The act of possession. In a world where apparitions existed, it's not abnormal to assume that something such as possession is inevitable to occur. The experience differs depending on the type of apparition; some experiences can be less painful and not as difficult to fight against whilst others are a completely different case.

Different types of apparitions take control of an individual's body in their own unique manner. For example, some would use the owner's body to attack everything in sight since their entity-like state isn't strong enough to do so themselves. Others are able to behave in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish between the apparition and the original owner of the body. The list goes on.

However your situation was one of the most perilous ones.

Possession from a vengeful apparition was by no means easy to fend off. They would first place the individual in a excruciating pain before forcefully entering their mind. Any form of resistance would put a larger strain on the victim.

Then, they would access the victim's memories and emotional state. They would use that to their advantage and select any aspects of negativity or vulnerability. This would be used to either encourage the negativity, whether it'll be any past grudges or buried anger. Or the apparition would take advantage of a sense of vulnerability, whether it'll be an insecurity or a haunting past.

They would use it to control the individual, force them to give in, and then turn them into a destructive force. This can result in the victim exceeding human capabilities through either strength or durability. After possession the individual's body would face severe consequences for defying their limitations. This can result in broken bones, internal damage, or even death.

Being aware of this fact didn't make things any easier for you. You could hardly grasp your own thoughts and differentiate your feelings from what was your own to what was forced onto you by the apparition. Whispers that weren't your true thoughts oppressed your mind, your emotional state spiraled out of control, and you desperately tried to maintain some form of control of yourself.

Thinking that you could fight against it and win was a hopeful thought. The only thing you could really do against it was hold out for as long as possible and rely on Caleb to exorcise the apparition out of you.

You shut your eyes tightly to subdue the pain even if it was just a little. Then, suddenly, an excruciating pain tore through your body. You felt a dreadfully heavy weight crushing your skull, a warm liquid dripping down your head, and a biting cold wind gnawing your skin.

You wanted to scream, cry, slam your hands against something to distract yourself from the pain. However, all you could do was suffer through the agony. You wouldn't describe it as the feeling of death. It was the feeling of a life desperately clinging onto survival, the feeling of heavy eyes trying to stay open, the feeling of a broken body trying to function, the feeling of a mind fearfully clinging onto consciousness in the face of death.

...What was this?

The darkness that once occupied your vision had vanished and an image showed up in it's replacement. At first, what it was didn't occur to you. But, when realisation hit you, you were left in both shock and confusion.

Collapsed walls, broken furniture, scattered debri, shattered glass; judging from the scraps of evidence that you could piece together, you concluded that it was your apartment back at home in ruins. At a closer inspection, you could see a body crushed underneath the ruin, blood pooling out from underneath them at an alarming rate. Horror struck you when you recognised who it was.

Glassy and lifeless eyes, limp body, pale skin, breathless; no matter how much you tried to doubt or deny the possibility, you couldn't run away from the fact that it was undoubtedly your dead body. The sight was so nauseating that you felt the urge to retch right then and there.

You...you were dead?

How? How was that possible? Just what happened?! Why was your home like that in the first place?!

...The onslaught of pain you were currently feeling, was that how you felt in your last moments?

Distress took reign over your rationality and you felt your control over your mind begin to slip away. It was then a sudden feeling of relief washed over your body. The rope around your neck that stopped you from breathing comfortably had unwrapped, the whispers that plagued your mind had faded, the image of your dead body had disappeared, and your control over your mind had returned.

Ah, Caleb had saved you just in time.

You immediately gasped for air before hunching over to cough. A hazy dizziness clouded your head and a sluggish feeling weighed down your limbs. But, worst of all, the grotesque image of your dead body still burned in your mind in memory. If you could, you would go so far as to get a knife and try and carve out that sickening sight.

"Woah, woah. You alive there?" You felt Caleb pat your back. "Feel like you're still dying?"

Dying. Your body tensed and your breath hiccuped at his words as the image of your bloodied dead body came crawling back to you in a much more vivid fashion, causing your stomach to churn in nausea. Without thinking, you glared at Caleb through teary eyes.

The male pulled his hand back. "Guess I hit a sensitive spot."

You didn't respond as you attempted to stand up. To no one's surprise, you couldn't muster the strength to do so and just ended up falling back down. You brought your hands up to see that they were trembling.

"Yeah, that's not going to work." Caleb held out his hand. "C'mon, I'll help you up. Don't be stubborn and refuse it, that's not going to do us any good."

