Falling down into the green landscape below, Nate soon crashed on the hard ground with a surprisingly low thud. "OW!!! that landing almost snapped my damn neck!" Nate said to himself before slowly getting up. "Ugh... so much for child safety..." Nate said as he collected himself before stepping out the hole that he created and found himself in. "Oh! you're finally here!"

Nate turned towards the source of the child-like voice to find a tiny green fairy the size of his palm. "Hay-a Nate! it's been a while, wow you're so tall...! why'd you have to grow up though..." The fairy pouted as she flew in circles around Nate. "W-Who are you exactly...?" Nate asked the fairy as she stopped right in front of him. "It's me! PIXIE! your old best buddy friend!" The little fairy answered. "I definitely don't remember ever having any imaginary friend during childhood, I was an orphan and I lived alone for my entire life. So cut the shit and tell me what's going on, or I'll send you to fairy heaven."

The fairy immediately crossed her arms in anger and disappointed, meanwhile Nate was still waiting for an explanation. "Now listen here kiddo, just because you grew up doesn't mean you could send curses left and right like you won a lottery ticket." Nate rolled his eyes, but Pixie actually managed to notice it. "Don't ugh me! I'm telling the truth! ahh...! you're such a big bozo!" 

Nate rolled his eyes twice, "Unbelievable, I'm stuck with a fairy who couldn't take a single insult. I wonder what the hell she'll do once I actually start decapitating heads? ooh... the amount of gore..." Nate said loudly as to make Pixie to hear his point.

"Then don't- You know what? I'm not even going to argue anymore, just come over here already." Pixie said as she gestured for Nate to follow her towards a cliff. "Holy..." Pixie interjected. "Hmm? great right? this is how much your MOM actually cares about you!" Pixie shouted while Nate watched in awe at the hundreds of thousands of game characters below him, from side-characters to main-characters of many franchises. "Fun fact Nate, almost every great game you played were made by your mom. Including the very companies that owned them! pretty neat eh Nate?" Pixie said as she slightly nudged Nate's shoulder.

"This is insane! how am I supposed to lead a bunch of people this many!?" Nate said in a panicked way as he held his head. "No, you dummy!" Pixie said to Nate as she fluttered a certain distance away from Nate before explaining further. "You'll get to choose which world you want to go in first, I'll be with you the entire time as your guide. And don't worry, you're completely immortal. At least when it comes to your soul, but your characters are pretty powerful anyways, or do you prefer this current one?" Nate calmed down after Pixie's quite detailed explanation, dispelling nearly all his doubts as he quieted down. "So?" Pixie asked, "What'll it be hero? or should I say, villain?" Nate smirked at Pixie, prompting her to smile back at him. "I think this'll be fun Pixie... alright then..." Nate crossed his arms. "Get me to Haunted Paradise. And as my second character, Black Mire."

"Alright!" Pixie said as she clapped her hands together. "Haunted Paradise, here we come!" A white flash appeared before Nate's eyes; silence filled the air as they both were dragged towards the sky before being teleported into a dark, silent and shadowy field during the night. "Alright! here we are!" Pixie said cheerfully. Nate looked around him, trees, dirt, grass and farther ahead was a city of towering buildings. "Huh... Haunted Paradise didn't look this dull before." Nate said to himself. "That's because you've been staring at a computer screen most of your entire life! this is Haunted Paradise without the overexaggerated special effects, like the fog." Pixie informed Nate who shook his head in disagreement and sighed.

Nate looked at himself and noticed he was slightly shorter than before, by one foot, from six and a quarter half to only five and a quarter half. "You look good in that tuxedo Nate! I-I mean Mire." Pixie complimented as she flew around Nate in circles again. Nate indeed wore a tuxedo; however, it was blacker than all black tuxedos of the game. Nate's shoes were also not normal, he was covered head to toe in black bandages and above that was the said clothing that he wore. Nate's in-game character wore indestructible clothing. From the gloves, shoes, tuxedo, pants, black mask, hat and the high-tech wristwatch on his right wrist, he was indestructible. At least when it came to conventional firearms like rifles, pistols and even other dangerous caliber weapons that used armor-piercing rounds such as the sniper rifle or the infamous anti-tank rifle used in the second world war. 

"So, what do you think? good right...?" Pixie asked Nate as she turned into a black glass cube with a red orb inside. Looking at his reflection, Nate discovered that he now had red eyes, unlike his black ones from before, they glowed as if reflecting light, shining like pure red stars painted on a black canvas. "Yeah Pixie, I just look like an idiot for being this short."

