At the edge of a silent lake, where the water was black like ink and the trees around stood dead and gray, nothing moved.
There were no birds, no wind, no sign of life at all. Just a strange, cold stillness.
Lying on the muddy ground, half-conscious, was a young man with white hair, dirt on his face, and confusion in his eyes.
"Ugh... what happened..." he muttered, sitting up slowly. His whole body ached, like he had fallen from a great height or maybe worse.
He forced himself to stand, even though his knees felt like jelly.
"This place... where is this?"
All he could see was a black lake, not very wide, but deep and quiet. Around it were dead trees, like skeletons frozen in time.
"This is weird, really weird."
He looked up.
And froze.
Two moons hung in the sky.
One was white and bright, almost peaceful. The other was deep red, glowing like fresh blood under the stars.
His eyes widened. "No way... two moons?"
He stepped back, shaking his head. "No. No, no, no. This can't be real. This is... this is from a game."
Virevia: The Echoes of Nowhere, a famous open-world RPG. Loved for its crazy story, complex world, and insane amount of hidden details. Some players even made forums and videos just to explain the lore.
"I shouldn't have skipped the story!" he shouted, pulling at his hair. "Why did I just rush the gameplay?!"
He started pacing, panic growing in his chest. "Okay. Calm down. Think. Maybe this is a dream."
He stopped when he saw his reflection in the dark water.
White shoulder-length hair with lilac tips. A sharp, handsome face. Bright blue eyes.
"...Who the hell is this?"
He stared at the reflection, heart beating fast.
This wasn't his face.
He checked his pockets, looking for anything that could explain who he was now. His fingers touched something cold, a silver locket.
Inside, carved in neat letters, was a name:
Altherion Valecrest.
"Altherion... Valecrest?" he read aloud. "Okay. Cool name. Sounds like a npc who dies early."
He looked around again. "So what, I'm inside an NPC now?"
He sighed, sat on a big rock near the lake, and dropped his face into his hands.
No memory. No guide. No map.
Only one thing was certain: he was inside a game he barely understood, in a body that wasn't his, with a name he didn't recognize.
"I don't even know who the king is in this world. Or if I have powers!"
In frustration, he picked up a small rock nearby.
"I hate this place!"
He threw it hard into the lake, not knowing that his anger had stirred something inside him, something he didn't understand.
His hand had glowed faintly for a second. He didn't notice.
The rock landed in the middle of the lake. For a moment, all was calm again.
He let out a long sigh. "Of course. Nothing happens. I'm talking to a lake like a crazy person."
Then the water started to boil.
He turned slowly, eyes wide.
A shape began rising from the dark water. It was huge. Wet. Covered in eyes and slime and... way too many teeth.
"What the hell is that?!"
The thing roared a sound like a dying whale mixed with a blender and started moving toward the shore.
"Nope! No, no, no!" he yelled, turning and running for his life. "I don't even know how to fight!"
Behind him, the creature pulled itself out of the lake. Its hundreds of eyes followed him. The water dripped from its body like oil.
And as he ran into the dead forest, heart pounding.
The forest didn't feel real.
The trees were tall and dead, but somehow they still groaned in the windless air. Their twisted branches reached out like claws. The ground was soft, almost spongy, and every step left a wet sound behind. But none of that mattered right now.
Because behind him, the lake monster roared.
"WHY DOES IT HAVE THAT MANY EYES?!" Altherion screamed as he ducked under a low branch, nearly tripping over a root.
He didn't look back. He didn't need to. He could hear the thing, slimy, heavy, angry. Each thud of its movement shook the ground.
Trees cracked. Water dripped. Somewhere behind, something large crashed through a trunk with the grace of a sledgehammer.
"I just woke up! This isn't fair!"
He turned sharply, diving behind a boulder, gasping for breath. The monster hissed nearby. He pressed his back to the stone and whispered to himself.
"Okay. Okay. You can do this. You've played games like this before. Monsters have patterns, right? Right?"
His eyes darted to the clothes he wore, long white robes with gold embroidery. Fancy. Pointy boots. A high collar.
He blinked.
"…Wait. Am I a mage?"
He held out his hand, feeling ridiculous. "Okay. Uh... fireball?"
Nothing.
He coughed. Tried again. "Ice lance?"
Nothing again.
The monster stomped into view. Slime dropped from its chin. Its dozens of yellow eyes blinked in strange rhythms.
"Okay, think. Magic needs a trigger word. In some games. Maybe. I don't know, uh, 'Magicus?!'"
Still nothing.
The creature raised one long, clawed limb.
"AAAAAHHH! okay! That's it!" He shouted, half angry, half scared, and threw his hand forward without thinking.
And it happened.
A bolt of raw energy, like a small lightning strike, blasted from his palm. It hit the monster straight in the face.
BOOM!
The beast staggered back, roaring in surprise more than pain.
He stared at his own hand.
"I... I actually did magic?!"
The monster shrieked again, angry now.
"Oh great. That only made it madder!"
He backed away, heart pounding. The beast charged.
More instinct than skill, he threw another spell, this time a crackling wind-blast that knocked leaves and ash into the air.
The monster paused, blinking away debris, giving him precious seconds.
"Okay, okay. That magic works. Not strong, but it works."
He looked around, the forest floor was full of old fallen branches, rocks, and shallow dips in the mud. One tree had collapsed across a slope, its roots exposed like twisted ropes.
Then, something clicked in his head. A familiar feeling he didn't know where from but it told him to stop panicking.
He crouched behind another tree and whispered, "Alright. I may not know how to fight... but I know how to think."
