A girl closed her eyes, terrified, but ready to accept her fate.
A terrorist raised his rifle to execute her, the village around them crackling with fire and collapsing in smoke and screams.
Then... nothing.
The gunshot never came.
Instead, there was a strange, rising buzzing sound, low and metallic, almost like an insect swarm made of metal. She opened her eyes slowly.
The terrorist was no longer looking at her.
He was staring at the sky.
Everyone was.
She turned her gaze upward, and saw five dark silhouettes hovering in the blue haze above the village, sharp like spears, silent and motionless.
Panic erupted. The terrorists scattered, some scrambling for their vehicles, others raising their weapons and firing into the air, believing they were under attack from wyverns or aircraft.
The girl felt a chill crawl up her spine. Even as the chaos intensified, she felt something else—something that made her skin crawl.
She was being watched.
She looked around, but all she saw was the burning village, the chaos of the retreating fighters, and the sky. Nothing... yet the feeling only grew stronger.
Then the silhouettes moved.
Three of them tilted forward and dove, fast, terrifyingly fast—toward the center of the village with a roar like shredding steel.
BEFORE
The year was 2046.
A new generation of games had reshaped the world: DDVRMMORPGs, Deep Dive Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.
These games used advanced electroencephalogram systems to read brain activity and translate it into in-game motion. They allowed players to enter vast virtual worlds and experience them as if they were truly there.
Among the countless DDVRMMORPGs on the market, one stood out: Haimetra.
Crafted over a decade by a small indie team beginning in 2030, Haimetra offered something few others could match, a fully open, seamless world. It achieved this by merging every game server into a single persistent map, every player, no matter where they logged in, existed in the same world.
The game boasted hundreds of classes, subclasses, skills, perks, and near-infinite customization. Players could reach level 100 in each class, and the total level cap required mastering at least a hundred.
And for a time, it was a marvel.
But all that... was in the past.
DURING
A person sat beneath a gazebo in a cloud-suspended garden. Behind him loomed a grand palace of pale stone and glass.
He wore a blue military uniform, half of his face hidden behind a stylized white kitsune mask. His crimson eyes gleamed, their triquetra-shaped pupils flickering softly. A single curved horn bent from his white hair across his forehead, almost blending in. He was short, 147.32 cm (4'10"), but radiated quiet power.
He sipped his tea and sighed.
"Ha... after six years, there's finally an update," he muttered, eyes fixed on a glowing countdown in the sky.
"Destroying the server should be fun," he added, chuckling. "too bad our military is exhausted from attacking so much."
But just as the countdown hit zero, the screen glitched.
Error: n'p'DeT^ voT FonvD
"What the...?" he blinked, just before blood, thick and tar-black, splashed from his mouth.
Screams echoed from the void, hundreds of them, overlapping, writhing in pain.
Then, nothing.
He was seated again at the table, tea spilled across its surface, and the blood gone.
"Wh-what the hell..." he whispered, clutching his head. He raised his hand to summon the game menu, only to see it glitching.
"No settings... no logout... no external comms..."
Another gesture. His inventory flickered open. Empty.
Except one item in the accessory slot: a doll, an exact replica of him, mirroring his every movement.
"This has to be a prank..." he muttered.
He checked the game date.
September 11th, 2046. Not April Fool's.
A thread of fear began to wind through him.
Vitals tab:
Game vital: [Stable] [HP Full]
Main body vital: [Disconnected] [Disconnected]
"what do you mean disconnected? it's a wire connection!"
He scanned the map. NPCs were all where they were supposed to be. Nothing seemed wrong... and yet everything was.
In the center of the garden was a massive hole, a fast-travel shortcut he had once created out of laziness.
He activated the barrier spell by accident, a pale blue shimmer wrapping around him.
"Guess that still works," he muttered before jumping in.
The air grew freezing as he fell. Tiny black crystal shards cut across the barrier as he descended, for six long minutes.
Elsewhere...
Two armored figures clashed in an arena. Both wore dark grey uniforms and full face masks. One stood at 220.98 cm (7'3"), with fox ears, a tail, and heavy armor paired with a red brigandine skirt. She wielded a massive claymore with ease.
Her opponent, nearly as tall at 210.82 cm (6'11"), fought in a maid uniform with a war scythe, wings furled tight to her back.
Suddenly, an impact.
Dust exploded upward as something slammed into the center of the arena.
When the dust cleared, Aelithys stood, brushing himself off.
"That took too long," he muttered.
The maid's wings twitched. "O-oh! Your Majesty! What are you doing down here?"
"Gaiara?" he turned to the taller knight. "Aren't you supposed to be guarding the I.L.W and O.L.W sectors?"
She shrugged. "Come on, Your Majesty, they won't even get past the walls."
He pointed to the maid. "Nat, go call the others."
"Sure," she chirped, spreading her wings and vanishing into the sky.
Aelithys turned to Gaiara.
"You're one of the few who knows the truth... right?"
"Yes," she replied.
"I'm not sure we're still in a game," he said, glancing at his hands.
"What do you mean?"
"Settings are gone. Outside world connections? Gone."
Gaiara stepped in too close, hand outstretched, trying to grab him.
He blinked out of reach in a flash.
"Why did I let my friends design your personality...?" he grumbled.
"Ehhh?! You're already used to this??" she pouted.
"The power of persistence," he said dryly. "For someone 7'3", you're surprisingly childish."
Nat returned, followed by several other sector guardians.
One of them, a young woman in a white-and-gold captain's uniform, carrying a saber and a holstered M1911, raised an eyebrow.
"Did you two fight again?"