Chapter 1: Summons

 “...do you have any further questions?” The kindly old doctor reached up to adjust his glasses, stopping when he realized that he wasn’t wearing any.

Takeo breathed in slowly. “In other words, I should expect to die any day now.”

The doctor winced slightly, but nodded his head. “In any case, the main focus should be in seeing your loved ones. If you want, we can inform your mother or grandparents for you.”

“I’d like to do that myself, please.”

“...alright, then.” The doctor slowly got to his feet and began tapping the air in front of him. “If you have any more requests, please do not hesitate to call a nurse.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Takeo bowed his head as the doctor logged off from the VR chat room, leaving just him sitting on the floor of the traditional Japanese-style room. After a moment of silence, he sighed to himself.

“Guess it’s time, huh.”

– – –

Takeo first discovered the game Alukarum Online five years ago, after he had moved back to Japan from overseas. His mother had made the decision for him to move in with his grandparents to reduce the financial burdens they were facing, so Takeo never objected to the move. It also gave him a chance to put into practice his faltering skills in Japanese, after all.

The full-dive VR console they purchased was initially meant as a way for him to stay in contact with his mother while they were separated by the Pacific. However, over time, the two of them began to meet less often. At first, his mother had to miss one or two weeks due to an urgent work call. Then, three weeks went by without a meeting, but neither side acknowledged the time gap. Sooner or later the gaps became months, then finally years.

The last time he’d seen his mother was about when he lost the ability to walk, about three years ago by now. So no, he thought. There’s no need to bother her for this. A final letter is more than sufficient.

– – –

“Aaand sent.” Takeo stretched his arms as he flicked his personal interface, scheduling the mail to send the next evening. Of course, if he wasn’t dead by tonight, he’d reschedule for the day after, and so on. A brilliant plan indeed.

Five years ago, on the day of his diagnosis, Takeo vaguely remembered the clenching twist of his heart pounding in his chest. He recalled the ice-cold feeling spreading in his veins when the doctor had proclaimed that the survival rate of his disease was less than three percent after five years. The heated tears that wet his pillow when he went to sleep that night for the first time in a hospital bed.

Nowadays, he never felt that anymore. If he had to articulate it, he would have said something like “Since death has been stalking me for so long, I kinda got used to it,” or “Maybe it still doesn’t feel real.” The latter could’ve been attributed to the technological marvel of full-dive VR, which intercepted neuron activity directly from the brain and allowed users to control a virtual body that felt almost real. After all, Takeo was never forced to endure the years of slowly feeling his body shutting down. Instead, he spent all that time adventuring in a world arguably as vivid as the real one.

When he thought about it, he was quite thankful to be alive in such an era.

“On that topic, why don’t I start up a new save file of Alukarum-” Takeo suddenly froze, a thought popping into his head. Five entire years worth of save data… what should I do with that?

Over the past five years of him playing Alukarum, Takeo had accrued over 25 000 hours in the base game alone. The reason was simple – with a story that spanned the course of decades and an essentially infinite number of events to play through, Alukarum was never short of content.

For example, there was a raid on the capital city of Aluric, Humanitas, that happened near the midgame. Depending on certain player choices, they could be on the defending side, the attacking side, or even play as a wild card that both sides ended up banding together to kill. Furthermore, by influencing certain events before the raid, Takeo had even found that it was possible to push back the raid or even cancel it altogether (though that route was especially hard to achieve). Major characters could be assassinated, allegiances could be turned, and it was even possible to recruit common NPCs into your party and raise them to be powerhouses! Indeed, it seemed as though the only limitations of the game were that players could never adventure outside of the main setting, the Kingdom of Aluric.

Takeo had played through over three hundred different routes so far, reveling in the joy of digging through the endless tidbits of lore and mystery. Every so often, he would spend entire playthroughs simply living between villages and interacting with the NPCs there. Of course, every one of those routes ended in the complete destruction of the world, but that was inevitable. In any case, there were still another three to four hundred possible routes he had planned to play through – the details of which were all logged in an ever-expanding file on his takoyakitori account. Not only that, but his account contained information on ten-or-so unique classes he had pioneered.

Indeed, initiating class change requests was highly dependent on the actions of the player. Upon exploring certain routes and completing some irregular actions players would normally never think of taking, Takeo had discovered eleven classes that seemingly no one had ever heard of. Though he had decided to simply keep quiet, especially about one such class that seemed entirely meta-breaking… It would be a damn pity if they were lost forever, wouldn’t it?

Takeo nodded to himself as he pulled up another email window, entering the recipient as Moon. Quickly typing up a simple letter, he linked the footage of the thousands of hours of playthroughs he’d completed, marking the ones containing the unique classes, and scheduled it to send the next evening. She can deal with it however she likes, I guess. Not my problem anymore.

