"How did this happen?"
I looked around at the strange place I found myself in. It looked like a subway station but not one I recognized.
My name is Mousa Jama, though most people call me Mo. I'm nineteen years old, a first-year university student struggling to make it through my courses.
I had been on my way to the station after a full day of work and studying. Going out with friends, keeping up with university, managing a full friend circle it was exhausting sometimes. Uni, work, home, sleep. Just a normal routine.
Just a normal day.
But I never reached home.
Something strange must have happened while I was heading back. I got on the subway like always. Everything was fine.
Everything was normal.
Until it wasn't.
I must have been so tired that I started dozing off. I remember closing my eyes for maybe five or ten minutes
And then bam.
When I opened them, I was here.
"This definitely isn't Frankfurt…"
I slowly turned in a circle, taking in the surroundings. The station had the same basic layout as any subway platform rails below, a concrete platform above but everything about it felt wrong.
The lights flickered weakly overhead, casting long shadows across the empty station. Broken signs hung from the ceiling at odd angles. Dust floated through the air.
And the rocks.
Chunks of black stone floated above the tracks and platforms like debris frozen in midair. They glowed faintly, giving the station a strange greenish light.
They almost looked cool like some kind of futuristic decoration.
But something about them made my skin crawl.
Then there was the air.
It felt… heavier.
I could still breathe, but every inhale felt like pulling oxygen through syrup. My chest worked harder than usual, and even standing still made me feel slightly tired.
"Okay," I muttered to myself. "That's definitely not normal."
As I kept looking around, I heard something behind me.
A strange sound.
Scrape… shrrk…
I froze.
Slowly, I turned around.
At first I didn't understand what I was looking at.
Something stood near the edge of the platform.
Then it moved.
The creature dragged itself forward in an uneven motion. One of its arms was completely missing. The other stretched out long and thin, ending in a jagged blade that scraped against the ground as it walked.
And its head—
There wasn't one.
Instead, a smooth black orb sat where its face should have been.
Or maybe it was a hole.
It was impossible to tell.
The thing tilted slightly toward me.
And started walking closer.
Menacingly.
I stared at it for about half a second.
Then I did what any normal person would do.
I dipped.
My body moved before my brain could even process the situation. My legs pumped as fast as they could, carrying me down the platform.
What did you expect? I don't know what this shit is.
Behind me, the creature let out a muffled, distorted scream.
It sounded like something between metal grinding and a broken speaker.
And apparently that scream wasn't just for me.
Because more of them started appearing.
Shapes crawled out from different tunnels and broken stairways.
Different variants.
One looked like a spider, its body supported by multiple long legs that tapped rapidly against the ground. It had the same black-hole head as the first one.
Another one had something like a battery strapped to its back and carried a long metal pole.
"Oh come on," I muttered as I kept running.
I ran.
And ran.
What else could I do?
Maybe this was some kind of prank.
An extremely elaborate prank.
But the way those things moved…
Yeah, probably not.
And with the heavy air here, running was already harder than it should have been. My breathing came out in short bursts as my lungs struggled against the thick atmosphere.
Behind me, the spider creature was gaining on me.
Of course it was.
Multiple legs beat two legs every time.
Then
A bright blue screen suddenly appeared right in front of my face.
[Welcome to the Chaos Gacha, Mousa Jama.]
"What?"
I nearly tripped as the floating screen blocked half my vision.
[You have been chosen to wield this—]
"Skip."
The screen flickered.
[Hey, what are you doing?]
"Skip."
[Sto—]
"Skip again."
"Would you stop this?!" I yelled while running.
"I can't see anything in front of me because of this screen!"
The spider caught up.
Before I could react, one of its legs grabbed my ankle.
"No- no, no, no!"
The creature crawled up my leg, its sharp limbs digging into my clothes as it climbed toward my stomach.
I tried kicking it off, but it held on tight.
Then suddenly
The ground cracked.
A jagged fissure split the platform open beneath us.
Concrete shattered as the floor gave way.
