Four Classmates Joking About Another World Never E

Chapter 1 - Before the World Changed

Monday morning arrived, bringing its usual warmth.

Inside a bedroom, an alarm pierced through the silence. The loud BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! stopped abruptly when a hand reached out from under a thick blanket and pressed the button to turn it off. The room fell silent once again. The hand retreated into the warmth of the blanket, savoring the precious passing seconds. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes went by.

The sound of a door opening echoed as a woman stepped inside.

"Luca, wake up. Do you know what time it is?" his mother called out.

No answer. Not a single movement from beneath the blanket.

"Luca! Stop pretending to be asleep," she scolded, her tone much firmer this time.

Met with silence, the woman let out a long sigh. She pulled the window curtains open, letting the bright morning sunlight flood in and illuminate the entire room.

"Ugh, Mom... it’s too bright..." Luca mumbled from under his pillow, his eyes squinting against the glare.

"That's exactly why you need to get up and get ready for school!" his mother snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

Luca slowly opened one eye, staring sluggishly at the ceiling. "Isn't today a holiday, Mom?"

"Today is Monday, Luca! There are no holidays."

The teenage boy fell silent for a moment before closing his eyes again with a heavy sigh. "That means the next holiday is still a long way off..."

"Are you going to get up and get ready right now, or should I get a bucket of water and splash you?" she threatened, raising her voice.

Instantly, Luca sat up straight on his bed. "Alright, alright, I'm up."

The clock showed 07:12 AM.

Luca walked casually toward school, his bag slung over his right shoulder. His uniform was neat, but his tie was slightly crooked to the right. His face was flat and sluggish, as if his life energy had been completely drained by his morning routine.

Near the school gates, which were almost fully closed, a teenage boy was waving his hands frantically.

"Luca! Hurry up and run!" Arka yelled, panting heavily as he ran closer. "Are you crazy? We were almost late and the gates are about to close, man!"

Luca stopped in his tracks, looking at Arka calmly. "But the reality is, we aren't late yet, right?"

"What do you mean 'not yet'? We only have three minutes left before the gates are locked!" Arka replied, frustrated.

"Well, as long as there are three minutes left, technically, we aren't late," Luca answered with his innocent logic.

Arka sighed, facepalming. "Do you seriously never feel even a little bit of panic?"

"What for? Panicking won't make the hands of the clock turn backward," Luca replied casually, resuming his walk.

Arka paused for a second, pondering his best friend's words. "...I guess you have a point."

Up ahead, two of their friends were already waiting near their classroom. A girl with long hair was holding two cold drink bottles in her hands.

"You two are unbelievable, always running late," Nayla scolded as soon as they approached.

"The important thing is we still managed to sneak in, Nay," Arka said with a grin.

Nayla shook her head, then handed one cold bottle to Arka and the other to Luca. "Here, take it. I know you guys definitely haven't had time to drink."

"Thanks, Nayla," Luca said, accepting the bottle.

The other girl standing next to Nayla smiled sweetly. Her shoulder-length hair swayed gently in the breeze. "You two were probably in such a rush that you skipped breakfast again, right?" Claren asked.

Arka nodded. "Yeah, I only had time to drink a glass of water earlier."

"See? I knew it! These two always skip breakfast," Nayla said, looking satisfied with her guess.

Claren chuckled softly. "You two never change."

Luca twisted the cap off his bottle. "Who says? I had breakfast."

Claren looked at him curiously. "Oh, really? What did you have?"

Luca thought for a second with an innocent face. "Ice water."

Nayla stared at Luca in disbelief. "That is not breakfast, Luca!"

"Water contains minerals and essential nutrients for the body, so it totally counts as morning nutrition," Luca argued with his absurd logic.

"That is not how food nutrition works! You literally just drank water!" Nayla nagged in annoyance.

Arka burst out laughing at the short debate, while Claren giggled quietly behind her hand.

Luca smiled faintly, enjoying the lively morning atmosphere with his best friends.

The day went on as usual. Classes, piles of assignments, brief jokes, and then it was time to go home. Nothing extraordinary happened. At least... that was what they thought at the time.

When the lunch break arrived, the four of them gathered at their usual spot in the lush back garden of the school. Arka was busy on his phone, intensely focused on his favorite MMORPG. Nayla was doodling in her sketchbook, while Claren was engrossed in a thick novel she had brought along. Luca, meanwhile, was just leaning against the wooden bench, staring up at the slowly drifting clouds.

