Vogue climbed down from his loft bed—the only way to fit everything into his tiny 350-square-foot studio apartnt.
He yawned and stretched as he walked to the only window.
He cranked open the old window and breathed in the dirty air of Washington Heights.
The sounds of car horns, curses in English and Spanish, and people arguing over parking spots floated up from Amsterdam Avenue below. He sighed quietly, rubbing his eyes. He’d had that dream again—the one where everyone turned into glowing monsters. The third ti this week. Staring at the peeling paint and water-stained ceiling of his tiny apartnt, he almost couldn’t believe it had just been a dream.
His stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. Money was tight this month—his last comic job had fallen through, and his webcomic wasn’t making enough money to even cover his subway card. He grabbed his phone from the charger dangling near his mattress, pulled on yesterday’s jeans and his faded "Keep Out of Direct Sunlight" hoodie, then left his apartnt.
The stairwell slled like it always did: cooking grease, old cigarette smoke, and sothing flowery from Mrs. Chen’s apartnt on the third floor. The steps creaked under his worn sneakers as he went down from the fourth floor, passing the broken elevator with its handwritten "SORRY OUT OF ORDER" sign that had been there since he’d moved in eight months ago.
As a 22-year-old reader with the userna Omni-Dragon, Vogue always had his audiobooks playing. He’d learned to listen while walking during his broke college days—why waste ti when you could escape to another world? He pushed through the heavy front door, squinting in the afternoon sun as he stepped onto West 162nd Street.
He opened the WebNovel app and clicked on his current favorite: 「I Comprehend 10,000 Tis Faster」, then turned on the audio. The robot narrator’s voice filled his cheap earbuds as he walked down the cracked sidewalk.
"Chapter 1: Dravin realized the academy was on an asteroid, floating in space and orbiting around earth! "What world is th—"
Vogue barely paid attention to his surroundings and moved towards his target.
Right on Amsterdam, past the bodega where the owner always sat outside, past the small park where old Dominican n played dominoes. His target was a block and a half away: Fine Fare supermarket, the only place where he could make twenty-seven dollars last a week.
The afternoon crowd was normal for a Thursday, 2:45 PM according to his phone.
Parents were already picking up their kids from school, old people with shopping carts, a few other young people who’d also learned to shop cheap. He passed a mother struggling with a stroller, a teenager on a skateboard weaving through people.
Fine Fare’s automatic doors opened, and cold air hit him. Vogue grabbed a small shopping basket not the carts that were for people who could actually afford real groceries.
Then he headed to the aisles he usually goes to.
"—Draziels eyes glowed as he imdiately comprehended the Origin battle technique and even form his. [Ding! 1x lottery for fully comprehending a technique]
Draziel’s eyes widened at the sy—"
Vogue headed to aisle 2 first for the canned food and pasta. He grabbed two cans of store-brand tuna ($1.99 each), counting in his head.
A five-pound bag of white rice ($4.50). The twelve-pack of instant ran was on sale which is $4.49 instead of $4.99.
"Nice!" He added it to his basket.
A woman in a Fine Fare vest was restocking shelves nearby. Her eyes were dull as hee hands moved as though she had done it a thousand tis over.
An old man with a cane shuffled past him, adjusting his thick glasses as he read through the soup can labels.
Levi locked eyes with a baby who was in the stroller. He gave a funny face, making the baby laugh as the mother picked up pampers for the kid.
"[Ding! Mythic Growth-type Saber has been pulled] Draziel could hardly believe it. It was an actual growth—"
Vogue then proceeded to aisle 4 where the snacks and basics stuffs were as he grabbed a Peanut butter ($3.49).
It was the cheap ones that tasted more like burnt and sweetened cardboard. But protein was protein either way.
He then took a loaf of white bread ($1.99). He was up to $18.44.
Still had room for eggs, maybe so frozen vegetables, bananas if they weren’t too rotten.
Vogue turned toward Aisle 6, the frozen foods along the back wall, when his phone’s audio suddenly stopped.
He frowned and tapped the earbud but it didn’t still play. Removing his phone from his pocket, he saw that his phone totally dead and the screen refused to co to life.
"Didn’t I just unplug this shite?" Vogue groaned and picked his Apple flip phone.
Around him, he could also hear other people complaining as they looked at their phones. A teenager a few feet away tapped his screen.
"Yo, what the hell?"
Vogue frowned and he imdiately knew sothing was wrong. He imdiately went to the cashier and was about to quickly pay to leave the place when sothing happened.
Pressure.
It was as though gravity had increased by more than 50 tis and then descended in his head like a teor!
His ears rang and popped as his vision imdiately went blurry.
’What the fuck is this headache.?’
The pressure suddenly worsened and Levi felt sothing invade his mind as though he was about to be possessed.
It was likel an invisible hand reaching into his skull and squeezing his brain, testing it, asuring it.
[Integration Protocol Initiated]
The words didn’t co from anywhere. They appeared within his line of sight like a mobile ga hud!
[Omnibus System Integrating...]
Vogue felt a piecing pain stabbed through his soul like millions of needles. His body trembled and his knees buckled. The basket he was holding instantly fell to the floor with a thud.
Around him, other people were dropping too—an older woman in produce fell against the apple display, a store employee dropped to his knees, a mother’s eyes rolled back as her toddler scread.
[50%... 60%... 70%...]
The pressure felt like it would crush him from the inside. Vogue gasped, stumbling backward into a shelf of potato chips.
Bags fell around him in the super market. His vision narrowed an he felt tired, giving up would stop the pain and he knew it but deep within his heart, Vogue knew the worse thing he could do at this mont was give up.
Vogue gritted his teeth and held on.
[Omnibus Successfully Integrated]
[Subject 723,429,381 has been registered in the Primordial Record]
[Osympic Trial: Battle Royale of 10,000 people from various worlds. Be the last man standing!]
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