I swear I was really careful climbing down, cautious enough not to fall, but somehow I stepped on a very obvious-looking rotten branch intentionally. It snapped, spiraling me into the abyss with a screaming "Aaaaaaaa" as the volume decreased. The funny part is, just like that, I lost consciousness for some reason. Weird, because you don't just get knocked unconscious without being, well, knocked out, right? Well, that just happened.
In a dreamy state of opening clouds, which I don't believe was heaven, I saw myself playing my very first ever game. My tiny fingers nervously clicked the mouse for the first time, startled by the sound it made. The moving cursor on the microwave-sized oven screen drew my curiosity. My scrawny little arms trembled while hovering the mouse cursor, tongue out to the side. I clicked the block, and it turned to a red 'x'—game over. "Left Click on the emoji in the upper center to reset." Click click, then right click to add a flag. More clicks until rage quit and table flip. Naaah, just joking. I realized at a young age that playing games was fun and made the time fly so fast. My innocent mind found it to be blissful and a place of solace from an unendearing world.
I woke up in a daze, my vision hazy, lying on the ground face up. "Really, game world, I fell again for no reason?" I asked the imaginative persona of this isekai world, geez. I slowly stood up, looked at myself, and patted for broken bones. None, but I was ragged—we all know that already by now.
By the looks of it, I fell from the tree. For how deep, I do not know. Somehow, I don't have broken bones, and I do not feel pain. Bizarre.
I looked around. The light on my chest faintly illuminated a small portion of the darkness. I noticed that I was cushioned by dried leaves. That's what the narrative looks like, but I highly doubt it because it's just a few leaves.
I began to walk. Wait, I felt like I was the one doing it, but I wasn't moving or thinking of it or moving it voluntarily. I was like a puppet on a string. It was the same feeling I had experienced earlier, descending from the tree and upon waking. What's happening? Am I being mind-controlled?
After a few steps, the place around me lit up with faint lights like my glow stone, but the glow stones were in intricately designed torches or scepter-like candelabras on walls and pillars. The lighting was irregular because some walls and pillars were destroyed, and their light along with them. Though it was in ruins, the aesthetics looked like the lobby of a prestigious hotel, but for giants. The doorway was clogged and protruded with boulders and dirt; I recalled that this structure was buried. The floor was made of marble of different colors, creating a mosaic of a tree, and on its trunk was an orb of light shining outwards from the tree. It was never short of magnificent in its design. The floor was littered with craters, bones, and either broken or rusted weapons and armor. An intense battle must have taken place here a long time ago. To both ends where the door was located were giant staircases going to the second floor, but one had caved in. In the center of the room was the giant tree I fell from. The ground around it had cracks and was elevated; they might not have planned for the tree to grow out of hand. There were two giant statues near the door, one broken and the other barely hanging on. The ceiling looked like the ceiling of one of those historic castles in England, like the one I'd watched on TV; it had paintings and intricate royalty designs, but much of it had burns and craters.
At the back of the tree was a towering front desk. Yeah, I really don't know what to call it in this world, but it uncannily resembles one. There was this huge hole near its right end, though, like it had been hit by a bazooka or something, completely blown apart, with the wall behind the counter also shattered as if the initial blast had simply punched right through it.
Man, the work put into the designs alone would make an interior design student quit for good. To be honest, I'm not an expert at this, but it resembled a mash-up of Victorian, Roman, and futuristic at the same time, which was weird. Being in such a place ignited my sense of adventure.
I want to bring Mimi to such a place if I ever get back to my world, I thought. Wait, I know what you're thinking—I didn't mean to bring her to a hotel! You dirty little… What I'm trying to say was to bring her to such a magnificent sight and talk about architecture and interior design. What else?
General Awareness: Memory Core: It contains memories? Maybe.
Then I saw it near the rubble of the front door. A black, rough, crystal-like rock. It pulsed with an almost imperceptible inner light, its outline a golden-colored aura – not too bright, but just enough to etch its form against the gloom, casting dancing, ethereal shadows. It was a presence, more than just an object, creating an eerie yet profoundly intriguing focal point in the ruined hall. Of course, my body went straight to it without permission. My feet, as if guided by an unseen force, began to move towards it, one step after another.
As I drew closer and closer to the object, I kid you not, I could feel the air around it thicken, heavy with an unseen energy. And then, I heard it. A sound that wasn't just in my ears, but seemed to resonate deep within my bones, a chorus of ethereal voices reciting an elongated, sustained "Ahhhhhhhh." It wasn't loud, more like a vibration, a solemn hum that gave me an undeniable feeling that something momentous was about to unfold. The rock itself, a perfect sphere the size of a crystal ball, seemed to pulse in time with the sound, now clearly emitting a dizzying cacophony of unintelligible words overlapping each other, a thousand whispers trying to break through a wall.
My hand was being drawn to the object, my fingers about to touch the object. The golden aura around the crystal flared, no longer just an outline, but bursting outwards, engulfing me entirely in a blinding, warm light. The chorus of "Ahhhhhhhh" swelled, no longer ethereal but an overwhelming crescendo that vibrated through my very core, deafening in its intensity. Just as my fingertips brushed the rough, cool surface of the rock, the light consumed everything, the sound became a singular, resonating roar, and I realized, "I'm in a cutscene!"