"Initializing neural sync… please remain still."
The voice was calm, synthetic, and eerily soothing—like a nurse in a horror movie moments before the scalpel came down.
Julius Marcellus lay in the sleek, egg-shaped capsule, his arms crossed behind his head, a lazy grin spreading across his lips.
"Let's see if this is worth selling half my soul for," he muttered.
The Eclipse Conquest: Omega system was unlike anything released before. No headset. No motion sensors. No halfway illusions. This was the bleeding edge—a prototype neural-drive capsule designed to send his entire consciousness into the game world.
No avatars. No barriers. Just him.
His heart raced with the kind of thrill only a lifetime gamer could understand.
New world. New rules. One life. Infinite freedom.
"Dive in," he whispered.
White light devoured his senses.
Then, a brief flicker of static.
And then—
Sky.
Two suns beamed down on a lush meadow filled with crystal-blue grass.
Trees sparkled like diamond veins, and a river flowed uphill in defiance of all logic. The horizon stretched for what felt like forever, broken only by floating landmasses the size of cities. Winged beasts soared between them, and lightning rippled silently across clouds that glowed pink.
Julius stood on a hilltop, alone.
Wind kissed his skin. Real wind. Not simulated—real.
"This… is insane." His voice shook with awe. "This is realer than real."
He knelt and touched the grass. It bent under his fingers, cool and soft. A system interface flickered faintly in the corner of his vision—almost like a dream overlay. No menu commands. No tutorials. Just a world, raw and waiting.
"God, I could live here," he laughed. "This is beyond next-gen. This is… something else."
He took a deep breath, arms wide.
"I don't even care what power they gave me. Just let me run. Let me fight. Let me breathe—"
SHWING.
He felt it before he heard it. A gust.
A flash of pressure.
Then—a sickening wet snap.
Julius froze.
His vision wobbled. His body trembled.
He looked down.
His left hand… was gone.
Clean cut. No pain yet. Just a geyser of blood splashing onto the crystalline grass.
"…what?"
The world tilted. Dizziness clawed at his brain. His eyes searched wildly—
—Nothing. No enemy. No weapon. Just air.
Like a blade had passed through space itself.
He stumbled backward, clutching his shoulder with trembling fingers, trying to scream—
but the wind howled louder than his voice.
Then… silence.