White Room

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

Aditya's scream echoed across the battlefield as he clutched his severed right wrist.

Initially, he had intended to parry the enemy's attack, but lacking swordsmanship skills, the foe easily feinted before severing Aditya's wrist.

Aditya tried to forget the maddening pain and reached for his sword that had fallen to the ground.

His severed hand still gripped the sword firmly.

But before he could move to touch it, his head had already been severed.

*Slash!

In the few moments before his life was lost, Aditya could still see his headless body stand up before falling to his knees.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 8th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

Despite facing repeated deaths, Aditya began to acclimate to the pain.

His mind, initially overwhelmed by agony, gradually regained its functionality. He learned to divide his focus between movement, combat, pain management, and seeking a way out of this madness.

However, adapting to something far beyond the capacity of a city college student wasn't as simple.

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

Once again, he met the Majapahit warrior who had repeatedly killed him.

Once again, the Majapahit warrior performed a vertical slash.

Once again, Aditya raised his sword to parry horizontally.

This time he managed to parry correctly and the sound of metal clashing sounded delightful in his ears. Before he could smile the pain began to radiate from his wrist that held the sword.

The huge difference in strength made Aditya's soft joints unable to withstand the sword's speed until it broke the bone.

The tip of the blade pierced Aditya's left chest before he could register the pain from his broken wrist.

"FUCK!!!!"

Just before he could curse further, the enemy's sword slashed through his neck, exposing his bones. Once again, Aditya fell into the abyss of his own blood until death came calling.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 9th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

Aditya realized he wasn't in the real world but in a virtual realm that felt 100% real. Otherwise, how could he repeatedly return to life after death?

Thus, he understood he truly existed within the world of Pendant of War, where the rules of the game governed reality.

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

Once again, he met the Majapahit warrior who had repeatedly killed him.

Once again, the Majapahit warrior performed a vertical slash.

Once again, Aditya raised his sword to parry horizontally.

Aditya chose not to parry with all his strength this time but instead relaxed his arm muscles, swiftly executing a side step.

As a result, he evaded the Majapahit warrior's sword strike, but his own movement placed him off balance.

Unbeknownst to him, the Majapahit warrior's foot was already positioned right behind Aditya's, and when he moved sideways, he stumbled over the warrior's foot.

Gravity took hold, and Aditya fell backward.

"UUFFTT!"

As the hard ground met Aditya's back, the air exploded out of his lungs.

Before he could even catch his breath, his eyes widened in shock as he saw the gleaming sword thrust straight toward his forehead.

Skulls may be strong, but not strong enough to withstand a sword's thrust. Consequently, the Majapahit warrior's sword pierced his forehead, penetrating his brain.

Describing the sensation of a pierced brain is difficult, as it requires a functioning brain to articulate. Unfortunately, that was something Aditya did not possess at the moment.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 10th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

So, if this world is indeed a game world, then the features present in the game should also be available here.

That means status, attributes, and game menu should also be accessible.

However, all Aditya sees is a blue panel containing explanations of the tutorial mission.

He tries to press the blue panel, but his fingers simply go through it. Attempting to will the blue panel to change also yields no results. He then shouts "status", "inventory", "menu", "open sesame", etc., but still, nothing happens.

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

Once again, he met the Majapahit warrior who had repeatedly killed him.

Once again, the Majapahit warrior performed a vertical slash.

Once again, Aditya raised his sword to parry horizontally.

This time, Aditya, too focused on the blue panel, failed to detect the change in the direction of the Majapahit warrior's sword.

The tip of the Majapahit warrior's sword pierced his eye and penetrated through the back of his head.

However, the warrior couldn't pull his sword back, stuck in Aditya's skull bone. He then seized Aditya's sword and continued the fight.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 11th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

Aditya began to read the transparent blue panel in front of him repeatedly from the beginning.

He searched for any anomalies or anything peculiar in the tutorial mission explanation. However, he still found nothing, almost giving up.

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

Once again, he met the Majapahit warrior who had repeatedly killed him.

Once again, the Majapahit warrior performed a vertical slash.

Aditya attempted to strike first, but his blow was easily dodged before the enemy's sword pierced his chest.

Aditya could only kneel, enduring the pain that drove him to madness until death once again came for him.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 12th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

If the anomaly wasn't found in the transparent blue panel in front of him, perhaps he could find it in his own body.

Aditya still remembered wearing a white t-shirt and boxer shorts in his dorm room.

But now he was clad in a Sundanese soldier uniform: baggy pants covering his legs up to the knees, bare upper body, sandals made of rattan and palm fibers, a copper sword sheathed at his waist, and a large copper necklace covering his chest.

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

Once again, he met the Majapahit warrior who had repeatedly killed him.

This time, he attempted to avoid the battle and turned away before they even met.

But before he could take another step, a spear suddenly shot out, piercing Aditya's chest with alarming speed.

As he turned to face his attacker, he found the Sunda soldier who had been behind him earlier.

It was the same warrior who had forced Aditya's head to look forward, the one he suspected of killing him in his fourth death.

