I instantly go out and search for a convenience store. I walk and walk, passing by many buildings that have empty yet familiar looking interiors.

“Ok this is actually pretty scary. If I was truly alone here then who built this city?”

“Is this purgatory? What the f*ck did I do, God?”

*sigh*

“Well I’ll just have to survive here until I eventually find a way out here… I hope.”

As I walk farther and farther away from my apartment, I begin to feel more uneasy and paranoid. The more buildings I pass by, the lonelier I feel, but the feeling that there’s someone or something other than me in this city is worse than the feeling of loneliness.

“Ok, I’ve walked for 20 minutes, maybe there really aren’t any convenience store in this hell.” I say as I start to panic.

“Calm down, and stay alert, if there is someone or something that’ll attack you, you just need to stab them and run or just run. It’s no big deal. You are strong, you’ve been through stuff that are comparable to this hell.”

“Except my pass traumas comes from something that makes logical sense, and this place just makes no sense at all, I mean, the time here is always 12 A.M. mid night and the more and more I walk the more it feels like this sh*t city is really infinite.” I say as I start to panic more and more.

"Maybe 10 more minutes of walking." I say to myself thinking that eventually if I walked long enough there would be a convenience store.

The more and more I walk, the more anxious I become, passing by each empty building after building is slowly driving me crazy. Without even reaching 10 minutes the feeling of loneliness and that something is watching me overwhelms me.

“Alright let’s just go back, I’ve been walking for 25 straight minutes and still haven’t found anything and there’s also that feeling of being watched by something is just gonna make me panic more and more.” I say as I quickly turn back towards where I thought my apartment was.

I couldn’t stand the dreaded feeling of something watching me so I quickly ran towards where I thought my apartment was, and without noticing it, I was lost. I start nervously sweating and hyperventilating, the feeling of loneliness and danger begins to remind me of one of my past traumas.

“Sh*it sh*t sh*t, f*ck! Where the f*ck is my apartment.”

“AAHH! F*CK F*CK F*CK! WHY CAN’T I FIND MY GODDAMN APARTMENT!!!” I yelled panicking more and more.

Eventually after 27 minutes of running aimlessly, I finally give in to the thought that I was lost and there’s almost no way going back home. I sat down at the front of a building and started sobbing. Feeling scared, alone and pathetic. All the bottled up emotions and feelings came pouring out.

“What the f*ck did I do to deserve this God?” I whimpered.

“What did I ever do to you?”

“You already made me lost my whole family once, and now you’re taking away my previous life? WHAT THE F*CK DID I DO WRONG!!!” I yelled whimpering.

“If I’m really not alone and there’s something here that wants to kill me then go ahead… I don’t care anymore..”

"..."

“This is all just my fault.”

“If only I had just chosen to stay at my apartment, then I wouldn’t have been here.”

“If only I hadn’t slept that night, then there’s no way I would’ve been here in the first place.”

"This is all just my punishment for abandoning my family..."

“I deserve this, I’m nothing but a selfish stupid person. I don’t deserve to live, I should I just die, nobody truly cares about me anyways.” I whimpered.

I put my knife that I brought for protection to my neck. My hands started shaking rapidly and I started to get out of breath. My heart was pounding fast, my whole body felt cold even though I was wearing a jacket. It felt like I was going to puke. The closer the knife got to neck the harder I cried.

“I just want to end it..” I whimpered.

“I want to end the pain….” Putting the knife closer to my neck.

“……”

“I’m just a weak idiot a*shole who doesn’t deserve any happiness. I left my family behind just for my selfish desires.” My hands started shaking harder as the knife touched my neck.

“I deserve to lose everything… I DON’T DESERVE F*CKING HAPPINESS!!!” I yelled, crying harder whilst putting the knife closer and closer to my neck.

I started to suffocate because I was so out of breath, the knife cutting a little bit into my neck. The knife fell from my hand because I couldn’t do it and I was so out of breath. I cried and cried and cried. Little drops of blood came out from the wound that I inflicted on my neck. My whole body started shaking harder, as I continuously mocked myself again and again.

Eventually, tears stopped flowing from my eyes. I felt dead inside, like I wanted to cry but couldn’t because the tears just wouldn’t come out of my eyes. My whole body was still shaking and my heart pounded faster, it felt like I was going to die.

“I’m such a failure aren’t I?” I say in weak voice.

