Essence Of The Void: Part 2

Since the game began on that dreadful day, the elimination of a safe place to rest where no damage can be inflicted on a player has caused many individuals to lose their lives. Although I've only seen a small number of groups while following Tang-ji, it seems like they all took the same path towards the end of the day, succumbing to death at the hands of the Husks. Nighttime in Dusk Protocol makes enemies ten times tougher and bumps their strength to roughly twice that of a player's current level, setting the game apart from other RPGs. So far, it has been quite successful at killing people. With Kazami's beta tester knowledge, how far can he protect this girl until they both meet the same fate?

The creaking sounds ceased completely as they reached the top of the dilapidated staircase.

Despite the fact that it was pitch black, both Tang-Ji and Kazami could see signs of a struggle thanks to their newly acquired night vision ability, which they developed as a result of spending so much time outside in the dark.

Peering into the dim hallway, Tang-Ji's heart raced, and her breathing staggered as she stepped out into the shadows. The air felt heavy and thick, with an unspoken sense of dread that hung in the atmosphere. Kazami swiftly called forth his flaming sword once again, hoping to illuminate the darkness. But instead of a bright, blazing flame that could melt through thick iron bars, the flame he had called was hardly visible, providing a weak glow from the edge of the sword.

Dim, flickering lights above his blade provided only a faint glimmer, casting long, eerie shadows that danced along the crack walls as Kazami walked onward. The reverberation of their footsteps stood out among the dead silence of the halls, which only served to emphasise their isolation in the mansion.

In a moment of overwhelming anxiety, Tang-Ji imagined that the hallway had extended, stretching to infinity, with a row of doors lining each parallel wall. She shook her head, breaking the fear-induced hallucination, and looked up, determined to continue. After all, Kazami had been risking his life protecting her thus far, and she wanted to contribute something, even if it was something small like this.

'Click, click, click.'

Tang-ji's internal alarm went off, and she snapped her head towards where she thought the sound had come from, but it seemed to be moving. She froze, her eyes darting around in an attempt to pinpoint the source of the mysterious noise, while the clicking increased in intensity as she struggled. The mind has a tendency to go into fantastical territory when confronted with complete darkness, she mused. Tang-Ji pondered what the sound actually was as she stared into the darkness for several seconds before she understood. She froze; her heart was now just about ready to beat out of her chest.

Two distant circles and what seemed to be a mouth had appeared in the shadows, meeting her eyes. Tang-Ji could feel her limbs slowly becoming heavier, and she was unable to break her gaze from the horrifying thing before her. The fact that it was now smiling made her stomach drop. It gave her a vile grin and stared back at her, flashing its gnashing fangs. She attempted to tear her eyes away from the chilling figure, but was unable to do so. All she saw was its terrifying face; she had no idea whether it had a body or not.

Something brushed against her left shoulder, which activated her survival instincts. She clenched her teeth and whirled, preparing to deliver a basic combat skill to the face of whatever had just touched her. "Heavy Shot," she whispered through gritted teeth, bending her legs slightly while rotating her torso vertically to fire off an uppercut. The light from her hand shot out like a bullet and landed dead centre on the hilt of Kazami's sword.

"What the hell was that? A striking ability? If I hadn't had my Leere ready, that would have blown off my whole arm." Kazami said, quivering a little.

After a brief pause, Tang-Ji gradually disengaged the skill. She spun around, hoping for the creature from before to have disappeared. Just as she expected, there was nothing there but dust particles hanging in the icy hall.

"Hey, are you going to explain yourself or what?" Kazami was visibly upset.

"Did you not see it?" She quickly turned back around, praying that he had at least caught a glimpse of the terrifying sight.

"No, I did not, and for the last time, could you please not act so recklessly?" He spoke slowly, but it was obvious that he was fuming.

"It's all in your head; I've been telling you that the entire time. Nothing here; I was doubtful about that clicking sound you kept describing. However, Ukiyo assured us that the area was safe from mobs, and even if it's not, I told her to keep the door open in case this was a mini-boss chamber. There shouldn't be anyone here right now besides the three of us."

Tang-Ji stared at Kazami for a while before turning her head away in silence.

That was the last straw, and Kazami finally snapped.

"I am so sick and tired of your silent treatment. Ever since this death trap started, you have been nothing but a nuisance; you only speak when you have something to say, and you don't even show any kind of emotion. It feels like I'm talking to a brick wall; your eyes are always dead, and you always act impulsively; I just don't understand you." His voice rang throughout the hallway as he yelled.

"I'm sorry," she replied, trying her best to avoid eye contact with Kazami.

He glared at Tang-Ji for a while, frowning furiously.

"There you go again, apologising; is sorry all you can say?" He sighed, placing his hand over his forehead. "Whatever, we can talk more about this later; let's just try to get this quest done." Kazami muttered before walking ahead of Tang-ji, who was still in a dazed state.

