The True Beginning

A few days had passed. Arin hadn't logged into the game. His mind kept circling back to the boy—the boy whose body he now inhabited. Everything around him felt like a dream he was living while lying asleep in bed.

From school to home, then again the next day, same routine. His life just drifted along, but he couldn't focus on anything.

On the evening of the 31st, when he came back from school, his mom still hadn't returned from work. He went into his room and shut the door. After changing clothes, he sat in his chair and powered on his laptop.

He was about to open UTube and watch his favorite UTuber BeastGuyShub's latest video when a notification popped up in Gmail.

"What's this?" he thought. Probably just another promotional email. But still, curiosity got the better of him, and he clicked.

The email was from someone named LisaSistm, and it was definitely not promotional. The message simply said: "Meet me in Samsara Online at..." followed by a set of coordinates.

Arin immediately recognized the location. It was in the Great Forest.

"That's near my home in the forest. Is someone messing with me? But who would even know I'm behind this account?"

He took out his VR headset, connected it to the laptop, and took a deep breath before putting it on. The game loaded. He found himself in his forest home. The place was exactly as he remembered.

He opened the door and walked outside. This time, he headed straight to the left.

'I don't know why I'm doing this. It could be a prank, but even if it is, I can just die and respawn. No problem at all.'

He kept walking, step after step, until he reached the cliff. It was the exact location from the email. But there was nothing there. Just the cliff. On the other side, another stretch of the Great Forest.

"So it was a prank. No problem. I'll just die and respawn back home."

He opened his inventory to take out a sword, but it was empty.

"Right... I forgot. All my items dropped in the Kingdom when I died." He looked around, hoping to find something sharp nearby, but there was nothing. Then it struck him.

"I can just jump off the cliff."

He walked to the edge and looked down.

"Almost two hundred meters. Yeah, that'll kill me from fall damage."

He stretched his limbs and prepared to jump.

"Bye-bye, prankster. Your prank was absolute shit."

He jumped.

The wind roared past as he fell, but just as he was about to hit the ground, he didn't. He was suddenly back in mid-air, falling again. He hit the ground—only to be back in mid-air again.

"What is happening? My internet's fine, so why is the game lagging?" he muttered, confused.

The next time he fell, he managed to grab a branch jutting out. He took a deep breath, thinking he had broken the loop, but it didn't feel right. The pixels around him began to distort and unravel. A strange purple light started shining in his eyes from somewhere in the air.

He shielded his eyes with one hand, gripping the branch tightly with the other.

"It's too bright!"

Then, just like that, the light vanished.

He blinked. The game hadn't returned to normal.

He was… somewhere else.

It was a giant, futuristic room bathed in neon purple. Tubes of light were lined up along the walls, pulsing and shifting between bright and dim glows. The space felt enormous, giving the illusion of a tunnel stretching infinitely.

"What is this room? I never added anything like this in the game. Did the devs add it after I died?" he wondered. Then he realized something. He wasn't standing on the floor.

"Wait... I'm not standing—"

He looked back and saw that his hand was still gripping the mountain branch. But just then, it vanished.

He didn't have time to react. He dropped hard onto the ground.

Surprisingly, no fall damage.

"Strange. Too strange."

He stood up and started walking forward.

"Is this some kind of Easter eg—ahg!"

His foot hit something, and he faceplanted on the floor.

"Thank God it's just a game. If this were real, my nose would've broken by now." He stood up again and noticed the raised portion of the ground that had tripped him.

"Why is this area slightly elevated?"

He pressed his hand against it. It sank down like a button.

A loud mechanical noise echoed through the chamber. John immediately jumped back.

"What's going on? Did I trigger a boss or something?"

The ground in front of him slid aside, and a new platform rose up. Atop it stood a sword, gleaming and upright on a stand.

He walked over slowly.

The blade was white and razor-sharp, reflecting his face like a mirror. The hilt was black and gray, with a peculiar hole in the center.

"Maybe I need to insert something here."

He reached out to touch the hilt.

The moment his hand made contact, a surge of electricity shot through the VR set and directly into his head.

In real life, he screamed, tore off the headset, and clutched his head.

"Fck! Fck! Fck! It hurts—"

Tears welled up in his eyes. An electric current ran from his nerves to his brain, forcing a flood of memories to the surface.

He saw Arin's past—his coldness toward his mom, the cancer patient he'd bullied, the girl who had spiraled into depression.

Gradually, the pain faded. He sat back down, trembling, his face dark and twisted.

He clenched his teeth.

'T-this kid...'

Then, slowly, he calmed down. He let out a breath.

"What the hell was that? Some battery fault?"

He checked the laptop. It was perfectly fine.

He restarted the game. It was still running.

He put the headset back on. Something—or someone—stood in front of him.

"I found you," a voice whispered.

John's eyes widened in disbelief and terror.

"W-what are you?!"