[Synchronizing....]
[Synchronization successful.]
[You are being transported into New Nexus...]
[Tra—Tra—]
[Error... Error... Error]
[The Nexus Server has crashed.]
[Rebooting server...]
[Server successfully rebooted.]
[You have been registered as Creator 401.]
[You are being transported into the first sanctuary...]
The world around him finally dissipated.
It all turned blank and empty, and honestly? It wasn’t as painful as he expected it’d be.
It was his first transportation through two realities, but the sensation of being warped through temporal gateways wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling.
Then when it was all over, he opened his eyes and found himself standing in a bright room.
There were no sturdy reinforced walls, no doors or windows, everywhere was just white.
It felt... Systematic, like he returned back to the avatar customization settings.
Then a chanical chi in his ears brought him back to his senses.
[The Sanctuary has been activated.]
[You have been registered as Creator 401.]
The voice felt too real, almost like he was actually trapped inside so sort of video ga.
"The Sanctuary?" He raised a brow, confused.
[You have been chosen to partake in the trials of the Sanctuary. You have only one mission, survive and ascend. The fifty Sanctuaries rest above the others like steps in the heavens. Every sanctuary is a separate realm, with its own landscape, trials, and dangers. To ascend to the second sanctuary, it is necessary to obtain the Soul Fragnt which rests in the middle of the first Sanctuary. Good luck.]
The voice in his head disappeared just as quickly as it ca.
"The trial of the Sanctuary?" He tried to make sense of it, from what the system of the Sanctuary said, the fifty Sanctuaries were each like its own paradise, having its own different trials and dangers.
But... the Sanctuary?
Before the virus affected him, he was well familiar with New Nexus. It’s storyline, it’s opening scene, the world building and power system in it. It was one of the few things that gave all affected hope, because knowledge was indeed power.
Knowing what was going to happen and where, was a ga changer.
But he didn’t recall anything about the sanctuary.
The light dissolved all around him, and almost imdiately, several piercing screams tore through the air, startling Rentaro at once.
Rentaro slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself standing in the middle of a forest. For a mont, he thought he was dreaming, but the air felt a bit too real, too heavy against his skin.
The trees towered high above him, stretching endlessly into the sky. They were far taller than anything he had ever seen, their massive trunks rising like pillars of an ancient temple.
But that wasn’t all.
The leaves of the trees were red, and not just a few, all of them.
Every branch was covered in deep red leaves, and even the bark, the branches, and the long roots spreading across the ground looked stained in the sa color.
And all around him were the mutilated corpses of three humans.
His stomach churned, and he vomited imdiately. The corpses had their stomach and chest ripped out, and from the disgusting sight he saw, their internal organs were missing.
Rentaro took a step forward and examined the trees carefully. The thickness of the red liquid that dripped down the leaves, the repugnant sll filled the air, and the swift change in the atmosphere.
It all suggested the sa thing.
That was the blood of the three corpses.
"Is this the New Nexus?" New Nexus was a state of the art MMORPG released years ago, and he cleared the storyline half way. From the nurous saved data he had, and the hazy mories of the ga that had cost his family their lives, this wasn’t how the ga was supposed to start!
In fact, it never had such an apocalyptic looking environnt, like the end of the world had since arrived.
Almost like a response, a sharp and loud voice tore through the air. Rentaro turned to his back imdiately, and he found a woman dressed in an adventurer’s gear running towards him.
"HELP ! PLEASE HELP !!"
A cold chill ran down Rentaro’s spine, and his eyes widened as the unease in his chest spiked.
His instinct took over, and without thinking, he rushed behind the nearest tree and pressed himself against the rough trunk, barely daring to breathe.
Then it happened.
In the very next second, sothing massive dropped from above.
Rentaro flinched, and his heart pounded hard against his chest as he peeked out slightly and what he saw made his blood run cold.
A huge creature, shaped like a monstrous werewolf, had slamd into the woman and pinned her to the ground. Its body was large and powerful, its muscles pulsed beneath its dark fur, and its presence was overwhelming and violent.
"HELP !!" Her screams pierced through her throat as the wolf-like tore through her raw skin. It’s sharp canines and fangs crushed her bones with little ease, and it feasted like it hadn’t eaten in several weeks as her screams faded away.
Every cell in Rentaro’s body trembled as he watched the horrific scene unfold in front of him, by himself he couldn’t move, but his instincts that he developed throughout his ti on the streets saved him.
