How it Began
***
Pain
That was the first thing I felt. A crushing, unbearable pain that clawed at every fiber of my being.My chest burned as if a blade had pierced through it, my ribs screamed each time I tried to breathe, and my throat tasted of iron.
I opened my eyes with difficulty, vision blurred, only to be blinded by a merciless light. The sun—too bright, too close, too real.
The sun?
I was puzzled how the sun could pierce thought my appartment.
Wait don't tell me It was already morning?did I really fall asleep while playing?
"What?"
The words came out broken, a dry whisper, but they were enough to confirm what I already knew deep down: this wasn't my apartment. No ceiling above me. No bed. Just… grass. Endless grass brushing against my face as I lay sprawled on the ground like a corpse
For a moment, I thought I was dead. Maybe this was purgatory, or some twisted dream after an all-nighter gaming session. But the pain was too sharp, too unforgiving to be a dream.
'Did I get a heart attack while playing the game all night'
No,it was impossible I couldn't have died of a heart attack.
I mean I wasn't so old to have a heart attack and I respire my bad physical condition I was certain that I was fine when I started playing.
I tried to remember but my memories were scrambled and I couldn't remember anything...
'Damn it, i need to know where I am' i though while I forced myself to move, every nerve rebelling, and pushing my trembling body up from the dirt.
"…Agh!"
The scream escaped before I could hold it back. My left side was soaked in blood. A deep wound cut across my abdomen, half-clotted, half-open, like I had survived some kind of battle. My legs carried cuts and bruises, and my hands shook violently as if I had been struck by lightning.
'What the hell'
How was that possible?How was I still alive with that many cut and wound? I should have been died of blood lost or something like that.
Wait,maybe I was dead?after all there was no way could still be alive.
'Does that mean I was in paradise?'
I was not a believer of god but I wasn't a bad person I hurt someone or I didn't do it intentionally.
That could be a treatment of favor maybe this was a place for soul like me who refused to believe in him.
Though I wouldn't have mind if he gave healed my body.
I get up with pain and I looked around for understanding where I was.a plain stretched endlessly before me, a sea of gold and green under the pale sky. The wind carried the scent of burned wood and something else—something rotten.
'Damn look like I'm in hell'
I staggered forward, one step at a time. Each movement was agony but I couldn't stay here I needed to know what was happening and find help quickly for my wound.
I continued to walk and then In the distance I saw it.Half-buried in the tall grass, stood the broken carcass of something massive.
A ship.
No… a wreck.Yes,it was the wreck of a ship but strangely something feel of about that ship.
Not only it was massive but also looking at it I was sure it was once magnificent.
The wreck loomed before me like the carcass of a dead leviathan, half-buried in the tall grass and broken by time. What had once been a proud vessel was now nothing but a twisted skeleton of charred beams and shattered steel.
Black scorch marks ran along the hull, dark veins etched into the pale wood as if the fire had tried to consume the very bones of the ship but failed, leaving behind a grotesque reminder of its rage. Whole sections of the deck had caved in, collapsed under their own weight, and the mast—if it could still be called that—jutted skyward like a broken spear, cracked and splintered in two.
The scent of ash lingered even now, faint but unmistakable, as though the flames had never truly died. Around the wreck, the earth itself was scarred—patches of blackened soil and brittle grass stretched outward like the aftershock of an explosion.
I continued to approach the wreck and the more I did the more the scent of burn was filling my nostril.
I stopped right before it and I ran my hand across the hull and felt the rough, uneven surface, where fire had eaten through the layers and left behind a coarse texture, brittle to the touch. The emblem carved into its side was half-burned, but still visible, twisted by heat into something almost unrecognizable, a ghost of what the ship once stood for.
"That emblem" I said looking at it more"it look like..."
I couldn't finish my sentence that my heart skipped a beat.
"No...no...no...no...that impossible"
Panic ran though my body. I...I knew this symbol, even if it half destroyed, I could still recognize it. Because i have seen this symbol so many time on my monitor in a world that was a fiction.
"The symbol of the ark"I whispered, disbelief coating every word.
It was impossible to mistake it. This symbol belonged to one of the iconic company in a popular game named [the ascension].
The ark was a company that was specialized in transport in the game,and one of their big value was their flying ship who was one the popular transport in the game and who could transport the equivalent of a city of person.
And yet… here it was, towering before me in its full, terrifying reality.
My pulse quickened.
If this ship is real, then…does that mean....
I shook my head for letting go this though.
'I need to be sure'
I forced myself forward despite the fire in my lungs. Each step echoed with dread.knowing the reputation of the ship in the game there was surely survivor,water, food or anything that could help me.
I reached the shattered hull and slipped inside hoping that there could be more than I expected.
But reality give me a slap as I see what was before me.
The air inside was suffocating, thick with the stench of death and the burned corpse in the ground.
I placed my hand on my mouth resisting the urge to vomit. It was really a horrible spectacle.Blackened wood, twisted metal, scraps of broken weapons without counting the numerous burned body.
I could see there was many people there who tried to escape but failed,man, woman and also children.
I stumbled through the wreckage, calling out weakly:
"Hello? Is anyone… is still alive?"
My voice was swallowed by silence.
Nothing. No reply. No life. Only the ghosts of something long past.
Still, I couldn't understand how this ship have been destroyed. There was never a incident in the game. The ship of the ark was always sure.
That's when my head tickled.
I didn't know why but it was like I could heard something,like voice, many voice.
Panic suddenly shot through me. An instinct alien yet sharps creamed in my mind: Hide.
Without thinking, I dropped behind a pile of broken crates and pressed myself into the shadows. My breath came shallow, my heartbeat loud enough to betray me.
Then I heard footsteps growing louder and louder until I saw them.
A group of men, armored in black and red, their boots crunching against the dirt floor of the wreck. Their faces were cold, devoid of mercy, their eyes gleaming like predators.
One of them with red hair dragged a figure by the collar—a man, gagged and bound, his face swollen from beatings.
"Please…!" the man managed to beg between sobs.
The cloaked figure said nothing. He simply unsheathed a blade—cold steel, gleaming in the dim light—and with one precise motion, slit the prisoner's throat.
Blood sprayed across the ground, red and steaming, staining the wreck like fresh paint.
The victim twitched, gurgling, then fell silent.
I froze. My body wanted to scream, to vomit, but I forced myself to remain still, trembling in silence.
'They gonna kill me, they gonna kill me' my thought were chaotic as I could clearly see that my life was on the line.
One of them turned, and for a terrifying second, his gaze swept dangerously close to where I was hiding. My breath caught.
I didn't move my body was paralyzed as he began to move toward my spot.
I looked around rapidly trying to search for a hidden route for escaping then my eyes fell on something glinting faintly among the wreckage.
A mirror.
Half-broken, its surface cracked, but enough remained intact to reflect my face.
But the reflection that stared back wasn't mine.
Pale skin. Red Sunken eyes. Dark hair matted with blood. A fragile, pitiful body that looked one step away from collapsing entirely.
I recognized that face.
"Elias...veyra"
The name escaped my lips before I could stop it.
A character destined to die no matter what path the player took. A nameless, forgotten soul erased from the story, his fate sealed by the cruel logic of the game.
For the second time my head tickled but before I could do anything
Boom