I didn't want to believe it at first.
I was minding my own business and buying some food at a local grocery store, when I heard a gunshot sound near the front entrance.
The sound itself came out of nowhere and surprised me so badly I instinctively crouched down to the ground.
"No one move!" I could hear a man screaming from the front and the sounds of panic began to fill the store. In the same aisle as me, a little girl and her mother were panicking.
"Mom, what's happening?" The little girl held her head against her mother's leg.
"Stay quiet, baby." The mother held her daughter close and crouched to the ground as well.
I could see the sweat from the mother's neck disappear into her shirt collar. It was like my senses were heightened and my heart began to pound wildly.
More gunshots rang out from the front followed by screaming and crying. I was near the front of the aisle so I peered around the corner to get a better idea of what was going on.
Four men in black ski masks were emptying the cash registers into large gym bags. One of the men had a young woman by the neck with a gun to her head, screaming for the manager to lead them to the safe.
I turn around to see if the mother and daughter had quietly left the aisle. To my dismay, they were still crouching with their heads tucked between their arms.
I motioned for them to slowly go to the back exit but they could not see my hand signals.
The company I had worked for had given us a free self-defense course and emergency procedures so I had an idea of what to do, but I only halfheartedly participated.
Regret is a bitter pill to swallow.
If I survive this, I’m taking a long vacation and getting out of the country for a while.
No wait, i'll buy as many books as I can afford and then read them all.
Maybe i'll put in a request to re-take that self-defense class.
Just as I begin to distance myself from the situation, my phone *pings* with a notification for the game I had been playing.
As I fumble quickly to pull out the phone and silence it, I begin to hear heavy footsteps heading in my direction.
When I look up, the woman and her child are looking back at me with a face of utter terror.
I already know exactly what they are looking at, but before I can turn around to beg for my life, I hear the hammer of the gun being pulled back.
Next thing I know, an unknown force is pulling me forward and my face is on the floor.
I can't breathe.
I can't think.
Another notification *pings* on my phone, but the noise seems so far away. Just like the screaming and other noises.
Blood is getting into my left eye, dying my vision in a reddish tinge.
My eyes are heavy, I can't hold them open any longer.
My mouth opens and closes, but no air is going in or escaping.
[ Criteria has been met. Primary translocation subject now moving to secondary coordinates. ]
[ Translocation commencing in 3. ]
[ 2. ]
[ 1. ]
[ Translocation of organic materials complete. Ceasing function. ]
--------------------
Instead of the screams of chaos or the sounds of rescue, I hear the eerily serene sounds of birds chirping and water running.
The difference is so large that I cannot help but shed a tear. I vaguely remember the events before I blacked out. The only conclusion I could come to was that I was dead. Therefore this must be the afterlife I thought so much about.
After a couple seconds, I open my eyes. I seem to be on a soft feather bed, with red silk sheets and various small pillows. The initial pain in the back of my head is gone, but I instinctively checked to see if there was a wound.
To my surprise, there was no scar or any indication that I had suffered a wound at all.
"Master Vestilon, your pet is awake." A small voice came from the side of the bed.
As I quickly glanced over, I saw a small girl, no more than twelve, with disheveled hair tossed to one side. She had a large grin, so much so that her eyes were partially closed. Her mouth was disproportionate to the size of her face.
She reminded me of a certain cat from a certain movie who hung out in trees and gave bad advice. What was the name again... Calico? Chesterfield?
In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but feel like I was looking at something incomprehensible that happened to be made into the shape of a little girl.
The woman named Vestilon approached my bedside, her arms folded behind her back. The sway of her white robes belied a slim figure, and her eyes were small and sharp. her mildly tussled black hair sat gently above her eyebrows.
"You've had a bit of a bad day, haven't you?" Her voice was neither high pitched nor low, and it sounded heavily distorted, like she was speaking from the other side of a door.
The jewelry wrapped around her neck and the tiara on her head shook slightly as she sat down on a chair near the bed.
"What is this place?" For the first time since I arrived, I spoke. My voice was shallow from dehydration and it felt like my vocal chords were tightened to the limit.
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"You didn't answer my question." The delicate smile on Vestilon's face disappeared quickly, as if she was swapping a happy mask for an angry one.
"Yes, I-I was a bit out of luck it seems." That face scared me more than a gun ever could, I quickly gave my answer.
No sooner had I answered her question, the woman began smiling once more.
"You seem to catch on quickly, or maybe you're just a little more observant than the other humans." Vestilon gave a coy smile towards me. "You answered my question, so i'll answer yours as a reward."
The only thing I could do was nod my head like an idiot, afraid to anger her again. The words she spoke did not match the words that I was hearing, but I said nothing.
"You died on earth, but your soul was originally one from the world I govern, Planeia. This usually happens when someone from my world gets summoned away from me. Maybe one of your parents or grandparents was originally from Planeia." Vestilon shrugged nonchalantly at the mind-blowing revelation.
"Since I rarely get guests, let's have a proper conversation before I send you off." Vestilon smiled while a teakettle appeared in her hand.
In the time it took for me to quickly blink twice in disbelief, a table and two teacups appeared in front of the woman.
She poured two cups of hot water with precision and grace, holding her right sleeve back in order not to disrupt the flow coming from the kettle. Her bangs wafted in front of her face, and if I hadn't known I was talking to a goddess, I might have asked how someone could be so beautiful.
Our conversation mostly consisted of the world I came from, what it was like and how people lived. At one point it no longer became a talk between a mortal man and a goddess, but almost felt like two old friends catching each other up on events in their lives.
The world she governed was filled with magic, compared to earth that had none and could only focus on exploiting natural resources for 'miraculous events'. When I explained to her that we harvested the energy caused by lightning strikes or the natural flow of rivers, her facade cracked and she looked like a kid in pure awe.