He moved quickly now, scanning the terrain like a general looking over a battlefield.
"Big monster. Heavy steps. Low visibility. No grace. Okay."
He ran toward the fallen tree trunk and stood on top of it.
"Hey, eyeballs!" he shouted, waving his hands. "You want dinner? Come get it!"
The beast snarled and charged.
At the last second, he jumped down and slid behind the trunk. The creature, unable to stop, tripped over the roots and slammed head-first into a broken stump.
CRACK!
A nasty sound echoed through the forest. The beast twitched, confused.
He raised his hand and cast the lightning spell again, once, twice, aiming for the eyes.
The creature roared and backed off, finally deciding this prey wasn't worth the trouble. It disappeared into the forest, dragging its bruised, wet body back toward the lake.
The man leaned against a tree, breathing hard.
"I did it... I actually survived."
He looked down at his shaking hands. Then back at the glowing trails of mana that still lingered faintly in the air.
"…How did I even know how to aim that spell?"
He shook his head. "No. No, stop thinking too hard. One mystery at a time."
He sat down on the dirt, completely exhausted.
"This world sucks," he muttered. "I want a guide. Or a party. Or at least a save point."
He stared up at the moons again. The red one looked like it was watching him. Judging him.
"I don't even know who I am anymore…"
The forest was silent again. Too silent.
Something felt wrong. Not because he was in a strange world, or because he had just fought a slime-covered nightmare from the lake but because deep down, something inside him had responded too easily.
Too smoothly.
Like it had been waiting.
***
The forest seemed quieter now, but not in a peaceful way.
It was the kind of quiet that made the hair on your neck stand, like the world itself was holding its breath.
Still, Altherion walked forward, cautiously stepping over twisted roots and ducking under brittle branches.
"Okay," he whispered to himself, "don't panic. You survived a lake monster. Just keep walking in a straight line, and eventually, you'll get out of this cursed broccoli."
He glanced around at the dead trees.
"…I meant forest. Definitely forest."
His stomach growled. His feet ached. His robe was dirty. And he had almost no idea where he was going.
He froze.
Out of the shadows slithered a creature that looked like a centipede, if centipedes were eight feet long, had armor plates, and teeth.
"...Oh no. No no no. I remember you. You're the one from the poison dungeon. You explode when you die!"
He slowly backed away.
Rustle.
Another bush. This time, a giant owl with four eyes blinked at him from a tree.
"Four-eyed owl… Okay, that's the one that screams and causes confusion. Not today, buddy."
And then… a third sound.
Something huge passed between the trees, its body like a shadow made of smoke and legs that didn't touch the ground.
His eyes widened. "That… That thing doesn't even have a name! Players just call it 'The Nope.'"
He dropped to the ground, crawling on all fours like a soldier behind enemy lines.
"Note to self. Never skip story again. Never skip tutorial either."
The monsters didn't seem to notice him. Maybe it was dumb luck. Maybe it was the robe. Maybe his sheer terror masked his presence.
Either way, after what felt like an hour of avoiding death in several disturbing forms, he saw it, an opening in the trees. The edge of the forest.
Sunlight or something like it, shone beyond.
"Yes! YES! Civilization! Or at least a place without mutant centipedes!"
He rushed forward, dodging roots and jumping over a fallen log.
And then…
fwwoooosh.
A wall of mist rose in front of him, thick and shimmering. It wasn't natural fog, this mist glowed faintly and twisted like smoke underwater.
He reached out. His hand passed through it, but the other side felt wrong, like touching warm jelly.
"Of course. Of course there's a magical fog wall. Because walking out normally would be too easy."
He took a step back. Then, with a deep breath, stepped through.
The world warped.
When he opened his eyes, he was back where he started.
"Wait… what?"
He turned around.
The forest. The fog. The log.
It was all the same.
"I just walked in a circle?"
He tried again. This time walking slower. Counting his steps.
Same result.
After the fourth try, he sat on a rock and pulled at his hair. "This is some cursed Scooby-Doo loop magic!"
Then, he noticed it carved into a nearby tree was a small plaque. Barely visible under the moss.
He wiped it clean and read:
"To leave the fog, answer this true, what color is a sky?"
He blinked.
"...Are you kidding me?"
He stared at the plaque. Then at the fog. Then back at the plaque.
"Blue? Is the answer just… blue?"
He looked around, suspicious.
"This is a trick. It's too easy. There's no way the answer is just 'blue.' There has to be a code. Or a symbol. Maybe it's a metaphor. Sky means freedom? So… the answer is 'choice'? Or maybe 'infinite'? Maybe I need to chant it backwards in Latin, wait. No. Think. Think!"
He paced in circles for five full minutes.
"What if it's not the sky here, but the sky on Noctyros? That one's red, so the answer is red? But what if that's also a misdirection, wait no, maybe it's-"
He froze.
Then, very slowly, he leaned in and whispered to the plaque.
"…Blue."
Whoosh.
The fog evaporated.
Just like that.
He stood there in silence, mouth slightly open.
"…You have got to be kidding me."
A faint breeze blew past him, as if the world itself were giggling.
He dropped to his knees, hands to the sky. "This is why I always looked up the puzzle answers online!"
He grumbled as he walked through the now-clear path, still muttering.
Despite the complaining, a small smile formed on his lips. He had survived monsters, dodged death, and solved a puzzle even if it was stupidly simple.
Maybe he wasn't completely hopeless after all.
Still, he thought, one thing was for sure, Virevia was a game he should've never skipped the story for.