A tragic end

"Where is it?.."

In a dark room with trash littered around, a young man could be seen sitting behind a computer monitor scrolling through the internet muttering to himself, the rhythmic tapping of the keyboards keys echoing through the room.

The young man let out a laugh as a small smile grew on his face. "Finally, it took long enough."

[The long-awaited MMORPG, Azure Moon Online has finally dropped. Seek out your destiny in an unforgiving world abandoned by its gods. Whatever you do, it's your story to be told.]

No matter how advanced technology may have become, there will always be something to plague the population of gamers. MMORPG.

Azure Moon, a hardcore realistic MMORPG that was rumored to change the world. Breaking the boundary between reality and virtual reality.

Even though there were few testers and not many leaks, the game never died. It continued with the hype growing even further.

The young man got up from his chair then moved through the room towards a door, the cans beneath him in the trash clanking with almost every step. 

When he opened it sunlight quickly flooded inside causing the boy to cover his eyes and release a small hissing sound.

He already wanted to return to his room and enjoy its eternal darkness but today was much more important than his discomfort.

"Brother." Called a feminine voice.

The young man turned his head towards the call only to see a beautiful girl with long, golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Unlike his brown skin, the girl's skin was pearl white.

There was a reason for this, the young man was adopted. When he was younger his parents passed away in a car accident, with him not having any family left his only option was an orphanage.

Soon, a rich couple came in with a young girl looking for a child to adopt. He didn't know why he was chosen and he didn't care either, at that time he was a depressed mess, hating everyone and everything without reason. 

That was until his sister brought him back to reality, but at that point it was already too late. When he turned 16 his parents kicked him out of the house along with his sister, telling them they needed results.

So from then on he started living on the streets, taking every job he could even no matter how shady and illegal it was, be it theft or doing a hit. As long as he could take care of his sister he didn't care how shady the job was.

The girl was crying herself to sleep almost every night and losing far more weight than she should've, she secluded herself in a cold bubble separating herself from the world.

Eventually, he was able to buy a decent sized apartment thanks to overhearing his colleagues' conversations.

Over the years the jobs continued to grow more dangerous to the point he couldn't come home without some kind of injury, his sister quickly took note of this and begged him to stop. Of course, it being his sister he decided to stop and settle down.

With that, she slowly got better, even if her cold exterior didn't change he could tell she was happy. This was around the time he discovered MMORPG, he was hooked. The more he played the more he began distancing himself from reality, the only thing bringing him back being his sister.

He didn't need to worry about getting a job or money due to the amount he saved over the years, with the amount he had saved over the years of work they could live the rest of their lives in comfort.

This was also around the time he discovered anime and manga, taking a big liking to the theme of when the main character is trapped inside a game or transported into it, such as Sword art online.

Shaking his head a bit he smiled at the girl. "Hey, Alice."

Alice walked over to him with hurried steps, when she wrapped her arms around him, her face couldn't help but contort a bit. "You need a bath.." 

The young man only placed his hand on the girl's head then ruffled her hair, letting out a small laugh. "I'll take one, I'm going out for a bit so make sure you take care of the place."

Alice nodded her head and then released him. "Got it."

The young man walked off hearing her. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, then put on some new clothes before walking through the living room to the front door. 

"I'm telling you, Jerry. We can not continue to let the youth of our generations play these games, this is just as bad as when polygamy became normalized!"

"Tom calm down, this isn't as bad as what you make it out to seem. That's like saying the virtual reality sets that hospitals use to nurture young doctors and nurses will do the opposite. And polygamy? Really? Even though I must agree with you, there's nothing wrong with it if everyone is happy, yea? Take a look at the numerous actors and actresses."

The young man looked back towards a tv showing two people debating. He couldn't help releasing a sigh and turning back towards the door.

Leaving his apartment, he entered a fancy looking car and began driving to the nearest store. Azure Moon was a digital game like most games in this era, normally one would've put on their VR headset and bought the game online.

Unfortunately, it was only available to the newest gen of full dive. So, thanks to him constantly getting distracted and focusing on his sister he didn't have the time to go out for it.

Stopping at a red light, he felt something vibrating in his pocket and pulled out his phone to see he was getting a call from an unknown number.

Being curious he answered. "Hello?"

"By any chance this is phantom?" A voice asked from the other end.

The young man's eyes became sharp, a serious expression taking over his previous joyful one. "Sorry, you got the wrong person." He answered.

"Oh? I see..it's a shame, I guess I sent the gift to the wrong person." Said the voice, clearly playing along with his game.

The light turned green and the young man drove forward. "A gift? What do yo-"

-Crash!

