[ Welcome back, Alpha! I hope you had a great adventure! ]
Ryan read the messages on the helmet's visor with no reaction at first.
[ You were the first to explore that world, quite the privilege! Countless unclaimed riches await to be conquered there, as well as dangers the human mind is incapable of conceiving or even naming.]
[ The world discovered by you has been classified as (SSS+), a true find! ]
[ However, entry into this world is not recommended for beginners. Only high-level specialists who wish to challenge themselves should plan carefully before risking it. For everyone else, only a quick and painless death awaits. ]
[ Even so, with all the dangers lurking around, you returned against all odds. For that, a right is reserved for you and no one else. ]
[ What do you wish to call this world? ]
Ryan stared at the visor in silence, his mind still trying to process everything he had been through. Every terror he had endured with a smile on his face, if only to keep himself from surrendering to fear and despair.
Now he was back. He could cry, scream, writhe on the floor. Whether from joy at returning alive or simply letting all those primal feelings finally pour out, no matter how shameful they might be.
Even so, his mind simply froze. There was no fear, no euphoria.
There was nothing.
Ryan lowered his gaze for a few moments.
Then he looked at the visor again.
"Call it whatever you want." Ryan removed the helmet and simply listened to the message.
[ Alpha's Domain ]
[ … ]
[ Danger!!! The data…]
Ryan stood up and looked around. He was lost for a moment, confusion taking hold of part of his mind, while the other part seemed inert, or simply apathetic.
"Where am I?" He asked himself, taking in the luxurious apartment around him. "Ah, right. My father vanished and I ended up getting this apartment... there's also a café downstairs and I'm the manager. I joined the mafia and even have a personal servant named John."
By then the recent events seemed hidden behind a thick fog. He was slowly remembering who he was and what he had done over the last few days, in the real world.
But the first thing that caught his attention was not being in a hospital.
Ryan had spent five full days with that helmet on his head, and yet no one had noticed his absence, which seemed peculiar at first. Until he picked up his phone and checked the date and time. He swallowed hard, slightly trembling.
"It was minutes... minutes?!" Ryan stared in a panic. "I spent five days in there and yet only instants passed here. The gap between entry and exit was so small I can't even calculate the time flow difference." He pressed a hand to his head before taking a slow, deep breath. "That means... when I go back, thousands of years will have passed... my companions have been dead for centuries."
He sighed deeply again. "Well, so be it..." He shrugged. "Forget the game, Ryan. You made it out."
He set everything aside and walked to the kitchen. Before long he had made instant noodles and ate at the counter, all while taking in the luxury surrounding him. After such an unpleasant journey to that bitterly cold other world, sitting in a soft chair inside a climate-controlled apartment made all the difference.
Done eating, he stopped to watch TV, trying out the couch for the first time. His mind locked up like a cluster of jammed gears, keeping him from thinking deeply about anything.
Without paying attention to the time, he eventually stood up coughing and walked to the bathroom. He took off his clothes without much thought and stopped in front of the shower, staring at the two knobs with intensity.
"Hot water or cold water?" Ryan asked himself.
If his father were here, he would say cold water. Cold water is perfect for the body's health, and it sharpens the senses. It would wake up Ryan's stalled mind, make him see the whole situation through a new lens. That technology was certainly something valuable, something that ought to be shared with the right people.
The Alpha Helmet had so many uses, especially for military training and academic study. Years of combat training could be compressed into instants, forging formidable warriors. And beyond that, a single human being could absorb the entire knowledge of modern civilization in moments, then return in a youthful body of twenty years.
Ryan needed to think about what that meant for him and for the world, his father would say.
But his father was not here, and Ryan knew perfectly well what he himself actually needed.
He turned the hot water knob, letting the warmth spread across every pore of his body. He tilted his head back, letting the water run through his black hair, massaging his scalp. Even as he relaxed, Ryan also saw the world through a new lens.
"I couldn't do this before." He murmured, feeling his body unwind, a faint smile spreading across his face. "Being half-wolf meant my ears were on top of my head. If I tilted my head back with them up like that, water would pour in and make me shake my head like a dog." He laughed quietly.
