Chapter 20: Distorted Labyrinth

So many bodies.
The players’ corpses were scattered across the floor, their blood streaked and splattered along the walls like someone had used it to paint. A massacre.
What kind of monster were we even about to face?

But there was something… off about how they died.

Every single one of them was armed, not with bows or swords or staves, but with guns. Not fantasy weapons, but ones you’d expect in a gritty war game. Rifles, machine pistols, even shotguns. Some had wounds from melee weapons too, swords, axes, but most were gunned down.

I checked one of the rifles lying next to a fallen player.

Empty. No bullets.

So… a monster that uses guns?

I looked up at Terrence and Dennis. Their faces were hard, angry. Furious. I could tell the sight of so many dead had shaken them too.

Then Terrence pointed at something.
"Guys—look."

He was motioning toward the corpse of a female player slumped near the wall.

Dennis gave him a sideways glance. "Oi, Terrence—ye better not be ogling a dead girl. We’re in the middle of a—"

Terrence snapped, "No, you bloody dingus—the map she’s holding."

I stepped over to her and gently pried it from her hand. It wasn’t paper like the others I’d seen. It was a stained, translucent blue glass.

A mini-map.

Unlike the standard parchment maps, this one was different. It displayed only a small radius of the current area and glowed faintly with points of light, each one representing someone nearby.

Seressia stepped beside me, eyes wide.
"I’ve never seen anything like that before," she said, her voice low and reverent.

"It’s a minimap," I explained, showing it to Seressia, Caelren, and Lysandra. "Back where we’re from, this is a common thing in certain types of games. Normally it’s digital, part of a display. But here… it’s become physical."

The others stared at it in amazement.

Makes sense. We’re no longer in a video game, but some things still carry over in unexpected ways. The minimap still worked, still tracked movement, just in a more tangible form.

Right now, seven yellow dots glowed steadily on the map, us.

When a dot disappears, it usually means one of two things: someone logged out… or someone died.

Suddenly, three yellow dots appeared, moving frantically across the other side of the room. A single massive red dot was trailing behind.

"Survivors," I muttered. "Either players or villagers."

Without hesitation, we broke into a sprint.

Me, Terrence, and Dennis had already seen this mechanic in action. We didn’t need to be told what it meant, we knew.

We followed the signal across the ruined hall until we reached a wide passage leading to a dead end. And there they were, three people, cornered.

And then the creature appeared.

Its health bar flickered into existence.

[GORYGUARI – Level 90]

Its body was round and bulbous, its entire torso a gaping mouth lined with razor-like fangs. It had no eyes, no arms, no legs, but three long serpentine necks extended from its mass, each ending in a dragon-like head that writhed and hissed.

It didn’t even look capable of holding a weapon.

Was this the thing that gunned down so many players?

How?

Level 90. That was boss-tier. And we were only level 70… even with the glitch-boosts. This thing could wipe us out.

But the others weren’t backing down.

They wanted to take it down once and for all.

So I drew the Dangatana and charged toward it.

"Wait!" Katarina shouted.

But it was too late.

From the huge stomach mouth, launched a glowing purple sphere of gas straight at me. Instinctively, I slashed at it mid-air, my blade cutting clean through—

But it was gas.

It kept coming.

The cloud engulfed me.

What the hell was that?!
Am I poisoned? Is this some kind of status effect?

My eyes were shut.
I was swaying, disoriented, waggling off into nothingness.

Then, suddenly, the purple mist vanished.

Everyone was gone.

The room was eerily silent. I called out, but no voice answered. I took a cautious step forward… and the walls slammed inward, closing around me, sealing me in a small, rocky chamber.

Then, darkness.
Pitch-black.
The kind of darkness that swallows even your thoughts. I could only see myself, my body faintly glowing in the void. Everything else was gone.

And then it began.

A voice. A memory. A feeling.

The purple mist hadn’t just blinded me—it had dragged me in. Into the deepest part of my own mind.
Into regret.

I was back there.

Back home.
Omnikuro.

I saw him.
My older brother, tall, confident, already geared up for the expedition. His face was full of hope. He was chosen to explore new lands, to search for places beyond the steel domes and choking systems of the inner circles.

He waved to me, smiled… and left.

But he never came back.

