A New Player Has Joined (edited)

A young girl sat comfortably in her bed while staring at her laptop's screen.

"So the topic for todays subject is going to be-"

Shara yawed in boredom and blinked the tears off of her half lidded eyes sleepily. She wasn't listening to the teacher in the video call anymore as her mind was already wandering somewhere else.

The class had just started and she was already daydreaming.

Shara decisively muted her mike and clicked off her online class, remembering not to accidentally turn the audio off this time just in case her teacher calls her to answer some questions, and scrolled through the app folder to look for some simple games to entertain her for the entire class session.

[Welcome to Re:Animal Online!]

A cheerful orchestral music drifted through her ear and she shuffled around her bed to groove along. No matter how many times she's heard the intro music, she will never get tired of it. To her, it is an iconic masterpiece!

It truly is such a shame that the game purchase was limited. She wanted to play this with other people, but playing alone was okay with her too. She always played solo anyway, although she does get lonely sometimes.

The main menu popped up and she logged into her account and clicked play.

On the screen, a giant sea dragon with crystalline azure carapace tightly protecting its huge body opened its eyes and growled ominously. Its six arms stretched and flexed its claws dangerously, seemingly ready to rip and tear anything to become stronger.

However, she was not here to grind some points and finish some quests, she was just here to have a swim and spectate the games beautifully well done graphics and scenery.

The people who designed this game really did a good job at making the world look realistic while being artistic enough to make it have a fantasy-like feel into it. To put it simply, it was very pleasant to observe. This was one of the games lovely charms.

She slightly smiled in content as she was completely swooned by the games bewitching beauty, not noticing the loud swirling noise her laptop was making or the hot pain that started to burn her stomach. Her eyes stayed glued unto the screen, as if she wasn't at all bothered by the pain.

The sea dragon, completely relaxed and carefree, swam freely unto the open ocean without fear. Every creature it sees, monsters or normal animals would flee away in fright of its mighty aura. With a dragon as great as she, who dares to roar before it?

Shara seemed to disconnect from reality as her eyes darkened and turned blank. 'if I was as strong as a dragon, would my life be better than they are now?'

BANG!

The swirling hot laptop finally couldn't hold for much longer and exploded into a bright ball of light that covered her entire room with a blinding ethereal glow, easily rivaling the glow of stars. The light didn't last long and it quickly disappeared as fast as it came.

After the light left, other than the objects that got blown away from the impact, her room was fine as if nothing even happened. Her laptop flopped down safely on her bed with a flickering screen before returning to normal.

"That girl disappeared again!" the teacher noticed Shara disconnecting from the online class.

"That girl never learns, does she." Someone playfully remarked, making the rest of the students laugh as they started to casually talk about the first time Shara tried skipping the class and ending up getting scolded by her mother for everyone online to witness. It was a really embarrassing day for her.

'I'll be contacting your parents later, young lady.' the teacher thought and just shook his head before hushing the students to continue class.

. . .

Meanwhile, somewhere on an endless dark abyss, a young girl was floating in silence with her brows scrunched and eyes closed tight.

[A new player has joined!]

[All progress and save files will be stored away and your account will be restarted.]

The young girl's body dissipated and turned into a small ball of white smoke. A few eyes of varying colors, types, and sizes appeared out of thin air like magic and fluttered around her faint sparkling soul. Some glaring in wariness while others were sparkling in curiosity, a few just stayed at the sidelines, staring in silent contemplation.

[The player, {Arctic Leviathan}, will be sent into the Lower Regions of the Ocean biome for a trial.]

Some of the eyes turned condescending while others were disappointed that this new player is being sent into such a low level place. Usually, if players were sent to the Lower Regions, they were weak and wouldn't make it very far. Only a few minority of eyes remained uncritical and didn't judge her based on the place she was being sent into.

One by one, the scornful eyes blinked in disappointment and evaporated into smoke while the small minority of interested ones slowly started to fade, their eyes staying fixated on her soul while they turn transparent like a ghost. Eventually, they too closed their eyes and evaporated into smoke.

[Show your struggle and misfortune and let the Beholders enjoy your performance!]

[Welcome, {Arctic Leviathan}, to Re:Animal LIVE!]

Then, her soul disappeared and so did the gazing eyes that surrounded her.