His dull brown eyes and pale, sickly skin, framed by dark circles, were the marks of a game developer who never missed a deadline.

Massimo, 28, collapsed onto his bed with a heavy sigh, still wearing his brown cardigan and dark pants. He removed his glasses and placed them on the cluttered nightstand, sighing again. His computer hummed softly in the background, casting a blue glow over the piles of empty energy drink cans and the clothes from yesterday that blocked the entrance to his apartment. Staring at the mess on the floor, he bit his lip, feeling waves of exhaustion over him.

“You will never be good enough,” 

“Your idea is good, but you lack the execution. Maybe someone else is better suited for the job,”

His eyes began to water as he bit his lips. Massimo quickly put his index and thumb on his eyes to prevent him from crying. He let out a deep breath while shaking his head with a chuckle.

He glanced towards his PC with still a lot of random tabloids on. There was a game site called Beam. One particular game stood out. He widened his eyes as it popped up with a dark and grim color. There was a silhouette of a character and a blood bath behind.

Slash your enemies.

It was a simple slogan for the game called Pixel Slasher. As he was about to click away, his mouse suddenly slipped - just enough to click on the ad.

“Ah damn!” he cursed under his breath. Not a second after, his screen turned pitch black. He tried to escape by pressing multiple buttons, but nothing worked.

Choose your character.

“Hmm? What is this? I do not have time for this. I need to work on the deadline-” he sighed while ruffling his messy hair in frustration. But his heart began to pump as he saw the four characters listed to him.

It was a long time since he touched a slasher game.

They were fast-paced and mostly skill-based, but Massimo had a knack for it. He sighed - trying to click away. But since nothing worked, he clicked on one of the characters.

Choose a sickly girl.

A fragile character with outstanding healing abilities. Class: Support.

Now to your second choice, the hidden son of an assassin family.

A calculative character with the ability to find hidden objects. Class: Assassin.

Or-

“Yeah, whatever, I just go with the sickly girl. She is cute or whatever,” he said, picking the first available character but not taking her design and appearance in. He sighed while reading the first paragraph of the game. 

“I feel alone. Everybody is about to get me,”

Massimo thought a voice came through his monitor.

This world is full of enemies and characters who get killed. Be warned. After five failures - I will delete the game from your computer.

If you make it, a reward will wait for you. Choose wisely. Trust no one.

“Yeah, yeah. Just start it already,”

The game started simple. Most of the characters were pitch blacked out with a defined silhouette. What was the purpose of it?

You play a girl from a village - who is being chased down by assassins. The object was the fruit of life in the game since she had a time limit. You had to defeat the game in 5 tries with a time limit of 8 hours. The game will delete itself after 8 hours.

Massimo smirked while scoffing at the game. “So what? Do you think I can not do it? Watch me,” he yawned, warming his fingertips. His reflexes were fast - and his eyes noticed every detail. The first enemy was a zombie. The second is a dragon. The third is a demon.

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“You are trespassing, miss. That calls for a fair judgment,”

You died.

Massimo widened his eyes, looking at his blood-filled monitor. “What? But I dodged it!” he screamed.

This man killed him after 4 hours of gameplay.

An assassin with long black hair and eyes red like wine. Zeth Yurey. Massimo raised his brows while smirking. “Ok, so what? I can still beat you,” 

Are you ready? Be careful because-

Massimo locked his eyes on the screen, suddenly invested in the game. He smirked every time he beat a level. The world was dark and grim. It did not need the details. But the gameplay was fast and exciting.

Eight hours passed by in a heartbeat.

He was on his last chance. Ten energy drinks were on his counter as he bought a pause button from the game karma currency.

It was hard for unnecessary reasons. The character finally got the fruit of life and a happy ending. Massimo sighed, watching the girl stand before a giant tree, grabbing a yellow fruit - the only colorful thing in the game.

Something was wrong.

As the world began to turn into colors, the playable character turned to the MC in her wedding gown with her spouse. She smiled.

But Massimo saw a dizzy vision before his eyes as an uncontrollable pain erupted in his chest. He held his hands before his mouth as the energy drinks began to search the free air from his stomach. Massimo rushed towards the bathroom - but five steps were enough to make him kneel on the ground. He looked at his trembling hands, supporting himself on the floor. Massimo coughed, feeling pain in his limbs. His vision became darker as if he was watching a dissonated TV screen with multiple little ants.

A black screen appeared before him - just like in the game. 

