“Bro, did you try out that Ancestral Lands crystal? It’s fucking crazy!” His friend Nick messaged him, they had been friends for nearly a decade but saw one another less and less as the years had passed, though they still talked occasionally.
Michael replied after a few minutes to let his body stop hating him. “Yeah, I gave it a try, ended up fighting some dudes, you?”
“Really? You fought someone? You die or something? I ended up in some town, though it was like middle ages shit, it smelled like horse shit too.”
“Yeah, dropped me in the middle of some fight… I killed some guys, dude it felt so real.”
“Oh man, you gotta tell me about it, that sounds awesome.”
Michael looked at his friend’s message and shook his head. “Awesome isn’t a word I would use to explain it.” He mumbled to himself as he stood up slowly, his body groaning the whole way to his feet. Walking to the bathroom he grabbed a few pain pills and swallowed them to help with the aches. “What can I do for twelve hours?”
Without much else to do Michael opened up the internet on his phone to search for any information he could find on the Ancestral Lands that the voice kept referring to.
Apparently most people ended up in places like Nick had, villages or towns from the middle ages or similar time periods. A few people had forums about challenges they had faced much like himself but a lot of them spoke about having failed. Not all of the challenges were battles, some were puzzles, riddles, tests of endurance, very few seemed to have to fight to survive.
“Wonder why that is? Is it based on the bloodlines that the voice kept talking about? One of the people in the forums was saying that he had the bloodline of Socrates and failed to answer the man’s questions and was ejected from the world quickly. Another was the daughter of Genghis Khan and was shot full of arrows minutes after beginning her challenge, making more evidence for the bloodlines choosing the challenge.
Phone buzzing again with another message. “Hey man? What’s up? Are you alright?” Nick again blowing up his phone since he hadn’t answered the prods for more information before.
“I’m fine. It’s just that everything was so real, blood, guts, cries of pain. It was tough to fight people to the death.”
“Dude, it can’t be real. Right?”
The thought struck like lightning, he had killed nearly a dozen men in battle, or at least maimed that many. What if the Ancestral Lands were an alternate reality that they were being drawn into. The idea of killing actual men made Michael suddenly sick and he rushed to the bathroom to empty his stomach into the toilet. The pills from earlier still hadn’t dissolved and sank to the bottom.
Wiping the tendrils still clinging to his lips and nose he picked up his phone again. “It can’t be… Can you come over? I’m freaking out a bit.”
“Yeah, give me like 20 minutes, need to get dressed.”
Michael sat on the floor of his bathroom waiting for his friend, eventually there was a knock at the door letting him know that Nick was there. Slowly making his way to his feet he got to the door and opened it, but it wasn’t Nick waiting for him. It was a man and a woman in suits with blackout sunglasses. “Mister Thompson?”
“Um… yes?”
“I’m Agent Gray, and this is Agent Fox, we represent the U.S. government. We assume you have heard of the recent phenomena of the crystals falling from the Rift as we pass under it. The crystals are current marked as non-threatening however we do wish to inform you that the use of these crystals is unknown and at this time we would request any crystal in your possession be turned over for safe keeping.” The male agent speak in a bored voice.
“Is this a demand or a request?” Michael had a bad feeling about these two and even though he was revolted by what he had done in the Lands he wanted to go back. That rush was calling to him like a siren.
“It is currently a request. If the crystals are found to be safe a crystal will be returned to the owner. If they are deemed threatening all crystals will be required to be turned in.”
“Okay. Thank you, I don’t have one however, left it in the street, freaked out and ran away.”
“Very well, have a good day Mister Thompson.” The male was the only one to speak the whole time before they turned and moved to the next door to speak with his neighbors about turning in their crystals willingly.
Closing the door Michael took a few ragged breaths as he calmed himself down. They looked like they hadn’t believed him but they had walked away without a challenge.
Knock, knock, knock.
The first thought that struck was the agents were back, but they had just moved on. Looking through the peephole he saw Nick’s face, he had dyed green hair that was a bit shaggy but he had a clean shave. A bit shorter than Michael and heavier set he looked impatient waiting after he knocked.
Michael opened the door and gave a slight smile. “What’s up?” Nick scoffed as Michael spoke and invited him in.
“What do you mean, what’s up? You invited me over to talk.”
“Yeah. Right. I just didn’t really know who else to talk to. All I could think about since coming back is what if that place is real.”
Nick froze at the statement as he turned and looked towards Michael. “No way dude. That’s not possible right? Another world where we are getting new bodies and have access to game-like status screens.”
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“I know, I know… but hear me out, I fought a dozen men, maybe more, that I killed personally. I felt their blood drip from my face, the taste of copper as it slipped into my mouth, the crunch as my axe shattered their bones. All of it felt real, the only thing that didn’t was how I knew how to do the things I could do.”
“Being able to do things you can’t in reality is what games are all about aren’t they?” Nick made a strange face. “If you couldn’t fight what fun would a game be? I mean what would be the point after all.”
“Right, you’re right. It just…” Michael clenched and unclenched his right hand, the phantom of the axe was there, wanting to grip it and fight. A tremor went down his spine. “I’m not a killer…”
“Of course not, you are too big of a bitch to kill someone.”
A flash of anger entered Michael’s chest for a moment, and he imagined bashing his friend’s smug face against the doorframe. Barely a second later he felt horrified with his thought but his tongue decided to make its own decision. “Maybe I’ll start with you then, ha.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. So how did you end up in a fight in your first entry? I ended up in a town with barely anything to my name, just some clothes, a bit of bread, and some iron coins.”
