Isekai Alterealist: The Boy Shaped By Reality

0. Let Go By The Hand

Dian walked like a living corpse under the sunlight heat, his legs almost shambling while his heart is mostly in shambles. At this point he should've turned into a zombie with how rotten he is inside, but he was only barely saved from such deva-station by his spoiled nature. That comfort he's so familiar with officially ends today, as he is now in the middle of nowhere with nobody to lean on and nothing to look forward to. Such is the gruesome fate he must now bear as a new University student, freshly forced out of his boat by his parents just a few days ago.

He always thought his parents loved him, but now he's starting to think they planned to cast him out from the very beginning, to let him suffer the world of adults in its rawest form no matter how uncharacteristically cruel that sounds coming from them. Everything felt like an illusion anyways, so that might as well be reality to him now. The ripples of water caused by a stone thrown into his previously peaceful river has distorted his reflected image.

However, he at least has grown enough to understand that he shouldn't listen to the shadow over his mind, clouding his views of reality under a more dark and murky light than it actually is. It's pretty clear his parents love Dian based on how much they pamper him, it's just unclear to him why they decided to let go off him just like that after going this far. Did they regret letting him grow into such a big baby? If so then they could've prevented it earlier... that would be better for everyone in the end.

He doesn't need such a half-reached hand holding trough his path of life, a thought that once again makes Dian shakes his head in confusion as he crossed the busy traffic road with great fear, even after he waited until there's few vehicles left passing around. His paranoid mind seems to keep making up flashes of them moving at a high speed for no good reason.

"I hate this so much already... I never have to go trough this back in the village..." Muttered the boy to himself, jumping at the last meter to the side of the road, earning some weird looks from some people he pretended not to notice. He doesn't need anymore rubbish weighting his mind, especially embarassment.

In his birth village everything used to be just within reasonable walking distance,  from the least important to the most essential to his daily life. If he's hungry he could just go to a nearby stall which there is aplenty, sometimes he would even buy some for his lunchboxes if his mother is too busy and continue on to his school with much time to spare as it's only some more distance away. Everytime weekend arrives, he and his parents would then visit the nearby traditional market to stock up on food and other household necessities, which is one of their most frequent family routine that rarely gets disturbed. It's almost like the gravity of fate itself has gathered all of them there, something that has already been broken a long time ago in this mess of a city.

Just like Dian always expected, chaos and order swirls here like a constant brewing storm, delivering ruin along its path. He can't believe he has to walk for three kilometers just to find a place to buy food, and it's just a convenience store that tends to have the most mediocre stuff. They're also as fresh as a dried wound.

"It's just like what Sandi said, it's like an isekai but only filled with terrible stuff." Muttered the boy again quoting what his best friend said, the other lone wolf that shares his hobby back at his village.

If there's anything even close to being good in the city, then that is the fact he could find even more similar souls like him who shares the same hobbies and interests. Sadly, with how awkward he is with most people he really doubts that he can get anywhere close socially to those urban kids, even if they are just as nerdy and dorky as him. The majority of people have this too, but he can see an even darker and thicker veil seperating between him and their group, seemingly easy to cross and yet they will definitely give him questioning looks as if he don't belong there, making him wish he never went inside in the first place and just veiled himself behind the curtain like an idiot.