1 [#WakeUpCall]

The unsettling notion that something had fundamentally changed settled in. As the whiteness faded to black, and the black saturated to a dark-warm crimson red, Callumore didn't know what to think. The pain was gone, the sound of his vitals going haywire was also all but silent now.

His body felt different, but his thoughts remained relatively the same. Part of him was afraid to even open his eyes, not knowing where he would end up.

The teenager had heard stories of how people who were organ donors had woken up on the operating table from time to time and often died. Though he wasn't a donor of organs, he had given his body to science to give the world some hope of achieving the creation of a cure.

His mind went back to how his parents had died before him, how his siblings not too long after them. He had long since been alone in this world, so there was nothing to leave behind really.

Callumore was pretty sure that his inheritance from his parents was now in the hands of the state. That is if he had truly died.

Squeezing this eyelid shut tightly, he quickly found a strange sensation around his ocular nerves. He wasn't quite sure how it was even possible he knew, but he felt he was no longer the same.

His eyes had changed, they didn't feel like they did inside the game or outside of it. It wasn't as if they were heavier, but it felt as if they were far more guarded than before. Callumore couldn't quite put his finger on the impression he was getting.

As his senses were returning piece by piece, one by one, more things were becoming curious. For one, he could breath unimpeded without the aid of a machine. His heartbeat was slow and delicately paced as it was at rest. A soft and cold breeze washed over him, tracing over his strangely damp skin.

Without opening his eyes the Captain raised his hand and touched his face, tracing it over with his fingers. This surprised him the most, considering the lack of eyelashes and the overall texture of his skin is almost like that of a smoothly scaled lizard.

Yet from what he felt there was no tail and he was warm-blooded.

Part of him recognized what he was taking in, the data which was accumulating in his mind. From what he remembered, his sight had been consumed by an everlasting light, a pitch white screen.

How many years had he spent on that game? The idea of him dying while playing in it felt fitting. Recalling how he had started as a Psionic Disciple and Wanderer, he ultimately turned into a Pirate by profession.

A faint smile drifted across his reptilian lips, giving him a new sensation that he didn't remember having before. A small hum resonated in his throat as he cleared it.

Did that mean he died? That didn't make sense. He could feel everything and this was far from heaven. When he went to open his eyes, he froze for a second as he felt more than one layer of lids over his dark orbs.

Opening his eyes, he squinted into the bright cool colored light from the emplacement above him. As his sight adjusted to the level of brightness, he groaned and stretched.

Feeling his full length, Callumore was rather surprised to find that he had taken to the full height of his character. Not only that, but his current status sheet was hovering in front of his face.

It was blue just like the hand he held out in front of himself, and for the first time in the first few minutes he had regained consciousness, he knew where and what he was. The question menacing about in his mind right now though, was how was he here?

[ Name - Callumore Rayllumus ]

[ Title - The Pirate King ]

[ Registered Age - 16 ]

[ Apparent Age - 26 ]

[ Race - Ceqax ]

[ Height - 195.58cm (6'5") ]

[ Weight - 103.9 kg (229 lbs.) ]

[ Body Type - Athletic Compact, Ectomorphic ]

[ Guild - Harbingers of the Void ]

[ Guild Rank - Founding Admiral ]

[ Power Ranking - 50,324,395 ]

[ Vocation Classes ]

• [ Wanderer - 20 ]

• [ Pisonic Disciple - 20 ]

• [ Scholar of Thought -15 ]

• [ Mind for Hire - 15 ]

• [ Elite Psi Mercenary - 10 ]

• [ Chosen Pretender - 10 ]

• [ Advent Destroyer - 10 ]

• [ Pirate Lord - 10 ]

• [ Psionic Dominion - 1 ]

• [ ...Click to Expand List... ]

[ Attributes ]

• [ Vitality - SS+ ]

• [ Strength - S]

• [ Dexerity - S ]

• [ Intelligence - SS+ ]

• [ Constitution - S ]

• [ Endurance - S ]

The entire display before him gave him all the information he knew about his character. However, rather than displaying his username, it was showing the independent character. There was also no switch character button either.

"Strange..." He uttered under his breath, sensing that no one was currently in the immediate area of the bed for the medical bot that was hovering over the side of his bed.

Just like when it was still a game he could sense those around him. Wit the entire hub available for him to use, he could even see the minimap that showed the interior of the ship. He was in the med bay and his first officer and secondary character were waiting outside the room.

Based on his Psionic senses, she was in distress and what it was about, he had no idea.

As his attention moved back to this status screen, he swiped it to the side as to move it out of his direct line of sight. Touching it felt as if he had made contact with a wall of air. Dragging it along, he moved it to his right before releasing it, now narrowing his eyes on the Void Class.

