1 01 - Falling into the abyss of death

The world was plunged into darkness. In the skies, dense, thunderous black clouds announced the wrath of the gods. They trembled, but not a drop of water fell. Only powerful bolts of lightning flowed toward the ground, destroying everything in their path.

Far below, under the roars of the stormy sky and where mortals reigned, two great armies clashed in a fierce struggle that had been going on for days. One of them wore silver armor and the other black.

Screams of hatred and pain resounded across the battlefield, mixed with the deafening metallic noise of swords, axes, and shields clashing incessantly.

In the midst of the chaos, a figure in black armor advanced against his opponents. A red glow ran along the blade of his sword as he swung it toward the silver-armored warrior in front of him.

The sword sliced through the air at a speed that could barely be matched by the human eye, emitting a piercing whistle.

A sharp clang sounded as the sword charged with red energy of the black-armored warrior struck the sword charged with golden energy of his enemy. The air around the two of them shook violently, and the mana stirred, forcing the other soldiers fighting around them to hastily move away due to the pressure of the clash.

"Aaaaaah!" The black-armored warrior roared, and the ground beneath his feet cracked as he advanced, shattering his enemy's stance and breaking up the confrontation in a split second.

The warrior in the silver armor had no time to regain his composure and was struck by his opponent's blade. His windpipe was crushed as if his bones were nothing more than toothpicks, and a line of blood gushed from his neck as his head was thrown into the sky.

When the inert body of the white-armored warrior collapsed to the ground, a thunderous roar echoed across the battlefield. Like a ray of hope amidst the darkness, a powerful golden light broke through the black clouds and descended upon the white-armored army.

At the center of this light stood a man with golden hair and piercing blue eyes; his slightly aged face did not hide the beauty of his being.

"Arthur!!! Today the Blood Rose Empire will fall!" The golden-haired man shouted, his deep, powerful voice overwhelming the noisy battlefield.

Arthur, the warrior in black armor, exclaimed: "Not while I live!". His voice was soft and cold, while his face was completely hidden. Only the piercing glare of his beautiful bloodshot eyes was visible through the visor of his helmet. A crimson energy flowed through his body, expanding and engulfing the entire army of black armor.

At that moment, they both advanced, and the world seemed to split. Gold and red collided in a clash that seemed capable of sealing the fate of humanity.

Then, Arthur opened his eyes.

He was in a dark, decaying room of a small apartment, lying on a withered mattress and wrapped in dirty, torn blankets.

The repetitive, out-of-sync dripping of a poorly turned-off tap penetrated his ears, leading him to turn his face towards a sink full of dirty dishes. At the same time, the repugnant smell of rotten food invaded his nostrils, making his face contort and his throat churn with a sudden urge to vomit.

The truth is that reality is often disappointing.

"Annoying," Arthur muttered and, with a grunt, forced his tired body to stand up. His feet touched a damp and dirty floor, but he didn't seem to mind. Trying to forget that exciting dream and erase his foolish fantasies, he once again found himself stuck in his usual depressing life.

He wasn't an ugly man; quite the opposite in reality. If he had any way of getting out of that godforsaken place he called home, maybe he could even become a famous model.

He was tall, fair-skinned, and had beautiful, piercing red eyes in a masculine face that looked as if it had been meticulously sculpted by a god. Under his old, worn-out clothes, he sported powerful, well-kept muscles that certainly didn't match the diet of someone living in misery.

With a long sigh, Arthur turned off the tap completely, stopping the dripping once and for all. He then paused for a few seconds and picked up a glass but did nothing. His cold face took on a thoughtful expression as he pondered whether to wash the dishes or not.

"Fuck this shit," he exclaimed and threw the glass against the wall. The glass shattered into countless shards, but Arthur didn't care. Suddenly, an explosive revolt seized his mind.