Before I could react, both the spider creature and I were swallowed by the opening.
The other monsters were left behind, their hunt cut short.
For a moment, everything went silent.
The fall felt strange.
Weightless.
Like gravity had taken a break.
Then
CRASH.
We slammed into solid ground.
Dust exploded into the air around us.
Groaning, I pushed myself up onto my elbows.
"I don't know where I am now…"
The place looked like some kind of abandoned warehouse.
Broken crates were scattered across the floor. Rusted metal beams held up a ceiling covered in holes where thin shafts of light slipped through.
The air smelled dusty and musty.
Slowly, I looked around.
"Where's the spider?"
I shifted slightly
And froze.
Under my body was the creature.
Completely crushed.
"Oh."
I had squashed it with my body weight.
"Well… that works too."
Just to be sure, I picked up a steel bar that I had found lying in the corner and lightly tapped the spider creature.
It didn't move.
"Yeah… I think it's dead."
Then its body started shining with a strange, colorful glow. The corpse slowly began breaking apart, dissolving into tiny particles of light.
I watched it for a few minutes.
After about five minutes, the last of the glowing particles vanished completely.
Once I was sure it was gone, I finally relaxed my body.
Thump.
My legs gave out beneath me.
"I can't stand anymore…"
My body felt incredibly heavy. I had completely exhausted myself.
It had been a while since I had run that much. The last time was during a soccer game the final ten minutes when I scored a goal.
Good times.
Anyway…
I took a deep breath, but the dusty air immediately made me cough.
"Cough… cough…"
After a final cough, I finally focused on the thing floating in front of me.
A blue status screen.
And on it was written some text.
[Welcome to the Chaos Gacha]
[You been chosen to be transported in this new world ]
[You have been given [ 3 ] Gold Random Ticket!]
[We wish you a great Time]
Three golden tickets appeared in my hand.
"Wait."
The blue status screen disappeared.
A new one appeared in front of me, this time without any voice attached to it. It simply floated there silently.
My name was written at the top.
[Mousa Jama]
3× Golden Random Tickets
Ability: 0
Trait: 0
Familiars: 0
Skills: 0
Curses: 0
"Helloooooo?"
No response.
"This sucks."
"Dammit, man…"
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I reminded myself of the situation I was in.
Okay. Let's think about this.
I don't know where this place is. I was taken away from my home and dropped into whatever the hell this place is. And some random higher being just casually kidnapped me and handed me these weird tickets like it's some kind of game.
It was hard not to get pissed about it.
But getting angry wouldn't help me survive.
So instead, I grabbed one of the golden tickets. There was a dotted line across the middle.
I tore it in half.
Riiiip.
The two halves dissolved into glowing particles.
Rolling…
[Intermediate Medicine]
|Uncommon Skill|
You are as skilled as a doctor, possessing a variety of medical knowledge and skills in treating injuries, illnesses and problems as well as familiarity with the body and medicine as well as its applications.
Ugh.
A sudden flood of mixed knowledge rushed into my head. Information about medicine way more than I should realistically know poured into my mind all at once. The kind of knowledge that would normally take six or seven years of studying in medical school to learn.
It felt horrible.
Like someone had opened my skull, scooped my brain out, and shoved it back in after injecting it with a syringe full of medical textbooks. Anatomy, treatments, symptoms, emergency care everything blended together in a chaotic rush.
And the weirdest part was that it wasn't focused on just one specialization. It was like getting the general knowledge of multiple doctors at once.
When the flood of information finally stopped, I held my head for a moment, trying to steady myself.
Then the realization hit me.
I finally understood what this place was.
And more importantly what would happen if I stayed here too long.
Ether corruption.
That's what happens to people who remain inside these zones for too long. The environment slowly eats away at them, twisting their bodies and minds until they become something else entirely.
Something like those creatures chasing me earlier.
they can also spam from itself
The Ethereals.
Yeah.
