The midnight darkness was heavy and suffocating like a living monster.
The shabby room housing the thick blackness was the definition of untidiness, but it was enough to protect the owner from the terrible storm happening outside.
Dirty clothes, opened boxes, leftover food, used tissues, and other trash occupied the tiled ground of the untidy room.
The bed was moist from all the sweat absorbed, and the study table was filled to the brim with empty cans of energy drinks, beer and sweat drinks.
The only clean place in the entire room was the massive desk in the corner, accompanying the gaming computer of Ryan Monaro.
Currently, Ryan was sitting on his gaming chair, with a black controller with white buttons in his hands, while his gaze lingered on the screen of his expensive monitor. On the monitor screen was a translucent light blue panel in a blurry background.
He stared at glowing milky white letters with a distant look on his face.
[You are permanently banned from the World of Magic, due to harassing other players.]
The white letters hung in the air like a curse.
The more Ryan read, the sadder and depressed he became. After reading it for over fifty times, he stopped and continued staring at the translucent panel like a corpse without moving an inch.
His eyes were heavy with sadness, but they failed to convey that sadness as motion since the overwhelming depression in his heart restricted his cold body's movements.
But that depression could only last for a few moments because something more vicious and dreadful started to manifest.
An overwhelming anger akin to blood thirsty rage exploded from the depths of his heart and drowned his mind. It extinguished the depression clouding his heart and returned the control of his body.
The first thing that he did was clench his teeth and raise the controller above his head.
Then with all his might, he threw the controller to the ground, instantly breaking it into a hundred pieces.
The blood vessels in his face turned crimson from the increasing pressure.
He clenched his teeth like an enraged animal while staring at the trash beside his feet with intensity.
He had spent so much money and time on this game that it had taken him close to a decade to become the strongest player in the world.
At the age of thirty, he had no friends, girlfriends or any family left. Even the ones that have already been there, left after getting no attention from him.
But he was fine with that.
After all, he was the best player in the World of Magic online game.
And he earned quite a lot of money from streaming and tournaments. Some people even considered him a wealthy person with a gaming account that could be sold for over one million dollars.
But all of that was gone.
Vanished into nothingness within seconds.
All his hard work and money were gone, just because he called a female streamer a b%tch on the internet.
The funny thing is that she is a b%tch.
He just called her for what she was, but got banned from the game forever.
When he thought about the smug look on her face and the unjust nature of the company toward him, his mind started to burn with anger. His blood veins reddened even more. He clenched his teeth while clenching his teeth uncontrollably.
"That fucking b%tch"
Ryan screamed while punching the nearby monitor with all his might.
"Clank"
With a light thud, the monitor screen broke, and a big hole appeared in its center.
The glass pieces cut into his wrist while numbing electricity went through his flesh.
Even augmented by the adrenaline, it was still too painful, so Ryan tried to take his hand away, but before he could, a white light illuminated the room with a thundering roar.
"Boom"
A loud sound entered his ears while waves of electricity entered his body.
He died within seconds.
***
Ryan floated through the pitch black darkness.
Even though this darkness was much more oppressive and strange than the normal darkness, it was much more soothing.
He couldn't quite put it into words, but he kind of liked it in a strange way.
Suddenly, a female voice started to reverberate through the entire space filled with darkness.
"With this sacrifice, I summon..."
With that, a ray of blinding light pierced the darkness and enveloped him in a bubble of it.
This bubble of light kept getting bigger and brighter until someone couldn't look at it without burning their eyes.
Then it all vanished.
Both the darkness and the radiance.
***
The scorching sun rays failed to penetrate through the thick, light bluish mist enveloping the surroundings.
Only a faint hollow, but a considerably powerful hollow of it illuminated the mist-filled world.
Ryan blinked his eyes for a moment and looked around him with his now crimson eyes.
He was bare-chested and in dark trousers paired with black boots. He was over six meters tall with shoulder-length black hair and a full beard. His tall, muscular body released an aura of dread to those who looked upon it.
Normally, he wouldn't be able to see through a mist this thick, but for some reason, he was able to. His eyes easily pierced through the bluish mist and stopped on a beautiful girl kneeling on the rough ground in front of him.
He quickly cast away a flood of information and examined her with curiosity.
The woman had silky golden blonde hair that cascaded down her back like a golden waterfall. Her golden pupils were calm and stoic, giving a completely different aura from a weak, innocent girl. Her fair, smooth skin was covered by a golden, regal dress that reached down to her knees.
She was a beauty.
If he had to name the top ten most beautiful women he has ever seen in his life, she would be on top of the list.
But right now her beauty was slightly hindered by various things.
