Into the Void

"Who are you?", Fred voiced out trying to strike up a conversation.

.

"..."

The figure stood there, silent.

Slowly, it seemed to open it mouth and uttered something incomprehensible, something apparently not human.

.

Tension increased in the air as Fred stood there, waiting for a reply. It was a deadlock filled with confusion and uncertainty.

.

'What does it even want?',he tried to analyse the situation he currently found himself in.

'I can't access the system window.'

'I can't access my inventory.'

'I meet a stupid bitch after cooking a fish. And she seems uninterested.'

'and ...-'

.

Then as if remembering something, he sighed and facepalmed himself.

'Why am I trying to talk to an NPC?'

.

One of the limitations which virtual reality games couldn't overcome was replicating human logic. It required high resource consumption and thus was uneconomical.

Simply speaking, the NPCs couldn't converse with the players. That was common knowledge.

.

But,

"you... You are not him." a seemingly scorn filled whisper escaped from the NPC veiled in darkness. 

.

Flustered, Fred took a few steps back.

'Huh? Did it just speak?'

He had never seen or heard of something like this before. He had been playing Dreamland Fantasy for 5 years now.

.

Without getting his reply, multiple shadow hands emerged from the shadows. They extended like infinitely long limbs hands, akin to an octopus' arm and rushed at him without giving him the time to respond.

.

 Fred jumped high in an attempt to dodge.

However, this left him wide open mid-air.

'tch!', he clicked his tongue.

'Rookie mistake. I acted without thinking.', he was annoyed but he had to pay for that.

.

Several hands appearing from nowhere greedily rushed up to him and caught him mid-air and started wrapping him in a shadowy cocoon.

.

'shit! A restraint spell!' he cursed inwardly.

What he was afraid of was the next attack. Since the next attack would surely be a deadly attack.

.

Stopping his breathing, he tried to feel the vibrations through his skin. Having his vision and mobility suspended, he braced himself for the impact.

.

'Maybe, if I die now I would be logged out.

but there's no guarantee with how things have been so far.'

.

So, he waited.

.

.

But the impact didn't come. No matter how long he waited, he just lay there wrapped inside the cocoon made of shadowy hands.

.

"I want to eat beef steak. Man, let me f*cking log off!!", he shouted. He tumbled about in an attempt to free himself. And-

.

"Grrrr...."

But his stomach roared in protest.

.

Waiting for someone to help him out of here, his consciousness slowly faded into oblivion. He only woke up later thanks to a certain someone's rambling tingling in his ears. 

.

.

"IlovehimIlovehimIlovehimI…"

Repeations of some girl's confessions filled the air, waking him up.

.

Still feeling dizzy, and tired after his uncomfortable sleep, Fred wondered if he should set this voice as his morning alarm.

'waking up to shispers of love wouldn't be so bad. That wouldn't be a bad choice given how beautiful the voice was', he thought

.

'what the heck am I even thinking?'

He shook his head, dismissing the sick idea. He had to get out of here first. Everything else came later.

.

Waking up, he found his restraints removed. And the shadowy figure was nowhere to be seen. He could move freely now.

.

'Am I out of the game?', he looked around.

"Doesn't seem like it.", after all he was still surrounded by the same unsettling darkness which didn't seem to budge or give way to any light.

.

Scanning his surroundings further away, he could finally see the person in front of him-

She was a thin woman. Her arms dangled loosely as she stood without vigour, apparently looking at him, with an unfocused gaze.

.

An ebon dress —sewn from shadows arising underfoot—garbed her, its flesh pulsating almost as if in rhythm with her heartbeat. From wrists forward of the long sleeves of her dress, her pale fingers could be seen.

.

And unlike the other NPCs, she was more beautiful than what words could describe. With silver hair cascading down and amethyst eyes like jewels, it was as if the gods had crafted her over months to create such beauty.

.

'This is such a bad joke. Not that thing again.', Fred panicked.

.

