Half an hour later, Boslow Hill, about 17 km from the city border of Drada.
The wrecked bus is now surrounded by so many police and SAR officers. Eight passengers have been confirmed dead. The rest have been rushed to a hospital in Drada Metropolitan City.
“Sir! I just got information from Summerfield High School. There were 32 students on this trip, and one teacher.”
“Thirty two?” the captain mumbles curiously. “Then, we are missing one student here.”
The police captain receives a document from the lower rank officer, and examines it. There he finds the name of Jimmy Hendrix marked in a red circle.
“He lives at his aunt’s house since her mom died six years ago. And about his father, Thomas Hendrix, doesn’t that name ring a bell to you?” asks the lower rank officer rhetorically.
The captain glances by raising one of his eyebrows, showing some kind of interest.
But…
“Naah, I bet he just went looking for some help.”
However, that one lower rank officer shakes his head. “Actually, his cousin, a girl named Cynthia McNeil, also took part in this field trip. She sat near this guy, and got the chance to see him, inside the bus, with both legs broken.”
“Broken legs? Then how did he get out?” The captain bites his bottom lip, losing in deep thoughts.
Meanwhile, a certain hospital in Drada is busy with parents of the students who have just experienced that unfortunate accident.
Most of them are in an open ward accompanying their children.
It’s so quiet, and haunting.
Most of these students, who think they are so holy and religious, are glancing at Anna with resentment.
“It’s because of you!”
“How could you do that in front of so many people?”
“This is punishment from God. And we are affected by your sin.”
They share their resentment with restrained voice. But Anna clearly feels what those people currently expressing while looking at her with hateful gazes.
“Stop staring at me with that look!” she snaps.
“Like I have any interest in looking at a dirty girl like you,” replies a male student as he takes his gaze away.
Anna keeps looking down, while hiding the bandaged wound on her face behind her black long hair.
Later, she glances in another direction, at Dwayne who looks so innocent without showing any remorse, nonchalantly smiling while making some jokes with his rich dad.
She believes it was Dwayne’s fault, not her. But all her classmates are putting the blame on her for being so noisy with her moaning.
At least, there is someone else which is quite annoying, which steals these students' attention. It is Jimmy’s aunt, Molly McNeil, complaining in front of her daughter.
“How could they still employ a 70 year-old man as a bus driver? What about his eyesight?”
Jackson McNeil, the lady’s husband, whines with restrained voice. “That’s enough. We are in a hospital.”
Molly takes her face away by raising her chin. She turns silent for a moment. Only for a moment, before she goes back to complaining about other things, which is Jimmy.
“And now we have to figure out how to find that kid!”
“He must have gone to get help and got lost,” Jackson speculates.
“Let’s hope so,” utters Molly with a sour face. “If he really broke his legs, it would be a pain in the ass having to pay for his treatment too.”
***
On the other hand, in a certain hillside, Jimmy wakes up in aghast, in a shallow cave with a smooth ground having a unique circle.
He steps out of the cave to check things out. There he is stunned, finding himself in the middle of a tropical rainforest, and in broad daylight.
Even weirder, there are two moons above, looking pale like the face of a girl has just woken up during her period.
“Where am I?”
The sun has already leaned slightly to the west. It’s so weird, because it was already dark when the bus got into an accident.
“Ah, that’s right! The bus?”
He still cares about his classmates. But then, his face turns sour as he remembers how those people laugh at him when he was dumped by Anna.
“Why should I care about them?”
Soon, he is back to his anxiety, worrying that he might have already been transferred to the world of the dead.
He rushes up the hill, trying to learn his current location. His heartbeat is racing, sounding like a galloping horse. After reaching the hilltop, there he learns that he is on an island surrounded by ocean.
“Oh, God!” He holds his head with a disbelieving face. “Why did you put me on an island like this? If this is heaven, where are the beautiful angels?”
There is one part of the island which looks like a swamp. And there in the swamp, he notices some movements.
He squints, and sees some people moving with weird movements. Some even stupidly fall to the swamp, slowly trying to get back, and then fall again like a drunkard.
Instead of humans, they look more like…
“It can’t be! Are they zombies? No way! Am I in hell now?”