She admitted that her world was much less civilized than earth, humans were greedy even though they had an abundance of resources and special gifts received by the gods. She gave them gifts in accordance with how much they prayed to her, but they used those gifts to suppress the other races and enslave them.
"Other races? Like elves and orcs?" I couldn't help but get a little excited when I heard the term. The game I had been playing before had many different races and classes, which all had their own abilities.
Truly a fantasy world.
"Oh, so your world had different races as well?" The goddess was a bit perplexed.
I shook my head before reaching for my phone in my pocket. It wasn't until then that I noticed I wasn't wearing any clothes and was completely naked under the silk sheet.
"I want to show you what I mean, but do you have my clothes?" My face was heating up and my ears were red, but I tried to ask without sounding rude.
"These clothes?" With the snap of her fingers, my clothes from my original world appeared in her hands.
I fished around in my jacket for my phone, and turned it on. There was blood on the screen and the back, so I wiped it off on my old shirt. Seeing my old clothes made me miss earth a bit, and the memories of my death came back to me.
I slowly turned the phone on, and opened up the app "Idle Fortress". It was the game that sent me the notifications during the incident.
"This is where I learned about the different races and abilities." I motioned for the excited goddess to get closer.
"What is this magical device!" Vestilon was so excited that she squirmed in her seat.
"This is a phone, and it allows me to play games. The game I played was called "Idle Fortress" where you build a defensive stronghold and make twenty characters to defend against enemies. You make twenty different characters, give them equipment and set them up to do certain actions, and then you let the game do the rest. The more you play, the better the gear you can make for them. I was top twenty-five on my server, and had most of the best gear and enhancements you could get in the game." I boasted a little bit, but considering I was talking to a goddess that governs a world, I couldn't keep up the fake bravado.
"These twenty characters you made were absolutely obedient to you, and you did not mistreat them?" By the facial expressions of the goddess, I could tell she was completely vexed.
"Well, yes. I had nothing to gain by getting rid of them or abandoning them. Some other players got rid of their starting characters and traded them for advanced characters later in the game but I kept my original twenty. They have been with me since the beginning." I felt a little ashamed but I didn't want to lie to her.
Was it so wrong to make an emotional connection to the games I played?
"The original twenty characters were very balanced as well. Five high humans, five high elves, five elder beasts and five elder dwarves. Of course they all started as regular races but I kept giving them better gear and they eventually ascended to their final forms." I couldn't help but smile a bit thinking about how happy I was when I got the notification that my last dwarf had ascended to an elder. I ended up drinking very heavily that night.
I looked over to Vestilon and it looked like she was going to explode in happiness. Her hands were joined in prayer in front of her and her butt wiggled in the seat.
"Finally, I found my champion!" Vestilon yelled and the palace walls shook.
"I've decided, i'm going to send you down to Planeia, and you will show the humans the path of equality!" Vestilon nodded her head happily. "Please give me your phone, I will send you down now."
I gave the goddess my phone, and readied myself for the transition into this new world.
"Please take care of them for me until I return." I was feeling a bit sentimental, and shamefully requested something despite knowing my position.
"You will take care of them yourself!" Vestilon placed her right hand on my head while her left hand held my phone. Both her hands began to glow and I was bathed in white light.
When I woke up, I found myself in a beautiful large room. The design of the room looked incredibly similar to the one I had made for my main character in "Idle Fortress" that had taken me half a year to design.
I rolled out of bed and noticed that I had a new set of clothes on. I was wearing a brown flowing gown like a priest or monk might wear, adorned with jewels and trinkets. The upper half had a black inlay and velvet red cuffs, and the bottom half had velvet red stripes leading down the side of the trousers. The only boots nearby were beautifully crafted leather boots that wrapped up above my shins.
After I was done donning my leather boots, I made my way out the large wooden door and through the hallway of the castle. The layout of the walls were exactly as I remember them from the game, built specifically to defend against other players during PVP events. The air was a little stale, but considering everything that happened it wasn't even on my list of troublesome things to worry about.
I made my way to the throne room, where my in-game character would sit during the PVP events.
Wait, I just noticed.
The robes and boots i'm wearing. It's the exact design of the 'Robes of the Archmage Crassius' from the game. What was the description again.
[ Robes of the Archmage Crassius - Max Health increase - Max Mana increase - Spell Penetration - Passive: Enhance all spells by 3 levels - Active: Enhance all spells by 5 levels for 3 minutes. 24 hour cooldown. ]
A small *ping* went off in my head, and a woman's voice that sounded like Vestilon gave me the information I was trying to remember.
"What was that sound." I involuntarily spoke out when I heard the response from the voice.
*ping*
[ This is the direct information system for those who are granted a blessing from Vestilon, the goddess of truth, knowledge, and the afterlife. General inquiries and complex questions will be answered after a moment of processing. ]
"I suppose I shouldn't get surprised by something like this." I murmured while opening the door to the throne room.
As I opened the door, what awaited me was twenty people saluting the throne. Five high humans, five high elves, five elder beasts, and five elder dwarves. Each one of them exactly as I remember from the game.
"Master Ehko. Conqueror of the Golden Sands, has arrived." A beautiful young high elf approached the stairs toward the throne as I slowly sat down.
Esmerya, the first character you recruit in the game. An unparalleled beauty and spirit-archer that can grant agility buffs and has infinite arrows thanks to her class-race combination. She looks exactly like how I made her when I first got to edit her character details. I remember spending 3 hours just getting the small details as correct as possible.
"Reporting to Master, you have been asleep for five hours and thirty seven minutes. We are in an unknown territory, but our stronghold has not been breached. All magical equipment is functional and all magical facilities are fully operational."
"Uh, ahem. Right." I dumbfoundedly answer back.