Prologue (2)

A quarter of an hour before the scheduled maintenance, I logged out of the game and ate my late lunch.

Halfway through my meal, a notification window popped out of the screen. It was the new update. After pressing the download button, the notification window disappeared and it was replaced by a progress bar.

[Downloading resources 2/22279]

[Progress 0.0001%]

[Estimated Download Time Remaining: 5 hours 23 minutes 31 seconds]

"More than 5 hours... It's like downloading a new game rather than an update. It's quite long considering that i have a rather fast internet speed. Is it because I'm using an internet connection provided by Immerse to download a game of its rival? That's one of a conspiracy theory. Well, nothing I can do about it now. My food's gone cold, I better finish it now."

I hurriedly ate my lunch and drove on my wheelchair to reach the kitchen sink. Prosthetics don't work on me since as the doctor worded it, my paralysis occured at the "root".

In other words, my brain. While other types of paralysis, such as paraplegia (my 'old' type of paralysis concerning the lower limbs), are caused by a wrong brain signal being sent or a correct signal sent but never received, my case could be described as "no signal sent at all"

It is also the reason why the development team of Immerse has given up on me. They can make a blind man see, a deaf man hear. Heck, they even made a man cut in two by an industrial-grade saw feel alive again until the moment his real body died because the continuous blood loss prevented oxygen from travelling to his brain. They can give back the senses of those who are impaired by intercepting the signals from the brain but for people like me whose brain is the impaired one, I can only sigh.

They tried to console me by designing a new game. It would be too much to say that it was especially tailored for me but the game development was hastened for me to test. It was entitled "Knights and Sorcerers" a game featuring a mix of swords and magic. They said I could [Fly], [Levitate], or [Float] inside the game. I tried it once, sure it was interesting but it never felt natural to me. For a second I felt like I was Iron Man but the excitement quickly died down.

"I still can't walk..."

Some of my neighbors would say "What's there to be sad about? I really envy you, it's been my childhood dream to fly. I can't wait for the game to be released. Hey, can you work some strings and maybe include me in the alpha tests? Beta tests are fine too"

I just shrugged my shoulders and said "You will never understand me. You know why? 'Cause you never had WALKING as your childhood dream" and with that, I drove home.

Aaah... It's getting harder and harder to recall things. My memories are jumbled and the more I try to remember, the more I find the gaps on my memories. I can't even remember my parents, my favorite color, my birthday, my address, my lunch, the name of my pet cat, or was it a dog? It got me thinking, Is my name actually Blake? Am I who I really remember it to be? The more I think, the more questions appear.

Anyway, I have to try to keep recalling even the tiniest of details. It's my only way to minimize the loss of memory. As an example, let's say that I can force myself to recall 1000 major events in my life, by the next time, I can only recall about 995 of them. However, if I recall 1000 major events and include 2000 details about them, I may forget 2 major events and 15 small details which for me, is not a bad deal. Actually I don't really know if it works, I can never count the things I forgot afterall but I feel better that way. At least I tried.

As to why I lose some memories, I can perfectly remember the reason so I will leave the explanation for later.

Focus... The timeline's all mixed up... Even my thoughts are a mess...

Okay, next thing I remember was being woken up by a woman. She was 5'4" and wore a white shirt, I can't remember her face no matter how hard I try to recall. She said "Sorry, I don't want to interrupt you sleeping soundly but it's cold in here, let me carry you to bed"

"Thanks, mom. I can move on my own" I refused.

I drove to my room and with little difficulty, moved from the wheelchair unto the bed. My mom kept watch over me. I was over 21 years old, maybe 22, I even had a home-based job, which I forgot, but mom still treated me like I'm a kid. I appreciated her.

"Sleep well, dear"

"Good night too, mom..."

She turned off the lights and slowly left the room. The next thing I remembered was me waking up to the sound of an alarm. Half past four in the morning, it was quite early. I booted up the computer while driving to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. I then drove back to my computer. Thinking back, I don't know if I forgot to brush my teeth or if I forgot I brushed my teeth. Another gap in my memory...

6:24 a.m.

Way past the opening time. I'm not particularly excited about it. It feels like my actions were a part of a routine, I must be used to playing early in the morning.

It was nearly seven so I launched the game. First thing that I noticed was the loading screen. The old one was just a solid black with the Existence's emblem at the center while the new loading screen was a grand gate above the clouds. Although there were no captions, I knew it was the [Gates of Aeulheim Palace], a place where everyone creates a new avatar when starting the game or creating an alternative account. The scene brought me back to the time when I first started playing, but I forgot that part too so I can't give too much description. I can't remember which server I chose but after selecting it, I was welcomed by three choices:

[Please choose your Character]

[Name: Vince

Race: Beastman

Class: Assasin (Explosive)

Subclass: Scholar

Lv. 140]

[Name: Paul

Race: Human

Class: Guardian (Heavy Knight)

Subclass: Explorer

Lv. 140]

[Name: John

Race: Half-Vampire

Class: Combat Mage (Mage Knight)

Subclass: Tracker

Lv. 140]

[New Character]

"A new major update needs a new character. Let's build one." Creating a new character with every major update has been an unspoken trend in the Aeulheim community. Aside from the fact that most of the new contents are added at the lower and higher levels, There is also an unofficial 'level run' where veteran players in their new accounts compete to see whoever reacher level 90 and level 120 first.

Class... A wizard, too cliche so no... Let's go with a Shrine Priest... Race, Elf will do... Hair color, White... Eye color...

After going through the customizations, He finally got a look at his avatar's appearance. "Looks like a lot like me, only more handsome and taller than I am." He patterned his avatar based on himself. The system window also encouraged players to do so. Aside from the pointy ears and a much fairer skintone, his avatar could be said to have 95% resemblance of him.

After pressing the confirm button, a notification sound rang and a window stating that the avatar creation was successful appeared.

[Avatar Creation Successful. Dear Player, our system has detected that you have played the game for atleast 5 years and has gifted you a small veteran's pack. Despite not keeping up with the so-called "new technology", we decided to proceed to finish the 8-year content planned with the game as respect to the developers that worked hard on the project which made us what we are today. We are glad that several players are still supporting our game by seeing it to the end. As thanks, We present you with [Aeulheim: New Beginnings] and hope that you enjoy the game. Be reborn, create new memories. A brand new world full of fantasy is waiting. Are you ready to go on an adventure?]

What a long introduction. Let's get this started with.

Just as I clicked yes, my computer screen blacked out. Not just my screen but everything around me turned dark. My glow-in-the-dark keyboard, my phone, my lamp, even my open window which is supposed to let the morning light shine was now hidden in the darkness.

It was then that I felt a soft pull on my chest. It started weak but rapidly rose in intensity. I was not moving but I felt myself being dragged faster and faster in the unknown. I started to see some lights, small but too many to count. The lights flickered in and out but soon started grow increasingly bigger, No, not bigger but nearer. It doesn't matter if I sped up through the lights or the lights flashed to me but the ever changing colors gave me headaches. The feeling of being dragged grew stronger, I didn't even last fifteen seconds before I reached my limits and soon passed out.

My head still hurt a lot when I woke up. I stood up and found a familiar yet unfamiliar place. Something similar to a 'Jamais Vu'. I tried to recall but I was soon struck by a baffling realization.

"How is this even possible?!"