It felt as if Ray was falling for several minutes but in fact it as only for a moment. It felt just like slipping on a staircase, a momentary endless fall.

Ray's heart slowed and calmed as his feet felt the assurance of the ground beneath them. He looked around still in shock of what was happening.

He was in a closed square room with no doors nor windows, just four walls. The wall in front of him had a floating desk on its right half and was completely empty on the other. The desk was white just like everything else in this room.

On his sides, the two wider walls were covered with some sort on square light sources all over. They were like a huge source of light divided into smaller squares.

The light was not blinding. It was just there as in a feature wall in a fancy shop to display the new collection.

Behind him, the wall was just empty. It was there just to block any kind of exit from this room.

Ray looked to the floor. White square tiles matching the esthetic of the room of course. Then he looked at the ceiling. Also completely tiled in white. Except for that black circle he fell from.

Ray squinted his eyes trying to see through the black circle. Nothing... Just pitch black emptiness...

Ray looked around again still standing exactly where he fell. Overwhelmed by what was around him, Ray just stood there in astonishment. Maybe minutes have passed but maybe it was just a couple of seconds.

He suddenly heard a faint sound of some sort of breeze. He looked up to the source of the sound and saw the black circle move across the ceiling towards the front wall. It then moved to the right and settled standing vertically on the white floating desk.

Ray followed the circle's movement with his eyes. A sudden soft pop sound startled him as the circle popped off the wall and moved forward into the desk as if floating in the three-dimensional space.

The circle stopped in the middle of the desk.

"Beep... Beep... Beep..." the sound came from the circle.

"Hello human..." the circle spoke in a robotic voice.

Ray's eyes were wide open as he replied, "Uhh... Hel... Hello..." he said stuttering.

"HAHAHAHAHAH" the circle laughed and Ray noticed that it didn't have a robotic tone. "I'm just kidding", the circle continued.

"My name is Ray", the circle said in a childish toned voice.

"Ray??!", Ray exclaimed. "What do you mean Ray? My name is Ray!"

The circle thought for a second. "Oh I'm so silly, I apologize", the circle explained. "I had heard that name so many times I took for me as well. I really liked the way they called you Ray".

Ray failed in understanding what was the circle saying but the first thing he had to ask was, "They?!"

Ray's voice raised, "Who are they?! Who are you?! What have you done to me?! What do you want?!"

The circle spoke with its child's voice calmly.

"That's a lot of questions", the circle said. " I think I should answer one at a time. Well, by "THEY" I mean your parents. They used to say Ray all the time".

"My parents?!" Ray said softly as he took a step forward. "Please explain to me clearly. I cannot understand", his voice shook as he pleaded.

"Oh..." the circle understood. He explained as simply and most informatively as he could.

"I first met your mom about sixteen years ago. Soon after that, I met your dad. You were just a baby and I always heard them call you Ray. It felt really warm and peaceful, the way they said it, so I took that as my name as well".

The circle continued as it saw Ray was still keeping up with the story, "To continue answering your questions from earlier, the best way I can explain it is I am somewhat of a door. A portal you can say. You could also say I am this room. I don't know how to explain it, but I am in charge here".

"I brought you here from your world. Earth as you call it. I opened a door before that truck hit you. Do you remember?" the circle bragged, "I practically saved your life!" the circle smirked silly.

"That's right," Ray thought, "I was about to be hit by a truck before I came here".

"Well, to be honest, I saved you because that is what your mom asked of me", the circle explained, "before she, unfortunately, passed away that is..."

"My mother?... To save me?... Passed away?... " Ray tried to piece everything together.

"Yes. That is what happened in short. For a couple of months, your parents and you lived happily on Proxima. That's where They found me. For a couple of months, I had experienced what a family is. But it all changed so suddenly. The last I saw your mom was with you in her arms. She came here and said she was running away from bad people. She told me to stick with you no matter what happens. That I should protect you as you would eventually protect me in return..."

Ray listened without interrupting.

"I never saw your mom again. Later that day, your dad came here alone. I will never forget his words".

"YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE. YOU AND RAY WILL ALWAYS BE TOGETHER. PLEASE TAKE CARE OF HIM AND OF YOURSELF. GOODBYE..."

"He gave me two things to hand over to you in time. You will find them in the drawers", the circle explained as it yawned. "I'm so tired now. I haven't been awake for this long in many years. I'll see you soon..."

The circle shrunk and shrunk until it disappeared into thin air.

Silence filled the room again only to be broken by the sound of Ray falling to his knees on the ground.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He remembered what his grandfather had taught him every day through the countless hours of Kendo training.

"Breathe... Take everything in and hold it for a moment... Feel the fresh energy fill your body... Then release the bad ones outside..."

Ray inhaled, "The good... My parents... They died protecting me and that weird circle... I always wondered how they were... At least somehow now I know...", he exhaled.