Psionic Dominion, a particular Void Class he was lucky to have gotten as it could've been completely unrelated to his current build. The overall efficiency of all Psionic applications is increased by 500% and Psionic energy consumption is cut down to approximately seventy-five percent. It was useful in various forms of combat as well as utility. Psionic abilities were granted from the mind and were only as effective as their level of intelligence, and this class ultimately buffed them all well above normal statistics. An added perk of this class was that he was immune to mind control and illusions, especially due to his Psychic Nature.

His eyes then moved towards the small blast door leading out into the corridor. It was closed, but it wasn't locked. The little panel beside the door had a little glowing green light indicating it was free to go through.

The moment he sat upon the bed however, he blinked as there was no pain. Drifting down to look over himself, he was quick to find not only had his face changed but his entire body. His senses hadn't lied to him at all. "This is... Strangely fascinating... Heh," grinning a bit to himself as he explored his legs and his torso with his hands.

Callumore was quick to find there were no abnormalities, bruises, or even marks from the internal rotting of the organs. He wasn't sick anymore, that was something to be proud of no matter what!

That was when his stomach grumbled and he stared forward, "That's a new feeling," ever since he had fallen ill he had never really felt hungry. That was mostly because he was hooked up to machines that kept him fed and hydrated.

"Now, I wonder how it will be to stand in this... If it was any different from before," he wasn't sure if he was still in the game or if everything worked the same. He knew he died, but he didn't know how he was here other than the strange update.

Had he been transferred into some sort of digital space? Or was this another alternate reality based on a game he was playing, like he had seen in other web novels and comic books where people got spirited away to?

Poking his tongue out slightly as it felt different a bit from before, he stared at the pronged end. "This is not something I expected," he uttered after retracting it back into his mouth.

"Huh? What was that?" A muffled voice could be heard from outside. It didn't sound familiar, but as the door, open Callumore's gaze rested on a well-known face that couldn't be mistaken anywhere else.

Standing in the doorway was a female with bright deep red hair, trimmed along her jawline into a neatly unkept asymmetrical bob. The girl with beautifully soft pale olive-toned skin stood with a slender frame. She had to have been at least 168 centimeters in height. The more he looked over her face, the easier it was to notice the subtle pair of unpainted skin-toned lips upon her baby face characteristics.

Her animate big brown eyes gave a playful reddish glow, containing the echo of a ferocity far stronger than her enemies would ever know, brimming with inhuman intelligence. Dressed in baggy, but not too saggy, pants, and a pair of specialized shin-high boots. Her torso was decorated by a dark magenta turtleneck overlayed by a black hoodie grafted in sleek light polymerized white armor plating, leaf-like wings hung sprouting out from behind her shoulder blades like that of the purest of angels.

This woman's name was none other than Acacia Acton, her first name meaning 'Not Evil' and her last name being 'Village of Oak Trees.' Both of them were based on names for trees.

"Acacia?" Callumore blinked at the big brown eyes which were staring through him as if her mind was trying to process that he was awake. All the same, he was trying to process how she was speaking aloud on her own without being interacted with.

"My... My King," Her voice suddenly became deep and commanding, but still overall feminine. She marched over towards the side of the bed, her eyes with stern fiery, was she angry?

"What happened to the ship that we were--" Before he could even finish his sentence her fist was planted under his shoulder into the side of his peck with enough force to move him a few inches closer to the side of the medical bed. "Ouch! What the 'Void' was that for?"

He watched as his Vitality Points dropped about six points, only to start regenerating a few seconds later once the end or avoidance of combat had been verified.

"For making the entire crew worry about their Captain! The rest of the Lords vanished and the enemy vessel we were fighting against had fallen into disarray...! We ended up destroying it before they could send a distress signal," Acacia groaned aloud with her gaze continuously scanning over his face. She seemed to be much more alive than she did in the game, especially since her voice now sounded like it had real emotions in it.

"Huh..." Letting his mouth hanging open slightly as he reacted dryly.

"We began salvaging operations already, it's not like you missed it or anything..." Acacia turned her head away from him as she pointed, in a quick twist of her neck, causing her lively red hair to briefly flare out. Those red locks then came falling back down to frame her face in perfection.

Leaning towards her, Callumore grinned as he reached over to grasp her shoulder, causing her to snap her attention right back onto his face. "You were worried about your Ole' Pirate King, weren't you?" He had to ask even though he knew it was a fact.

"N-no! I was not. The crew needs you, if you were to have vanished like all the rest, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves!" Her eyes had become glossy even as she denied caring for him.

