The darkness surrounding me was pretty silent. I was not scared, there was some amount of curiosity in me after seeing the system message.
There was a video and a message for me.
I didn't watch the video first, instead I decided to read the message.
[Dear Player,
Allow me to introduce myself, I am the president of the Softhardware Inc.
My name is Arther Williams. Since I was 8 years old, I had a curiosity in me to build a game in which players really fight for their life. I always hated the concept of having numerous tries and restart in a game. I wanted a game with pure hardcore mechanics. But this world is harsh, it won't let me. I will be announced as a criminal if I put player's life in risk. And so I let my dream die inside me slowly slowly. But then my company made this game—Seven Sceptre. I read the whole story and this story was perfect to fill my dream. But what is that dream? Please watch the video player. ]
I was confused, my mind had slowly started working again and so it couldn't process this much. I was feeling cozy and dizzy at the same time.
But somehow I gave the command.
"Play the video. "
The video first showed a loading screen but after few seconds it started.
In the video there was an old man in dark reddish suit. His hairs were not long, they were white colored and neatly combed. He had a white moustache and no beard. His eyes were black colored. His face was pretty clean.
In the video, he was in his office, behind him was a wall of glass showing the outside view—buildings and clouds. Then there was a chair he was sitting on, beside the chair a table and on the table some documents, a globe and a telephone.
He was directly looking at me.
He didn't say a thing for around 3-4 seconds but after that he finally spoke.
"Hello dear player. I did introduce myself in the text message but allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Arther Williams, I am 72 years old and I am the president of the Softhardware Inc. In the text message I was talking about my dream and you might be curious about it too by now. My dream is to create a game in which if a player dies in game, he loses his life in reality too but doing it on a big mass would draw a lot of attention and potray me as a criminal. And so with this game I decided to choose a random player and apply this rule on it. And so, you were chosen by the system I created for that role. From now on, you will never be able to log off but do not worry your body won't die in reality as it will be under our care. But there will be a way for you to log off and that is to complete the game. You can take as long as you want but remember, if you lose your life in-game, you will die in reality. But do not worry, you are not alone as there is another player with the same curse and they must be watching this video at the same time as you are. When you will wake up from this slumber, your body will be totally healed and healthy. From now on, it's your journey and our entertainment player, enjoy the game. "
This was something I never anticipated, this was something purely out of a novel. Slowly I lost my conciousness again and when I woke up my eyes, I was in a house.
Looking at the ceiling I could feel my body in sweat. The ceiling was round and made up black stones.
I looked around and found myself in a room. There was a mirror right infront of the bed. I sat down and saw myself in the mirror. There was not a single scratch on my body.
My head was spinning as I was still dizzy.
But using my strength I rose up and walked to the mirror.
I looked at myself from every angle and there was not a single scratch.
Those words of Arther Williams were still repeating in my head.
I opened the system menu and tried to log off.
"Save the game and log off. "
[We are really sorry but the log off has failed]
"Tsk, please don't. "
"Save the game and log off. "
[We are really sorry but the log off has failed]
"Don't save the game, just log off. "
[We are really sorry but the log off has failed]
Those words just turned into reality right infront of me.
I couldn't understand what to do. I just wanted to go back into my world.
But then, the brown wooden door of the room slowly opened with CREAK sound and I quickly looked towards the door.
I was ready to calm Rodrigo's Wrath but my frustration calmed down for a bit as I saw who came inside the room.
It was the same girl I saved. She was smiling when she looked at me.
With a big smile she said, "Big brother, you finally woke up. "
Then she looked behind and shouted, "Mom, dad, big brother has woken up. "
I could hear footsteps of two people coming towards the room with haste. The girl was standing at the door grabbing the door knob.
I just looked at her as I was too much occupied to even give any reaction.
And then the mother and father of that girl came in the room. Both of them were very beautiful, the father did has feminine looks but he looked totally like a man.
He had a tall and a bit muscular but thin body. His long silver hairs were really beautiful.
The mother's hairs reflected that of the daughter's and she was as beautiful as her daughter or might be even more.
The mother grabbed her daughter's shoulder softly and looked at me with a smile.
Meanwhile the father walked few steps towards me and then bowed and said, "Sir, thank you very much for saving our daughter. We are really grateful to you. You can stay here as long as you want and we will provide you with the best hospitality we can give. "
The mother and the daughter both bowed with the father.
I snapped out of the things which kept me occupied and nervously replied, "No, please don't. I just did what was right. There is no need of thanks. "
All three of them slowly rose their head and the father replied, "You must be hungry, please come and have breakfast with us. "
I gave a warm smile and said, "Sure, let's go. "
All three of them smile and the father said, "Please follow us. "
Then those three turned around and slowly walked out of the room.
I took around 3 steps ahead but then ny attention was again caught by the system screen which popped up with another message.
[You have recieved a gift from the system]