"Ray, come have dinner!" said a feminine voice with a slight touch of anger.
"I'm coming, Mom," he replied in a voice just strong enough to reach the kitchen.
Inside a dark room, lit only by a computer monitor, the sound of keys being pressed could be heard constantly. On the screen, a man clad in bloodstained armor and sword was facing a grotesque enemy.'This damn boss is impossible. I've already used all my healing consumables, all my companions are dead, and he's only lost one health bar.'
The boss, with five health bars, still seemed like an impossible challenge before the fragile hero, who could die at any moment.
'I'll pause and go eat,' he thought as he rose from his chair with sluggish movements.
Dark circles weighed under his eyes, a clear sign of several sleepless nights.
'I think I should give up on trying to kill the Demon King. This is already my fourth attempt, and if I die again, I'll lose another character.'That special trait of the Demon King, known as the "Soul Devourer", allowed him to destroy a player's soul and force them to create a new character, starting the entire story from the beginning.
When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw roasted meat and fries on two plates. At the center of the table was a small cake.
"Are we celebrating something, Mom?"
"Don't you remember?" she asked with a playful smile as she approached him.
"No," he answered in pure confusion.
She hugged him and said: "It's your birthday, son." She released him from the hug, stepped back, and added: "Happy birthday."
Ray, still a little embarrassed for forgetting his own birthday, looked away slightly and said: "Thanks, Mom."
"Eat quickly before it gets cold," she said, sitting in the chair in front of one of the plates.
He quickly sat down as well and enjoyed a meal with his mother—something rare due to the two jobs she worked.
When he finished eating and was about to leave the kitchen, his mother stopped him and asked him to listen.
"Tomorrow morning, we're going to visit your father's grave. So try to sleep a little earlier, okay?"
"Okay, Mom."
He left the kitchen and returned to his room, already thinking about how he would die to the Demon King once again.
Back in his room, he sat in his chair and began preparing to take yet another beating from the boss.
But when he resumed the game, something was different.
'What is this window in the middle of the screen?'
On the screen was written: "Do you wish to kill me, human?"And beneath the phrase were two options: "Yes" or "No."
Without thinking, he clicked on "No."
And as if a direct consequence of Ray's choice, the system screen cracked—and was pierced by the elegant hand of a woman, which reached out to his neck and grabbed him.
'What the hell is happening??' As that thought struck him, the beautiful woman's hand began pulling back into the game—but this time, he was being dragged along.
'Am I going to die?!'