Twilight Arcadia

A blue and green notification showed up on my screen unexpectedly. Liam paused for a moment standing in front of the glowing door. My eyes were guided towards him even with the bright notification in front of me. I decided to read it and see what it had to tell me.

'Welcome to The Elysium! Make yourself accustomed to the world around you and make sure you have a happy smile always when roaming the world!' 

'Population: 13.' 

'Reloading Elysium Data...' 

'Population: 12.'

'What happened there?' a small group it seems. 

'- Your current health is at 350/350' 

'- Level 3, 20XP required to level up' 

A video game system? 

In the corner of the words I saw Liam tweaking out a little bit. I closed the window and slowly approached the troubled boy. 

"Liam...?"

There was no response...

A few seconds pass and he collapses onto the floor. 

I quickly try and get him to recover but he seems faded between life and death. Purple veins around his eyes slowly disappeared. His face was completely pale. His mouth was moving but nothing was being said.

I gave him a couple of slaps to wake him up out of this nightmare trance that he was in but it didn't seem to help. 

His state didn't change for a minute so I decided to leave him. 

The door was illuminating purple so i was ready to move on with my journey through Elysium without him. 

I didn't detest him, I do want to have my own limelight thats all. You could understand. And I'm sure i could defeat enemies on my own. 

"Ale-..." 

'Huh' 

I turned around to hear my name being faintly called out. It was like a old man on his deathbed who was trying reach out to me. 

As sad as it may seem I brushed off the desperate call. 

I held my hand up to the door ready and soon it opened up...

The world of Elysium opened up to me.

A new notification showed up. 

'World One.' 

'?' How many other worlds are there? 

What I saw in front of me was a vast landscape full of nature and greenery, mountains that touched the sky in all its glory, alien vegetation that was vibrant with colours that i've never seen before.

But the further i looked at the sky the more i noticed that there were different streams of lightning being cast. Red, purple, green, yellow- on and off colours nearby the top of the mountains that ascended into the clouds. 

I do wonder if the rest of the people who lived in Elysium were all there.

It was daytime but it was somewhat dark due to the clouds obscuring the sun. 

I took my first steps forward and could see a couple of creatures in the far distance on the right that looked like dinosaurs but we not. They had purple and red designs on them but I couldn't quite see the further details on them. There was three or four of them. They did blend in with some of the pastel red and orange bushes which looked sharp and jagged. 

I could only assume that they were far away so that they could not disturb the new players entering this world. 

'New Area Unlocked: Twilight Arcadia' 

The rocky uneven surface was a struggle to traverse the path that was created for me to follow. 

I heard a growl in the distance that echoed for a while, after that I heard a screech that sounded close like an eagle or some sort of bird. I stopped for a moment to figure out where it came from but then continued since I didn't want to be a sitting duck. 

ten minutes of straight walking the path, I stumbled upon a moving rock of sorts. 

I tried to avoid this unique creature but it wouldn't allow me. 

It didn't have a face, it was just a shifting rock. Move.

'Fine, is this what you want "game"?'

I had no other choice but to use my sword. I swung it high and stabbed it straight downwards at the rock in one hit. 

A systematic red light covered the body of the rock, deleting it from existence. I gained some exp in the corner of my eyes. 

Something called a heads up display I think? 

"2:30pm on Friday 8th December." 

'5XP Gained'

Thats it? 

I continued my travel but I noticed something at the corner of my eyes behinds some large geometric boulders. 

I slowed down for a moment to try and grasp at what could be happening right now. Furrowed my eyes seemed to help in most cases but this one was different. 

Something or someone was following me...