The Letter

I found myself taking a deep breath and coughing as my consciousness returned.

I was still on the floor, or at least it was what it felt like since my body was pressing against something hard and cold. And as I tried to get up, I found that my body was having difficulty moving as I wanted.

I looked around, scared because all around me, all I could see was darkness, and I had to fight against the urge to scream for help because I had no idea where I was or what was happening.

I started touching my chest with both hands as my last cohesive memory came to mind, but to my surprise, I found no knife handle sticking out of my chest or wound where it should have been.

"What the fuck is going on?" I mumble while trying to get up, but the best my body can do right now is get me seated on the floor.

I looked around, fear and confusion the only thing on my mind as the darkness around me seemed infinite.

"Is… Is anyone there?" I asked the darkness, feeling stupid as only silence answered back.

"Come on, Vlad, at least get up," I said, trying to get up, and something so simple took me quite a few tries before I could do it.

The air around me was cold and had a stale stench, a detail that only made things worse since the silence around me also seemed absolute.

'Am I dead?' I touched my chest again, reaffirming that there was no wound there. I could still feel the pain and vividly remember the knife handle and my brother's face as he apologized to me while I lost consciousness.

'Is this what death really looks like?' I thought, feeling a chill run down my spine. 'No tunnel of bright light with the sound of trumpet and angels, nor the cries of pain of the damned and the fires of hell, just eternal darkness and silence surrounding you, forever.'

"Is this a nightmare? Or a hallucination?" I whispered, patting my body all over, trying to assure myself I was alive and in one piece. Even pinching my face and pulling my beard for good measure. Sure enough, I felt pain, which meant I was busy and conscious, right?

If not, the thing I felt in my pant's back pocket when I patted over them made me sure I was not dreaming or hallucinating. The envelope was still there. I almost pulled it out of my pocket but decided against it since it would do me no good amidst the darkness.

I fumbled with my other pockets, happy to find my keys and cell phone inside the front ones. I pulled my cell out, glad I had charged it at work and smiled as I could unlock the screen.

"YES! YES!!!" I cheered when the light coming from the screen pushed the darkness around me back a little. There was no sign of me getting any signal, but at least it could work as a flashlight.

I looked around, using my cell as a flashlight, but only darkness was beyond what it could illuminate. I picked a direction and started walking, sure that I would eventually meet a wall or anything. Still, after twenty minutes of walking, the darkness remained in my path.

I sat on the floor, wanting to give my lousy leg some rest, and pulled the envelope from my back pocket. If I couldn't find anything in the darkness, I could at least read what my chest-stabbing brother wrote.

The contents amounted only to a single page, and to my surprise, it seemed like a list. I held the cell phone over it the best I could and strained my eye to read it.

"Here are some tips I unfortunately only learned after being done with my tutorial. My life was utter hell during the game because of that. I know it doesn't make up for what I am putting you through, but I hope it can at least ensure you'll have a better time than I did.

DON'T TRUST THE SELF-PROCLAIMED GODS. DO NOT CHOOSE TO SERVE ANY OF THEM NOR ACCEPT GIFTS OR FAVORS FROM THEM.

Do NOT choose a class as soon as you're able; hold on until you enter the tutorial zone and have access to the player hub. ONLY THEN select one that will benefit from your highest potential.

DO NOT START THE TUTORIAL RIGHT AWAY! Instead, look for the Newbies Guide in the store and purchase it.

By sheer luck, we found a secret area in the last stage of our tutorial. It was perilous but wielded great rewards. We regretted not having explored the other locations for such places.

NEVER ACCEPT A REWARD FOR CLEARING A TUTORIAL STAGE; EVEN AT THE END OF THE TUTORIAL, DON'T ACCEPT ANY REWARD THE SYSTEM TRIES TO OFFER YOU.

Form your own guild, even if it's expensive, DON'T EVER JOIN SOMEONE GUILD AND BECOME THEIR SERVANT!

Don't trust other players or the NPCs, primarily if they serve one of the Gods. You can only trust yourself and your slaves if the slave seal is high-tier; if you're compatible with a summoning class, trust your summons and nothing else.

There is a rumor about a golden monster roaming one of the tutorial stages; if you see it, do everything you can to catch it, BUT DON'T KILL IT. Catch it alive no matter what you have to do.

I wanted to tell you more, so much more, but this is all I was allowed to write. Good luck, Vladmir, and please… Please find it in your heart to forgive me for doing this to you one day."

