*Cough* *Cough*

"Damn these filters," The man mumbled as he adjusted his mask slightly on his face. "gonna have to change these soon."

He walked through the toxic streets, reaching his destination. Walking up to his apartment room, he turned on the filters of his home and quickly dressed out of his protective gear.

"Gah!' He grunted. "Stupid suit... Better than nothing I suppose."

Feeling thirsty, he slouchy walked towards his tiny kitchen, grabbing a beer as he sat on a nearby chair.

Gulping down the drink, he released a sigh of relief.

Taking down a couple of sips from his beer, he remembered that he received an email from a friend back in YGGDRASIL. Taking some moments of pondering back into his own mind, he remembered that YGGDRASIL is ending about... right about today!

He checked the time and it was 11:35 PM, just 25 minutes before the damn game ends!

"Oh fuck, I ain't missing this one out! FUCK THAT!" He nearly tripped on his way to the Power Chair, which was technically called the Neural Nano-Interface. "NOT TODAY!"

Quickly and clumsily putting on his Neural gear, he logged into YGGDRASIL.

In the menu, he reminisced about the good memories he had with this avatar.

A Human race. But not just a simple Human, but the Immortal Subrace of it.

His level 100, Immortal Human avatar wore a stone grey colored heavy-looking armor with the helmet looking a little like a blank faceplate. With bulky shield-sized pauldrons, and stone wings on his back.

He smirked. "It's been a while..." Picking in his avatar, he quickly spawned in.

"Finally, time to-!"

He got cut off by an incoming arrow aiming for his head, turning to see the source, looking around there were elves in Royal Guards attire. Remembering now that he logged off in Alfheim, in the Royal Palace of the Elves of all places!

"Let me get the fuck out of this place and I'll find where the fuck the others are!" He muttered angrily, feeling the drunkenness of the beer taking into his system.

Turning on his passive, flames swirled around his surrounding area, the mobs around him died. Having the chance to finally get away he summoned on the wings of his armor and flew off towards the nearest [World Portal].

Looking at the mini map, it was several minutes away.

Cursing angrily in an unintelligible state of words coming out from his mouth, he turned off his wings and jumped down to the [World Portal] directly. Seeing the menu of selecting which world he can teleport, he waved his hand around confusingly before choosing to teleport into Midgard.

Once teleported, he sighed before looking into his inbox. Seeing that his former clan are online, they are using the leftover time of the countdown to find their own places that benefited their taste of ending, he slumped down before walking off to the corner of the [World Portal] foundation's pillar, sat down and leaned his back on the wall.

"...This is a terrible timing..."

He wouldn't have any time to go to wherever the fuck his buddies were. Even if he manages to reach them in time, it will end quickly enough.

Hearing a beeping sound in his head, he almost thought he was going crazy before seeing the notification on his HUD. Apocalypse is calling to him. He smiled bitterly before clearing his thoughts and accepting the call.

[Yeah?]

[Yo, didn't know you're still here]

Hearing his old friend's voice, he couldn't help but say; [Eyyy, Johnny, how's life?]

[Fine, fine. Was wondering why you're here though, thought you quit]

It was weird enough for him to just log in again. [Quit? Mate, for the last day of YGGDRASIL? Hell no, I'm gonna engrave the last moments of YGGDRASIL before it's gone]

They both chuckled before going silent.

[...Time's changed, John] He said grimly.

[Yeah... Days have gone by quite faster than I thought] Apoc said. [It's like every important event, even though it is 12 years, it felt shorter than that]

He laughed, almost hardly enough, it was funny for him. A bitter scenario for him to just attend after quitting the damn game for a long time. At least it was long enough for him.

[Yes... Yes it has]

[What about Alcatraz? How's the boss doing?]

He grumpily replied, knowing their former Clan Leader. [The bastard's doing fine. He said he'll be with Ainz in the final moments]

[Aww, shame. Couldn't be with his clanmates now?] The insect player said in a joking tone.

[Heheh, you know the boss. He is like that] He smirked.

[I know, just stating]

They both went quiet some seconds later before speaking up again.

[Sooo... Where you at?]

[At Asgard at the moment, you?]