He believes he wasn’t that bad as a person to be damned in hell like this.
The more he observes the view, slowly some images appear in his mind, images he often imagined in the past, before going to sleep as his father told him some story.
“Hold on, wait! This is…”
Yes, this is Icalaterra, where people hunt monsters, and get some reward and gold coins for completing some kind of quest, an interesting way to get rich fast.
As a kid, he always took it as just fairytales. Never once he thought that Icalaterra would be real.
And also…
“Inventory!” he issues.
In that instant, an interface hologram appears in front of him, in the form of a rectangular measuring 25 cm x 40 cm, with 40 small boxes in it.
“Holy shit! It’s real! It’s just like what he told me!”
Eight of the boxes in the inventory contain pictures of objects, such as stored items. There are matches (3), crowbars (1), torches (2), Handgun (1), handgun magazines (1/20), metal water bottle (2), crossbow (1), leather quiver with metal arrows (13/50).
He touches the handgun box, and immediately…
[!]
[Would you like to take out the handgun?]
“What? Um…, Yes?” he replies unsurely.
A blue light appears in the air right in front of him, and from it a handgun drops.
This is his first time holding a gun. His adrenaline starts to race up. The image of him shooting zombies with the handgun starts playing in his head like in the video game. How fun it would be.But soon he returns to reality. “No way! There’s no way I can do that!”Having enough with all the strangeness and his endless anxiety, he rushes down from the top of the hill.“Oh, God! How am I going to get home now?”And suddenly…[!][Would you like to go back to your home?]“Eh, I can go back? Um, yes! Take me home! Take me back home now!”[Sorry! You need to be inside the portal circle to use the portal]“Portal circle?”It reminds Jimmy about the weird circle he found on the ground inside the shallow cave. Hence, he rushes back to that place.And just like what he thought…[!][Would you like to use the portal?]“Yes, of course! Finally I can go back to…”[!][Sorry, you don’t meet the minimum requirement. It needs two portal scrolls to transfer you back to Iodrana]“Portal scroll?”[!]
Frustrated, his breath becomes short. But he still tries to calm his mind, looking for a way to solve his problem.“Hey! Is there any way to cure the poison?”[A small vial of Ether liquid is enough to cure you from this level of poison][A small vial of Ether Liquid = 55 gold coins][Your current balance = 0 gold coins]“Wooo! It's much more expensive than the portal scroll. You're deliberately selling it in a higher price just because I need it?”[Prices are determined based on need and item availability. This is the basic law of economics. Just complete the quest, then you will have the gold coins to buy items.]“You damn capitalist! Can’t you just give me one for now? I’ll pay you later!”[We do not accept that type of transaction]“Come on, Jimmy! Use your brain! Think! Think!”“I should have…”“Hold on! Wait!”“Hey! Show me that quest again!”The system shows him the details of the quest.After reading it carefully, for whatever stupid thing coming to his mind, he points the gun
And he earned it only after two days trapped in Icalaterra. Even though he had to bet his own life to get that much money, his face looks so bright with an indescribable excitement.He exchanges one gold coin for $893.64. And soon, a light occurs in front of him, and some dollar bills drop, along with a few pennies. Excited, he rushes back to the fast food outlet to order.But again, he gets yelled at by the previous girl. “Why are you still here?”“I just want to make an order,” says Jimmy.“Making an order?” the girl squints.Annoyed by the girl’s harsh treatment, Jimmy deliberately takes out a piece of $100 bill and shows it to the girl.He expects the girl to be surprised and change her attitude. However…“Whose money did you steal?” she inquires.“Steal? It’s mine,” replies Jimmy.“Bullshit!” the girl denies. “You just said you only had money to buy a bottle of mineral water.”Jimmy ignores her argument, stepping forward, and putting the money on the table. “Just give me some food
