«↓ Laz Mann, welcome to the Land of Call ↑»
'So, the Land of Call exists?'
He didn't want to let the thought of unbelief settle in his mind as he narrowed his stare on the rat, looking back at him with those innocent, yet deceitful eyes.
Ordinarily, rats would flee at the sight of their masters — humans — or, once they sensed any sound danger that disrupts their intruding activities. But here, this rat appeared relaxed, staring back at him.
He wanted to tag the rat 'mysterious' at first when the welcome runes had appeared over it but thought out of it the moment it disappeared almost at the same time. Yet, he would still say this little rodent staring at him was... mysterious.
Patiently, he observed to understand what the rat was up to. And so, watched as it climbed down the bed and dragged something alongside it until it appeared in the middle of the bed. The sound was that of steel, and catching Laz's attention, made him support himself with his hands as he brought his face forward to stare beneath the bed to find what it was the rat had dragged.
'Food?!'
Suddenly remembering that he was on the verge of quenching hunger when he was sent to his death, he brought his legs down from the bed intuitively, and sat over the steel plate of long pie sticks, with the rat shockingly sitting in front.
'The Land of Call is a test area where bearers arrive to face trials before they begin their life journey in Ellipse.'
'Right?'
Not thinking twice, he saw the rat's relaxation as an opportunity to get rid of it. His right leg, moved with practiced precision as it interlocked with the rat's tender body. Next second, his eyes followed as the common rodent fled from where it sat, phasing through the door that concealed the inside of the room he was in.
As soon as the rat was out of sight, the door from which it disappeared creaked open, revealing a similar sight Laz had noticed through the window earlier. The only new thing he observed was the presence of trees, which he couldn't tell where their apex stopped since they seemed to tower above the building, stretching into numbers further, forming a forest.
In his logical sense, the tall trees should possess broad leaves that could serve as a canopy, hence hovering its shadows on the ground, but his understanding of the reality before him was far from it.
'I wonder, what kind of trials am I going to face?'
He thought, collecting the plate from the ground and pouring it out through the window. Then, he brought the stainless plate close to his face and gasped his mouth in awe.
What he knew about transmigration as he watched from adverts displayed over signboards whenever a new anime series was launched, was that the MC or the actors tend to reincarnate or transmigrate into another body. But, that was not the case for him.
Even though he had transmigrated, he still preserved his body. His fair-complexion face, his blue eyes, and even his wind-swept silver hair were all brightening but not exactly different from his realistic features. His face was oval-shaped, suiting his composure the more, making him more handsome than he thought he could be.
He brushed his hands against his face, feeling the goodness of transmigration until it hit him, and he paused with his hands on his face.
Knowledge began to flood into his memory, not necessarily out of nowhere. This was knowledge he had acquired from reading a book that was gifted to him by a fellow female bearer who pitied his life conditions on Earth.
"Land of Call is real."
He wasn't sure if he had ascertained the fact initially, or if he just accepted the reality, all he did was stand up from where he sat and move to the plastic table.
The book the girl had given him, "After I Became A Bearer" whose author was Codez D. Bing, who happened to become one of the first bearers Ellipse ever had some decades ago, used it as a means to relay some of his experiences with the new world.
He was not motivated to pay attention to every detail of the book, but he thought the few points he had gathered were what he needed.
***
Ellipse, used to be a virtual reality game, where players were only transported in, to serve as controllers. Just as it is recently, the entrance key was the Route. Your ability to possess this item granted you a free and easy pass into the game.
Once inside the game, the main aim of the players was to control whomever they had chosen as their characters and tame their actions toward victory in whatever mission they were assigned. This way, the players also were able to return safely to Earth and subsequently, life went on.
Not until a bug was introduced into the game — various characters turned against each other, some went as far as introducing strange creatures through their mundane experimentations — all these changed the main aim on which the game was laid.
The fun fact to note was that the game had become more interesting for its players, who no longer controlled their characters to work with other players' characters, but struggled to survive and achieve their aims of being present in the game. But, even the stick that bears a sweet, is not as delicious as what it bore.
