LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 1: Initiating
"Ming! go wake up your siblings, breakfast is ready." Li Ming who woke up early to prepare for his entrance test, heard his mother's voice from downstairs and left his chair and dashed to the rooms of his younger sister and brother.
Knock, knock.
"Wake Up!! Wake Up!! breakfast is ready."
Li Ming's fist hammered the doors. The doors creaked under the immense force of his onslaught.
He placed his ear close to both doors one by one, and a satisfied smile bloomed on his lips when he heard the sound of his younger siblings waking up from inside their rooms.
With a content expression, Li Ming walked downstairs. This was his favourite part of the day. Since, he had started preparing for the entrance test; He could also pour out all his frustration and stress by shouting early in the morning but instead of getting an earful; he was praised by his mother and father.
He carefully descended the stairs, holding onto the railing. these stairs were built a long time ago; almost 3 or 4 decades must have passed. The stairs had now become uneven and one miss-step and you would be on your way to the heaven.
"Mom. I have knocked on the door and after I heard some noise from inside, I came downstairs."
Li Ming replaced his hammering on the door to a much more polite word knock.
Father just gave a side glance to Li Ming and then continued reading news on his phone.
Li Ming just give a cute smile, at least to his mother it looked cute, His mom also knew that he was lying not because she was his mother but because they lived in a small house where what was happening in the neighbours house could also be heard with crystal clear audio.
"MOM! DAD! Tell your son to control himself or I will k*ll him." Li Ming did not dare to turn his had and just continued eating his breakfast. His sister was a total demon, and because she was father's favourite child she got away with almost all of her mischievous acts.
"Calm down, sweetie." Mother walked closer to Li Ming's sister and embraced her. Mother gently swiped her hand over the head of her daughter.
She saw that her daughter had calmed down a little and took her hand and guided her to her seat on the table.
Li Ming had almost finished his breakfast.
"How is your studies going?" A deep voice came from opposite Li Ming.
Not Again!
Li Ming had grown tired of hearing the same question every single day since he had started preparing for the entrance test. His father had even asked the same query the day he had joined the course that prepared you for the entrance test.
"I have confidence that I can ace the English but... Maths and Computer are a little confusing sometimes." Li Ming took a pause mid-sentence to think what to tell his father so that he would not continue the topic any longer.
"I read on the website of the institute you are applying to, that Maths and Computer have more weightage in their exams as compared to English."
"I know, which is why I am giving most of my time to them instead of English. Now, even the teachers have started ignoring my messages, it must be because I have started asking such advance questions that even they have difficulty in answering them."
"Good." His Father also started eating after saying one word.
How could I tell you that the teachers have blocked me on all their social platforms because they think my questions are too stupid.
Li Ming stood up after he had cleaned his plate, he saw that his youngest brother was also descending the stairs.
His youngest brother was only eight years old and was the apple of the eye of the whole family.
"Brother~" the youngest threw himself in the arms of Li Ming. Li Ming also hugged him tightly. Li Ming was different from most siblings. He as an elder brother tried to act more mature and also controlled his sister because she was short-tempered. He did not treated his younger siblings like a punching bag, which was why they also treated him respectfully. Although, his sister played naughty pranks but she also did it when he was relaxing or taking a quick break from his studies.
There was not grand reason behind his act. He just did not do anything that his parents did not do to him when he was their age.
...
Li Ming was back inside his room, he had sat up a candle on his table to help him concentrate on his studies, He gave himself a aim that was to continue studying until the candle ran our of wax.
Moreover, he was not filming any short video where it shows that someone is studying using the candle but when he flips through the pages in his book the small flame on the candle is blown away.
Tick tock!
The hand of the wall clock kept on rotating clock-wise and before Li Ming knew, the golden hues of the sun sank beyond the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of amber and crimson before surrendering to the encroaching veil of twilight. Shadows stretched long and thin, dissolving into the growing darkness as the world slipped into the quiet embrace of night. One by one, the stars began to puncture the heavens, their faint glimmers heralding the arrival of a tranquil, moonlit calm.
Yawn~
Li Ming stretched his sore muscles from sitting in the same position for more than 10 hours. His neck was hurting like he'd been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Just joking, this body that could not even handle some studying how would it be able to hold the weight of World on his mortal shoulders.
ping!
His eyes burned with the weight of exhaustion, each blink feeling like sandpaper against raw skin. The pages before him blurred into a haze of ink and paper, the words swimming as if mocking his relentless efforts. He rubbed his temples and pinched the bridge of his nose, but the dull ache behind his eyes refused to relent, a reminder of the hours stolen by the merciless grind of study.
As he rubbed his weary eyes, trying to chase away the fog of exhaustion, a sharp ping broke through the silence—a notification from his phone. The sound was crisp, almost jarring, slicing through the haze of his fatigue like a sudden flicker of light in a dark room.
Li Ming expression started changing as he continued reading the notification on his phone.
"Oh, Finally, after waiting for four whole weeks." Li Ming's favourite Novel had gone on a break after completing of one volume. Now, the author was finally back with a new volume.