'The hell is that prick doing over there?' [Midgard. Gonna look at the scenery once it ends. I want to picture nature around me in my memories]

[Hmmm, quite thoughtful and unexpected of you John]

He snorted. [Oh really? Because I'm said to be the craziest f**king bastard in our clan? Oh please, take note of Alcatraz and Dubstep] He could feel that Apoc was rolling his eyes on that one before hearing a laugh from him.

[HAHAHAHAHAH! *Wheeze* True, quite damn true] He snorted. [But you're still crazy though]

[F**king whatever man]

[Heh, anyways. You going to see them?] It took him quite a moment to understand what he meant by it before answering.

[You forgot what I told you?]

[...Oh right, you ending the moment alone]

Jason chuckled. [Take care of yourself man]

[You too, and by the way...]

[What?]

[If we're gonna meet each other again, with the same names, you still owe me that favor]

He rolled his eyes. John is too much of a dingus. [Yeah, yeah. Take care bud]

[You too] He said before the {Message} disconnected.

He let out a sigh and looked at the nightly virtual sky of Midgard. Turning to check the time, only about 6 minutes left.

Fucking hell, if he were fast enough to log into YGGDRASIL, he would have more time on going out with the last bang with his comrades. He never knew them outside of the game, but even though he hates those pricks, he hoped that they would do well.

He was about to grab something from his side but felt nothing, remembering that his beer is not here. He chuckled sadly in realization.

Having a stupid idea, he grabbed a consumable from his inventory. Grabbing a [Bottle of Holy Honey] and drank it. As expected, it tasted nothing. But he still can't get out of the habit of drinking alone. He felt complete if he had something to drink from time to time, like nothing much to worry about.

As he watched the countdown on the sky, he felt his eyes closing.

Tired? Ah shit, he drank that beer too much a while ago. Was it the work or the beer? He can't tell, but he was beginning to be sleepy.

He chuckled before deciding to just sleep while in the game, he'll just log off when he wakes. Those fuck-heads back in the company can go fuck themselves for tomorrow, besides, he is never late for the job.

Even if he hates it so much he wanted to burn the damn place to hell... But that is just suicide thinking.

Glancing at the time in the sky one last time, seeing that it was only a few more minutes before the shutdown finished, he saw only darkness.

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

And as the time reached zero, he was gone. Gone from the real world and the virtual.

Gone to another world.

Where fate has other plans for him.

----------------------------------------

Unknown Location

In the voidness of nothing, there exists only nothing for it to exist.

But only the Presence, exists to be the light of the void.

In the void, a normal mortal would have gotten crazy from the dark and the complete silence of itself.

But not the mere Presence of being in present.

He felt something enter the void, seeing a small bright light to glow before dimming slightly.

"Hmmm, so this is what that 'boy' told me about." He said as he examines the being. "What a strange entity, to exist in different methods while it itself would be considered as... Impossibility."

"You are a natural curiosity, Jason." He complimented, despite said person was unconscious. "The Gentleman is right about you, you would do strange things into this realm of possibilities, outside the Plan... May you do so well, Jason."

. . .

Location: Justice League, Earth, Santa Prisca. . .

For in all his life, has he ever felt so good and comfortable in his sleep. No nightmares, no shapeless and senseless dreams, no night terrors, nothing.

He literally felt nothing.

He would have stayed like this forever, but a voice kept telling him to "Wake up, and smell the ashes" over and over again.

It was almost at the point of annoyance, that he would have to shut that timer off if it meant him more peaceful and comfortable sleep.

"WAKE UP!"

And immediately, he sat straight up like he was pulled up to sit up with his eyes wide opened. Feeling the strain he just opened his eyes so forcefully, he closed his eyes again before slowly opening them. He grunted in annoyance as he started to rub the back of his head, just to feel something unnatural the moment he touched it.

'What the...?'

Feeling something around his head, it was literally covering his whole head. He can't touch his face, yet he can see clearly through it!

His hands, they are covered in armor! Stone looking armor! Wait, he recognized this... [Solar Stone] armor! He is wearing it!

Wait, forget himself, where the fuck is he?

Looking around, he was in a cave. It was big enough for him to stand around.

'Is this an update? Those fucking devs better not pull this shit around.' He mumbled as he tried to turn on his menu, but touching nothing but thin air.

