When Emrys opens his eyes, he’s standing in a forest. He can feel the breeze, smell the grass, and when he opens and closes his hands, the sensations are astonishingly real.

“Incredible technology,” Emrys comments. “Coral, does this actually exist in real life?”

Coral pops up on the blue panel and responds, “It does not exist currently, at least not to this extent of realism.”

“What about you? Aren’t you an example of advanced technology?”

“I am a system,” Coral answers, “but not in the sense that you’re thinking. I’m not authorized to give much information in this regard, but being here in the Abandoned World should show you that there is more to the world than you know.”

As Coral minimizes his terminal, it says, “For now, I would suggest concentrating on surviving this instance first.”

“Right, thanks.”

According to Hathli, crates with useful items will spawn in random areas throughout the map in the first phase. Along with the items found in these crates, they can also make use of anything they find already in the map.

Emrys is trekking through the forest when the sound of an explosion deafens him followed by smoke rising up in the distance.

Already?!

Before Emrys can even consider whether to retreat or go forward, he then hears the growl of a wild beast nearby. He spots red eyes glowing in the darkness and knows he’s in trouble. The moment the beast jumps out to bite him, he dodges to the side and scrambles to his feet to run.

He murmurs to himself, “At least it’s just one beast.”

Just then, more red eyes pop up all around him along with growling and he sighs internally. He jumps to grab a tree branch and attempts to pull himself up, only to find himself too weak to do so.

The wolf-like creatures jump out at him just as he scrambles clumsily against the tree trunk and onto the branch. He secures himself on the branch and hugs the tree trunk, looking down at all the beasts surrounding him, their jaws snapping up at him hungrily.

Another explosion erupts, much nearer this time, causing the ground to tremble and the smell of gunpowder to drift over. The beasts are distracted by the sound and run over to the source. Soon after, there’s another explosion followed by the howls and whines of the beasts.

Emrys cautiously ventures toward the sound and soon finds the edge of the forest. Where the trees end is a broken down fence and a clearing where Emrys spots a group of players equipped with large guns and explosives driving a combat vehicle.

He hides within the trees and bushes and watches as the group drives to chase down a few other players who are trying to run. They laugh and hoot when their bombs land near the escaping players and explode. The vehicles those players had scrambled out of were destroyed and on fire, killing players inside and nearby demonic creatures who were attracted to the sound.

Once the group drives out of sight, Emrys allows himself to breathe and take in the rest of his surroundings. A decaying building sits within the clearing past the fence, its open garage empty. Likely, those players already looted it of all its value. Past the old property, the field slopes downward. From his higher vantage point on the forest hill, Emrys can see an old, abandoned city.

He looks toward a distant building, smaller and more worn down than other buildings, and decides to head there to look for supplies and weaponry. Currently, he has no allies and he’s far too weak to face off against anyone by himself. He has no choice but to remain as lowkey as possible.

He manages to find some first aid supplies and a worn baseball bat. He picks up a backpack and stuffs it with more supplies as he loots the building. Before he can grab more things, he hears other players entering and quickly leaves the floor.

He finds a garage in the building which holds several vehicles, but when he checks some of them, he realizes the engines are rigged with explosives, so anyone unaware who uses the vehicles will most likely die whenever the explosives happen to be triggered, taking out anyone or anything nearby as well.

Emrys leaves the area, staying in hiding so as to avoid the most brutal players who are massacring whoever is in their sights. He happens to see a player gain the God of Fire’s grace while their group is duking it out with the explosives group. The player immediately uses his newly gained fire ability on the other group, causing a large explosion.

Emrys startles when a detached hand lands on the floor by his knee. He realizes the group with the fire ability-user are the people who had entered the small building he was in. They’re currently driving one of the vehicles with explosives inside. It’ll blow up any second now.

Nearby is a lone young man, unaware of the impending danger. Seeing as this is the first solo player Emrys has seen other than himself, he gains a brief moment of bravery and runs out of his hiding spot.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Get down!” Emrys shouts as he pulls the man back. The vehicle explodes just then, so Emrys doesn’t see the way the man’s eyes glow a demonic red, nor the way his hand is covered in shadows, prepared to attack him at that moment.

Having fallen to the ground from the force of the nearby explosion, Emrys quickly scrambles to his feet and pulls the man along, dragging him out of the area. All the explosions should have attracted all the more dangerous players and creatures to come this way, so they need to hide somewhere quickly.

When they’re finally in a fairly safe spot, Emrys turns to look at the man. His expression is cold and emotionless, and he gives off a dangerous and powerful aura, but he only stares silently at Emrys. Emrys guesses he must have chased off any potential teammates with that deadly look.

