PLEASE WAIT WHILE YOUR WORLD LOADS…
Daniel floated, weightless. His heartbeat was a snare drum in his ears. "…What the actual hell?"
From somewhere in the abyss: the rhythmic click-clack of a keyboard. A pause. More typing.
"Hey!" His voice disappeared into the nothing. "Is someone there?!"
The typing stopped. A single, decisive click.
Reality rebooted like a crashing computer.
—LOADING COMPLETE—
Dirt road. Blue sky—too blue, like a cheap postcard. Birdsong that felt suspiciously on-the-nose, as if nature had hired a sound designer.
Danny sat up, groaning. His suit was gone, replaced by what looked like a medieval peasant's hand-me-downs: a scratchy tunic, leather boots that had definitely been broken in by someone else, and a belt with a sad little pouch. He shook it. One piece of parchment slid out, glowing faintly.
[WELCOME, @312^##.]
[CLASS ASSIGNED: NONE.]
Danny stared. "What is that?" I asked as I stared at it in the middle of the street. After a while, it disappears. I look around and then look at myself.
I was in the middle of a theme park, with people wearing rugged dress, but it was too extreme for me. I looked around and saw horse poop all around; no theme park would be this extreme.
"Cheap lawab! Cheap labor from the north!!!" " Fresh veggies at 2 bronze!!" COME QUICKLY!!" "Boiled rat skewers! Only one bronze! If you can find more meat than this, spit in my face!"
"Spices! Red thorn pepper burns your tongue but warms your soul! Three packets for a copper, don't be stingy!"
"Shiny trinkets for the lady! Silver rings—probably not cursed! Probably!"
"Sharpest knives in Ironvale! Gut a boar, gut a thief, gut your mother-in-law—same price, same quality!"
"Leather boots! Good leather! Not stolen! (…maybe stolen!)"
As the sound engulfed me from the shopkeeper and as I ran endlessly, the buildings never ended. Same people wearing rugged clothes, I run in the streets as a madman, crying and screaming, people looking at me weirdly, but the theme park was never-ending.
Was I even in a theme park?
I continued to run as my feet started to hurt, and I was uncontrollably crying. I grabbed a woman and screamed at her," Where am I? Is this a fucking prank! I am going to fucking sue you guys !!!!! Where am I?!"
Suddenly, I experienced a huge force on my back, as I lunged forward and fell on the ground.
I looked where the force came from and saw two men, one wearing a silver armour with delicate decorations, as his face was fully covered with a huge helmet. While the other one with a moustache was wearing rugged leather armour and an iron helmet, which said," Probably some addict," with eyes that looked down on me as I was lying on the ground.
The woman quickly ran away.
"Tell me where I am? Who are you guys?" I am still screaming and huffing. The man smirked, "Oh, addcit forget where he is? HA HA HA HA You seeing this?!"
My pleas were making him laugh more and more.
Finally, the other man wearing white armour spoke," Can you tell your name and address, please?"
" I am Daniel and I am from..." Why can't I remember anything besides my name? What's happening to me?
"Please, do not indulge in such narcotic substances," the heavy armour guy replied.
" I am no addict, please tell me where you are." I pleaded.
The moustache man laughed more," You are in Ironvale, my friend, in IRONVALE HA HA!!."
The sheer mockery of me makes my eyes watery as the armoured guy gives me a fruit," Here, take a lawab and do not harass further civilians."
As they both left, leaving me with a fruit with a gibberish name.
For hours I sit there, as hunger comes, and I eat it. The taste was weird; it was like watermelon but shaped like an apple.
I heard commonations noise, as people were gathering there as I walked there with my tired legs, and what I saw was the most beautiful thing ever.
The ocean split open before me.
A whale. No, not a whale. Something beyond that word. Its body glistened like melted glass, every ripple of water bending light around it, refracting a thousand impossible colors in my eyes. Each time it surfaced, the sky seemed to pause, as if the clouds were caught staring.
It was too beautiful. Too perfect. My throat locked.
And then—horns. War cries. Ships. Dozens of them, sails torn and patched, iron harpoons glinting like hungry teeth. The hunters were foaming at the mouth, their ships cutting across the waves like vultures with wooden wings. They didn't see beauty. They saw meat. Oil. Coin.
The whale sang. God, it sang. A deep rumble that shook my ribs, a sound so mournful I nearly cried without knowing why.
I realized I wasn't in my world anymore. No theme park could fake this, no VR headset could shove this song into my bones. This was real, too real. The kind of real that hurts.
And yet all I could do was stand there, frozen on the shore, watching death close in on beauty.
The hunters screamed. The whale rose, water cascading from its fins like crystal curtains. Its eye turned toward me—just for a second.
I swear it knew.
It knew I didn't belong here.
It knew I wasn't ready.