A frail boy with dark hair and skin as pale as a vampire's—with dark circles under his eyes—sat on a bench and drank a can of coffee from a nearby vending machine. Today was his sixteenth birthday, yet he found himself alone once again.
"What's the point of living if I'll always be alone?" he thought—a thought that hardly belongs on a birthday.
My parents had promised to return before my birthday, but they vanished without a trace.
After finishing his coffee, he decided to walk around the stores, using the money saved for his birthday to add a little bit of fun to an otherwise lonely day.
This world is connected to many others, and only a lucky few can travel between them. In some of these worlds, monsters rule and commit unspeakable acts. Those chosen by the Origin are forced to enter these worlds and fight to survive. If they do not survive, a gateway to another world will open, unleashing waves of monsters that kill everything in their path. However, it isn't all bad; those who survive gain superhuman powers and achieve things they never thought possible. In fact, only 60,000 people survived the first wave.
Before the mass selection began, many people were chosen by the Origin and sent to one of the many worlds. Strangely, if someone died in one of these worlds, no gateway would open. Instead, another person was sent in their place. This cycle continued for three months until everyone trapped in these worlds was eventually returned to our own. Nobody knew why it happened or how it began—a question that is still widely discussed today.
After those three terrifying months, many survivors struggled with mental disorders and needed therapy. At the same time, many began sharing their experiences. Some even used the situation to make money and to train the next generation of what came to be known as Divers—people who travel to other worlds and, after surviving three warps (challenges set by the Origin), manage to return.
The process was simple:
Scouts were sent out to find and recruit talented individuals.
These recruits were prepared for their first warp.
The most skilled received sponsorship with better equipment.
They were then sent on their first warp.
This cycle repeated until they were recognized by the Origin as true Divers, granted the freedom to travel between their warp world and the real world at any time.
That incident was five years ago. Now, my life is a constant struggle—I barely have a roof over my head or enough food to eat. My only hope for escape was to survive in another world. What I didn't know was that my chance to warp would soon come true—and it would change my life in ways I never imagined.