Chapter 9: Beauty and the Beast
Whoosh!
Jake was floating in a dark space.
He saw a light shining at the end of his path. Screaming, he said, "Perfection!!"
Even though he couldn't move, he was excited by the thought of the light. How many years has he longed for the light of perfection? Now, it is within his sight.
"As expected from M, he didn't want me to struggle. He sent me straight to a place of perfection. What a nice master?!"
Jake's thoughts shifted from idiotic thoughts, he began to grasp his situation, "Come to think of it, where am I?"
As he got closer to the light, Jake wondered where he actually was.
"It doesn't matter. As long as the light is with me, I don't care about my location."
If his master was here, he would beat his disciple thoroughly.
When Jake was an inch away from the light, his genius intellect started operating normally, "It is dark here and there is a light at the end of my path. That should mean that this is the space between the two ends of the spatial portal. It is like a spatial tunnel. It is amazing I can experience it, as the travel path between the two portals is too fast for one's brain to process."
Theoretically speaking, Jake shouldn't be able to think in a spatial tunnel, as he is now a weak mortal. The only thing that could allow him to think should be the portal technique, as there are different techniques just for that.
The technique M used should be a slower one, hence the reason for Jake's experiences.
"I'm guessing he picked a cost-efficient method, but I don't know why. He should be a billion times more than able to teleport him to his location. The only reason for him picking a slower method should be that he has not yet decided on my destination. He picked a random destination, no, rather, the space portal is picking a random destination. That's why it's not as fast as the others."
Within a minute, Jake deduced his master's reasons. Though he was frustrated, Jake understood why M did that, 'M couldn't pick my destination. He couldn't decide what was best for me, so he left it all to my luck. Fuck!!'
Luck was a mysterious concept. It could make even the most ordinary of mortals become supreme beings.
Sadly, Jake had bad luck. He was one of those people who would escape a burning building but still get hit by a firetruck.
Once in his foster parent's kingdom, Jake had once taken a school test with a hundred percent (100%) pass probability, and he failed it with a mark of zero over a hundred questions. To top it off, the reason for his bad result was because his teacher's daughter didn't like his face and marked his test down when her father was sleeping. Jake only found out a year after he took his test, by then his test result was irrelevant…..
...
Jake passed the white light, in order words he passed the portal. He was glad that his bad luck didn't affect him this time. Well, that was until he realized he was floating in the air.
"Shouldn't I be on firm ground? Why am I in the air? I can't fly!!!"
A mortal couldn't fly even if they wanted to, and Jake found himself really wanting to.
"Eehhhh!!!! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! It is all M's fault. Fuck him and his cat ancestors!!" Amidst his tragic situation, Jake still managed to curse his master.
And like that, our MC was gliding in the air, rushing to his death.
His fate was unknown.
...…..
Puchi!!
A young teenager thrust his wooden spear into a creature's body.
The creature was humanoid. Its skin was decayed with a putrid smell coming off it. Its eyes were night black, indicating its affiliation to terror. Sharp claws and fangs, able to snap off an average human head in an instant.
Even though it was stabbed, life didn't drain out of the creature. It struggled to remove the wooden spear.
"Lola, now!!", the young teenager shouted.
He was talking to a girl beside him, who then threw a stone at the zombie. The stone was thrown with a fierce intensity and accurate precision. It pierced through the zombie's head, spilling out its rancid insides.
"Whew, the zombie wasn't easy to kill at all and it was a weak one. This forest is really dangerous," the young teenager said.
Wiping off her sweats, his female friend replied, "Nico, didn't I warn you about the forest? I told you we needed to leave as I had a bad feeling."
"Lola, how did you expect that the warning signs we saw meant zombies? I thought they meant spirit beasts," the young boy retorted.
Nico looked at his sister, Lola. He was about to quarrel with her when a third voice was heard.
"The two of you should shut up. I hear a sound," the feminine voice scolded the two siblings. Her voice was young indicating that she was also a teenager.
Seeing that two siblings were not surprised, it could be deduced that the three teenagers knew each other.
"What is it, Jaya?"
"Can't you hear it? A sound. It is coming from up," whispered Jaya. She sounded like she was not sure of herself as they couldn't see anything above them.
Nico looked high above him, "Are you sure? I can't see anything--wait, I see something!"
Nico could see a dot in the gray sky continuously expanding. If it was before, he would have disregarded it, but now that he thought of it, it was quite strange, "The dot. It's expanding. What is it?"
Looking up, Jaya saw the same thing he saw, "It wasn't there when I checked."
"Idiot, it's not expanding. It's getting closer to us," commented Lola.
"Eehhhhhhh!!"
The trio could now hear the sound heard by Jaya.
As the dot came closer to them, they saw the actual figure of the dot. It was a young boy of similar age with them.
"He is falling. He is going to die," laughed Jaya at the strangeness of the situation.
Lola said, "Yes, it is rare to see someone falling from the sky."
"Does it matter? We have to save him!" As an advocate of peace, Nico couldn't just watch as a fellow human died.
"How do we do that?" queried Lola.
".....I don't know," Nico's brain could not think of an effective solution.
Jaya calmly interjected, "We would need something to soften his impact. Something to act as a cushion."
She looked around.
They were in a gloomy forest, where demonic wails were heard occasionally. The huge and tall trees seemed to fit into the theme. They were ghostlike with no leaves. The forest had a nasty smell. It was like entering a rat pit. The forest was also filled with corpses.
Even after glancing around, she couldn't find anything that could help the poor young boy.
"What if I caught him?" volunteered Nico.
"That is possible, but the consequences are quite grave."
"I will risk it. It is still better than letting a life pass by me."
With that, Nico prepared to catch the young boy.
.....
"Eeehhhhh!!"
As Jake got closer to land, he realized something. The location he was landing at had a gray barrier that distinguished it from the other vibrant location he saw.
That didn't bother Jake. In fact, it made him happier, as places like that are sure to not be populated. If he landed there, very few people would notice him. He was sure he didn't want to raise any attention as he didn't have a valid background.
Passing through the barrier, Jake was disgusted at the sight of the forest within it. The grey trees and disgusting creatures roaming about made him shiver.
Jake saw three individuals fighting a creature. He watched as they killed it, all the while screaming to gain their attention.
Sure, his plan worked. The three noticed him. He watched as one of them looked up with a perverted smile.
'What is wrong with this one? Such a pervert. How can one have such an ugly smile? If not for my situation, I would have cut off his head for the crime of possessing an ugly smile.'
The pervert spread forth in arm in a carrying position.
'It seems like he wants to catch me. Hmph! At least his brain works well.'
The pervert looked up, calculating the exact position Jake would land. He found himself close to a tree, where his sister killed the zombie, and he waited for Jake.
"Eeeehhh!!"
Jake was finally relaxed seeing the pervert, *Cough*, his savior, perfectly ascertaining his safety.
Then his bad luck kicked in….
From nowhere, a cursed wind blasted Jake from the regular trajectory.
'Damn!'
Due to the wind, Jake hit the leafless trees. It was not the best cushion.
He bounced from the tree with a lot of scratches and finally landed on a dead zombie with his beautiful kissing the zombie's lips.
The three teenagers all screamed, 'What bad luck!!'
They were mesmerized by the touching scene of a young boy kissing a zombie, 'Or is this fate? Like beauty and the beast?'