"Shit..." A man's broken voice was barely audible.
The flames around him crackled loudly, preventing him from even saying a few last words. Footsteps quietly pounded the broken ground. There were several of them.
The man raised his gaze. His long white hair, tinged with the crimson color of blood, prevented him from seeing who was coming. All he could see was a four-legged animal heading toward him.
He was unable to get up. His knees, soaked in the ground, screamed at him to stop. The man looked down again, the yellow color of his gaze slowly fading along with what little life he had left.
That animal stopped in front of him. The fire increased its presence to compensate for the silent environment.
A metallic sound, similar to that of armor, began to resonate. He jumped down slightly. "You're very weak," a deep, intense voice said.
Weary, the man waited for his end to come. And soon, he felt his chest heat up, that sensation quickly reaching his entire body. A huge sword had pierced him.
Slowly, the man said goodbye to his life, darkness taking over.
"YOU DIED."
A young man sighed, staring at the ceiling wearily. "Again..." he stammered.
"Are you still here, Kaiser?" Another young man approached in disbelief.
"This boss is impossible..." Kaiser said reluctantly.
The young man let out a small smile. "You're the only one still here."
"Yeah... I'm the only one still here..."
Path of the Emperor is a multiplayer, open-world game that came out two years ago. When it first came out, no one paid attention to it, but as time went on, everyone started buying it.
The reason was simple: it was tough. No one had yet been able to beat this game; there was no way. Recently, one of the administrators broke the news that they weren't even close to completing it.
And among the millions of players, Kaiser was ranked the worst of all. Two years after his release, he was still in the mandatory tutorial, unable to beat the test boss.
The situation was so bad that the administrators even gave him the title "The Worst of All." Although, of course, it wasn't something he liked to brag about.
Several well-known players, after learning of his situation, had offered him help completing the tutorial. But Kaiser refused any kind of help.
Kaiser was stubborn, but he had a clear mind. What was the point of completing it if it wasn't for his skill?
He spent days and days trying to achieve it, but he didn't improve; in fact, he even seemed to get worse with each attempt.
"It's already nighttime, I have to go," the young man said goodbye, watching him for a few seconds, worried about his health.
Kaiser didn't take his eyes off the screen. The door to his room closed slightly. He wasn't a complete addict; he trained, worked, and even had many friends; his social life wasn't bad.
However, Kaiser grew up dreaming of belonging to a fantasy world. This made him, despite having a good social life, prefer to stay playing when Path of the Emperor came out.
This worried his acquaintances; they were worried that he would give it all up for a simple game.
Kaiser, filled with rage, punched the monitor screen. The shards of glass penetrated his fist, causing blood to flow weakly through his hand.
"What am I doing with my life?" he asked himself, bringing his hand to his face. "I must live real life..."
Kaiser tried to think, but the monitor kept emitting a squeaky sound. He pulled his hand away from his face.
Curiously, he looked at the glitched screen. The gaps he had created after hitting the screen were strangely illuminated.
"Should this be so?"
Slowly, he brought his face closer to the screen, which suddenly went dark, still with the glow. His face was reflected in the cracked screen, his blond hair illuminated by the strange glow, and his blue eyes turned slightly greenish.
"Save... us..." A broken, haggard voice seemed to come from the screen. Kaiser pulled his face back slightly, puzzled by those words.
"Will the game still be on?"
No sooner had those words left his mouth than a disfigured hand emerged from the screen. "What the fuck?!" Kaiser shouted, trying to break free from the grip of that hand.
However, he didn't seem able to do so, and the hand continued to penetrate the screen. The brightness quickly began to increase, forcing Kaiser to stop struggling to free himself from the grip and cover his eyes to avoid being blinded.
The grip on his head seemed to have disappeared, but the brightness continued to increase. Soon, Kaiser felt he was close to losing consciousness; his body seemed to be reaching its limit.
The headache increased considerably, causing Kaiser to fall to his knees. Tears began to stream down his face. Kaiser felt his vision fading.
"Why me?" he stammered as memories flooded his mind. However, that was something that bothered him; after all, the memories weren't his own.
Kaiser wanted to remember his life before he died, but he couldn't afford that luxury, even as he faced death's door.
Soon, a warm sensation surrounded his body, easing all the pain he was going through. Kaiser felt tranquility. Was that the feeling of death?
Kaiser settled into that sensation, wishing it would never go away.
The singing of birds reached his ears; it was beautiful. The bright light slowly faded, and with it, that breathtaking sensation.
Kaiser squirmed, satisfied with the situation he had felt. He began to stretch his entire body, but it was strange.
'What the hell is this?' he asked himself, without opening his eyes.
The more he squirmed, the more his disgust increased.
'Is it so bad to die?' He pushed himself up onto his elbows.
However, that question went unnoticed as he looked around. In a small, untidy room, the bed barely had a light layer of mattress, making it incredibly hard.
The room was empty; it only had that bed, a small drawer on its left side, and a dirty mirror. The walls were gray, with several cracked areas around them.
This made the atmosphere feel gloomy, despite the beautiful day that could be seen through the wooden window.
Kaiser's breathing became labored, incredulous at his situation. After looking around a couple of times, he slapped himself hard across the face, though he paused slightly before hitting himself, making the blow less painful. Due to the slight pain he had received, he opted to pinch himself.
"Gasp..." Kaiser took a small, now painful breath.
As he stroked his cheek, he continued to look out the window. However, he couldn't see anything because a tree was blocking his view.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked himself again, this time more worried.
He got out of bed, trying to investigate the place. "They haven't kidnapped me, have they?" he thought, remembering that hand.
With calculated steps, he headed toward the bedroom door. However, out of the corner of his eye, he had noticed the mirror.
He stopped in his tracks and after a brief moment, swallowed. Noticeably afraid, he began to turn his head to his left, trying to look at the mirror.
After looking in the mirror, Kaiser grimaced as if he were crying. "Why has my appearance changed?!" He clutched his face in despair.
Trying to contain his annoyance, he walked over to the dirty mirror. His hair turned black, as did his eyes. Kaiser snorted.
"My pretty appearance is gone..." he stammered, lowering his face.
However, hundreds of questions popped into his mind.
"Why the hell do I have that person's face?"
Those dozens of memories came flooding back to Kaiser, all with the same protagonist, a person who looked exactly like Kaiser did right now.
Kaiser gulped. Those memories made him realize who he was right now.
Zero is a nineteen-year-old young man who was in his first semester at the Slayers Academy. He was ranked last out of three hundred and eleven students at the academy.
Despite training his body all his life to be accepted into the academy, the difference between him and the other singularity users was abysmal.
So today, he had to take a test to convince the academy's top brass that he could stay.
"What the hell is this?" Kaiser muttered, still unable to believe it.
However, the door to the room opened. A middle-aged man, but with a powerful physique, looked at the young man with contempt. "Have you forgotten about the test?" he said, his words filled with hatred.
Kaiser looked at him nervously. "What am I doing... It's not like I'm incredibly strong enough to walk without problems..." he thought while trying to find a way to slip away. "I feel bad... I feel like I'm sick..." he said nervously.
The man glared at him. "I don't care, you'll still be expelled. Choose, try or not."
Kaiser found himself in a difficult situation to get out. What would he do if he was expelled? As his face darkened, thinking about the bad luck he'd been having lately, something strange appeared before him.
---Unique Memory---
[Name: Zero]
[Singularity: Recoil]
[Own World: ???]
---Visible 1 Time---