In the still of the night, the air is filled with silence, and the lights of the houses disappear, leaving only the streetlights to illuminate the night. Footsteps approach breaking the silence, and two people from opposite sides of the street meet. It was too dark for their faces to be seen, however, the streetlights illuminated their figures, a figure of a woman and a figure of a man. The strangers locked eyes with each other, and after a brief standstill, the man threw a pair of dice in the air, in the blink of an eye the woman’s hand was already at the man’s throat before the dice could land. The man kicked her hand away and backed away, the man then threw knives at her, a big sword appeared before the woman, and she used it to slash away the knives. The two of them came to another standstill, the man brushed off some dirt from his clothes and went to collect the dice, and the woman’s eyes followed his movement, her body, frozen, still stuck in her last stance. The man picked up the dice and pulled out a knife, and in the blink of an eye he appeared in front of the woman and stabbed her in the abdomen, as he was about to go in for another stab, an arrow landed near his hand, which disrupted his actions. He looked around before running away. The woman then collapsed on the street, as the blood oozed out.

As the night slowly turns into day, the traces of fighting disappear as if nothing had happened, the puddle of blood, as well as the woman, were gone as well. In the same street, a young man was running, he had long black hair and blue eyes and was wearing formal clothing. 

The young man mumbled, “Shit, I’m late! That stupid alarm clock wasn’t even able to wake me up, now I’m late for school!”

As the man turned to a corner, his destination was in sight, he quickened his run as he raced against the closing gates, when he got closer, the gaps between the gates were closed, the young man smirked and ran in a slanted direction, towards the wall, upon nearing the wall, he jumped, his hand clinging on the top of the wall, he then climbed up and dropped to the other side. The young man sneaks his way toward the building, he enters his classroom and sits on his seat, tired and sweaty, he lays his head on the desk to rest. 

“Looks like someone barely made it,” said one of his classmates,

The young man lifted his head and saw a young woman, she had short black hair and a calming voice.

“Hey Elaine,” The young man greeted, “Yeah, luckily I didn’t get caught,”

Elaine smiled and patted him on the back, “It’s good to see you’re still an idiot,” said Elaine.

The young man’s eyebrows furrowed, “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” the young man replied,

“You should know what I meant by that Vin,” replied Elaine,

“Knowing you… it’s hard,” replied Vin.

The two of them chatted until the teacher entered the classroom, Elaine then returned to her seat.

The teacher greeted her class, and the class returned her greeting, after an hour the teacher finished teaching, and before leaving the teacher announced the arrival of two new transfer students, the teacher then left the room, and the students proceeded with their lunch break.

Vin went to Elaine’s seat and invited her to lunch.

“Two students huh, What do you think?” asked Elaine,

Vin shrugs as he eats his food, “Don’t know, don’t care,”

“Yeah… shouldn’t have asked,” replied Elaine.

As Elaine was scrolling through her phone, she noticed an ad that Vin might be interested in.

“By the way, do you still have that console we used to play?” asked Elaine,

“Yeah, it’s still there, I haven’t touched it in a while though, so I’m not sure if it still works,” answered Vin,

Elaine showed her phone to Vin, “Someone’s selling game cartridges,”

Vin took her phone and scrolled through the items, he then shrugged and returned her phone, “Even if the price is lower than the original it’s still pretty expensive,” replied Vin with a sigh “Even if I ask my parents to advance my allowance, it still won’t be enough,” 

“Oh, well that’s too bad,” said Elaine,

“Yeah, but that’s fine, I do need to focus on my studies,” replied Vin.

“Since when were you concerned about your studies?” asked Elaine with a raised eyebrow

“If you’re bored you tend to think about these kinds of stuff,” answered Vin.

After a few hours, the school had ended, and each student exited the room saying their goodbyes to each other, Vin and Elaine walked together until it was time for them to take their separate paths, they waved each other goodbye as they walked in their opposite directions. As the sun was setting, Vin walked alone, leaving him with his thoughts, continuing his stroll back home, Vin saw a vendor at the side of the road, he had white hair and was wearing a mask, and his wares were all laid neatly over a blanket, Vin stopped to take a look at the vendor’s wares, as he looked around he noticed a game cartridge.

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

“Um…can I look at this?” asked Vin, pointing at the cartridge.

The vendor nodded and handed him the item. Vin examined the cartridge, it was clean and looked hardly used, the only thing that he noticed was that there was no label, this piqued Vin’s interest, he was curious about what game was contained in the cartridge.

“How much is this?” asked Vin as he grabbed for his wallet.

The vendor hesitated for a moment, he then replied, “If you want it you can take it, it’s free,”

“W-what? I can’t take this for free, these are quite expensive, even if they’re used,” replied Vin

“It’s fine, really, you just reminded me of my grandson, he used to love that game, and that’s why I’m giving it to you” the vendor replied.

Vin shakes his head, “That makes it more difficult to just take it,” Vin replies, as his eyes roam the wares, “Ah, then what about this? How much is this?” Vin picked up a booklet keychain that had the word ‘Game’ on its cover.