Her golden blond hair was messy and had leaves, small broken branches tangled in it. Her beautiful porcelain-like face was drenched in sweat and dirt. Her delicate skin was scratched, wounded and even had stains of dried blood. Her golden dress was torn in many places, with only the most private parts covered effectively.
When he saw the state she was in, a terrible sadness overwhelmed his mind. It was strange, unnatural, and the feelings themselves seemed forced.
He hated these feelings, but he was powerless to resist them.
So he gave in.
Through the unnatural sadness came the raging desire to kill the people who had reduced her to this state.
The thing is, he already knew who these people were.
His ears have already picked up half a dozen people standing behind him with tense expressions on their faces.
One of them was currently advancing through the thick mist with an iron blade in his hand.
His goal was Ryan's death, and his aim was his neck.
Ryan immediately turned around with the desire to avenge the girl and save himself from the incoming death.
Ryan didn't know why he would risk his life for a stranger, or what gave him the confidence to fight them unarmed, or why he wouldn't just run and leave the girl behind.
All he knew was that in his heart, he wanted to rip these bastards limb from limb because of what they had done to the angel-like woman behind him and protect her.
But he hated that feeling.
He examined the approaching guy for a moment, calculating his approach, but before he could form a complete plan in his mind or concentrate on the sudden burst of information, the blonde girl weakly stood up and said, pointing in front of Ryan.
"My summon, I command you to kill these elves and protect me from danger."
When the smooth words carried by the beautiful voice reached his ears, it felt like the whole world had stopped for a moment. That moment instantly ended with something like a switch being flipped.
When the moment ended, it felt like he still had control of his body, but the control could shift anytime.
And it didn't even take a second for that to happen.
He lost control of his body as he dashed through the mist toward the closest person who was marching toward him.
He sped toward him with unnatural, terrifying speed.
The light, bluish mist of strange origin failed to restrict his eyes from seeing everything that was in front of him.
He saw a very handsome, tall man with unusually fair skin and long ears sprinting toward him with an iron dagger in his hands. The man's eyes look determined, and his body exudes confidence.
Suddenly, a pile of information flooded his mind, and this information turned into a translucent light blue panel and appeared in front of him. In it were words written in white text.
[Name = Gannera Kaarth]
[Class = Elf]
[Class Rank = Common]
[Level = Level 1]
[Skills = Archery(Common), Mist eyes(Uncommon)]
[Abilities = ]
In an instant, the blue panel vanished, but the information was tightly injected into his brain.
'Wait, this?'
Ryan blurted out in his mind.
Right now, his mind was trapped in his body as an observer with no control, but he could still think freely while his body moved on its own.
This blue panel was very similar to the game panel of the World of Magic.
'How-how is it possible?'
Ryan became restless over this similarity and thought of many possibilities while his body met the person through the swirling mist head-on.
Ryan avoided the incoming attack of the iron blade before grabbing the man by his chest. Then he lifted him into the air and slowly crushed the man's heart with his hand.
The male elf wiggled in his grasp, causing the surrounding mist to swirl more, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get out of Ryan's firm grasp. So instead of trying to run, he gripped the iron dagger and struck Ryan's neck in a horizontal slash.
"Swooosh"
The sharp blade cut through the air and crashed into Ryan's bare skin, but it failed to pierce through it.
Instead, it broke into a thousand pieces like cheap glass.
"What the?..."
The elf was dumbfounded.
He stared at the broken knife with wide eyes and fear, but before he could form a second word, Ryan tightened his grip on the man's chest and crushed his heart with the sickening sound of crunching bones and slithering flesh.
"Ughhh"
The elf coughed a mouthful of blood directly toward Ryan. A waterfall of blood flowed through the grotesque wounds as the luster in the man's eyes slowly disappeared.
"Clack."
The broken dagger fell to the ground while the last breath of life was extinguished from the male elf.
Strangely, Ryan didn't feel any sadness, guilt or empathy.
It wasn't because he was cold-blooded.
It was because he was unable to feel those emotions.
Ryan didn't know why that was, but he was too preoccupied with something else to think about the sanity of his mind.
Drops of blood leaked from the elf's body and flowed toward a blob of blood that was slowly taking the form of a sphere. This sphere increased in size with more accumulated blood while floating around him.
'Wait, this skill...'
'It's the legendary ranked blood sphere from my gaming character.'
He was the only one who had this kind of skill in the World of magic since his game character was an exclusive character that Ryan spent a fortune to buy. More and more doubt started to accumulate in his mind.
'But...how is it here?'
'What the f#ck is happening?'
Then a sudden thought appeared in his mind that brought a faint trace of excitement(1).
'Did I reincarnate?'
1 = (He can feel excitement, even though he can't feel empathy, sadness or guilt)