Chapter 2: Afterlife?? (1/2)

" .y..ke..up!"

'Uh...Who is shaking me? Let me sleep in peace'.I couldn't help but complain to myself as I felt a shake all over my body, originating from my right shoulder.

"Hey! Wake up!"

A loud voice entered my ears, followed by a shake bigger than the one before, which finally put me awake.

Half opening my heavy eyelids, I saw the face of a man partially blocking the clear blue sky.

Completely opening my eyes and sitting up, I looked around me.

'What in the world?'

Immediately I was stunned, but as the aftereffect of the sleep ended, my thought process became clear again. Looking around me I had the idea that I was in the 'Tutorial'.

What I didn't expect however was for the mentioned tutorial to be a big and round clearing of a forest. I knew it was a forest because of the tall trees and green vegetation around the clearing.

The land of the clearing has short green grasses, and there were many people upon the grass. Some were seated looking around in confusion, some walking around conversationing with one another, while some were wailing to themselves laying on the grass.

"Hey! Do you know where we are? Did you also.. die before? If yes, then when and where was that? Is this afterlife?"

The man who woke me up loaded me with one question after another. I looked closely at the man again, brown hair and beard, with his black eyes and the fit body visible through his clothes, gave him the perfect appearance of a middle-aged man, doing his best to stay fit. Though his angular face had a worried look.. or so was he trying to show.

"I apologize for my rudeness, I am extremely confused right now, it's been a while since we are in this peculiar environment and you were the only one still sleeping so I thought maybe you knew something.. "

The man said in an apologetic manner noticing the peculiar look I was giving him. So I had been sleeping for a while, it may have something to do with the old thing.

"Relax a bit, being anxious wouldn't solve anything. Why don't you sit down?"

I put a hand on the man's shoulder and offered him to take a seat next to me. Only to be surprised at the next moment...

The hands which were stretched were...

not the one I knew. They weren't the hard and thick hands of a hardened man I was familiar with, but rather the soft and tender hands of a young adult.

"Hehe.. the recoil finally hit you huh. And here I was wondering why you were not surprised."

The man said with a chuckle as he sat next to me.

"What's going on?"

I asked the man even though I had the gist of what was happening.

"Turns out that all the dead people from the year are living and breathing here, and that's not even the most surprising part. It turns out that most of the old folks are living in the body of their younger self."

The man said as his voice contained a hint of jealousy at the end of his sentence as he looked at me.

"I wasn't that old when I died, I was around yours or rather your body's age."

I said to ease the jealousness of the man. 'Well, 36 years are still considered young.'

"So how did you die? I died in a car accident by the way."

The man said as he looked at me, not as jealous as before.

"There was a fire, a big one."

'A big and, painful one'. I couldn't help but shudder a little as I remembered the experience of my slow and painful death.

"Yikes! Thank goodness we don't remember the pain of death.. or man it would have been painful for you."

The man said with sympathy, as he looked at me with pity.

'So they don't remember their death experience'. I inwardly noted the point as I put on a helpless smile.

"Yeh. Thank god, all I remember is that I died at a moment and opened my eyes to see you next."

"Hehe. Everyone has the same experience buddy. Oh, and by the way, the name's Michael, Michael Rotter."

"Nice to meet you Michael my name is Tommy. No last name."

I uttered an alias as I shook the hands offered by Michael.

"Quite the unique name, well anyways. Get up friend look around our afterlife."

Michael said as he rose on his feet dusting his pants, he set off to another destination.

'I would have to keep a close eye on you... Michael'. I thought as I looked at the departing Michael.

'Now that I think about it everyone's wearing the same clothes. Though it's not much of a surprise, considering the situation.' Looking around every person had the same white shirt with black pants, and brown shoes, although they didn't look that good, I was sure that they were strong.

Getting up I started looking around, and I was not the only one doing so almost all the people around me were walking around in groups or alone looking around or talking to each other.

Many discussions about wheater it was heaven or something else were talking place. A group of teenagers were talking about this being some fantasy world they were summoned to for saving the world.

Before I could start my information gathering...

*Crack!* *Crack!*

The sound of a glass cracking rang from above, attracting my attention to the part of the sky, which was cracking like glass.

"What the hell?"

"Oh! Some god's going to descend."

"First a young body now this, will someone tell me what's going on!"

"Oh! Looks like our summoner is going to make an entry."

The people started talking among themselves, gathering under the crack which was starting to expand, some time later the round space between the crack shattered leaving a black portal behind.

'Is it going to be the entry of the guide of the tutorial?' Looking at the portal big enough to fit a grown man, a question popped into my mind.