I definitely didn't want to become one of those.
i dont even know what my ether Aptidude is
okay its time for the next one
Riiip
Rolling
[Cuddle Emperor]
|Rare Trait|
Your existence is one that "Cuddles Greatly." Your hugs and snuggles are incredible, being able to comfort even broken souls. Being cuddled by your cuddles feel like being wrapped by the softest, warmest blanket, and they are even therapeutic, helping stabilise the mental state and comfort whoever you are targeting.
"That's interesting… I got hugging powers."
I could literally become a therapist.
"Wait… can I hug myself?"
I looked down at my hands for a moment, wondering if that would even work.
Then I tried it.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
And damn it actually worked.
A warm feeling spread through my chest almost instantly. It felt comforting, like one of those peaceful childhood moments being tucked into bed by your grandma while holding a mug of hot chocolate.
It was calming.
Really calming.
The tension in my body slowly faded, and my thoughts became clearer. It felt like my mind was stabilizing itself, piece by piece.
These abilities were seriously something else.
"This might actually be the best power I got."
And with the new medical knowledge in my head knows how to treat the body, but now I could probably handle the mental side of things too.
"Okay, maybe not full therapist level."
But still. Not bad.
Another One
Rip
Rolling
[Invisible Air]
|Elite Item|
Fate Artoria - Barrier of the wind king is a barrier made of several layers of extremely compressed air that the user can control at will
"No way… for real? A Fate Saber weapon?"
"This is fucking cool."
I mean, it doesn't excuse everything that just happened, but still…
I looked at the new item.
At first, nothing happened.
Then suddenly, a massive windstorm appeared around me. The pressure of the swirling air was so strong it almost lifted me off the ground.
The wind slowly began shrinking and condensing.
It wrapped itself around the steel pipe I had picked up earlier, compressing tighter and tighter until the shape changed.
When the storm finally settled, the pipe had transformed.
It looked like a sword made of invisible air. If you focused hard enough, you could barely see the outline of the blade through the distortion in the air.
I picked it up carefully.
To test it, I swung it at the wooden crate where I had found the steel pipe.
The blade sliced through the box cleanly, like it wasn't even there.
"Bro… do you know how cool it is to have something like this from fiction?"
As soon as I lowered the weapon, the wind barrier loosened and separated from the pipe, returning to where it had come from.
Then another notification appeared from the Gacha system.
For defeating your first Blastcrawler 1 random silver ticket
and for running away from the ethereals 1 random silver ticket
Another One
Rip
Rolling
[Hagmaxxing]
|Uncommon Trait|
Your preferred partners at least twice your age are more attracted towards you, and it is easier to earn their favor. In addition, your romantic partners and your looks never age beyond their peak. Does not stop physical aging.
"Ayo… no comment."
I mean… good for me, I guess.
Milfs are nice and all, but that's something to think about after I get out of this Hollow alive.
And the last one for now
Rip
Rolling
[Flexible]
|Common Trait|
You are inordinately flexible, even more so than an expert contortionist.
immediately testing out i could stretch my back really along the way
I tested it immediately by doing a few stretches.
To my surprise, there were no issues at all. My body bent and moved far more easily than before, almost like my joints had become naturally loose.
And the best part?
No cramps.
Normally I would have already felt something pulling in my legs or back, but nothing happened. My body felt light and flexible, like stretching had suddenly become effortless.
"These definitely need further testing," I muttered to myself.
But I didn't have the time for that right now.
I think I've sat around long enough.
"Alright…"
I pushed myself to my feet and grabbed my new best friend a steel pipe I had found lying nearby.
With Invisible Air equipped around it, the pipe looked different now. The compressed wind wrapped around the metal, extending outward and forming something that resembled a translucent blade.
Honestly?
It looked pretty cool.
I tightened my grip on the pipe and took a deep breath.
"Okay, Mo," I muttered quietly.
"Time to get the hell out of this place."
I walked toward the large warehouse door, stepping carefully across the dusty floor.
Ready to leave this hellhole behind.
End of Prologue.