"You were the one guarding the door were you not?" Callumore was genuinely curious about how much of her was real if not all of it. The game did a pretty good job of following parameters, but this was abnormal behavior he was seeing. This surely wasn't the game he knew.

"Why you..." She murmured, keeping up a tough front.

Shifting off of the bed to stand beside her, he now towered over her petite frame. "Your reluctance to show your true feelings is commendable, but the door slid shut behind you," he informed as he leaned down to whisper those words into her ear.

Feeling his breath on the lobe, she tensed lightly even at his words, "Y-yes Mi'King! Thank you...!"

"Now, where are my clothes?" Callumore had been stripped down to this skin-tight black boxers, it was the default underwear selection. He, however, was not at all bothered by being seen, as he had spent years in a hospice center where he had been sponge bathed almost daily by both male and female nurses.

"They're over in the receptacle by the medical lockers," she regained her posture and took a step away from him, eyeing his hand as his finger nearly grazed her jaw.

"Ah, good to know..." The Pirate King was rather happy to know that they had defeated the enemy ship. However the fact that the rest of his teammates had just suddenly 'disappeared' left a pit in his stomach.

If all of the NPCs on board had become sentient, it would become harder to control them, right? His eyes traced over the redhead before him still, not moving for his clothes just yet.

"My King?" Acacia blinked as he wasn't walking, "Are you alright? You just woke up... Could you be feeling weak?"

"I am not feeling weak," Callumore responded with a refreshed tone, "I've never felt better in all of my life at this very instance, and that is a fact..." His eyes traced over to where the vitals would be from the original world he came from, but the screen that monitored his wasn't there. The only vitals he could see is that of his former avatars.

Acacia finally smiled hearing the words that left his lips, as if she knew of his past sufferings, "Really? That's good to hear," a faint tinge of pink crossed her olive cheeks. "I'll meet you on the bridge... I have to inform the rest of the crew of your current status!"

"Of course," the reptilian male blinked with all of his lids, watching as she darted from the room, excitedly, but still held a form of professional march in the way she moved. She was most definitely resisting the urge to skip and jump in delight from his point of view.

The door wooshed open automatically, and the moment she passed through the clear passageway, she vanished behind the steel door that closed back up with a magnetic click.

Walking over to the medical locker on his own, he enjoyed the feeling of the sterile floor cooling the bottoms of his feet. Thanks to the natural slickness of his scales, his feet didn't stick to the floor but they also didn't slide either.

Once he opened the locker he narrowed his gaze on the items which were nearly hanging up and folded at the base, along with the pair of heavy leather boots fixed on top of them.

Reaching into the locker he pulled out the body sleeve and stepped into it. It was black in color and rather simple in appearance. It hugged his form with ease, keeping his temperature and current condition stable.

Slipping on his boots after putting a pair of baggy cargo pants over his legs, he strapped the dark blue shin guards onto his footwear and up his leg. He also placed other armor pieces up the back of his leg as well and on his thighs. Fixing a utility belt along his waist, he then grabbed the chest armor and locked it onto the clips found on the body sleeve's shoulders. He did the same for the backpiece as he clipped that on as well.

His armor was sleek and colored silver and black. There were cyan blue LEDs and various other decals present on each piece, and even scratches from supposed battle damage to make it worn and rustic, but at the same time robust and useful like a veteran war hero. As soon as that was done, he pulled his helmet from the cubby at the top of the locker and shoved it over his head.

The helmet and armor were light, something he hadn't thought was possible. Though it could be because of the fact it was a futuristic setting, or he had higher stats than he did in reality.

His helmet had trapezoid-formed eyes, black as the void, and an elongated pentagonal-shaped breathing device on the front over the mouth area. The overall design was reminiscent full ballistic mask and helmet.

Immediately his surroundings were filled with information from the helmet's hub. If he focused on something he could immediately appraise it, learn of its contents, and even who owned it.

Letting out a chuckle at the thought of complete freedom from the life of living in a medical bed, he turned his eyes to the door. "I suppose it is time to meet her on the bridge..." Without looking he plucked the dark grey duster from off a hook inside the locker and put his hand into the sleeves. With a single movement and roll of his shoulders, he was wearing the western gear, before he started strolling out of the room.

Without another second, the instant he left the room, he locked eyes on several crewmen who had all been chatting until he emerged. They were now silent, so silent that he could hear them breathing!

Callumore just stared at the men and women who were dressed in variants of the same guild uniform. Some of them were tattered, some of them had been completely customized, or just some minor additions. It allowed every one of them to have a particular personality.

Looking to the mini-map of his hallway, he folded his hands behind his back before walking off towards the general direction of the turbo-lift. "Get back to work!" He'd shout over his shoulder, hearing them scurry about frantically behind him.