A sense of peace ran through his body, prompting Takeo to stretch lazily. “Now we go back to Alukarum,” he spoke to no one in particular. Swiftly navigating through the interface, the walls and ceiling of the room began to unfold itself like a box, opening up into the familiar black void of the home menu as the floor beneath him began to expand outwards.

Before his very eyes, grass began to sprout from the ground, mountains began to generate in the distance, and a cool wind began to blow. Greenery began to spring up in a circle around him, bringing along a plethora of wildlife that carefully watched him from behind the leaves. The void in the sky was replaced by a shining sun, and giant letters appeared in the sky: ALUKARUM ONLINE.

Dramatic as always, Takeo noted with a smile as a dragon appeared in the far reaches of the sky, bellowing a fierce roar that shook the entire forest clearing. Without further delay, he clicked on Begin New Game on his console, and the world faded to white.

– – –

…is it just me, or is the loading time way longer than usual? Takeo tapped his foot impatiently in the white void space of the loading screen, crossing his arms as he looked around. Normally it loads pretty quickly. And where’s the narration?

“Now, young adventurer. Be not so impatient.”

“Who?!” Takeo whirled around in surprise, finding a vaguely-familiar figure behind him. They spoke with an old man’s voice, wearing a ragged grey cloak that covered everything except a single exposed hand. Clasped in old, wrinkly fingers was an eerie charm enshrouded by blackened yarn, a design somewhat reminiscent of a dreamcatcher. The centerpiece was a small mirror, one that reflected the endless starry skies despite their pure-white surroundings – a sight that sent chills down Takeo’s spine. The All-Revealing Formation? Why is he here?

The hooded figure seemed to stare at him before suddenly taking a deep breath. “Young adventurer, thou art ordained to embark on a journey like no other. Be aware: the consequences of thine actions shall have far-flung results that affect the fate of this very world! But, oh descendent of the High Elves, I shall trust in thy judgement.”

…is this just an easter egg? Takeo narrowed his eyes at the figure. But how did I manage to trigger it? Oh, and of course it had to be Borkin…

The strange traveling merchant, Bumbling Borkin, was a figure well-known to players of Alukarum. He was a suspicious character that showed up in odd spots, especially in the middle of crisis events, and would occasionally sell weird and overtly useless items. He also held one of the Seven Heavenly Artifacts, namely the All-Revealing Formation that granted the ability to divine the future… although most players took that as merely an excuse included by the developers.

This was because, of every single NPC in Alukarum, only Borkin was ever known to break the fourth wall. Whenever questioned, he would simply dangle his Heavenly Artifact from his fingers in silence, as though weighed down by its very presence. In any case, he was quite the enigma.

“Why are you here?” Takeo questioned. Normally, even if one spoke during the introduction, the disembodied narrator would ignore them. However…

“I guard the stability of this space.” Borkin held up the Formation in his hand – a familiar gesture. But this time, when he looked closer, Takeo could see the stars in the mirror revolving, swimming in the dark backdrop of endless space.

“The foretold moment has arrived and thou hath been chosen. By the blood of Karic, thou shalt enter this world and be granted one boon equivalent to thy desire. Now go!”

Suddenly, a great force slammed into Takeo’s body, sending him flying back into the white ether. Pain assaulted his nerves, crawling up his arms and legs like an electric shock. His heart beat rapidly as searing heat pervaded his entire body, and he quickly lost consciousness.

– – –

Torches licked the walls of the cold stone tower, casting the shadows of two people against the wall. An intricate spell circle covered the entire floor of the circular room, glowing a bright blue as runes floated in and out of the spell matrix.

“Teacher, is it working?” One of them asked hurriedly, her long, cat-like tail twitching in anxiety.

“Quiet. I’m focusing.” The second voice came from the caster of the spell, far more mature and stable.

Suddenly, the gravity of the room intensified, nearly throwing the Beastblood girl off her feet. The spell circle suddenly turned a deep shade of violet, like the skies between dusk and night.

“Blood. Now,” the spellcaster commanded. Immediately, the Beastblood girl slashed her wrist with an ornate dagger, allowing a small puddle of blood to drip onto the spell circle. As the twelfth drop of blood left her body, she could feel something within her very bloodline shift.

She would be found out soon.

“Stand back.” The calm voice of her teacher shook her out of her stupor. She quickly stepped behind her and continued watching the spell circle as it transitioned from deep lilac to a bright crimson before finally settling on a blinding white.

~FWOOM

With a sudden gust of wind, a distorted white hole in reality began to open up in the center of the spell-

But it only lasted a moment before the hole suddenly began to rapidly expand. The beastblood girl’s pupils contracted as it suddenly exploded. Her teacher reacted instantly, deploying a magical shield that prevented them from being scorched by the blast. Another wave of her hand drove off the cloud of dust, revealing-

…a frail-looking boy laying on the ground dressed in peculiar white robes.

“Behold,” her teacher announced emotionlessly. “The Hero of Karic.”