The curse of visual reality

[ NOTE : A correction has been made in chapter 3 as regards Apollyon's rank. ]

_. _. _.

"This is getting out of hand. We need help! Most of my friends have been unconscious for two days now. The hell I know what is happening! This isn't funny anymore!"

"I'm starting to think the world is coming to an end. Oh Lord, forgive our sins and have mercy upon us."

"It's no more than a curse. There are no traces of the game creators. Nothing! I'm scared to death. My little brother is down with this curse and he's the only one I got."

"More than half of the world is under the curse and we don't know what to do."

Kayla read through the comments on the video she had posted earlier that morning. The internet was on fire and the curse of visual reality had become the current trend. After witnessing what had happened to her brother, she had decided to make a video, crying for help but it seemed people from all over the world were in situations similar to hers.

It's been two days already and Max had not woken up. He was kept in his room as no hospital accepted him on the basis that the case wasn't something they could handle. Schools had temporarily closed as majority of students were victims of the visual reality curse. Even the Government were confused at the turnout of events and were unable to proffer solution. The world was in chaos. One that would mark the first of it's kind in the history of man. Everyday, reporters flooded the screens with the visual reality curse being the major headline. The only update so far on the news was the order from world leaders to band the sales of the game. Stores caught defying the order would be shut down permanently. Other stores that had leftovers of the game from their sales were ordered to confiscate them.

Though the measure helped by stopping more people who were ignorant of the happenings from purchasing the game. In two days, about thousands of the world's population had lost their consciousness to the game. There was no hope if there were chances of the victims regaining their consciousness. Even the world's best doctors and scientists claimed that the situation was beyond the physical and had to do with something inhuman. The terrifying aspect of it was the identities of the game creators were unknown. All the people knew was, there was a game called Harbingers Of Death. There were no clues or traces about the creators. Top social media content creators who were good at discovering founders and creators of different things, were placed off track as even they could not fish out the master mind behind the turmoil.

The only thing most people could do was turn God in prayers as they felt helpless.

*. *. *.

[ 2 hours left till game begins ]

The voice of the system sounded in his head, interrupting his sleep.

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his palm before letting out a long yawn.

"You're awake. Good Afternoon."

His eyes swiftly moved to look at the bed not far away from where he sat.

Hillary sat on the bed with her legs crossed, her gaze fixed on him. She looked like she had never gotten injured in the first place.

"Yeah," He replied as he moved to sit beside her. "You seem better now."

"Mhm," A smile beamed on her lips. "Just waiting till the next game starts."

She stretched her hand forward to show him the time countdown on the device on her wrist.

"I see," Max nodded, seemingly running out of words.

Hillary sighed. "I think I'm starting to miss home. It feels so strange being so far away."

"Yeah, it does," Max simply nodded.

"Though I never really liked being popular at school all because my parents are owners of the country's biggest company, I seem to miss all that now," She sounded a bit sad.

"We're going to make it out of here somehow. I promise I will get us out of here someday," Max said trying to cheer her up.

"Thanks," She smiled and pushed the strands of hair covering her face behind her ear.

Max swallowed hard. How could someone look this beautiful?

"Um...Is there anything you want to do before the game starts?" He asked to prevent an awkward silence between them.

"Well, I would love to test my new sword," Hillary replied. "But I don't think that's going to be possible in a hotel."

"Yeah right," Max said.

Soon, the silence he had been trying to prevent, swept the room.

Hillary stared nervously at her hands. Being alone in a room with a guy was definitely something she would never have dreamt of experiencing. Max, on the other hand, thought of ways to bring up a discussion. After a few minutes, one came into his mind.

"When did you get into the game?"

"As soon as I heard it had granted players access. That was about 6pm yesterday."

' I see why she has a higher rank...' Max thought.

"Wow! You really made it far into the game," He said.

"Yeah, with a number of 19 kills. It was kind of stressful though and my sword got chipped throughout my fights," Hillary replied.

"Only got 10 kills. Poor right?" Max smiled.

"Well, I wouldn't say so. It's much of a success for a beginner," Hillary said.

The two continued talking as time whiled away.

[ Game begins in the next 30 seconds ]

[ 00:30 ]

[ 00:29 ]

[ 00:28 ]

[ 00:27 ]

"Hope to see you after the game. If you survive, let's meet at the tree where we ate cupcakes," Hillary smiled.

"I will. See you soon," Max returned the smile.

[ 00:03 ]

[ 00:02 ]

[ 00:01 ]

[ 00:00 ]

A white light enveloped the two and disappeared as soon as it appeared, leaving behind an empty room.

[ Game has begun ]

[ Transporting player to game destination...]

After a few seconds, Max found himself on an island. The island was actually a bit unlike the usual ones he had seen on Earth. Tall trees and a large water body surrounded the rather large island. Sticking out from the grounds were stems that had red crystal like flower petals. These crystal flowers were in abundance on the island.

Max moved to take a closer look at the flowers.

[ Name : Essence corolla ]

[ Energy fused plant that increases one's mana upon absorption ]

[ Effectiveness : 100% ]

[ Shadow_Demon, do you wish to absorb ' Essence corolla '? ]

Mana limit : [ 1,000 mana points ]

[ If mana absorption exceeds mana limit than current physique can handle, host will die ].

' Yes,' Max said after reading through the information. Suddenly, he could feel a surge of energy seeping into him. A refreshing kind of feeling rushed over him.

[ Mana +100 ]

[ Mana +300 ]

[ Mana +90 ]

[ Mana +100 ]

[ You have reached your Mana limit, do you still wish to continue absorption? ]

' No,' Max hurriedly replied. He could not afford to die so early.

[ Due to mana absorption, all stats have been increased by +10 ]

[ Strength 20 ]

[ Speed 20 ]

[ Agility 19 ]

[ Stamina 18 ]

[ Endurance 16 ]

[ Intelligence 24 ]

[ Mana 1,000 ]

[ HP 20/20 ]

[ XP 30/100 ]

The sudden increase in his stats caused Max's jaw to drop. Just how effective were these flowers!

' It's 100% you dummy,' He thought to himself.

He had barely absorbed up to 20 of the flowers which were probably more than hundreds of thousands on the island and he had gained 1,000 mana points.

Just then, shriek filled screams bombarded his ears. The air around him had suddenly become intimidating. He took a stance prepared for whatever was coming. He didn't want to use the Lunar blades since it wouldn't be as effective since it was day time already. The scream got closer as seconds passed away and the ground began to vibrate slightly.

[ A powerful energy has been sensed ]

Soon, the perpetrator of the screams came into view. A huge snake a hundred times Max's size stood metres in front of him with a very powerful aura. A red crystal similar to the Essence corolla was engraved on its forehead.

It's red eyes slowly fell on Max and it let out a loud roar, which was unusual for a snake.

[ Name : Spirit Serpent ]

[ Rank: Grade 9 Divine beast ]

[ Guardian of the crystal island. A magical beast known to have an unlimited source of mana that produces about 2,000 magic seeds once in every 100 years that grow to become flowers know as Essence corolla ].

A quick notification soon followed.

[ You have received a new quest ]

[ Harm the Spirit Serpent ]

[ Reward : 500 gems ]

[ Reward : +20XP ]

[ Reward : A triple rank up ]

[ Game duration : 2:50:15 ]