Just like any other novel or anime, I woke up at a random place. Well it wasn’t really random, it was just that I couldn’t see anything since all the lights were off. I started thinking Peace really ran out of ideas to introduce me to new places but I realized there is no better way then to knock the main character up and make him open his eyes in a place he has never been to. I really hope that there aren’t any more cliches here. Since it was dark and nothing was visible, I tried to enable my night vision.
[You are currently in a world where the system hasn’t reached. Any skills or abilities originating from the system can not be used.]
Wait what? A world where the system hasn’t reached yet hm? I never received this type of message before. If there is no system in this world, how did Peace even bring me here? I had two theories here. It’s either that the message is false or that this is some sort of dungeon that makes me think I can’t use my skills. Either or, that message has to be false because how can I get a notification that I can’t use the system if there is no system?
In order to not bump into the wall or something, I stretched my arms forward and started walking. When I took 4 steps, I met a dead end. There was a wall with a bumpy texture. It was the type of walls used in rooms or houses. I turned around and took about 5 steps. Again, I met a dead end. I started to wonder what kind of place this was. To call it a dungeon, it was too small and I couldn’t find a way to get out. I reached one of the walls once again and tried to walk around the place. If I’m correct, this place is a room shaped like a rectangle. While walking around the room, I bumped into a few obstacles. Some of them were sharp and some of them were heavy. When I thought I walked through almost every place in the room, I reached a wall that felt different compared to all the other walls. The texture was more smooth and the wall was shaky. I started looking for anything special on that wall. Then, I found something special on my waist level. It was a little doorknob. I soon realized that this weird part of the walls was a door. I thought that maybe opening the door would lead me to the next dungeon. I wondered, ‘What kind of dungeon is this?’
When I opened the door, a weak yellowish orange light shined upon me. In front of me, there was another room and on the left side of the room, there was a small hallway. As the light shined, it revealed what was inside the room I was in that made me bump into. There was a wooden desk, a bed. I soon realized what this place was. It was my room. More specifically, my house. I turned around and entered my room. I turned on the lights and enjoyed the view of my old sweet room. I wasn’t sure if I came back to the real world but because I saw the system message, I continued to believe that this is a dungeon that just created an illusion.
Although all of this wasn’t real, it felt nice to be back in a place where it looks like the real world. My clothes were also different from the ones that I had in the server. Instead of the long black pants with light olive green trench coat, I was wearing gray sweatpants with a navy hoodie. On top of the desk where I used to study or write some analysis for the dungeons in the server, something catched my eye. It was the phone that I lost when I entered the server. It was weird finding something that I lost in a dungeon that looks so real. Hoping that I could take this out of the dungeon when I beat the quest, I put my phone in my pocket. After I left the room, I turned on all the lights in the house and headed to my living room. From the entrance of the house, there was a small hallway that had a bathroom on the left side and in front, a living room with a table and a sofa in the center. Behind the sofas, there were windows. On the right side of the living room, well more like right diagonal from me, there was the kitchen and on the left diagonal, there were doors to the master bedroom. Because I had no idea what to do in this dungeon, I just sat on the couch and pulled out the phone I picked up. Thankfully, the phone wasn’t dead. I unlocked my phone and checked if I had any messages or any notifications from my friends. I knew there probably wasn’t anything since this wasn’t real but I still wanted to check just in case. And of course, there wasn’t anything. Or maybe, it’s because I just don’t have any friends.
While lamenting about my friendless stupid life, I got a notification on my phone. I felt a vibration coming from my pocket. First, I thought I was crazy or something so I just ignored it but the vibration ringed multiple times. By the time I was annoyed and pulled out my phone, there were actual texts coming from someone. When I opened my phone to check who was texting me, I couldn’t hide the shock of who it was.
It was Ethan.
*
-[Hey man. I’m at your house right now. Come out.]-
It was really him. Ethan Murray. One of the only friends I had in the real world. When I ran to the door and took a glimpse, I saw Ethan’s car outside of my house. I guess he was supposed to take me somewhere but where? I swiftly put on my shoes and opened the door. It was quite cold outside. I walked towards Ethan’s car and got in. When he saw me, he simply greeted me by waving his hands. He then started the engine and started driving. When we were heading to wherever we were going, it was very quiet. I knew he was going to think I was weird but I had to ask him a question.
“So… Where are we going?” He gave me a weird stare. It was obvious that he would think it was strange for me to not know where we are going since I probably asked him for a ride. He didn’t say anything. He just remained silent and continued on driving. The mood just stayed like that for the entire ride. It was pretty awkward. I wanted to ask some questions but I really couldn’t.
