In his past life, the 6 gates made many of the dungeon masters so traumatized that most of them panicked just hearing about the gates.
Anything related to the gate became taboo to talk about in the forum. All the dungeon masters collectively decided not to look at the gate at all. The gate not only wasted so much time but the after-effect left a horror to those that experienced that.
But one way or another, he always ends up staring at the gate. It all started when he got so much Loney that he wanted to run away from everything in life and to make that time pass he looked at these gates and bam days passed. All the loneliness got replaced by the dread feeling. He even thought, 'What if I spent so much time there never to get up again?'
These gates became the tool to run away from reality. The start was slow, but unknowingly he got addicted and then started looking at gates in the name of finding the solution to this mystery.
If he took a rough count, then he almost spent 200 days out of the last 3 years staring at the gate. This obsession changed the tuning of his mind and after 200 days, the intensity of that dread feeling decreased so much for him.
Roan was extremely familiar with those gates, making him instantly realize that the void gave him the complete opposite sensation than that of gates.
In gates, it was always like staring at patterns for some seconds and then waking up in the red warning light of a game pod with dread feeling. There was no in-between feeling.
But in this void, he felt the passing of time. He felt how time moved at such a low pace that he got lost there. 'is this some kind of opposite power?' he did not know what the hell happened to him.
He had this tremendous urge to rush back into the game to know his current situation, to know what happen to the egg, but then this fear of what if he finds himself back in that void.
He did not want to experience that again, just the thought of that sent him goosebumps.
"Brother, are you okk?" this voice made him snap out of his thought. He glanced at Dhruv, who had red eyes; besides him, Aria also had red eyes.
'I fucked up.' Thinking, he looked at the table. After a moment of thought, he turned back to them and asked while scratching his head, "What happens to you guys?"
Dhruv stared into his eyes and asked, "You sure have the guts to ask that?"
He gulped down. "It is not my fault." Moving his hand up and said, "I am sorry."
"Oh, why are you saying sorry?" Dhruv asked in a sweet tone.
Roan mumbled, "No, I get it's all my mistake. I am very sorry for my stupidity." Roan bowed to Dhruv.
Dhruv shouted, "Nope saying sorry won't do."
He looked at Dhruv with croc tears in his eyes and asked, "Then what can I do for you to forgive me?"
"Ew, don't act like my lover." Dhruv moved back with a disgusted look on his face.
Roan jumped at Dhruv and hugged him. "No, no, please don't leave me. I am sorry please just this 1 time. Do you forget those good old days we spent together? waa waa"
Dhruv tried to push him. "leave me you, idiot. "
Roan tighten his grip and started rubbing his face with Dhruv's face. "No, you forgive this slave and just 1 more chance."
"Uhhhh, get off." Dhruv pushed his head, but he did not budge a little.
"Hehe," Arai laughed at the side.
This made Dhruv red, and he shouted at Roan. "Leave me!"
"Not until u forgive me," Roan shouted back.
"Uaaaa" Dhruv grabbed his hair and then helplessly said, "OKK okk, I forgive you now. Back off."
Roan moved a little and looked at Dhruv's face, shook his head, and once again hugged him. "nope you are not sincere. "
This made Dhruv super annoyed. He said in a deep tone, "I forgive you, now LEAVE ME!!"
Roan jumped back and placed both hands on his ears. "Dude, no need to shout like Karen."
"Puff-puff haha," Aria started laughing loudly at this.
Dhruv turned to her with a betrayed look on his face. "Big sis u.."
Aria placed her hand on her mouth while moving the other hand.
Dhruv just sat there and turned back to Roan.
Roan scratched his head and asked, "You forgave me, remember?"
Dhruv nodded his little head. "Only if you promise to take me to the ongoing carnival ."
"Oh, shit!" Roan slapped his forehead. He turned to Aria. "why did you not tell me?"
Arai stopped laughing at this and pointed to Dhruv.
He turned to see a dark look on Dhruv's face. Bam! He went to his knees and said to Dhruv, "This slave realizes his mistake. Great sir, do tell me the punishment. "
Dhruv shook his head. "why have you become so dramatic? Well, whatever, get ready."
"Uhhh!" Roan tilted his head.
"No, uh, get ready. We are going right now."
Roan glanced at the wall clock, "It's 4 pm, I don't think it best time to enjoy. Why don't we go tomorrow?"
"Nope, I have other plans for tomorrow," saying that Dhruv turned back and walked to his room.
Roan stood there, scratching his head, and turned to Aria, only to find her sneaking to her room.
He stood alone in the hall. 'fck I want to go in the game.'
"We will move out in 20 mins!" A loud shout came up from the stairs.
"Yes, sir." Roan saluted and rushed to his room to get ready.
…
After some time, Dhruv and Aria sat in the back seat while Roan was with a driver. There were 2 cars, one in front of them and one at their back, and all 3 cars moved to the carnival.
"Big sis, which of these rides are interesting?"
"This will be fun, this also, and even this."
"Big sis, this will be also fun."
He turned back to see them going thou the pamphlet of carnival.
They were hopping looking at each ride. Roan smiled at that. He left them and looked at the driver beside him. The guy had a perfect poker face. He smiled at him and asked, "So how much time will it take to reach there?"
"30 min no traffic and 1 hr with traffic," the guy said in a monotonous voice.
He nodded at him and then took out his phone. "Oh," he got surprised to see many missed calls from unknown phone numbers.
"Is there any matter, sir?" The driver asked him.
"Nah, focus on driving, please," he said. Nothing much to do. He dialed one of the numbers.
[Tu tu tu tu…Hello!]
"Oh hello!"
[mm, who are you?]
"Dude, you called me many times a day ago."
[I didn't call… wait, Roan? Is this you, Roan?]
He found this voice a little familiar but still; he was not able to get the right person, but he was sure he knew this guy. "Yes, I am Roan. Who are you? "
[Wow man, where are you?]
"Before that, can you tell me who are you?"
[Dude, are you serious? We used to talk so much, man.]
"Sorry, but something happened to my phone, and I lost all the numbers, so I really don't know who are you." As he said this, the Driver gave him a look.
'Fck this moterfcker know I am lying,' he thought and increase the danger of these guys on his danger people he surrounded with watch list.
[Lol dude nope problem, I am Tayan.]
Roan hit his head to remember the guy, and it hit him, "Wait, you are Tayan the asslicker."
There was silence in the car. Only the sound of Dhruv and Aria came from the back. The driver looked at him from the corner of his eyes.
Roan turned to him and pointed to the windshield of the car. The Driver stopped looking at him.
[aaah haha, you are still the same Roan I see.]
Roan clicked his tongue and asked, "So, why do you call me?"
[Oh we are having a school get-together in a few days.]
"Nay, I am not interested," he turned to cut the call when he heard.
[See, I told you he will not dare to come.] Roan did not care and cut the phone.
He had no interest in all this. He did not attend this event even in his last life. He looked at the road and to their bad luck they found a huge jam on the road nothing much to do he turned to call the next missed call. There were 5 unknown missed calls just in 2 days, and that was a record for him.
[tu tu tu hello!]
'A girl!' "Hellow" he tried a deep voice but failed.
[ Oh you finally dare to receive the call!]
She shouted so loudly that he moved the phone away from his ears. He stared at the phone in confusion, there were few… no, many that dare to shout at him. The only problem was the guy beside him giving him the look.
He once again pointed to the front only to find there was no space to move.
[what happen why are you not replying] he heard another shout.