He had everything: beauty, intelligence, willpower, even the damn tools to be great. Absolutely everything was in his hands... but he was foolish. He chose to raise his head, he chose to fight for his ideals, for a justice that only he defended. And that was the result.

He angered the powerful, and they ensured that his life was worthy of pity... Those he protected turned their backs on him, and his family didn't even spare him a second glance, abandoning him in an underdeveloped hellhole as if he were nothing.

"Ah... Damn this world," he looked up and closed his eyes. "And all those who live in it," he concluded.

After seconds of despairing silence, Arthur walked over to his computer and sat down in an uncomfortable, rustic wooden chair before turning on his monitor.

The first thing that greeted him when he opened the browser was a news story with over 1 billion views and hundreds of millions of likes.

[Urgent news for the entire gamer world!

The new VRMMORPG "Tales of Aelynn," which promises to revolutionize the world of VR games, has just received a confirmed launch date for the first day of December 2054! That's right! In less than 2 weeks, the servers will be up, and players will be able to access and explore this amazing world!]

The neural connection devices for this game are now available at a small and affordable price of less than $300. You can get yours at any certified store near your home. Hurry before stocks run out!]

"Small, affordable price... If I bought that shit, I'd have to starve for the rest of the month," Arthur laughed ironically before starting to scroll down the page.

Everything and everyone were talking about Tales of Aelynn, about how incredible the videos leaked by the beta testers were, about how vivid that world seemed to be, about how Aelynn Corps, the game's creators, promised that all the NPCs would be unique, with their own voices, ways of seeing the world, relationships, and feelings, as well as an unlimited number of exclusive missions.

With every post Arthur read, memories of the dream he'd had just a few minutes earlier flooded his mind.

"Ah... Damn..." he pressed his back against the chair, while a bitter expression dominated his handsome face.

Deep down, he felt envious of these people. In two weeks, they could finally realize their most vivid fantasies in a completely new world, while he could only languish in this old apartment, waiting anxiously for the day when the one who had put him in this situation decided that he should no longer have the right to live.

"I need some fresh air." He got up and walked to the balcony of his room.

Arthur lived in a decaying building in a city dominated by poverty, something that was clear from the view from his balcony. Buildings constructed without any kind of regulation next to precarious houses huddled together in large slums, where the majority of the population barely had access to basic human needs.

In this place dominated by poverty and criminality, he could even be considered lucky to have access to energy and the internet, even if it was of very poor quality.

Leaning on the balcony railings, Arthur felt the cold evening breeze caress his face. The smell was not pleasant, like a mixture of garbage and open sewage, with a hint of hopelessness and despair.

It was like a cyberpunk city, but one that embraced punk and buried the cyber in a shallow grave. Arthur didn't make any faces, despite the terrible smell. He had gotten used to it and had gradually learned to see beauty in it. Even in this destroyed and godforsaken land, flowers were still growing.

As his hands caressed the rough, rusty metal of the balcony's railings, he remembered the countless times he had thought about jumping from there and ending his own life, a thought that still troubled him deeply.

He closed his eyes, ignoring the terrible smell, and felt his long black hair dance in the gentle breeze. That was the only source of pleasure he still felt.

Unfortunately, he couldn't enjoy that sensation for long. Suddenly, he felt the air being expelled from his lungs, not because he smelled something awful or even saw a breathtaking landscape.

What he felt were two powerful hands on his back, pushing him toward the abyss. The protective bars broke, and Arthur's body fell to the ground.

For a brief moment, time seemed to freeze for Arthur. It was as if everything had stopped, and only his memories were rushing through his mind, the good and the bad exploding in an uncontrollable flood of emotions.

Yet, for some reason, as he watched the ground rapidly approach and his hair flutter in the wind, his mind was calm and serene, as if all the terror of that situation and the explosion of emotions meant nothing to him.

'So... you've finally decided to put an end to my existence...' This was the last thought to cross Arthur's mind before everything went dark.

[Arthur's AI-generated artwork can be found in the comments!]