On an endless plain did my eyes open to see. The void above seemed to twist and swirl like soup while the ground was a thin layer of water, reflecting my image. I was a relatively taller man in life standing around six foot, just dodging the five foot club, with short brown chestnut hair and a shaggy beard. Jeans and a star wars t-shirt provided me my dignity despite being seemingly alone in this realm. Taking a few steps to explore, the reflection below me shifted, displaying my corpse, my head twisted ninety degrees, laying on the concrete lifeless.
While I would love to say I died an interesting death, perhaps getting shanked in the street protecting an acquaintance or going into shock after “sacrificing” myself to being run over by a slow tractor to save a woman, my end was rather ordinary. A resident of the second floor of the apartment building, the outside corridors were exposed to nature with only a short wall up to waist height protecting people from falling. Unfortunately, the steel stairway going down to the ground was coated in ice, so I slipped and fell down, cracking my neck. It was at least a quick painless death compared to the more eventful examples I spoke of. I am not sure if I have even processed it yet, it happened so fast. My mind could barely fully understand the absurdity of it all.
Although the terror of my conclusion was sure to hit me soon, only curiosity filled me at this moment. Kneeling down, I poked the reflection only to experience what felt like an electric shock emerging from the tip of my index finger to the rest of my body. Reeling from the surprise, I fell back on my ass, confused on what happened. Checking to see if it was a one-time anomaly, it was clearly not as a second pulse of energy traveled through me.
Fear still absent, all I felt was wonder and a drive to know what this place was. Standing on my feet, I began to wander. I saw more scenes in the water, all unfamiliar to myself. One with what seemed like a lich summoning towering eldritch abominations on an human army. Another what seemed like a trench straight out of the Great War with a little girl floating above chanting something with a rifle in hand. One was just some seemingly average dude walking around like a NPC while muttering to himself like a chuunibyou. I’ll be honest, I got bored of the last one so I did not look at it for long. Yet one of these reflections caught my attention.
The scene shone in a rather empty marble arena that looked to be able to seat perhaps a thousand people with two men glaring at each other. One was a human with bright red hair and eyes, looking like a knight dressed in generic iron plate armour. In his hands was a wooden long sword, The other was dressed more lightly with a cloth padded gambeson checkered with light blue and black diamonds carrying a wooden sabre. Sporting a silver braided ponytail flowing down his right shoulder with the top hair swept to the left, what was most notable was his knife shaped ears, denoting his heritage as being related to the elf race. The seating around the dirt center only had the first row inhabited with around fifty people, yet one gave off a certain air of class, the princess.
I recognized the tutorial scene from “Quest of Light,” a game I played. As one may guess from the name, it was a rather generic J-RPG, a mix of turn-based games like Final Fantasy and visual novels. It was cheap, extremely cheap, only about five bucks, which was the main draw for me. I did not really care about the “visual novel” aka harem building elements, skipping it without reading so much as a word of dialogue and picking random choices for my character’s dialogue. I could care less about the cardboard cutouts that were the romantic interests, already disliking harem as a concept. I crave gameplay and challenge, not wooing poorly drawn pngs. It was nothing but a distraction to the real game.
Finally finding something familiar, I once more kneeled next to the image in the water. Extending my hand towards it, no shock came, rather, I could feel a light pull. Pausing for a second, I realized that the force dragging me in was getting stronger and stronger. Trying to withdraw my finger, it would not budge. First my whole finger was consumed, then my hand, and next was my whole arm. I was screaming in fright, the dam finally breaking in my brain. Yet nothing answered my calls, my cries the only sounds filling this abyss. Until I recognized what I could guess were eyes, dozens… no… hundreds veiled in darkness, just barely visible. Whether it was simply my paranoid mind playing tricks on me, forming shapes from the random movements of the void, or if there were actual beings watching me, I was not in a position to discern calmly.
Trying to keep my head above the water, first I sacrificed my legs, then my torso, and then my left arm, but I knew I was running from the inevitable. My head just above the water, an eerie calm washed over me. If I was to go under, I was going to do it myself rather than sit here to wait for the end. If it was my final act, I would make it my own willful decision. I dunked my head in, letting myself sink.
It was an odd feeling, just descending into… whatever was going to happen to him. It was water, or some kind of liquid, that I was falling in, but I could breath as if it were air. The feelings in my limbs went numb. I was not even sure if they were still there. The rest of my body slowly followed until I was but a pure consciousness. I had a lot of time to think, recalling my life. My family. My friends. My pet cat. My apartment. Hell, I just graduated university. I was finally going to start making some money… well after I paid off my student debts. But then I would be set for life. I would die happily in a hospital bed to old age, surrounded by those I loved. But fate was cruel. My death was solitary. All the struggles and sacrifices I made for my future were in vain. It was a simple death… something that could happen to anyone. But why did it have to happen to me when everything was going so well?
I do not know how much time passed, cursing fate, but I started to hear murmurs.
“You… Duel… Draw…!”
Although I could tell they were yelling, it was so faint. Then my vision was regained, albeit blurry. I could make out shapes and colors. At first, I was celebrating. I survived! My head was spinning, but I exited whatever kept me imprisoned! Yet my mood quickly dropped as all my senses became clearer.
Why was the protagonist of “Quest of Light” before me pointing a sword?
