Chapter 7: Entering in Alchemy & Alloy

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I could see is the stars.
I found myself floating in a breathtaking sea of galaxies, a dreamscape of constellations and planetary rings spinning around me like a living map of the cosmos. I wasn’t alone, hundreds of others floated beside me, and for a moment, I spotted Jarrod drifting in the light, his body curled into the fetal position, eyes shut.

Suddenly, we were pulled hard, toward a distant vortex of colors.

When we landed, I gasped.

We stood on a floating island that defied logic.
The island of the beginning.
Imagine a place where angelic architecture met mystic ruins, where glass towers twisted into the sky alongside glowing runes, floating platforms, and cybernetic fauna. The entire arena shimmered like something between Heaven and a Tokyo back alley.

Alchemy & Alloy.

I scanned the crowd, over a thousand other players stood with us. Some in glimmering armor. Others with giant axes or glowing staves. Everyone looked like they’d stepped out of a fantasy epic… everyone except me.

I was still just me. For some reason I didn’t change my uniform. I’m wearing my dark blue jacket. My red shirt. My jeans. My boots. Even my sunglasses. I look like a fish out of water, a cool fish.

Jarrod stood beside me, decked out in a dark-green jacket with studded red shoulders, a silver chestplate, dark-grey pants, and worn-out brown boots. I nodded in approval.

That’s when I saw her.

Weiss Shi.

Standing casually near a crystalline wall with her two companions, her presence made waves through the crowd. Guys couldn’t stop staring. Lust practically oozed out of their eyes.

I elbowed Jarrod and nodded in her direction. "I did that," I said smugly.

"You brag too much," he muttered.

"C’mon. I’m the Glitchwalker, bro. I landed a hit on her."

Weiss looked my way. I waved with a cocky grin.

She looked away.

Alright, fair.

She was still bitter I cracked her mask and forced her to reveal her identity.

Before I could keep gloating, I felt a massive hand grip my shoulder.

And not in a friendly way.

I turned and instantly regretted it.

A massive dude, muscles like iron beams, buzzcut, goatee, arms thick as tree trunks. His eyes were murderously calm.

"H-Hey there, big man," I stammered. "Nice weather today?"

He didn’t laugh.

Instead, he grabbed me by the collar and lifted me off the ground.

Jarrod stepped forward. "Hey! Put him down!"

I struggled to breathe, feet dangling, mind racing.

"Hey mate, how’s your day?," I said, still catching my breath. "I need to ask, What did I do to deserve this?"
The guy, towering, armored, and clearly not in the mood for jokes, stiffened his face and glared at me.
"You really don’t remember?" he said, voice low and sharp. "Two reasons. First… you stole the Odyssey Chest from me."
I blinked, then shrugged. "Stole? I mean—technically—I just borrowed it… permanently."
He didn’t laugh.
Not even a twitch.
He stepped closer. His shadow draped over me like a curtain of judgment.
"And second," he said coldly, "because she asked me to."
That made me pause. "She? A fan? Who asked you?"
Then I saw her.

Standing beside the human gorilla was a woman I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever. Purple lipstick, killer eyes, a sultry smirk. Dressed in a fantasy-styled mini-skirted outfit with more skin than cloth, and an aura that said dangerous.

Aster Joyce.

Internet model. Fame monster. Heartbreaker.

Also… my ex.

"Well, well," she said, lips curling with amusement. "Nice to see you again, Jack."

I coughed. "Well, it isn’t nice to see you, Aster."

Jarrod looked between us, stunned. "Wait… don’t tell me you dated her?"

"Yep," I muttered. "She broke my heart. On Valentine’s Day. Why are you here?"

Aster rolled her eyes. "Maybe because I qualified? Unlike some people who had to cheat their way in."

Aster giggled. "And for the record. You broke my heart. Over a phone call, remember?"

That stopped me cold.

"What? No… I never did that."

She narrowed her eyes. "Don’t play dumb. You said it was over. Just like that and that you used me."

Confused and still hanging in the air, I tried to respond, only for her to casually brush her hair aside and lean closer.

"Allow me to introduce someone," she said. "This is JYL, as in Jungwoo-Young Lee, or call him Jill."

Out stepped a smug, model-looking guy with abs sculpted by Photoshop and a personality sculpted by rotten ego. He wrapped his arm around Aster’s waist like he owned her.

I hated him instantly.

"Nice to see you again Mr. Clean"

"Shut up," he sneered at me. "Still a loser, I see."

This was the guy who hated me for dating Aster. This was the guy who, rumor said, banged anything with a heartbeat in and out of the game.

Aster turned to the man still choking me.

"Dear brother," she purred. "Would you be a sweetheart and dispose of him? We don’t need trash cluttering Onlife."

Wait.

"He’s your brother!?" I gasped. "Then—who’s adopted?!"

That did it.

He roared and hurled me across the platform like a ragdoll.

Thankfully, I activated my glitch just in time, phasing through the crystal wall to avoid breaking every bone in my body—but I still hit the ground like a sack of bricks.