*sigh*

“I didn’t want to spend more time with my family just because of my selfishness, and now they’re dead because of I abandoned them.”

“I’m just a selfish loser who leeches off of others.”

“I don’t deserve happiness.”

“I should just die.”

“I’m just a sh*t no good person with no talents..”

“F*ck me for being such a pathetic loser.”

“WHY AM I SO F*CKING SELFISH GOD???!!” I yelled as my body shaked even more.

It felt like I was on the verge of fainting but can’t faint. I coughed and coughed, feeling like I wanted to puke but just couldn’t. I just curled up into a fetal position, as I try to make tears come out of my eyes and kept hating on myself. I kept on hurling insults at myself and telling myself that ‘I should die’ and ‘I don’t deserve happiness’ and ‘I’m such a failure’. No matter how much I tried, the tears just couldn’t come out, it felt like hell.

After what felt like an eternity of that agonizing pain, I finally was able to collect my thoughts and calm myself down. My body slowly stopped shaking and I was slowly able to breathe without the feeling like I was drowning in the deep ocean with no one to help me. My heart slowly slowed it’s beating. The feeling of hopelessness slowly turned to hopefulness. The agonizing pain turned to pleasant relieve. Positive thoughts started to fill my head as I slowly but surely lifted myself off the ground. I, was finally at peace.

“…”

*sigh*

“I’ve been through this once, if I want to stop being a loser then I need to continue living.”

“It’s already proven that it’s possible to be transported to a different world, then it’s not a farfetched thing to say that there’s a way to go back.”

“I just need to survive until then.”

“My family wouldn’t want me to die, they want me to be happy.”

“Mom, dad, little bro, Shouko, Garen, Rokuto, I’m sorry for being such a failure, so from this point onwards, I’ll try my best to not be a failure anymore.”

“Let’s start by slowly finding my way back to my apartment.”

I picked up my knife and all the other stuff that I dropped and prepared to go back to my apartment.

*crack crack crackle crackle*

“What he f*ck was that?” I say as I slowly turned to see what was the source of those noises.

I froze for a second. Thinking that it was just my imagination. But that thought quickly disappeared as I heard another cracking noise.

“Please just be trash or something, please don’t be a monster.” I thought to myself.

I gathered enough courage turn towards the source of the cracking noise. My face turned pale, as I fell down to the ground from fright. What I saw right before my eyes was a thing, that seems to have a neck that’s length seems to be impossible long, with what seems to be no body. Its skin is pale white, its neck has many joints that cracks everytime it moves. At the front end of the neck is a head with no eyes, just a mouth and long hairs. Even though has no eyes, its staring right at me as if it knows where I am.

Its neck extends from behind a building, making a cracking noise as its face moves closer to mine. It’s mouth smiling from ear to ear, even though it has no ears. Its human-like teeth glimmering white. I can hear a soft breathing noise coming from its mouth as it slowly extends its neck to get closer and closer to me.

“W-what in God’s name is that?” I say as I’m frozen in fear.

“F-f*ck where’s my goddamn knife!” I yell as I frantically search for my knife, with my eyes locked to it’s face.

Its face is right in front of my face, smiling creepily. I can feel its breath. My heart begins pounding hard, and my body starts to shake from fear. The thing stays in place for a minute, I couldn’t move or grab my knife because my body was shaking very hard from fear. I began to go out of breath from pure fear.

“If I die here, I just want to say thank you to everyone that has made me happy in my life, and that I’m sorry for everything wrong that I ever did.” I thought to myself.

Eventually, after what feels like an infinite amount of time, the thing turns around and its neck quickly retracts behind a building, making cracking noises along the way. Its gaze locked to me as it retracts its neck. The cracking noises can still be heard, even after it has disappeared behind a building. Eventually the noises disappeared.

I sat there, still frightened. My face was pale, my body was shaking, and I was out of breath. After a minute or so, I began to calm down. I quickly grabbed my knife for protection just in case that thing ever decides to be hostile.

“I-I f*cking knew it!! There are monsters!” I yelled in relief.

*sigh*

“I guess there are peaceful monsters too huh..”

“Let’s just hold my knife just in case that thing turns out to be aggressive or there’s another monster that’s aggressive.”

“Alright, let’s just slowly walk towards where I hope my apartment is…” I say as I get up and begin to walk.

