As the Thunder Strikes

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"They discontinued it?! What about Shenli's route?! I haven't even played Rubedo's After Ending yet!"

Those were the last words uttered out of her mouth as the irritating screech of tires reached her ears and took her breath away. Literally.

Before she died, the unfortunate young woman was a freshly graduated from a local university with a proud major in accountancy. And it's only a matter of time before she would lay her eyes on the results of the board exam to hopefully become a licensed accountant, at last.

For an unforeseeable future though, she opted to work at a confectionery store. The owner is Jude, who was actually her uncle and a kind old gentleman who was looking to cut back on the hours he was working. She had spent time volunteering at this place before when she was very young. Though back then, she would help entertain the customers or bake sweets with the patissiers instead of determining the shop's assets and expenses.

…well, she had the experience, and because her grades had plummeted down spectacularly and she had taken extra time to graduate, there were no office jobs waiting for her after school was finished. Plus, she needs to pass the darn licensure exam first before she could taste the sweet life she ever dreamed of. Probably. Hopefully…

Before she had checked herself into the hospital, her life had been heading in a very different direction. It wasn't her fault that she was born with a physically weak body that always gets sick—at least, that's what the doctors had told her. But the fact remained that she had gone from a student with perfect grades, who spent all her free time volunteering at animal shelters and libraries, to the child who excelled at everything she tried, friendly and charismatic and destined to do great things…to now…

Honestly, there was a small part of her that was relieved to be free of all that pressure and expectations. But things at home had been awkward for a while now, with her grandparents' attention focused on her much more successful cousins, and she jumped at the chance to take a quiet job in a different town away from them.

Safe to say that she was nowhere fond of them. Grateful, perhaps, but she truly holds no strong bonds to her relatives, more so for the parents she never even met her entire life.

It was a fresh start, and she was grateful for it, but…well, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel a little unfulfilled.

In any case, that fateful day passed faster than she thought it would. There weren't as many customers in the shop just as she expected, and those who did come were merely regulars who already knew what they wanted, or students who skipped classes to enjoy the confectionery treats.

In between her work, the young woman had indulged herself in playing her favourite otome game. An indulgent past time, but something that she looks forward to brightening her boring, old life.

PERSONA: The Mysteries of Love was probably the height of otome games when it comes to mobile platforms. She wasn't very keen on spending money online, prefering to be on the safe side than to be sorry later, so when she found out that there was a good game for her phone (and a very friendly free-to-play one at that!), she was pleasantly intrigued.

She had been playing nonstop since the last two months and she mostly finished all available routes for the love interests so far. Now, she'll just have to wait for Shenli's—the last capture target—route before she could play Rubedo's After Endings to avoid spoilers and she also has to play the current events so she wouldn't miss the free in-game resources and currencies.

The otome game was about a young woman named Mikhaila Clemence—or simply, MC, as what others prefer calling her, and quite fitting for her role in fact—in the historical fantasy world of Alakitasia. MC was initially a slave from a fallen nation that was saved by the twin sister of one of the capture targets, who then appointed her to become her lady-in-waiting. The game begins when Licht Elsworth, MC's sickly boss and kind friend, was mysteriously murdered and she was tasked to uncover the truth of her boss' death and the political conspiracies underneath it all, extracting her revenge to whoever syndicate was behind Licht's death.

Though the game had taken an over dramatic turn when they discovered that MC possessed holy powers that could help to save the dying light of the Gift of the Sun and then the allies she hoarded along the way like a possessive dragon were confessing to her one by one. The young woman was so excited about what would happen next, who and how in the world killed Licht, and how MC would extract her revenge and show her power to the world that used to belittled her like a girlboss that she is.

…Except that that ending would never happen anymore.

That day after finishing her work from the confectionery shop of her uncle, on the way home, the young woman quickly checked her phone when the maintenance on the otome game server is done, excited to go back to reading the new updates and maybe there were some surprise events, only to deflate like a ransacked balloon when she was greeted her was a farewell message from the game developers that they were gonna discontinued the game, including its future contents and events and After Ending routes due to the company's personal affairs.

There was no more Shenli's route, no more After Endings, no more events, and worst of all, the developers were going to turn off the whole server soon, erasing all of her game progress and never again was she able to reread her forced-to-pay contents.

The young woman was beyond devastated and almost cried in frustration and anger. And just when she was about to cry for real, she noticed the wind suddenly picking up, followed by a thunderclap in the darkening skies.

A few drops of water sprinkled into her face.

"What? Now, its raining? This is weird. The weather report today says that it will be sunny overhead." She groaned, sulking. "I wonder if it's one of their stupid mistakes in forecasting again."

When she raised her head, the whole sky was covered in dark grey sheets. She flinched a little when clouds parted and the small droplets of rain became a downpour.

"....Two-Mississippi… Three-Misissippi… Four-Mississippi…" She muttered to herself while looking at the skies. Another flashes of lightning rang through. "...Equals to 1.33 kilometers." She furrowed your brows the moment the thunder came.

What a sudden phenomenon. And she didn't manage to bring an umbrella with herー

Her train of thought was cut off when a thunderous roar echoed in the skies after a bolt of lightning struck just before the road ahead of her. She were speechless when she saw the huge crater in its wake, stepping back nervously.

"Wha—" a shiver ran down her spine as she felt the feeling of unease in her body. She took another cautious step back.

The young woman used to watched youtube videos before a situation where scientist have to observe the movements of lightning in an open field out of curiosity and it was truly spectacular and amazing, but this never happened to her before! She never saw something so ferocious this close in her entire life!

The lightning struck once again, and this time, it's nearing where she was.

"ーHoly ship! What in the world is happening?! My calculations aren't supposed to be wrong!" She exclaimed as she crouched low, hands on her head. Her heart was hammering loudly in her chest it almost stings. "Whaー?"

A haze of darkness suddenly enveloped her vision, followed by the feeling of lightheadedness. Shutting her eyes close tightly, she let herself fall in the mysterious abyss that appeared out of nowhere and prayed to end this as quickly as possible.

And at the end of this timeless storm and endless trials ahead, the young woman will find the love that could bravely defy the barriers of countless plethora of worlds.

...but at this time, no one, not even herself, knew what was yet to come.

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