The End!
Congratulations on beating the game!
The message glowed in the middle of the screen, proof of the greatest achievement a user of Ice could attain: unlocking all achievements in Chronicles of the King, a game no one in the player base had ever completed 100%. Until now.
A pair of stars took the place of the chubby boy's eyes as he stared at the black screen. His heart pounded like he'd just run a marathon.
Endless hours in front of the computer had passed in flashes, painful moments that left his butt and sweaty back aching.
"I did it, fuck yeaaah!"
After a few excited jumps, the boy grabbed the controller from the desk and sat down again. The "Press Start" notification appeared just below the huge end credits letters, and he hit the button.
Luke, because of your perseverance, MoonSoft would like to reward you.
Choose one of the rewards below:
Access key to all MoonSoft games.
An early copy of the company's upcoming game, The Underground World.
Special Content from Chronicles of the King.
"Huh? That's it? I thought there'd be more, considering I stayed up so many nights to get here. Maybe even some cash…"
The amazing game he played so many times didn't hide a valuable secret, making the disappointment behind the thick lenses of the glasses more obvious than the pimples on his face.
"Well, at least the background recording might make good money on Youtube."
The icon passed through the options, but when he pressed it a third time, the pointer for the selected prize didn't return to the first item. There was a fourth, blurry option that blended into the dark background.
— What's this?
He pressed Start.
?????
Grants access to MoonSoft's secret project.
Is this your choice?
→ Yes | No
His head tilted to the side. Rumors that the new game called *The Underground World* would be released in the coming months had already been confirmed, and even a copy was among the reward options.
It felt strange to read about a so-called "secret project." After much digging online, he realized nowhere mentioned anything new coming from the company, which only fueled his curiosity more.
He had to know. How could miss the chance to be the first to discover the secrets of his favorite game company? He pressed Start.
Are you sure about this?
He pressed Start.
Are you REALLY sure about this?
He pressed Start
Transmigration initiated.
A sphere spun in the center of the screen. It lasted five seconds, then the image compressed, and the monitor shut off by itself.
"Did it burn out?"
He checked if the cables were plugged in at the back, suspecting his cat had yanked one by accident.
But Chocolata, the kitten, was sleeping in his little bed in the corner of the room — except something different. His fur wasn't chocolate-colored... it looked more like purple.
The boy frozen, only now noticing that his entire room somehow grew. The posters were from other games, the wardrobe was smaller, and the gamer keyboard he had bought had green LED instead of red.
'Wait, where's my game collection?! I hope nothing happened to it!'
He jumped from the plastic chair and turned the room upside down. Relief only came when he found the entire collection stored in one of the lower drawers.
"Thank God…"
Still, it didn't change the fact that everything looked strange.
He opened the curtains. Countless buildings stretched to the horizon, and to top it off, all kinds of people were literally flying around outside like it was child's play.
"Wait... what? How…"
A person zoomed past his window at a surreal speed, propelled by fire from their hands, startling him so much he jumped back and hit the door.
"Luuuke!", someone shouted from outside the room. "It's already morning, no need to make noise and wake the neighbors again!"
Luke composed himself and unlocked the door, seeing a grumpy-looking woman on the other side holding a sandwich.
"Come on, eat this and go get ready, boy! — She shoved the sandwich into his mouth and stepped into the room. "My God, this place is a mess! Did you stay up all night again?!"
"No-no, mom!"
"Don't lie to me, boy! And eat up, because you have to leave for work, you hear?!"
"Y-yeth ma'am!" He gave a quick salute and waited for her to leave before finishing the sandwich still stuck in his mouth. "It must just be my imagination. I stayed up all night and now I'm seeing things."
His mind switched into the standard operating mode he used every morning and ignored everything else. It could just be a hallucination from playing too many video games.
There was even that one time something similar happened after staying up two nights in a row doing a speedrun of Forbidden Memories, so it wouldn't be a surprise if it happened again after something as thrilling as finishing a super difficult game.
He ran back and forth, took a quick shower, brushed his teeth, then threw on whatever clothes he could find and rushed out the door. He didn't even have time to greet anyone on the lower floors—work called!
After chasing the bus for an entire block, he finally found a moment of peace in a seat that thankfully was still empty.
