"Ugh, I'm done..."
It was such a fine, sunny day, yet here I am, bedridden because a common fever thought it'd be funny to rear its ugly head.
Even with the air-conditioning pulling the heat out of the room, my body still feels weak and hot, like I'm being burned alive from the inside. My mind wasn't spared either; it feels like someone is constantly smashing my head with a bat, as if I owed them a huge debt.
Looking at the ticking clock on the wall, I couldn't even be bothered to get up and cook myself some instant noodles in this annoying circumstance. Heck, I don't even feel hungry at all, when my stomach usually loves to grumble at this hour. Was there even a need to do it anyway?
"No... Even if the world is spinning around me, I still need to eat something."
With the strongest will I could muster, I lifted my arm and grabbed the phone on the small table near the bed. Now with the screen casting a harsh glare on my face, I scrolled past countless rows of useless apps before tapping on the food delivery app.
"Let's see... Should I reward myself with some spicy fried chicken? Or maybe go with a warm soup because I might end up vomiting it all out later?"
In the end, I ordered both because, despite the fever, I'm a big eater who has been eating nothing but noodles for the past few months.
Thankfully, I have plenty of boxes of instant noodles I ordered beforehand tucked under my bed, so if my hard-earned money from writing novels ever runs out, I can simply fall back to depression arc 2.0.
The order was estimated to arrive in 20 minutes. In the meantime, I decided to doomscroll through TikTok because I'm such a rebel.
Maybe because of my profession, most of the shorts I saw were anime-related in some way, or just featuring a random spinning wheel to see if people got lucky and survived the world their character was sent to.
It produced some interesting results that sometimes I couldn't help but let out a chuckle, even though it was a total slop festival.
Like, what do you mean this guy, a goblin with a charismatic personality and sticky fingers, has a brick as his main weapon, and he has fully mastered it to the point that he can knock out a god-tier character with one hit?
It should've been called the Wheel of Gags instead of the Wheel of Fate, as it was originally named.
However, as I spent more time scrolling through modern-day unfunny memes like 67, my head suddenly throbbed so painfully that I had to let go of my phone and become a sweaty statue who could do nothing but stare at the ceiling.
"Haaa, I'm dying... It must be those damned brainrot memes getting to my head."
The excruciating pain wasn't going away. In fact, it felt like the bat menace had gone deeper into my skull, right down to a subconscious level.
I thought I heard someone knocking on my door—maybe the food delivery guy was finally here. However, I couldn't lift my neck, much less my body, to stand up, open the door, and grab my delicious food.
At this point, it was just pure, unadulterated suffering. I couldn't even fall asleep with the constant headaches assaulting my neurons like a pack of hyenas eyeing a lone deer. Closing my eyes only exacerbated it, so I could only stare blankly at my bedroom door with bloodshot eyes.
I was sending invisible signals to the delivery guy, who was likely waiting at my doorstep, hoping he would inform the security guard on the first floor and have someone come check on my room. That would be ideal, given how helpless I was on the bed.
Living alone had its own merits, like having no one to argue with except the rational part of my mind. Yeah, I know eating instant noodles all the time is bad for my health. But what else could I do?
The economy is fucked. I could barely afford this apartment's rent on a salary that was only slightly above minimum wage.
The cabinet full of anime figures was definitely not at fault here. It had to be the IRS sucking away every cent in my wallet, preventing me from living the life I wanted.
But the worst thing was, I didn't realize how truly lonely it was to live by myself up until today.
When I used to live with my parents, I could at least eat proper meals without worrying I might have to lick the plate the following week.
Yet my dumbass thought I should be a man and live on my own since that's what everyone around my age had been doing. A responsible adult, they said.
I heard a notification ring on my phone, likely from the delivery app. However, I couldn't muster the same strength I had moments ago, managing only to stretch my fingers toward it.
It was a pathetic attempt at best, so I gave up a second later and just lay on the bed like a motionless corpse.
"At this point, maybe it'd be better if I just succumbed to my fate..."
I wasn't really thinking about anything when I muttered that. Maybe I was hoping the pain would go away, but instead, it intensified to the point that my vision became blurry and my ears started ringing all of a sudden.
Is it just the fever's headache? Or am I actually dying?
I just wanted everything to be gone, so I forcefully closed my eyes, and well... it worked.
I no longer felt any pain smashing my head, nor did I feel the brutal pressure weighing down on my body.
"Wow, I guess I must be feeling better... now?"
I blinked. Again and again.
"What in the world is going on?"
I must admit, the fever had likely fried my sight, because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I was expecting to see my apartment's ceiling, but nothing prepared me for the horror of absolute darkness.
An endless void spanned around me, as if I wasn't in my apartment room anymore, but drifting alone in deep space. I immediately looked down and breathed a small sigh of relief when I saw my body intact, including my little brother safely tucked inside my pants.
"Okay. Did I just get kidnapped by ROB? Or is this the afterlife?"
I was greeted by absolute silence. I mean, of course that's what was going to happen. What did I expect? Someone to magically appear in front of my eyes?
That didn't happen, but something else did.
[Congratulations! By a stroke of luck, you have been chosen by the Chaos Gacha!]
[You gained x3 Random Gold Gacha Tickets!]
"...Say what now?"