Pixie shook her body left and right, as if showing that she disagreed with Nate's assumption. "What? no! you look fine... just don't act like a weirdo. Bad guys are everywhere during the night; you might never know if you encounter one yourself." 

"Here, this should help you blend in a little more, plus, it's about to rain." Nate took the black umbrella that Pixie made in front of him before unfolding it above his head. "See...?" Pixie said just as rain poured down heavily on Nate the moment his umbrella was positioned and unfolded above him. "Alright then Nate, let's go find ourselves some crystals to collect."

"Lead the way." Nate calmly said to Pixie as he followed her towards the half empty streets of Night City, the only reason why this was called Night City was because it was located on the part of the planet Seira where literally no light shines, apart from the moon which was its only source. "Ahh... the nostalgia, can you feel it Nate? how does it feel playing an old game?" Pixie asked as she followed Nate past multiple stores. "Nothing much, just feels like a distant memory to me..." Nate replied as he walked past street after street before reaching a fairly decorated area filled with people wearing costumes.

"This must be where we'll be able to find some weapon for you to buy... here's some money to get you started." Pixie created a fat stack of cash on Nate's hand which didn't carry the umbrella. "Why exactly did you give me this?" Nate asked, "That's because you need that money to buy a gun, duh! and also because you don't use curses anymore. I call that development." Pixie responded as she twirled around Nate's a while head before entering a nearby bar a few feet from them called Star's Inn which looked new from the outside but nearly too perfect on the inside. "Better put this money to use then."

"Welcome, how may I... help you...?" As Nate entered the bar, the bartender started to shiver in fear. Nate then walked onto the wooden floor and towards the counter, lights flickered and dimmed completely as he walked near each one. "Well, I'll be damned. If it isn't the most infamous Black Mire, I almost didn't recognize you because you became a little bit shorter."

Nate turned towards the source of the voice to see a tall man dressed in a cowboy's attire, brown eyes, brown skin and blond hair, the now former ex-investigator, Sheriff Quire, one of Mire's goons and pawns. "What brings you here to a shabby place like this?" Asked the sheriff as he walked towards Nate before sitting next to him. "What...? cat got your tongue boss?"

"No... I'm just here for something else." Nate replied. Quire shivered after hearing Nate's voice, how could somebody this short and young be Mire? not to mention the way he spoke. But it was not like Quire even heard Mire speak, not even once in his life of investigating. Quire gulped down a full glass of beer before calming himself to speak. "Ahem... and that floating cube? is that your boss or something?" Quire asked jokingly. "Sort of... I'm here on a treasure hunt, get me Ghost, Phantom, Wraith and Skull... also tell the mafias to come here as soon as possible..." Nate said before leaning on the counter. "And take your time... I'm not much of a hurry anyway." Quire sighed before nodding; he then left the bar without much say while the previous bartender was replaced with a dazzling woman in a green pilot's uniform. But instead of having long hair like the other women this one had short brown hair, her brown eyes looked more like a man's, she had also a darker skin tone than Quire who just left the bar. "Well hello Mire, you've gotten a little shorter the last time we met." The woman teased.

"Stop with the jokes Inspector Asher, stand at attention." Nate commanded as the woman known as Asher straightened her posture and held her hands together before placing them in front of her in a swift manner. "Sir!" She said loudly. "Wow Mire! you own the military as well? why's she doing that? is she your special agent or something?" Pixie asked Nate as she once again annoyingly flew around in circles above Nate's head. "Sir, if I may ask, is that really your boss?" Asher asked Nate.

"More like my guide." Nate answered. Not a moment long, multiple sirens blared outside the bar before two men walked inside along with an entire company of armed riot police and special forces. "Black Mire, you called?"

Police forces immediately aimed their guns at Nate and the inspector who barely budged at the threat. "Lieutenant, glad to see you're still kicking. Didn't you get your ass handed to you by Skull?" Asher taunted at the brown man with short grey hair, trimmed beard and blue eyes in a trench coat and classy uniform. "Hah... you better get your shit straight inspector. I'm here for the big bad." The lieutenant said as he walked towards Nate before deciding to aim a revolver to his head, but before he went halfway, he stopped and decided it was not worth the trouble of making the most powerful being in the world pissed.

