Disappearance

"Ah!"

His body shot up in shock, looking down for a moment he recognised the clothing he was wearing instantly, it was his usual white t-shirt and jeans.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Raising his fist, he laid it on top of his chest.

He listened to each of his heartbeats under the silence of his room and began taking in a few deep breaths.

"Relax Ariel."

Counting in 3's he took in a deep breath every time he reached another multiple.

After a few minutes of calming down, he decided to finally take in his 'new' environment.

"I'm back 'home'.", he muttered to himself as he paid attention to the shabby walls of this apartment and the stench that leaked through the window from his downstairs neighbour.

'I'm actually back in the past.'

As that fact sunk in, his heartbeat began to speed up once again under a multitude of emotions.

'They would never allow me back to the past, so who allowed it? The system?'

Whilst he was thinking, he began digging through his pockets and found his phone, it was an older broken down model that could barely tell the time and take some basic photos, but that was enough for him.

11th June 2030

"Exactly 1 year and 4 days before the release of El-", he quickly clasped his mouth and prevented his words from coming out.

'I can't say it out loud, remain quiet Ariel, or else they'll hear me.'

Gears within his brain began turning at a steady pace, 'From now on I never speak a word of the future, I decided to come back in time to have a chance at changing my future, so I better live up to my expectations.'

'There's no point in worrying over who allowed me to return back in time either.'

Now that he had straightened all of his thoughts he stood up, he began doing a few stretches as he assessed his physical condition.

"Good enough to run around and fight, but not enough."

Finishing up his stretches he took off his clothes and stood before a long rectangular, half shattered, mirror.

Ocean like eyes reflected back at him through the mirror.

The sun's rays pierced through the room, reflecting off his eyes causing them to flicker under its grace.

A warm, golden blue ocean gazed silently back at him.

His body was slim and contained hints of muscle beneath a small portion of baby fat.

"Not only that...", he ran his fingers down the scars etched deep into his flesh.

'I still have the scars at this time.'

Many haunting memories attempted to surface but he pushed them straight back into the abyss, sealing them away.

"Forget it."

Putting his clothes back on he cleared his mind and sat cross-legged on the floor.

'System Open'

[Ariel Grey]

[Level 0]

[Stats - Inaccessible]

[Race - Unknown]

[Status - Unchained]

'As I expected, the system was accessible by those selected before everything even began.'

His eyes then moved onto his Race and Status.

'The Status makes sense, but my Race...? Why is it unknown? Did something change?'

He was slightly curious as to what these changes would lead to in the future, but the future could end up worse than in his original life if he didn't work harder than ever.

'That's right, none of this matters for now.'

The sun was cut off, clouds covering it up, turning the room dark.

A serious tone pulsated from deep within his eyes, "Now, let's start writing everything down."

-----

The year 2030.

Humanity began to flourish under new technological discoveries and huge leaps in medicine, allowing people to live for much longer than before.

But beneath all of the light lay the darkness, the darkness of famine, inequality and war.

And this led to humanity advancing space exploration by leaps and bounds, and from these advancements, DIVER was born.

Technology that allowed humans to enter the virtual world and enjoy a new life there, wars shifted from reality into DIVER and many problems that plagued humanity were quickly solved.

Unfortunately, the problem of famine remained.

From then on many game companies began building games for people to play and raked in serious amounts of money, enough to even affect entire countries.

The attraction of money led to the development of many powerful Organizations, commonly known as Guilds by the average person.

Zero, Krazed, Illumen, Priests and Throne.

The five most powerful guilds were born under the pressure and each had complete control over at least 3 Global games.

However, unbeknownst to them, every government around the world was in the midst of working together to develop a game that went by the name of Elegance Online.

-----

Within an unknown lab...

"Miss, the compatibility has almost reached 100%, are you sure that you want to proceed with the plan?"

With a lollipop in her mouth, the 'Miss' swung her blonde hair to the side, revealing her soft tanned neck.

Crack.

The lollipop split apart.

A seductive smile sat on her face as she responded.

"Why wouldn't we proceed?", her silvery voice almost caused the assistant to feel certain feelings even though they were the same sex.

Bowing down the assistant acknowledge her response.

"Understood miss."

Giving a neat bow she turned around and exited the lab.

The blonde-haired lady began smiling as she turned her head back at the large cube sealed before her.

"I wonder how well it has developed.", her smile spread wide in an almost villainous grin.

-----

Three days quickly passed by.

Within the shabby room, paper lay all over the place, some connected to other pieces of paper, whilst others lay on their own.

But if you looked at it carefully, you'd find a weird pattern intercrossing throughout.

Putting his pen down he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"That's all the information I remember.", a smile grew on his face, he was satisfied with his work.

'Not even 'They' can read what I just wrote down.'

Correct, even if someone who knew every single language in the universe attempted to read his writing, they'd fail.

And that is because this language didn't belong to anyone, instead, it belonged to the System.

It was the System's language.

'And the best part is that to 'Them' it looks like normal writing that has nothing to do with what is actually written, but to everyone else, it just looks like gibberish.'

For the next day, he read through his notes and made sure there weren't any errors.

-----

"It's time.", muttering to himself quietly he stretched his body a bit.

'I have no one left in this world, so I don't need to come back here again.'

He took out his phone and carefully took a picture of his notes, checking the picture he made sure there was nothing wrong with then took out something from his pocket.

"Once again, goodbye shithole.", flicking this object a flame burst out of the tip of it.

Drop.

Letting go of the lighter time seemed to almost slow down.

The winds outside began to rise.

A light breeze came through his window, lightly caressing his body as it silently passed through. Rays of light shone down at him forming an almost picturesque scene.

His long, soft black hair danced alongside the wind for a moment until it all died down.

And just as the wind died down...

The lighter landed on the floor.

[Transferring Testers]

Only a blazing fire was left behind as proof of his existence.

-----

Within a small unknown restaurant sat in between dark alleyways in the streets of New York...

"Can you not cook trash!"

Splat!

Fish splattered into pieces on the floor under the raging foot of the owner.

An innocent young man lowered his head in fear, tears almost dripping down his eyes, his dark hair stained by some pieces of fish that landed on him.

"Useless bitch!", raising his hand he swung directly at his face.

"AH!", screaming in fear he prepared for the swing.

[Transferring Testers]

But his palm hit nothing but air.

"What in the..."

-----

Similar scenes began occurring all around the world, one by one people began disappearing.

Panic began to quickly spread and all government organization began to feel the pressure, their response, however, was completely unexpected.

They stated that this was simply an unfortunate accident and they could do nothing about it.

This led to outrage amongst those who lost their loved ones, but the ripples were quickly squashed down by authorities and the accident all but disappeared from the public's eyes.

Only those who were there during the moments of disappearance knew of the incident, and they were quickly given 'compensation' to remain quiet.

This accident was also quickly buried behind by the announcement of the world's biggest DIVER game on the same day.

Elegance Online.

And just like that, an event that changed humanity's fate lay unknown to all but a few specific people.

-----

Waves of nausea and dizziness exploded through his body but he quickly suppressed it, swallowing down any bile that threatened to rise.

His eyes greeted his 'new' world once again.

"Welcome Testers!"

A pair of large red eyes sat high up in the plain white room, a wave of energy disturbingly swirled around them.

Many of those that arrived were unable to handle nausea and bent over, completely emptying their stomachs.

The eyes waited for them to be finished.

Seeing the eyes once again wrath flushed through Ariel's veins.

'You mother-', his fists clenched, his nails ripping through his skin.

'Fucker.'

His eyes pierced through the white room, clashing with the eyes in the sky.