chapter:1 beyond the bedside

A World Beyond the Screen

The sterile hum of machines filled the hospital room, their rhythmic beeping a cruel reminder that my time was slipping away. The fluorescent light overhead flickered, casting sharp shadows against the stark white walls. The air smelled of antiseptic, cold and impersonal, as if even the room itself had already accepted my fate.

I had long since stopped hoping for miracles. Hope was dangerous when you had an expiration date.

But even as my body withered, my fingers still clung desperately to the handheld console in my trembling hands.

Earlier that day, the doctor had come to deliver the inevitable.

"Ethan, there's not much time left."

I had heard those words before. Each time, they cut deeper, carving out the last remnants of denial I had left. I saw it in his eyes—pity, helplessness, that quiet resignation of someone who had run out of ways to save me. He offered a few more words of comfort before his footsteps faded down the hall.

It didn't matter. Nothing he could say would change what was coming.

So, I turned to the only thing that ever had.

Mana's Ascension.

A sprawling open-world RPG, the game had been my escape for as long as I could remember. A world far removed from this sterile prison, filled with magic, war, and endless adventure. It told the tale of a world transformed the day mana descended from the heavens, rewriting the very laws of existence. Humanity awakened to untapped power, monstrous creatures rose from the abyss, and ancient civilizations resurfaced from forgotten ruins.

And in the heart of it all stood one man.

The Radiant Vanguard.

A hero forged in adversity. A warrior who defied fate itself, rising from insignificance to become the last hope of a world on the brink.

As I scrolled through the menu, my fingers still weak but determined, I felt the familiar thrill of stepping into his journey once more.

The Radiant Vanguard had once been nothing—a mere mortal standing against the tides of destruction. But through sheer will, he had conquered dungeons, vanquished demons, and unlocked the deepest mysteries of mana itself. His path took him through haunted ruins, storm-lashed peaks, and war-torn battlefields. He forged alliances with elves, dwarves, and beings from realms beyond the mortal veil. Each step of his journey had been a defiance of the inevitable.

For me, the game was more than just code on a screen.

It was freedom.

It was resistance.

In this world, I wasn't just a dying boy strapped to a failing body. I was something more. Something powerful. Something that refused to be forgotten.

I had spent countless nights in the glow of this screen, heart pounding as I clashed against impossible foes, breath hitching at every unexpected twist. Every battle won, every challenge overcome—it was a rebellion against the limits of my own mortality.

As I played, reality blurred. The white hospital walls faded, swallowed by towering citadels and endless skies. The beeping monitors dissolved into the clash of steel and the roar of magic.

I could feel the weight of the Radiant Vanguard's blade in my hands. I could hear the war cries of his allies, see the glint of fire in his determined gaze.

Then, the screen pulled me into one of my favorite moments—the Academy of Ascension.

A sanctuary where the strongest gathered. Warriors, mages, strategists—all training to push beyond their limits, to seize control of their destinies. It was here that the Radiant Vanguard found his closest allies, the ones who would stand beside him in the final war against the abyss.

The academy was more than just a school.

It was proof that even the weakest could become something greater.

I wanted to believe that. I needed to.

As the orchestral soundtrack swelled, the Radiant Vanguard charged forward, sword blazing with mana, straight into a horde of shadowy demons. Their shrieks echoed through the battlefield, spells igniting the sky, steel clashing in a symphony of war.

And for a moment, I was right there with him.

For a moment, I was more than a broken body waiting for the inevitable.

But then, the doctor's voice echoed in my mind.

"Not much time left."

The illusion cracked.

I swallowed hard, my grip on the console tightening.

I knew how this story ended.

The Radiant Vanguard would stand victorious, immortalized in legend, his name etched into the annals of history.

But I?

I wouldn't even be a memory.

Still, I refused to stop playing.

Because as long as I held this console, as long as I could walk in the footsteps of the Radiant Vanguard, I wasn't just Ethan—the dying boy in a hospital bed.

I was a warrior.

A hero.

And heroes didn't stop fighting, even when the world told them it was over.