Her mind was filled with so many mixed emotions. She did not know what to feel, the fact that she was here all alone with one of her classmates in a haunted mansion in a dead city. The fact that there is danger lurking in every corner and that her life is on the line. How her parents are feeling out in the real world, to have their daughter not only lose her memory but now stuck in a game for who knows how long. All she can do now is try to survive.

It was not death that she was particularly afraid of. It was the fact that she would die without knowing who she really was; the idea of it terrifies her. Her life had been so empty, and those long-lost memories that she wished would return were the only thing she could ever wish for. The stakes had never been higher.

"If you want to help me, then investigate all the other rooms for me." Kazami paused for a second before continuing ahead.

Tang-Ji approached the first door on the left along the dusty stairwell, its timber weathered and creaking with each gentle draft that passed through the corridor. With trembling hands, she reached out and grabbed the handle, hesitating before slowly turning the rusted doorknob. The door groaned softly as it opened, revealing an impenetrable blackness within. A cold gust of wind brushed against her face, carrying an icy breeze that chilled her to the bone. Heart pounding as she pressed on, her anxiety growing with every creak from the door.

She shook herself again before entering through the door as she pondered, "What horrors lurk in those lofty corners, hiding in the shadows? What awfulness will glide over my tongue when I breathe it in?" However, her train of thought was interrupted as she caught sight of something interesting.

"Hey Kazami, I found something."

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Tang-Ji could feel herself becoming breathless as soon as she entered the room. She felt a cold chill run up her spine, and quickly turned around, only for the door behind her to have suddenly vanished, with the only remaining traces of a door being a few glass fragments.

"Hey, open up! Is there anyone there? Kazami?" She called out, her voice echoing off the surface of the water beneath her feet. As Tang-Ji turned back around, she noticed that there were multiple, shadowy figures in the distance. As she inched closer cautiously, her eyes widened, and she caught her breath in her throat. At that moment, she was staring at one of her greatest fears: what lay before her was a group of grossly contorted mannequins. "This... this can't be real." She whispered, her words trembling beneath the darkness. Her fingers clenched and unclenched, searching for something—anything—to anchor her to reality.

She also noticed that her surroundings were different somehow; they were dark, but not like in a dark room, but instead like she had stumbled into a lightless void. Where she stood was a space devoid of light, a boundless, eternal expanse, where no beginning marks its birth and no darkness finds its refuge. It was a realm that defied all comprehension.

Tang-Ji heard a soft, splashing sound as she stepped through the room and looked down to find the source. The familiar wooden floorboards of the mansion were no longer there; instead, they were replaced by a low tide of water that flowed through her ankles as she moved. She looked back at the distorted mannequins, checking for movement. Upon closer inspection, Tang-Ji noticed that they were hideous caricatures of the human form, their shapes twisted and deformed.

They had an eerie, nightmarish appearance due to their extended limbs and joints being twisted and splayed at strange angles. Their faces were almost featureless and contained no traces of eyes or noses, with only empty sockets and flat, smooth surfaces. They did, however, have lips—colourless lips that were locked in a mocking, silent laugh that seemed to go on forever. With ragged breaths, Tang-Ji's voice was scarcely audible above a whisper as she staggered around the sinister-looking chamber.

Suddenly, the clicking from before began to grow louder and more insistent, as if mocking her attempts to rationalise the horrors surrounding her. Her eyes darted around in a panic, searching for a way out, before stopping at the mannequin's face. Her heart sank.

Their twisted forms bore a haunting likeness of her friends and family: Kazami, Emiko, Ji-Soon, Ukiyo, Mum, Dad, and even herself, all dressed in the same three-piece suit. "Kazami, Ukiyo, why... why are you here?" She turned to face the deformed being that vaguely resembled her mother. "Mum, is that you?" She uttered it in disbelief as she came closer, lightly shaking its shoulders; however, there was no response.

She could feel her fingers brush against the suit's fabric. The texture was far from being close to human skin. The mannequin's surface was strangely cold, sending a shiver down Tang-Ji's spine as her fingers brushed against its weathered form. "Dad, why... why are you all here?" She asked, knowing full well that those things weren't her friends and family.

She fixed her gaze on her own face, eerily replicated on one of the figures, as a surge of dread clawed at her chest. 'No, no, this can't be happening. It's not real,' she thought to herself while clutching her head, 'I need to keep moving and find a way out.' Suddenly, in the corner of her eye, Tang-ji caught a flicker of movement. "Huh!? Who's there?" She yelled out; however, there was no one there except for the mannequins.

