Alright… I have no idea how long I've been adrift in this darkness, and maybe I don't want to know. Days, months, or even years?
No, it's worse… I've been here—in this game world—for ten years!
Ten. Damned. Years. Trapped in this digital hell!
Ten years, stuck in this beta version of a game, imprisoned inside the body of Lloyd Reinhart, the side villain of this cursed world.
I can't even remember the taste of real food or the feeling of sleeping in a real bed anymore. Everything here is just data, digital code, an artificial world that won't even grant me a merciful death!
Every time I tried to kill myself? The System would stop me.
Every time I tried to break the game? The System would reset me, like a piece of scrap that had to be kept in its place.
And the worst part? The game was never officially released! The outside world has probably forgotten it exists, but here I am… stuck forever.
But what was worse than the isolation? It was the feeling… like I'd forgotten something important.
Whenever I tried to think about my past life, my real world, there was a void… an unsettling void, like my memory was riddled with black holes. I remembered entering this game for a reason, but why? How? Who was I, really?
I turned my head in the bleak emptiness around me, trying to find anything other than this infinite darkness, but there was only silence. A heavy… unnatural silence.
And then, suddenly, I heard a laugh.
A slow, ominous laugh… No, it wasn't normal. It sounded like it had crawled out of the pits of hell itself.
I slowly raised my head, and there he was… a mad old man.
His face was a roadmap of wrinkles, like a chart leading to some lost treasure, and his eyes glowed with an unnatural light, as if they held sparks from the stars themselves. He looked at me the way a wolf looks at its prey, but the strange thing was, he was smiling—no, laughing hysterically.
"Do you know who I am?"
A pang shot through my head. That question… I'd heard it before, but when? Who was this man? Why did he seem so strangely familiar?
I couldn't help myself; I started laughing too.
"Hahahaha… HAAAAHAHA! Damn it, after all this nonsense, no, I don't know you, old man. Am I supposed to be one of your fans?"
He stopped laughing abruptly, as if someone had sucked the soul right out of him for a moment. Then he said, very slowly, as if trying to digest the sheer audacity that had just come out of my mouth, "You don't know me? That's… impossible… I am Destruction itself! Entire worlds tremble at the mere mention of my name!"
I raised an eyebrow, pointing a finger at him like I was dealing with someone who had completely lost his mind.
"Alright, alright, 'Mr. Destruction.' Am I supposed to be shaking in my boots right now?"
It wasn't just a joke; I wanted to see his reaction. Something was wrong here… this man wasn't part of the game. He wasn't supposed to be here. Not from what I could remember.
The old man's face twisted into an expression I had never seen before—something between rage, shock, and humiliation. It was as if he couldn't believe someone on the face of the earth dared to mock him.
Then, in less than a second, he vanished from his spot and appeared directly in front of me. His hand, inhumanly strong, clamped around my neck, and the air began to escape my lungs.
"Listen, kid. I'll be nice this time because I admire you. You have pride, and that's good… but don't forget, the System chose you. You don't have a choice!"
His fingers were like a vice. It felt like a pillar of fire had pierced my throat, as if the very air had turned to ash in my lungs. I tried to break free, but his strength surpassed anything I had ever seen in this game. In fact… could I even call it a game anymore?
As darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, I suddenly saw something strange…
His eyes… they weren't human. They were gateways to other realms, dark vortexes where shadows and phantoms danced and whispered to each other, watching me from behind a thin veil, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
I realized one thing in that moment… this man was not normal.
But it wasn't just his inhuman strength; it was the feeling… like I had met him before.
Suddenly, my mind began to fill with images I had never seen. No… I had seen them, but I'd forgotten.
I was in a different place, a room full of monitors, and I was talking to someone… his face was blurry, but his voice was familiar.
"Are you sure? This beta version is unstable."
"I know, but I have to try it. This world… it needs someone like me to understand it."
Then silence, as if a part of my memory had been abruptly erased.
I snapped back to the present. The old man was still holding me, but his eyes glinted as if he'd noticed something change in my gaze. Then, as if reading my thoughts, he smiled and said in a deep voice, "Oh… you're starting to see, aren't you?"
My head was throbbing with pain, but I managed to speak in a weak voice, despite the iron grip on my neck, "What… are… you?"
The old man let out a faint laugh, but it was enough to make every hair on my body stand on end.
"I am not a thing, Lloyd. I am an idea. An error. I am the void that consumes all."
Suddenly, I felt the air around me change. The void itself was pressing in, as if trying to swallow me whole. And yet, I felt something else… memories, but they weren't mine.
I saw other people, their faces blurred, all of them screaming, trying to escape, but they couldn't. They were trapped… no, they were stuck, just like me!
Then I heard another voice, one that wasn't foreign to me, but was buried deep in my memory. The voice of someone I knew… but had forgotten.
"Stop him… don't let him take control!"
In that moment, something flashed in my mind. My memories, or what was left of them, began to return. I wasn't just a player in this beta… I was something else, something I didn't yet understand.
But before I could think further, I felt my body fly through the air. My back crashed against the nothingness, and pain spread through me like an electric spark.
I struggled to lift my head and saw the old man standing there, his eyes blazing with madness, his smile now wider, as if it stretched beyond his face.
"Time to wake up, Lloyd."
Before I could protest, he shoved me back with immense force, and I fell. But I wasn't in the void anymore.
The world around me vanished.
I was in a familiar place. A massive mansion, its walls adorned with grim paintings, the scent of old books filling the air. I knew this place instantly.
But that wasn't the unsettling part…
There was a body lying on the floor.
I approached slowly, my heart pounding wildly.
Then I froze.
It was my body.
Or rather… the body of Lloyd Reinhart.
But this didn't make sense. How could I be here and there at the same time? How could I be looking at my own dead self?
I looked at the old man, but he was just grinning, as if enjoying the sight of me drowning in a horror I couldn't comprehend.
"What is this?" I asked, my voice shaking.
"These… are your true memories."
I began to gasp, clutching my head as new images flooded my mind like a torrent.
I was there when the game was created.
I was there when the great error occurred.
I wasn't just some player who entered the game…
I was the programmer who created it.
But why? How? When?
I turned my head toward the old man, but this time… he was gone. As if the whole thing had been an illusion.
But the body… it was still there.
I stepped toward it slowly, then knelt and looked at my own dead face.
And then… its eyes opened.
"Hello, Lloyd."
My dead body spoke.
I scrambled backward, but there was no escape. The only door behind me was shut.
"What… what is happening?!" I screamed, but my other self just smiled.
"It took you ten years to reach this moment."
"Moment for what?!"
"The moment you realize the truth."
He extended a hand toward me, and when I touched it…
Everything around me exploded in a flash of white light.
Then I heard the voice.
[System Reboot Initiated.]