"How strange..." He looked at his hands. No claws. "I used them so much and now they're gone." He smiled a little more before finishing his shower and walking to the mirror.
He stared at himself for a few moments, then leaned forward with both hands braced against the mirror. "So this is me?" He asked himself, searching for the bestial ears, the claws, the tail, even pulling his lips back to reveal rows of perfectly ordinary human teeth. The tongue that had once been wide and rough was now normal.
Some things had vanished. Others had taken their place.
He kept studying his own eyes, deep down, without knowing why.
There was something there...
Suddenly, Ryan straightened his posture.
No.
The Ryan in the mirror did.
Ryan flinched as his reflection changed its posture even though he had not moved. His mind raced as fast as it could. 'How is this possible? I left the game. This is something magical, it shouldn't be happening! Have I gone crazy?'
"Cheater." The reflection said. Ryan watched in silence, without any reaction. He even considered smashing the mirror, but figured it was too early for that, and he was not sure it would do anything.
"When you want something that isn't yours, you give something of equal value in return." The reflection said, expressionless. "That is a basic principle of every civilization, of economics, of common sense."
The reflection crossed its arms. "It has been that way throughout all of history, before money ever existed, before the trade of goods, before barter, before the exchange of favors. Everything has a price, one that must be paid with something of equal worth."
The reflection then bared its teeth in anger. "Even so, you cheated. You took what was most precious to me and claimed it for yourself, giving nothing in return." Ryan thought that now might be the time to break the mirror. "There was never a trial, never, just an exchange. And you distorted everything to give nothing and receive everything. You have corrupted the cosmic scale."
"But don't worry." The reflection said, raising its hands. "I'm not a threat to you." It spoke with a certain distaste, though also with curiosity. "I only wanted to say a few things."
Ryan decided to listen.
"The legacy had a price. That price was two precious lives. This price was not set by the guardian or by me, it was simply the natural balance of things. The cosmic scale demanded a sacrifice, the legacy itself carried that requirement." He swallowed before continuing. "It has always been this way. And it was this way that I taught my disciples: if you want something, give something in return. Only through physical effort are muscles built, only through study is the mind sharpened. Only by giving your heart to another person can you receive theirs."
"The universe is a scale. If I want more power, I must sacrifice even more of what is precious to me, my time and my connections, to receive it." He said. "So understand the guardian. There was no other way. The legacy never offered another way to move the cosmic scale... until you came along."
The reflection sighed.
"And now... your cheating act is in accordance with the legacy." He said, breathing deeply and opening his eyes. "I spent my entire life speaking of honor, balance, justice, and goodness, believing that was what my legacy was. And then you came along, a cheater, to show me otherwise... what a disaster."
He then locked eyes with Ryan, a dark and peculiar gleam in his gaze, similar to the guardian's corruption. An endless obsession born from a hollow, screaming abyss. "I don't want to teach you. I reject you as a disciple. On the contrary, I want you to teach me. Show me how you'll use this power. Show me the hidden Shadow of this Legacy, the Shadow I never saw... oh, how I want to see it... hahahah."
He began to laugh and then to cackle, throwing his hand to his forehead and doubling over. Ryan flinched again. 'He's corrupted... and he's inside me...' He realized with very few words. 'What the absolute hell!'
"Ah yes, ah yes. I forgot to warn you: even if it worked once, your cheating won't work a second time, not so easily..." He laughed quietly, and then suddenly the reflection returned to normal.
"..."
"What the hell was that?!" Ryan swore before sighing, but then suddenly the taste of bile rose in his throat. He held it down. Ryan stared at himself in the mirror again with the urge to cry, a single tear already running down his left eye.
Crimson red.
He raised his hand to wipe it, but the blood would not stop flowing. And soon it was both eyes. A violent cough took hold of him, and the white sink was quickly stained red.
Ryan screamed loud enough for John downstairs to hear, as he collapsed to the floor convulsing.
His data was extremely corrupted.