I knocked three times and heard two sets of footsteps run over to the door.
Lots of racketing and the sound of keys clunking from behind the door sounded.
“Let me open it!” Edward yelled.
“I said I would be the one to greet him!”
I pulled open the front door and stepped to the side. Both of my roommates fell forward.
“Welcome home…Arthur.” Mia said wearily, her nose bleeding from the impact.
“Y-yeah…thanks for that, I suppose.”
I picked up Mia by her arms and sat her down on the couch. I, of course, left Edward out there to fend for himself, though.
“Jerk!” He yelled from outside.
Three slices of pizza were on the table by our couch. I could tell they were still warm from the smoke above them.
“Thanks for keeping them warm, you two.” I said, taking a bite of my pizza.
“Hmph!” Edward was visibly upset. I would be too, sorry my friend!
Fraud, huh?
The words from that man earlier, Michael—I think that was his name stuck in my head.
As Arthur took slow bites from his pizza in the awkward silence in their living room, so many thoughts and memories spun through his head. His mind is jarred, and he is hyperventilating. His heart was going to burst.
“Hey, it’s okay, calm down Art.” Mia said, patting his shoulder.
I looked back at her face. She was smiling, as if nothing had happened earlier.
“Edward has something he wants to show you, so come over here!” Mia said as she pushed me over to Edward’s corner of the room.
I looked down at the computer…and on the screen; he had the email app opened.
“What am I looking at? It’s just emails…”
Nobody spoke, Edward merely clicked one of them.
[New message]
To: Dwayne101@MagicMail.gov
Subject: “Test day 1510”
That’s the exact amount of days since “Magic” had been discovered…
“Scroll down. I want to read more, Edward.” I said, tapping his shoulder eagerly like a child awaiting their game.
There was a long paragraph written in the contents of the email.
“Test day 1510”
Results: Failed
Test Subject: Dead
Notes:
The portal has opened wider and is adjusting to our world.
Estimated days until [Ruined World] Project is initiated: 1
Test Subject 358 was slowly adjusting to the magical pressure of the portal, but today their body succumbed to the pressure before they entered it.
[1 attachment.]
What was shown before us wasn’t anything we were expecting to see, sure me and Edward were fully aware of what hacking into a government related system would be like, I mean, that is super risky…hence why we took the safe way and the fact it took us these four years to get in.
But we didn’t expect to see a body mutilated and exploded all over the floor in a pool of red and purple jelly.
“Mmhhh…” Mia clenched at her stomach and covered her mouth, but she still puked, right onto the floor.
I looked at Edward. His lips were quaking and his eyes widened.
“No…Jesus Christ.” I said, biting down onto my lip.
I stepped back and fell on my ass. Mia was bent over puking, and Edward still held that same expression.
“Dear…God.”
After that we all stepped out of the room, Edward went and took a bath, Mia silently sat on the couch crying in a curled up ball with her stuffed animal in her hands.
Meanwhile, I just… I don’t know. Seeing that was disgusting, but I didn’t react the way these two did. Why? I don’t understand why I can see something like that and hardly react.
Arthur put his head down against his piano and pressed hard against his temples with his thumbs.
“Bathroom is free, Arthur.” Edward said, walking down the steps.
“Okay.”
I took off my suit and placed it in my room, then made my way to the bathroom. We had a very small house, but our bathroom was huge—it was almost the size of a pool.
Though, one downside would be the fact it’s outside.
I need to think things over, that email, how many days until that project is initiated? One? That email was sent on 3/20/2021…and today is the 21st…
I jumped out of the water, wrapped a towel around my waist, and burst downstairs. “Guys…the email said that the project they were initiating is today! The 21st!”
Edward stared at me, then flipped back to his computer and double checked the Email.
He covered his mouth with his hand. “You’re right.”
Ding!
My phone beeped. Nobody moved. Nobody made a sound. And hell, I doubt any of us breathed in that brief period that felt like time had stopped.
“I’ll, er, get that.”
“Oh, haha, yeah, you do that!” Mia said, sounding worried.
I walked over to my phone and picked it up.
[You have one new message.]
I clicked the message. It was from an unknown sender.
An attachment? It is a video, 44 seconds long…
I gulped, loudly…I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but either way—I was terrified.
“I’ll play it now.”
Nobody replied.
I tapped on the video, then played it.
