2-"Night Falls"

To be honest, Lucien was sure waking up in his game was listed as one of the most popular tropes he had seen on the internet.

Transmigration.

But didn't transmigration grant the person some golden finger power? Or land him in the position of the protagonist?

Why is it that... he awoke as the insignificant son of the noble Silverstein family? And if that wasn't enough, he had to be in a character destined to die at some point in the game.

The game "Night Falls" was a popular fantasy role-playing game, and Lucian Silverstein made a part-time living as a streamer of it while studying game design. Of course, he knew every single one of the non-playable characters (NPC), including the one whose body he was inhabiting. And of all the coincidences in the world, it just so happens that the NPC vampire he inhabited shared the same name as him.

Vampire Lucian Silverstein was one of seven children born from the Silverstein family. The Silverstein family was one of the most distinguished noble vampire families with a long and rich history. Three of the children died due to complications because the Head of the family married a human woman. The oldest and second oldest children were set to inherit the family's legacy, while the last child was spoiled to the maximum because of how adorable she was. Meanwhile, Lucian was the fourth child in line with the third, fifth and sixth siblings dead.

As a player, Lucian Silverstein had only met vampire Lucian only once before the major battle, and the general impression he had of him was that he was gloomy. He was an anti-social who could barely share a few short words with players before rushing off into battle. Of course, the battle did not include the players and only had them come in as a mediator at a crucial point of the war. However, Lucian discovered a hidden quest involving the depressed vampire after his death. It was connected to one of the chain quests integral to the plotline for "Night Falls".

The story of "Night Falls" started from the protagonist's perspective - the player, a multi-dimensional traveller searching for answers to the secrets behind worlds. Utaria was the final world that the traveller arrived in, and it was where the five major races (Vampires, Beastmen, Elves, Humans and Dwarves) resided.

It was also a unique world because it had no sun, only two moons to differentiate between night and day. The red moon symbolised the day version of Utaria, while the white moon became the night one. The story began with talks of unrest among the citizens as the player explored the worlds and completed World Quests. The player's main task is to stop the major war between the races and enlist the races' help to discover the world's secrets. Depending on each player's playstyle and choices, they can either accelerate the tension between the races or resolve the conflict between them. However, if the player ended up being affiliated with either race and did not develop any relationship with the others, war automatically descended upon Utaria, and they no longer had the ability to mediate the conflict.

Given the unpredictability of the choices and how there was no right path to save Utaria, "Night Falls" was considered one of the most challenging games to complete because only a handful managed to reach the end of the game. Of course, Lucian Silverstein was one of the players in that handful. Yet, for a gaming fanatic like him, he even tried completing the game in different ways, but he had only succeeded once. Despite its stunning visuals and soulful music, that was how difficult the game was.

"You know... if I knew I would end up here, I would have avoided that flower pot no matter what!" Lucian hollered up into the sky with fires in his eyes. "If I were the player or the protagonist, I would have the protagonist's halo. But I'm a cannon fodder in a deadly world. God, if you are trying to kill me, why don't you come down here and smite me!"

Unfortunately, there was no answer. Lucian tried one more time.

"Hey! I was already dead! My Head was split open. Then, I was in heaven with Miles. Why throw me down here? If you are trying to get me to live, at least give me something!"

Again, nothing happened. The round and white moon gazed down upon him, silently and unmoving. Hence, Lucian threw a finger at the moon before throwing himself back into the bed.

Well, that was what happened a few days ago.

As Lucian couldn't jeopardise his vampire life so early, he leaned on his newfound memories to go about the life of vampire Lucian Silverstein in autopilot mode while he came to terms with himself. However, as the days went by, there were a couple of things that he couldn't shake off.

The Silverstein castle was void of any other members of the Silverstein family except for himself. It was rather odd because, during the playthrough, Lucian remembered that the castle always had a family member within the house regardless of the time. The servants within the castle retained a solemn face and stood at convenient corners where he could call them for help; if Lucian tried to get a reaction out of the servants, there was no reaction. It crept him out a lot because, eventually, he had the vaguest feeling that they were all made from one and the same mould.

And the clocks in the house... the hands did not move an inch at all. Initially, Lucian called one of the servants to bring him one of the clocks so he could wind it up. However, even when he had done so, it never moved. It felt like time stopped even though the moons periodically changed between red and white.

Lucian Silverstein hadn't stepped outside the castle but had already discovered these anomalies. So, now that he was sitting at the edge of the bed, entirely comfortable with his new identity as a vampire who needed blood now and then despite being able to ingest food (thank god, if the settings for vampires "Night Fall" were that of the traditional stereotype, he would cry rivers of tears for losing his foodie senses).

"Could it be that the protagonist or the player had yet to descend upon this world?" He murmured, a habit that he found that he had started to pick up. "Even so, why did the moons move but time stop? Where did all my "family" went?"

Lucian stood up and went to the open window where the white moon gazed upon him. Another habit that was newly formed since his time here. He glanced at the sky to see an entire Milky Way exposed to his eyes. It was a scenery that was hard to capture had he been back in his dorm room. Lucian chuckled. At this time of the night, he would have been streaming his gameplay of "Night Falls".

Yet, look at where he was now. Right inside the game, as one of the characters.

"Do you know?" Lucian began speaking to the moon. "One of the perks of being a vampire was that you don't need sleep? You can even spend days without it before retiring to bed. That's something humans can never do without damaging their health."

"No wonder I couldn't talk to you."