There was a sad event that had occurred after the introduction of this bug. There came a day when the players suddenly began to notice the exact sign of the same VRG logo they had fun with, melted into various parts of each of their bodies as marks — hence, called the Mark of Ellipse.
Then, common contact with this mark plunged the player into total darkness, from where they were later thrown into an ethereal world to face different adversities. Those who were careful enough not to have contact with these marks on their body, but somehow, stubbornly made use of the Route still found themselves in similar areas.
According to the book, the player had mentioned that they didn't just end in a single area. It seemed as though they were thrust into different zones of a singular world, each person at a time, so that no two persons were found in a particular zone.
Time passed, and each of these players acted as direct action characters, to survive what they had controlled their virtual characters to survive, and only until they succeeded in finding an exit point out of this world — called a Rift — their remain in this mysterious world was assured.
To the shock of all the Players that had survived, they realized that the exit point of the world they had been seeped into, was only an entry point to the main world they were conversant with — Ellipse.
And so, after much deliberations from the final survivors from all the turn out of events, they decided to name the first world the "Land of Call", where they had undergone trials to qualify them as players of the game.
Those who had used the Route as a means of entry into the VRG had succeeded in returning to continue their lives on earth, while those who had direct contact with the mark lost their lives.
It was the latest survivors, that had worked hard to make advancements so that subsequent victims of their kind of experience wouldn't have to face the level of difficulties they happened to deal with.
Unfortunately, their advancements turned the VRG into another world of permanence, like Earth, except for the Game-Like features the subsequent bearers of the Mark would encounter in the world.
His ultimate reason for writing the book was to provide guidelines, and detailed information on what the subsequent bearers were likely to face, and proposed means of survival.
***
Laz shook his head, remembering that he had not paid attention to the book. He only read what was contained in the first page of the book, and had dumped it wherever he couldn't recall.
After all, the notion he bore in mind during the time was that his mark was a fake since it was a common belief that the Mark was only predominant for the rich.
Why?
Only they were able to afford the ROUTE which served as a safe entry point, and are only able to get their kids through the training lessons required for their survival in this netherworld.'So, I'm doomed.'
If only he had gone deep further into the book, he might stand a chance.
He had thought his involvement in this realized prophecy was nullified since he believed he had no way of affording the ROUTE but had come to learn that there was a second method of transporting into the netherworld.
And, judging from what the leader of that thug said before killing him, his body should be cremated in one graveyard by now, while the other fellows who made use of the Route should have their bodies preserved in awaiting their return.
He wondered what would happen to their bodies if they weren't able to return.
The much he knew, the only way a bearer was to return to their bodies was when they died in the Land of Call. He didn't know what the case would be if they also died in what Codez had called the real world of the game.
But, all he knew was that death in this Land of Call should never be an option for him.
Settling on this resolve, he brought his gaze down to the notepad on the plastic table and opened it to find there was no written word in its content.
He flipped over to the next page, the same thing. He continued flipping until he reached the end page of the book, and there was still nothing written on it.
Then, he thought he should try out writing on it himself.
Picking up the pen dropped by the side of the notepad, he scribbled his name on the first page.
His initial intention for putting down his name was for the fun of it, but, what he saw left him dazzled.
A transparent window, with brightened dark text on it, dug out slowly from the notepad until they stopped at Laz's eye level. Then, he read what was written on the window carefully.
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«↓ Name: Laz Mann ↑»
«↓ Status: Candidate ↑»
«↓ Bloodline: - ↑»
«↓ Origin: - ↑»
«↓ Talent: - ↑»
«↓ Rank: - ↑»
«↓ Rank Core: [0/50] ↑»
«↓ Core Trait: - ↑»
«↓ Ability: - ↑»
«↓ Weakness: - ↑»
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From the visual animes, Laz was opportune to watch through billboards, he could tell that the screen in front of him was his status window. Even though they had empty fills, he now understood what Codez meant when he referred to their existence as that in a Game-Like world.
He, however, continued watching as the screen that had appeared before him shattered into transparent shards before traversing into nothingness, as another screen dug out from the book at the same time, approaching his eye level with the same pace as the former.
'What... now?'