His clothes clinging to his skin. The trip took around twenty minutes, followed by a two-block walk to his destination.
A mediocre restaurant, but it needed someone to clean, and the owner of the work would be Luke
He walked in, greeted everyone, and grabbed his cleaning supplies to head to the bathrooms, though certain thoughts kept gnawing at his mind.
"What exactly is that new project? Could it be installed on my computer? I didn't even get a chance to check… Ahhh, I really want to know!"
With a mop and bucket in hand, he scrubbed the bathroom floor. He didn't like anything about the job, but surviving without work is ask for suffer.
"This place always stinks so bad. And with this heat it's going to be even worse. Since when is the city this hot?"
Luke scrubbed the floor as if by instinct—it had been part of his routine for a long time.
When he finished school, the first thing he did was get a job to pay the bills at home and occasionally buy something for himself.
He'd even lost track of how many years have been working at the same place. Maybe five? Seven? Hard to say.
The problem started after a while—it was getting harder to earn a few bucks, bills kept rising, and there were three mouths to feed with only two sources of income: his and his mother's.
As for his father, the guy bailed the first chance he got. Didn't even leave any money to help them get by, just vanished and left the family drowning in more debt.
The hours passed in the blink of an eye. Luke finished his general cleaning and stored his equipment in the closet. He grabbed his backpack from the corner and slowly made his way outside. He looked around. Nothing unusual for that time of day.
"I think I'll stop by that place before heading home."
He walked along the sidewalk, blending into the crowd. That's when some things started to appear… strange.
People were walking pets other than cats and dogs. There were lizards, strange birds, and some were even talking to the wind.
"Am I losing it…?" he murmured, quickening his pace.
The craziness only got worse as he looked around at people and buildings he swore hadn't been there the day before.
The buildings, the street names, even the location he was heading to — a nerd hub for playing card games — were completely different.
Why did everything look so different? Luke was so fascinated he barely noticed where his feet took him
He walked near a construction site, apparently a future park, with a small area cordoned off by police tape.
A tear in reality floated in the center of the plaza. Lightning crackled through the air, forming new fractures that slowly widened the rift.
Luke stayed a bit farther back, scanning the perimeter to judge if it was safe to get closer.
In the end, safety didn't matter, what did matter is what happened when a second person got a little too close to the portal.
It was a tiny girl, her parents were nearby but didn't pay attention. The portal sucked the space around, and the girl vanished from existence a second later.
"Shit!" His body moved on its own, jumping over the barricades and police tape in the way.
He rushed past the two parents and, without thinking, threw himself into the dimensional crack. His body felt like it was swimming through water, the air around became dense, and his movements were restricted for a while.
The further he moved forward, the slimier the "water" became, to the point where he could barely move, until he was suddenly ejected out
The other side turned out to be the opposite of the city: a forest stretched as far as his eyes could see, but there with no sign of the little girl.
Tarnisgan Jungle.
"Th-this screen is really weird, is it supposed to show…? No, focus! Let's find the girl first, I'll think about this stuff later." He took a deep breath. "Heeey!! Girl, where are you?!"
Making in the middle of a jungle is always the worst choice. The tree leaves rustled. Something green hidden among the branches wiggle, with a metallic arrow aimed downward, or rather, in the direction of Luke.
When he was about to take a step forward, but the arrow fell right in front of his foot. He stared at it, a chill ran down his spine.
The rustling grew louder. One... two... three… the number only kept growing!
Death seemed to knock at his door; his only option was to run for his life. His instincts kicked in, and he ran back toward the portal, placing his hand on it to try to return, but instead of going through, your body rolled back.
Defeat the Floor Boss to return
"You've gotta be kidding me?!"
An arrow pierced the ground between his spread legs. Driven by desperation, he ran deeper into the forest, not knowing which direction or where he was going.
The stumbles were a stroke of luck—several arrows whooshed past his head like wind, burying themselves into trees and missing the mark of an unprotected nerd's body.
He kept getting farther from the portal until he had no idea how to return. His heart pounded twice as fast, fatigue threatened to bring his legs down.
Still, he didn't stop—he knew that if he slipped, those little creatures would get him, and it would be a terrible death.
'I'm too young to die!"
