"This... you!"

Jay Collin exclaimed with a spear pierced through his side. In front of him, a large orc wielded a small tree for a weapon. Clad in iron armor, its physique towered over Jay. The battle which had been raging on for hours reached an unexpected conclusion.

His companion, a person whom he recently recruited into his group had suddenly thrown a spear right into his side before cowardly running away.

With another swing of its club, the massive orc fighter hit him right in the abdomen, throwing him into the wall causing small pieces of rocks to fly everywhere.

"This battle... IT'S SO FUN!"

Jay spat out a mouthful of blood after saying these words before standing back up. His red hair and well-defined face seemed to brighten in a mysterious red glow as he unsheathed a bright red sword he was wearing on his belt, a bright smile covering his face.

Smiling despite his serious wounds, this was how a man should fight!

He jumped forward, swinging his swords around like a madman. A normal adventurer would've never kept going like this after suffering the wounds he had. Yet, this man kept fighting, unable to do so much as think of retreat in his current state.

However, no matter how ferocious someone is, they still die. After a few minutes, the fight had ended. After suffering numerous wounds and emptying his mana supply, the orc collapsed. Despite his victory, the damage had been done. He had suffered dozens of cuts and dozens of bruises. Not to mention the internal injuries he had suffered.

Standing atop the orc Jay was elated, but when he intended to go grab his backpack which was outside of the cave his limbs refused to move. Despite trying with all his might he was unable to move a single step, furthermore, a few moments later he collapsed, falling off the corpse he had created.

"Ah, I'm dying aren't I. Well I guess I had a good life. It's not like the others will have long to live anyways."

With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes, passing away without regrets.

--------------------------

"You have to be f*cking kidding me."

This was Jay Collin's first thought as he woke up. He felt as if someone took his brains out, stabbed them a few times, shook it up a little and then harshly threw it back into his head.

Despite the pain dulling his senses he quickly opened his eyes, after all, since he was alive now, he just might survive the calamity as well.

"Red walls, a regular wooden door, a comfortable bed and a poster of some celebrity... Hold up... Huh... HUUUUHH!!!" Shocked, he stared at the room in front of him. This room… this was his room back on earth! Noticing he was on the verge of truly freaking out, Jay closed his eyes, taking deep breaths and calming his mind, going through all the possibilities in his head. After a few minutes had passed he once more opened his eyes.

"So it seems like I was reincarnated into my younger self then."

With his eyes flickering around the room Jay decided to affirm his location. He started by walking to the poster on his wall, closely analyzing it. The poster seemed to be real, additionally, it was extremely detailed which was important information for him.

This simple test confirmed he wasn't in an illusion. Illusions always had certain restrictions on how detailed the surroundings would be.

After spending a few more minutes in silent thought Jay tried to think of the next step to take. He should currently be living with his parents and little sister. There were a well off family who lived in a small town. The poster on the wall let him know that the day of the rift wasn’t far off. Knowing this, he opened his door.

As expected he saw the faintly familiar sight before him, it had only been 5 years since he had to leave this place but it felt like a lifetime ago. Planet hope was so incredibly different and he had been so busy, having a goal nearly every day, in those 5 years he had done more than the rest of his life combined.

After dismissing these thoughts for the time being, he walked downstairs, heading for the computer. He simply moved the mouse so that he could see the date.

"Well damn…"

It was the morning he had to go. He had only just gotten back to this world and he would have to leave in just a few hours, restarting his journey on planet Hope

Yet he wasn't dissatisfied either. He knew in this new life he would be able to accomplish many more things. He already wanted to walk the path of a lord, yet last life he was rather unluckily starting as an adventurer.

Yet this was something for later. Right now he had to once again say goodbye to his sister, the one person from earth he never forgot even after the 5 years. He even drew her face after a few months in order to never forget it.

It was October of 20xx. The current population of the earth was 1 billion. Tomorrow this number would go down to 500 million.

Because of some unknown reason, all the world governments suddenly announced that half the human population would be sent into the rift, a portal to a different world. The 500 million people would be randomly picked.

In truth, a commoner such as himself didn't know much of why so many people were sent out. All he knew was that whoever didn't comply was dealt with incredibly harshly, even by the countries that usually treated their citizens great.

Lost in thought, Jay thought about all the challenges he was to face in the future. His thought process was quickly interrupted by someone coming down the stairs.

"Hey Jay, how are you?"

Li Collin seemed worried as she spotted him on the computer. After all, they did a lot of things together and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. Jay couldn't help but waver for a moment as a bunch of memories came back to him. Whenever he used to get lonely he thought back to this sister of his, when he had nobody to talk to he would grab one of the drawings he made of her and pretend to talk to her.

"Hey sis..."

He couldn't help but tear up seeing her delicate face once again. For a short moment, he wished he could just hug her and never let go. But he knew he would soon be separated once again so he made sure to deeply engrave her face into his mind once again. Heck, this time there was a decent chance they would get reunited again. This, he would make sure of.

"I'm going to miss you."

After saying these words, he turned around. Afraid that his resolve would weaken if he spoke with her he headed straight out of the main door leaving his sister behind with a complicated expression.

He decided not to say goodbye since he knew he was bound to meet her again on planet Hope after a while. After all, this time around he was sure he'd be able to find her, no matter where she was sent. But for the time being, he would be sent to planet Hope while she would have to stay on earth, not knowing what was going to happen.

He only had to walk a few minutes before he arrived at the closest hyperloop. This was a public transport system that traveled over 600 km/h. In just over an hour he arrived at his stop. Normally the place he was at now was a small desert, with nobody in sight.

Today was obviously different. Millions of people were standing all around him. With thousands of soldiers and dozens of attack helicopters and tanks in order to keep the peace.

After several hours of lining up, he could see the rift. A few months ago a number of these massive black holes had appeared. Soon after the government had said these rifts were portals to another world and forbid anyone from entering.

Until a few weeks ago when the population was informed half the population would be sent, chosen absolutely at random, be it politician, doctor or elder.

Once he was only a few meters away from the rift, he could clearly see inside.

The inside of the rift wasn't total darkness like many had thought. It was actually gorgeous, it was as if there were a million stars down there, no matter how long you would look into the rift you would never stop being amazed by its beauty.

Thanks to this the soldiers didn't have to push people in, most of the people walked in voluntarily bewitched by its beauty.

A moment later he was at the edge, without hesitation he jumped forward, he felt a sting on the back of his neck when he entered the rift, a metallic liquid heading towards his brain.

A moment later he lost consciousness.

|AI-chip successfully connected, entering illusion.|