A blood-red error message flashed in the corner of Riku's vision, a stark contrast to the darkness off his VR rig.
[CRITICAL ERROR: Entity_Asylum_Demon_07 - AI Script Corrupted.]
"Ah, crap, no no no no," he muttered, his fingers flying across the haptic interface. He was deep in a final test of his new game's final boss, the air in his apartment was cool, but inside the headset, it was all completely different with the smell of something burning and the metallic smell of rust.
The demon on-screen twitched, its rendered form glitching. Instead of its programmed roar, a distorted screech ripped through his audio implants. "Aaaarghhh! Damnit!" He tried removing the VR headset but it was of no use - his body in the real world refused to move, just shaking uncontrollably.
[WARNING: Sensory Feedback Loop Detected.]
A jolt, like a live wire shock, shot up his spine. His body arched up. "Ackkk!" This wasn't in the design doc. He had specially designed his own VR rig and he's been using it for over five years now with zero issues. What the hell was going on? Was it the game?
[NEURAL OVERLOAD IMMINENT. DISCONNECT PROTOCOL FAILED.]
Panic washed over him in an instant. The demon's glitched form swelled, filling his vision. Everything else in the VR was warping.
The continious screech from the demon became a physical pressure, seemingly crushing his skull from the inside. He could taste the copper. He tried to scream, to rip the headset off, but his muscles were locked.
The last thing he saw was the demon's face, a terrifying grotesque creature covered in broken, unstable code. The last thing he heard was the sound of his own brain frying.
Then, nothing.
The first sensation that returned was his smell. Not the expected burnt electronics - well, if he did live, that is. It was the smell of earth. Rotting straw. And something like old meat.
Riku gasped, his eyes flying open. A rough wooden beam ceiling came into focus. He was lying on something scratchy. A pallet of straw. "Holy shit, I'm alive!"
"What in the blighted lands...?" a gravelly voice said.
He turned his head. An old man with a face like a wrinkled potato stared down at him, a clay cup in his hand. He was wearing clothes that looked like they came from a medieval camp.
"Uhh... Are you... an NPC?" Riku asked, his throat dry. A strong pain throbbed behind his eyes. "Ahh, what the hell?" He muttered, rubbing his forehead.
The man squinted. "Enn Pee Cee? Boy, the spirit didn't steal your wits, did it? You're lucky to be breathing. Found you half-dead in the mud after last night's haunt."
Spirit? Haunt? Riku pushed himself up, his body feeling alien and weak. The room was a single-space shack with a dirt floor. A single window was covered with a greasy parchment pane.
"This is a hell of a glitch," he whispered. "Where's my system? Six goddamn years of information gathering from unauthorized and hacked websites. Where is it?!" His hands flew to his head.
"Glitch? What is an unauthorized weeb site? Boy you really did loose your wits to the spirit." The old man shoved the cup at him. It contained something that smelled faintly of alcohol and dirt. "Drink. You need your strength. The Ascendancy's patrol will be by soon. They'll want to know why you didn't end up like the others."
"Others?"
"The ones the spirit got. Don't you remember anything?"
Well, he did remember everything. The code, the demon, the searing pain. He remembered his name. His life. His death. Not the 'spirit haunt' everything.
He looked at his hands. They were younger. Paler. He was 21, but his body looked like he went back to his teenage days - 17 at least.
The old man saw the dawning horror on his face and misinterpreted it. "Aye, it's a terror, facing the unseen. But you lived. That means you might have the spark. The gift."
"Gift?"
He leaned in, his breath dropping. "The power to fight back. To consume the fear, the sorrow, the rage... all the negative emotions the spirits feed on. You might be Spirit Hunter material, boy."
Outside the shack, a bell began to ring, a slow, grim sound.
The old man stood. "That's the patrol. Time to see if you're a survivor or a future meal who got lucky this time." He looked Riku up and down. "Try not to look so confused. They don't like confusion. Looks too much like weakness."
He walked out, leaving Riku sitting on the straw, clutching a clay cup of whatever that was, in a world that made no sense.
His game was gone. His life was gone.
But the fear was very, very real. He had built all kind of games, horror included, but he never really felt this kind of fear and confusion before.
He made himself believe this was a game. But he couldn't remember if it was one of the many he had made or not. Some of his memories seemed to be blurry and unclear no matter how hard he tried remembering.
He started muttering. "Calm down, Riku. This is a game. You're a really good game developer. You've played more than a hundred different VR games and this..." He looked around. "Well, it seems too real, but you just have to figure out the system. Yes, that's it. Even though you have absolutely zero information about this, you can do it." He breathed out.
Figure out the system. Master the NPC characterizations. Find where the hack codes may be. It was that easy in his head.
He palmed his face. "This is not a game."
A game dev in a medieval world with no technology - at least none he knew of? Yeah, he was pretty much useless.
For now.