1. DREAMS

"Seriously, did I just die?"

A familiar voice echoed.

"What's this?" Mark muttered, startled by the familiar yet unrecognizable voice that seemed to ring in his ear.

He found himself seemingly suspended in an abyss, his senses overwhelmed by the feel of a liquid as his brain had signaled his situation as him drowning.

Even so, he couldn't react to the sense of his body seemingly sinking. His limbs were utterly useless. He felt weak and numb to everything, but his senses kept on screaming at him to move.

His eyes peered into the abyss that stretched endlessly. He wore a blank expression, his supposed calm mood the polar opposite of what he was feeling inside.

"Who are you?" he inquired, giving way for the liquid to enter his lungs. His eyes widened, coughing rapidly—or that's what he felt like doing—but his body still couldn't react.

His brain was in a frenzy as he felt like dying all over again.

"Calm down." The voice sounded again, a sense of familiarity washing over him as he finally noticed the voice was his own.

As such, he calmed, the rush of sensation reducing, and in a few seconds, the state of his mind reflected that of his body.

The feeling of drowning calmed, followed by the suffocation, as he could now breathe normally.

"What even happened? I just entered? And now, I'm dead," the voice spoke out in his mind.

"What's this..." His body started feeling drowsy as his eyelids began feeling heavy, falling into a comatose state in a matter of seconds.

---

He saw himself walking away from someone—a female, to be specific—after completing a conversation. 'I'm gonna make it, Martha; you can come visit me whenever you want; you know my apartment, right?'

"Martha..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the scenery shifted. He now saw himself buying a million black-gold bracelet from the game inventory.

The scenery kept on changing, shifting from him seeing the debt notification, the bracelet vanishing, being confiscated by the system as his debt exceeded the so-called limit of the game, then shifting to him gaining this Critical Hit skill—being the only thing that allowed him to win his first battle against forest rabbits.

The scenes flooded his mind, causing a sense of discomfort and regret to wash over him, but his body didn't flinch, as if he had mustered up some high-level resolve skill. But he had nothing as such in his arsenal.

The only thought that flowed in his mind, parallel to the shifting sceneries, was the purpose of the flashback he was experiencing and, most of all, the reason why he was so calm.

Since he was spectating his journey, he noticed something one would call startling; the person he saw in the scenes wasn't the current him.

In that moment, he realized, as the scenes that flashed in his mind became a blur—yet he was still able to comprehend every single thing—everything stopped at one scene.

The scene of him realizing he was stuck in the game. He was washed with curiosity, his ethereal eyes widening as his physical expression remained unchanging.

The frenzy he fell into, how he felt, the dread and sorrow that overwhelmed his heart, the shock that froze his body, the tears that flowed down his cheeks as he remained seemingly immobile on his knees.

And the resolve that washed over him. In that moment, he remembered.

"Do you get it now?" The voice that spoke earlier said, appearing in front of Mark's physical body as the version of himself that was on his knees—back in his state of breakdown and resolution.

He looked hazy and translucent as the darkness of the abyss seemed to pass through him. He lifted his head, looking at Mark in the eyes as if staring into his soul.

"What were you doing?" it asked.

Mark's physical eyes flinched, widening just a bit—enough to notice. This was triggered by the sorrowful tone his other self carried, one that had existed since he entered the abyss, but he only heard it clearly now, as he had been preoccupied with everything that was transpiring around him.

"You promised we would get out of here before your body died. You promised we would get to see Martha again. You promised you'd get back the bracelet the system confiscated and destroy this game. And just now, you're losing focus and giving up. How could you?"

It exclaimed on the last statement, the tears on his face—seemingly frozen in time—beginning to flow once more.

"You said we would conquer everything. You said we wouldn't die. So get up, Mark. Don't die."

It continued, speaking with sorrowful passion.

"Oh, I see. So this is the past. I can't believe I'm really twenty-two. I'm acting like a five-year-old. But still, I did say all those things, and I'm a new man—a man of my word. I won't die. I can't die."

He thought, his blank expression changing as his eyes narrowed, his brows coming down.

"Don't worry, I won't give up," he said as he seemingly found ground in the liquid abyss, standing straight and patting his other self on the shoulder.

"Hah, it seems this place is just what I think it is. Then this means I'm stable again. Thanks for the help. I promise you once more, I'll make all that I said that day come true," he said to his other self, his voice solemn and filled with utter determination.

His other self flashed a smile before withering into dust, seeming at peace.

"Now, how can I get out of here?" he inquired.

The moment his words faded, the seemingly endless abyss shattered around him, breaking like glass and freeing him from the abyss.

---

A young man lay in what seemed to be a herb field. His environment looked like a one-way cave tunnel, but its walls, instead of being made out of rock, were made out of wood—fresh green tree bark that completely comprised the cave tunnel itself, looking like a large wooden tube.

The surface of the walls emanated a faint glow, serving as light in the cave, its source or principle unknown.

The man, who seemed to lay lifeless, wore a gaming newbie's clothes—a brown shirt and simple shorts. Two crafted tooth daggers lay by his side, both bearing wooden handles.

His black hair and normal skin tone made him look rather average. His eyes flinched, revealing his blue irises. As his vision adapted to the intensity of his surroundings, he noticed the red translucent window in front of him.

[PLAYER HAS DIED.]

[DUE TO SPECIAL PROPERTIES OF THE GREAT LABYRINTH OF REJUVENATION, PLAYER HAS REVIVED.]

[PLAYER STATS HAVE BEEN RESET TO BEFORE ENTERING THE LABYRINTH.]

[PLAYER REMAINING DEATH COUNT: 9.]