“Now, without further ado, I welcome you to your demise.”
A deep, dark red portal ominously appeared next to the blurred figure as everyone stood there, still reeling in shock from news of their impending doom.
A few began to openly weep, while others blankly stared into space with hollow eyes. A couple tried to futilely attack the figure but their abilities merely passed through without leaving a trace.
The figure merely chuckled and said, “Please enter in a prompt manner. Any still remaining here in 10 minutes when the portal to Bellona closes will be swallowed by the void.”
And with that, the figure dispersed into various rays of light and quickly vanished.
A deathly silence fell over the crowd. What could anyone say, after all? Here they were, ripped from their normal lives into an utterly bizarre scenario, with their deaths all but guaranteed.
Eventually, some discussion arose, mainly about whether they thought the figure had been lying. Some were still in complete disbelief, and believed that they were in some terrible dream, or were hallucinating.
After a few minutes or so, a man stood up, and shakily said,” I-I'll head in first then. No point in waiting around for our deaths I suppose.”
He then, with shaky steps and trembling the whole way, walked into the portal and disappeared.
That guy was probably selected for being the bravest, huh? I had nothing but respect for him, for his courage despite being clearly terrified out of his mind.
Like a floodgate being opened, people began to quickly file into the portal after the first person had entered. Guess I should make my move soon as well before I get left here.
Right before I stepped inside, I took a brief glance behind me. I could still see quite a few people sitting there in a daze, with no signs of ever moving. It looks like we might be losing some of our troops right off the bat.
Alright, let’s do this. With a single step, I felt a gut-wrenching pull as I phased through space and was transported.
Crrrrunccch!
Before I could even open my eyes and get my bearings, I felt an excruciating pain tear through me from my right arm.
I looked and saw a massive, 3-meter-tall wolf-like creature casually chewing on what used to be my arm as blood spurted out like a fountain from me. Shrill screams surrounded me, as I saw everyone who had entered ahead of me being gruesomely torn apart or eaten alive by a pack of similar creatures.
Half-eaten corpses lay everywhere, as blood flowed like a river. It appeared to be a massive forest, with the trees so tall and thick that even the sky could not be seen. Light appeared from bioluminescent plants scattered throughout the forest, providing illumination in the otherwise pitch-dark surroundings.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Desperately suppressing the scream bubbling up in my throat, I began to run while holding my gushing right shoulder with my remaining arm. The massive lupine continued to lazily chew on my arm, crunching down on the bones, as if it had no fear of me escaping.
Complete pandemonium and chaos surrounded me as some attempted to fight back, while others, like me, tried to run.
Maybe because I had already been designated as the creature’s prey, or by sheer luck, none of the other wolf monsters chased me as I frantically ran deeper into the forest.
Shit, shit, shit. I have to do something fast. There’s no way that thing will let me live. Sooner or later, it’s going to finish me off once it’s had its fun with my arm.
That’s right, wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of guide feature included with everything else?
I quickly activated the neural UI and selected the “Pathfinder” function. An amorphous white blob appeared in front of me and began speaking.
“Greetings! My name is Melchior and it is my great honor to-”
“Enough with that! Tell me how I can get the hell out of here! I’m being chased by some huge wolf monster that’s about to chow down on me!”
“Hmm. I detect the presence of many Lycophs nearby, which I presume to be the monster you speak of. Lycophs have poor vision, so they hunt primarily using their extreme senses of hearing. I detect the presence of multiple high frequency sound waves emanating from your body, so I advise you to abort these functions in order to avoid their pursuit.”
Huh? Multiple sound waves coming from me? But the only sound I was making right now came from my labored breathing. Unless it meant....
My heartbeat. The blood pumping through my veins. My stomach and intestines slowly digesting what was left of my breakfast. All the various normally imperceptible noises my body made.
So, it was basically telling me to go and die in order to escape, right?
“I can’t stop these noises I’m making. Isn’t there some other way I can avoid them?”
“A second option would be to consume an Amanita Citrias plant, which would place your body into a state of suspended animation, stopping all bodily functions temporarily.”
A small gleam of hope in the darkness!
“Ok, where in the world can I find this thing?”
“Amanita Citrias can be found semi-commonly along water sources in Bellona’s first layer. Please bring me to a nearby river or lake and I shall aid you in finding them. However, I suggest you first purchase a healing aid as I calculate that at your current level of physical exertion and rate of blood loss, you will expire in approximately 3 minutes.”
No wonder my vision was getting blurrier and blurrier as I felt increasingly lightheaded. Purchase? I hurriedly navigated to the Shop function I’d seen earlier and selected the “Healing” tab. Within, I saw a list of items commonly seen in games conveniently ordered by price.
[Lesser Potion of Restoration]- 10p
[Medium Potion of Restoration]- 100p
[Greater Potion of Restoration]- 1000p
I saw a long string of items following those 3, but I had no time to be concerned about any of those. I only had 300 points, just enough to purchase 3 Medium Potions. I quickly spent all my points, and with a ding, I received a notification that they had been delivered to my mailbox.
Damn, I’m literally dying over here, can’t you just make them appear in front of me directly? They didn’t have to copy every detail of Earth videogames.
I scrambled to collect the potions from the Mailbox function, and as soon as they appeared, I quickly drank one while pouring another over my bleeding shoulder.
As the sweet, honey-like liquid flowed into me, I instantly felt much better, with my vision clearing up and the bleeding stopping with new skin rapidly growing over my stump. I even felt a surge of energy, as my fatigue melted away and even my bad back felt like new. I guess you get what you pay for. I felt a brief sense of disappointment however, as I had half-hopes that it would regrow my arm as well.
Well, maybe some of those other items in the shop can do that later down the line. For now, at least I’m in somewhat decent shape to keep moving.
Time to find that plant.