He stepped a few feet back.

She was too close for comfort. And the vibes he got from her weren't exactly nice.

All his 5 senses were screaming at him to flee. And he exactly wanted to do so, but he was not sure where he could escape.

.

She wasn't a player. He was sure of that.The pressure exerted by the woman standing before him was much greater than the white whale. And that could only imply-

"A hidden boss…"

.

There had been some very rare cases like this. A hidden boss within an event.

.

And one of the common things which the players who met those entities had was that- they would die. No one had survived a hidden boss.

.

And now it was his turn.

.

'Only a boss monster could give off that aura. And her's is way beyond the normal limits', cold sweat ran down his spine as he tried to control his breathing, to calm himself down.

.

"Cursed luck", his muscles tensed sensing the incoming attack.

.

Shadows rushed in with astounding force.

Compounded with their mass, at a velocity rendering evasion difficult. And upon impact, it would surely squash him like a mosquito.

.

Fearing the worst, he ducked, rolling around further away to evade the hands and get away from her attack range.

.

But the assaults instead got faster and faster until his conscious perception could no longer keep up.

.

Fred decided to pace up his game, he had to gamble on something which would be considered suicidal.

.

He closed his eyes, and firmly planted his feet on the ground.

Breathing in deeply, heexhaled slowly and-

"Behold my god-level dodging skills!!", he declared loudly.

.

Responding to his taunt, the hands resumed their onslaught, they moved like slithering serpents, trying to grab a hold of his body.

.

Humming a lullaby, Fred swiftly dodged the hands with bare minimum movements. He would only dodge when necessary, letting the minor attacks slightly graze his skin.

.

Using the subtle vibrations in the air brushing past his skin, he would let his reflexes take over and use that time gap to evade.

It was something which he had honed over the years as a pro-gamer, backed by his younger days as an athlete.

Against someone like that, even firing off a gatling gun wouldn't work.

.

His upper body swung as if he was doing some kind of tempestuous dance, while his lower limbs followed. He appeared like some boneless, untouchable organism which was nigh invincible.

.

"You can't damage if you can't hit!", an arrogant smirk danced on his face. He wished he could see the expression of the woman now, but he had to focus or he would loose his only advantage here.

.

His nerves were working in overdrive to their utmost limit. Slowly, he was reaching his limits and there was the backlash after he would stop.

He couldn't keep this up for long and he felt that it was the same for his opponent.

.

This pattern of attacks and dodges went on about 5 minutes after which the area went silent.

.

Sensing the change in the air, he finally opened his eyes.

'what now?' he strained his eyes to keep a careful gaze on the woman.

.

But she didn't attack or let out another series of unseen hands.

.

Then it hit him all of a sudden-

His feet grew wobbly and his vision got hazy.

The backlash was here.

His breathing grew ragged as he took in deep breaths, gasping for air.

"Damn body! Move!"

But it won't listen. He had pushed himself to its limits and even virtual games replicated this aspect.

.

The ground started growing mushy. Looking down, he found it turn into a shade of black.

.

Unable to move, locked in his own place, he lost his only footing.

.

Using that opportunity, the woman let out another magnitude of hands and coiled him up once again.

This time she snuffed out his oxygen as the hands coiled around his entire body like a huge boa contrictor.

.

The pressure gradually increased causing his limbs to grow numb, followed by difficulty in breathing and the terrible pain of being crushed all along.

.

"If... only ...my items"

"GAH!", a weak grunt left his bloodied mouth as he threw up a mouthful of blood and saliva blocking his air passages.

.

The enormous pressure kept crushing his bones and internal organs, creating a bloody mess of his figure whilst inflicting the maximum pain possible.

.

And his life got snuffed out soon enough.

.

[You were killed by the Witch of Envy: Satella]

The system mesage finally appeared.

.

'Witches sure are tough.'

'So much for being a top-gamer, f*ck', Fred cursed as his consciousness drifted into the void.