A day had passed since he hung out with his old friends. It was 5 AM, but Atsuku didn’t even sleep a wink as he was looking at his computer’s monitor while drinking a can of sports drink through a straw.

His hands danced on his keyboards, flying here and there across from it as his droopy eyes moved fast as if he was fighting a monster at a fast speed.

It was indeed a monster. A strong and scary monster named deadline. He had fought it since last night, right after Yamada and Rio returned to their home.

“A little more.”

Atsuku muttered as she leaned a bit forward. He had already slurped the sports drink dry, and now he concentrated on writing the last part of his volume 1 to be sent to his editor.

Finally, after 10 more minutes of battling with the keyboards, he finished his last draft and immediately sent it through an email.

“Fucking finally! Ugghh, my body is so sore!”

He stretched, arching his back against his gaming chair that he brought to make sitting comfortably. A rather expensive investment, but his butt didn’t get hurt after sitting for a few hours, thanks to his chair.

After stretching for a while, he returned to his monitor and opened a website where he uploaded his web novel version.

“That’s one volume of the light novel version done. The web novel version is also doing well. A lot of good reviews too, but some are bad. What is this person? He doesn’t like this version because the MC suffered a lot. That’s the reality for you, shit head.”

Those toxic comments didn’t even make him angry. Why? Because the one that he wrote was his personal experience. He could only snicker at the foolishness of the comment that said it wasn’t realistic at all.

He kept scrolling, enjoying those foolish people’s comments. Then, he saw a comment in a paragraph where he met someone important to him for the first time in Fantasia. Someone that he wanted to protect for the first time in his life.

It should be a normal comment, but somehow, Atsuku couldn’t move his hand and read the comment out loud.

“They will return soon, John. The countdown is ticking.”

The phrase was written the same as what he heard from the mysterious girl yesterday. It also mentioned a countdown, which should be impossible.

“I haven’t written that part yet. Did this person read my Miracle Hero’s Adventure too?”

He kept optimistic. For one reason, he was scared. Scared of the possibility that those things from Fantasia followed him to Earth.

By no means was he a coward. He just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

“Let’s just forget it. It’s a coincidence.”

Coincidence happened twice. He wouldn’t hear the same sentence anymore, he believed.

“For now, a light breakfast with coffee, and then I need to go to school. I miss that potion cigarette, dammit!”

Clicking his tongue, he rose from his chair and went to the bathroom, preparing himself to go to school.

***

The school was boring, at least that was what Atsuku thought. He quickly picked up everything from the book, thanks to his experience in Fantasia, so the class became useless and boring for him. But he needed to attend it to keep his image as a high school novel author.

After school, he was expecting Yamada to invite him to hang out again, but suddenly he got a message from his editor.

‘Do you have time to talk about your new novel at Terrace Café in Shibuya at 5 PM?’

Atsuku looked at the clock and narrowed his eyes slightly before telling Yamada that he couldn’t hang out with them due to a meeting. His editor wasn’t so friendly and would always make a sudden schedule like this.

It was already 4 PM, so he needed to take the train as soon as possible to get to Shibuya on time. Fortunately, Yamada also knew about his editor, so he just laughed it off and said he would handle Rio alone today.

The train ride from Minato to Shibuya lasted a few minutes. Atsuku left the station and went to the Terrace Café, finding his editor sitting near the table outside the café with two coffees on the table.

His editor was a middle-aged man with a neat appearance, wearing glasses and a normal business suit. He looked more like a businessman instead of an editor. But that was due to his upright behavior. Normally, an editor only needed to wear casual but neat clothes in the meeting; that was enough.

Atsuku casually sat on the chair across from him and smiled like a naïve young boy. He had already remembered almost all his important relationships on Earth, thanks to the picture and notes that he kept on his computer.

“Mr. Manabu. It’s nice to see you again.” He greeted his editor, Manabu Akio, with a soothing voice.

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you again, Mr. Atsuku. I never expected that your Miracle Hero’s Adventure would be so successful that you made the IF story of it. Congratulations!”

“Thank you. Also, Mr. Manabu. Can we talk about the main topic immediately? Unfortunately, I have some homework from school. I am truly sorry about rushing the meeting like this.”

“No problem. It’s understandable. That’s why I also ask you for the meeting to be held after school. Well, enough of that. It’s about your new draft.”

Mr. Manabu took out a brown envelope from his bag. It was thick, filled with stacks of paper. He took the paper out and laid it on the table.

“To be honest… This is too dark, Mr. Atsuku. This John character, I suppose this is your self insert?” He asked seriously.

“You can say that. Also, I don’t think that’s too dark, Mr. Manabu. The real dark part has yet to be written.” Atsuku answered with a meaningful smile. “It’s just volume 1.”

“That’s… Haa…” Mr. Manabu let out a long sigh. “To be honest, this is a good story. No, a masterpiece if I say so myself. That’s if you release this one before the Miracle Hero’s Adventure.”

Yes, that was the drawback that Atsuku expected as well. Miracle Hero’s Adventure wasn’t too dark compared to his new story. It was about the Main Character’s growth in saving the world from breaking apart.

The dark part was only at the end. People even cried when they realized that hard work alone wasn’t enough to save the world. Or so that was what the fans' letter he received until this day told him.

“I can’t help it. I only got this idea after I finished Miracle Hero’s Adventure. I guess you can call it my growth as an author?”

“I guess so. Well, that’s that. The thing that I want to talk about is different. We will publish this as volume 1 with a light edit from our part in two months. I hope you can work hard to continue the web novel version, but please make it a little bit different from your light novel version.”

The deal somehow went through easily. Atsuku could smell money coming from him once volume 1 was released.

“I understand. Thank you very much.”

Both people shook hands. They continued their talk for a while, mainly about the direction that Atsuku wanted to take with the new novel. Mr. Manabu also said he liked the title Atsuku chose for his new novel.

‘The Depraved Hero.’ The opposite of the Miracle Hero, the previous protagonist of the story.

Atsuku only went home after the sky had gone completely dark. He took a train back to Minato Ward and walked down the empty road of the residence area. His house was around 5 minutes away from the train station, so he wasn’t expecting something to happen on his way back home.

Yes, he didn’t expect it. Earth was peaceful. Maybe if he walked in the wrong area of Shibuya or Shinjuku, then he would meet Yakuza or thugs. But this road was safe; he had walked down this road a few times already.

So he didn’t expect someone, a girl, to stop him. The girl had long white hair. She stood under the streetlamp with folded arms. Her expression was serious, and her face was clear to Atsuku, which made him frown in displeasure.

‘Fuck.’

Atsuku cursed inside his mind, not because he recognized the girl. On the contrary, he didn’t know the girl at all. It was the worst situation, not knowing anything about the girl.

Also, he cursed because he wanted the girl to be a coincidence. Now it was clear that the girl was actively trying to find him. Atsuku was sure of it and was more sure of it after hearing the girl’s next words.

“I told you that they will return soon, John. You need to prepare yourself.” She said as she gazed straight into Atsuku’s eyes. There was no room for doubt. She was clearly talking to him, not on a phone or anything.

‘Hell no.’