The vendor hesitated, he smirked and replied, “It’s only five dollars,”

Vin nodded “Then I’ll take this and the game cartridge for ten,”

The vendor sighed and replied,  “Alright then, it looks like you’re not going to take a no for an answer,”

Vin smiles and nods as he reaches for his wallet to take out some money, and gives it to the vendor

The vendor grabbed the money and whispered to himself, “I’m sorry young man,” his voice barely audible.

“Hmm, what’s that?” asked Vin

The vendor shakes his head and bids farewell to Vin.

Vin resumed walking, his eyes fixated on the cartridge in his hand wondering what game was in the cartridge. After a half of hour walking, Vin finally reached home, he took off his uniform and changed into comfortable clothes, he ate dinner and went to his room. Vin placed the cartridge on the nightstand, he then looked around his room, searching for his old game console. Thirty minutes later, Vin was able to find the console, he plugged it in and crossed his fingers hoping for it to work. As Vin waited for it to boot up, he took the keychain and examined it, he struggled to open the booklet, and upon opening the booklet, the words in the book were unreadable without a magnifying glass. Vin tried to make out the words written, his ears then picked up a ‘ding’, and he noticed that the console had booted successfully. Vin attached the keychain to the zipper of his bag and took the cartridge, he inserted it into the slot, waiting for the game to read, he grabbed the controllers, and his eyes focused on the screen.

After a while, the game booted, and there was no start screen, Vin was immediately taken into the gameplay. The game had no sound, its colors were only black and white, and the game was also pixelated, it was a simple sidescroller platform game. After a few seconds, Vin completed the first level.

“Well that was easy,” Vin thought to himself “If all the levels are like this then I bet I can complete this in one night unless there are hundreds of levels,”

Vin continued his playthrough of the game, although it was simple and barely any challenge, he was determined to complete it. As he progressed, the game became more and more difficult to play, not because of its difficulty, but because the game started getting buggy, with random glitches, softlocks, and random teleports, it only got worse as Vin progressed further, he had to take the cartridge in and out multiple times as the game did not provide the option to restart, or any option at all, and every time Vin restarts the game, his progress also restarts. Despite slowly losing his patience, Vin remained calm and took this as a challenge to beat the game.

Hours passed by, and the blankets of the night began to fade as the sun rose. Vin found himself being awakened by the rays of the sun and opened his eyes, unable to remember the events of last night before passing out, and in front of him was a dark screen, displaying the word ‘Victory’, Vin groaned, he tried standing up, using everything in his reach as a crutch to help him stand up, as his legs were numb from prolonged cross sitting, he sat on his bed, he shook his head vigorously trying to stay awake. After regaining feeling in his legs, Vin opened his phone to look at the time, it was still early in the morning, and there was still time before school started, he stared at the victory screen.

“Weird… I remember playing the game, but I can’t remember finishing it… what happened…did I finish it in my sleep?”  Vin thought to himself.

Vin takes the controller and presses the buttons, however, it does not do anything, the screen is stuck at the word victory, and he takes out the cartridge from the console, and inserts it again, however, the game is still stuck in the victory screen.

“Weird, if I remember correctly it should’ve reset when I pulled out the cartridge,” Vin thought

Vin shrugged, turned off the electronics, lay flat on the bed, and drifted off to sleep. Some time passed, and Vin woke up to his phone ringing.

“Hello?” Vin answered the phone

“Where are you?” aggressively asked the voice on the other end.

“Elaine?” asked Vin

“Yeah! Now where are you?” answered Elaine

“Home… where the fuck do you think I am, and why are you so mad?” asked Vin with a slight groan.

“You have thirty minutes to get here, or else you’ll miss the test,” replied Elaine as she hung up

The call ended, leaving Vin confused “Why thirty minutes… there’s a test?” said Vin to himself.

He sighed and looked at the time, it was already late and he only had less than thirty minutes before the school started. Vin’s eyes widened, and he rushed up and ran to the bathroom. After a few minutes, Vin was ready to go, he ran outside closed the door, and ran towards school.

Some time passed, and Vin was able to arrive at school in thirty minutes, he ran towards his room, sweaty and tired.

“Wow!, Deja vu,” said Elaine with a slight chuckle as she approached Vin.

Vin glared at Elaine and sighed with a slight smile on his face.

“By the way, can I borrow your textbook? I need to prepare for the test,” asked Elaine

Vin reached for his bag and he rummaged through it, he froze for a second before handing the book to Elaine.

“What’s wrong? You froze for a sec,” asked Elaine as she grabbed the book from Vin’s hand.

“It’s nothing, I just thought I left it,”  answered Vin,

“Alright then, thanks for the book, I’ll return it to you at recess,” said Elaine as she returned to her seat.

Vin took a deep breath and rummaged through his bag again, he pulled out the cartridge that he played with, yesterday.

“Why is this here? Didn’t I leave it in the console? In my room? ” Vin thought to himself.

Vin pondered about the cartridge, however he disregarded the thought upon seeing the teacher enter the room.