Chapter 5 — The Realm Box

As the shining flames died off, the Pharaoh was standing there, unfazed and with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

At first, Yuhan had his guard up, he never reached this far on the questline, whatever comes next is entirely new to him. But soon a few sounds were heard on the throne room.

As the field spell slowly dissipated in a rain of particles, Atem was clapping, slowly, looking at Yuhan.

— Truly a duel to remember, it was fun until the very last moment, congratulations, Yuhan.

A notification popped up on the boy's interface.

— "Quest Cleared" I can't believe it, I won…

Atem was slowly approaching the boy, looking at the main menu, Yuhan could see the maintenance has begun, maybe he got stuck in the game until the cutscene ended.

— Follow me.

Atem turned his back and walked towards the throne, Yuhan followed him through a small corridor behind the throne, the walls were full of hieroglyphs with a golden shimmer.

A light came at the end, revealing a big treasury room, with a flock of stairs leading to a wall. At the center on the room, in a pedestal there was a golden box, filled with hieroglyphics and a millennium eye in the front.

— That is what you came here for, the realm box.

Yuhan looked at "Atem" sure that he was being controlled by one of the GM's somewhere. Well role playing was one of the fun aspects of the game so the boy played along.

— Thank you, Pharaoh.

Walking towards the box, Yuhan took a little pause for dramatic effect before picking it up, but at the moment he did so, the ground started to shake.

— It's seems our realms are getting further apart from each other, our time is coming to an end.

At the end of the stairs, the walls started to open, revealing a colorful portal.

— Step into the portal and it will take you to a neighboring realm.

Yuhan started to go up the stairs, before turning back, the boy screamed at Atem with a smile on his face.

— Let's meet again! When you have a break some time!

Atem looked at him a little confused and murmured to himself.

— He didn't even realize yet…

Turning his back, while the boy was rushing to the portal, the pharaoh smiled a little and said.

— I hope you find your way home, Yuhan.

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After stepping into the light, everything was spinning, the boy couldn't see anything.

But the feeling on his hand, soft but a little prickly in his hand. There was a warmth in his face, these detailed sensations must mean that he wasn't in the VR world.

Opening his eyes, he could see the sky above was blue with a little hint of orange, the smell of fresh air.

Yuhan was trying to understand his situation, clearly he wasn't in his room, and this detailed texture was not something that could be done with the Dive tecnology.

Getting up and looking around, he could only see fields, a grassland extending for miles away.

— Support Center… GM call, Unstuck Position…

None of the commands were working, he couldn't call support, the unstuck function would send him back to the main realm, but none of it worked.

— What is going on… huh?!

As Yuhan tried to scratch his head, he noticed, his hand was milk white, there were no fingernails.

In Shadow Realms, all players start their journey as the "Lost Soul" a blob of white energy with no face, no mouth, no eyes or nose slime being.

As you defeat monsters and collect cards, a player can use the monster's appearance as a skin, or combining parts of different monsters to create an original avatar.

But right now, Yuhan had no way to access the interface, so he was stuck in this form.

—This is like real life, but I'm clearly stuck in my game account, I need to figure out my situation, if someone sees me like this, I'll be hunted down… assuming there's anyone in this world.

Yuhan was a collectionist and a lore enthusiast, he learned everything about the game to role play while in his stage persona.

Yuhan' POV:

"According to the lore, Lost Souls can manipulate the Shadow Realm, that is where the game name comes from, the cards of monsters defeated, the artifacts obtained and quest rewards at all stored inside the Shadow Realm."

— If the game has become real, all my cards, custom skins and items are in the Shadow Realm.

Extending my hand foward, I try to reach the Shadow Realm, like pulling a thread in space, and watching the fabric open up, before my eyes, a dark, smoky and cold portal opened up.

Thinking about the skin I want to equip, slowly I'm making my way towards the portal.

I literally passed through the black smoke and came out the other side equipped with my new appearance, I guess this experiment was a success, but now It comes the worst part.

— Can I even use my cards in this world? According to the lore I'll be summoning defeated monsters that submitted to me by force…

If I show them weakness or uncertainty, are they going to rebel? Losing control of my summons would be disastrous.

— Well to summon them I would need to know how to draw the cards, It can't be that simples as to say Draw!

Five cards appeared before me floating in the air.

— Eh?

I guess it can be that simple, let me see who I drew.

— Red Resonator, Lonefire Blossom, Elemental Hero Stratos, Terraforming and Defense Draw…

That's totally the deck I was facing Atem with, guess I'm still equipped with it, but what happend to the rest of my collection.

— Defense Mode…

The five cards disappeared, Defensive mode was used to prepare for other monsters initiative, which means I get 5 cards automatically when attacked.

— The basic commands seem to be working, if the lore is correct all other cards must be on the shadow realm.

Thinking about a simple card, I extend my hand foward and watch it go inside a small black portal, I feel a card in my grasp and take it out, it was the card I was thinking about.

— Celtic Guardian… in attack position.

The card disappeared from my hand and little particles of light flow foward taking the shape of the elf before me.

— Celtic Guardian, do you recognize this grassland?

Looking around, the elf squinted his eyes a bit examining the surroundings looking back at Yuhan, getting on one knee.

— Reporting, it bears no resemblance to any of the realms we've been before.

I scratch my chin a little bit, he looks a lot more alive, interactive, even now while bowing I can see little signs of unease in him, a little sweat in his neck, he is trying to breathe slowly to remain calm, clearly he is afraid of me.

— That's what I thought, rest for a bit, you will be called again.

Extending my hand foward, the elf shines and becomes a rain of particles, turning back to his card, floating back to my hand. I quickly open a portal to the Shadow Realm and put him back with the other items.

— I guess I need to test all of my abilities to see what's changed.

Narrator POV:

Two days have passed, Yuhan figured out how his abilities work in this new world.

Mostly, his game abilities have been converted to it's lore counterparts, while not as convenient to use and understand, it did free him from the games limitations.

The limit of summoned monsters have been removed, he could equip more than one artifact, for example wear 10 rings on his hands. He didn't need to consume a skin slot to save a new personalized appearance.

The boy also figured out some things about himself.

The lack of need to drink, eat or sleep, his body was resistant to physical damage, and all his skills were functioning, but unlike the game, where he could only have 7 skills equipped, Yuhan noticed that he could use any of his skills.

In Shadow Realms, players have "Skills" and those skills are more like a realm exploration tool, most are spell and trap cards effects, that players could use to defeat monsters and collect cards.

During realm exploration, wild monster cards can attack players and to defend themselves a player could either summon a monster card or use a damaging spell card to defeat it, only during pvp or an npc battle a duel takes place, most of the time players are exploring the realms and collecting rare cards.

As a completionist, Yuhan obtained at least 3 copies of every card in the game, some of them he even bought in the cash shop or from other players.

The sun was starting to set, it was the fourth day, and Yuhan finally decided to move, earlier in the distance he saw smoke, which means civilization was nearby.

There was no way he could have known, but a certain remote village was attacked, and had just been saved by a certain Magic Caster.