The car ride wasn’t very long. After we left my house, it took us about 10 minutes to get to our destination. We entered this really rich neighborhood. The house we arrived at was especially bigger than other ones. There was an entire hill to the entrance of the house. The house was full of Christmas decorations. I assumed that this was some sort of a Christmas party. Ethan quietly and calmly said “Let’s go.” We got out of the car and started walking towards the house. Ethan knocked on the house and someone opened the door. When we walked in, the first thing I saw was someone flying. I blinked my eyes multiple times wondering if I saw that right. I took a deep breath and walked into the house. And again, a different guy flew like a bird and crashed on the sofa. I wanted to doubt what I just saw. When I looked on my left, it looked like someone was killed, on my right, someone was hanging on the edge of the sofa. Ethan casually walked through and went to the table where everyone was gathered. I carefully tried to follow Ethan but the 2 guys who like passed out got up and started fighting again. But before they could even engage, their friends quickly stopped them.
Oh right. I remember their names. The guy on the left is Aadi, a freshman… Wait, is he a freshman or a sophomore? I swear he was in my grade. So he has to be a freshman. But why do I have this strong feeling that he is a sophomore. And the guy on the right is Arush, one of Aadi’s best friends. Again, I’m not sure but he is a sophomore or a Junior. Before Aadi and Arush could throw hands again, Thomas and AP stopped Aadi and Lucia and Elijah held on to Arush. When Arush and Aadi stopped panting, they had a peace agreement, to not fight until the end of the party. Then, Thomas, AP, Elijah, and Lucia finally relaxed. As Thomas was sighing sitting down on a chair he grabbed, he saw me.
“Oh hey Luke! You actually came!” Vir, the owner of this big ass house, welcomed me. As he got up and greeted me, other people also saw me extremely frustrated by the current situation. As I was making a fake smile and walked into the living room, I suddenly had a very severe headache.
[Recovering memories of some people.]
I fell to the ground. I grabbed onto my head and suffered. There were small sparkles of blue lightning forming all around me. As my headache pervaded through my head, some memories were flowing into my head. The pain was so agonizing. But before I could pass out, the pain started to fade away. When I opened my eyes, I could see people’s faces way clearer.
[Memory recovery is 3% complete.]
I suddenly remembered who all those people were. But not only did I recover memories of them, but also about me. I remembered who I was. The feeling of having a lack of memories was true. I was right when I thought I lost memories when I went into the server. Maybe this is the reason why I didn’t remember some events in the server like the [Deconstructed] war. For some reason, I lost my memory of me and the people I used to know. Because I recovered some memory, I realized that I wasn’t the quiet kid at school I thought I was. I actually had some friends like the people staring at me right now.
“Hey man. You good?” Elijah came up and asked me. It wasn’t just him that was worried about me. There were Also Arush, AP, Aadi, and Lucia I previously talked about but also Leon, Arav, Jake, Ethan, and some other people that I didn’t remember yet. Hopefully, I’ll recover my memory later. But only getting back 3% of my original memory was shocking. The massive amount of information that swelled into my head was already a lot for me to handle.
I grabbed onto the hand that Elijah offered to help and got up. It was really awkward having everyone’s attention. In order to break the ice, I said “Oh yeah… I’m fine. I just need a little rest. Then I’ll join in on you guys. Ha..Ha…” I made such a weird laugh in order to escape the situation. Fortunately, it worked. Arush escorted me to a chair nearby and Lucia got me a cup of water. The torturing pain was unforgettable. I never wanted to feel the pain ever again but in order to recover my memory, I knew it was necessary. Well, I’ll get used to it someday. The only problem is that I only recovered 3% of my memory… Fuck.
As I became rags, a tall guy walked towards me. He handed me a new cup of water and asked if I was alright. When I looked up, he was giving me a mysterious stare. He smiled slightly and grabbed onto a chair. He was pretty tall, around my height. Probably around 5’11 to 6 feet? He had curly and fluffy hair. He was also wearing glasses with a black suit. I sort of recognized who he was but I couldn’t remember his name. He was a senior who played the soprano saxophone for his quartet. He played a song called recitation book. I swear I knew who he was but I just couldn’t remember. Maybe, this was related to my lost memories.
