Chapter 1: Welcome to the Undead Asylum

/*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*/

Waking up to the sound of my blaring alarm I fumble about with my hand trying to grab my phone and shut off my damn alarm. Finally grabbing my phone I close my alarm and see the phone's time display 8:02.

When I saw the time on my phone I slightly cringed at the fact that I managed to sleep through 22 consecutive alarms.

Whelp, what's done is done. Though I should really learn some

self-restraint. I can't keep staying awake till 5 and wake up at 8. I mean

I can, but I probably shouldn't because of sleep deprivation or whatever.

Sighing I groggily get up from my very comfortable bed and make my way to the bathroom. As I am walking to the bathroom I slow my steps to enjoy the sight of my cozy little bedroom decorated with dark souls posters and merchandise from other franchises.

Reaching my bathroom I enter and start washing my face with ice-cold water to finally wake myself up. Finally feeling awake I enter the shower and turn on the water at the cold setting. Because with the sleep I got a warm shower may just make me fall asleep.

After finishing my daily cold shower I step out and check myself out in the mirror.

My name is John Moore a 21-year-old with questionable sanity. I would rate my face an overall 7/10 with my most distinctive feature being my natural purple eyes. I don't know exactly but I think the reason for its unusual eye color is because of ocular albinism.

Although I don't mind my eye color (Because it looks cool) I usually wear contacts due to the fact that purple eyes really stand out and people assume I am edgelord wearing purple contacts in public. Though they aren't completely wrong about the edgelord part it still irks me.

I am relatively tall at 180cm (6ft in freedom units) and speaking of relativity have no relatives or close ones.

Now you may ask. How can I, an orphan with no living relatives afford a decent apartment? Well, it's simple when my parents died they actually left behind a decent amount of money. At least enough for me to stay alive enough for me to get old enough to get a part-time job.

And due to me having no other relatives I was the sole beneficiary of their life insurance.

It's not only that, as it wouldn't be enough for me to pay for college and get an apartment with just life insurance. My parents weren't rich y'know.

So through leveraging my only above-average but exotic looks along with my lean physique I was able to get some small modeling gigs and negotiate good money from them.

Though I wasn't really good enough looking nor did I feel like pursuing that career path. So that was mostly a part-part time job I did infrequently alongside my job at a popular burger joint as a delivery driver.

But don't think that just because I did a lot of work that I neglected my studies and workout.

I also worked out regularly to keep in shape. Because of me trying to balance all that In a day I probably drank equal part coffee and equal part water.

Through my continued efforts and financial management, I managed to get a scholarship to an average university and had enough money to pay for my college expenses without worry for a few years. So I may have spent a bit enjoying myself buying some games and merchandise.

Out of all of the games I have tried, the Elden Soulsborne games are my favorite. This is the reason for the posters in my bedroom and such. In fact, the only reason I bought a PlayStation 4 is because the world is cruel and Bloodborne isn't ported to PC.

That's how I ended up here today. A normal college student who stays up late playing games and crunching for his exams.

Exiting the shower I headed to my small kitchen-like segment of my apartment to make myself some cereal and coffee. A weird combination, I know, but I really need the caffeine to survive.

/*Crunch Crunch Crunch*/

After finishing my meal I slap on my work uniform and head out to my part-time job. And before you ask I do my job from 9am to 3pm and take the late classes.

Taking my phone, wallet, keys, and earphones I exit my house and lock the door behind me. Putting on my headphones I started playing my playlist to entertain me while I do my daily jog to work which is 20 minutes away.

It is a beautiful day outside, birds are chirping, children are staying quiet for once. On a day like a guy like me...

Should really be hurrying to not be late for work. Yeah, I should really focus on getting to my destination instead of getting distracted. But it really is a good spring morning though. Perfect for a walk, this is why I like walking to my job.

It does suck ass walking to work in winter though.

During my deep and interesting monologue, I came across a crosswalk. After waiting for a solid minute for the light to change to green for civilian passing I started walking across.

But as I walking I barely heard the sound of a car because of my earphones. As I turned my head to the side I felt like the world slowed down because there it was.

An 18-wheeler being driven by a driver who is probably tripping off his ass, seeing the wonky and reckless driving. Coming at me at 120 mph.

By the time I registered what was even happening the car was already close enough for me to be unable to dodge. Is this how I go? Being killed because some stupid idiot didn't know how to drive? Fuck that's sa-

/CRASH/

My thoughts were interrupted by 40 tons of steel hitting me at 120mph. Sending brief but excruciating pain through me before everything went black. Presumably, because my body got turned into fine red mist by the truck

.

.

.

I was in the middle of what looked to be a night sky dotted with countless stars but no moon or other celestial objects.

But it's kind of comforting, floating through space with nothing to worry about. It's kinda funny though, how I died. Because I died the same way as my parents. They died in separate cases of vehicular manslaughter. Guess it runs in the family huh?

But damn... Although I didn't really leave any regrets behind. I do wish I could have done more with my life.

I guess this is fine also. Although I expected more from death. At least something more than an endless void with some specks of light. This place is really weird though I don't know how long I have been here, second? Minutes? Hours? Days? Months?.

After some unknown amount of time spent thinking I felt something. I felt eyelids I didn't have to get heavy. Desperately urging me to sleep. After trying to resist the feeling for a time eventually gave in thinking it was finally true death or something. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

I suddenly felt different. My body felt different yet unfamiliar. I also felt unnaturally skinny and dry like someone replaced my organs with air and skin with beef jerky. After a bit, I felt like I could smell again and-

Holy fuck. That stinks. It smells like burnt rotten flesh mixed with sulfur and shit. At that moment I wished I did not have a nose at all than to keep smelling that foul stench.

Next was hearing. I heard repeating distant thudding like someone was shaking something along with faint sounds of water dripping, torch crackling along with some rats. And faint sounds of cockroaches shuffling about. I try really hard to panic but it's getting harder and harder by the minute.

Where the hell am I !? Some twisted combination of a sewer and a mortuary!? How did I even get here!? Interrupting my freakout I finally felt my eyesight return as I warily opened my eyes.

And what I was met with was a nasty damp and smelly cell infested with bugs with the only things inside it being me, some straws, a bucket, a pot, and a loose chain tied to the floor. The only light sources were the torch outside the door the singular window and a rectangular hole in the ceiling.

Although the cell felt familiar I didn't notice because I was still trying to get over the fact that I woke in a dusty, nasty, crusty jail cell in God knows where for God knows why.

/*THUD*/

As I was freaking out a FUCKING CORPSE fell right next to me. Understandably confused and honestly a bit terrified I looked up to see why a fucking corpse fell out of the sky and then I saw it.

An eerily familiar knight-looking armored man looking down at my cell after having dropped the corpse inside. A scene that felt unbelievably familiar to me. After a brief moment he left and that's when I realized.

This cell, that corpse, that knight-looking guy, and my beef jerky-like skin. That means...

Holy fuck isn't this Darksouls!? And aren't I in the Undead Asylum!? How!?!? But as if I did not have enough on my mind to think about. Fate decided to do something else to make me question my own reality even further.

[ Initializing... ]

...What...