章 8: Chapter 8: This is my luck?
Eren was surprised to see that his phone was still getting a signal. It should've been impossible as it was a completely different world.
He could even see a few missed call notifications, mainly from his colleagues at the University.
[Warning: Please confirm an option or a penalty will be applied]
"What penalty? Are you going to give me two coffins instead of one?" Eren rolled his eyes in frustration.
Despite that, he still made a choice. He didn't want to create unnecessary problems for himself.
"Option two... I'll go with the flow. Not as if there was any other choice."
[Congratulations. Your luck has increased by one]
"Increased by one? What is it at now? Minus 68?" Eren sarcastically asked. If he really had luck, he wouldn't be stuck in this world.
If he had good luck, he would've fallen asleep early last night, instead of reading a suspicious novel.
He opened the dialer that showed multiple missed calls. Some were from the administration as well.
Today, he was supposed to be at the class, giving a lecture. But here he was, deciding if he wanted a black coffin or a white!
He didn't believe that he could actually call back to earth. Which service provider even covered other worlds? Still, just for the sake of it, he called back.
"Huh? It's ringing?"
Eren was taken aback as he heard the faint sound of ringing on the other end of the line. He couldn't believe his ears.
With a mix of excitement and skepticism, Eren waited anxiously for someone to pick up the call.
After what felt like an eternity, a voice finally came through the receiver.
A woman's voice chimed in. "Where were you? Everyone has been worried about you. It's not like you to miss a class."
Everyone knew that Eren had a perfect attendance record. This was the first time he had missed a class.
The woman was his colleague, Professor Eva. But before being a colleague, she was his friend.
Hearing her words, Eren was convinced that the call actually worked. Moreover, there was no time difference between this world and earth. But the problem still remained.
He could contact earth, but how could he go back?
"If I'm able to contact you, there must be a way for me to get back as well."
"Get back? Are you out of town?" Eva asked, hearing Eren's mumbling.
"If only," Eren muttered. He wanted to tell her everything, but he knew that she wasn't going to believe him.
Let alone her, even if he was in her place, he wouldn't have believed this absurd story.
In the end, Eren chose to withhold any mention of this alternate world from her.
After engaging in conversation for some time, he reluctantly ended the call.
He then dialed the administrative block, requesting leave and providing them with a plausible excuse.
Although the staff at the administration block was not happy that he was informing them so late, they didn't complain. After all, Eren was the shining star of their University.
Eren didn't know how long he was going to be in this world. It might even be for an eternity, but he still only asked for only a week of leave.
If he couldn't return after that time, then it was better to resign.
After getting a leave, he disconnected the call. He sent a message to all his friends that he was going out of state so they didn't worry about him.
"I never knew I was going to miss that ordinary life so much." He sat down, looking at the time on the phone screen.
It was already afternoon. He had only been here for a few hours, yet it felt like he was here for an eternity.
"I really should have put the phone on charge before sleeping."
"I don't even have a charger here. What's the point in being able to call back when this phone is going to die soon?"
He looked at the battery percentage which had dropped by five percent.
Since the signal was working, the internet was working as well. He decided to find out more about the website that sent him to this world.
"Huh? What?"
As he opened the browser, he noticed that the website was missing. The link wasn't present in the history either.
He opened a search engine and typed the name of the website.
"Celestial Novels."
He pressed on search, and a list of results popped up. But none of the results were what he wanted.
Most of the main page was spammed with results that had nothing to do with his search.
He kept scrolling down, but no matter what, he didn't find the website he was looking for.
As it didn't work, he tried a different approach. He directly used the URL which he didn't remember perfectly either.
Unfortunately, the URL also redirected him to a shopping website. Nothing was going his way.
"Is this what you call increased luck?" he asked, looking above.
It was as if the website he wanted had just disappeared like it never existed.
"Don't tell me that you got so upset that you took my advice and deleted that novel?" he asked, his tone laced with sarcasm.
There was no response to his question.
For a long time, Eren kept searching for any clues. He even went to the social media app, scrolling through an endless cycle of short form video content, hoping to come across that ad again.
He came across many ads, but not one of them was the one he wanted.
Before he knew it, it was already night. And the phone showed him a low battery warning. There was only four percent battery left.
It was the point he would have already started searching for a charger back home. But he couldn't do that either.
To save the battery for an emergency, he could only stop the search. He turned the phone off, putting it back in his System Storage.
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