At 1:37 A.M, the apartments door opened with a creak.
Cruz stepped into the darkness. A soft click, and the lights came on, illuminating a face stripped of expression. A stark contrast to the laughing uncle he'd played at the party.
'Video games,' he thought.
He used it mostly as an excuse, something to ease his mother's worry. Still, the idea lingered.
He hadn't played anything in a long time. The past year had been nothing but work.
Exhaustion clung to him constantly. Whatever free time he had went to sleep. The little that remained was spent watching the news or drifting through YouTube shorts.
He muttered, "I didn't have time back then. I had to keep up… especially after the accide-"
He cut the thought off before it could fully form.
By the time he reached his bed, his mind had gone blank. He dropped face-first onto the mattress, uniform and all. The fabric muffled his breathing. After a moment, he rolled to the side, eyes fixed on the cracks along his apartment's ceiling.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
'Might as well check.'
Scrolling through his apps:
'Minecraft, Albion Online, Epic Conquest X…Wuthering Wa-'
He paused.
Daniel's conversation with Alexis surfaced in his mind.
"The story… already ended?" he murmured.
Fragments of memories during his time in college came back to him. Carefree days. Ignorant days.
He used to love playing the game, the combat was satisfying, the music was great, the scenery of the post apocalyptic world was eye catching... The gatcha mechanic, was bearable.
The last version he remembered clearly was V3. Mornye had been a hot topic back then, everyone talking about how she'd power-crept Shore Keeper. Truthfully he hadn't touched the game since V 2.3.
The new version is already out, isn't it?"
After a moment of thought, Cruz decided he'd spend tomorrow catching up on the story.
Sitting upright, he leaned over his desk and plugged in his charger. He opened the Wuthering Waves app, he waited for the loading to finish as a notification popped up.
[Do you want to download resources up to the latest version? Download size: 56.87 GB]
[Yes] [No]
He tapped Yes and let himself fall back onto the bed. Eyes fixed on the ceiling, his vision blurred as exhaustion pulled him under.
The alarm blared at 4 A.M.
Cruz groaned, slapping it off with a growl. He tried to shift into a comfortable position, but sleep had already fled.
"Haaaaughhh… what a way to start the day," he muttered, glancing toward the window.
Outside, motorcycles roared past. A dull headache throbbed at his temple. He stretched, yawned, and reached for his phone. the download had finished.
Sitting up, he restarted the game, thinking he might play a bit before his morning shower.
'It's my day off… might as well indulge a little, he thought,' gaze settling on the screen.
The screen opened to a mound of rock, half-filling the frame. Two figures stood opposite each other, one on the left, one on the right.
On the left, a woman: hair swaying, hands folded over her chest, wearing a short sleeveless qipao. Bare shoulders and arm were partially covered by elbow-length gloves. A roll of cloth wrapped around her midsection, and black thigh-high socks stretched over her legs. Belts and straps crisscrossed her body.
On the right, a man: hair tousled by the wind, one arm resting on his knee, the other stretched out. He wore a cropped overcoat with sleeves curled inward, a gray shirt underneath tucked into sleek jeans, with most of his feature covered due to his position.
Behind them hovered a diamond-shaped lattice, molten-gold lines stretching to each point. At its center, a dark circle edged with fire. Like a eye of a higher being staring down at the world below.
Cruz blinked.
'Beautiful… but I feel like I've seen this before.'
Ignoring the feeling of deja vu, he tapped Play.
The camera panned toward the male figure. He glanced towards the camera stretching is arms forward revealing a sleeveless glove, glowing with a gold light. The glow intensified, and the screen faded to black.
A loading screen flickered past, displaying game tips and new scenes from the new regions. Cruz's curiosity spiked, he hadn't read anything related about the game as he wanted to experience it unspoiled.
Finally, his player character appeared in what appeared to be a small Green House within the Black Shores, his last logout point.
Opening the menu, notifications swarmed him new shop items, new events, new features.
Overwhelmed, he closed it and climbed the stairs to the right.
As he neared the top he saw grand piano. On it, a girl wearing a frilly blue veil the sat with her back to him. The Shore Keeper.
Familiar interaction options appeared as he got close.
> [Sit Down]
> [Head to the End of Wanderings]
He chose the latter.
The screen whitened.
Moments later, the scenery shifted. The Green House vanished, replaced by a small island expanse of white grass, waves creeping up at the edges. A sun dipped low on the horizon. Destroyed skyscrapers loomed in the distance. Blue neon butterflies drifted past. Behind him, the grand piano remained, Shore Keeper playing a slow, somber melody.
Lost in the music, Cruz froze when he noticed someone behind the piano, standing at the edge of the small island.
'A new NPC?' He though.
As Cruz walked closer he could clearly see the details of the mysterious NPC.
Hologram. Its body flickering with static. It wore the clothes of a male Black Shores Operator, but the contours of its face glitched, the blue waves the made up it's contours surging erratic like a broken hearth monitor.
An interaction box appeared as he neared it
> [Speak to ???]
Without thinking, Cruz tapped it.
