In a small apartment bedroom, sunlight shines in from the opened window, letting in some of the soft but hot breeze into the tidy but rather empty space that only has one single bed, PC, PC desk and a gaming chair

Noe sat in front of the PC, furiously typing his work into the system, ignoring the pain coursing through his body, and trembling from it. Despite the trance working his brain, Noe worked his mind furiously, forcing the gear in his head to move and ignore everything else except for the work in front of him.

Not because he needed the job nor because of the money but because he knew after finishing this work, he would have to eat something and eating is not his favorite.

Because he can’t taste nor smell anything. Nothing at all.

He has no sense of taste or smell, probably from birth or because of some ailments. Who knows. All he knew was that from the time he remembered, all he could taste was coarse sand and paper. Even soup taste the same like water.

So, he doesn’t want to eat except for when he couldn’t help it. But his body now told him that he’s at the end of his rope. If he forces himself more than this, he would fall into a coma and die. Or just drop dead instantly before he could even faint into a coma.

“Not that I would care.” He muttered to himself, which was taking more energy than just being silent, he mused silently this time.

Noe really didn’t have any attachment in this world where everything just seems gray to him. He didn’t have a friend or even pets. The only thing that’s holding him is this damn code!

Fury over who knows what, boils him to fuel his energy and mind to the fullest and let him forget the pain from every part of his limbs faded away from his mind. All his focus was on his PC screen.

After what felt like an eternity, the moment he tapped ‘Enter’, all of his strength left his body. Noe collapsed back into his seat and looked at the outside of his window distractedly. Now that his attention was not focused solely on one thing, the pain in his body came back to remind him of his neglect. Everything hurts.

Noe couldn’t help but coughed out a laugh but even that took energy.

The reflections from the window in front of him showed how he looked like now. Pale, emaciated with no flesh but bones. His big eyes looked too big with his shrunken cheeks. If he had some flesh on his face, even the most popular actress would have to fight him for her seat as the most beautiful actress.

That’s right. His face is too pretty and beautiful for a man and if it wasn’t for the Adam apple, people would really mistake his gender. But starvation did nothing but made him look creepy as fuck and made him an outlier in society. Which just suits him just fine as he could work from home.

The rambling trance in his mind slowly began to fade away and Noe closed his eyes.

Will he finally be free from this world? He thought silently as his consciousness fades away.

Darkness and silence engulfed him. No longer did he hear the birds chirping noisily beside his window nor the sound of the hustle and bustle outside his house.

Noe:…

Something's not right, Noe thought. The sound of the people under his apartment, the neighbour’s barking dog a minute ago and the sound of life were gone. Replaced with a muted atmosphere sound that didn’t seem like he was in his apartment but in--!

Noe quickly opened his eyes but what greeted him was not his familiar bedroom but the sight of being under the sea!

Bubbles covered his eyes as Noe gasped, almost choking but as he flailed his limbs, he noticed something different. Noe calmed down his actions and closed his mouth tightly, he began assessing his condition and quickly realize that from the start of waking up, there was no feeling of drowning. Instead, it was the same as when he breathes the air.

Noe tries breathing in the water as a fluke and sure enough. He didn’t choke on water. A bad feeling came over him as he suspect something that was out of the boundary of science. And something did happen to prove his thoughts.

A shining colour of dark blue to almost black tail, glittering when the light hits like the stars painting the night, caught his eyes and he found that the tail was attached to his waist.

His. Waist.

Noe, slaps his forehead and laid dead on the sandy ground: Although I wanted to live the life of a salted fish, I didn’t mean to directly become a fish. Dead fish eyes.jpg.

The tail, however it might seem to be a part of his body, seems to feel Noe’s disgust and smacked the sand underneath it, making clear of it’s grievances and disatisfaction towards Noe.

And the master of the tail saw all of this… weird response, from peeking out between his fingers.

Noe laid back down with his hands resting on his waist: Great. This tail is not mine. It’s possessed.

What a great way to start this... non-scientific life.