"Hey, imagine if we suddenly got thrown into another world. What is the first thing you guys would want to do there?" Arka blurted out without taking his eyes off his screen.

Nayla looked up, giving Arka a weird look. "What kind of random question is that, Arka?"

"I'm serious! Just imagine if a world like the one in this game actually existed," Arka said enthusiastically.

Nayla tapped her pencil against her chin, thinking for a moment. "Hmm... if a world like that really existed, I'd want to travel around and see beautiful cities filled with magic."

"As for me, I'd want to see vast oceans with brilliant colors that don't exist in our world," Claren chimed in, smiling as she pictured it.

"What about you, Arka? What would you do?" Nayla asked back.

Arka clenched his fist excitedly. "I'd obviously want to train with a sword and fight against the strongest knights there!"

Nayla chuckled. "Typical you, never straying far from physical stuff."

The three of them then turned their attention to Luca, who had been quietly listening the whole time.

"What about you, Luca?" Arka asked.

Luca, still leaning back, muttered softly, "Me?"

"Yeah, and don't tell me you'd just do nothing," Arka replied.

Luca gazed up at the blue sky above. He stayed quiet for a few seconds before finally answering. "I'd want to find a quiet place and sleep all day long without anyone bothering me."

The garden suddenly fell silent. Nayla facepalmed with a heavy sigh. "Good grief... why did we even expect a cool answer from you?"

Claren laughed, amused by the reaction. "But Luca, if a world like that truly existed, would you seriously just want to sleep?"

Luca looked back up at the sky. This time, his expression shifted slightly—there was a hidden warmth and curiosity in his eyes. "Maybe..." He smiled faintly. "Maybe I'd want to explore it and see how different that world is from ours."

Nighttime, 09:47 PM.

Luca was in his dimly lit room. The computer monitor in front of him was still on, displaying a game, but his eyes were already feeling heavy.

"Ah, my eyes can't take it anymore. I'll just continue tomorrow," he mumbled.

He shut down the computer and threw himself onto his soft bed.

Elsewhere, at the exact same time, Arka was still busy scrolling on his phone. Nayla was putting the finishing touches on her drawing, while Claren was deep into the final chapter of her novel. The night felt completely normal for the four of them.

Until finally— ZZZZT...

The lights in Luca's room flickered a few times before shining brightly again. Luca opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling in confusion. "Hm? What was that?"

He sat on the edge of his bed and glanced around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yawning, he muttered to himself, "Probably just a normal power glitch."

He decided to lie back down.

But, a few kilometers away... in Arka's room, his phone screen suddenly went completely dead. "Huh? Why did it die? I swear the battery was still full!" Arka yelled in a panic.

In Nayla's room, the lights flickered dimly, casting bizarre shadows on the wall. "Weird... is there going to be a blackout?" Nayla murmured.

And inside Claren's room... a tiny, golden dot of light suddenly appeared, floating in mid-air. Claren stared at the magical gleam with an astonished expression. "What is this light...?"

But before she could touch it, the light vanished without a trace.

Somewhere incredibly far away—far beyond the boundaries of Earth, far from the solar system known to mankind—a woman stood tall inside a room.

Her long hair cascaded beautifully over her shoulders. In front of her lay an ancient relic—a circle carved into the floor. Its surface looked incredibly old, covered in fine cracks and moss.

The woman took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

"Alright... everything is ready," she whispered into the silence.

She inspected the secret carvings on the ancient artifact, reassuring herself. "Let's see if this historical relic still holds power, or if it is just ordinary stone."

Slowly, she channeled her concentration and magical energy into the artifact.

WHOOM...

The magic circle on the floor suddenly lit up brilliantly, radiating a blinding golden light. A strong wind materialized, swirling violently and sweeping the dust around the room.

"If the ancient historical records are true..." The corners of the woman's lips curled up into a proud smile. "Beyond the boundaries of our realm, there must be another hidden dimension. And tonight... I will tear open the boundary between these worlds!"

09:59 PM.

Luca, who was just about to fall asleep, was violently startled.

RUUUMBLE!

The entire structure of his house shook violently, as if struck by an invisible force. Luca immediately leaped out of bed.

"An earthquake?!"