A muffled voice of a salesman came through, radio-like:
"Haha, heeello~! You poor, miserable~ soul. Perchance, do you find no meaning in life? Do you wish to experience, a Graaand~ adventure of a lifetime? To have power? Wealth? Women?"
The static cleared showing dark, hollow eyes with black lines connecting it to the edge of his face. as if black tears were falling through it's empty eye sockets alongside a smile too wide to be human.
It gave him two options
>[Yes]
>[No]
Sweat trickled down his temple. He gripped the phone tightly. Something felt… wrong. His chest tightened.
'Damn these new quests… sure are something.'
He tapped [Yes] and laughter erupted from the phone. faint at first, then relentless.
Panic bubbled in his chest.
He threw the phone onto the bed, but the laughter now distorted. Continued as the eve as the screen froze and went black.
Cruz's eyes darted around the room adrenaline coursing through his veins, he felt his hearth race. as he let out a fear filled scream.
"FUCK! WHERE ARE YOU, SHOW YOUR SELF!"
The laughing stops and his eyes landed on his window. His body froze.
There, beyond the abnormal darkness of the morning sky, a face slowly peered inside. The light hit it just enough to reveal skin as blue as glacial ice. Hollow eye sockets stared at him, black liquid oozing from their depths. Its smile stretched impossibly wide.
Spindly, clawed blue hands crept into the light, fingers grasping at the edges of his window.
"Let's see how well you can entertain me~," the monster said. Its voice was that of an old-timey radio, still tinged with a strange, sales-pitch cadence. It laughed as it stared at him.
Cruz froze. He fell sideways to the floor, eyes locked on the thing before him. His thoughts slowed, darkness creeping in from the edges of his vision. The laughter dulled, fading into a faint, haunting hum. His sense of touch numbed. He continued to stare, paralyzed.
'Help' was the last thing he thought.
• • •
Cruz groggily woke. His body felt light, as if he were underwater. Slowly, sensations returned. Warmth spread through him. His heart pounded. The distant sound of waves filled his ears. Blood coursed steadily through his veins.
His vision cleared. He looked around.
He was floating. In space.
He flexed his fingers. No wounds. No pain. His uniform was intact.
"I'm… still alive?" he tried to say, but no words came.
He scanned his surroundings. Asteroids and rocks drifted lazily. In front of him stretched an endless void, black and infinite. Behind him, golden rays of light shone.
Turning, he froze. Awe... and recognitio hit him.
"That's right! I remember now!"
There in front of him the square lattice from the homepage. But now it took up the entirety of his vision, it radiated sacredness, like staring into the eye of God as he judges you silently.
Squinting, he caught a dark silhouette. Two figures. They seemed locked in a tight embrace, drifting slowly together.
Towards his direction. The perception of space made it impossible to tell. Asteroids orbited the lattice, moving with impossible grace.
As they drew closer, recognition struck.
Cruz's mouth hung agape.
He recognized the woman.
"She's the goddess that appeared from the first cut scene of the game!"
In the game's first cutscene, she had been glowing, unblemished. Now… the goddess before him made his skin crawl.
Her once beutifull figure gone, like broken porcelain half of her upper head was shattered. One eye gone, the other a deep, burning crimson.
Chunks of her body were also missing. Her left arm gone from the shoulder down. Everything below her right thigh was was also gone, both limbs were replaced by by jagged stumps. The soft glow of her skin flickered dimly.
And In her embracea was... a skeleton, thin skin still clung to bone.
It wore a tattered black coat. The same one worn by the male figure from the home screen.
'Rover,' he thought, eyes wide at the corpse.
The goddess locked at him and raised her remaining arm, letting Rover's cropes drift away to her side.
Light condensed in her remaining hand. She stretched it toward him. A low hum built.
"Wait! Shi-" he tried to block it, arms flailing. but then a spindly blue arm shot from behind his head. Fear surged through him as he recognized it.
Before he could react further, long thin pairs of arms coiled around his torso, legs, and arms burning him in place. He froze. The goddess's eyes were on him, confusion written across her scarred face.
'Help,' he mouthed.
Two hands pressed onto his shoulders. At the edges of his vision, the blue face of the monster appeared, creeping from the darkness. The goddess and the monster stared at one another, silent, blank.
Moments passed. Her face contorted with frustrstion as she looked down, fists clenched by her sides.
After a while she calmed down and slowly raised her head. Her gaze shifted to the right. With a subtle gesture, she summoned Rover's corpse. As if obeying, it floated toward her, moving with an eerie, gentle precision.
His mummified body came into focus, skin peeling, bones exposed, facial features unrecognizable.
Raising her remaining arm.with fingers missing and cracks running alone the side. she pierces Rover chest with a swift strike, yet his corpse dint stir. Her hands merely passed through him like a ghost.
As she pulled back, a golden orb emerged from the corpse. Tendrils of light clung stubbornly to Rover's remains, stretching and snapping one by one, until finally the orb was free.
After staring at it for a whole she glances toward me. Without hesitation, she took his hand and placed it in hers. Their fingers interlocked and she closed her eyes.
Before long she opened them again, and with an effortless grace she pushed me back.
my vision slowly narrowed once again as unconsciousness takes me. the last thing that I saw was the goddess as she once again embraced Rover's remains.