'I hate humans.'
There was a silent pause in his mind, a pause so deafening that he felt like he could hear himself speaking from every direction at once.
Max could not remember how he ended up in this dark void, and neither could he tell if it was truly a dark void to begin with.
All he knew was that in that very moment, he could no longer pretend the cruelty of the world did not exist.
Not in the way he could before.
Was it because he was not born with a silver spoon?
Because he was fat, ugly, poor, and unpopular, was that why people felt the need to constantly look down on him as though he was not even worthy of being called human?
For as long as he could remember, this was the very question that lingered at the back of his mind, and not once in his entire life did he ever receive an answer to it.
'If only... I wasn't like this... a burden to my mother.'
There were no tears dripping from his eyes, but sure enough, anyone who looked closely could tell he was bleeding internally, wounded by a kind of sorrow that no amount of crying could ever fix.
'Dying now isn't bad. If I ever get reborn, I hope to have everything I couldn't in this pitiful life of mine.'
Before he knew it, the voices went completely silent, all except for one faint whisper that echoed through the emptiness.
[Host has been chosen.]
Gasp!
The very next second, Max's eyes shot open, only to be greeted by the dozens of students that had gathered around him in a circle.
It did not take long for him to piece together what had happened while his back was still pressed flat against the ground.
He remembered that Ryan had approached him in the classroom, and upon striking him across the face, Max had stumbled backward and slammed the back of his head against the sharp edge of the table.
He should have been dead.
Instead,
He could see that many of the students who had not even been present when the entire thing happened were now gawking at him like he was some creature from another planet.
Suddenly, a girl from the crowd spoke--
"Oh look, he opened his eyes. He is not dead."
Upon hearing what she said, Max felt his body move on its own, pulling himself upright with one hand pressed firmly against the back of his throbbing head.
At first he scanned the room, and noticed that Ryan and his girlfriend were nowhere to be seen.
Could it be that they had fled because they thought he was actually dead?
Before he could dwell on that thought any further, a system notification flashed before his eyes.
[You have been chosen as the host.]
[Congratulations on your new journey.]
Even though Max had not fully come back to his senses, the confusion was written all over his face the moment he noticed the blue glowing screen hovering in front of him.
'What is this? Looks like... a host?'
Looking at the faces of the others and how none of their expressions had changed, he figured he had to be the only one who could see the screen.
To draw their attention to it would only make it seem like he had suffered a concussion or some kind of brain damage from the impact.
And besides, it was not like any of them even cared about him to begin with. They were only surprised to witness what looked like a murder unfold right inside their classroom.
A few moments after that, the sound of the classroom door being thrown open violently echoed through the room, followed immediately by the frantic voice of a teacher.
"Where is the student?!"
Every student in the area broke their circle at once and scattered to the corners of the classroom, clearing a path so the teacher could get through.
But to Max's surprise, it was not only the teacher who had arrived at the scene.
Sure, he could see the worried look stretched across the male teacher's face as he rushed toward him, but Max's eyes drifted the moment he noticed Jade sprinting in right behind him.
She had tears streaming down her face, and her cheeks were swollen and flushed, which made it obvious that she must have been crying for quite some time before she even got here.
Then--
"Quick, take him to the school clinic. Hurry up!"
Perhaps it was because everything had unfolded in such a short and chaotic span of time.
But it was not until that very last second that Max finally realized he had been sitting in his own pool of blood the entire time.
...
In the moments that followed, Max had ended up drifting off to sleep on the bed in the school infirmary.
He had been changed into a fresh pair of uniform by the male teacher, and a thick bandage had been wrapped around his head to treat the wound he had sustained.
When his eyes finally opened again, he noticed that the entire place was dead silent, and all he could hear was the distant sound of students training outside on the field.
Which was most likely the sports clubs running their afternoon sessions.
'School must have ended for the day.'
Looking to the right, he could see Jade seated on a small chair beside the bed, her fingers still gently wrapped around his hand.
If this had been any other person sitting there, he might have blushed or even felt some warmth from the gesture.
But all he felt was guilt.
Once again, she was sacrificing her own happiness and rest just to look after someone as worthless as he believed himself to be.
Max bit his lips in frustration.
Then--
[Would you like to take on your first quest?]
Max's eyes widened in shock as the system screen materialized in front of him once again.
He truly had not been seeing things back then...
'What the hell is this thing?'