1 DMT1- The Day it all changed

"Why? Why! Why! That is the only thing coming to Raghu's mind. What has he done to deserve this? Why should he be the sacrifice? Yes, that's what he will be in the coming days; he has been marked as the candidate for reaping. The reaping happens once every five years from the common populace to select a few individuals who would participate in some sort of trial. He is still not able to process the fact that his name has been marked and picked.

Raghu was sure that his name would never come up, as he is a high-ranking military officer and has the points necessary to qualify above the threshold, ensuring he is never selected. But the results announced today changed his world upside down. The Reaping ceremony has many set rules that are followed to the letter by everyone in the world government and implemented well in the local ruling authorities. Only the ones deemed by the system as unworthy to serve the world anymore are selected to be the sacrifice and sent to that place. The credit system ensures that no one below the threshold is ever selected.

Moreover, it's not like stuff like this has never happened to him before; he has had the greatest of bad luck bestowed upon him by lady luck from the days he could remember. The whole reason for him being stuck here in this continent was unknown to him. He has contributed to the continent enough and has a huge amount of credits. By now, he should already be in the Capital serving his royal family, and here he is in the 11th block.

Yes, the infamous 11th block, known exclusively for bandits, pirates, and criminal elements left on this land, which serves as the base of all underworld organizations throughout the 11 blocks. This is the heaven for all of them. There is only one branch of the military established here. There are many brothels and slums located throughout the block; the military sometimes even recruits from these places as they need to fill their quota since reinforcements from the capital are very scarce. Raghu had been one of the few scarce cases to them. Soldiers like Raghu usually take missions posted on the mission wall to increase their chances to earn credits and go to other blocks. The missions are generally to eliminate the so-called bad elements of the society, which allows a fair amount of credit points to be earned by completing them.

Raghu has been here since 10 years ago. He is known as the phantom slouch as he is always sleeping in the office, earning this nickname in the office, but they never understood why the bosses never complained and never knew that he has the largest pool of credits in the whole office. On the streets, they know him as the "ranger of death." With the credit being over 5000, with the threshold only being 2000, he was sure that his name would never be picked, as he has 3000 credits over the limit. But the reality was something else; he had received the summoning, and he had to be present for the Reaping ceremony, or he would be hunted down by the very same government he has served for so many years. That was the absolute truth that everyone knew; no one escaped the reaping.

Still in a daze and in his own mind, he is thinking of things that could be done to ensure his survival, but from where he could see, he had no chance. The chances of survival are not even 0.01%, as nobody knows what happens to players that participate in the ceremony. All they know is that people are selected for reaping and they vanish into thin air to never appear again. No one has ever survived to tell the worlds what happens. He has already given up all hope for survival and is waiting for his doom to arrive in the next 10 days.

Zzz!!! Zzzzz!! Zzzzzzz!! He comes out of his thought process as his attention is grabbed by the message on his halo watch. He has been summoned to the military base camp. He gets up in a lazy manner annoyed by the summon, as he really doesn't want to go, wanting to remain cooped up in his bunk. There is an unusual comfort that he feels here, looking at a well-maintained room; he has done well in his life he thought, coming to this base and having a 1-room dorm for living in the base for over 10 years; he has earned himself this room. Only a handful of officers had this comfort to them.

He has a look at the room one last time and moves towards the official area of the base. It will take him about 15 minutes to arrive. Walking towards the main entrance to the admin building, he is saluted by the soldiers at the gate who scan his ID and allow him to enter the building. Pressing the elevator for the 5th floor, he is heading towards the main hub where he is to meet Major Shaw. He has known the man for 10 years since his arrival at the base and has huge respect for him. He is also one of the 4 commanders of the base and is known for his resourcefulness and wits; he suspects that the man has several connections in the major districts as he is the most influential of the 4 commanders.

Arriving at his destination, he knocks and gets the permission to enter. He walks in, and to his surprise, there are actually 2 more people inside. He observes the lanky old man with dusky complexion, wearing his signature red-colored spectacles; he salutes Major Shaw, who responds back with the salute as well, addressing him, 'young man, do you know why you have been summoned?' The other 2 folks in the room are thoroughly ignored by Raghu, as he doesn't want to give them the satisfaction of gloating in front of him. He looks straight in the eyes of Major Shaw and responds, 'I have an idea.' The message said something about military service being over. Hearing snickers from behind, Shaw looks at the other two, instantly bringing the room to quiet and answers Rahgu that they just received the message from headquarters that your military service will come to an end in the coming week. You are to be relieved of your duties as you will proceed towards the Nanbu Valley for the reaping. His tone was authoritative but carried a tinge of sadness. He knows what the reaping entails for Raghu, but he doesn't have the necessary authority to do anything about it. Raghu is surprised by Shaw's display of slight emotion as he has never seen him show emotion. He nods at Shaw and is about to leave when he is told that he has a report on the 5th days to settle everything, and Shaw asked him to visit once before he leaves. Raghu nods in understanding and leaves the rooms only to hear Shaw reprimanding the other two for laughing at his situation.

He made his way through the alleyway towards his cabin. Making himself comfortable in the leather-bound simple seat that kept him company for sleeping, of course... well, he should enjoy his sleep for the next 10 days he thought...who knows if he would get any after this... then came the thought, can I sleep as much as I want in the afterlife...an intriguing thought for someone who will die soon enough... Hmm... We shall see... For now, it's only me and sleep, and he dozes off into his dreamy escape.

'Don't you know he is one of the sacrifices this year,' 'Well, he kind of deserved it as he sleeps all day,' 'the slouch will finally disappear.' He woke from listening to the constant bickering on the floor; this never bothered him before as he usually slept through most of it. "Don't they have any shame," he thought. He never understood their jealousy with him anyways; it's not like he irritated or demeaned them using his status for anything, neither had they served him under a mission.

Of course, he is completely unaware of the fact that he is the most envied person on the whole base, as all of them see him sleep all day and they are jealous of his position and laid-back attitude when all of them work their asses off for credits. There is one more reason for their reaction because his credit points were intentionally leaked by someone. Now all of them believe he deserves to be sacrificed thinking he would have stolen credits from someone surely. It never crossed their mind that he would actually have those points after completing missions. So the hateful comments and intensity of it had increased suddenly.

Not bothering about it, he made his way towards the base market to buy some goods; also, he might as well treat himself to a good meal, as there was no use in having credits saved for later. He exited the base and walked towards the Ebon trade emporium."