“Hmm… I guess you don’t remember my name?” He started talking. I panicked and didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to disappoint him because I didn’t know his name. “Uhh… Of course I do! Why would I forget?” I lied knowing that he knows I don’t know his name. “Well then… What is it?” I was speechless for a while. I coughed for a bit and tried to make an excuse by saying “Oh I need to use the restroom real quick.” Right when I got up, he grabbed my arm and exposed me. “Wow… You forgot my name? I didn’t forget yours. That’s so disappointing.” I sat back down and apologized. “Okay I’m really sorry. Like I know who you are but I forgot almost everyone’s name. I don’t know why but I just can’t remember your name.” The guy seemed to think for a little bit and answered. “Yeah I was assuming that happened to you. Ever since not noticing my modifier.” I squinted my eyes and opened my mouth to ask him what he meant by that but right before I could say anything, he laughed a bit and got up. And he whispered to me his name. “This isn’t my original name but you can call me Armin.” Armin then started walking towards the crowd where everyone was. As soon as Armin left, I got a quest somehow…
+
[Memories of Christmas]
Quest type: Hidden/Commision
Commissioner: [Constellation, “Soprano Melody of Recitation”]
Quest difficulty: ???
Clear conditions: Recover memories about you and your friends at the party.
Time limit: Until the end of the day.
If failed: Death?
+
It was ridiculous how it literally told me that this is a world where the system hasn’t reached but a constellation could give me a commission quest. I wondered if the stars in the sky were even looking at me. Technically, it wouldn’t be possible since there aren’t any “SYSTEM” but apparently, there are exceptions. Well, at least it didn’t specify how much I needed to recover my memory so if I just get back something, I should be fine. The problem is that I don’t know how to recover memories. And I really don’t wanna deal with the pain that comes with it. My assumption is that if I make an interaction with someone who was important to me, I will get my memories back. So I should try to make as many interactions as possible with the people here even if it’s awkward. I mean I really don’t want to die.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Okay let’s organize what’s happening here. From the memories I recovered, I found out that I am part of the school band and I play the saxophone. This is the annual Christmas Sax party where we eat dinner and do some events together. But I think me and Ethan arrived a bit late so everyone else already ate dinner but it’s fine since I wasn’t really hungry. “Here, there are some leftover foods if yall still want some. I can also microwave some pizza slices if you want.” Vir asked us. I did notice it before but this house was really really big. No wonder the party was hosted here.
“Hey guys! Let’s do the white elephant!” Jake, one of my friends (According to my memory) shouted to everyone. We soon gathered around the presents that were set. I thoughtlessly walked towards the presents happily but I soon realized that I didn’t bring any presents to participate in. “Luke, take this.” Ethan handed me a present. I was surprised because the Ethan I remembered wasn’t this detailed and meticulous. I set down the present with all the other ones and sat on the floor. Next to me, there was Armin smiling at me. I don’t know why but I felt very comfortable around him. He felt like a big brother and a very good mentor to me.
The white elephant was just a regular white elephant game. Although I didn’t know how to play, I was able to get this squishmellow that was really cute so I was satisfied. Another thing that was really interesting that happened was Aadi and Arush almost fought again. When Aadi picked this present that he really liked, Arush stole it which almost caused a war. Fortunately, AP traded his gift with Aadi which settled the fight for now. As I said, for now. Even if they are best friends, they often have arguments so I don’t know when the fire will set again.
When we were done with the game, we had some music performances. We had the
Go spin the wheel and see where it lands.
His singing was very nectarous. The country music that he chose was a very good choice to end this party. In my point of view, it fitted very well.
Join in the circus, stay for a dance, and right when the war quiets down, you strike up the band.
I don’t know why but the song felt very relatable. Well, I wouldn’t say relatable but rather comforting and familiar to what happened to me.
Keep marching on, my friend and; do what you can.
The music that felt like home town spread through the entire house. It warmed my heart and everyone else's.
Wait ‘til your brothers and your sisters see where you been.
Everyone was deeply into Armin’s song and his singing. At that moment, nothing mattered. Just the memories we had together.
And if you loved the journey more than the end, go ahead.
We were all emotional and daydreamed about our journey. The journey I didn’t remember but was able to feel.
Just turn that hourglass around and count to ten.
I opened my phone and checked the time. It was exactly 10 pm. The date was December 16th, 2023. This was 3 months prior to the day where I fell into the server. But it didn’t matter anymore. Because all I cared about right now was this cozy and warm atmosphere.
This ain’t goodbye no more. Nah, it just began.
Yeah he was right. This wasn't a goodbye. Although I fell into the world of my favorite game, I will meet these people again. My friends. Our journey, just begun.