[My, my, my. It isn’t good to get curious and do things you shouldn’t, Mr. Ran. Curiosity always killed the cat, you know? But don’t worry, soon you will be the star of our little…hm, how about we call it a game? Yes, that fits wonderfully. Now, I won’t give you much information, but I will give you one little piece of advice, since you are the most entertaining person alive in this dull and cruel world.]
The man paused. He wore a suit that was striped with white and gray lines. I couldn’t see his entire face, just his mouth and nose, but I could tell he was older from how wrinkly his skin was. Maybe not too old, though. His posture is quite impressive.
[Sorry, old folks tend to forget a bit quicker and lose track of things, though I’m not even human, so who cares? My advice for you is simple: continue being a magician, and spread the word of magic. I don’t care what you do to do so, just make it fun for us up here! Oh, and one more thing…]
He paused again.
The camera flipped up to him. I could see his eyes now. They were a deep red color, and his hair was hardly grey at all, so he wasn’t too old.
[I’ll make sure to say hi to your father for you.]
My blood ran cold, and goosebumps covered my body.
“haha…”
“Arthur, a-are you okay?” Edward asked.
Before I could reply, the ground beneath us shook, and the floorboards snapped in two. Our walls followed and our entire house had split into two. It collapsed on us–started to, not fully collapsed yet.
“What is going on?!” Mia exclaimed, continuing to cry.
I studied our surrounding area, grabbed my two friends, then flew out of there.
“Shit, I need clothes…ah whatever.”
I snapped my finger with my hand that held Edward, and a suit appeared on my body. I had white gloves, a black top hat with a red ribbon around it, and a black cape flowing from my nape.
“Arthur!! Don’t suddenly grab us and ahhhhhh—”
Before Mia could finish speaking, I flew into town, where the announcement system is at.
I landed on the ground roughly. Mia and Edward were in shock at what had just happened. I set the two down and walked to the front of the sizable crowd. Many of the people inside this crowd were whispering, some crying even…there were so many noises that I couldn’t hear the speaker over them.
I made it to the front and finally could hear what it was saying.
[Now, every game has a tutorial of some sort, whether it be a prologue or a guide…to you all, we will give you a beginner’s mission.]
“The hell is this screen talking about?!” a large, muscular man from the crowd yelled.
[Hm?]
That screen normally isn’t live…nor should it be able to hear and reply to someone out here in America.
“Yeah, I interrupted you, What are you going to do about iiiiiiiiitt…”
[What a noisy little pest…]
The man who was speaking isn’t there anymore, all that was left was a mushy pile of red and purple gooey blood, maybe.
“It’s just like the image…” Edward whispered.
[How rude of you all to disrupt me, because of that one insolent idiot I won’t be giving you any help on this mission besides your objective. Now, let us begin.]
The display screen had a message on it now instead of the guy from before.
It showed:
[Main Quest #1 - The first trial]
Difficulty: F
Objective: Make your way to one of the eight flags displayed on the mini map.
Time limit: 2 Days
Reward: 500 Gold
[Failure Penalty: Death]
After about 40 seconds of that message being displayed, it switched back to the man.
[I hope you enjoy our little game we have set up for you. It was quite the process!]
The man on the screen faded away, and a countdown appeared:
30:00, 29:59, 29:58.
Well, shit...what does this guy mean by mini map?
"This...ahhh!" A man screamed from the crowd.
"Fuck, what are we going to do, Arthur?!" Edward yelled.
I didn't reply to him, but to somebody else in the crowd speaking.
I pushed my way through two sets of people arguing and found Michael.
"Come with me." I said, pulling Michael back with me.
"The hell are you grabbing me for?" Michael asked, releasing my grip on his wrist.
I looked around me. Fights were breaking out all over the place. It was somewhat nasty, to say the least. Nobody here that is recklessly fighting truly understands the depths of magic, either. I doubt any of them can properly use it past the basics.
"Michael, you heard what that guy said. We need to get to one of the eight flags, but first I need a group of people to help me figure out what the hell a mini map is. You aren't entirely incompetent like the rest here, so I want you to come with me."
Michael stood still for a minute, maybe two, just staring at me in my eyes. His brown eyes were engraved into my retinas and memory.
"Okay, I will, but you have to give me 200 gold."
"Are you seriously making a deal like that without knowing the usage of gold yet?" I said, turning around to return to Edward and Mia.
"Well, if my guess is correct, then we can access the mini map through magic...though I don't know how just yet. But if that's the case, I imagine gold will be used in something like I dunno, a shop?"
Clap, Clap, Clap.
The sounds of somebody, no, something clapping above us was far louder than the commotion around us. Hell, I bet it was louder than the screech I can produce.
