Solo Panicking

Unfamiliar Familiarity

Morning light streams through the thin curtains of your new apartment, its pale glow barely blocking the rays of the rising sun. You wake with a groan, your body feels heavy and a tab sore from yesterday's panic and relocation. Your mind is still tired from a night of restless sleep, for a moment you thought that you were waking up from a bad dream but when the unfamiliar walls came into view and some unopened cardboard boxes made the hop of it was all just a dream, untrue.

You sit up and groan, feeling a faint headache come about, you swing your legs over the edge of the bed and stand slowly, the cold floor was an excellent wake up call and another stark reminder that this is not a dream. "Ack– ok, ok, should buy some slippers or thick socks when I go out next." The walk to the kitchen was almost torture with the cold floors but somehow you made it though.

There was no coffee pot to be able to make coffee, nor any tea to be heated up... "Alrighty day two is already off to a bad start." The next best thing to wake up the body is movement. You glance at the boxes, might as well get started unpacking. The forest few boxes hold basic household necessities, like kitchen cookware and utensils, shower stuff, and even some clothes that you recognize from your own closet. As soon as all that is put away the apartment doesn't look as desolate.

The next item on your mental checklist is the backpack you woke up with. In it had the lease agreement and utility bills, a wallet with some cash and a credit card, it also had the government-issued ID, showing you were now a citizen of South Korea. Your eyes narrowed as you took in the picture of you and your name, it looks as if your name was translated, altered ever so slightly. Is... is there perhaps a chance that there is another you? One that existed in this universe? Did... did you take the other's place? Did they take yours in your world?

The thought makes your heart clench but a quick scroll from your phone showed no contacts of any kind, no friends or family. Your phone was wiped clean of any data used over the last couple of years... But why?

"I guess it really is just me." you murmur, the phone screen shuts off and you are met with your reflection. Tiredness is what is seen but sadly not from sleep. Although, there is something off with your reflection, you note that your face is smoother than usual. You don't think too hard about it since you just transport yourself to a fictional world, of course people will have better skin than the other world.

"Well, at least I'll save money on skincare." you say aloud while pocketing the phone.

Before you could move onto a different task, your stomach growls loudly, a rude reminder that you had not eaten since yesterday. You groan and rub your head making a mental note of what food you have... Nothing, nothing at all, your pantry and fridge are empty. Well at least a good excuse to exit the building.

It feels like a bit of a chore to put on clothes for going out in and not old pajamas you found. You'll also have to get some toothpaste while you are out. Maybe you should write a grocery list at this point. Clutching the wallet and apartment keys in your hand, you exit your apartment. An empty hallway is what greets you, you start walking down the stairs and a few minutes later, you find the streets just as busy as yesterday, it was nice in an odd way. That at least people will still be people.

You make your way to a small convenience store nearby. The bell over the door jingles as you enter, and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mixes with the sterile scent of cleaning supplies. As you peruse the aisles, you carefully select a pack of instant ramen, toothpaste, and a few other essentials that might help ground you in this bizarre new reality.

At the register, your eyes wander to the magazine rack near the counter. There, staring back at you from a glossy cover, is Choi Jong-in—his steely gaze and confident smirk anchoring the headline: "Korea's Top S-Rank Hunter Discusses Guild's Future." You are starting to not like his face. It's a familiar but unfamiliar face that keeps popping up whenever you go somewhere new. Which is everywhere, the man is well advertised.

The cashier is a young woman who goes the extra step to ask about your day and make actual conversation with you as she checks out your items. Normal human interaction does help brighten your mood. But the thought of the empty apartment is quick to bring it down again when you exit the store.

While retracing your steps back to the apartment, you notice a small group huddled around an old bulletin board attached to a lamppost. Curious and not wanting to go back just yet you go up and take a peak. The board is plastered with flyers and notices, all for hunters to help with clean ups or going on low level raids. It may be normal for the everyone else to see, but seeing flyers for entering dungeons was almost too much. Although none were higher than a low level C-Rank just the thought of entering one make your stomach churn.

'There's no way I'm getting involved in that.' you thought while stepping back and heading back towards the apartment building.

Yet, the awareness of your own helplessness lingers, a constant reminder that while you possess knowledge that could prove valuable, you have no awakening magic to protect yourself or others, just an ordinary human who somehow ended up in this dangerous, monster hunting world.

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Back in your apartment, you stand in the kitchen, staring at the unopened ramen package on the counter. Your appetite gone since seeing the flyers. Your gaze drifts to the key lying on the table and the slip of paper with an address scribbled in unfamiliar handwriting. Well its clear it wasn't written by anyone you know, but something about it keeps drawing your eye to it.

The neatness of the note makes you think it was typed and printed rather than written. But the slight smudge at the end tells you otherwise. The person or being who wrote this is probably the same one who brought you here. Not only that but set you up in an apartment and even got identification for you so that you could probably get a job sometime.

You definitely have it easier than other transmigrators... The situation still sucks though.

You groan and start prepping the food. Hoping that you can at least easily find a job soon. You don't notice the faint sparkles that appeared around the food before fading.

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Hey... sorry this took so long. Firstly I was testing the AI detector, trying to see how accurate it is... not that accurate but it does point out old plot holes for me so that works.

Secondly the ao3 curse hit, 1 sibling is in the mental hospital, other sibling went to the actual hospital for very low calcium and then my grandmother died on the 13th... so its been a week