Right, when the youth's car was in the center of the street something crashed into it at high speed, sending the car flying. It flipped several times in the air and when it hit the ground it began to roll, coming to a stop on its roof.

"What happened?!"

"That truck hit him!" 

"Shit, someone call 911!"

Multiple shouts and cries rang out in the area. Thankfully, the young man was still alive. However, his head was bleeding profusely and he assumed his ribs were broken due to how hard it was to breathe.

With all his strength he attempted to get out, he could see how the gas was leaking from the car outside his windshield.

However, he was hit by a sense of dread when he saw a hand with a gun leave the window of the truck, without care for his injuries he hurried in his movements.

He refused to die, he couldn't leave his sister behind. She was already devastated when their parents kicked them out, she was finally getting better, he couldn't let her fall further into depression.

However, he couldn't make it. The gun fired and lit the gas.

'I refuse, I refuse, I refuse, I refuse.' He repeated these words to himself with a strong desire to live.

-Boom!

The car exploded, his vision was instantly engulfed in flames before going dark and all sound ceased to exist except for one, the voice of a woman calling out to him.

"You poor miserable thing, I pity you. Losing everything from a young age to only lose it again, listen well. I'll give you the chance at a new life, the chance to make everything yours, I'll set you free. Do you accept?"

The young man didn't respond, he couldn't respond, but this didn't stop this random being from sensing his strong desire to live. She couldn't help but be astonished at how strong they were.

"Then from this day forward, your name will be Black, my first and last child. Don't disappoint your mother." Those words were followed by the snap of the being's fingers causing everything around them to crumble.

…

'It's so cold..' The boy, or now Black felt as if something was coiling around his entire being, his soul. 

Black forced open his eyes only to be greeted by the sight of a murky atmosphere, as if he was in the depths below the ocean. It was heavy, with not only what felt to be water but also despair. 

'Where am I?' Black asked himself.

Slowly, he started to remember his final moments and the voice that spoke to him. 'So it was real.'

He was calm at first, but the more he remembered it the colder his eyes became. His sister was alone.

Attempting to call himself down, Black released a sigh. 'I'll have to find my way back or at least let her know I'm alive, but first..'

He attempted to stand up but quickly realized he didn't have human arms or legs. Instead, he had the legs of a rabbit covered in black fur, startling him. 

He looked over his body and saw that he was no longer human, but a black rabbit. 

'At least I'm not human.' Thought Black.

He had always played as nonhuman races such as demons, angels, etc. The idea of being a human was just boring to him.

Black took another look at his surroundings and noticed he was underground, in some sort of hole. 

Clumsily, he climbed out of it into a cave that led to the outside. The cave was filled with gray rabbits who looked to have black eyes and white ones who looked to have wine red eyes.

The moment he appeared they all stopped what they were doing and stared at him in awe, as if they were looking at a king.

Some of the rabbits hopped towards him and bowed their heads while the others hopped out of the cave gleefully. 

Black was left confused seeing this, without knowing what else to do Black attempted to speak.

-Squeak!

The rabbits bowing their heads let out a small purring sound that would have been almost inaudible if not for his ears.

The rabbits then dispersed, the white ones went around the cave dragging rotting corpses to the center while the gray ones waited near the cave's entrance for the other rabbits' return.

After what felt like ten minutes the rabbits that left the cave returned with a giant bear-like creature that resembled a fish. Even with just a glance, one could tell the creature had been rotting for at least a few days.

Looking at the corpses the rabbits brought to the center of the cave and the bear they brought in Black couldn't help being confused. 'Aren't rabbits supposed to be vegan? No, forget that. How did they even carry that back?'

While Black was in his thoughts the rabbits that brought the bear in dropped it in front of him, bringing him back to reality.

Noticing how the rabbits watched him with looks of anticipation he assumed they were waiting for him to take the first bite.

The scene made him remember the times when he was younger in his previous life. When his parents had kicked him and his sister out they had to survive off of raw meat until he could earn some money.

So without any hesitation he bit into the meat, blood poured into his mouth and flooded his taste buds with the taste of bacon, but after a moment the bacon taste changed to that of a rotten fish.

The rabbits let out a purring sound and began to join Black. Once Black was full he laid down on top of a rock. 'I've had better.' 

The rabbits feasted on the bear like a swarm of piranhas. Suddenly, a sea-green card appeared in his vision with music notes carved into it, the song of a woman singing with the card's appearance as if celebrating its arrival.

[Apex Predator: Devour

Allows the host to turn a corpse into xp, the amount depending on the creature's strength.]