"Michael, player #7,109,804,201 congrats! You have figured out the first little step to accomplishing what is needed to complete this quest, for that, I reward you with 100 gold."
The creature above us said as golden coins rained down above Michael. Michael protected himself by putting his arms above his head, considering that much metal falling on you from that high would likely kill you.
But instead of actually hitting Michael, the gold fell into a "screen" above Michael.
I finally looked up at the creature and saw what he really looked like.
Oh, he's kinda cute.
He has a small body like a human, but more, box shaped? He of course has limbs since he was able to clap but he had bunny ears, which was odd.
"Awwww he's so cute!" Mia exclaimed, putting her hands together and squirming in place.
"Silence you swine of a woman!" The creature exclaimed, his mouth growing ten fold.
"Ahem..." The creature said, clearing their throat. "I'll uh, give you your hint now. If you swipe to the right with magic in your hand then you will pull up your game board."
Michael did so, and so did Edward, and Mia.
Alright, let's do this.
Swipe!
"................................................"
Er, swipe!
God damnit it won't work for me!
"Hey, rabbit human thing it isn't working for me!"
The rabbit floated down in front of me and stared right into my eyes.
"You aren't registered as a player, just who are you?"
"My name is Arthur Ran, twenty eight year old virgin with nothing going in his life besides the fact he is a magician."
"Magician..? Wait, Ran?!"
The rabbit began frantikly running around in the air.
[My apologies for this Raggard, the Rabbit!]
"Don't call me what these humans do!"
[Anyway, hello Arthur, I apologize but you cannot be a player in the game.]
The voice from above was merely a cloud speaking to me, have I really lost my mind?
"And why is that?"
[Because you are what we could call an...]
He paused before continuing, the rabbit looking worried.
[Ace]
"An ace? Like an ace of spades?"
[Ho ho! Yes, an ace of spades is quite the way to put it, you see, had we given you the option to be a player in this game, I doubt our game would last more than a month.]
Everyone around me, including my friends, began to stare at me with confused looks on their faces.
I merely shrugged at their confused looks.
"So, how the hell am I supposed to play your game?"
The voice was no longer image-less, above us appeared an angelic looking figure...
"Woahh... yo bro she is hot!" Edward exclaimed pointing up at her.
"Shut up!" Mia yelled, smacking his head.
She had sixteen wings, eight on each side of her...but I can't see her face.
"So, how do I play? Come on, don't ignore me now."
[You are a renound magician, Arthur. You always boast about being a magician and how you can perform "real" magic, so lets see it in action!]
This...bitch!
"Okay, so how does one who isn't a player even meant to play in the first place?"
"You will be registered as a player, but you won't be able to access the magic menu."
The rabbit said as he floated into the air.
"Fuck off!" I yelled, flipping off the rabbit.
In front of me, a blue screen appeared in the air.
[Special player registered]
Number: 1
New Content:
[Inventory]
[Quest Board]
[Faction hall]
[Library]
[Map]
Restricted content:
[magic]
[stats]
[skills]
[pact]
Special content:
Congratulations on being the first special player to be registered! You have been given access to the [Circus] as an award for being who you are!
They're calling me a clown?! I tried clicking on the circus but a message in red appeared.
[Restricted access. Level requirement: 99]
50?! That has to be a really high number in this game...
"Hey, Arthur, I found a few flags...the closest one is 33 miles west of here though, that means we will have to cross the lakes to get to it and uh, that isn't gonna be so easy." Edward said.
"I suppose not."
I looked around us once more, stares from all around were right on me. If only that guy earlier didn't get himself killed we could've had an extra hand to help us. Oh well, not like it really matters.
Wait I should be thinking about something else right now. I can still use magic, right? I flung a water ball hurling at a tree, snapping it in half.
So, I can still use magic...but so can they? Unless it is a different system since they are using it in the game.
[Correct, good job Arthur.] A voice in his head said.
Really, now I'm hearing voice in my head? God I truly have gone insane...spare me!
[Oh shut up, kid. But your theory on the "different magics" was correct. Over time, as the current world overlaps the old, people will begin to forget where magic came from and they will only view it in the sense of the game. A pity for you, being the only one in the world to know of such a thing.]
Heh, like that's any different from my current life.
I shrugged...which made no sense since we were talking in my head.
[I guess you're right, well, I wish you the best of luck, Arthur.]
Wait, who are you?
[Just wait one second.]
Comments (0)
See all