Are you lonely as well?

Yes   No   Why?

Massimo had many thoughts in his mind. Just like he reached out to his phone to call the ambulance.

He started to puke.

He picked why. 

Oh, just because you seem to have a sad life. You have no friends or family. Nor a lover. I can fix that.

Massimo coughed out a no.

Really? Then again, what is your biggest wish, Massimo? You got nothing - so you must wish for everything, right?

“L-let me keep this life…” he coughed out with his last breath. 

Really? Are you sure about this?

Yes.    No.

“D-amn you…” he cursed, grabbing his chest tightly. 

Let us make a contract, Massimo.

Massimo could only see the giant text in front of him while his body was in underlying pain. Contract?

I promised you your reward, right? You probably want this life back. But there is a condition. Beat this game with me in real-time. You will get a reward at the end if you do well. Another condition is - you have five chances, like in the game.

Unless you collect good karma points. Sounds great?

Massimo was in a place of pure numbness. He looked like a blank corpse with the color leaving his skin.

Massimo? Make your choice. Or you die here. I am not a demon.

“A demon? Then what are you? An angel? You talk far like an angel,” he thought, closing his eyes. But he even saw the text in his deep slumber.

Let us say - I am a system to help you. Nothing more.

“You are a demon. I am seeing the afterlife in hell. My life was worthless. It is not worth making a contract with a demon,” he thought, showing an imaginary middle finger to the text.

You do not have much of a choice. See you at the other end, Massimo. Do you know that there is a character in the game with the same name as you? A secret character with a difficulty of 5 stars. Do you want to give him a chance? Oh, wait, you do not have a choice. I thought giving you one would make it easier to swallow the truth.

“I will not play your stupid game. Give me this life back - or send me to hell in peace. I do not make contracts with a demon. So scram,” he spat out with a smirk, though his facial muscles stopped moving. He lay there like a vegetable, but when you know you are about to die, you say more of what you think. He spat multiple curse words at the system, letting all his frustration out from his life.

What was his life about again?

Like I said, see you on the other side, Massimo. You do not have a free will.

Out of nowhere, the light in front of his eyes became bright enough to make him see a new form of white. It was warm. Massimo widened his eyes, trying to reach for life, and for the first time - which felt like forever, he could see his hands again. But they were small? His vision was blurry, and noises were ringing in his head. 

He heard the voice of a baby. He tried to open his mouth, but no words came out. But he was sure he made noise. There were shadows above him. People were talking. What were they saying? 

“...ssimo. Live on,”

There was a soft touch on his cheeks. “Massimo. Do not ever go to the dark side,” 

“Lady, I do not even know you?” was something Massimo wanted to say.

“The fate of your son is now set in stone,” 

Who was that?

“What fate? Why do I feel so small? Why is everything so blurry?” 

It was suddenly getting colder and colder - as if someone passed him around. “Wait, passing around?”

“Massimo. Please, let him keep the name. It is a name to remind him that he has a mother. I named him. As you keep him with you,” the woman said. Massimo's vision became clearer as he saw a black-haired beauty with red eyes and black rugged clothes. There was pain in her eyes.

“You do not get to make choices, you witch,”

Just like that, Massimo saw the man decapitate the woman in front of him, witnessed by multiple people with black uniforms. He widened his eyes.

He started to cry uncontrollably on his own. Just why? Many emotions were flowing through him. He had no idea he had those. He stopped himself from crying too much in real life. But now, he can not stop.

The person who held him looked tall and cold with fish-dead eyes. They looked at Massimo while pointing a sword at him. The man even smirked, drawing little blood from the boy on the knife from his throat. 

“Enough. Is the boy the son of the witch?”

“Ahh, lady Maria,”

“Throw him into the dungeon. He might become useful later. The slave bastard from Murich died a while ago. I can not believe he was weak,” 

“Yes, lady Maria. I will leave him in your care then. She might not look like it, but she is the woman-”

“That shared the same bed with my husband, I know,”

Massimo could hear her steps getting closer, but he could not see her face. She had long red fingernails as she grabbed Massimo. 

“Massimo was your name? From now on, you will be called Nicolas, sharing the same name as my son. From now on you are part of the family,” she said. “I can not wait to make you grow into my little lamb just to torture you. Not like you can understand me,” she smirked. Massimo could see it. He began to tremble. It did not take him long to realize he was a baby born in a prison cellar to the woman who just died.

Which character was he supposed to play?