"Akir," the physics professor addressed me, and multiple heads turned towards me.

The professor looked to be about 50 years old, had brown hair with a couple gray strands mixed in, and his dark eye bags told me that he regretted having children.

"Yes?" I feigned curiosity.

"You looked like you weren't paying attention," the professor said disingenuously.

"You are mistaken. I was paying attention, even though it might not have seemed like I was." I acted innocent as I quickly looked over the chalkboard.

The subject seemed to be the gray zone between solids and liquids.

"Well then, would you care to explain what the gray zone is?"

'So all he wants me to do is answer a couple of questions, and then we'll move on.' I thought and breathed a sigh of relief.

"The gray zone is the zone that liquids and solids have to cross to transition." My answer came immediately.

"And what does the gray zone include?"

"It includes intermolecular forces acting on the molecules and atoms that make the change in state from cold to hot and vice versa."

"Hmm, correct. Now pay attention. You have an exam coming up," the professor said, seeming a little unsatisfied.

I tiredly looked at the middle-aged man for a while and then finally responded monotonously, "Yes, sir."

I looked around the class and noticed that all the people around me were staring at the professor with eyes that were barely open.

After letting out a sigh, I, too, started paying attention to the professor.

Studying was something I could never like, but I still did it every day.

Why? Why are people fine with constantly doing things they don't like? Maybe they think displeasure is an essential part of life and have convinced themselves that life is worth living because pleasure outweighs displeasure.

I couldn't accept those kinds of thoughts. I had never truly experienced pleasure, so I had to hurry and make the most of my life before it was too late, and all of my efforts would go to waste.

***

After school, I was walking home, when a man ran up to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, are you good? I've never seen you slack off before."

The man's name was Grant.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had something on my mind," I said, quickly getting rid of the annoyance in my expression that the man had caused.

Grant tilted his head and asked in a friendly manner, "Wanna share?"

"No," I said straightforwardly, trying to avoid a conversation.

"Oh, do you have a crush or something? Who is it?" Grant asked with unprecedented enthusiasm.

'What's wrong with this guy?' I thought, resisting the urge to push him off of me.

"I don't, and even if I did, nothing would come out of it since all the girls in our school think that I'm just an average-looking, dispassionate douchebag."

"You're not even that mean, and you're smart enough to not have to be extremely attractive."

'What an idiot,' I thought exasperatedly.

"I'm pretty sure you're the only one who thinks like that."

"I promise I'm not, but anyway, I gotta go now. See ya," Grant said, and hurried in another direction.

I turned my gaze forward and continued on my way without saying anything back. I didn't know why he acted like we were best friends when we barely knew each other. Maybe he just thought that he could seem smart by hanging with me.

I simply went along with his behavior since his family was rich, and I could benefit from a connection with him. He was also a part of the student counsel that I was also in, so it would have been impossible for me to avoid having anything to do with him if I wanted to keep my spot on the student counsel.

***

When I opened the door, nothing greeted me. The apartment had three rooms, the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. There was no special smell or sound in the apartment. I took my shoes off and headed into the bedroom, after which, I placed my backpack on the floor and walked into the kitchen.
I followed my routine of cooking, eating, studying, exercising, cooking again, eating again, studying again, and going to sleep.

However, today I couldn't fall asleep. I tried relaxing my muscles, and focusing on my breathing, but nothing helped. This was just another reminder that I couldn't control these types of things. Even with all the techniques I used, sometimes I couldn't fall asleep. Just like how I could train myself in everything and perfect almost all aspects of myself, but couldn't be happy. What was the point of living like this? I seemed to be unable to enjoy life, so what was the point of sticking around? Why not just die?

***

I twisted my body violently and hit the punching bag in front of me with a sharp right cross. It was a simple motion, but one I had yet to be able to perfect, even after years of rigorous training.

The punching bag swung back towards me, so I rotated counterclockwise to the right and kicked the bag with the heel of my left foot.

Once the bag started coming back again, I hit it with my right elbow, and immediately followed it up by taking a hold of the bag and kicking it with my left knee.

I then hit the bag with my left elbow, which led to a series of attacks that utilized almost all of my body parts.

For some people, combat sports were a way to release pent-up anger, but for me, it just made me angrier.

Even with all the improvements I made, there was always room for more. Nothing was ever perfect, no matter how hard I trained, but I couldn't stop trying to make it perfect.

I remembered the time when I couldn't throw a proper punch and was helpless in the face of violence, but now I wasn't helpless anymore.

Shouldn't that have been satisfactory?

My wrists started to hurt from the repeated punching, but I was too angry to stop. But as I continued, the punches only got weaker and slower. No matter how mad I was, it didn't help. Emotions always make everything worse.

Since my wrist pain was getting to the point where I thought they could be seriously injured, I stopped punching the bag, and threw my gloves to the side. I usually stretched before going home, but this time I didn't care enough to follow my usual routine.

For the first time ever, after my workout, I simply went to the locker room to get my stuff and left.

***

In the morning, I washed my face, styled my black hair into a messy middle part, and stared at my lifeless, gray eyes for a while before making some coffee and going to the terrace to drink it.

I drank my coffee on the terrace in no hurry since it was Saturday and I had nowhere to be. While drinking my coffee, I observed the sunrise with a blank expression. I didn't get it. Why did people always take the time out of their day to snap pictures of it every single time they saw it? I didn't find it beautiful at all. It was just a yellow ball rising on the horizon.

After I drank my coffee, I headed inside. But then a weird sensation washed over me, and the coffee mug fell out of my hands. I went limp for a second, and in the blink of an eye, I found myself in some kind of cave with at least a few hundred other people, who seemed to be close to my age.

My heart rate skyrocketed, my eyes went wide, and I looked around frantically. The cave looked pretty regular. It was shaped like a half sphere, and the stone was a saturated gray color.

I started observing the others to detach myself from the situation. People were screaming while searching for their phones and looking around frantically.

As I looked around, I started to notice that some people had been sleeping when they were transported here and were in their pajamas. It seemed no one was unlucky enough to have been transported naked. I considered myself lucky, as I was wearing black sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

Then, as I was observing my surroundings, my thoughts were cut off by severe head pain.

The people in the cave started screaming even louder as the pain felt like their heads were being ripped apart. Even my own voice joined the screams.

The pain lasted for about ten seconds, and when it finally faded, I heard my own voice in my head. However, they weren't my thoughts. What I heard was more like a message that took the form of my own voice.

[You have been sum—]

I couldn't hear the rest of the message over all the throwing up that was happening. Thankfully, the message played again.

[You have been summoned to the Ruins.]