"Ugh… my head."
Ludo groaned as consciousness gradually returned to him. His temples throbbed, like the worst migraine he'd ever had, and every muscle felt heavy, sore, and uncooperative with his thoughts — just like every time he pushed himself too hard at the gym.
He brought a shaky hand up to his forehead, rubbing at the dull ache pulsing there.
The ground beneath him felt cold and uneven — even a little damp and muddy.
"Tsk, did I not close the tent properly again?"
For a moment, he kept his eyes shut, grimacing as his memories of the previous night began to surface.
"Damn… what a dream." He muttered groggily.
"Note to self, no more pot noodles before bed…"
Soon, the soft pattering sound of rain reached his ears.
"Huh?"
His brow furrowed.
He didn't remember any forecasts of rain before he went to sleep, or else he would have prepared more thoroughly the previous night.
Actually, he didn't remember falling asleep at all.
The steady drumming of rain quickly grew louder and faster, mixed with the odd echo of splashing, as if there was a body of water!?
Ludo blinked his eyes open.
At first, everything was blurry as his eyes adjusted to the light — the last thing he saw was the darkness of night, after all.
He sat up slowly, wincing from the soreness of his body.
His fingers sank slowly into the wet mud beneath him.
Then his vision finally cleared.
...And he froze.
"What the…?"
He looked around, bewildered.
Where his campsite should have been, with the small fire, the half-cooked noodles, his tent and all his equipment — there was nothing.
Instead, stretching out before him was a vast crater, nearing twenty metres deep and easily twice that across.
And he sat right in the middle of it…
Rain continued pouring steadily from the overcast sky, pattering on the slanted walls of earth and stone that encircled him like a huge bowl.
The ground was cracked and steaming in some places, and the rainwater was already beginning to snake downward, pooling around him into the beginnings of a shallow, murky pond.
Ludo turned in a slow circle, eyes wide, barely even able to believe what he was seeing.
His breath quickened that instant.
The air smelled burnt and metallic.
Wisps of smoke drifted from above the walls of the crater, and the soil seemed slightly blackened, giving him a vague idea of just what had happened here.
But still, his mind refused to believe that.
His brain struggled to catch up to what he was witnessing.
"Was that… not a dream, but reality??"
He remembered the shooting star, his shock when it had changed direction…
He remembered standing up, shouting something, and then…
Nothing.
A chill ran down his spine.
His gaze darted frantically across the crater again, searching for something familiar, but there was nothing. As if the entire clearing had been erased.
He pinched himself absentmindedly.
"I… I'm definitely not still dreaming."
But then, if that wasn't the case, shouldn't he have been erased along with the rest of his camp…?
He looked upward at the lip of the crater.
The slope wasn't impossibly steep, but it was slick with rainwater and mud, making it impossible to climb out even if he tried his hardest.
However, with the amount of rain that was pouring down on top of him, Ludo knew that this would quickly become a problem for him.
There was already a small pond at his feet, gradually having risen above his ankles in the short time he had taken to get a grip of himself.
If he let even more time pass, he might find himself in a situation that he might not be able to escape from!
Although he didn't know how he'd managed to survive something as crazy as a direct meteor strike, he sure didn't want to waste this miracle and drown in this remote crater…
That would truly make a tragic end to his story.
But the crater was truly peculiar; it wasn't very large when considering just how devastating a meteor strike could be, but it was still quite deep!
Being over 20 metres below the ground, Ludo knew that his chances of being able to climb out, even if the sides of the bowl weren't covered in slippery mud, were slim to none.
The state of his body would make that task impossible.
That same problem made him give up on any ideas of waiting for the water level to rise and hope that enough rainwater pours in to fill the crater up to the top, allowing him to swim his way to safety.
But regardless of all his worries, at that moment, something that he had never expected to happen… happened.
[Pairing….]
A voice that wasn't his own suddenly rang out in his ears out of nowhere.
If it were just that voice, sure, Ludo would still be quite confused and concerned, but that could have been shrugged off quite quickly. Maybe someone was nearby when it happened?
It wasn't just a voice, though…
"AHHHHHH!!"
Ludo could barely even register the faint voice anymore, as his whole body had suddenly started writhing in incredible pain, and he let out a despicable wail.
If anyone were nearby, they would most definitely have been scared out of their wits, thinking someone was being murdered nearby!
But for Ludo, that was a very real reality.
He truly felt like he was dying! The pain was just that unbearable for him.
He'd broken a few bones during his life, but they paled in comparison.
[Pairing successful.]
But just as suddenly as the pain came, it departed.
A strange sensation suddenly spread all throughout his body, bringing forth feelings of empowerment.
'Wh-hat… the f*ck is going on with me!??'
Ludo couldn't do anything at that moment; he wasn't even in control of his own body anymore…
Though that only lasted a few moments.
All of his senses returned, and he began to perceive the outside world again.
When he opened his eyes… he realised that the water was now up to his neck!
"What!? How much time has passed??"