Tim sighed as he looked at the television in the small diner his foster mother owned.
The flickering blue light reflected off the counter, illuminating the faint steam coming from the cup of cheap coffee in his hand.
Despite being cheap, if he had to admit… It tasted really nice though.
It had been about four months since he was reincarnated in this world, and he was still getting used to everything… especially the fact that he had a hot foster mother who'd supposedly found him abandoned on the streets as a boy and decided to raise him.
Even after all this time, it still didn't feel real… but if it truly was, he never wanted it to end.
Lina was beautiful… too beautiful for someone who claimed to be just a "normal woman running a small diner."
He would have suspected that she was an awakener but she didn't have a trace of mana in her body.
Long brown hair that framed her face perfectly, a soft smile that could calm any storm, she had an easy charm that made even the regulars blush when she walked by… and her breasts, he wished he could touch them, they were big and each time he looked at them, they were literally begging to be touched.
He tried not to stare too much, but the way she moved, how she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear when taking orders… it was driving him insane.
And it didn't help that this Tim wasn't the same as the old one.
He'd been reincarnated with memories from another world… his old world. A dull, monotonous life of bills, screens, and loneliness.
Back then, he never thought he'd get another chance, but now that he was here… he found himself developing a crush on the one woman who treated him like family.
Disgusting? Probably.
But he couldn't help it.
She was warm, kind, and always smiling even when the world outside was falling apart.
His eyes drifted back to the television hanging above the counter.
[And today on Serelean City News, there has been yet another call transformation in the City Hospital.]
The news anchor spoke in her usual calm tone, but Tim could hear the tension behind it.
It was the fourth one this week.
He leaned back and exhaled. "Fourth one, huh…"
Although the situation was being handled by expert Awakeners, it didn't make it any easier to listen to.
Just hearing about more people dying every day was exhausting.
The call… the strange phenomenon that had changed this world forever was both a miracle and a curse.
No one really understood how it worked, only that it was terrifyingly real.
People across the world above the ages of 18 would suddenly fall unconscious and wake up in another place… a hellish version of reality drowned in apocalypse.
If they survived seven days in that nightmare, they came back changed… they became stronger.
They became Awakeners, people with special powers that could shape the world. But if they died there…
They didn't just die.
Their bodies in the real world would twist and mutate into something grotesque… a monster with no memory of who they once were.
And then, the Awakeners had to clean up the mess.
"Tim, can you take this to Table Six?" his foster mother called from the counter, holding out a tray of steaming soup.
He blinked, shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I got it."
Her smile hit him like an arrow. "Thanks, sweetheart."
He took the tray and turned, pretending to focus on balancing it properly, but his mind wandered again.
'How could someone want to become an Awakened when there's such a beautiful woman waiting at home?'
Becoming one meant risking your life in the call, facing monsters, and maybe never waking up again.
He'd read enough news stories to know how brutal those "other world" were. People screamed about burning skies, endless hordes, and time that didn't flow right.
He shuddered just thinking about it.
His last life had been boring, sure, but at least it wasn't full of death and nightmares.
He weaved through the small diner… four tables, six stools, with one flickering neon sign outside and reached Table Six.
Just as he was about to set the tray down, his knees buckled.
"Huh—?"
The tray slipped from his hands. Hot soup spilled across the floor as his vision blurred, the sounds of the diner fading immediately.
He felt his entire body go numb.
Every ounce of strength was drained in an instant.
Then, darkness.
He fell face-first to the ground and didn't feel a thing.
—
When he opened his eyes again, everything was white.
An endless, glowing white space that stretched out in all directions.
He wasn't standing though… he was floating.
His body felt weightless, as though the laws of gravity didn't apply here.
He looked down, but there was no ground… just more white. And despite the fact that he should be freaking out now, he felt nothing.
"What the hell…"
A faint sound echoed around him as a screen formed in front of his eyes.
[Congratulations for entering your first Call.]
The words appeared before his eyes in shimmering blue text, hanging in the air like a hologram.
His heart sank.
'You've got to be kidding me.'
He floated there for a long second, waiting for the words to change, hoping it was some kind of hallucination.
But the message didn't fade.
It was real.
He clenched his fists. "So… this is it, huh?"
He'd heard about it on TV, read about it on forums, listened to survivors talk about it when they were in the cafe.
But being here was something else entirely.
The air or whatever passed for air here felt too still. It was like standing at the edge of a dream and knowing you couldn't wake up.
"Damn it…"
He rubbed his temples. "Four months in this world and I already get dragged into one of these things?"
Of course it had to be him.
Maybe it was karma. Maybe some cosmic joke. Maybe whoever reincarnated him just didn't like him that much.
Either way, there was no going back.
[You have entered the Tutorial Call.]
[Survive for 7 days.]
[Objective: Remain alive until the timer ends.]
[Failure: Death.]