Ray inhaled again, "Bad guys... They killed them... Two things left for me from my dad... I want to know...", he exhaled.

Ray opened his eyes slowly and stood firm. He walked toward the desk and opened the drawers. He reached into each and put the items on the desk. Not overthinking about the fact the first item was a sword, he reached towards the second which was a letter. He opened it and started reading...

Dear Ray,

I never thought that a lousy note would be all I could say to my beloved son.

But I need to keep it short. They are coming for me.

I know it's not much, but trust me, you have everything you need to figure it out.

I'm sure you've grown into such a wonderful young man.

Your mother and I love you so much.

Take care always.

The note was covered with blood fingerprints. It was folded messily. Ray knew his dad was in a hurry.

"Not a lot of new info there", Ray thought in his head.

His deep thought was interrupted by the sound of yawning.

"YAWWWWWWNNN"... the circle popped in again.

"AAHHGHHH!!" Ray shouted, "You scared me you stupid circle!"

"STUPID CIRCLE! Excuse me! My name is Ray!" the circle suddenly popped some plain white dots as eyes and a straight line as a mouth. "Nice to meet you!" the circle smiled.

"What the...!"Ray exclaimed. "You grew a face now?! Well, we pretty much confirmed that Ray is my name. Get another one!" the boy said as he regained his composure.

"What do you mean to get another one?" the circle said with its child's voice.

"Hmm... Well since you like the name Ray but that is already taken, I will call you X-Ray", the boy burst into confident laughter at his genius.

"X-Ray?!" the circle thought. "I like it!" the circle joined the boy in their silly burst of laughter.

The boy suddenly stopped and the circle did too.

"Why are you laughing?" the boy asked, "You ruined my moment".

"Your moment?" the circle said unaware of what he meant.

"Nevermind," Ray said, "We have addressed our name issue, now what?"

"Now we go to Proxima!" X-Ray screamed with joy.

X-Ray jumped into the empty left side of the front wall and expanded a little bigger than Ray's height, "Let's goooooo. Don't forget your sword!"

"WAIT, WHAT?!!!" Ray grabbed his sword from the desk as he was being sucked into the portal.

"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF.." Ray breathed heavily.

Ray looked around him. He was standing on top of green hills in the middle of a huge grass field. He breathed the fresh air as the wind blew around him.

"X-Ray?" Ray called. He felt something in his hand. It was X-Ray as a keychain. "Oh, you're a keychain again".

A semi-transparent rectangular-shaped window popped up in front of Ray.

In it, Ray could see two bars on top, a white circle in the middle, and two empty square boxes on either its sides.

The circle popped two black dots as eyes and a black line as a mouth.

"Hello, adventurer! I am your guide and inventory. You can call me by using the word (Inventory). Here you can store two weapons. Your (Main Weapon) in the right box and your (Secondary Weapon) in the left."

The (Inventory) continued, "Since you are new here, you have to go to the nearest town (Inventory Building) and get a weapon that suits you".

"A weapon?" Ray asked, "I already have one".

"Oh great, you have already picked a weapon from the Inventory Building. Just pick it up and put it in your (Main Weapon) box right here".

Ray looked at the weapon in his right hand and lifted it in front of him. It suddenly shrunk down and disappeared from his hand into the square to the right. Now the square has a small icon of the black sword in it.

"When you pick up a (Secondary Weapon) in your travel, you can store it here in the Secondary Weapon box. Don't worry you can always take out your (Secondary Weapon) and change it with other more powerful ones you pick up as you go. But you cannot do that with your (Primary weapon)".

"Your (Primary Weapon) which is given by the (Inventory Building) is fixed to you and cannot be changed. It might seem weak now but it will grow with you as you become stronger. As for (Secondary Weapons), they have fixed stats depending on their (Rarity). Would you like me to explain that in more detail?"

"Uhh... No, not now thanks" Ray said confused by all the information.

"Well you can call me anytime you have a question. Just say the word (Inventory). And remember, you cannot use any weapons that are not bound to your (Inventory) so each adventurer can only ever use two weapons at a time. That is all for now! good luck on your journey and welcome to Proxima!"

The window closed in front of Ray.

"One (Primary Weapon) that I'm stuck with forever and one (Secondary Weapon) I can change anytime... That's all I get?" Ray exhaled.

"That's not much you know!" he shrugged. "Well, the only things I have are my sword which is already my (Primary Weapon) and my X-Ray keychain. I guess it wouldn't hurt to store him in my (Secondary Weapon) box. I wouldn't want to lose him in here."

Ray opened his left hand in front of him with X-Ray in his palm. "(Inventory)" Ray said.

He reached over to the empty box and put his keychain there. And now his (Secondary Weapon) box has an X-Ray icon in it.

Ray looked in front of him into the vast world. He smiled and pointed his fist towards a village in the far front.

"Now let's get to the bottom of things!"