“I’m apparently some descendent of a group of warriors in Europe so my ‘test’ was to see if I could survive a battle… Just me and one guy fought nearly a hundred people. I mean I only fought like ten but still.” Something told Michael not to share who he was the descendent of, a whisper in the back of his mind was telling him to not trust anyone.
“Only ten?” The look on his face said he didn’t believe a single word of it.
“Don’t believe me, whatever.” Michael grumbled, he knew what he had done, who cared if some weakling didn’t believe him. Another thought that he couldn’t believe was his own stole into his mind.
Nick visibly flinched then spoke softly. “I’m only joking man. No need to look like you are about ready to bite my head of.” Apparently the thought had made its way to Michael’s face. “So, you going to go back in once it opens?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Fuck yeah. Its so realistic except for the status screen and the whole non-human races there.”
“Non-human?”
“Yeah, there were like elves and shit, stuff you’d probably be able to name but I didn’t recognize half of them. They were chained up so I guess they were slaves but still, kind of cool to see them.”
Slaves? The thought struck Michael as odd, his ancestors had kept slaves, almost all who were Vikings did, other people who kept faith with other gods. They were seen as lesser, but an entirely non-human race would definitely have it worse if humans were the most populous race on a planet. “Maybe I’ll see them when I get in again. I guess the Ancestral Lands is opening fully tomorrow morning, according to the announcement I was given after being booted from the challenge.” Unintentionally he was trying to trick his best friend into believing he had failed to survive his challenge.
“Sounds good, I guess we should be ready to get in once they open. Who knows what mind of things would be going on. Since I’m here already, mind if I crash on your couch? Lots of wrecks and crazies on the street don’t feel like going home tonight.”
“Yeah, sure.”
The two of them talked and drank a bit until Michael decided to go to sleep. Locking the door to his bedroom he flopped into his bed and looked at the strange crystal, it was so weird. Was it really just some sort of crazy VR device, or was it transporting them to a new world? If it was a new world, why was it summoning them, what purpose could it have, and why did it have a voice referring to them as Users. The thoughts ate at his mind until sleep eventually claimed him.
In the night a low thump could be heard and it startled Michael awake, there was a figure in his bedroom, it looked like they had come in through a window. “Who the fuck are you?” Michael said, his mind a bit groggy but his blood was suddenly up, he wanted to fight.
The figure didn’t make a sound but instead pulled something out from under their jacket. It was black on black so he couldn’t be sure but it looked like a knife. Michael had been a bit worried, it wasn’t like he could call Nick to help him, the door was locked.
“So that’s how it is. What do you want?”
The figure still said nothing but continued to grip their weapon in a way to hide it and rushed towards Michael. On an instinct he attempted to grapple with his attacker, gripping the wrist and pushing the weapon hand up and away from his body. Shortly after he followed up with a headbutt to the shorter figure’s face, causing them to grunt slightly. “Oh, so you can talk.” The next move was probably one of the dirtiest in the history of man, his knee came up right in between the other’s legs and struck full force into his groin. A howl of pain escaped the intruder but it was too late.
The knife had slipped from their hand and Michael caught it, tearing a bit of his flesh from his hand as the blade dug into it. Without caring for his minor wound he drove the knife into the other man’s throat, once, twice, three times, before pushing him back with a heavy shove. They gurgled a couple times before stumbling to the ground and no longer moving. The adrenaline from the battle was still coursing through Michael’s veins as he looked at the dead man sprawled on his floor.
A few seconds later he gagged and nearly puked on the floor in his room to add to the mess but he choked it down. This was exactly like the Ancestral Lands, this cemented the idea that they were a real world now.
Taking a minute to calm down he turned on the light and checked his attacker, he didn’t recognize him, just some guy he had never met before. Picking up his phone he called 911 and explained that he had been attacked in his home but was able to kill his attacker with his own weapon.
Police showed up ten minutes later, Nick was on the couch looking at Michael in shock, his mild-mannered friend had come out of his bedroom soaked head to toe in blood and didn’t even flinch or look disgusted with it.
The police took his statement and went over what had happened. After talking with their higher ups they decided he needed to come to the station to answer some questions, they also had him change out of his shirt and pants so they could take them as evidence.
As he was changing his clothes in the bathroom he suddenly heard a voice he hadn’t expected sound out in his head. “User Michael, your life is under threat, emergency access to the Ancestral Lands has been authorized, please place hand on crystal to enter.”
“What?”
“User’s life is threatened by three lifeforms, user has a zero percent chance to survive this encounter.”
Michael froze when he heard this statement. How would the crystal know that his life was threatened, and who was threatening his life? The police officers he had called?
“Who is threatening me?”
“Information unavailable.”
“How would entering the Ancestral Lands save my life? Doesn’t only my mind transfer over?”
“Information unavailable.”
“What is available?” Michael groaned at the voice, it seemed to be purposely avoiding answering his question.
“You will die within the next hour if you do not enter the Ancestral Lands.”
The finality of the voice convinced Michael to give it a try, worst case he wakes up in the police station or a hospital in cuffs. Going back into his bedroom he saw one of the officers looking at his crystal. “Mister Thompson, what’s this?”
Michael walked over and held out his hand. “Let me see, I think this is a stone I got from a trip to Michigan with my aunt and uncle.”
The officer handed it over with a shrug. “Looks like-.”
“Enter.” He said softly as the crystal changed hands. A light appeared before Michael’s eyes and he felt as if he had just gotten off a roller coaster as he stumbled a step forwards.