Even though he had initially wanted to save the girl, that goal vanished the moment his own life was at stake.
Small, greenish, big-headed and ugly creature blocked his path. A goblin.
"Just one? I think I can handle it…"
The ugly little thing spotted him, drew a knife from its loincloth, and leapt at him without warning.
Luke pulled his backpack up, using it as a shield to block the flurry of stabs the goblin threw at him.
Tired of being cornered, he countered with a sloppy kick that, by pure luck, hit it square in the face.
The green runt flew into a tree trunk, blood gushed from its nose and a tooth fell out, as it shot a look of pure hatred at the human.
It lunged at him again, the knife aimed at his head—only to be smacked away by another blow from the backpack. Luke didn't give it time to recover; he charged at the goblin and kicked it again.
The creature spat blood, and, mercilessly, the boy delivered a flurry of kicks like he was squashing a bug in the bathroom.
In the end, all that remained was a mush of purple blood and a small corpse in the forest. Luke took a deep breath, anxiety flooding his mind.
"Shit… I killed that thing…?"
He didn't feel happy or sad. The feeling seemed different, a mix of disgust and relief. If he hadn't killed it, he would've died instead, drowning in his own blood.
His legs trembled, and he collapsed onto his butt. Your body ran out of energy, years of being out of shape had caught up to him.
The worst part was hearing an annoying growl from behind, along with the sound of breaking branches.
Inevitably others would come.
"Damn… I should've minded my own business, should've just gone home."
Regret flooded his mind. Death wanted him, just another idiot who'd never achieved anything in life? If it weren't for his need to act like a hero, none of this would've happened.
If only he were in better shape, maybe he could've handled them more easily, maybe even found the girl. Too bad none of that was real, just like it had never been.
"…Sorry, Mom."
Flames exploded behind his back. Luke shielded himself with his arms, but the fire didn't hurt him. On the contrary, it felt warm and comforting against his skin.
Everything else turned to ashes, including the goblins and the vegetation. Through the blaze, a figure appeared.
A tall woman, her long red hair dancing with the fiery sparks that consumed the area. She wore a strange outfit, something like a crimson sorcerer's robe. A mask covered her face.
"Hey, you," she said, her voice muffled and distorted by the mask. "Get out of here. It's dangerous. The portal will reopen soon, so go."
Luke nodded, unafraid to run straight back to the portal. The way was clear, not even the trees were left standing after the storm of flames.
The Floor Boss has been defeated.
He stepped into the portal again, and once more that sticky sensation wrapped around his body. He felt thankful when his feet finally touched asphalt again, only to be stunned by the commotion around him.
An ambulance, police cars, and countless people with cameras pointed directly at him. Luke froze, but he didn't need to worry.
The medics on site took him to the ambulance, checked for injuries or trauma. They found nothing and left him alone for a while.
"What… was that?"
The green rift shimmered. Sparks shot from its edges, and from within came the same woman in the robe, holding a small crying girl in her arms. She handed the child back to her parents.
The portal slowly began to close behind her. Camera flashes flooded the area — all aimed at her.
"Miss Blake, can you speak with us, please?"
"Hunter Blake, what was the world on the other side like? Can you share any details?"
The reporters couldn't catch her attention—her mind seemed elsewhere. Lucas watched as she approached the ambulance.
"You went into the portal to save that girl, didn't you?"
"Y-yeah… I did."
"Impressive. It's not every day someone does something like that just to save another person." She crouched to get closer to him. "What's your ability, kid?"
"M-my ability?" A question mark popped in his head. "I don't… have one."
A brief silence hung between them. The red mage seemed to consider something, as if weighing possibilities. Then she pulled a black card from her pocket.
It had a phone number and the name of a company: Scarlet Witch Bazaar.
"If you're interested in this line of work, please give me a call. It would be very interesting to have someone like you with us. I believe even someone without an ability can give a lot back to the world through acts of heroism."
She bowed briefly and walked away. Lucas stood there, frozen, staring at the card.
The day had been pure chaos, and now someone offered him a job he didn't even understand.
That was the moment his life flipped upside down, and a new chance to reach the top landed in his hands.
A fitting reward for clearing one of the hardest games in the world: a Restart.