Chapter 8 & 9: A New Beginning

Sunlight.

It was warm. Too warm.

A gentle breeze whispered across the open field, rustling the tall grass in waves of green and gold. The scent of earth and leaves filled the air, carrying the distant hum of insects and the rhythmic chirping of birds.

For a moment, Raine just lay there, his body sinking into the soft soil beneath him.

Then—

[Raine, eyes snapping open]: "This… isn't right."

He sat up, his head throbbing with a dull ache. His vision blurred for a second before adjusting to the world around him.

A forest stretched out before him, dense and untamed, its trees taller than anything he had ever seen in Final Eclipse. In the distance, he could make out a village, smoke rising from chimneys, the faint chatter of people drifting through the wind.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like just another respawn.

But it wasn't.

[Raine, muttering]: "Where… am I?"

Then, the system message appeared.

[System Notification]: "Welcome, Player. Your journey begins anew."

[Raine, gripping his fists]: "No… this isn't a new journey. This is a reset."

He pulled up his status window.

And that's when the horror set in.

His legendary equipment?

Gone.

His level?

1.

His skills?

Wiped.

[Raine, staring at his empty skill slots]: "No… no, no, no—!"

His heart pounded as he scrolled through the menu, desperately searching for something—anything—that had survived the reset. But the truth was unavoidable.

Everything he had built. Everything he had fought for.

Gone.

[Raine, gripping his head]: "It wasn't supposed to be like this…"

But as the initial panic faded, something else became apparent.

This world—

It felt too real.

His hands were calloused. His skin felt rough, dirt clinging to his palms.

When he stood, his legs ached as if he had been lying down for hours. His stomach twisted in an unfamiliar sensation—hunger.

[Raine, whispering]: "This isn't a game anymore."

He slowly clenched his fingers, feeling the strain of his muscles as they tightened. This wasn't just a high-definition simulation. His body responded like it would in real life.

[Raine, stepping forward]: "…Even the air feels real."

He had spent thousands of hours inside Final Eclipse. He had memorized every texture, every lighting effect, every artificial scent the game had coded into existence.

But this?

This was something else entirely.

Raine made his way toward the village, still unsettled by how natural everything felt.

When he entered, he immediately noticed the NPCs.

They weren't… normal.

An old woman sweeping the front of her shop paused to wipe sweat from her brow. A blacksmith sighed in frustration as he struggled to hammer a bent piece of iron back into shape. Children ran past him, giggling and shoving each other.

They were too lifelike.

[Raine, narrowing his eyes]: "They weren't like this before."

In the beta, NPCs had been predictable. They repeated the same dialogue, cycled through the same motions, responded only when spoken to.

But these NPCs?

They had weight.

[Raine, whispering]: "What the hell happened to this world?"

Then—

[Stranger, voice cautious]: "You feel it too, don't you?"

Raine whirled around.

A young man stood a few feet away, dressed in beginner gear—leather armor, a wooden shield, and a rusty sword at his hip.

But it wasn't his appearance that caught Raine's attention.

It was his eyes.

He remembered.

[Raine, tense]: "You're from the beta."

[Stranger, nodding]: "Name's Soren. And yeah, I remember everything."

[Soren, crossing his arms]: "But not everyone does."

Raine followed Soren's gaze, looking around the village more closely.

Some players were panicking, checking their status screens over and over again, disbelief painted across their faces. Others seemed completely normal, chatting with NPCs, accepting quests as if they had never lived through the war.

[Raine, eyes darkening]: "Some of us were reset in more ways than one."

[Soren, sighing]: "I thought I was the only one who remembered the war. Then I saw you—your face when you checked your stats. I knew you were one of us."

Raine's mind raced.

Why did some players remember?

Why did others forget?

And more importantly—who was controlling this reset?

Then—

Another system message appeared.

[System Notification]: "You have retained hidden knowledge. Use it wisely."

[Raine, frowning]: "…What the hell does that mean?"

[Soren, raising an eyebrow]: "You got a message too?"

Raine's pulse quickened.

That meant the system knew.

It knew that he remembered.

[Soren, serious]: "Listen, we need to figure out what's going on before someone notices us. Before whoever did this finds out we remember."

[Raine, staring at the sky]: "So this is my reality now."

A cold breeze whispered through the trees as Raine sat on a moss-covered rock, his mind churning with unanswered questions. He had spent the last few hours testing everything—his strength, his reflexes, his hunger, his pain tolerance.

It was all real.

Too real.

[Raine, clenching his fists]: "If this is still Final Eclipse why does it feel like I've been dropped into another world?"

The thought sent shivers down his spine.

Then—he checked the menu again.

[System Menu]

Character Level: 1

Status: Active

Log Out: [ERROR]

[Raine, whispering]: "No logout button."

He had checked a dozen times already, but the result never changed. No way out. No escape.

This wasn't just a game reset.

This was a prison.

[Soren, stretching]: "So, what's the plan?"

[Raine, standing up]: "We get stronger. Fast."

Soren nodded, tightening the straps on his leather bracers. They had already tested their limits—the beginner monsters in the area were as deadly as real animals. A single wolf bite nearly shattered Soren's arm, and they had to use actual bandages, not potions, to stop the bleeding.

[Raine, serious]: "If we die, we don't know what happens next. Until we figure that out, we play this like it's our last life."

[Soren, scoffing]: "You're making it sound like we're in hardcore mode."

[Raine, darkly]: "What if we are?"

Soren fell silent.

Then—

[Unknown Player, calling out]: "You guys look like you know what you're doing!"

Raine and Soren turned as a small group of players approached. Most were dressed in ragged beginner gear, their faces filled with uncertainty.

[Player 1, nervous]: "We… we don't know what's going on. Some of us remember the war, some don't. But nobody can log out."

[Player 2, whispering]: "This isn't a game anymore, is it?"

[Raine, after a pause]: "No. It's not."

A heavy silence fell over the group.

Then, Raine took a deep breath.

[Raine, determined]: "Then let's treat it like a real world. If we want to survive, we need to get stronger—together."

The next few days were a blur of survival and training.

Some players adapted quickly. Others were still in denial.

The ones who remembered the war? They were divided.

Some, like Raine, wanted to uncover the truth.

Others saw this as an opportunity.

[Garrick, smirking]: "Why would we go back? Here, power is real. This isn't some game where devs can nerf us anymore."

Raine watched as Garrick, a former war veteran of Dominion, gathered players under his command, promising them safety, power, and a future under his rule.

[Raine, whispering]: "They're forming new guilds."

[Soren, crossing his arms]: "Not guilds. Kingdoms."

The balance of power was shifting once again, but this time, the consequences were real.

And then—

Something strange happened.

Raine and Soren were exploring a hidden ruin near the forest when they found it—

A marketplace.

But not just any marketplace.

[Soren, frowning]: "This… shouldn't exist yet."

In the beta, this kind of underground economy didn't form until months after the game launched. Yet here it was, fully functional, filled with players trading weapons, armor, and supplies like a real-world black market.

[Raine, scanning the crowd]: "This world is moving too fast."

[Soren, muttering]: "Almost like… it was always meant to be like this."

And then—

He saw the masked figure.

The plague doctor mask stood out in the dimly lit alley, its wearer cloaked in shadow.

Raine's instincts screamed.

[Raine, tense]: "Who is that?"

Soren followed his gaze, his fingers tightening around his sword.

Before they could react, the figure moved.

It was too fast.

In a blink, it was right next to Raine.

[Plague Doctor, whispering]: "We are still at war."