I was in a void.
There was no presence, nothing around me, and that perplexed me. I wasn't even sure if I was floating in an empty space, or if there was no presence of light.
I remembered what I heard from the kid. He told me many things, and among them, it was this pathway. The entrance connecting the real world to the game world. Kind of like a user interface window.
So I waited patiently. Till the player screen appeared in front of me.
[Welcome Player #10456432 to The three Grand pillars.]
[Enter your information through the player information menu, and enter the portal after the successful making of your character.]
Text appeared in front of me. It was so abrupt that I flinched back, but then I looked carefully at it. It displayed the information about the game. How the game has enamored this many people to play the game. I must say, despite all the suspicion I had regarding the game, this was good.
[Name]
I entered 'Nexus' there. This had been my alias back when I had been an avid gamer back in the days.
[Race]
It then asked for my race, I didn't hesitate to scroll through the options. Like any other game, there were various options ranging from elf, to even beasts. Taking a look through it, I then proceeded down towards other options.
The more downwards I scrolled, the more peculiar those options became, and then there was this option.
"This is it."
Smiling, I read through the description.
[Random]
[Creates a completely random instance in a random world.]
This sounded like what I need for this game in particular. After all, I was here for some experience, I wasn't going to play this game again and again.
Neither I was privileged, nor my circumstances allowed me to stray away from my goal.
There was even a warning tagged beneath the option.
[Warning:
The player may get changes in difficulty level not in par with what he desires. It completely revolves the story and may result in increased immersiveness with the game. Choosing this option is final, and no further changes can be done to the player profile. ]
I clicked the button without hesitation. The screen in front of me changed rapidly, the character profile, the character model changed fast. Such that even I wasn't comfortable with the movement and then it stopped.
I noticed the name. Goosebumps grew on my arms.
"This!" I hissed.
[Name - SEKEN]
How did it changed from Nexus to Seken?
And then my vision got to the character model, it was blurry. I couldn't see it properly. Like someone had taken a perfectly sculpted model, and then brushed at the still wet paint, until it only looked like a flowing replica of what could have been there.
There were no Character characteristics too.
Did the game break in some way? Was this some kind of bug?
The screen changed abruptly.
[Story Description-
The world of swords and those who worship them. This is the era, where rather than facing people with conversations, people were more comfortable with answering with the swords. Though, now the time has changed. The peaceful, broken with the chaos that will ensue soon. You are the heir of the greatest sword wielders. The Sokryo Clan. Your destiny bleeds you to take part in the upcoming dangers of the world.]
Okay, this is too rapid. Wasn't it some kind of open world game, so how did I suddenly get a mission and by the description, it doesn't look like anything, a newbie like me should be facing on the first mission.
I didn't even get a chance to adjust myself before the screen changed only to be replaced by a single piece of text.
[Mission Objective - Survive]
Before my senses could scream, I was pulled.
I went through the screen, and my body, as if being pulled by a string, got dragged around in what felt like nothingness. My head was flung back, my hands and legs tried to keep up with the force that acted through my chest.
And then in that nothingness I saw something. What looked like an incredibly small dot of light, quickly expanded around my vision, getting bigger and bigger with each passing seconds.
I knew in that instant. That light was pulling me, now I was able to make sense of the light. The swirling myriads of the colours that congegerated towards the centre of the light. This was the portal everybody talked about.
The portal, which looked about my height, grew even bigger, till it felt hundreds of metres tall. I was mesmerized by the swirling waves of energy. I could feel it even though I was getting pulled, the sense of suction and wonder. I didn't have time to ponder over it, before the mass of energy sucked me inside.
****
I woke up near a cliff. I was disoriented, but my sense of direction and stability grew quickly, until I was able to make out my surroundings.
Flowing mass of clouds swirled in the air along with what looked like small petals. Hills, filled with trees, each varying vastly in their colour and composition, stood in front of me like a perfectly captured magnum opus. The bottom was similarly tossed in the mist, which faded its existence out of sight. The sound of nature, and the wind passed through my ears, leaving small sections of cooling winds in their wake.
For a moment, I was so entranced by the beauty of the game world, that I forgot about the worries that troubled me before.
This was what people were talking about and now I too had to agree with them.
I spread my arms, to take in the wind. I could feel the clothes on my body, rustling forward with the wind that came from behind. For a moment, I was even enticed to jump forward, down the cliff.
The sensation was too real.
I should jump right?
Down the cliff.
I took a step forward, and then next until I was standing near the very edge of the cliff. Though I couldn't see what was beneath me, due to the presence of the mist, I was certain it wasn't a small fall. And then something jolted inside me.
"No!"
I shouted forcefully. Taking control of my body. For a moment, it felt like I was fighting with my own instincts. In that changing uncertainty, my senses screamed inside me.
Even the winds, which had felt so encouraging a moment earlier, now felt like a devil, slowly pushing my mind to take a step.
"Fuck."
My fingers dug deeply into my hands and I could feel blood pooling in my mouth as I bit down hard with my teeth. Strength left my body, and I found myself falling, but somehow I had to stop it.
My body bent backward against the inertia, fighting against the gravity from taking my body down the cliff. Muscle strain around my body, I could feel my bones twisting unnaturally and then weakly I landed on my butt my legs, not finding land, remained dangling in the air.
I could feel the sweat, the tremble in my arms, with my hands deeply clasped around the mound of grass which I had pulled along with their roots, I tried crawling backwards.
I had never felt so weak before.
My legs were in the air, so all I had was my arms, and my back. I felt my shoulders burning with continuous effort, my back hurting hard, until finally I was somewhat one or two meters away from the fall.
I picked myself to stand. A few minutes passed with me staring straight. That had been one hell of a first experience.