After closing his eyes, Aleks truly felt and assumed the worst about himself. Being the only non-Awakened in the whole school, and after that never-ending beating – the first and *only* beating that he couldn't believe he would suffer – even though he already knew he was vulnerable, it never occurred to him that he would be a target, let alone on the *last day of school*.
So, he could recall everything that had happened to him: being framed by Lacey, then getting beaten by her boyfriend, Dan, who had just recently gotten his Awakening, and who wanted to show and demonstrate to everyone else that he'd gotten his powers.
It made sense that the perfect guinea pig would be Aleks himself.
Everything was totally black. After that landing, it was a mystery and miracle that Aleks could actually feel himself still alive and kicking. What he felt was something so surreal. He wasn't sure if what he was experiencing was a dream or some kind of trance.
Because he could feel his own consciousness, and he could sense and tell that his spirit and soul was still one with him. Though there was never anything special about Aleks, one thing he'd learned to do for himself to stay out of trouble and avoid being a target, was that he'd always find himself reading different webnovels from all aspects of genres: fantasy to isekai. Actually, isekai was one of his favorites. Because whenever he'd read about that one protagonist, he'd feel related to them – being alone and unwanted, then one unexpected day that protagonist would die unexpectedly and get reincarnated into another world as another person.
So, that was what he was hopeful would happen to him. He'd remember every single event leading to his unprecedented death – or so he assumed that he was actually really dead. More like convinced, really.
He was clearly happy, though he knew and was actually aware that those awesome isekai stories he'd read about were nothing but just mere fiction created by someone who just hated their own life.
Because whatever was happening to Aleks, it really felt quite familiar. You know, the whole process of him feeling like he is being reincarnated: dying in a strange way, seeing something before he closed his eyes, and feeling all his limbs intact along with his soul and consciousness, and that unending float in the middle of nowhere.
*'Is this really happening to me? Am I finally going to leave this cruel world and go to a better one?'* he asked himself.
Everything felt exactly like that. The only thing that was missing was actually that flickering, unknown, bright blinding light that would actually pull him towards it.
*'Now, the only thing that I should wait for is the light,'* he said to himself.
He would be lying if he said he was actually aware of how much time he spent there waiting for that "bright blinding light," but it wasn't even like a minute. Then, right before his eyes, in the middle of the endless abyss, a small flicker of light slowly appeared before him, like a campfire being lit.
And finally, the flicker and light grew big and bright. Thinking that it was his way out of this place, he tried to float forward in its direction, but he just couldn't move. He felt like there was this powerful and overwhelming force stopping him and pulling him backwards.
He couldn't believe nor even understand it. 'What the...?'
He tried to press forward, but this unknown force pulling him back was more powerful than he'd ever imagined.
The funny thing was, the same bright and blinding light that he was anxious to go to kinda felt strange – but it's not like he knew that. He was clueless.
The light suddenly grew a lot bigger than he was expecting, as if there was someone or something opening it from the other side. The light was emanating an orange-yellow-like colour, but there were streaks of electricity emanating with the colour of red. Clearly, whatever that was wasn't a good thing. Not understanding what was going on.
A black, inhuman hand came out, trying to open the now infected light. Intrigued and mystified by this, Aleks was willing to wait and see what the hell was going on and what that was.
And before his questions could be answered, right before that thing could show its physical appearance, the same unknown force that had stopped him – without warning – pulled him back with such speed that he couldn't even see the yellow, orange, or even golden light clearly. He passed through it.
Aleks just saw himself flying across walls and hitting against a fridge.
"Ouch," Aleks whimpered.
He didn't fully understand what had just happened to him. What he *was* sure of was that one second ago, he'd been somewhere else, so close to being isekai'd into another world. Now, he found himself leaning against a fridge he'd totally destroyed the second he landed on it.
He flinched with so much pain. Every single part of his body screamed with unimaginable agony, especially his bones – they felt like they were being stretched out.
His eyes were tightly closed, flinching against the pain. He tried to open them. At first glance, he couldn't make out where the hell he was… until the dust and debris he'd caused finally settled.
To his surprise, that's when he saw everything: the hole in the wall, the dangling, now-loose light hanging from the ceiling, and the way he'd crushed the poor fridge like it had been sent to a demolition derby.
Aleks grunted as he got up, instinctively touching his head – it wasn't bruised or damaged. All that was on it was dirt and nothing more. Though he wasn't scratched or visibly hurt on his head, it didn't mean he was immune to the suffering headache pounding behind his eyes.
He tried to walk forward, but that's when he discovered he felt woozy. All he could do was use everything around him to hang onto, using it as a walking balance.
He tried shaking his head, hoping it would get rid of the headache. His attempt seemed to work – the headache did go away.
Aleks couldn't allow his mind to fully process where he was; he was obviously still in shock over what had happened. So, he moved around the place he'd destroyed, and nothing seemed familiar.
That was until he checked the whole place, hoping he'd be able to fix it before the owner came around. One thing made him realize where he actually was: the family portrait on the wall. It showed him at a young age with his parents.
"Oh shoot," Aleks breathed, unable to believe the hole in the wall he'd caused and created.
The second he said that, he was busy going back and forth, looking at the hole in the wall. He couldn't believe how on earth he'd been able to cause this much damage, regardless of flying out of nowhere and crashing into his own place.
Not that it wouldn't be strange if he was Awakened – but he wasn't. Since he wasn't like the others, Aleks didn't have any kind of special powers that would enhance his normal human traits.
At the end of the day, he was still an ordinary human. And twice in one day, he'd managed to survive two events that should have taken his life long ago.
Apart from the mystery of his unknown death resistance, what made him deeply uncomfortable was this: even if he'd flown through the wall, how on earth had he managed to go through a bricked wall and crush his fridge like that?
Let alone cause a minor earthquake? Because when he'd crashed against the fridge, he'd definitely shaken the place a little bit.
Nothing made sense, and it wasn't going to be any use worrying about it. Today was already a strange day, and now this. Something was definitely wrong. Aleks knew it; it's just that he couldn't admit it to himself.
While trying to clean the house that he'd wrecked, he made sure he was going to do his best. After all, though this place felt like his home, the problem was that this *wasn't* his actual family home. Yes, there was a portrait of him and his family.
Yet again, it wasn't his house. This was the home – or, in this case, a private shelter – provided by the government for him to stay in after his parents perished and left him on his own.
And what made it better was that he was taken care of: he'd receive money to pay off the rent, he'd have money to buy food and school supplies, and everything else he needed.
And today, out of all days, it was rent payment day. The worst part was that he hadn't even received the money for this month yet. Which was often weird.
Thinking all about his never-ending problems, the headache that he'd had earlier returned. This time around, it wasn't playing; it was so painful it made him feel like he was hearing a static, high-pitched sound.
Once again, he felt a little bit off. Everything around him suddenly got blurry. He tried walking around and shaking his head multiple times, but this time, it wasn't enough.
He lost his balance and knelt down, using the wall as something to give him support. And just like that...
Something strange appeared before his very own eyes.