"Tch! you've definitely gotten shorter Mire, what is it this time?" The lieutenant said before ordering his men to lower their weapons and be on standby. "Lieutenant Yuri." Nate said in an intimidating tone as the surrounding lights flickered and the ground shook, fear filled the room as the lieutenant known as Yuri lowed his head in fear and deep shame. 

"I'd like to remind you that I'm not in the mood for jokes anymore, do something like that again and I'll kill you slowly... do you understand? LIEUTENANT?" Nate added as the room they were all in shook even more violently before returning to its normal state, but cracks filled the stone roof and walls, and the glass windows were near to shattering completely.

"Understood... sir..." Yuri said in a lowly voice. "Hey now Mire, you shouldn't be this serious he was just joking with you. Can't you take a joke once and a while?" Asked Pixie as she landed on the counter next to Nate. "Just tell me where to find this gun you're so proud of Pix." Nate said as he placed the umbrella next to him on top of the counter. "Dude, you're literally right in front of her." Pixie answered. Nate then turned towards Asher before throwing the money Pixie gave him towards her. "Get me a gun, anything will do." Asher nodded and took out an advanced pistol with a twelve-round clip and a belted holster from the counter before giving them to Nate who immediately wore the belt and holstered the pistol. "You're good to go now Mire! way to go for being nice!" Pixie said before making a few party balloons and confetti appear around Nate. "Hooray for the boss." Asher said with a smile as she clapped her hands with Yuri and his men soon to follow.

"That's enough clapping, I'm not a birthday boy." Nate ordered as the clapping stopped. "But it is about to be your birthday you know? it's not long until it comes." Pixie said to Nate, surprising everyone present in the process. "I don't plan on having my birthday here Pix, let alone in a bar with drunk idiots." Nate answered. "Whatever you say shy guy, here's you early birthday present. I hope you like it, it's special." Pixie said as she created a colorful birthday gift the size of a watermelon on the counter.

"Woah... to think the villainous Black Mire was a young man." Nate turned towards the door to find Ghost, Phantom, Wraith, Skull and Quire next to the door, the source of the voice came from Skull, the one covered in grey skeletal armor below a white trench coat. "We sort of overheard your conversations boss, happy early birthday." Said Phantom, the old man with white hair, pale skin and orange eyes in a black tuxedo with a top hat and red cape. "I'd thought that the boss was a mysterious and cold man, I'd be wrong now I guess." Said Wraith, the humanoid faceless steel android in a grey jumpsuit.

"You invited all of us just to celebrate your early birthday? how childish, but I digress." Said Ghost, the one with a sculpted white mask in a black colored priest's outfit. "Quiet all of you! let's celebrate the boss's birthday anyway, he celebrated ours when each one of us had. Time to return the favor and enjoy it." Quire proclaimed loudly. "Well spoken." Wraith said and nodded.

"Go on! open it!" Pixie cheered while Nate soon opened his present, removing the golden ribbon and soon the cover, inside the present Nate found the greatest gift he could ever ask for. Every single toy and stuffed animal he had once during his child life, all brought to life with his mother's power, they all waved their hands towards Nate. But before he could even take any of them out, the entire bar distorted into a battlefield, once sitting, Nate was now standing on a bloody ground, holding up his umbrella from the rain with one hand while holding the present with the other. "What just happened?" Nate asked, hiding his terrible anger from Pixie as his eyes shook from all the rage. "I... uh... I don't know?" Pixie answered in a panic.

Once the distortion disappeared, Nate looked in front of him to see some of the people he met fighting alongside a few people he knew against the so-called heroes of the game, and his character's enemies. Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook and Pawn.

"What exactly ruined my moment Pixie...?" Nate asked as he counted the number of toys in the present, a small brown teddy bear, a toy knight carved from wood, a small red hero action figurine, a stuffed toy wolf, a toy soldier figurine, a boxy old model robot, and finally a small little fairy doll with a blue dress, golden hair and blue eyes with a diamond wand. "Hmm... I don't remember having a doll as one of my toys..." Nate said to himself, "That's because it was your mother's" Pixie explained.