The beast raised its head up imdiately, Rentaro’s body tensed, and he imdiately hid his head back behind the tree.
He didn’t dare to make a sound, he didn’t even dare to move an inch. The beast remained motionless for a mont, relying on its sharp sense of sll to detect whatever was in its sensory rage.
But the repugnant sll of dead corpses, and the thick stench of blood made it difficult for it to sniff Rentaro out.
In the end it gave up, and it charged away searching for its next al.
Rentaro sighed heavily, and his trembling legs gave out as he fell on the ground. In the end, it was his street smarts and survival instincts that saved him. But this was on a whole different level from what he was used to!
He took a mont to gather himself, then he peeked out of the tree at the remains of the woman the beast had feasted on.
His face twisted in disgust and fear, the beast did not hold back, it ate all it could. All that remained of the woman was her bones and a few chunks of flesh that clung to it.
"What the hell is this place..."
Everything about this place had him on edge, but what particularly disturbed him the most was the other three corpses.
From their sll, to the freshness and blood that almost dried up, it ant that they died not long ago.
Rentaro stared at his palms, and he found remnants of dried blood that clung to his skin.
When he hid behind the tree, his hands were stained by the blood that dripped from the leaves, but it was a bit too soon for it to dry.
And they couldn’t have been one of those marked by the Nexus Virus like him because it happened simultaneously.
"Which ans... I was transported to another world?." He didn’t know how to describe it, it still felt like it was his body, but the conditions in place suggested otherwise. It was like he sohow entered into the body of an in-ga character.
But a bigger issue arose, if the beast that cleanly devoured the woman monts ago wasn’t the cause of those corpses’ death, what was?
That was a question he definitely didn’t want to find the answer to.
He gathered himself imdiately, and carefully travelled through the canopies of the towering trees that provided cover for creatures that might have the ability to fly.
As Rentaro cautiously travelled through the forest, he glanced at his surroundings, and what he saw petrified him. Dried up bones filled the red soil, several broken skulls ford a heap not far away from him, and the truth beca clear to him.
This wasn’t an ordinary forest.
There was a term used back on earth to describe a situation such as this, in several known mythological texts, this forest was referred to as the Devil’s Playground.
The distant cries of help and helpless pleas faded away slowly into the distance, and the forest fell a bit silent.
But Rentaro didn’t dare drop his guard, if two years of constantly avoiding death taught him anything, those who wanted to claim your lives weren’t always as far away from you as you thought.
And as his instincts had it, the snap of a twig caught his attention imdiately. He sidestepped and hid behind a tree swiftly with precision, like it was an evasion technique he had diligently practiced over the years.
He peeked out carefully, and observed his surroundings from afar.
From a distance, he could see the shadows of three humanoid creatures approaching carefully. From their well calculated movents, to their constant vigilance as they moved, it was obvious that whatever they were, they were clearly intelligent.
’Is it a monster? Or a human?’ He thought as the shadows got closer and closer, and as it got close enough, Rentaro’s eyes widened a bit as the three figures ca into view.
They were humans.
One was a bulky bald man dressed in body armor, brown leather pants and a large sword sheathed behind his back, the second was a slimr man with a considerable physique in a black tank top, a black pants and brown boots, and a smaller sword that fits his size.
And finally, a stunning woman in a white suit of armour, she had pale skin and clear blue eyes that complinted her white silky hair and curvy waist.
"Humans? Are they also carriers of the Nexus Virus?"
"Who’s there!?" The bald man drew his large sword imdiately, and pointed it at the tree Rentaro was behind.
’What?’ Rentaro’s body tensed a bit, and his eyes widened as he tried his best not to move.
’How did they know I was behind the tree?’ His senses were sharp, sharper than he imagined. He barely moved a muscle, and sohow they still managed to sense him?
Rentaro sighed, then raised his hands and walked out from behind the tree. There was no point trying to hide, if the man could sense him when he wasn’t moving, then what was stopping him from easily cutting him down if he tried to run?
"You are..." The bulky man’s eyes widened a bit as he saw Rentaro.
"A human?" The slimr man dropped his guard, they weren’t expecting to see a human in Hades Playground, alive at that.
"Who are you?" The stunning girl asked with a firm voice, and the bald n clutched the hilts of his sword tightly.
"I am Rentaro Mizuno, a carrier of the Nexus Virus."
User Comments
0 comments from readers