What's more terrifying?
Being the only one to know the future and not being able to prevent the end of it, or being the only one alive in that future and still not being able to prevent the end?
Dimitri experienced both.
He stood frozen, watching the world slowly disorient before scattering into multicoloured beams of light.
"So beautiful. Pity no one's here to watch it," he muttered, gritting his teeth as he pulled his limbs from the decayed soil.
Dead bodies lay scattered around him. Some wore pained expressions, but the relief on their faces held a deeper meaning.
A red river flowed through the battlefield. Despite the colourful rays invading the earth, it still shone with death and decay.
In the field of a multicoloured ocean, only he remained—staggering as he held his spear tight.
Unkempt hair shaded his forehead, a grimace formed on his face as he suppressed the pain of being disintegrated alive.
"So this is the end…" His gaze landed on the mass of a blurry thing with a sigh of acceptance.
They called it Mirage—something that appeared to be attainable but was actually an illusion of that attainment.
Imagine fighting something so powerful and unbeatable, without even knowing if what you fought for was real or an illusion.
Dimitri raised his fist, slowly rolling each finger until one stood out.
"FUCK YOU…"
And then—nothing. Only darkness.
The world disappeared into nothingness, but the spot where Dimitri had stood remained untouched.
A jagged breath escaped into the air, fuming as a voice echoed from all directions.
"Did he just curse at me…? I just wanted to say a hi."
* *
Inside a small studio apartment in the suburbs of Texas, a young man opened his eyes wide, gasping for air. His bulging eyes locked onto the tattered ceiling, then shifted toward the paper calendar in the corner.
"21-12-2024…"
Dimitri read aloud, his eyes darting toward the clock, which was missing one of its sides.
Fortunately, both hands were still intact on the undamaged portion.
"10:00 AM…"
This day and time—he would never forget.
Even if his brain deleted all its stored memories.
The release of the world's first full-dive virtual reality game: The Card Online.
A game that connected the inhabitants of Earth into Star Line.
"Stop!" Dimitri rose from his bed. "…Aren't I dead?"
The younger body said otherwise. The smell of fresh air… His nose twitched.
"Here, smell like shit…" A rotten egg in the corner answered his disgust, oozing its stench.
Dimitri rushed toward his door, which opened to the balcony of a twenty-story, abandoned, almost-collapsed building.
The warmth of the sun pushing back against the bitter cold of winter was unexpectedly pleasant.
He spread his arms, breathing in the cold breeze. Then watched the tiny forms of humans walking in the distance.
"So I regressed." His voice was plain.
"SO I'M FUCKIN' REGRESSED?" And then—hysterical.
The Earth changed on the day the world's first full-dive virtual reality game was released. Within a month, the player count neared half a billion.
A year later, the world economy was disrupted by resources coming out of the game.
And a year after that, the first person appeared on Earth with powers from the game. As for the world governments, it took only half a year after that to collapse.
Proclaimed anarchy replaced invisible anarchy—though all humans were given the same chance to be part of it. But that didn't last long either, as the real world merged with the game world and everyone was forced to become part of the Star Line.
Dimitri clenched his fists at that thought. Everyone, including himself would be forced into a war with no known reason—no known enemy.
Only at the very end did he see what he'd been fighting for all those decades. He let out a dry laugh.
Irony. Only he had actually seen its true form. Not even the powerhouses. Not even that man… the protagonist. Thinking about that man....better not think about him.
Card Online was an interesting game, with stunning world design and countless alien races. Everything in the game felt real. Now, thinking about it—everything was real.
At first, players needed at least a VR helmet to enter the game, but that changed after a year. After that, everyone on Earth was forced into the game, regardless of age or gender.
The governments took that long to grasp the severity of the situation. But by then, it was too late. Irreversible.
The global economy twisted and changed, with magical resources becoming the mainstream source of income.
Guilds and groups formed. One after another, powerful families hidden in the shadows began to emerge. Technically, the world was still the same, but it was worse—and far more dangerous.
Dimitri stopped himself from recalling the details after the anarchy began.
He thought about the Heart Card he was going to awaken upon entering the game. Prophetors vision.
Every player entering the game had to first undergo an awakening in the tutorial room. This would replace their heart with a node which players called a Alignment.
The number of branches from that alignment decided how many builds a player could form around their heart. This was called a deck.
Every player had at least one branch on their alignment. Dimitri awakened one with three branches.
The game focused on players obtaining new cards and developing themselves as they explored the world, bit by bit.
Dimitri sneered. No matter how much players developed, they were rendered powerless against an inhabitant of the same level after the merging.
Except for a few… and he wasn't one of them. At the time, it had taken him half a year to enter the game—making him fall behind by millions. Very special cards had already been obtained by others.
He built his deck with mostly useless cards, despite his alignment granting him almost overpowered abilities—abilities he failed to utilise.
The ability to see the future… He sighed again. He had been the only prophet in the game, but too weak to use that power.
But now—everything was different.
He had regressed with full memory of the events to come.
He had time to change all of that.
Perhaps even the end.
A confident grin began to creep across his face only to freeze when a silhouette appeared in his sight.
A man, fully covered in dark clothing with empty eye sockets, floated before him.
"Floating?" Dimitri's brain bugged out for a few moments until the man pulled a gun from his pocket.
"What…?" His eyes widened as he turned to run—but his feet were rooted to the ground. Only his upper body moved forward before he collapsed.
Through the pair of legs, now cleanly severed and lying on the ground, Dimitri saw the man extend his fist toward him.
"Fuck you…"
A middle finger was the last thing Dimitri saw before darkness engulfed him once more.
What's more terrifying?
'To die on the day of your regression.'
That would be the answer Dimitri would've given if he were still alive.
Regrettably, he was dead.
And in a world filled with turbulent magic…
A pair of golden eyes opened.
"Ah...curse the life of a prophet."