RUNESCAPE – Portal
When he reached home, he slumped into the sofa. He was tired and suffered from a slight motion sickness from the long duration of boarding the bus. He rested and then stood up and went for a shower. Then he lay in his bed, slowly dazing off.
"Mister, wakeup."
Jason stirred and opened his eyes.
"It's your turn. You are No. 64 aren't you?"
"Huh?" He rubbed his eyes and sat straight.
"There are others waiting, Mister. Take this form and fill it. Yes, sit in the chair." The clerk behind the counter motioned for him to seat in front of the counter. Jason realized he was in a long corridor. He was at one end of the corridor, by the counter. The other end of the corridor, was a door. He could somehow see white light glowing beneath the door.
"Mister, sign it."
"Uh, what is this place?"
The clerk looked bored. Jason could tell that she had repeated this millions of times before.
"Did you remember calling for help to get out of your dimension?"
"Calling for help?"
The clerk turned the laptop on the table until he could view the screen. A video was played. It showed him sitting at the bus-stop, face in his palms, looking far away, day-dreaming.
"Yes, so I did. What has that got to do with this?" He swept his hand through the room.
"Well, we are the gods. Or at least I'm working for the god. Come, fill in the form." She glanced at the black Rolex on her wrist. "Be quick. There are others waiting. And I want my lunch break."
Jason nodded and held the BIC pen in his hand. The clerk snatched the form and pen away. " I think I better fill in for you. It would be faster."
Another nod from him.
" Okay. Name?"
" Jason Teo."
"Not that. In the world you are going to be transferred to, you are going to have a new name. New world, new name. Makes sense right?"
Jason tapped his fingers on the table top as he wrecked his mind for a creative name. The clerk picked a folder and slammed it in front of him. " You can refer to the name list."
He flipped through, mumbling, " Fdude, Csy92idiot, zezima, mininggod … "
He shut his eyes for a while. Too many names to take in. "Anaesthia."
"What?"
"My name's gonna be Anaesthia."
"Suits you. Spell." He spelled it for her, making sure it was correct.
"Age and sex?"
"14. Male"
"You still wanna be male in the new world?"
"Sure. Why not?"
"Cause many other dudes that came here were gays. They gonna be females in the new world."
"Continue, please."
"Choose your design."
"Huh?"
"Clothes design, haircut, stuff. You cant go in there bald-headed and naked."
She showed him a poster. He selected dark long hair that ran down to his shoulders, and a black cloak with long cuffs, with a white zigzag design from the collar. He chose black long baggy pants and, obviously, no moustache.
"Done." He nodded.
"Great." She took the form and fed it to the machine beside her, on the counter. "You've got 10 secs to run to the other end of the corridor. Open the door with this key." She handed him a silver key. "Now get going. Ready. Go." She pushed a button on the machine.
He sped down the corridor. "If you don't make it in 10 secs, you gotta re-queue!"
Anaesthia reached the door and stuck the silver key in the keyhole. He turned the key clockwise twice and the door swung open. The white light was blinding and he was swirled into it. An extremely strong gravity vortex sucked him through an enormous, long, white passageway. It was so fast, that he did not seem to move at all. Vines of pulsating white light stripped and burnt away his clothing and whatever he had brought with him from the old world. Soon, he was left with only his naked body. He passed along another bend and another wave of vines tore away at his hair. Then they fitted him in the clothes he had selected and long hair grew from his scalp.
When that was done, he accelerated and flew forward at a frightening speed. He came to the end of the passageway, hovering in mid-air. He looked around him. There was a door in which he had flew out from. Amazingly, he was at a very great height ( perhaps a few miles ) off the surface of the earth. He could see fields and house below. And maybe people? Then the door behind him vanished and he fell towards earth. He screamed and slipped into unconsciousness as he began his long descent.
"Anaesthia?"
He was lying on a mattress, made from gel-blob. The mattress was huge, its length and width stretched out into miles.
"What's this?"
"To cushion your fall. When the gods created this world, the door opened on the earth. Then the planet spun away slowly from its orbit around the sun. A few thousands year later, it had moved out a few kilometers. Yet, you should know that the god has willed the portal to stay there forever. And so, whoever comes out from there, will have to fall that few kilometers. Not many survive the fall, though. So we had to cushion the impact. You are one of the lucky ones."
"What do I do now?"
"Follow me. We have to get out of this place."
Anaesthia glanced at the man. He was lean and tall, around 35 years of age. The man was wearing a rusty iron chainmail and wielding an iron dagger. He wore leather boots that stink of moist, old age and mud.
"Quicken your pace, young man. We have little time." The soldier pulled a bronze medium helm over his unkempt hair and led the way. They walked for quite some time, for the gel-blob stretched out for miles. It was obvious that whoever constructed the blob was lazy to calculate where exactly the unfortunate guy coming out of the door would fall on.
"What do you do? I mean, what's your job?" Anaesthia asked.
"I escort young men and women like you entering our world."
"What's this world called then."
"Runescape. It's a much younger world than yours. The gods got bored with your world then went on to create another. I reckon this world is better. Comeon, if not, there weren't be so many people falling from the skies so often."
"Who do you work for?"
"The Academy. You gotta go there to study about the world of Runescape. You can't just step into this world and start life. I assure you that you will perish out there. You gotta know that this world is medieval. Monsters that can destroy you with one swipe. Fire-breathing dragons. Ancient brothers that wear armor with unique abilities. You will learn more about them in time. You take test, then another test, then another test. Then finally, you are sorted out. Who goes where. Stupid dudes will become farmers. Sharp-eye dudes become professional archers. Strong dudes become soldiers. Divine dudes go on to become druids. By the way, I better warn your about the professors. They are bias. I've heard of guys who were sent to become farmers just because they pissed off one of the professor. Those farmers got angry and became Zamorak followers."
"Who's Zamorak?"
"Shut up and move on. We are there."
At the edge of the gel-blob, was a flight of stairs leading to the entrance of a massive building built from white marble.
"Behold, the Academy." The guy boomed. "Let's get in. Someone's waiting for you."
Anaesthia realized, all of a sudden, that he had not learnt the guy's name yet.