A click echoed as the door to an apartment unit opened. A young man stepped inside, and with a thud, he dropped his bag and sat on the floor to take off his shoes. He paused for a moment.
"I'm home... haha... of course, no one's gonna answer," he said to himself.
He stood up and walked further in. He flipped a switch, and the lights came on. His apartment was just a small room, about 10 by 13 feet, with a bathroom and a kitchen area near the entrance. The main room only had a table, a shelf for a TV, and a large closet built into the wall.
He sat down at the table and began to open his shopping bag, pulling out a container of food he'd bought earlier. Just as he started to eat, "chug-chug... chug-chug... wooong," a train passed right outside his window, making the whole room vibrate. He put his spoon down and waited for it to pass.
"Haaah," he sighed, lying back on the floor.
He ran a hand through his dyed blond hair as he stared at the ceiling. When the train finally passed, he got up to get back to his meal. But just as he was about to lift his spoon, "ding... dong," the doorbell rang. He put the spoon back down, stood up, and walked to the door. "Click," he opened it to find a delivery man handing him a box.
He took the package and brought it inside, moving his food aside to place the box on the table. When he opened it, he was confused by what was inside.
"Who sent this?" he wondered.
Inside the large box was a set of virtual reality goggles, a pair of gloves connected to them, and a user manual. He picked up the manual and started reading it while he ate. It was a guide for a virtual reality online game called X Lord Online.
"Hmm... I don't think I've ever heard of this game. What company made it?" he asked himself, searching the manual for a company name.
He couldn't find the name of the company or developer, but the book explained that he had been chosen as one of the free participants for an unreleased, closed beta test.
Deciding not to overthink it, he started reading the first page. It described the game as an open-world, hack-and-slash MMORPG where players had to choose a faction from three options and nine races tied to those factions.
"Hmm, a game. I'm not really into games. Who's playing a prank by sending this? I'll just return it tomorrow to whoever sent it. I can't afford to get into trouble. I have to work for my siblings at the orphanage. I can't get sidetracked by things like this," the young man said.
He packed the book back into the box, closed it, and stood up. He then put the box away in his closet.
The next day, the young man went to school as usual. When he got to class, he went straight to his desk, which was isolated in the back. His classmates considered him a punk because of his blond hair and an earring he wore. No one talked to him, but that was fine because he had his own goals in life.
However, he overheard some students in his class talking about the game that had been sent to their homes and how they had tried it out.
"Oh, you're playing it too?" one student asked.
"Yeah, when I got home, my mom gave me the package. I wondered what it was, and it turned out to be a game beta test. I immediately created a character I liked," replied the student next to him.
"Same here. I played it, too. I tried to create a character, but when I got in, I was confused about where to go because it seemed so open and there were so many people. So I logged back out and planned to continue after school," a girl who had just joined the conversation said.
Almost all of his classmates were saying they had received the package and tried the game inside. The young man who overheard them became a little suspicious.
"Huh, I thought I was the only one who got it. Turns out everyone did. But the company that made the game must have a huge budget just for a beta test. The VR equipment in my closet is expensive. Maybe I should just sell it," he thought to himself.
The bell rang, and all the students immediately sat back down. The young man kept glancing out the window as he waited for the teacher to come in, but "creak... creak," the door wouldn't open.
"Bwuuung," the floor in the classroom lit up, forming a large magic circle.
"Huh... what is this?" the young man wondered.
"Waaaaaaaaah!" All his classmates screamed in fear as they witnessed the strange phenomenon in the classroom. A tube-like beam of light began to fill the entire room. The young man shielded his eyes with his arm because the light was too bright.
Suddenly, he felt himself floating, and a moment later, he fell, his body hitting the ground with a painful thud. He opened his eyes and they immediately widened. He was in a completely white room with nothing in it.
He looked around and saw that all his classmates were in the same room, looking slightly different than before. They were dressed up like characters from a game or anime.
"Hey... I'm the character I created last night," a student mumbled.
"Me too... this is awesome," a girl replied.
"Huh?" the young man thought to himself.
He still looked the same as before. Besides him, there were also two other girls who hadn't changed into "cosplay" like the others.
"Welcome to the White Room, heroes," a woman's voice echoed through the room.
Everyone immediately fell silent as they heard the voice. They began to look around, searching for where the voice was coming from. Suddenly, a large holographic screen appeared in front of them all, showing the face of a beautiful woman with blond hair, a slender nose, and blue eyes. She was wearing a tiara, like a goddess.
The goddess smiled at all the students. A tall, handsome student, dressed like a dragonkin, stepped forward.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"You are in the White Room, an interdimensional space where you will be sent to become heroes in a world called Atheras," the goddess said.
Hearing the name of the game they had tried last night, they all started to get excited and loud. But when the goddess explained that Atheras was a real world in another dimension and that she was asking for their help to save it as heroes, the whole class fell completely silent. Finally, a standard question was asked.
"In that case... can we go back to our own world?" a student asked.
"I'm sorry, but that is impossible. You must live in the world of Atheras," the goddess replied.
All the students began to lose their strength, and some of them fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Others screamed in anger and hysteria. The young man standing there clenched his fists, feeling that he didn't have time to play this "game," but he just stayed quiet, unsure of what to do in this strange place.
While he was standing there, a girl who also hadn't changed touched his arm.
"What do we do? I'm scared," she asked.
"I don't know myself. It turns out the game they sent us last night was a trap," the young man replied.
"Yeah. Good thing I didn't try it last night," the girl with long black hair said.
Suddenly, another magic circle appeared on the floor. The goddess's face showed a satisfied smile, and all the "cosplaying" classmates disappeared, even as they cried and screamed. Only seven people remained, including the young man and the girl next to him.
"Hmm... turns out there are some anomalies here," the goddess said when she saw the three.
"Hey, send us back to our world! I don't have time for your games," the young man demanded.
"Hahahaha! Like I said, that's impossible. Do you want to know why?" the goddess asked.
"Then what's the reason?" the girl asked.
"The reason is... you were summoned to Atheras to die. The people of Atheras need entertainment, and you are their entertainment. You will fight each other, representing the three factions until you can no longer fight in the arena, hahaha," the goddess said.
The young man, the girl, and the five others were all shocked by the goddess's words. The seven of them huddled together, staring intently at the goddess, who now looked truly evil, laughing on the holographic screen. The laughing goddess looked back at the seven of them, whose faces were now filled with fear.
"Ah, I almost forgot. Since you didn't choose your characters, you will be thrown into the abyss. Don't worry, the seven of you have special, non-faction customizations. So fight hard and die, hahaha!"
"Boom!" A large hole opened up beneath the feet of all seven of them. "Waaaaaaaaah!" They all screamed and fell deeper and deeper into a fiery, layered chasm. The young man looked at the girl falling next to him. He reached out his hand, and she took it.
"Aaaaaaah!" the young man began to burn in purple fire until he was completely consumed, and the girl next to him was burned up by blue fire. The two of them continued to fall into the abyss, never letting go of each other's hands.