“Tired of being overlooked?
Longing for purpose?
Wish to protect others?
No need to hang in the background anymore.”
Download Now:
**Fantasy Quest - BETA v0.2**
*Become the support you always needed.*
The ad on her phone brightly illuminated the damp bathroom stall in white light. The deafening 'ding' as it popped up on her phone still echoing off the walls of concrete.
Yuki pulled her legs closer, the cold air of the bathroom causing her to start shivering. Her chest heaved in silent, uneven breaths.
She pressed her palm to her face, wiping the tears that happened to escape, wishing she could just disappear. She never thought she would end up like this.
Alone.
Hopeless.
Cold.
In a dark bathroom stall of her high school.
The only light radiating from her phone and the dim fluorescent lights that flickered overhead.
The only sound from the leaking faucets and her muffled breathing.
The only smell, cheap cleaners and broken dreams.
The ad on the screen mocked her as it refused to go away even after restarting.
There was a time-long ago-Yuki believed people could be kind, warm.
She remembered a sunny day. A warm hand holding hers. The slight off key humming from her mother. Her father’s gentle hands on her head whenever she brought home an A.
Orphaned at a young age, Yuki never had anyone to turn to once her parents died when she was 6 years old. She didn’t have many memories about that day except intense screaming, the smell of smoke, and hollow emptiness. She remembered the cold, empty stares. The look of pity that she began to hate. Becoming an orphan at such a tender age caused Yuki to become quiet and closed off to others. She learned early on that nobody wants to hear sob stories and those empty eyes of pity only hurt.
As of now, at the age of sixteen, she was alone in high school. Barely surviving on ramen and a part-time job stacking boxes. She tried multiple times to get along with her coworkers, however, they either ignored her or were too busy. “Nuisance” and “Self-Centered little girl” were her nicknames.
Every time she attempted to make even one friend, they would return the next day with pity and embarrassment in their eyes from being around her or even associating with her.
Rumors about her seeking attention and lying had spread like wildfire. Nobody she talked to wanted her around anymore.
Yuki felt like she had no choice but to chase after people as nobody would reach out to her. She desired genuine friendship, connections, something to feel human. All she had left was a sense of emptyiness and self-loathing. It was as if the world just wanted her to disappear altogether.
The constant anxiety and loneliness pushed her here, to this stall, because one more whispered comment, one more sneer, one more reminder that she was a nobody, might shatter her completely.
Her phone buzzed in her hand, drawing her attention away from her own grief. She glanced at it, her vision swimming.
A silver bell appeared, a small crack on the side appeared followed by a new pop up displayed before her.
“Play now… Escape everything.”
She never clicked on such a game, she was never really interested. Her phone stopped responding and the power off button failed to work.
The ‘Play Now’ button pulsed in blue, taking up most of the screen. She could almost hear the sound of a bell as if it were alive.
The screen glitched and spasmed.
The “Download Now” button blocked the entire screen now, taunting her to press it.
Yuki sighed, her trembling finger hovered over the button on the screen. She had never been interested in playing games--until now. But what does it matter now? She has nothing to lose.
Her finger wavered in midair as memories surfaced.
Pressing the button, she heard an echoing bell sound. It echoed in the concrete walls and throughout her body, almost as if echoing in her very soul.
The screen exploded in light, causing her to throw it instinctively. A downloading screen appeared with “5%” displayed.
Yuki froze, her eyes widened as the ground began to shake violently. The world as she knew it started to shake and shatter into pieces.
She attempted to stand but her knees gave out.
“Ow..Crap”, she muttered as she fell. She instead tried dragging herself to the door of the stall. The fabric of her navy blue, knee-length skirt offered some resistance as she dragged herself. She quickly untied her bright red necktie and threw it, as it started feeling like a rope.
As she came to the door of the stall, a large “ERROR” message showed as she attempted to push the door. Only a wall of light stopped her from even touching it. She felt the wall with both hands then panic set in as the world around started disappearing.
The toilet disappeared, instead of being splashed with high pressure water, Yuki saw small pixelated cubes floating then disappeared. Her bag that she had left in the corner faded out of existence.
Yuki looked back at her phone. The displayed message “60%” mocked her as the room started spinning.
She banged on the wall of light, her scream sounding strange, like a digital echo that came from everywhere and nowhere. The fluorescent lights became a symphony of glitches, harmonizing with her own voice.
[Error: User Profile Incomplete]
[Memory Fragment Partially Corrupted]
[Analyzing Soul Signature…]
[System: Installation In progress]
[Status: 80%]
[Updating system]
[User: Yuki Kazumi]
[Skill Tree: Unavailable. Retrying...]
She blinked, her tears becoming pixelated motes drifting in the air. The air started to mix into smells of ozone and lavender. The cool tile beneath her had begun to vanish and was replaced by a void of deep darkness, yet she swore she could still feel it under her fingernails. She could see slight grid formations, lines of data stretched in the infinite void, ticked with tiny error messages and symbols she never saw before.
[Warning: Candidate 485-Y - Error Detected]
[Caution: High Emotional Volatility Detected]
[Note: System override detected - Adapting Character Modifier: “Resonant Healer”]
[Error: Role exceeds predicted parameters]
{Merging}
[Loading…]
A cold sweat broke out on her back, her heart slamming against her ribs as if trying to escape. Glitched patches danced in her line of sight. The bell sound grew louder and louder, almost breaking her eardrums. Yuki’s heart pounded with every sound. She tried to move, to grab at something –anything– but her body felt simultaneously solid and transparent mixed with prickling as if they had fallen asleep. Her arms flickered between fully rendered limbs and strands of code. Her legs tingled, then burned, then stretched in ways that didn’t make sense. She felt as if her whole being was being pulled apart in all directions.
It wasn’t exactly painfully but more that she was being scanned, analyzed, and reassembled elsewhere. Her arms flickered in and out of existence and her black hair streamed upward, a yellow glow illuminated each strand like strings of light.
For a second, a glowing interface glowed in her vision. Hovering before her, words she didn’t understand danced in her vision: “Level: 0 l Tutorial 86B in progress.”
And then, with one final gasp, she was gone.
The last thing she remembered was the bathroom stall dissolving behind her, the faint sound of mocking voices twisting into digital static.
Then all of a sudden quiet and darkness.
The slight sound of a bell hung in the air.
The only thing left of Yuki’s presence was her phone, the screen showing a ‘Loading’ bar that pulse “completed”.
[Link is stable]
[Loading: 100%]
[New Game: Start]
A “Welcome” on a white screen surrounded by flower vines appeared then the phone spasmed then finally shut off, a small crack formed in the center where the bell once was.
An eerie voice rang in the infinite darkness.
“Welcome, Yuki.”
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