Chapter 1

When I woke up, I found myself in an unfamiliar white room. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all completely white. When I touched them, they felt smooth. The room was about the size of a school gymnasium, and the ceiling was as high as in an ordinary house.

"Hey, is anyone there?!"

I shouted. I shouted many times, but the only response was the echo of my own voice. There was no noticeable change.

Is this a prank? No way, I'm just a college student, not a celebrity. It's impossible for a TV station with strict compliance to kidnap and imprison me.

I tried to recall my memories. I had been playing games on my smartphone and fell asleep in bed around 1 a.m. The evidence was that I was still in my pajamas, which I bought from a shopping mall.

"What should I do about my university lectures…?"

Feeling at a loss, I began to explore the room. There were no results. There were no doors or windows, and I couldn't figure out how I had entered the room. Moreover, there was no apparent light source, yet the room was not dark.

"Maybe it's this, huh?"

In the center of the room was something that clearly didn't belong there, something that shouldn't be there.

A gacha machine. It was there in the center of the room.

A gacha machine, found everywhere in Japan, with a white lower body that had a coin slot and a rotating lever, and a capsule dispenser. The upper part, which usually has a paper explaining what's inside, was missing, but this allowed me to see the contents clearly. The machine was filled with many colorful capsules, but unfortunately, I couldn't see what was inside them. I had no idea what was inside.

However, the only thing in this white room was this gacha machine. If I didn't turn it, the situation wouldn't progress.

I thought maybe I had been kidnapped for some rich person's amusement, as often seen in movies, and tried to turn the gacha machine. Conveniently, some coins were placed in front of the gacha machine.

I picked up a coin and examined it, but it had no pattern engraved on it and was just a piece of metal. Well, with nothing else to do, I inserted the coin. I just noticed that this gacha machine didn't indicate how much money was needed anywhere. I wondered if it was broken as I turned the lever.

Clunk

A white capsule came out of the dispenser. It had a sticker with a 'C' written on it.

Common, common. It's a miss. Another mediocre item. Oh, it opened easily without much force.

Inside was a piece of paper.

'Convenience store chicken'

Convenience store chicken, sold in the space in front of the registers in Japanese convenience stores. It's usually sold for between 180 and 240 yen, juicy and very tasty, with a lot of oil and flavor.

I heard something fall and turned around to see a paper bag on the floor. When I looked up, there was nothing. Inside the bag was what seemed to be fried chicken.

Where did this come from?

More importantly, what should I do now?

I was at a loss. The chicken was delicious.

---

One day, it was suddenly announced.

"To the people of Earth. You have gone astray. According to our predictions, within the next 30 years, the civilization built by Earth's humans will collapse, and the pollution of the Earth's environment will cause damage that cannot be recovered with the current technological level of Earth's humans, leading to the loss of the beautiful and abundant Earth environment. We cannot overlook this."

"From the people of Earth, we have selected a thousand humans. We will give each of them superpowers, artifacts, and a planet to compete with each other."

"The winner of this competition will be granted absolute control over Earth. There is no right to refuse."