Author's note: This is my first fan-fiction so feedback is greatly appreciated! If you want more, don't forget to leave a follow ^_^
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I gazed outside of the window wistfully, wanting to get away from this place. An ocean of blue filled my view, spotted with fluffy white clouds. The sun was shining, rays of illuminating sunlight beamed down through the window. Birds chirped and frolicked about as if they couldn’t find anything else better to do.
Pitiful. Every day is the same day, one after the other. A constant stream of time blurred into nothingness. My god, I wish something interesting would happen for once.
I turned back around. Class has just started and it seemed as if our tutor had some sort of announcement to make. I can already tell what it’s going to be.
“Class! I have some fantastic news! We will be doing a project on the benefits and costs of Virtual Reality as the first VRMMORPG, Aurora, will finally step out of its testing stages into a live client. I know isn’t it exciting?” He clapped his hands enthusiastically. “I will sort you out into pairs. You’ll have the rest of the day to work on it and you’ll present it tomorrow with your partner. Get a move on.”
I groaned inwardly.
A project? And on top of that in pairs? As if my day can’t get worse.
I knew who I would be paired with instantly. Ellie. A girl with long golden hair that went all the way to her shoulder blades and dazzling blue eyes that captivated any guy that looked at her. A fair face, and a heart-warming smile, she was the definition of beautiful. Furthermore, Ellie was incredibly popular, not due to only her looks but to her intelligence prowess as well, which was the reason why she was on the student council and why the teacher matched us two together. We were polar opposites. I admit, I had a crush on her when I was 16 or so, but it went away as quickly as it had started. Any other time, I would have been ecstatic at being paired together, but that had long faded away in the past. That and the last thing I needed was attention.
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“Hey Lucian! Where’d you think you’re going?” Rock shouted.
I started to walk away.
“Punk, don’t ignore me!” He came up to me and punched me in the gut, whilst grinning to his group of friends.
I doubled over in pain as he loomed above me. A circle had formed between us two, filled with his friends and spectators, both males and females. Ellie was in this circle gazing at me. She knew I had a crush on her at this time but revealed nothing towards my emotions to her.
“Please. I’m just trying to get home.” I said weakly.
“Hah! The weakling wants to go home. Too scared?” Rock spoke mockingly. “Tell you what, if you manage to floor me, I’ll let you go home. It’s too generous of an offer for a murderer like you but y’know I’m a kind guy.” He glanced towards the circle of onlookers who nodded back in approval.
As he was saying this, I slowly got up and composed myself for what to come. If he wanted a fight, I’ll give it to him. I was such a reckless fool back then; I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
Whilst he had his head turned, I managed to muster my strength and throw a punch at his ribcage, hopefully winding him in the process. I heard the sound of bones cracking and he grimaced as he fell to one knee. I could tell everyone was shocked. Nobody expected me to retaliate.
He then stared at me with fury in his eyes. There was definitely some killer intent in there. Rock shook his head as he slowly got back up.
“Heh, weakling. You’ve definitely got some guts, I’ll give you that.” He whispered quietly.
It seemed like an eternity passed, the silence and the tension between us was almost unbearable. Then someone shouted, “Go get ‘im Rock, beat him up real good!”
Without warning, he flew like a bullet to where I was and landed a roundhouse kick to my chest so hard that I instantly hit the ground with a sickening thump. From then on, he was punching and kicking me, an onslaught of physical and mental torment as he threw punch after punch, insult after insult. The crowd was cheering him on, screaming encouragement at him, fuelling his anger towards me.
I looked around to Ellie. She could stop this, she could tell him to back off and he’d listen. Ellie peered down at me, expressing no emotion whatsoever at what was happening right in front of her. I pleaded with my eyes, please stop this.
Her mouth tightened as her look became condescending. She started to walk away. No! I wanted to scream at her, tell her to come back, but with a final glance she walked away, leaving me here being beaten to a pulp.
--
“Hey-“
“You don’t need to do anything. I’ll do the work myself.” I told her.
She pursed her lips in frustration.
“I’m just trying to help here, you don’t have to do all the work you know.”
“I don’t need your help. Anything you can offer me, I can do myself.”
“Seriously, stop being an idiot. We got assigned to do something TOGETHER, so let’s do it TOGETHER.”
She was trying be logical with me in order to stop me from embarrassing her even further.
But I really didn’t feel like doing anything, not with her anyway. After all those times I asked for help, she gives me none and now she wants me to help her? Nice try.
“You should be glad that I’m offering to do the work for you, I could just leave you to do all the work by yourself. But you know, I’m not that cruel unlike some.”
