Earth, 2024
“Come on! Just a bit more,” Ren muttered, gripping his controller tightly and furiously pressing the buttons.
“If there’s anyone up there, some god or anything else,” Ren said, wildly moving the controller in all directions, “just help me finish this damn challenge!”
At this point, Ren was willing to use any means, even absurd ones, to complete the unforgiving challenge.
“Whose idea was it to give one boss this many attack moves!?” Ren screamed at the computer screen in frustration and anger. “If this weren’t an official challenge, I would’ve reported this thing for cheating already!”
The screen pulsed with vibrant colors as Ren’s character, a bulky man wielding a greatsword, charged through the ruins of a battlefield.
A roaring sound came from the middle of the battlefield. Clad in black and red scales, with four massive wings protruding from its body, the creature’s two arms were armed with deep black claws that could pierce the hardest material with ease.
It was a complete amalgamation of pure miasma and humanity’s hatred—a creature often told of in fairytales and stories, but now transformed into something straight out of a nightmare.
The Primordial Umbra, a dragon born of humanity’s hatred for itself.
“Not only is its power stat broken, but its defense is too!” Ren screamed like a maniac, his only focus on defeating the utterly broken dragon.
Ren’s character dashed through the battlefield, searching for a chance to attack the dragon at its weak point.
“Okay, let’s calm down,” Ren took a deep breath, steadying himself. “The only weak point this thing has is where the wings protrude from its body.”
Ren’s eyes scanned the flow of battle. All his past experience helped him make split-second decisions that had saved his life so many times before.
But even then, Ren knew he couldn’t prolong this battle much longer.
“Dammit, my stamina won’t hold if this keeps up,” Ren pressed the controller buttons to keep his character moving. “I need to take a chance—all in or nothing.”
Ren decided to bet all his experience on his final move. He couldn’t beat this thing by playing it safe, so he had no choice but to attempt a potentially suicidal maneuver.
His character ran at the dragon at high speed, abandoning any form of defense for the sake of speed.
The dragon noticed him and began charging its fire breath. Its blackened throat started to glow red from within.
“Hah! I predict that move already,” Ren shouted with vigor, seemingly unafraid by the dragon movement. “But it’s too late; that move is way too slow!”
Ren's character was moving too fast towards the dragon's position, and the dragon knew this, so it decided to change its moves by swishing its massive tail in the character's direction.
Ren saw the incoming attack and tried to dodge beneath it, but before doing so, he did something no other swordsman would have considered in that situation. He threw his sword.
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“Take this!” Ren’s character hurled the greatsword with all his remaining strength at the dragon's weak point.
The sword slashed through the air at high speed, finally piercing the dragon’s tough scales right at its weak spot.
The dragon roared in pain, its body thrashing uncontrollably in response to the agony.
“Oh no, I won’t die like this!” Ren frantically moved the controller, trying to get his character out of range of the dragon’s wild movements, but it proved difficult.
The dragon moved erratically due to the pain, smashing everything in its path with its tail and body.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the dragon’s movements slowed, and its body crumpled to the ground. At last, it took its final breath.
“Hell yeah, take that, you overgrown lizard!” Ren stood up from his seat and screamed at the screen.
The completely absurd challenge was finally over.
“That was singlehandedly the worst thing I’ve ever gone through in my life,” Ren muttered to himself, taking a gulp of water. “Even my first breakup wasn’t this bad.”
While Ren was still full of adrenaline, a message suddenly appeared on the screen.
“Wow, is this the reward screen?” Ren looked closely at the screen. “Wait, it looks different than usual.”
The message on the screen read as follows:
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[Challenge Complete]
[Congratulations, you are the first challenger to succeed in the challenge.]
[As the developer, we are thankful for your participation.]
[As the first and only winner of the challenge, we would like to give you a reward.]
[An opportunity.]
[Do you accept?]
[Y/N]
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Ren was dumbfounded as he stared at the message. A whirlwind of emotions brewed inside him.
“I’m the first to finish?” Ren said excitedly, though he was puzzled by the rest of the message. “It’s not an item reward like usual? And what’s this about an opportunity….”
But Ren decided to ignore the last sentences and focus on the fact that he was the first to finish the challenge.
“That can’t be possible, can it?” Ren was still completely puzzled by what was happening. “But it clearly says that on the screen.”
Finally, after processing everything, Ren threw his hands into the air and struck a victory pose.
“I’m the first!” Ren screamed with all his might.
He had done it. After countless hours of gameplay, endless grinding, and mastering every intricate detail of the game, he had finally reached the pinnacle.
Suddenly, he felt the urge to take a screenshot and post all of this to the game forum, but he noticed something strange.
“Why can’t I close the game?” Ren was puzzled by the fact that he couldn’t exit.
He tried everything, from pressing the log out button, opening the task manager to force quit, the infamous ALT – F4 and even shutting down the computer manually.
But the screen didn’t change at all. The only thing it showed was the same message.
Ren felt disturbed by all of this. At first, he thought the game had crashed, but the fact that even turning off the computer manually did nothing was not normal.
“I can still move the cursor inside the game, but I can’t do anything else…” Ren murmured to himself.
He finally read the last sentences of the message once more: the offer of an opportunity.
“But what reward? What opportunity?” Ren said, frustrated, as there was no other information in the message.
Seeing no other way to resolve the problem, Ren decided to move the cursor.
“Since they said it’s a reward, I won’t say no to that.” Ren said as he moved the cursor to the “Y” and clicked.
The button was pressed, and suddenly the message disappeared. Nothing seemed to change for a moment.
“What? Nothing is happening,” Ren murmured. “Then is it really a bu—”
Suddenly, the screen flashed with a bright light, and something strange happened.
The screen flickered, and a jagged red glitch tore across the display, distorting the image. The glitch grew larger by the second, branching outward into reality.
“Wha—what the hell is this?” Ren panicked as he saw the glitch spread through his entire room, covering it in red.
Suddenly, the glitch intensified, leaning closer to Ren. The red lines converged into a chaotic spiral that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
Before Ren could react, the screen erupted in a burst of crimson light, flooding his room with a sickly, pulsating glow.
The walls around him seemed to warp, and he felt an inexplicable pull, as if something was dragging him into the heart of the glitch.
“Shit, it’s too strong!” Ren screamed, trying to resist, but it was futile. His body, covered by the red lines, became distorted, and he was dragged into the screen.
The last thing he saw was the distorted view of his room before he was pulled inside.
Then, everything went dark.