Looking ahead of him, Nate walked forward through the battlefield of officers and thugs, all seemed to be ignoring him. Ahead of him was a shard, it looked like the floating crystal Ciel mentioned, floating like she said. However once Nate was a few feet away, he could see the trauma he suffered during his childhood, being bullied, hurting himself from prior accidents and being abandoned by his so-called friends. "What... what the hell is this...?" Nate's blood boiled instantly; he could hear his own voice of cowardice and weakness, the shame he had to endure and the ultimate suffering of being alone, Nate gritted his teeth as blood flowed from his eyes. "What is this shit? is this some sort of prank? a joke? do you think I'm funny?" Nate felt the extreme urge to shatter the crystal in front of him, Nate dropped the box of toys and the umbrella he carried. He then raised his fist and with all his strength hit the floating crystal, shattering it into a trillion pieces before dispersing into air and being absorbed by him, Nate didn't even realize that he couldn't hear anything before. "Nate! Nate! NATE!!!"

Nate turned towards Pixie who had been shouting at him from the moment he dropped his present. "Phew! I thought I lost you for a sec, did you calm down now? your heartbeat spiked for a moment there." Pixie said as she flew around Nate and picked up the box of toys with her magical powers before taking the umbrella as well and positioning it above Nate.

Nate huffed and huffed as he slowly calmed down, he inhaled and exhaled, almost exhausted from all the anger he released. "Why the hell do I fell so... tired?" Nate said exhaustingly as he stared at Pixie. "Hey, don't look at me like that. Even I didn't know what the crystals actually were, this is our first-time meeting remember?" Pixie explained.

"Got it, so how many of these goddamned things are there?" Nate asked slightly angrily, "Oh... about a dozen thousand to a hundred thousand in each world..." Pixie answered, making Nate's eyes twitch for a split-second. "You're not helping..."

Nate started speaking in a slightly crackling voice as he muttered curses under his breath. But just as things were already worse, multiple distorted beings appeared, in the form of students without faces, and their supposed leader was King, one of Mire's rival. Nate took a close look at King, his once understanding face turned into a disgusted and arrogant one. His skin tone was black, his eyes red, his hair white, and his office clothing were on the opposite colors, a direct opposite copy to the original.

"HA! if it isn't Mire... what a sad piece of shit you are! a menace to society, and a bane to existence! a worthless magot like you should rot in the cesspit that is your traitorous bunch of goons and thugs!" King taunted as he adjusted his glasses. "Come my servants! show this indomitable wretch that he isn't invincible! show this worm his place!"

"What the hell are those things Pix?" Nate asked while Pixie explained. "Ugh... from the looks of it, parts of the embodiment of your trauma, but I'd call them Fears in short." Nate then unholstered his gun as the so-called Fears ran towards him with spikes for arms. "Good to hear, but it's time to start shooting, and less talking." Nate said as he started shooting rounds at each Fear he saw in sight, but that was until every last round was emptied from the clip Nate started to realize his problem. 

"Not to worry Nate! just eject the clip and you'll automatically be given another one, remember! you have unlimited ammo!" Pixie said to Nate who nodded and did as was told, immediately after he ejected the clip from the pistol, another fully loaded one appeared on his other hand. "It's nice to be right-handed for once... but I think I could use both. Actually, never mind."

Nate loaded his gun and started shooting once again, there was next to no recoil whatsoever while shooting at the Fears, one of the good factors when beings in the game. Fear after Fear were being whittled down into a mere group, from an entire army of moving beings to quickly decomposing corpses in a matter of minutes, this displeased the Fear Lord King, who finally stepped down to fight the battle himself. "Finally, for once that idiot actually came down to fight." Nate thought to himself, but the Fear Lord actually felt the sudden burst in confidence in Nate, somehow damaging him in the process.

"Insolent brat! you're nothing more than a rat in the streets! prepare to be purged from our righteous society!" King turned into a massive monster of hands and legs, in the form of a hydra with seven heads and two appendages of each variety. "DIE!!!"

The hydra roared and screeched with a hundred screams of the damned before swiping its massive neck towards Nate, sending him flying towards a nearby wall of a towering building, all the while the once ignorant officers of the law and criminal thugs of the streets finally took notice and fled for their lives, strengthening the hydra for but a moment. "Yes... yes...! fear me! for I am your ...DOOM!" The hydra roared once again before rushing towards Nate who shot a few bullets in retaliation, damaging the hydra, but to no avail. "Foolish! absolutely foolish! I am the embodiment of your despair! for as long as you live, I will remain immortal!" The hydra laughed as it taunted Nate with a barrage of insults, each successful one increasing its strength by threefold. "Such pathetic resistance! futile! how futile!" The hydra taunted.