No body. No message. No answers.

And I… I couldn’t accept that.

I refused to believe he was dead. I thought, I believed, he was still out there.
So I went after him.

But I was never alone.

Unbeknownst to me, my younger sister and two of my closest friends had followed. They believed in me. Trusted me.
And I led them into hell.

We were ambushed. Unprepared. Stupid.

One of my friends died trying to save me.
My sister… fell from a cliffside.
They found her later.
Still breathing, but unresponsive. She’s been in a coma ever since.

I broke our family.

I came back to parents who looked at me with hollow eyes. I tried to fix things, tried to help, signed up for Onlife, hoping to earn enough money to support the hospital bills. But even that backfired. My father hated everything related to Takayuki and the virtual world. He told me I was no longer his son.

So I went in the inner circle. Worked. Fought. Survived.

I haven’t seen my family in years.
I send money. I write letters I never send.
I sleep with guilt and wake with shame.

This is the moment I’ve buried for so long.

And the purple gas, some way, forced it all back.

Something inside me cracked.

Sparks flickered across my body.

The Nova Bloom.

I could feel it awakening, pulsing in my chest, charging through my veins. My particles began to tremble, splitting, vibrating, phasing like I was about to be torn apart. It hurt, every atom screaming.

I screamed too.

Then, I opened my hand.

And with a roar, I unleashed the Nova Bloom.

A wave of raw, radiant energy burst from my palm, obliterating the darkness in front of me. The air trembled. The walls shook. My body seared with pain.

My health bar plummeted, half gone in an instant.

But I was free. The mist shattered like glass around me. And then—

I gasped.
My eyes shot open.

And Katarina was holding me, arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders, her eyes wide and terrified.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice groggy and confused. My head was spinning, like I’d just woken up from a nightmare I couldn’t remember.

Terrence didn’t hold back.

"You wanna know what happened?" he snapped. "You went full-on berserker, [BEEP]ing swinging at everyone, mother[BEEP]er."

I blinked. "What?"

Dennis—nodded enthusiastically. "Aye, I second that! You were like—RAAAH!—all over the [BEEP]ing place, man."

I rubbed my forehead. "That… doesn’t sound like me."

"Yeah, well," came a sharp voice behind me. "It was you, jackass."

I turned.
Aster Joyce and her brother Thor Joyce

Of all the people…

She crossed her arms, wearing that same pissed-off expression I remembered way too well. "They’re not lying. You went full idiot mode on us. Nearly took off my arm, dumbass."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Aster rolled her eyes like I was the biggest inconvenience in her day. "Trying not to die. Same as you. I was being chased by that goddamn monster—thanks so much for saving us, by the way." She added, with enough sarcasm to drown in. "Not that it matters now. That [BEEP]hole Jill ran off with some random chick. Safe to say he’s monster chow by now."

Terrence and Dennis stepped in beside me, both of them staring at Aster like she’d just spawned from the heavens.

"Dude," Terrence whispered, elbowing me. "She’s a top-tier streamer-slash-model. What the [BEEP]?! Since when do you talk to girls that look like that?"

Dennis leaned in too. "Yeah, what the [BEEP]’s this sorcery? You two act like ya know each other or some [BEEP]."

I was still dazed, so I said it flat-out, not even trying to brag:
"I used to date her."

Silence.
Then both Terrence and Dennis exploded.

"YOU’RE A [BEEP]ING LEGEND!" Terrence yelled, slapping my back like I’d just won a trophy.

"No [BEEP]in’ way!" Dennis shouted, laughing. "You actually bagged her?!"

Before I could say anything else, Terrence was already stepping forward, sticking out his hand toward Aster. "Hey, I’m Terrence—just wanted to say I’m a huge fan of—"

"We broke up," I muttered, cutting him off.

Terrence froze mid-step.

His outstretched hand dropped.

Then, without hesitation, he turned back toward Aster and, right in front of her, flipped her off. "Well, [BEEP] you then."

I didn’t have to look at Aster to know her jaw clenched.

"We have to stop this monster," I said.

Katarina stepped in front of me. "Not until I patch you up—"

"We don’t have time—" I started, but was cut off.

"Guys!" Thor shouted. "We’ve gotta move—now! The purple gas is coming!"