Kyle's vision changed from the reality of within the tub before him to a shadowy smoke surrounding him, then darkness.
After the dark, came words and a small cutscene, the names of the game's developers and backers coming in one by one until a wisp of blue began floating up from beneath.
Kyle found out he could look down and follow the wisp's trail of blue, seeing that it had come from an abyss of black underneath him.
Looking back up, the words were gone and instead he was met with the wisp turning in circles before him.
Seemingly forming a portal, as all around the wisp the darkness began to fade and the cutscene began.
The game had begun introducing itself, showing monsters and cities, player abilities and utilities but...
The wisp overlapped it all, until finally the rotating energy became one, and shuddered.
Cracks formed all around the portal, and suddenly Kyle was sucked inside.
Darkness once more filled his vision, but no words came, no cinematics and no light...
Until he heard something giggle behind him.
Frantically Kyle spun about, as his vision began swapping between two sights that seemed to overlap.
The first, a character creation screen, each time it came to the front some setting had been changed.
The second, a small smiling figure. A tiny humanoid with bright blue butterfly-like wings, blonde hair with blue linings and bright golden eyes.
"Hello." The being said, and her sight settled, the creation screen now laying as a blurry and almost invisible reality underneath it all.
"Uh, hi?" Kyle replied, realizing now that he could speak, he looked down at himself.
He now had hands, arms, a body.
And as he looked down, reality flashed, suddenly seeing himself from other eyes, the fairy's eyes for several moments.
Snow white hair at shoulder length, with fox-like ears above. Twitching both, he found he had control over them like a fox would, same as the snowy tail that presented itself behind him. He looked up and met his own gaze, silver eyes staring right back at him.
Looking himself up and down, he had little issue with the chosen aspect.
Then his vision returned to his body, and the fairy giggled once more.
"I knew you'd like that." She mused.
"Knew? How? Who are you?" Kyle asked, looking back up to suddenly find her hovering right in his face, smirking.
"We've done this before, you and I, although you now would not know of you then." The fairy confusingly explained.
"Huh?" Kyle was lost.
"As for who I am...Well, this body is akin to Lillia, but the question you should be asking?" She mused whilst hovering away, "Is what."
The fairy then fluttered up and away, "I'll be seeing you, little fox. Enjoy my world." Lillia said, and suddenly her body began losing substance.
The fairy disintegrated into sparks of multicoloured light, which spread out abruptly all around Kyle, lights which slowly began to fade and...rush upward?
No...
No Kyle was falling.
"Oh shit." Kyle was falling, quickly looking down as he gained momentum, he saw mostly an abyss of darkness with a tiny speck of light at the centre.
A speck of light that, as he noticed it, suddenly began enclosing on him.
Blurting out obscenities at the fairy as he fell, "OH SHIT-OH FUCK-STUPID CUNT-"
The force of the wind upon him quickly turned his speech into an incomprehensible blabber as he fell and fell, until finally he reached the light.
The darkness opened up before him, he burst his way through cloud after cloud.
breaking through the last layer, a world revealed itself to him.
A snowy forest and rolling hills spanning to either side of him, both ending differently as to his right lay great mountains and to his left he saw a shoreline. Towards that shoreline, his eyes widened at the sight of a great wall of black and red, pillars of darkness rising higher than the forest with seethrough walls of red energy shuddering in between each one.
Glancing about this world, he then looked over the sky all around him...And he noticed them.
Kyle noticed the dots, falling just like him, hundreds over hundreds of them they riddled the forest's sky.
The other players?
He thought, until his mind turned to a singular thing that suddenly presented itself before him.
Feathers?
Feathers.
Snow white just like his hair, surrounding a pale pinkish body that was frantically cawing and clawing away at him.
Kyle had as he fell, hit and unconsciously grabbed onto, a vulture.
A bird that was now freaking out and falling with him.
Looking at one another then, Kyle screamed, the vulture screamed.
Then both glanced down at the nearing ground.
Kyle screamed.
The vulture passed out.
Then, Kyle saw him, a player running below.
As he fell closer and closer, screaming at the top of his lungs, the player heard him.
The player heard him, stopped, and looked up.
Kyle screamed.
The player screamed.