“I’m Emrys,” Emrys introduces himself belatedly after staring at the man for a while. “You are?”

The man remains silent.

Emrys coughs awkwardly and continues, “Right…you don’t need to introduce yourself if you don’t want to. I stopped you back there because I saw that vehicle had been rigged before. I guessed the explosion would trigger the bombs inside it.”

The man still didn’t speak. Emrys wonders if he was somehow injured in the head and asks, “Are you alright? Did you get hurt?”

Emrys reaches out to touch his head, but the man avoids him and asks, “Why?”

“Why, like why did I save you?” Emrys asks.

The man nods.

“Well, truthfully, I don’t have any teammates, so I was hoping we could team up. You’re the first other player that I’ve seen on your own so…”

“...Player?” The man repeats.

“Player, contender, whatever. This is my first instance ever so I don’t really know all the rules or terms,” Emrys says.

“Oh.”

They fall into silence, but the man’s face remains expressionless, neither friendly nor hostile. It’s still better reception than any other players Emrys has encountered.

“So, wanna team up?” Emrys asks.

The man pauses for a moment then finally nods.

Having successfully gained a strong-looking ally, Emrys gets down to business. “First, we’re going to need to gather some supplies. I have a few first aid supplies, but nothing good in terms of defending ourselves.”

Emrys shows the bat.

“What about you? Do you have anything on you?” Emrys asks.

He examines the man who doesn’t even have a backpack or anything. The man stares back at him blankly.

“I guess not,” Emrys sighs. “Well, it’s fine. You’re the muscle of this group. I’ll be responsible for carrying stuff.”

The two of them need to keep moving to avoid both players and waves of monsters.

As they’re on the move, an archer hides in the trees out of Emrys’s sight. He shoots an arrow at him, but the man beside Emrys dissolves the arrow into shadows with a look. Emrys only notices the man pausing to look at something.

“What’s wrong?”

The man shakes his head, and they continue moving.

“Agh…” In the branches, the archer’s hand reaches out as shadows swallow him.

Emrys’s journey goes much more smoothly with the addition of his silent teammate. He makes no complaints or comments despite Emrys having to take frequent breaks from walking, and he’s strong enough to handle any waves of monsters or hostile players they encounter on his own, using the bat Emrys gave him.

The two of them run into a mostly broken down building. Outside, players are battling each other with various gods’ graces.

“We should be safe here for a little while,” Emrys says breathlessly. He slumps to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

Emrys pulls himself up to check the outside for a bit, watching the players massacre each other with their abilities. His silent teammate stands beside him, observing the players as well.

“The aim of the first phase isn’t just to survive, but to survive long enough to impress the gods and gain their graces.” A solemn look crosses over Emrys’s face. “Is the only way to impress these gods through murder and trickery?”

The man doesn’t respond, but he does look towards him to show he’s listening.

Emrys sighs and sits back down, hugging his knees. “I’m not even physically strong enough to kill anyone. And I don’t think I’m smart enough to trick others into their deaths either.”

“I heard this was a wipeout instance, so everyone is doomed to die. I can see why now.”

“The only way to clear it is to be the last survivor or reach the gods’ dwelling place. I’m guessing both tasks are almost impossible.”

“You will survive,” the man says.

“That’s really nice of you to say, but I highly doubt it,” Emrys says. “Regardless, it also won’t be easy to kill me.”

Emrys checks outside again. “Looks like all the players out there have finished killing each other. I wonder where the other players are. Or even how many are left for the first phase.”

Emrys closes his eyes for a moment, feeling sore and fatigued. His face is paler than usual. He is really too weak for all this.

“Is it possible to die of exhaustion in VR?” Emrys jokes with a tired smile.

“Rest,” the man says.

“Do you want to rest first? I can be on lookout first. I know I’ve been nothing but a burden to you all this time, so this is the least I can do,” Emrys says sheepishly.

The man shakes his head.

Emrys settles into his makeshift bed. “Alright, then…thanks. Just wake me whenever you’re feeling tired.”

He falls asleep quickly due to pure exhaustion. It may be more accurate to say he faints from pure exhaustion.

Unbeknownst to him, the man observes him with cold eyes. Shadows wrap around his hand, forming sharp claws as he reaches over to his neck. So weak.

The shadows fall away from his hand as he feels the sleeping figure’s warm pulse, then he moves his lips to mouth the friendly stranger’s name, feeling the shape of it. “Emrys…”

The man melts into the shadows. A few moments later, the sound of wretched screams echo in the distance.