Oh-oh-oh
The beautiful humming without the lyrics was still touching. We all started singing this part with Armin. It was very harmonic.
Go and make some mistakes! You live and you learn.
Suddenly, I felt strong nostalgia. Tears started dropping from my eyes. I looked around my friends as if this was going to be the last time I was going to meet them.
And where the chips fall, it’s not your concern, nah.
Armin’s words were strong enough to comfort me. It helped me relax and run away from all the worries I had.
Like the wind gonna breeze, fires will burn.
It felt like Armin was trying to send a message. Specifically to me. I feel like he knows very well about me too, and my journey in the server. Not gonna lie, I did have a lot of pressure on the server. When the first catastrophe appeared, I was scared that the world I loved was going to end. So I saved Loyd, who had the highest chance of saving the server, risking my own life. And even in our future missions, I am very afraid that I will screw up something. But his messages make me think I can just let things happen and not worry about it.
Just let the gears, my friend
Oh, just let the gears, my friend
Let’em turn.
His song ended.
*
When Armin finished, some people packed up and left. But most decided to stay for the after party. We got some deserts and teas. Everyone grabbed a cookie and a drink and went to find a seat. But I decided to go on a short walk. I don’t know why but ever since Armin’s singing, everything felt and seemed different. When I opened the door and walked, I saw Ethan.
“You wanna walk together for a bit?”
*
For the first few minutes, we didn’t say anything just like the car ride here. We just walked around the neighborhood together. Soon after, he asked me something. “So… How you doing man?” I honestly didn’t know what to say. Everything was alright. Nothing special. I was thinking of telling him about how I fell into the world of my favorite game but it just didn’t feel right. Although all of this wasn’t real… Wait am I sure this isn’t real? What makes me think this was just an illusion? “Yeah everythings great. I made some new friends too.” I answered after thinking for a bit. “That’s great man. Nice to see you go along with new people. I don’t know, you sort of looked depressed recently so I just wanted to check on you. This was the reason why I didn’t talk to you in the car.” Ethan replied. It kind of made sense why the car ride was so silent now. After walking for a bit, I decided to tell him about what happened on the server. I don’t know why but this unknown force was telling me to explain to Ethan what happened. “Well I had this really weird dream recently.” Ethan stopped. He stood still and carefully listened to me. “I went into the world of this game I used to play, right? I met the people I adored there and beat some quests.”
After a few seconds. We started walking again. He looked shocked from whatever I just said. I mean it shouldn’t make him that surprised when I told him “Oh I literally just had this dream.” When we got close to the house again, he finally replied. “Yeah that’s nice. And then what happened?” We started walking uphill again towards the house. “The dream stopped when I fainted out of nowhere. And when I woke up, you texted me to come outside.” We found a bench outside the house and sat there. His face looked… Depressed. It looked like he was sad, longing for something, disappointed. He slowly and carefully asked me a question. “Were you… Happy in that dream?” I didn’t know how to answer that question because it was so unexpected. Honestly, I didn’t know if I was that happy on the server. It might be because I had to go through so many tough adventures but I would say I was happy in those odysseys. “Yeah.” I answered. “I was very happy. I wish I could go back.” Ethan pulled out a lemon candy from his pocket and offered it to me. I was confused but I took it. But at that moment, I had another headache. The same one I got when I was recovering my memories.
[Recovering more memories.]
[Memory recovery is 5% complete.]
[You have successfully completed the quest. “Memories of Christmas”.]
[You may now return to your original world.]
Through the pain, I heard Ethan’s voice overwhelming in my ears. I didn’t know if this was a flashback of my memory or if he was yelling at me right now. When the headache ended, I saw Ethan staring at me with worry. It felt like my hands were burning. There was smoke coming out of my head and my hands. When Ethan saw me recover, he relaxed. He once again asked me a question.
“You said you were happy in that world right?” I didn’t know what to say anymore. I mean I could just say that I was happy again but it felt wrong. It felt like I shouldn’t say it. It felt like I should say “No. I like the real world more and I want to stay here.” I was dumbfounded and couldn’t answer. Ethan then sighed and stood up. He pointed at the door of the house. “Go. That is where you should go.” As if a ghost was taking me away. I automatically stood up and headed towards the door. Inside, there was nothing but light. The light struck on me and devoured me.
