When Viktor woke up, a particular darkness covered the room. It was night so of course it would be dark, but this felt different from the usual 3 am atmosphere.

Maybe it was just because he was tired and in a half-asleep trance.

Viktor swallowed, but his dry throat begged for more liquid. He threw the covers away from his legs and walked into the bathroom.

Flick.

Though he flipped the light on, the room remained dark. Luckily he could still see well enough in the dark, so he sighed and went ahead to the sink.

He turned the handle, letting the water pour from the head. He looked at his body in the mirror, which had actually become a sort of a ritual. Ever since he came home, he’d been slimming down at a rapid pace.

The first month of his return was torture almost in the literal sense. Were they just hallucinations or were they something else entirely? Either way, they eventually stopped. Genesis might be working as a sort of therapy for him because he hadn’t seen anything in a while.

Maybe because he was thinking about it that it happened again. His attention was stolen by a small canister to the side that held Windex cleaners. Why was that there?

The lid popped open. However, in the mirror just a couple feet away from the object, the lid was not open.

They were different.

The lid flipped shut and open two more times while the canister in the mirror remained static.

Viktor shut the water off and took a few steps back with his eyes fixed on the canister. When he finally turned around, he faced the open door that led into his bedroom. Standing on the bed was a dark figure.

It couldn’t be said whether the person was facing Viktor or not, but Viktor quickly shut the door and stayed in the bathroom. He looked in the mirror, this time at the area above his neck.

“The area above his neck” would be the best description because it wasn’t his face. It was some sort of distorted image that wasn’t scary nor demonic; only odd. It was more like a spiral with no facial features.

Viktor got the distinct feeling that it was another person. He never believed in spirits but this would be one, right? This is evidence that something else exists!

Then it talked.

“I’m never letting go,” it said. The spirit’s voice, much like its image, was not particularly evil.

Letting go of what?

“I’m never letting go,” it repeated.

Viktor thought about what the spirit meant. It has something of his and doesn’t want to give it up… what could it mean?

Viktor said the first thing that came to his mind.

“Give me my soul.”

He could’ve sworn the spirit smiled.

…………………….

“Do you believe in the devil?” his therapist asked. She tapped on the clipboard that sat on her lap as she patiently waited; silently assessing his mental stability.

“I don’t think so… but I never really think about stuff like that.”

“Do you believe in God?”

“I suppose so.”

“Then if you believe in God, you must believe in the devil as well. Correct?”

“Makes sense.”

“Perhaps the dream you had is your subconscious trying to talk to you. Hell is a place where sinners go to pay for what they’ve done, so deep down you feel like you should be punished.”

“I should be.”

“Why?”

“Because… you know why.”

“What you did, you did for your country. You should know that.”

Viktor stared out the window, which had seemed to become a bit of a ritual for the therapy sessions. By now the woman trying to help him had grown accustomed to the silence and continued the conversation.

“How is Genesis?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well when you first started it seemed to be helping you. Now here we are, three or four months later, and your nightmares are returning. Did anything happen?”

“I killed my first player a few days ago.”

The therapist started to jot something down with her pen but continued talking. “I see, I see. That may have something to do with what’s happening to you now. What happens when a player die?”

“They lose some items, a level, and aren’t allowed to re-enter the game for twenty four hours.”

“So once the time restriction has passed, they can play again?”

“Yes.”

“Remember that. You never killed anyone. That player will have returned, alive and well. If you are comparing that to the people you killed, you will find all the effort you’ve made to get better go to waste. What will you be doing in the game now?”

“I’ll be in the mountains hunting for a rare item.”

“Will there be other players?”

“No.”

The therapist hummed. “I don’t think seclusion is the best thing for you now.”

“I suppose I have Jenovine.”

“It will be dangerous there with her, correct?”

“Probably.”

“Don’t let anything happen to her.”

Viktor clenched his first, bunching up his shorts. He knew what she was referencing.

“I won’t,” he promised.

…………………….

A wolf-like creature cried out as a sword sliced along its side. The beast, called a monger, then collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The monger’s design was based on a normal wolf, though they had plenty unique attributes. Its fur, which could be black, grey, white, brown or any slightly different shade of those colors, was tough and sharp. Many monsters had tough skin but the fur of a monger was like armor.

They were also about as tall as a lion in the real world while also quite muscular. They were terrifying beasts full of killing intent.

They also hunted in packs.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Just as the first monger died, the other two surrounded Orion. They lunged at the same time and he managed to dodge one, but the second sunk its teeth into his forearm.

“Orion!” Jenovine gasped. She took a step out of the trees where she hid.

As Orion struggled to toss the monger at his arm, the other noticed the NPC’s appearance. The beast lowered its head and growled.