But then the hydra suddenly lost its power, from the darkness it felt something familiar, the coldness of acceptance and the intent to kill. From the rubble Nate walked towards the hydra, it tried to swing its tail and it landed, however it did not a single damage to Nate. He fired multiple shots towards the hydra, the damage increased by a thousand times as the bullet holes became the size of cave entrances, and not a moment too soon, the once arrogant hydra of Fears was no more than dust.

Once the short battle was over, Nate turned towards where he once stood. There he saw his toys and Pixie all staring back at him, he knew they were afraid, but what he didn't realize was that what they were truly afraid of what he had actually become.

Nate looked at himself, he was on fire, but the fire did not burn him, instead it healed him, it distorted his form, he looked like static upon a clear screen. Distorting the very area his feet was on and burning nearly everything that ever touched his body.

But before he could take another step, Nate encountered yet another one of the Fears, but the thing was, the Fear was afraid, how could fear itself be afraid? Nate pondered the thought in his mind though curiosity was swept aside by his own rage. And with swift movement Nate shot the Fear in the head, destroying its existence from his sight and mind. And a few seconds later, crystals of the same thing rushed towards Nate as they were instantly absorbed by him, that saved him the trouble of finding each one. Nearly every last one of those crystals on Haunted Paradise, save for the very last one. And Nate knew where it was.

Feeling a little calmer, the fires dispersed into air, Nate then walked towards Pixie who tried to maintain a poker face of joy; however, her tone and the amount of stuttering made it clear she was afraid. "H-Hey Nate! w-why don't you take a b-breather for now? ...I-I'll take care of everything else! so-" Nate interjected. "Shut it Pix, I'll take my rest at the Moon Tower."

Nate walked towards a faraway skyscraper about a three hundred thousand stories tall, there, he would find the last damn piece of crystal that was his nightmare in this game. Walking past entire city blocks, Nate, followed by Pixie and the toys neared the tower, a tower of glass, steel and stone. It looked more like a fortress rather than a headquarters of a company.

"...So, this is it?" Pixie asked as Nate continued forward. "Yeah, but I'd keep your mouth shut if I were you..." Fears, much larger than the Fears in the form of students, these ones were in the form of thugs. The very same thugs that roughed and beaten Nate half to death during his time on Earth, however they didn't last long due to Nate's cruel and twisted tendencies to never forget, thus they died horrible deaths. Slow and painful, just as they did to Nate. Ironic for a bunch of thugs.

Once passing the glass doors of the building, Nate was surrounded by these thugs who wielded nothing more than crowbars, pipes and wrenches, Nate on the other hand had an unbreakable gun and clothing, as well as infinite amounts of ammunition.

"Naty Nate...! here to get scolded again, are you? well it-" Nate shot the Fear in the head before it could even finish, then shooting the rest before they could so much as react to the attacks. "Shut up..." Nate then moved on towards the nearby elevator before taking the last floor, where the typical boss was waiting for him. And with a ring of a bell Nate and the others with him arrived at a fancy office with a red carpet, chandeliers, well-made brown wooden floor, expensive furniture, purple marble walls, glass aquariums filled with all-sorts of fish including aquatic plants, diamond armor and weapons inside a glass cover, as well as an entire throne made of pure gold and pelts of carnivorous animals of the most dangerous variety behind a black desk made from obsidian. This was Mire's room. However, the one behind the desk was a different person, a Fear version of Skull. "If-" Nate shot the imposter right in the head before walking towards him and dragging him towards the window behind the throne and cracking it. "I said, shut up." Nate threw the Fear Lord out the cracked window as the Fear fell to his death soon after, but the real Skull was watching from below along with the other three members who witnessed the scene.

Though Nate had enough for the night, he walked back towards the desk and sat on his throne, his room was quite still clean, everything was preserved like before. However, as he slowly closed his eyes to sleep, Nate felt something hit him, it must have been the final shard. And when he opened his to wake, Nate saw all his toys were staring back at him, but they looked a bit larger and fairly different. When Nate got up and looked around, he was still in the same room he was in.

But on the other end of the desk, Ciel sat on a simple wooden chair with a warm smile, the once eternal night was now a bright day. Nate felt at peace, but his job was not done yet, he still had some tasks to complete, and with the crystals all collected as well as a fair understanding of his mission and enemies, Nate was about to face his real mission. Which was so much harder.