"What?" He said in disbelief before trying to get the menu up. But it was useless. It didn't turn on.

It didn't show up.

He started to recall that he was sitting down, leaning behind a pillar from Midgard's [World Portal].

"Is this a fucking dream?" He grunted as he slowly got up from his feet.

"If this is a frigging prank from you fucking devs, I swear I will sue your ass to kingdom come." He glared at everything he eyed at. Although there was one thing he would take note of.

Everything is too detailed.

Compared to the virtual worlds of DMMORPG, there would be limited senses for safety and company's policy. I mean, would you rather feel pain when you're in a video game? That's only for try hards and masochists. And if it would be enabled, then there would be less customers.

Other than that, he could literally feel the cold air of the cave. Somehow, he could hear every movement in the cave. The creatures that crawl, the drippings of water, the silence of the earth.

He then noticed a long tunnel ahead. He guessed that it would lead him to exit this darn place.

As he followed the tunnel, he tried and tried to open up a menu, but after the 16th time, he gave up and focused on getting out of the place. It didn't take him long enough to exit the damn cave and got outside.

It was night time and he was around a forest, a jungle so it seems.

He could hear the critters, the wind breezing through, the sway of the trees. Either he was getting high or the game really got updated and the devs faked the shutdown of the game.

He doubted the former thought.

Faintly but clearly, he could hear bursts of gunfire from a distance. Not too far from where he was, but he could see buildings on where he would guess the gunshots were coming from.

Normally, he would avoid fights and stick to his team since they would lead while he followed. But since he is alone...

"Argh fuck it, its night time, got a fucking job for tomorrow, might as well do one last bang of action." He grinned as he clenched his fist in excitement.

. . .

The newly-formed team, with Aqualad now assigned as their team leader, did a good start.

Their attack on the cultist group was more coordinated than their initial start.

"Incoming!" A cultist turned around to see a fist hitting his face, blacking him out. "And knock out!" Wally grinned as he sped up to target another cultist.

The team picked their fights well, although Robin was no match against Kobra, and Miss Martian was held in an arm lock by Sportsmaster while pinning down Superboy.

"Fighting you kids is just a chore." Sportmaster said as he slowly backs up into the helicopter while pinning down Superboy. "But thanks for the work out, I gotta fly."

He threw Miss Martian off and flew off.

"Damn." Superboy hissed in annoyance before feeling a tug from M'gann. She showed the detonator in her hands to Superboy, who grinned as she pressed down the button, making the helicopter explode.

The both of them regrouped towards Robin, who is visibly outmatched by Kobra. The team got together in case of a fight from him, but Kobra escaped through the jungle behind him.

"Soo..." Wally began. "What now?"

"We'll have to report this to batman."

"By report, which means you." Robin pointed to Aqualad. "We voted you to lead the team, which automatically in turn to be the right guy to explain this whole mess to batman!" He said before he burst out in uncontrollable laughter. Realizing that he narrowly escaped the deed to explain the situation to his mentor.

As the team began to relax, none of them noticed one of the cultists was still up and was aiming his weapon at Wally.

As the cultist was about to pull the trigger, he was lucky enough to die quickly and painlessly as his head exploded in gore.

The team turned around and saw only a headless corpse lying down in its pool of blood, with the killer standing above it.

"Well, lookie here. You guys missed one!" The armored man pointed down to the corpse, stating the once living person dead as it was nothing.

The person wore what is supposed to be armor made of stone, yet the design was too advanced that it can be looked as a power suit, but made of stone! They could not see the face as the killer wore a blank helmet, showing nothing.

The team found this with disgusted horror. Robin had already seen happen like these when he was with Batman against the Joker, but even this was too much for him.

First mission, shit just got out of control.

"W-What the you do!?"

"I just saved your asses from this guy, he was gonna shot you you fucking unaware idiots."

. . .

'Damn, this update is realistic as fuck.' He thought as he examined his blood-covered hand. 'Since when did they implement blood? Ain't this illegal?'

Minutes ago, he just arrived at the place just to meet unconscious persons on the ground, most of them wore the same red hooded robes, with one being a grey mutated orc.

Then he noticed one of the red people aiming his weapon towards the group that had their backs turned. He intercepted and killed the person. Although he was not expecting gore and blood graphics, since most games censors them. With the exception of the DOOM franchise. That shit was brutal as fuck.

