I didn't have time to understand what was happening.
A dull roar echoed in my ears, as if the earth itself had split in two. A blinding light from the explosion enveloped me, and before I could even raise an arm to shield myself, my body was hurled backward.
I felt my bones crack under the violence of the impact when I struck something. I couldn't tell if it was a wall or something else, but the air was forced out of my lungs, replaced by a metallic taste in my mouth.
Then came the darkness.
A thick, endless black.
***
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself submerged in deep black water.
I was surrounded only by the void, and as I tried to resurface, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was drowning.
I struggled to swim upward, but it was useless. My body felt weak and clumsy, my arms and muscles lacking the strength to push me to the surface.
I began to lose consciousness once more, and as my eyelids closed, I knew this was the end. But instead of nothingness, another image forced its way into my mind.
A screen.
Yes, a simple screen. Floating in the void, as if torn from reality. And on it, a single phrase:
[Welcome to your world.]
'My world? What do you mean?'
[Welcome to your world.]
The same phrase appeared again, and just as I was about to complain, another sentence suddenly appeared.
[There is no destiny for this world or the character.]
'That phrase…' I thought for a moment.
Yes, I knew it. I had seen it and heard it countless times before.
[Do you begin to understand?]
This thing was really trying to irritate me with all its riddles. I hated riddles, especially when I had just barely…
'Hey… hold on—' A sudden realization struck me as memories rushed back.
My awakening. The ship bearing the emblem of the army. And then… my appearance.
All these elements led to one single point. I knew only one thing that held so many similarities.
And that thing bore the name:
[The Ascension]
"The Ascension…"
I muttered the words as they appeared on the screen.
Back in my world, I was extremely sick. My body was frail, and no medicine could save me.
But despite my deplorable condition, I didn't let it break me.
I wanted to live a normal life, and I never allowed my illness to stop me.
Despite my harsh childhood, I had managed to finish school, and thanks to him, I was able to study further and even find a job.
You might say: who cares about your life, just tell us about the mysterious phrase.
Well, to keep it short, I hardly had any friends. My weak body earned me nothing but pitying stares instead of genuine, friendly ones.
People looked at me like I was a fragile little thing they had to handle with care, and it hurt me deeply.
So what if I was sick? So what if my body was weak?
No matter how bad someone's condition was, he was still human. You didn't have to treat him differently.
But society didn't seem to see it that way, and in the end, I spent most of my time bored, locked inside my home.
It was then that he introduced me to:
[The Ascension]
In fact, for many years The Ascension had dominated every discussion, every circle, whether casual or professional. It wasn't simply "popular" — it had become a cultural phenomenon, a parallel world everyone longed to explore. They said it had no limits, no barriers, except those imposed by the player's imagination itself. A total freedom, almost frightening.
It wasn't just a game.
It was a second life.
At first, I wasn't very interested. The game seemed to rely too much on clichés.
A protagonist chosen by a god. Heroines falling head over heels for him. And countless other tropes.
But it turned out I was wrong. Despite all those clichés, the game presented astonishing diversity — not only for its protagonist but for its characters as well.
The world of The Ascension truly lived up to its name.
A vast, untamed world of jagged mountains, ancient forests, and endless oceans. But above all, a world filled with life.
Humans — ever ambitious, fragile yet capable of building empires.
Elves —beings of unsettling beauty, tied to magic as to their very flesh.
Dwarves — eternal forgers, building entire cities in the depths of the mountains.
Beastmen — half-human, half-animal, whose ferocity inspired both fear and respect.
And many others — forgotten races, creatures of darkness or of light, all striving for the same thing.
For this world did not simply wish to survive.
No, it sought to ascend.
The goal of the game was clear: to reach the level of the gods.
Every race, every individual, sought to climb that invisible mountain. It was not an ascent of stone and snow, but a spiritual climb, a constant struggle against one's own limits.
That was where the name came from: The Ascension.
A game where every victory was a step upward, every defeat a fall downward.
Yet what fascinated and terrified people most was the weight of choices.
The story's protagonist was the adopted son of a noble.
A boy seeking the approval of a cold, distant father. A boy carrying a gaping wound in his heart: the death of his mother.
His entire journey revolved around this duality: to please his father, or to avenge his mother.
And every decision he made whether concerning his allies, his heroines, or even his enemies would shape the course of his story.
Every action, every word, every silence… everything mattered.
And that was the true greatness of The Ascension.
[There is no destiny for this world or the character.]
I read the phrase again as it appeared on the screen.
This sentence was well known in The Ascension community, because it referred to the fact that none of the characters were predestined for anything.
Each of them could live and be happy… or die and be forgotten. And that applied even to the protagonist.
But of course, in every world, in every story…
there was always an exception.