The lunch bell rang, followed by the scraping of chairs throughout Class 10/7.
Phod didn't get up with everyone else.
He sat at the desk by the window in the very back, his head lowered as he ate fried pork with sticky rice from the plastic bag he'd bought that morning. Hot air from the soccer field carried the smell of dry grass and dust inside. Outside, kids shouted to one another, and the food vendors in front of the cafeteria could be heard all the way up on the second floor.
The world was still perfectly normal.
Normal in the way Phod didn't particularly like.
"Eating again?"
A voice came from in front of his desk.
Phod kept chewing without looking up.
Three pairs of sneakers stopped in front of him.
All three of them again.
He only had to glance at their shadows on the floor to know who was standing where.
Ball was in the middle. He liked starting things, but rarely threw the first punch himself. Arm was on the left. He laughed at everything Ball said because he was afraid that one day, he'd be the one everyone was laughing at. Knight stood on the far right, silent as always.
Phod disliked Knight the most.
A loudmouth was easy enough to figure out. The annoying ones were the quiet people who stood by and watched others get hurt without feeling a thing.
"I asked you a question." Ball flicked the sticky-rice bag with one finger. "You deaf?"
Phod swallowed the last bite and looked up.
"I was thinking."
"About what?"
"About how you asked if I was eating again..." He paused for a beat. "People usually eat every day, you know. Or does your family only eat on Buddhist holy days?"
Laughter rose from a few desks in front of them.
Not very loud.
But loud enough.
Ball's face changed instantly.
There it is.
Phod sighed inwardly.
I knew he couldn't take a joke. Why the hell does my mouth move so fast?
"You sure talk big."
"It's all I've got." Phod shrugged. "No strength, no money, and my face is—well, okay, that one's still debatable."
A girl snorted with laughter, then hurriedly lowered her head. The entire room fell silent at once.
Nobody wanted to get involved in someone else's business, especially when everyone knew exactly how the teacher would end up framing it.
Boys teasing each other.
Don't take it so seriously.
Phod had heard it so many times he was sick of it.
Ball snatched the bag of rice from his hand and threw it out the window.
The plastic bag landed on the awning below. The last piece of fried pork went flying and disappeared.
Phod watched it for two seconds.
"What a waste."
"What?"
"The pork."
Ball laughed. "Just admit you're scared."
Phod turned back to him. "The pork didn't do anything wrong."
Arm burst out laughing, then quickly choked it off when Ball looked his way.
Ball's expression changed again.
Phod saw it and knew immediately that this wasn't over.
He slipped his phone into his pocket and nudged his chair a little farther from the desk.
Not because he thought he could win a fight.
But because if things got ugly, at least his stuff wouldn't break.
Smart people knew their own limitations.
His limitation was that one punch would probably be enough to make him see his ancestors.
Ball grabbed him by the collar.
"Who were you calling a pig just now?"
"The fried pork."
"You being a smart-ass?"
"That part was probably me."
The first punch slammed into his stomach.
Phod doubled over instantly.
The air was squeezed from his lungs until all that remained was a dry wheeze. He tried to back away, but the desk was right behind him.
Pain shot up into his chest.
Harder than last month.
A ridiculous observation surfaced on its own.
Did he start going to the gym, or am I getting even skinnier?
Someone said, "Come on, knock it off," but nobody came any closer.
Phod didn't blame them that much.
If it were him, he might not step in either.
Most people weren't cruel.
They just didn't want to get screwed over.
And sometimes, the result was almost the same.
Ball shoved him away from the desk.
"What happened to all that big talk?"
Phod staggered two steps and caught the edge of a desk.
He lifted his head despite the pain in his gut.
"I talk well."
"Huh?"
"You were the one who decided I could fight."
Even the kids trying to break it up fell silent this time.
Phod saw Ball's shoulder move before the punch came.
He turned his face aside.
The fist skimmed past his cheek.
A straight right.
Ball missed, sending his weight forward. Phod shoved him with both hands as hard as he could.
Someone else might not have budged.
But Ball was already off-balance, so he stumbled back one step.
Phod didn't wait.
He turned to leave the circle.
If it ended here, that was good enough. The rotten world was showing mercy today—
A hand yanked on the back of his schoolbag.
Phod fell backward.
Knight was the one holding him.
It was the first time the other boy had actually done something.
Their eyes met for a brief moment.
There was no anger in Knight's eyes.
No satisfaction, either.
Just indifference.
Phod got more chills from that than he had from being punched.
"Let go."
Knight didn't.
Ball walked over.
Phod quickly scanned his surroundings.
A desk to the left. A chair to the right. The floor near the door was wet from water someone had spilled a moment ago.
The escape route was narrow.
If Knight kept holding his bag, Phod would be yanked to the floor.
So Phod immediately slipped one arm out of the shoulder strap.
Forget the bag.
You can buy new stuff. My teeth cost more.
He managed to pull half his body free.
Then Ball shoved him.
It wasn't even that hard.
At least, that's what Phod thought.
His right shoe stepped on the water.
The concrete floor vanished beneath his foot.
The white ceiling spun through his vision.
Someone screamed,
"Holy crap!"
Then—
Crack!
The sound rang louder inside his skull than outside it.
The world stopped.
Phod stared at the ceiling as it slowly blurred.
Several faces leaned over him. Voices filled the air, but they sounded like they were coming from underwater.
"Phod!"
"Blood—holy crap, he's bleeding!"
"Get the teacher!"
"I didn't even hit him that hard!"
Oh...
Phod wanted to laugh, but his lips wouldn't move.
The first thing someone said after cracking another kid's head open was I didn't hit him that hard.
Humanity really did have a bright future.
The edges of his vision began to darken.
He tried to move his fingers.
Nothing.
The fear only arrived then.
Not the kind of fear he'd felt while being punched.
This was the feeling that if he fell asleep now, he might never open his eyes again.
Is Mom going to yell at me?
Bow's definitely going to say I got myself into another mess.
Dad will probably stay quiet... and make that same face he always does.
The sounds around him disappeared one by one.
Before the darkness swallowed everything, Phod saw a strange light appear above the ceiling.
White letters.
Strangely sharp and clear, even though he could no longer make out anyone's face.
[Vital signs have ceased]
Phod went still.
...What?
The message changed.
[Special conditions detected]
[Time deviation from "the Selection": 06:17:42]
[Access privileges not found in the human registry]
Another line slowly appeared.
[Creating Foundation User]
[Player Number: 0]
Phod didn't have time to wonder what it meant.
His heart stopped beating.
And his world went dark—
before the entire world began to fall apart.