[Tundra Vulture Level 5] has been killed utilizing [Fall damage]
Player [Kregzosm Level 2] has been killed utilizing [Fall Attack]
Active skill gained [Reverse Flying Press]
Progress towards class [Wrestler] = 30%
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Notifications filled Kyle's view as he lay dazed in the cold snow, groaning whilst he stood up, he found to bodies stacked up dead underneath him.
Quickly he rushed off them, falling back onto his ass, "The fuck...Oh, shit." Breathing in, he felt the cold air rush through his throat.
He felt it freezing over his sweat and saliva, that he quickly wiped away into his long sleeve.
Kyle stood up, glancing down at himself first, he then looked over at the world around him.
The forest was vastly larger than any set of trees he had ever seen real or digital, and it all felt so god damn real.
Eyes wide and mouth agape, Kyle briefly ran his left fingers over his right palm, the sensation so real he surged back in surprise.
"This...is a game, right?" He asked himself, gazing down at the two dead bodies as suddenly they began to dissipate into ash, the ash itself then fading out of existence. "Holy shit."
Each leaving behind a set of loot, a couple of red health flasks, some feathers and a few pieces of bird meat.
He knew this because as he glanced over each, a window came into existence over it, telling him what each was.
Red Health Potion
Looking away from the loot then and up at the sky, with the sun's light shining down through the trees and into his eyes, he then noticed some things at the edge of his vision.
Windows with statistics and information came into view as he noticed them.
To the top left was his name and several other things.
Kyllix
Level: 1
Guild: None
Class: Classless
Title: None
And at the bottom where three bars, one red.
Health: [ 2/10 ]
One blue right next to it.
Energy: [ 10/10 ]
And one pink beneath the first two, spanning the entirety of his vision's width.
Experience: [20%]
"Alright...Chill out, it's just a game." Kyle whispered to himself, turning to the loot he grabbed at the potions first, each disappearing with mere touch.
Red Health Potion X3 Gained!
A different set of notifications said at the bottom left of his view, where above he could also see smaller versions of the ones that had appeared at the centre of his vision earlier.
And as he noticed this box, several other things around his vision came into view.
Chat options came into existence underneath that box, with different channels and other settings.
To the bottom right then he saw a bar riddled with buttons, each having an icon he was somewhat familiar with design-wise.
Seeing a bag amongst them, he focused on it, and suddenly his inventory opened up. Within were twice the amount of potions he had found, guessing that each player must have started with three.
Willing the window to close, it did, and slowly Kyle began getting a hold of it all.
Seeing one icon that looked somewhat like a scroll, he willed it opened.
Barik [https://i.imgur.com/UvLZKdg.jpg]
No markers...Oh great, it's one of those games.
Kyle grumbled in his head as he gazed over the map, with zero clue where he even was, his gaze turned to where he had seen that massive wall.
"That's the closest landmark I've got..."
Sighing, Kyle popped his neck and set off, trudging through the snow and bushes, gawking up at the massive forest which lay around him as he moved.
He then pulled a potion out with mere thought from his inventory, downing it Kyle found his health back at full, once again storing the empty vial with only thought right after. He then scrounged through the menus for a few moments, finally finding something useful, his character screen.
Kyllix [https://i.imgur.com/pnbypvH.jpg]
I didn't even get to pick any of this...What is this game?
Kyle grumbled to himself, "Fox beast-man, sure, cool. Snow Elf though? Not usually a choice?" He mused, moving the screen away and returning to the forest, he quickened his pace as something was glowing red ahead.
Stepping out of the forest's edge, Kyle found himself standing before an enormous wall of ethereal energy.
Like titans watching over the forest, gigantic pillars rose above the tree tops, standing hundreds of meters high. Each pillar pitch black as a starless night, with strange carvings running down their length, glowing a bloody red as that same energy exhumed out and formed walls of see-through crimson going from one pillar and to another.
Kyle stepped out of the bushes, only for his legs to meet resistance. Falling forward and tumbling over, Kyle groaned as he moved to stand.
"Oh just fucking brilliant, fell from the god damn sky, hit a fucking bird, crashed into a player, lost in the bloody fucking woods and now tripped over by a-" He went off, then realizing that whatever he had tripped over was whimpering.
Turning about as he rose to his knees, Kyle found himself staring at a young woman lying in the snow, whom was shuddering with fear.
"Uh, hey, you okay there?" Kyle asked, carefully reaching out to her.