He stood at the ready, but the real shock wasn't the tremor. The empty air in the middle of his room suddenly cracked, exactly like a thick mirror shattering from a heavy blow. The glowing cracks radiated a magical aura that had never existed on Earth.

Luca stood frozen, staring at the phenomenon without blinking.

The crack of light widened. Beyond the torn dimensional rift, he didn't see the walls of his room, but rather a sprawling, majestic, and alien landscape.

A night sky stretched out with a giant, glowing moon, accompanied by towering mountain ranges and mysterious blue lights dancing in the air like auroras.

Luca stood completely transfixed. For the first time that night, his lazy and sluggish expression vanished completely, replaced by deep awe.

"Oh my god..." he whispered softly. He took a slow step closer. "So things like this actually exist..."

At Arka's house, a similar event was unfolding. "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?! WHY IS MY ROOM CRACKING?!" Arka screamed hysterically as a dimensional rift tore open right above his bedroom carpet.

At Nayla's house, she backed away until she hit her wardrobe. "This makes no sense... I must be dreaming!"

And in Claren's room, the spatial rift formed much faster. A brilliant light burst forth, enveloping her entire body in a split second. "Wait a minute! What's happen—!" Her voice was cut off as her body was swallowed by the light.

Back in his room, Luca felt a powerful push and pull from the rift, slowly sucking his body in. He made no effort to resist the pull. Not because he couldn't, but because the swirling curiosity inside him far outweighed his fear.

"Looks like things are about to get pretty troublesome..." Luca muttered with a faint smile.

His body was pulled entirely into the rift of light. Right before the magical phenomenon sealed shut, Luca took one last look at the room where he had grown up.

WHOOM!

The world around him turned into a blinding white.

The sensation of floating ended abruptly. Luca's body was gently tossed, landing on an expanse of soft grass that carried the fresh scent of earth. He stayed still for a moment, closing his eyes to let the dizziness in his head subside.

When he slowly opened his eyes, a breathtaking view was laid out before him. A blue-gold sky stretched vastly overhead, with the giant moon still clearly visible on the western horizon. Surrounding him was a dense forest, green meadows, and a sturdy old wooden house standing not too far away.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps and shouting came from behind the bushes. "LUCA! ARE YOU OVER THERE?!"

Luca turned his head and sat up casually. Arka was sprinting toward him with a pale face, followed by Nayla, who was panting heavily behind him.

"Luca! Are you okay? Are you hurt?!" Nayla asked in a panic as soon as she reached him.

Luca stood up slowly, brushing the dust and leaves off his clothes. "I'm fine, nothing's hurt."

Not long after, Claren emerged from behind the lush trees. Her steps were slow, and her eyes were filled with disbelief.

"You guys... are actually here too..." she said softly, taking in the majestic nature around them. "Where exactly are we right now?"

Before anyone could answer Claren's question, the door of the wooden house nearby slowly opened. A beautiful woman stepped out gracefully. A long, silver-sheathed sword was tied neatly at her waist. She looked at the four strange teenagers in front of her, her expression rapidly shifting from high alert to absolute shock.

Arka instinctively took a fighting stance, acting protectively in front of his friends. "Excuse me! Who are you? And what is this place?!"

The woman glanced briefly at the ancient portal inside her house, then back at the four teenagers one by one—Luca, Arka, Nayla, and Claren. She covered her open mouth.

"Impossible..." her voice trembled slightly.

"The ancient summoning process... it actually worked?"

"Ancient summoning? What do you mean?" Arka pressed, confused.

The woman took a long breath to calm the trembling in her chest, then looked at them with a warm gaze. "My name is Serena Valen," she introduced herself.

She then slowly opened her arms, gesturing to the vast, endless land around them. "And it seems..." Serena gave a faint, awkward smile, "you all have just crossed over from your home world into another world."

The four teenagers were struck speechless. Arka, Nayla, and Claren could only stand in stunned silence, staring at the magical scenery surrounding them.

Meanwhile, Luca gazed up at the vast sky of Aetheria. He observed the giant moon hanging there, then shifted his gaze to Serena with a calm expression. The corners of his lips lifted slowly, forming a mysterious, faint smile.

"This is... truly interesting," Luca whispered softly.

And from that moment on, their peaceful school life on Earth had officially ended. Their new adventure in the magical world of Aetheria had just begun.