A boy with bright-blonde hair, and black eyes, adorning a high-school male uniform, was riding the bus on the way home from school.
Since his home was way out in the rural area of town, the trip would last for a long while.
Having nothing to do, he retrieved his phone from his pocket, and decided to do the thing he loved the most.
Reading.
A web novel platform filled the screen of his phone.
As he checked his library, he noticed that the novel he'd put on hold had just been updated once again.
[Path To Ascension.]
[Author: athex]
[CHAPTERS: 4,291]
[STATUS: COMPLETED]
'Ah, so it's finally completed?'
Path to Ascension, a novel he'd been following since the start of his high-school days.
He had caught up to it a few months ago, and decided to stockpile at least 400 chapters.
'Wait, what happened in the last chapter again?'
Due to stockpiling, he'd forgotten the details of the last chapter.
No, it wasn't just the last chapter.
Since the novel had been running for a long time, he could only vividly remember the plotline of the earlier chapters.
'Should I just reread it again? I have nothing better to do anyway.'
With average grades and near to zero social life. Besides games, web novels were his only form of entertainment.
After pondering for a while, he decided to scroll down until he reached the first chapter.
Tap-
After clicking the first chapter, something peculiar caught his attention.
'Huh?'
For some reason the first chapter was blank, as if nothing had ever been written there in the first place.
'Surely, this is only for the first chapter right?'
Tapping on his screen once again, he opted for the next chapter.
But it was blank as well.
'Is this a bug? Or did the Author decide to delete the chapters?'
He tapped the screen again and clicked the third chapter.
Once again it was blank.
He did this repeatedly until he reached the 20th chapter.
'Haa... what a shame.'
He could only let out an exasperated sigh at the bizarre situation.
'I guess I just have to continue from where I left off.'
Having decided, the boy clicked the continue button instead.
However...
It brought him back to the 20th chapter, the chapter he last opened.
'Right, it was overwritten since I opened a different chapter.'
Frustrated, the boy placed his phone back in his pocket.
But then...
The bus suddenly shook.
"What's going on?!"
"What is the driver doing?!"
Gasps and screams were audible from the other passengers, which were also students.
The boy was no exception to the fear, as his body trembled, fearing for the worse to come.
"Everyone! The driver has fallen asleep!"
A student with brown hair and a bulky frame spoke up, it seemed like he approached the driver just as the bus began to shake.
Rumble!
The bus continued to shake intensely, and since they were all highschool students, there wasn't anyone present who knew how to drive.
"Ahh! Are we going to die?!"
"Someone, wake up the driver!"
The student with the bulky frame did just that, as he slapped the driver continuously.
But it was futile...
The student suddenly spoke up in an urgent tone,
"He's passed out, his complexions are pale, most likely from anemia..."
"What are we going to do?!" A female student said, as she stood up.
Noticing the fear in her tone, the boy with the bulky frame responded,
"There's only one thing we can do, jump off the bus."
"But at the speed we're going, we'll most likely die!" The female student responded.
"I'll step on the break to get the bus to stop, we'll all jump after that, okay?"
The students seemed reluctant at first, but they all stood up after a while, forming a line of crowd.
The boy with bright-blonde hair was no exception to this, as he stood up as well.
Thud!
The bulky-framed student stepped on the break as hard as he could.
Eeeeek-
The bus let out a screeching sound as the speed it was going gradually descended.
However...
Boom!
The bus crashed towards the iron fence, as half of it peaked out and bended towards the cliff.
Fortunately, the bus didn't fall off the cliff.
Bang!
The bulky-framed boy kicked the bus door rigorously.
Bang!
Again...
Bang!
And again...
Bang!
Until it finally broke open.
"Everyone, follow my lead!"
The students nodded in response.
The bulky-framed boy grabbed the driver and jumped out first, since he was the one nearest to the exit.
He was then followed by a female student, and then another student, until almost half had finally gotten out.
The blonde-haired boy was about to reach the exit, but he was suddenly pushed down, due to the amount of crowd that formed a line.
Thud! Step!
The students trampled over the boy without any consideration, in a matter akin to a stampede.
"Hurry! The bus is about to fall off a cliff!"
The students continued to panic, as they continued to jump off the bus.
Until only the blonde-haired boy was left.
Suddenly, he felt his phone vibrate from his pocket.
Brrt- Brrt-
But he had no time to check as he stood up in a hurry.
As he was about to finally arrive near the exit, his fears were soon realized.
Eeeek-
Due to being the only student left, the bus didn't have enough weight, causing it to fall.
"Haha, what the fuck?"
The boy could only laugh at his predicament as he tumbled down due to the sheer impact.
With so many students on the bus, he was the only one who fell and got trampled on.
"I guess this is it, how unlucky."
He truly was unlucky.
With his life seemingly about to end, he retrieved his phone to send out a final message to his mother, his only guardian.
But when he opened the screen, the first app that opened was the web novel platform.
Or to be precise–the Path of Ascension novel.
"What is this?!"
[Pa%# t0 A3%$^&*on]
For some reason, it seemed like his phone was glitching out.
As he shifted his gaze, from his phone to the front of the bus, he could see that the bus was about to hit the ground.
3...
2...
1...
BOOM!
—---------------------------
[Name: Brandon Locke]
[Level: 1]
[EXP: 0/100]
[Class: Anomaly]
∟ You are an entity that does not belong to this world, an anomaly.
[Passive]
∟ Skill Weaver:
∟ Create any skill possible within the user's capabilities.
∟ Increase your total capacity by +1 per level.
∟ Total Skills: 0/1
[Skills]
∟ None
[Stats]
∟ STR: F [●○○○○]
∟ MP: F [●○○○○]
∟ DEF: F [●○○○○]
∟ AGI: F [●○○○○]
∟ INT: F [●○○○○]
∟ CHARM: F [●○○○○]
[System Shop]
[System Inventory]
[System Coins: 0]
[Quests Available: 0]
—---------------------------