Pain seared through my ribs.

I groaned.

So this is Alchemy & Alloy, huh?

Great start.

I was slowly getting back on my feet, dazed and aching from the impact. My hand pressed against the cold, stone floor, though how it had any temperature at all in a game was beyond me. Just as I steadied myself, I saw a figure approach, and a soft, slender hand reached out toward me.

I looked up.

A woman stood before me, draped in elegant violet and grey robes, with a tall, pointed witch hat casting a slight shadow across her face. She looked… ageless. Maybe in her forties, or her fifties. Or younger. Honestly, it was hard to tell. Her face bore a gentle smile, and her voice, when she spoke, was soft yet regal, mature and warm like a mother’s lullaby woven into velvet.

"Up, dear hero," she said, extending her hand farther.

I hesitated but took it.

The moment our hands touched, a sudden jolt surged through her arm. A flicker, a single frame where her body glitched, like a broken frame in a film reel. Just a blip. But I saw it. I felt it.

Crap. Did my glitching power affect her? Was that supposed to happen? I hoped not. This was still technically the introduction of the game, if I was already breaking things, then maybe Jarrod was right to call me a walking bug.

And yet… her hand felt real. Warm. Solid. Not like a pre-rendered animation or pre-written event. She looked at me with kind eyes, then gently let go and turned, floating silently toward the center of the gathered crowd. Her robes danced with the motion, catching light that hadn’t been there before.

Then, the sky dimmed, not with dread, but with awe.

A mystical dusk spread across the floating island, painting everything in shades of violet and gold. From above, a soft beam of radiant light shone down, illuminating her like she was a goddess descended from the stars.

She lifted her hands, and her voice echoed through the air with a powerful, old-world lilt—refined, noble, as if plucked from a Shakespearean stage.

"I am the Grand Magister of the Everdeara Citadel, Lady Merewyn of the Third Light, Archmage of the Enchanted Realms and Keeper of Ashalondaria’s Fate."

The wind itself seemed to hush, and even the ambient background noise, the subtle humming of magic, the distant sounds of other players, faded into silence.

"You have been summoned across realms, brave warriors, from the distant corners of the stars, not by chance—but by necessity. Ashalondaria, our beloved world, teeters on the edge of ruin."

A massive, transparent map shimmered into the sky above her, swirling with floating continents, seas of clouds, rivers of glowing leyline energy.

"The Dark Mage, Niobeorth the Raven, has shattered the balance of our world. His corruption spreads like rot through roots. His armies rise. Kingdoms fall. Hope withers. And so… in desperation, the High Circle has called forth 1025 champions."

I looked around. All of us, me, Jarrod, Weiss Shi, Aster, and the rest, watched with a mix of awe and uncertainty.

"You are the chosen."
"You are the last hope."

Honestly? For a game, it was one hell of an intro.

Then… it all unraveled.

Merewyn’s body jerked violently, more glitching. This time it wasn’t subtle. Her form spasmed, twitching like a corrupted file trying to stabilize. Her wings, yes, she suddenly had wings, flickered in and out of existence. Her face twisted, not with rage, but pain.

She clutched her head, her floating form falling like dead weight onto an invisible platform midair.

Gasps rang out. People muttered. Confused voices rose like a wave.

"Did I do that?" I whispered under my breath, eyes wide.

Players around me were turning, their expressions sharp. Suspicious.

"Did I actually break Alchemy & Alloy just by existing here?"

Then her eyes snapped open, gone was the graceful, poised archmage. In her place was a terrified woman, eyes wide with fear, her voice trembling with desperation.

"Listen well, heroes!" she cried, now completely off-script. "This is not a test. This is no simulation. The game—it is bleeding. Niobeorth… he has already breached the core. He is—he is watching us—"

Her body contorted violently.

"You must—RUN!"

And then… she vanished. Completely. Gone like a bugged-out sprite.

A thick, suffocating silence fell over us.

I turned to Jarrod, my voice barely above a whisper. "That was… not part of the intro, right?"

Jarrod was pale, eyes locked on the sky. "Jack… doesn’t this feel too real?"

"How do you mean?"

"I get that Takayuki wanted full immersion. But that NPC? That was a person. Not a script. Not even AI. That was raw."

I tried to speak, to rationalize it, but then the sky darkened again.

The air shifted. No longer mystical… but ominous.

The floating island beneath us trembled.

"What the hell…" someone muttered.

The quake intensified. The stone beneath my boots cracked, deep, glowing lines of fiery orange slicing through the marble.

"But we’re in the sky—how is there an earthquake?" Jarrod shouted.

A shriek echoed across the void, mechanical and hellish. And then—

BOOM.

A jet of fire burst through the ground like a volcanic eruption.

People screamed.

The platform erupted into chaos as flames consumed rows of players, pixelating their forms into light and not in a respawn-y kind of way.

I reached out for Jarrod, but the fire swallowed us both whole.

In that last moment, I saw the terror in his face mirrored in mine and I knew, deep down—

Something was wrong.
Terribly, terribly wrong.