“Wait, do GPS work here?”

“I should have tested that before I went exploring for a stupid convenience store.” I say as I open my GPS app.

“Of course it doesn’t.”

“Well, let’s just continue walking and hope for the best I guess.”

After walking for a while, I finally found buildings that have interiors that I’m familiar with.

“Wait, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that building before, well, let’s just hope that I’m going the right way.”

After a very long time of walking I finally found my apartment. I cry from joy as I run straight to my room.

“AHHHH FINALLY!!!!!” I yelled as I go inside my room.

“YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH I MISSED YOU!!”

“Ahhh…. I’m finally at home….” I say as I lay down on my futon.

*stomach grumbles*

“Oh God I really need to sh*t..”

(A few moments later)

“Ahhh… that felt good..”

“All this stress is making me hungry.” I say as I cook an instant ramen in my kitchen.

“Ahhh…. Nothing really does beat instant ramen, especially after seeing whatever the f*ck that long necked thing was.” I say as I eat my instant ramen.

I lay down on my futon bed after I’m done eating my instant ramen, and I open up my phone.

“Wait, can I watch anime?” I say as I open a Crustyroll.

“Of course there are none…”

“Hah…. I’m so bored….”

“Maybe instead of exploring the city, I should just explore the insides of the buildings, who knows, maybe there’ll be a random vending machine inside of one.”

“But I just want to rest for now…”

“I don’t want to meet anymore monsters or get lost again…”

I start to disconnect from reality and start to zone out. Eventually after 5 minutes of nothing but zoning out, I snap back into consciousness.

“What time is it?” I say while I check my phone.

“Oh yeah, right, it’s always 12 A.M.”

“I should start searching inside the buildings for supplies.”

“You know what I should start exercising, I haven’t gone to a gym or done any serious workout for 3 months.” I say as I start stretching.

I did 8 push ups, 9 sit ups, 13 squats, and 1 minute of jumping jacks. I sit down to rest and drink a bottle of water.

“Alright, that should be enough exercise.” I say as I empty my water bottle.

“…”

“Let’s just rest for a minute and prepare supplies that I might need for the exploration.” I say as I start preparing supplies for the exploration.

“Ok, I’m pretty sure that’s all I need.” I say as I get out of my apartment room.

“Wait, let’s take pictures of my surroundings just in case I get lost again.” I say as I take pictures of my apartment and it’s surroundings.

“Alright, time to go exploring.” I say as I walk around thinking which building I should pick.

“I think this one’s fine, it looks big, so maybe the chances of finding a vending machine inside is better than the other buildings.” I say as I walk inside.

The building was empty but I continue to be optimistic, hoping that if I search long enough I’ll find a vending machine or something. As I continue walking I began to notice strange things, like how there’s no stairs or elevators even though the building looks like a tall office building with many floors from the outside. The more I walk, the more I feel that the interiors of the buildings are infinite too.

“Wait, don’t tell me the interiors of each buildings are infinite.”

“Ok ok, let’s calm down first, you took pictures of the entrance of the building and you took pictures every now and then too, so if you get lost you’ll be completely fine Ryo, don’t panic.” I say to myself.

“Think about the positives, if the interior is indeed infinite, then that’ll mean there’ss be a higher chance of finding a vending machine.”

I continue walking deeper, taking pictures every now and then just in case I get lost. The more I walk the more it seems that the interior design is changing, from what looks like an empty office building to what seems like a mall.

“It looks like the interior is infinite, and it looks like it doesn’t stick to a theme.”

“Well, I guess that’s because it’s infinite.”

I walked and walked, passing by what seems to be empty shops. I continue walking until I found an escalator which seems to lead to the second floor of the mall. I take a picture and continue walking.

Eventually after what feels like an eternity of only walking, I found a vending machine with snacks and sodas.

“AAAHH FINALLY!!” I yelled in relief.

“So there can be food and drinks inside these weird buildings…”

“I’m just gonna steal what’s inside of this vending machine, there’s no one here anyways and I desperately need supplies.” I say as I start smashing the vending machine glass.

I took what I can and take a few pictures of the vending machine and it’s surroundings. I sat down to rest and open a can of soda.

“Ah… I got what I came here for…”

“But I still want to explore a little more.”

“This place seems scary but the fact that it’s infinite is fascinating.”

“Alright, let’s continue exploring.”