You accepted his help without protest. The male smiled at your cooperation and carefully placed your arm around his shoulder as he kept a secure hold on your body. You honestly wanted to give into your exhaustion and collapse right then and there. It was a miracle that you managed to force yourself upright as Caleb supported you.

When the two of you exited the school, you heard a barrage of different voices. Wincing at the sudden spike in volume, you looked around to see that crowds of citizens had formed in front of the school gates. Parents, children, news reporters, bystanders; seeing beyond the school gates was basically impossible due to how many people there were.

"The AEI never fails!"

"They are just as reliable as ever!"

"Thank you for protecting us once again!"

Ah, you should've anticipated this.

The AEI––short for the Apparition Extermination Institution. That was the name of the force that you were a part of. Essentially, the AEI is the main institution in the city that handles the exorcism of apparitions, they are relied on to protect the city. The government invests a lot of money and resources into the institution and the majority of the public feverishly idolises and respects it.

You and Caleb joined the rest of the team and he cautiously sat you down. Before you could thank him, he had already left to take care of the crowd. You watched from afar as microphones and cameras were pushed to his face, fans eagerly vying for his attention, and reporters trying to get him to answer questions.

"I hope I can be as strong as you one day, Caleb!"

"Caleb! Good job on the exorcism!"

"Ahh, I wish I could've seen him in action––hey, does anyone have a recording?"

Even the defence team and the offence team had their fair share of attention. You sighed at the sight and turned your attention away, watching as the support team continued to tend to the injured as well as soothing the students who hadn't calmed down from the incident yet.

Your sights then drifted to stare at the grey sky. Your gaze listlessly watched as clouds slowly traveled across the sky as you reflected on what happened during your possession.

If you ignored whatever concept of what you believed to be reality and fantasy all your life, when you pieced everything together; the violent storm that took place, the abnormality during the blackout with the computer, your dead body––you felt the urge to throw up when you recalled that––and your presence here; the conclusion of what happened was fairly obvious.

As unbelievable as it was, you could only conclude that you had died and had reincarnated into the game Anomalous. The exact details of how you died were a little vague, but from what you experienced, you had an idea of what happened.

You buried your face in your palms and let out a long and frustrated sigh. The situation was going to take some time for you to fully digest. Accepting the fact that you have to leave your past life behind, accepting that all your efforts and achievements and progress in your life would have to be discarded and forgotten, accepting that that you had died back there, and accepting that you'll be living the rest of your life in Anomalous was a challenge you were unsure if you'll ever be able to overcome. Though you were a huge fan of the game, you wouldn't want to voluntarily throw your life away for an uncertain future in it.

...So, what were you going to do now? What direction were you going to take?

As those thoughts occupied your mind, you felt cool droplets of water hit your head. Ah, it was raining. You looked at your feet and watched as splatters of water damp the ground as you made no efforts to try and shield yourself.

"Yo, you still with us?"

A shadow casted over you and the rain stopped hitting your head. You sedately looked up and saw Caleb holding an umbrella over your head with his usual carefree smile.

"If you couldn't tell, it's raining." Caleb laughed. "We're heading out now. Our job here is done."

You gave Caleb a slow nod and stood up. Though you wanted nothing more than to continue dwelling in your storm of thoughts and wallow in your depressive emotions, for now, you had to ignore it and act as if you weren't suffering some internal crisis.

"So, we're heading back now?" you asked.

"Well, we could. But, that's too boring."

"Uh, okay. That's your problem."

The male laughed. "Quite a sharp mouth for someone who was almost possessed. Say, let's go out for dinner, hm?"

"Don't you have stuff to do as the leader of this operation? And, don't I have stuff to do as a support leader?"

"True. I'll just dump the work on the vice leaders for all three divisions then," he said with a carefree hum. He seemed to be having too much fun at the thought of leaving his responsibilities to someone else. "Oh, don't worry, I get away with it all the time."

Caleb motioned for you to hold the umbrella while he sent the message. The height difference made the task much more of a hassle than it needed to be. Seeing your struggle, Caleb purposefully took his sweet time. You shot him an unamused look and dropped the umbrella on his head.

"Alright, the messages have been sent!" The male laughed as he held the umbrella up again. "Let's get going."

===

You shouldn't have been surprised when Caleb took you to an expensive restaurant (actually, you knew this restaurant very well since you'd always visit it when you played the game) and secured a reservation without any prior notice.

How was he able to do such a thing? Well it had to do with his status within the AEI. In the institution, there was a single team that consisted of hand selected individuals who possess profound talent. Typically, it'll be those with great exorcism proficiency and capability. The team was named the 'speciality force'.