When he then found himself frozen.
You’ve been debuffed with [Mental Strain]
You’ve entered [Repressive Aura]
You’ve been debuffed with [Extreme Fear]
Lesser Demon has targeted you!
Following the short spam of notifications, Kyle then heard it as he felt a dreadful fear filling him, chilling him down to his bones.
He heard it, a guttural growl permeating behind him.
Slowly, very slowly he turned around, looking through the red barrier and then stopping all motion as he saw it.
Twenty feet tall of crimson muscle barely a foot away from the wall and not even ten feet from him, pitch-black irisless eyes staring directly down at him. Saliva dripped down its jaws as its eye sockets narrowed.
The demon suddenly slammed its claws into the wall, causing Kyle to stumble back and lose color. "Wa-w-wa-"
The demon then bellowed in pain as blue translucent inscriptions appeared on the wall where its hands lay, hissing angrily while red electricity jolted out and down its limbs. Pulling itself away from the wall, the demon roared, making Kyle's heart skip a beat.
Slowly then, the demon turned away, and began walking off.
Achievement unlocked [Meet a Demon]: Face your very first demon and survive to tell the tale!
Ohohoho, fuck off game.
Kyle chuckled anxiously, quickly pulling himself back up to his feet he watched the demon roam off.
"That's sick." Kyle mused outloud, "What level is that thing? Shit, when do I get to fight it?" Laughing as he straightened himself.
"F-F-Fight it!?" The woman then exclaimed, "Are you mentally handicapped!?"
"Excuse me?" Kyle replied, turning to find her staring right at him and still shaking.
I think she just asked if I'm retarded.
"I said..." She added, shambling backward and pulling herself up with a nearby boulder as support, "Are you retarded or something?"
Yeap, I heard right.
He thought as he looked her up. Seemingly human with elven lineage, her half-elf ears were the only thing that stood out about her. Shoulder-length dark ginger hair and pale green eyes with some freckles.
And as he inspected her, a window appeared above her head.
Alice [Classless]-[Classless] (S̷͚̱̈́̀u̶̩̠͆m̴͚͌m̸̥̝̄͆o̷̘͑̓n̴̻̏͜ę̸̭̲̒r̸̙̍͑̋) (Guildless) Level 1
Eh, she's cute I guess. Huh, what's with that title?
"You want to fight that!?" She asked again with disbelief.
Kyle shrugged, "I mean, yeah?"
"Oh alright, how are you going to kill it?" She then flatly asked, steadying herself before crossing her arms and staring at him.
Kyle itched his head, "You're...New to these kinds of games right?"
His words unnarrowed her eyes a bit, "Gam-Yeah, I am."
"Hm, well, new age MMORPGs usually give the player an abundance of freedom." Kyle began to explain, turning then to the wall. "And this game boasts of its realism, so, almost everything in front of us is usable as a weapon."
Alice tried to intervene as she watched him approach the nearest pillar, heading towards what looked like a doorway inside. "Bu-"
"That means, gravity, simply is." Smiling to himself, Kyle remembered what previously happened with the last player he encountered.
If this works, I'll look like a bad ass. If it don't? Eh, she already thinks I'm retarded so...Malicious Compliance!
Kyle jogged over to the pillar, coming to a pause by the doorway, he glanced inside to find a twirling staircase upward.
Alice remained where she was, watching as he stepped inside, and noticing as the demon was now sniffing the air...
It turned, and its eyes set right on her once more, before turning to the pillar and seemingly...following Kyle as he climbed it.
Hungry and pissed off, the demon approached the pillar once again.
Several moments of waiting later, Alice could just barely make out an ant at the top waving down at her.
"Yeah, he's bloody insane." She mused to herself, "I don't have time for this." Shaking her head and turning away then, she began walking along the forest's edge.
When a scream reached her ears.
"FUCKING YOLO!~"
Turning around she watched as Kyle plummeted down the pillar, on the other side of the wall, a large stone held forward in his hands as he fell head first towards the snarling demon.
"What the actual f-" Alice worded out as she followed his descent, all the way till he crashed into the demon's face.
Watching as the stone caved in the monster's skull and dug deep enough to crush into its neck.
Immediately the lesser demon went limp.
Alice watched dumbfounded and speechless, as the two bodies fell to the ground dead.