It was another boring day of work at the boring office job, in a boring building on boring avenue. That's all it is; Boring. If the work was hard, or maybe if the company was a hostile environment, maybe that would be better, but as it is the only thing my job has going for it is the excellent pay and relatively short commute from my apartment. The train line I take is practically next door to the office at one end and only a block away from home at the other.
I sat down on one of the empty benches at the train station, loosening my necktie and drawing my phone from my pocket. There are a few other people standing around waiting for the train, but I pay them no mind as I log into Webnovel to dump yet more money into unlocking chapters of books I'm probably never going to read in full. It is, I would say, my biggest trapping. The biggest "in" thing now is stories where one or more characters are in some way transported to another world and granted an RPG-esque power system and quickly become grossly overpowered. I honestly can't get enough of the genre, even if I disagree with the themes of the genre's real origin, "cultivation".
If I were to ever end up in one of those situations, I wouldn't want to get overpowered quickly; It'd take all the fun out of the struggle. I want to earn my power, not stumble into an exploit and become the strongest being in the universe overnight.
The sound of high heels clacking against the station's concrete floor momentarily drew my attention away from my phone, but then the person wearing them captured it in full. A woman in her mid-30s wearing a short red dress, with waist-length curly brown hair which had once been dyed blonde but left to fade. A pair of rainbow heart-shaped ornaments adorned her hair along with a stowed pair of pink-rimed sunglasses. I recognized her instantly.
Sylvia Weiss, my old highschool sweetheart.
I haven't seen her since our nasty break-up nearly 12 years ago. It was due to a conflict of expectations: I could never quite make her proud of dating me. But even after all this time apart, I never stopped being in love with her. It's the whole reason I never looked for another girlfriend… while she's had plenty of boyfriends.
As she stepped right up to the edge of the platform, I spotted a potential scoundrel in a black hoodie very clearly watching her as well. When the sound of the train approaching coincided with him starting to walk towards her, I knew exactly what was going on. The man was subtle, but too subtle, like every motion was practiced to be as inconspicuous as possible. He quickly came to rest half an arm's-length behind her and to one side so his arm was directly in line with the center of her back.
Every breath my body tensed tighter and tighter. Was he another ex lover like myself, but jilted and unwilling to let the slight of being dumped stand? Regardless, his murderous intent is clear. The train drew closer. Five seconds until contact, four, then three. The man's arm began to rise and I bolted out of my seat. It all happened in flashes; I yelled for him to stop, and he turned towards me in surprise. I tackled him to the ground, but he struggled just right and threw me off… right over the tracks.
The last thing I saw before being smeared across the front of the train was Sylvia's panicked face as me and her would-be assailant's fight caused her to trip.
Everything went black; This is it, I'm dead. Except… that's not right. I'm still whole, not a smear of blood and liquified flesh, and I'm floating in some kind of void. I'm conscious, and not experiencing the total lack of thought that death is supposed to be.
"What's going on?"
Ding!
An honest-to-goodness textbox appears in front of me.
[Congratulations!]
[Your life's actions have caught the eye of a Sponsor]
[As such your life will continue in Another World]
"N-no. There's no way this is actually happening!"
[New Message from Sponsor]
["It is. Let's see if you can back up those claims."]
["And for a bit of motivation, you might find a familiar face or two in your new world."]
"Familiar faces- Wait do you mean Sylvia!?"
[Reincarnation in 3…]
"Wait! What happened to her?!"
[2…]
"PLEASE!"
[1…]
"WHAT DID YOU D-"
[0]
[Welcome to Antheria]
"WEEEUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"