It was late at night. The glow of the computer monitor was bright, the images were moving while an average-looking man in his early thirties was playing a run-of-the-mill RPG.
Sitting in his chair, the listless expression on his face was telling everything someone would need to know of how the game was. Well, sitting may be a stretch at this point; it would be more accurate to call it lying underneath the table. The game he was playing had a decently sized community and an even bigger following.
The thing about this game is that it was just another gacha for the most part, but the people were a decent sort. Not really good people, but decent all the same. The chat window was moving by so fast that most would be unable to read anything from it. The words and emotes were scrolling by so fast that it was a blur to the naked eye. One comment in particular stood out.
'Dude, did anyone see that boss in the new zone? It looks like something out of a Lovecraftian horror.'
This comment was followed by a flurry of others agreeing with it; some were complaining about how they died to it. Others were saying how they managed to kill it. The only thing that was on the mind of the man was how he was going to get enough money to buy the new gacha banner. The game was the only thing that was keeping him going at this point, the only thing that was keeping him sane. The world outside of his room was a blur to him. He didn't know what was going on, and he didn't care. All he wanted to do was play the game and forget about the world.
The man was so engrossed in the game that he didn't notice the change at first. The scrolling chat froze mid-emote, the animated characters on his screen locked into their final poses. Not a crash. This was different. The cursor, poised over the
'Purchase Premium Currency'
button, refused to move. A profound, unnerving stillness descended, not just on the game, but on the very air in his cramped room. The hum of the computer, the distant wail of a siren, the frantic beating of his own heart — all of it ceased. He tried to scream, to push away from the desk, but his limbs were leaden statues. Then sudden darkness. This was no mere power outage; even if the power went out, there would still be light coming from outside the window. But this was pure darkness. There was nothing — no light, no anything.
The sensation of falling, or perhaps rising — he couldn't tell. A sickening lurch in what he thought was his stomach, but there was no stomach. There was no body. Just a floating consciousness, a disembodied point of awareness adrift in an endless, silent void. He tried to feel for his hands, his face, anything, but there was only the horrifying emptiness of formless existence. Time lost all meaning; a second could have been an eternity, or an aeon might have passed in the blink of a non-existent eye. There was no up or down, no warmth or cold, just the profound, soul-crushing isolation of being utterly alone and utterly unbound from the physical world he had always known.
The light sound of a bell or a chime sounded through the void...
The voice wasn't heard with ears but felt directly in the core of his being, an intrusive thought that wasn't his own.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He couldn't speak, so he thought what he wanted to say.
`Ahhh~ can you hold on there for a minute? I do feel very uncomfortable being spoken down to by a feeling.′
The moment he thought this, he sat in a chair. It was not a comfortable chair, but a chair. While on that chair in this vast void of nothingness, a desk stood before him. And a being with no features, like a mannequin, was behind it. The desk looked like the type you see in movies; in the boss's office. There was no other furniture or decoration, just the desk, the chair, and the featureless entity. The surface of the desk was a polished, obsidian-like material, so dark it seemed to drink the faint, sourceless light that permeated the void.
The being's head tilted slightly, a gesture so unnervingly human it made the void feel even more alien.
"This is far more comfortable but not less creepy... what exactly are you?" his voice was working now, now that he had a body. The being across from him steepled its fingers, the motion devoid of any real warmth or intent.
"Alright, so something is happening and I have to prepare for it, and what?" he felt like a fool for saying this, but he had no clue what was going on. He was just a normal guy who played games to escape the mind-numbing reality of his life.
"Wait, what do you mean 'what my nascent understanding will initially classify as beasts'? I am not an idiot, even if I am a nobody." he had to stop for a moment, thinking about what he just said. The fact that he just insulted something that held all the cards was not a good idea.
"So in one week my world is going to end as I know it, and I need to become strong... but I have a normal job that I need to go to tomorrow, so how am I supposed to do this... training?" the sarcasm was thick in his voice.
"Several, to be honest... but none are necessary. How will we go on from here?"
The Guide leaned forward slightly, its featureless face giving the impression of intense scrutiny.