Mysterious Force

Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 8:13 pm.

Finally, we entered the void, only to find ourselves plunging toward our death. We could see nothing but white around, thanks to the raging snowstorm surrounding us. We all did expect the worst, but nobody guessed that we would be dying immediately.

I closed my eyes and welcomed death, spreading my arms wide into the air. The Snowflakes kept hitting my face, and soon I could no longer feel anything, as my skin almost froze due to the extreme cold. Shutting my eyes tightly, I waited to hit the ground. 

'One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi… What's going on? Am I still in the air?'

Opening my eyes, I saw thick darkness enveloping me, and I failed to move my body. I realized I had already hit the snowy ground, and stuck myself deep into the snow gathered on the ground.

[Your HP is depleting fast due to the freeze effect]

[Your body oxygen level has decreased severely]

[You have 20 seconds left to breathe oxygen in]

[You have 20% HP left]

Force Alert System kicked in. Muting system notifications didn't work on them.

'Seems like I'll be dying here freezing before suffocating myself to death. Then I guess teleporting outside for oxygen won't make any difference. God, It feels really cold though.'

The damage suppressor system suppressed the pain mostly, but still, we felt a small percentage of that for a better game experience. And of course, the suffocation wasn't real either.

God knows how many days I gotta farm to reach 250 levels again. And if I lose items, it's gonna be a nightmare, being in a huge debt already. Can't die in peace even inside a game. I sighed, keeping my eyes over the hp bar, waiting for my hp to hit zero.

Suddenly everything around me started shaking wildly. It felt as if the world itself was going upside down. Then I spotted a small crack in the darkness, as tiny fragments of light peeked through it. Soon the crack grew larger and I began slipping down towards the light.

Thud!

I fell on a jagged stone floor through a large hole in the ceiling 3 meters above the ground. Before I could grasp the situation, the trembling began again and this time it was a lot stronger than before. I wondered how the ceiling, which looked thousands of years old, still withstood this violent earth-shaking. 

Along with the ear-splitting noise of the earthquake, I heard several people screaming from a distance. Their voices kept growing closer, making the air filled with ghastly echoes.

Thud! Ouff! Gehh!

All my other 6 squadmates crushed onto me, dropping exactly the same way I did, and then the gap in the ceiling finally closed off.

[You have 10% HP left.]

[Your life is in severe danger.]

With six people crushing me under their butts, of course, I would lose some HP. And I could only move my right hand, which grabbed onto something soft, really soft.

'Is that someone's boob? It must be. I mean, it's so soft and round. Well, it's not my fault that someone's boob just landed on my hand, the only movable part of my body, right? By the way, it is huge. Only Annette-san's ones can be this large. I'm so sorry, Annette-san.'

"Hey! Who the hell is squeezing my ass?" Suddenly Lynx yelled out.

'Oh, God!! This will haunt my dreams forever.' My inside writhed.

"Shinji move your fucking hands." Lynx shouted again.

'Oh good. He is suspecting Shinji. Whew, dodged a bullet there.'

"I can't move my arm. And why the hell is it so soft, man? I was so sure I was touching someone's boob." Shinji replied.

'Wait, what? What's going on here?'

"Eww, Arataki senpai."

"What's wrong with you, jeez!"

"I would have cut your hands down before you could touch them."

The girls started reacting to Shinji's comment. And I silently swore to take my own action to the grave.

"Ugh, just move over, you guys. I'm dying down here." I groaned, trying to move out of this mess, especially my right hand.

"Oh, right. It looks like the freezing effect wore off already." Hikari said, moving from the top. Eventually, everyone else also got on their feet.

"How did you lose so much HP though?" Boss asked, spreading his hand towards me.

"Well, I didn't have any warmer clothes with me. So the freeze effect took a much heavier toll on me." I answered, grasping his hand and he pulled me up effortlessly, like picking up a piece of rag.

"Do you always have to mess up something, Ryoki-kun?" Hikari rolled her eyes. 

"Anyway, this place is warm. Let's all rest here a bit before we start moving again." Boss suggested, to which we all agreed, responding with nods.

I drank some health potions and got myself to full HP again. Argh, too sweet. I hate these potions. 

Then I looked around the surroundings properly for the first time. It was a square-shaped chamber completely made of stone boulders. Various designs and sculptures were carved on the stone walls. The flame torches danced radiantly at the corners, making the sculptures around seem alive and horrendous. Only the north wall had a single stone door shut tightly. 

'Maybe we gotta solve a puzzle to open this?'

"Riri, are you there?" I summoned my support AI.

"Hello, Master." A system window with a video screen appeared before me like always. On the screen, an 8 years old girl smiled at me.

"Do you have any idea about our location?" I asked, leaning against a wall.

"Nope, here take a look at the map." Another system window opened up beside the already existing one, which showed the world map. "See? The map shows nothing except this very room."

"Hmm, so we gotta go with our instinct until we find the map." I sighed. Relying on instincts wasn't my cup of tea, as they were superstitious at best, hazardous at worst. "What's the time limit though?"

"It's a 6-hour run. We have exactly 5 hours and 54 minutes left before we get kicked out of the void." Riri said while dancing and whirling around. Her long red hair swayed around with her, dizzying my already sleep-deprived mind. So, I turned off the system window with her in it.

"Ahhh, you meanie!" Riri cried out, force-opening the window. "Don't just cut Riri out, Master. You could at least say goodbye or something."

"You are always here with me anyway. I don't see any need to say goodbye." 

Riri, the support AI, was intertwined deeply with my game character, with me. Whatever I would see, hear or experience she would do the same. She watched over me and guided me through my whole journey, and I was the only existence she could directly interact with. Hence, we were closer to each other than we could ever be with anybody else.

"Ah, that makes sense. Okay, I'll take my leave now. Call Riri whenever you want." With that familiar weird mix of normal and childlike speaking styles, Riri switched herself off.

Soon Boss stood up and initiated the journey, "That should be enough rest. Let's get to work guys. Don't just trigger whatever button or lever you find, go through me first. And look out for…" 

Before Boss could finish giving away instructions, the flame torches suddenly went off without any indications whatsoever. "What's going on? Did you guys already trigger something?"

"Nope, I didn't do anything."

"Me neither."

"I don't think any of us did anything. We all are veteran players here. Well, without Pinkpika."

"Come on! I already said I didn't do anything."

"Anyway, Hikari, summon your light." Boss ordered.

But no response came out from Hikari, no light either. 

"Hikari?" I called out to her but still got no answer. What's going on now? "Anyone else…" 

Just as I started to speak the torches lightened up again. Everyone looked around to see if anything happened to Hikari, but nobody found her inside the chamber.

"What the hell? She disappeared?" Shinji said, glancing at the sculptures.

"Did she wander off?" Pika added.

"She isn't the type to do so." I replied, opening the menu window. "And here it says that she is still online." I pointed at the squadmate section on my menu.

"Voice-calling won't work either, since voids and dungeons disable all kinds of communication." Lynx explained.

"Anyway, we will find her. Let's get out of here first." As soon as Boss ended the sentence, the torch snuffed out again.

"Damnit Boss, you are jinxing it by giving out orders." Shinji shouted out.

"Eh, seriously?" Boss frowned. "Anyway let's stay clo…"

"Boss?" 

Soon lights came back and we found out that Boss disappeared too. 

This time we realized the pattern. Something here was splitting us up one by one. And as expected, soon the light went off again.

"Whose turn is it now?" I asked out but got no reply back. 

'Everyone's gone altogether this time? No, wait…'

My surroundings lightened up and I found myself in a long passageway, lit with a series of flambeaus. 

'I am the one who's gone.'