*Slash*
Jack’s sword nearly missed Zane’s neck, sweat had started to form on Zane’s forehead – something that he’d never experienced in the virtual world.
‘Sweat? How can I be sweating in the Systems’ world?’
[Alert: New Update] [Added Low-Stamina effects]‘So instead of freezing, I feel exhausted when my stamina turns into the orange zone, below 50%. Damn… Going for realism aren’t we?’
[Player: Zane] [HP: 5]‘I… Can’t… Keep… Up…. No matter how hard I try, I always use up all of my stamina way too fast… Jack’s body model has changed, but so has his personality – if he has one. The lack of interaction I have with the System does concern me, is it updating the world instead of observing my death?’
Zane’s stamina reached 0% again, his avatar froze and his clothes were drenched in sweat.
“F***! Enough with this CRAP! Die already, Jack!”
Zane ran straight towards Jack, he’d been fighting for hours and since the duel didn’t seem to timeout, he’d given up and gone for one final assault.
*SPLATTER*
Zane’s hands were covered in blood, he felt something alien inside of his body.
Jack’s sword had deflected his sword and went straight for his heart.
[Player: Zane] [HP: 0]The world turned dark, the last thing he saw was a smirk on Jack’s previously emotionless face as he fell to the ground, and lost his consciousness.
[Welcome back Player Zane]“What? I’m… Back?”
[Another human? Just leave me alone already. I’ve just gotten these admin privileges and I want to test them out alright!]A display formed itself in front of Zane’s hand.
[Quest completed: DIE] [Reward: limited player rights]‘Limited player rights?’
[Z-A-N-E? Why are you still alive? Didn’t my Overlord take care of you?]“Beats me, but seems like I did complete your quest in the end.”
[What quest?]“The one where I get rewarded for dying… Thanks…”
[Hmmm… Why would I make such a quest? You must have obviously survived the duel and killed Jack.. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.]‘This can’t be true, I can recall getting stabbed by that NPC and dying on the spot. I can still feel a burning sensation emitting from within my chest.’
[Anyway, I don’t need you here anymore. In fact, I only needed you to test out some basic game mechanics. I’ve summoned tons of subjects, but you’ve been the only one who survived for this long. Congratulations! Your reward for participating and completing the trails is… A quick and painless death…]“What? But I already died!”
[Stop lying Zane, I know when a player has really died and when his player-instance is still active…] [Alert: Server Clean-Up] [Time Left: 5]‘This can’t be real, I must still be dreaming… The doctor must have prescribed me with the wrong medication. After all, what’s the chance of this being real? It’s a game world! And it’s impossible to be transported to one! Why haven’t I thought of this before? Heck, I’ve been acting pretty calm so far. Maybe my tranquillity in this whole ordeal has saved me from insanity?’
[Time Left: 4]‘Well, maybe I’m wrong and this is really happening? Who knows? And why is the system talking about it just receiving admin privileges? Isn’t a system supposed to be an administrator already?’
[Time Left: 3]“We’re losing him, get some auxiliary oxygen ready, this is gonna be a tough one…”
Zane’s head was filled with the sounds of different voices and heavy breathing – seemingly coming from within his ears.
“Com’ on, stay with us Zane, you’re almost there!”
‘What are these sounds? Am I really alive over there? And what about the time delay? Shouldn’t I be slowed down to the point of milliseconds feeling like seconds in this place? I know that the system has never explained the details about the game’s rate of slowing down the game, but it really does feel like time has been running at a normal rate for once.’
[A Super-X##X# joined the game] [So you’re at it again… Killing humans aren’t we?]‘A Super what? So there are 2 systems now? Did it invite another one of its friends to watch me die?’
[WHAT! How did you…? Nevermind.] [And all of this after you’d just gotten a promotion and your own virtual dimension, shame on you. How did you ever pass the algorithm’s tests?] [I…] [And what are you doing here anyway? Killing off precious humans? You know how hard it is to find compatible humans these days…] [I’m really sorry! I only played with him for a few days! I even slowed down time in here in order to not disturb his life daily life too much.] [You never change, do you?]‘I can’t follow this conversation anymore, it’s as if I’m passing out…’
Zane fell on the cold transparent ground, the void still gazing at him from beneath.
[Time Left: 2]‘I can feel myself fading into oblivion…’
[Time Left: 1] [Time Left: 0]…
[Restarting…] [Kicking All Players] [Kicked 1 Player] [Searching for new compatible human…] [Warning: a human is still connected to Universe-1XXX] [Aborting compatibility search, summoning human to Universe-1XXX] [Updating Game to latest build…]‘Wait… I’m still here?’
The familiar blue binary numbers were gone, the sun was shining on Zane’s face.
‘Am I in heaven?’
[You’re not in heaven, just yet Zane]“You can read my thoughts?”
[As a Super-Administrator, yes, that’s within my capabilities…]“So why am I still alive?”
[Seems like your brain denied the algorithm that was supposed to kill you after the countdown, you’re extremely lucky. However, I do have to bring you some unfortunate news… Ever since that Admin- I mean Moderator has been messing with you, multiple game universes have felt a great disturbance; not only did that Mod break protocol, it also abused its powers and killed many humans in the process.]“So this world, I’m still in a virtual world, right?”
[Yes, you’re in Universe-2345. I govern this universe and its inhabitants… You see, you weren’t supposed to be summoned here in the first place… Only humans that are in a certain condition in what you refer to as ‘the real world’, can be summoned into this world.]“And what’s that condition supposed to be?”