I read the letter at least three times, trying to make sense of it. But each time, I only got more and more confused.

"For the love of god, Daniel, what have you been smoking, man?" I said as anger grew inside my chest. Sure, I loved a good game like any other gamer; I even had a pretty big guild in my days playing MMORPGs. But none involved stabbing your brother in the chest and sending him to the shadow realm.

I got up and looked around again, angry at the darkness surrounding me.

"IS ANYBODY THERE?" I screamed while waving my cell phone around.

"DANIEL?! ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME, MAN?!"

"ANYBODY?!"

The silence only made me angrier, and I crumpled the letter while forming a fist with my right hand as I started screaming louder.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU PEOPLE WANT WITH ME? DID MY BROTHER OWE YOU MONEY? IS THIS SOME STUPID ONLINE PRANK THAT'S NOT FUNNY AT ALL?"

"DANIEL, YOU LITTLE SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"

Silence and darkness, nothing more.

"GOD DAMN IT!" I screamed, starting to run, grimacing as my lousy leg protested against it. "HEY! ANYONE?! I WANT TO GET OUT! LET ME OUT OF THIS SHIT!"

I don't know how long I ran, but it ended when my bad leg finally decided to give out, making me fall. The wind was knocked out of me as my chest painfully hit the floor, and to my despair, my cell phone escaped my grasp. I heard a crack followed by the sound of it sliding away, and as I looked around for it, I could see no signs of its light.

"FUCK! FUUUUCK!" I screamed, hitting the floor with both fists, tears of frustration and pain rolling out of my right eye. "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY GAME AND ALL THIS S…" I started screaming but was interrupted by the first sound I heard in that strange world.

A "DING" that reminded me of the alert of a messaging app cut through the silence. I started looking around, sure that it came from my cell phone, praying that, for some twisted stroke of luck, I got service with it.

That idea quickly left my mind as I spotted what seemed to be a light blue colored rectangle glowing and floating above the ground a few centimeters ahead of me.

I got up and approached the screen, glad that something had finally happened since I woke up, but at the same time, utterly confused by what was happening.

THE GAME WILL START ONCE THE TEST LOBBY IS FULL

PLEASE AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS

POTENTIAL PLAYERS IN QUEUE

54/63

I looked at the screen, trying to understand what it meant but failing.

"Is someone there? Can you people hear me? Hey!" I said, looking at the screen, hoping someone would answer me through it.

I walked around it and even reached it, a little scared it would do something wrong with my left hand. Sighing in relief as it just went through it.

"The heck is this thing?" I mumbled, looking at it. "Could I really be a part of a game like Daniel's letter seemed to indicate"

"Er… Customer Service," I said, looking at the screen, but nothing changed.

"Tutorial, GM, Moderator, Chat, Forum, Frequently Asked Questions," I said in succession, getting increasingly frustrated as nothing changed the message displayed. The only change I could see was the numbers going up as time passed.

When the numbers finally reached 63/63, I felt my stomach becoming cold and looked around anxiously, waiting for something to happen. As nothing did, I let out a frustrated sigh, quickly replaced by a surprised exclamation as a line of pure light started rising from the floor in front of me.

It kept going up until it was taller than me and expanded to the sides, forming what seemed to be a door. The alert rang, and I looked at the screen.

PLEASE PROCEED TO THE TEST LOBBY

I looked at the door of light to the screen and backed away a few steps.

"Nah, no way I am getting close to this thing until you tell me what is behind it."

The alert rang, and the same message was displayed on the screen, this time flashing red.

"No, I don't know who you people are, but you can clearly hear and see me." I scoffed proudly. "You either explain what is going on, or I am not moving."

PLEASE PROCEED TO THE TEST LOBBY

00:58

It displayed once again, but now it had a timer under it.

"You can try to intimidate me all you want; there's no way I'm moving," I said, crossing my arms, refusing to be a willing part of what was happening.

No alert rang this time, but the screen went slowly from a soft blue to a flashing red as the timer went down. And when it was around the 10-second mark, the message finally changed.

.

PROCEED TO THE TEST LOBBY, OR YOUR FAMILY WILL BE PUNISHED

00:09

I didn't know if that was a bluff, but I was not ready to call it. Had it been said I was the one to be punished, I would have stood my ground.

"Sons of bitches" I growled while going through the door, closing my eye as I did so.