Not only do they earn a generous bonus in their pay, but they were well praised amongst the public. During certain operations, they'd be appointed to as the leader. It can be a pressuring position due to the many lives that were in their hands and the amount of people relying on them.

Sitting at the restaurant, you ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. However, when Caleb mentioned that it'll be coming out of his wallet you didn't hesitate to order the most expensive dish and drink.

"Okay, there must be a reason as to why you brought me here," you said.

"Is there? I kinda just wanted an excuse to go out and eat." Caleb winked. "If I get into trouble for slacking, I'll just use the excuse that I was taking care of you since you were attacked by a vengeful apparition."

You sighed at his answer. Well, it wasn't like you expected anything different.

Though, Caleb was the least of your issues as of right now. Your main issue was figuring out what you were going to do now in this new life. Just play it safe? That was the option that stuck out to you. Perhaps quietly going along with the storyline was the best choice for you. Don't get you wrong, as much as you'd love to use your knowledge of this world to your advantage, you couldn't realistically see yourself pulling off anything substantial.

Why? Well, for one, you really were just an ordinary person at the end of the day. You weren't even given exorcism abilities in this new life! The world that Anomalous took place in is undoubtedly dangerous. Deaths during and outside of operations weren't an uncommon thing. Doing something ambitious or overstepping your boundaries can increase your chances of being in danger.

But, on the other hand, there was also another issue. The ending of the game was still fresh in your mind. To provide a better context of what happened in the simplest form, the protagonist ends up killing everyone in the AEI. Meaning someone like you, a part of the institution, was part of that crowd. Should you try quitting the AEI then?

Your eyebrows furrowed and you took an aggressive sip of your cup of water. Man, if only I was reincarnated as the protagonist instead.

"Well, that's an interesting expression," Caleb said. "Wonder what's on your mind."

You looked off to the side. "Just about the operation."

"Oh?" The male's emerald green eyes twinkled in curiosity. "Care to share?"

"The vengeful apparition. That wasn't written in the report, right? I wonder why they made an appearance."

There really wasn't any point in you talking about this, you literally had the answer to your own inquiry. You just needed something to discuss to distract Caleb and avoid spilling your true thoughts.

The male pouted and leaned back in his chair. "Man, can we not talk about boring stuff like that?"

"Then what do we talk about?"

"Yourself! Or maybe we can gossip about the members in the AEI we don't like. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Well, can't say I didn't see this one coming.

Caleb was a character that had dialogue and interactions that both frustrated and entertained you at the same time. That was what made him someone that you found memorable and intriguing. It also made him a pretty popular character amongst fans of the game.

However, aside from that, his appearance was something that also captured your attention. The male had eyes that were always full of mischief and exuberance; the green hue in them were such a compelling and vivid shade that you could envision them illuminating beautifully in the dark. He also had fluffy inky black hair with dyed green parts underneath and on the bottom tips of his hair.

One would normally assume he was someone who was docile and innocent due to his exceptionally youthful appearance and innocent looking eyes. However, as soon as you spent no longer than three minutes with the guy that assumption could easily be broken.

"What if I don't want to?" you asked.

"Then, I guess you'll be paying for this dinner out of your own pocket."

"My favourite colour is (f/c)."

The male smiled triumphantly and a cheerful energy danced around him. "Aw, c'mon. You can do better than that!"

"Uh, well––"

You were interrupted when a digital sound beeped from Caleb's device. The male looked to his arm and tapped on the screen. You watched in curiosity as he read the message on the screen, his hum of intrigue only furthered your interest.

"What is it?"

"There's notice of another upcoming operation already. Just when I was planning to slack off." He chuckled. "Well, whatever. More pay for me."

You had an inkling of what the operation may be. "A new operation?"

The male nodded. "We have a sighting of a potential vengeful apparition."

"Wait, is it the same one we encountered today?" Man, it felt weird asking questions you already knew the answers to.

Caleb shrugged. "Maybe. When you were possessed it was hard to use the full extent of my abilities––unless I wanted to blow your head off––so I wouldn't be surprised if it had gotten away. Plus, exorcising apparitions out of someone isn't exactly my speciality," he explained. "Anyways, the research team suspected that it's going to be an operation more dangerous than the one we had earlier."

Yup, you recognised this information all too well. This particular operation was going to be much different from the other ones. Not only because of what Caleb told you, but because this operation led to a specific encounter that marked the beginning of this long story.

It seems like we'll be encountering the protagonist pretty soon.