"Cowards who retreat shall die!"

Aditya heard before death claimed him once more.

[Congratulations, you have died for the 13th time!]

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

Aditya reached into his pocket eagerly.

When he felt something solid inside, a smile formed on his face for the first time.

Quickly, he retrieved it. It was a pendant shaped like a bird with its wings spread wide. The bird resembled an eagle, but Aditya knew it wasn't just any eagle.

It was a Garuda, the symbol of Indonesia and several other Southeast Asian countries.

But what was Aditya supposed to do with this pendant?

Before he could answer that...

"ATTACK!!!" Wisesa once again cursed all his soldiers to die.

Aditya once again pushed his body to run along with the other Sunda warriors.

As Aditya pondered the Garuda pendant in his hand, an idea sparked in his mind. Placing the Garuda pendant on top of the blue panel, he exclaimed, "Open Menu!"

Instantly, as soon as he uttered those words, the world seemed to stop as if a pause button had been pressed. The Sunda warriors running beside him froze in their tracks, and the Majapahit warrior who had been relentlessly attacking him stood motionless with his raised sword.

Before Aditya could even process his surprise, the scenery around him suddenly changed.

He found himself in an all-white room that made his head spin with its starkness. There was nothing in this place except for the transparent blue panel in front of his eyes.

--Menu—

[Shop]

[Mission]

[Exit]

Seeing these three options, color returned to Aditya's pale face.

With trembling hands, he disregarded the other two options and immediately chose [Exit].

However, instead of being greeted by the messy room of his cheap boarding house, he encountered a new set of choices.

[Do you want to surrender?]

[Yes] [No]

Aditya almost chose [Yes] before he remembered the Pendant of War game rules.

"Death doesn't mean die but give up means."

"Huft! Huft! Huft! Huft! Huft!"

His breath caught as his hand stopped midair.

Aditya summoned every ounce of willpower he had to lower his arm from pressing the [Yes] button.

His knees trembled, and he collapsed to the ground, kissing the earth. Tears began to flow down his cheeks.

"Surrendering doesn't mean dying, right?" Aditya questioned the blue panel in front of him.

But there was no response, and the two options remained frozen before him.

"Hey, you're not really going to kill me, are you?" he pleaded.

Once again, there was no answer.

The sound of sobbing grew louder. Aditya covered his face with his hands and curled into himself.

"Please tell me I won't die if I choose [Yes]!" he begged.

Still, there was no response.

"Please... please... please... tell me I don't have to kill myself to get out of this game..."

Again, there was no answer.

"Tell me..."

Tell me.

Tell me.

"TELL ME!!!"

Suddenly, a sentence appeared in the blue panel.

[Yes, you will die when you choose to surrender.]

Aditya was shocked, but more than that, he was desperate.

"Why?" he demanded.

[As previously stated in the game's Terms Agreement, when you choose to stop playing, you will die. The device around your neck will inject a high-level narcotic substance that will cause immediate overdose. Your body will then be donated to our affiliated hospital for further use.]

"What? When... I never agreed to this!"

[You gave consent by checking the consent box, and we even have your signature.]

"What... you can't just kill me like this... the government... the police will suspect my death! You can't wash your hands of this so easily! YOU WILL FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR MY DEATH TOO!"

[You don't need to worry about that. When the authorities find your body, they will simply write off your death as a drug overdose. No one will suspect anything, as you yourself know you have no one to mourn your death.]

"Wha—"

[If you don't wanna die, just keep playing.]

Did that mean he had to go back to that place?

"No!"

"No!"

"NO!!!"

Aditya shook his head with all his might trying to reject the reality that arrived before his eyes. His body felt so cold that he shivered and trembled. Aditya hugged his shoulders very tightly and then curled up as if he wanted to make his body smaller.

But unfortunately, reality was not that easy to avoid.

[The countdown begins! If you don't choose immediately after the countdown ends then the game will automatically assume you agree to surrender.]

[10...]

[9...]

"What?!" Aditya gasped.

His eyes widened in disbelief as the numbers on the blue panel got smaller and smaller.

"Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait!"

[8…]

"I SAID WAIT!" Aditya shouted but the numbers on the blue panel ignored him and continued to get smaller.

[7…]

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SUFFER!! YOU CAN'T FORCE ME TO GO BACK TO THAT PLACE!!! THIS IS A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION!!!" Aditya shouted angrily. His pale face turned red but his body still shook with shivers.

[6...]

"What do you want? Name whatever it is and I'll do it! Please don't kill me or make me go back to that place!" Aditya tried bargaining.

[5...]

"No! Please God No!" Aditya pleaded.

He started yanking his hair until many strands were pulled out of his head. He smacked his face trying to wake up from this nightmare but this was reality and not a dream.

[3...]

"Hahahahahah" he started laughing to himself with tears rolling down his cheeks.

But the numbers on the blue panel didn't care and kept getting smaller.

[2…]

"I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die!"

[1…]

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"

And Aditya forced to choose [No].

[Happy Gaming!]