Now I could see she was starting to get a bit angry with me.
“Really? Fine, do all the work by yourself. Here while you’re at it, you can do all my assignments I have today.”
She dumped the content of her entire bag onto the desk.
“In fact, here, I’ll be your slave. Just tell me what I can and can’t do.” She said angrily.
“After all, you’re better at managing what other people do rather than what you do, especially with your sis-” She stopped abruptly.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I closed my eyes. She went too far. I didn’t want to hit a girl but I desperately needed to vent out my anger at something and I didn’t think I could control it by being here so I stood up and tried to leave before I did anything stupid.
“Lucian wait! I didn’t mean it-“ She grabbed at my arm but I just shoved her out of the way and she was sent sprawling to the floor.
The room went silent. Every head turned towards us, or towards me specifically, and I could see in each of their faces their expressions a mixture of disbelief, anger and hatred for what I done.
To hell with this place.
I sprinted out the room, my legs carrying me all the way home from this place. I didn’t want anything to do with the project or the class or her. I really, really despised attracting attention to myself but it feels like anywhere I go, I’m like a magnet to everybody’s unwanted emotions.
I shut the front door and breathed in a deep breath of relief.
Finally, somewhere I can relax.
I lived on my own, mainly because I didn’t want to burden my parents with extra costs who were living on what little money they had but also because I wanted somewhere where I could be alone. Alone from the outside world.
The only sanctuary I had in this world was Aurora, somewhere that I could escape to and forget all about my real life. It was the only thing I lived for.
It was time.
Start up Aurora? [ Yes / No ]
I selected yes and I was immediately transported into a sea of vibrant colours. Afterwards, my surroundings materialized into what was known as the centre of the town ‘Nightfall’, the centre in all four kingdoms, known for its incredible activity during the night.
Here I was known as ‘Cian’, a mercenary who lurked in the shadows and took odd jobs around the town. In truth I was actually a level 201 Revenant, a unique assassin class which only I had obtained, to my full awareness. I knew that the highest level around was around 167, nowhere near where I was. Well, I guess that was to be expected since I did spend the majority of my life farming monster and doing quests.
Even though the nightlife in this town was amazing, it was also home to corruption, the main source being from the players who had a constant influence on the crown and their decisions.
That being said, I was no hero of justice, I didn’t align myself as someone good who tackled the bad every day. I suppose that’s who you become after a lifetime of torment, a sort of personality of indifference develops in you since I couldn’t really care less about what happened to be honest.
God it feels so good to be selfish for once. It’s such a pain having to rescue people in this place.
Suddenly, a special announcement popped out in my screen:
Beta phase ends in approximately 10 minutes. All stats, inventories and memories will be wiped clean in 10 minutes.
I guess even this enjoyment wouldn’t last very long either. I imagined myself hunting all the bosses, discovering new things, collecting rare items. Tedious, but it wouldn’t matter anyway since I would have no recollection of my past actions.
Before the real game started, I went to go visit the temple and pay homage to the Goddess of Darkness, Lira. I wasn’t all that religious, not in real life or in here, but it didn’t hurt to pray for once.
The next few minutes went with a blur and before I knew it, it was time to start my journey all over again. Perhaps I could be a hero this time.
Beta phase ends in 5…4…3…2…1
A white glow surrounded all of the players around me including myself. I could practically feel my inventory go lighter, my speed slower and my strength weaker. Goodbye, my precious stats. I spent hours upon hours training and to see all that go to waste couldn’t stop a tear from falling from my eyes.
A calmness spread through my body. There was just one last thing to happen. I braced myself for my memories to be absorbed into the void and for a new experience to start once again.
Beta phase has ended. Client has now reached live stages, initiating start-up.
What? Beta phase ended? But I can still remember everything from before. Surely…
I checked my status and inventory which revealed that indeed everything had been reset to level 1 and my inventory contained nothing but a small dagger and a couple of rolls of bread.
No way… Is this for real?
The company who made this went through rigorous checks often in order to stop hackers from exploiting the game. Something such as this would have certainly sparked a message in the system, they wouldn’t let this slide past.
Alright I’ll relog to make sure the system isn’t screwing with me, this isn’t funny.
But as I searched for the button to log out, I realize to my horror that there was just a blank space where it had previously resided.
You have got to be kidding me…
I clicked on the blank space in the hopes of it logging me off but to no avail. I looked around and saw people were staring blankly in a daze, wondering how they got there.
However, what was even more concerning to me was that everybody didn’t seem to realize that this was just a game.
It was as if this had become their real life.