Time flies when playing games that take around half an hour per match.

Monday.

I went to school around 6 o’clock and waited for the class to start. It starts at 7 so I’ll need to wait for a while but that’s what I like. The peace in the school at times like this feels different, being inside means away from the noisy sounds of vehicles passing by and the early morning results in a mostly empty school. Adding the cold breeze of the early morning, nothing can make me feel more relaxed than this.

One by one, as the time approached 7, the empty seats of the classroom were filled. Of course not all of my classmates came before the allotted time but the teacher didn't care, she started teaching and left right after. That’s all there is to this boring monotonous school life.

Lunch break, my favorite time of the day.

After eating lunch, I took out my phone and was about to play Phight On when something passed beside me followed by a loud bang and then voices and laughter.

“Don’t laugh at me! It was fucking lagging.”

Said the man who threw his phone to the ground.

‘Victor.’

He was one of the boys in the back, the ones who would laugh loudly at each other’s jokes while the teacher was teaching and the ones that would throw something at anyone they thought wouldn't bite back. Basically, the bullies.

“Oi, young old man, fetch my phone!”

I was going to ignore him at first but he hit the back of my head and although I’m 22 and he’s 18 years old, I wasn’t able to fight back. He was huge, around 6ft with an arm as big as my thigh, a single hit from him would most likely knock me out.

That is why I decided to pick up his phone and give it to him, but then I saw what he was playing, a MOBA game like Phight On.

“May I give it a try?”

I asked. I’m interested, this game looks like it has a lot more to offer than Phight On.

“HUH!? I’M FUCKING LOSI– Oh no, nothing. Sure, go on, play with it. I guess you’ll be used to the lagging with how trash your phone is, huh?”

“Thanks.”

I thought he was going to refuse. I guess he thought that if I play, he can just say that he didn’t lose because he wasn’t the one playing.

I looked at the screen and saw the map with a slightly transparent red cover. There was also a countdown in the middle of the screen, possibly showing how much time I have to wait to respawn.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

This game, like Phight On and other similar games, probably has one fixed map. The map has three pathways from the base to the enemy’s, each pathway defended by towers and soldiers. The goal is to destroy the enemy's base and the subgoal is to kill a lot of enemy players.

Remembering a video I saw while researching games, since this is a 1v1, I guess the main goal now is to get a lot of kills.

How many kills did he get after um… 15 minutes of playing? 1? 13 deaths? The motherfucker’s dying every minute.

The character respawned and I immediately moved it. I went to the middle pathway while checking its skills.

The character named Ulin, the Archmage, has an ice spell that slows the enemy down and deals very little damage when hit. He also has a water spell which when casted, creates a small cloud of rain on top of the enemy in range dealing small continuous damage. Finally, his ultimate skill was fucking meteor from the sky.

After testing the skills of the character, it died. That’s right, I was testing it on the enemy who was right outside my base because he already destroyed all the towers protecting the base.

“HAHAHAHA. You're using THE Archmage and you can’t even damage me?”

“I killed you earlier. Besides, it was Lex, he was the one playing for a while now.”

“I guess he’s a lot better than you then!”

Ignoring the banter from behind, I started to think of what I should do. It looks like the character hasn’t even reached the max level yet. The character is not fully armed as well. While the enemy’s in max level and fully armed.

While I was thinking what I should do, the countdown for the respawn continued.

30…

15…

10…

5…

And without noticing it, I fall asleep again.

Bzzt

“Huh? Where am I?”

I opened my eyes in front of a big tree. A tree that was glowing with white-yellowish light.

‘It looks familiar.’

I thought. It is familiar. It’s the tree in the game Victor and I were playing, the tree that marks our base.

“Hah! Haha! HAHAHAHAHA. Wooohoooo! Fantasy! Transmigration! FUCK!”

I looked around, scanning the surroundings for enemies. This is a dangerous world full of fighting and death. Although there’s a respawn system, it’s not guaranteed that it will work in real life.

After scanning for a while and noticing no enemy, I decided to walk and have a look around. It’s not that I’m fearless but my instinct tells me that I should have a look. It’s better than being clueless right?

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Four loud sounds then pain from 4 parts of my body. I felt like my body was floating but it wasn’t, it was my soul that was floating.

When I looked down, I saw a body. A body with wrinkled skin, white hair and hunched back. It was kneeling while its crane supported the body.

On top of the head of the old man was the number 44, then replaced by 43, then 42.

‘Shiiiiiit!!! I’m really in the game!’

After the countdown reached the number 0, I was transported behind the big tree once again.

Bzzt

‘This time, let’s be more cautious.‘

I thought and continued to walk while observing the surroundings and then, in the far distance, I saw a woman running towards me, carrying a long gun.

‘Shit. It’s Victor’s enemy, my enemy.’

The woman continued to run towards me while I’m thinking. Luckily, she was quite far away so I still have time.

“If this is the game, then I can at least cast a spell, right? Um… Ice… spell?”

Shroosh

A white cold air blew in the direction of the woman but it didn’t hit her as it disappeared after reaching about three meters away from me.

“Fucking–! Ice spell!”

I tried casting the spell again…

Whoosh

But nothing happened.

The woman running was now about 5 meters away, I can clearly feel that she or rather, the player, already saw me.

I started to panic. The girl was already aiming at me!

“Ice spell. Ice spell! ICE SPELL!!! Ice… spell…?”

BANG

“ACK! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What should I do!?”

BANG

“I-Ice spell! W-water spell! Ice spell!”