'Why isn't my HUD showing? How the fuck do I turn it on?' And then. 'Wait, this smell... Is this blood?'

He didn't notice a large crate crashed into him. He blinked and turned to the girl who was hovering with her hand raised towards him.

"Hey, did you just attack me?" He asked.

"Wha- You just killed someone!"

"Are you fucking idiots being idiots right now? I just saved your ass from this guy." He then pointed at them. "Now, why did you attack me?"

"Who are you?" The tall dark one said, raising his blades. Are those water blades?

"Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you? I just came here just to see a battleground, and why the hell did you not kill these fools?"

"Because that's not how Heroes do!" The caped boy exclaimed. "We don't kill!"

"Heroes?" He raised a brow before snarling. "So you are one of those role players huh? Would you mind stop with the role play and mind just telling me this update of the fucking game?" He said in annoyance.

"What are you even talking about!?" The boy in a black shirt with a hole in the chest shouted in anger.

"You know what? Forget it, just tell me where the fuck is the nearby [World Portal] and I'll be gone." He sighed.

"Now!"

Confused by the sudden shout to the dual blade user, he felt his arms being constricted by a steel beam before wrapping around him. Weird, it only felt like a warm blanket wrapped around him. Not giving time to pause, he felt a rush of attacks to the chest then one big blow to the face.

He crouched from the impact. But none of them hurt... Wait...

'Did... Did I just felt those?' He felt that something just hit him, but it didn't even hurt him. It was like a sensation of very fast pokes onto his body. 'Wait, did they just attack me!?'

"I just saved your asses, now you're attacking me?" He slowly raised his head towards them. He noticed that some of them were surprised, what did they expect from a weak ass attack like this?

"Hold him down!"

Then he felt something restricting his legs, he looked down and saw another steel beam wrapping his legs.

'Is this part of the update? You can use the environment as weapons? Huh, neat.'

"You're too weak to even hold me down!" He simply spread his arms wide and kicked his legs, destroying the steel beams that wrapped around him.

"I don't even need my weapons to fucking kill you, you weakling PKs!"

A boy in black shirt gave a loud war cry as he delivered his punch. Grinning, he couldn't help but do the same. He recoiled his hand and he felt his fist flew like a bullet.

Fist met Fist. And a massive cloud of dust covered the two.

A massive shock wave shook the place, almost shaking the whole island.

Everyone stumbled from where they were standing before falling down, with the exception of Miss Martian hovering before making the others float.

"Superboy!" Miss Martian shouted in concern. Her link to Superboy was only immense pain, and then suddenly silence.

"M'gann, can you sense him!?" Aqualad turned to his alien comrade.

Once the dust settled, what they were witnessing answered his question.

Superboy was on the ground, his left arm gone. Nothing left but blood and gore around him. Blood was spurting out from whatever his left stump, bones could visibly be seen.

This made the team gasp in horror and in disbelief. Someone who could literally decimate an arm of Superboy, even a clone of Superman, was shocking.

The Killer didn't even get a single scratch from his armor. No damage done with. If Superboy, a clone of Superman, could not even put a scratch on this person, then what hope could they do?

Not a single one of them moved even an inch. Robin however, activated a distress call to the Justice League. They would be arriving in minutes once he turned on the signal.

The Killer was the first one to move, he grabbed Superboy by his neck. He held him high so closely that their faces could touch by an inch.

"..." Jason could only think of one thing, and one thing that needs to be confirmed.

If everything is reality, then what he has done he will regret. But if everything is fake, then there shouldn't be any problem... Right?

He remembered reading an article on locating vital points, and one that you can check your own heartbeat without any equipment. Pressing his two fingers onto the neck of the boy, he waited for a moment just to feel the soft beating.

The realization froze him. He indeed made a mistake.

The possibility of this being a reality... It took him for someone to be hurt or killed to realize this.

'Wait! I still have those!' He paused before realizing. '...How the fuck do I access my inventory?'

So, what you think?

Bad or good? Personally, I think its a bad start.

I mean, fucking hell, I dont even watch most of JL or Young Justice series. Its been a long damn while, so at some part, im just recalling clips and scenes in my head on scratch.