“Phantom Strike!”

Orion delivered three successive blow at the first monger, but its grip held tight. He noticed that the monger’s ally had disappeared and his eyes scanned the area for it.

The monger was approaching Jenovine, teeth bare. She was backing away slowly to keep distance between them, but the monger looked set on its new prey.

Orion cursed and tried to run towards her, the monger at his arm bit down harder to remind the player that it was still there.

The monger knew that he couldn’t take Orion on by himself. After all, the player had already slain one from the monger’s pack in front of its eyes. But it still held tight as if it knew that all it needed to do was keep Orion busy. Meanwhile, its ally would be able to get their dinner.

But Orion could not be contained, especially with his new skill.

“Blink!”

Orion vanished in the blink of an eye and appeared again, twenty feet away.

The skill was a level 100 skill. Every profession gets a unique skill, exclusive to that profession, once they reach level 100. Orion had just reached level 100 today, so this was his first time using it.

When he appeared he stumbled forward, almost going as far as tripping over his own feet. Teleportation is an odd feeling, like his stomach had been left behind and hadn’t teleported with him. The sides of his vision were blurry as well, but they quickly refocused to the world around him.

A howl sounded behind him, telling the other monger that Orion had escaped. The monger stalking Jenovine looked back to see Orion before picking up the pace and sprinting towards Jenovine.

But there was more to Orion’s new skill. After using it once, he can continue to use it after a one second delay for a maximum of three times. Each time he used it, the mana cost would double: the first time costed 50 mana, the second costed 100 mana, and the final costed 200 mana.

Once he used all three or if he didn’t blink a second or third time within three seconds, the skill would go onto its regular cooldown of twelve seconds.

“Blink!”

Orion immediately reached the monger and engaged it in combat. It must not have expected Orion to catch up so quickly because he landed a free hit on its neck.

Critical hit!

It turned now and leapt through the air, aiming for the throat. Normally he would have taken a hit.

“Blink!”

He used up the last teleport to instantly appear behind the monger. Once he struck it from behind, it stumbled forward. The second monger reached the battle at this point, but it was too late. With one more strike, the monger collapsed to the ground.

Orion was hurt. Fighting three at the same time was what made the mongers difficult, but when the first died the fight became easier. Now it was just one versus one, so the result was apparent. They both dashed forward.

“Phantom Strike!”

The monger cried out as it joined its pack in whatever beast heaven it would go to.

Orion released a sigh at dropped to his butt for a rest.

“Thank you…” Jenovine said hesitantly while walking towards him.

“It wasn’t a problem,” he told her. Orion didn’t want to look at her because it was a lie; as they continued to adventure and fight stronger beasts it was becoming more difficult for him to protect her.

He was very observant of his surroundings which is why he managed to catch up to the monger, but it was a small pack. There was a very good chance that future packs would consist of five or maybe even six mongers.

They hadn’t even met any werewolves yet, but maybe they just weren’t far enough yet into the mountains, dubbed the Forgotten Land. That wasn’t the official name, but it’s what players called the mountains due to the fact that players hardly go there.

Right now they were simply surrounded by trees that surrounded the base of the mountain. All they could see was green and blue from the moonlight above.

“Do you know where to go?” She asked.

“Nope. The merchant just said it was in the mountains. It’ll be day in about an hour, so this is what I think we should do: Get some rest. I’ll be back soon and we’ll be able to delve deeper into the mountains during the day. Werewolves only hunt at night and there are less mongers the further we go, so we should be safe when the sun is out.”

“I wish the herb spawned during the day.”

“You’re telling me,” he said sarcastically. “But that would be too easy, I suppose. Come on, let’s find a spot to camp.”

When Orion is logged out, Jenovine uses that time to sleep. Besides, what would she even do while he was gone?

They searched for an hour before finding a waterfall, so Orion set up the camp along the cliff’s side. This way if any mongers spotted her, she would be able to dive into the water. It might be uncomfortable to be wet, but the beasts wouldn’t follow her.

“Okay,” Orion said as he finished pitching the tent. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Come back soon…”

“Sure.”

He logged off.

The latch to the virtual reality released, opening Viktor to the real world. For him, the real world consisted of a living room with a laptop that sat on the ground and nothing else but the pod.

Viktor swung his leg out and started to climb out of the pod, but his strength failed halfway through. This resulted in him falling to the floor with a grunt on his hands and knees.

His vision rapidly began to blur as his hands shook. The carpet that was just a few feet away from his face lost focus.

“You good, Vik?” someone asked.

When Viktor looked up, he wasn’t in his living room anymore. He was surrounded by tall, lush trees and was kneeling behind one of them.