*
Soon after Luke went through the door, everything turned pitch gray. There was no color and emotion in the world anymore. The time also stopped. Winds wouldn’t blow and the trees won’t wave anymore. Armin exited the same door that Luke went through, holding the guitar in a case on his back, Armin smiled at Ethan.
“See, I told you. Luke is happy in that world. We have to let him go.” Armin spoke to Ethan. Ethan didn’t want to admit it but he did hear it from Luke himself. That he was happier in that world. He really didn’t want to let him go. Luke was his friend. Who would want their friends to leave him? But who wouldn’t want their friend to be happy? Ethan decided to let down his greed by letting his friend be happy.
“I really hope this is the right thing to do…” Ethan sighed. “Well, the role of not letting their friends go is not our job.” Armin replied. “All we need to do is just let things happen.” Armin and Ethan silently looked up into the sky. They stared at the star that was glowing, especially brighter than others. They both knew what that star was. The star that Luke will be spending time with his friends.
Although Ethan knew this was the right thing to do, he just couldn’t hold this to himself. He wanted to help Luke. No matter what it is, he wanted to be something useful and helpful to him.
As if he made a really important decision, he grabbed onto his hand as hard as he could. In his hands, there was will, passion, and dedication. He then started running as fast as he could. Armin saw Ethan run and smiled.
“Go. Do what you think is the right thing to do.”
*
After Ethan ran for about an hour, he arrived at another house. He was breathing very heavily because he ran non-stop. Without wasting any time, he quickly knocked on the door. The one that greeted him was Zoey. She was a tall senior leader with golden hair. She was surprised to see Ethan like this. Ethan was literally about to pass out. When he entered the house, he saw other people in the house too. It was because this was their French Horn section Christmas party. Realizing that Ethan had something important to talk about, Zoey took Ethan to a room. After sitting down, Ethan hurriedly opened his phone and checked the date.
「December 21st, 2024, 6:45 PM」
After checking the time, Ethan relaxed. He almost fell out of his chair. He quietly whispered to himself and celebrated. “I made it in time…” This was a very important date. Ethan knew what was happening here so that’s why he was rushing so much. He grabbed a cup of drink and gulped it.
“Hey, are you okay?” Zoey carefully asked Ethan. Ethan snapped his finger and made everything gray before he could answer Zoey’s question. Time stopped and everyone was frozen. Zoey was surprised but she tried to stay calm. Ethan quickly exited the room and scanned through the place and checked who was here. There was Brooke, the section leader, Amaya, Rachel, Haylee, Om, Ryan, and Maddie. There were some other people that Ethan noticed too but he didn’t know their name. Ethan sat back down on the chair in the room and started speaking. “Zoey, you have to listen to me very carefully. You know the GTI SMP? Like the game Luke used to play? And you have the books he wrote right?” Ethan desperately asked Zoey. Zoey nodded to Ethan’s question and asked him, “Why? Is it something important?” Ethan wasn’t sure if it was okay to leak this information yet but he believed that if Zoey, one of the smartest and wisest person he knew, knew the information that he did, she would be tremendously helpful to Luke. “You need to study those files. Someday, we will all be offered to enter the world that Luke is in. The world of the game that he played. The world of the game that the books and the GTI SMP was based off of. You need to gather a team and fight against tyranny.” Zoey looked very confused. She didn’t quite understand what Ethan was saying. Ethan sort of gave up when he realized that Zoey didn’t understand what he just said.
“Okay I get it. So someday, we will all be teleported into the world of Luke’s favorite game right?” Ethan was surprised. “I got it. If this can help Luke do the right thing, I will do it. I'm actually quite a fan of his books. I would like to help.” Ethan smiled at Zoey’s reply. He knew she was the right person to lead the team. He once looked at the people he named. He thought which role would fit which person. Who should be the leader, who should be the fighter, who should be the tank, who should be the support. Ethan explained everything to Zoey.
“Wait, how do you know all of this stuff?” Zoey asked a question while Ethan was explaining everything. Then, Ethan’s body started glowing. The golden glowing particles started to fly away from him. It was like he was getting torn down into pieces of paper. “I don’t have much time. Just remember everything I said! Don’t tell anyone about our conversation!” Ethan soon evaporated and the world turned colorful again. Zoey then grabbed the notebook where she was writing down everything Ethan said and casually left the room. Everything went back to normal and Zoey joined her friends again.
But there was a small problem. There was a guy, outside of the room overhearing Ethan and Zoey’s conversation. He wasn’t affected by Ethan’s gray world at all and heard everything.
It was Eliot Hong. Luke’s best friend.