Seeing that I had already been playing for 6 hours, I clicked on [Settings] and navigated my way to [Log out], once that was clicked a purple magic circle appeared underneath me and I was submerged into a white light. Once I came to, I was in the virtual reality box; I pressed the button on the bottom causing the lid to open and simultaneously my headset disappeared. 

Looking up, I took a deep breath of fresh air as my eyes took in the information in front of it. I was in my gaming room, yet it still felt unfamiliar since recently I hadn’t spent much time at home.

Anyway, wanting to stand up, I placed both my arms on the edges of the box, once I had a firm grip on the cold metal, I placed strength into my arms and slowly lifted myself out of the box then climbed out of it. Once I was out, I walked into the TV lounge area of my house that was connected to my kitchen.  

I was so hungry I could die so the kitchen was my destination, as I walked past the mirrors in the lounge, I had to admit that my long black horns, white hair and red eyes made me look badass. 

Wait what!? Black horns and red eyes!? My eyes bulged and heartrate flashed as I looked into the mirror. What I had seen must have been an illusion, there is no way that I had become a demon right? However, my devilishly handsome reflection looking back at me said otherwise…  

‘Wait, maybe I’m still in the game!’ I tried to pull parts of my broken reality together.

I blinked twice to confirm my environment but it was clear, I was not in the [King’s chamber], the lack of a dog’s water bowl and many other things were a dead give away. Once I had confirmed this, there was no denying it anymore, somehow my body had retained its form from the game. 

I stood there in my TV lounge at a loss for words, my insatiable hunger that I had moments ago vanished as I disappeared into my thoughts.

‘What the hell is going on? How am I going to walk around in public!? Will I be captured by fringe scientists and experimented on my entire life!? If I’m in this form can I use magic here as well!?’

I exited my reverie and called out [System] and just like in the game a screen popped up in front of me. A small smirk crept up onto my face. I navigated my way around the interface and saw it was just like in the game thus giving the possibility that I could cast magic here too. I was just about to check when I got a phone call.

I looked at the person calling, it was Sid. Immediately I sighed, I didn’t know what he wanted but problems always arose when he was involved, however, I answered the phone anyway.

“Yes, Sid how can I help you?” I tried to sound as calm as possible even though my voice was a bit shaky.

This didn’t slip by Sid, “ Boss, you don’t sound too good, I take it you have seen the news as well.”

I furrowed my brows, “ The news? What about the news?”

Sid took a deep breath, “ Well you see everybody that was playing the game was suddenly kicked and when they came back to the real world they were still in the forms of their game characters. This has caused panic world wide; no one knows what is going on… Boss you don’t think this is because I didn’t fix the bug that you told me to?” He swallowed a lump of air.

Hearing Sid, I shook my head in frustration, this was so typical of him. I took a deep breath to calm myself, “ No, Sid whether you did or did not fix that bug would never result in this. There must be another explanation.”

Hearing my words, Sid heaved a sigh of relief,“ Then we will get our answers from Hisato Hayashi, he scheduled a press conference straight after people were pulled from the game, that can’t be a coincidence… He will be on in five minutes.”

I shook my head up and down because for once in my life, I agreed with him. Hisato Hayashi, the founder and brains behind Reborn Online obviously knew what was going on. If I didn’t know any better, I would assume not only did he know what’s going on, he planned this outcome or at least was aware of it.     

The five minutes waiting for him to appear on my TV felt like 5 days. Sid was still on the line with me; knowing that if things turned out to be bad, I had to keep it together for him as his boss in turn helped me to keep it together.

Suddenly a milky skinned man with curly hair appeared behind the podium and looked into the camera, “ Greetings everyone. What I’m about to tell you may not sound like the truth but I assure you it is and you will soon find out yourself. 

This phenomenon, where people are still in their game characters despite no longer being in the game is because you never were in a game but another world… I’m sure you have heard the term being contracted to the devil, well I was contracted to a god. 10 years ago, I received a message while I was praying at a shrine. This world is dying and cannot be saved by methods of this world thus I was tasked to connect our two worlds. However, if I just created a portal the power balance of this world would tip way too far as the powerful would become more powerful monopolizing the resources for themselves even further. 

Thus, I created a game and had a team of the best create a replica of that world using virtual reality under the pretence that it was a game. To keep this ruse up the Gods of that and this world teamed up . For a month humans transported couldn’t die and would only lose two levels as punishment. However, the time period is now over, meaning should you choose to return to that world and you die, you will die. 

Should you decide that you no longer want to return to that world but are afraid you can no longer fit in society due to your looks, with a bit of practice its reversible.”

Suddenly a bright light flashed and the person standing in front of the camera was clearly Hisato Hayashi but also not. He now had two massive white wings attached to his back and half a halo above his head. He had a yellow aura around him that made you feel calm despite looking at something otherworldly, “Just as I awakened to my true form I can return to my human form.” He then paused for a few seconds and looked seriously into the camera, “Sometimes it’s okay to follow your heart, do what you want to do.” As he said that, he turned himself back into a human then disappeared! 

After hearing his words, Sid and I both said nothing only the silence speaking volumes. Never in my wildest dreams did I  think this would happen. His words answered many questions but gave way to more questions. The only thing I knew right now was that this was reality...

EssenceOverlord

Thanks so much for reading this inexperienced authors book. Please comment and favourite, that will make me want to mass release. Lol, just realized how bad that sounds!