Upon entering the shop, he gets the same reaction as the girl at food outlet earlier. At least, the sales girl in this shop doesn't immediately cast him away.“Excuse me! Are you lost?” “No, I want to purchase a motorbike,” replies Jimmy.The girl looks so unenthusiastic, before she looks to another direction, to another sales girl with yellow hair, looking pretty like a flight attendance.“Amy! Could you come here for a moment and do something for this guy here?”That girl simply takes her leave, even without making sure that one sales girl named Amy really comes to Jimmy.In the meantime, Jimmy has to endure his annoyance for being ignored while that Amy girl is busy with her phone. It stays like that, at least until Jimmy confronts her.“Yes?” Amy asks coldly.Jimmy sighs by showing his unenthusiastic face. “Look! I came here to buy, and don’t you judge me based on my slightly torn dirty T-shirt. I just got into an accident, and I want to get back home with a bike I’m going to buy
An hour later, the girl returns with two friends, while Jimmy himself has been yawning so many times in boredom. He sees one of them prepares the motorbike and then takes it outside for a test drive.The other one comes to Jimmy giving two boxes, one containing a helmet, and the other one containing a set of touring outfits; shoes, one jacket, and a pair of gloves.Soon, the guy who went for a test drive comes back with Jimmy’s new bike, while Jimmy has been holding his excitement.At last, he will experience how it feels to be a rich guy, buying his own motorbike with his own money. No one will call him a freeloader anymore.“Here, the changes,” Amy gives Jimmy some dollars and coins along with purchase receipt, Jimmy’s ID card, and also the document of the ownership of the new motorbike.“So, you really got into an accident, huh? I bet you haven’t had a shower for a while. Don't you want to stay here for a night at least? You can take a shower at my place if you want.”The way this
Soon after he finishes taking a shower, he gets hungry again. Only then does he leave the beach and heads to the border.He takes the times to visit that one food outlet he visited before, to fill his empty belly before taking a long journey to Summerfield.Coincidentally, it’s quiet without any customers. Jimmy's arrival on a luxury motorbike makes the girl who owns the shop looks excited in waiting, tying her shoulder-length black hair up on the back.But then…“Oh, shit! No way? It’s that guy earlier,” mutters the girl by closing her mouth, recognizing Jimmy’s face soon after Jimmy takes off his helmet.“Who?” The girl’s younger brother asks from behind.“No one!” The girl ignores his curiosity.“Oh, wait! That guy?” The younger brother recognizes Jimmy’s face. “Isn’t that the guy we saw on the side of the road at Boslow Hill? I thought he was just a thug!”“Just go back to the kitchen!” Laura slaps her 14 year-old brother with a small towel.Soon, she finds Jimmy walking towards h
Jimmy gives a shy smile with the lie, but Laura doesn’t say a word. She just finds another similarity between her and Jimmy. Now she feels so bad for treating Jimmy so harsh this morning. “Oh?” the girl just mumbles with her blank face. “So you are heading back to Summerfield now?” “Yeah! By the way, thanks for the water,” says Jimmy as he walks away. “Hold on! Wait!” the girl calls. “Do you have a phone number?” Jimmy turns around. “A phone number?” “Um…, uh… It, it will be a long road. Something could just happen to you on the way, so…” “Oh, you are right! But, sorry! I don’t have a phone. You see, I lost everything because of the accident.” Jimmy smiles and takes his leave. The girl still looks so stupid, before her stupid face turns sour, believing that was only Jimmy’s way rejecting her politely. *** As darkness slowly covers the small town of Summerfield, an 11 year old boy is still busy in front of a washing machine. These are the clothes that have piled up in the last
Jimmy has been expecting that his aunt would be curious about his new motorbike, and has prepared a story for that. But Aunt Molly is even more confused by him returning home unscathed.What's more, now he finds Cynthia looking at him with a horrified face. Cynthia doesn’t look curious, but horrified by something so strange and inexplicable.“Um, Jimmy? What about your legs? And your head?” she asks.“What?” Jimmy mumbles with a pale face, not expecting that there was someone witnessing his dire condition in that wrecked bus.“I…, I clearly saw your head bleeding so badly,” mutters Cynthia. “And your legs…”Right at this moment, Jackson McNeil is just returning home from work. The arrival of his car catches the attention of everyone in the parlor.When they turn their attention, it is only then that they notice Detective Dotson, who has been standing by the front door for a while.This detective parked his car on the side of the road. There is even his partner in verandah. Their arriv