A chill ran down his spine just when he was about to click on the notification.
Something feels off..
Li Ming glanced at his lock-screen and saw that the date was 11/01/2025, but didn't the author's not say that he would be back after two months break.
Whatever, the author might have felt restless after reading his story himself and could not help but share the story early than the promised date.
Li Ming clicked on the notification and...Nothing happened. What were you expecting? Just Clicking and he would be sucked inside by his own phone. This was reality not some novel.
A new page opened on his lock-screen asking him to enter his password. After bypassing it he was greeted with an author note, just at the beginning of the new volume of his novel.
He looked at the header and it said six minutes read.
Li Ming was a little disappointed but still he waved off that feeling of loss and continued on the new journey of the MC in the novel.
There was not much action and the MC was also smart and intelligent. Plus the main character hid his power while being over-powered and helping his friends and allies from the shadows without them ever knowing it was their friend who they thought was the weakest.
The clock ticked and soon six minutes had flew away. Li Ming closed his books and went to bed. It was already 10:00PM and he was an "early to bed, early to rise type". He tucked himself inside his blanket and browsed through some new novels but nothing caught his eye. He revisited some old novels he had dropped but still there was no improvement even now just opening the latest chapter he knew what would have happened in all the chapters he had missed.
Yawn~
He looked at the time on his phone and it was already 11:20PM, he got up and put the phone on charge, and placed his spectacles by the side.
Li Ming went back to lie-down on bed and soon his mind drifted to sleep. It was always a strange feeling, whenever he closed his eyes. In complete darkness, he felt an unknown pull. His head started feeling heavy as it usually did whenever he gave his mind some rest after studying for a long time.
...
"Li Ming! Li Ming!"
Li Ming who had just fallen asleep, heard someone calling his name deep within his consciousness. However, his body refused to wake up. His ears started ringing and a strange frequency was sending shockwaves inside his brain.
It was a strange feeling. His heart wanted to get up and respond to whoever was disturbing his nap but his body refused to follow his commands.
Shut up! Shut up!
Moreover, he tried using his lips and vocal cords to produce some sound but that too was futile no matter how much he shouted the individual calling out to him did not listen.
This feeling made him remember the time when he had his first blood test and because of fear he had almost lost his consciousness just moments after the syringe had been removed. The doctor had said it was because his blood pressure had dropped suddenly.
However, he could not remember anything that could have caused him to suddenly faint. He had just slept and had done nothing else.
Li Ming knew for now he could do nothing but wait for his body to start functioning on its own. He sometimes laughed when he saw people who were going to gym to build their physique.
Human body was just so fragile. If the Blood Pressure became low or too strong than it was a problem or if just one vein in our did not receive enough blood circulation then it could cause so much pain that people wished that someone could just cut that part...
Even when all these thoughts were going through his brain, Li Ming did not stop his attempts to try and move any part of his body. Finally, he felt some sensation through the tip of his index finger.
From what his senses conveyed he was lying right now and on some hard surface.
Slowly but surely the blood had started correcting its circulation and his fingers had started moving but his eyes still refused to open.
"Look, come here, Li Ming's fingers just made a movement."
"Move, Move, let me check."
Again the voice that had became silent started shouting. But this time there were more than one people present around him.
Li Ming became vigilant because he could not recognize who these people were.
He felt someone lifting up his arm, might be a doctor, checking my heart-beat. Then the hand started pressing his chest, may be performing acupuncture.
Who still uses acupuncture, in this day and age?
Li Ming had many questions that could only be answered once he regained his senses.
He just lowered his guard but not completely as whoever these people were they were not trying to harm him instead they were treating him and worry was evident in their voice.
Could it be... No, no.
Li Ming brain generated a sudden thought, but he hurriedly popped the balloon of imagination that was swelling from his over indulgence.
How could that be possible? that was something limited to only the pages and ink of novels and sometimes comics.
But no more than that.
...
Time continued flowing, Li Ming did not know how much time had gone. During the morning someone comes and just pours something extremely bitter in his mouth that would have made him vomit previously but now he could do nothing and he felt that after drinking whatever he was made to drink he condition was improving.
It might be some medicine.
Li Ming's world was a haze, a chaotic mix of pain and fragments of unfamiliar memories.
As his consciousness sharpened, a faint shimmer appeared before his closed eyes. At first, he thought it was a dream. But the text was unmistakable—floating, faintly glowing in the void of his mind.
Name: Li Ming
Age: 18
Reputation: Trash Disciple
Talent: ...
Li Ming's brows twitched. "What the hell is this?" he thought, his confusion eclipsed by the absurdity of the situation.
Although, there were some fragments of memories but when he tried to remember the film that had just played inside his mind, the the void in which he could see no one, not even himself started shaking.
Just reading the text, he knew his situation was doomed. He could not see further, it might be because his mind had overloaded. Or this all was just hallucination. He was just in a very long dream, that might be only 3 or 4 hours long but for him it felt like hundreds of year had passed since he had been trapped like this.
But he had not became ill, or had a panic attack after staring at complete darkness for, who knows how long might be a sign that this was all just his imagination.