A man was to his right that knelt by another tree as if using it for cover. Viktor immediately recognized him.

“I’m fine, Bobby.”

“You sure? You aint get shot?”

Shot? 

As Viktor contemplated why Bobby would ask if he got shot, a bullet whizzed by the tree and smacked into the ground. A handful of dirt and grass popped out of the ground like a cloud.

Viktor cursed and pressed his back against the tree to secure his cover. He looked down at his camouflage uniform to check for blood, but was relieved to see none.

“No, I didn’t get shot.”

“Good. Can’t have you dyin on me today!”

“How many are there?” Viktor asked.

“Same as us: six or so.”

“Should we call for reinforcements?”

“Already got Richie on it,” Bobby said, nodding to the right.

Viktor turned his head to see another soldier furiously pressing buttons on a large walkie talkie. The tree was big enough to hide two people, so another soldier was trying to help him through it.

“Pressing it harder won’t make it work better, you know,” the fourth soldier was saying.

“Shut the fuck up and let me do this,” Richie spat.

Viktor turned his attention back to Bobby. “So if there’s an enemy squad to the north, why don’t we avoid them and just go south?”

“We were told to hold this area no matter what, remember? I’m trynna get in touch with base to see if they’ll let us pull back, but the fuckin coms aint workin, as you can see.”

“So what are we going to do? Fight?”

“Maybe…. They got us on lock down right now though. Hell, you moved out of cover for a second and they took a shot at ya. I sent two of our guys south about fifty meters; they’ll go east a bit and loop around to the side of the enemy. Then they’ll come back and tell us where they at and hopefully how many there are.”

Viktor sighed. Nothing to do but wait.

A shot rang out in the distance. Then another. Then a third.

Viktor eagerly started to make his way to the source, but a shot from the enemy told him the squad was still pinned down. They were forced to wait for the scouts to come back, if they were to come back.

Luckily they did. Two soldiers stumbled through the trees, one helping the other walk.

Bobby was the first to speak. “Stevens, what happened!?”

“They sent out scouts just like us and we came into contact with them,” the uninjured soldier explained. “We got one of them but Craig got hit.”

“You see how many of ‘em there were?”

“I think so. You were wrong; there’s definitely more than six. I’d say eight or nine, not counting the one we took out.”

“Dammit,” Richie shouted, throwing the com device down. “I can’t get a connection. Let’s just leave!”

“That’s treason,” Bobby said.

“So!?”

“You want to go to jail?”

“I don’t want to die!”

“You know what you signed up for,” Viktor said.

That shut Richie up. It was harsh, but had to be said. Everyone there signed up knowing what they would be getting into and the dangers of it.

“What’re we going to do, then?” Richie asked.

Everyone looked to Bobby.

“You aren’t going to like it,” he said. However, no one raised complaints, so he continued. “I still have a smoke grenade; I say we toss it and cover our position in smoke. That way we’ll be able to move from cover more and fire in their direction.”

“But we won’t be able to see…”

“You’re right. And the enemy won’t be able to see either. While our unit provides cover fire, we can have someone flank to the west. As soon as he’s in position, we’ll advanced and sandwich them.”

“I’ll do it,” Viktor volunteered.

“Good, I was hoping you would. It’s well into the night, so you should be okay as long as you stay low and quiet. You have eight minutes to get around them. You better be ready when we start advancing, dammit.”

“Roger.”

“Ready? Three… two… one… go.” Bobby pulled the pin on a metal canister and tossed it on the other end of the tree.

The canister made a clicking sound before bursting open and gradually releasing grey smoke. Viktor heard yelling from far away as the enemy continuously pounded rounds into their cover.

Bobby’s team all stuck their rifles out and fired randomly while staying behind the tree themselves. After half a minute of constant fire fight, the shots began to occur less frequency, probably due to reloading.

Viktor used this time to rush to the right. The leaves and small sticks that lay on the floor crunched and shuffled as he hurried, praying he wouldn’t be shot. Once he emerged from the smoke, he crouched low and moved more carefully in order to make as little noise as possible.

He looked at his watch; it had been four minutes since he left cover. Viktor had tried to go as far out as he could so nobody would coincidently spot him, but it was time to start moving back in. Otherwise, he wouldn’t make it in time.

He looked at his watch again. Two minutes left.

Just when he looked up from his watch, the forest transformed back into his bedroom. Panting and sweating, he pressed his palms to the carpet and pushed himself to his knees.

After stumbling into the bathroom, he turned the shower handle to cold and sprayed water from the overhead nozzle.

The liquid tapped the back of his head, sending shivers down his spine and cooling the blood that pumped fiercely through his veins.

What the hell am I gonna do about this?