Confused by this, Tang-Ji held her breath and walked closer to the mannequins before she suddenly felt a cold pressure on her left shoulder. She turned to face one of the mannequins; it was the one who resembled Ukiyo. Tang-Ji screeched and swiftly slapped its cold hand off of her shoulder. The mannequin, for the first time, appeared to be alive. The faceless being looked at and gently cradled its hand, the one that Tang-Ji had slapped away, and seemed to express remorse or sadness from being rejected so harshly. The mannequin turned back to face Tang-Ji and returned to an unreadable, neutral expression. Tang-Ji stepped back a few paces, confused and horrified.

Fear began to gather in the pit of her stomach as her heart raced. She knew she couldn't stay here, but every step forward seemed to be met with an equal pull of terror, urging her to flee. With every second that went by, the walls of the room seemed to close in on her like a cage.

Without warning, the other mannequins sprang to life, startling Tang-ji out of her reverie. Their limbs were twisted at strange angles, and their motions were irregular and jagged. The room echoed with a chorus of creaks and groans, a disconcerting symphony of wooden joints straining against their limitations. Without hesitation, Tang-ji turned and fled, her footsteps a frenzied staccato against the cold, unforgiving water.

Her breath came in ragged gasps as she ran on, disregarding everything that she came across. As she swallowed down all her fears with a 'gulp,' she whispered, "Kazami, where are you?" She could slowly feel her legs getting weaker, yet just as soon as she was about to give into exhaustion, she saw a faint glimmer of light ahead of her. In a desperate attempt to outrun the encroaching darkness, Tang-Ji activated a movement skill, cloaking her body in a golden aura before sending herself flying out of the darkness.

She broke straight through the wooden door, reducing its once proud yet decrepit form into splinters. Tang-Ji grunted softly and picked herself up off the ground, now looking up. She was in yet another room. All the walls seemed to be throbbing with a sickening brightness that gradually dimmed to reveal the dark outlines of what seemed to be a bedroom.

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The large, ornate bed in the room's centre caught Tang-Ji's eye as she adjusted to the dim light. The creaking of the boards under her feet only added to the unsettling ambience. Only her faint breathing broke the eerie stillness of the room.

Every rustle of the curtains and each faint squeak of the floorboards seemed to taunt her, fuelling her imagination with another nightmarish possibility.

Tang-Ji approached the bed warily, and her heart plummeted as she saw the two corpses lying motionless on top. Her palm sprang up to cover her mouth as a cry of shock escaped her lips. A man and a woman were locked in a perpetual embrace of death, as if they had never been apart. Their empty, lifeless eyes met the emotions of pure dread on their faces.

Despite the fact that she understood rationally that these individuals were only computer-generated, her eyes refused to accept it because of how real they looked, almost indistinguishable from real humans. She began to feel uneasy as the shadows slid menacingly over the walls. She felt fear close in on her heart as it slowly crushed her. The air grew stale, and the smell of decay was now creeping in, making her want to retch.

Dusk Protocol has the ability to manipulate the five senses, so what Tang-ji is currently smelling is identical to what a real dead body would smell like. This realism is largely responsible for the widespread popularity of hardcore gamers.

Tang-Ji, shaking with fear, backed away from the nauseating scene on the bed as she staggered towards the shattered door. The need to locate Kazami was at the forefront of her mind. When she yelled his name, Kazami burst into the room.

His heart sank as he reached the bed and saw the horrifying scene. His body became slack, and he fell to his knees, his face wrought with shock and disgust.

His voice was reduced to a whisper, trembling as he spoke, weighed down by a sense of hopelessness. "We... we are not the heroes of this game, nor can we save everyone. Not everyone can be saved. Tang-Ji, can you... take a look at them?"

As Tang-Ji listened to Kazami, her stomach dropped. The weight of his despair and the crushing reality of their situation threatened to suffocate her. The words she wanted to say to comfort him would not come out, as if they were trapped in her throat.

"Is it possible that we could become like... like them?" Kazami's voice broke with unrestrained sensitivity. His once-iron resolve seemed to wane under the weight of his anxiety and uncertainty.

Kazami could not handle the sight of another dead corpse, despite knowing full well that they weren't real. They looked real, and that was enough.

Tang-Ji worked hard to hold back the tears that threatened to rise up in her eyes. She had compassion for Kazami's gloom and his pleading for light, but she couldn't allow him to give up.

"Kazami," she said, her voice struggling to sound firm and resolute. "We can't lose hope. We must go on. It doesn't matter if we're not the heroes that can save everyone; our efforts will have an impact on those around us. If we keep advancing and levelling up our stats, we'll eventually be strong enough to beat this game."

Kazami gazed at Tang-Ji, confused, his irritation bubbling to the surface. "Why did you suddenly become heroic all of a sudden? Where was that when we needed it the most? "You never show any emotions," he snapped. "You're so robotic in your behaviour; you never explain your actions. When you keep everything to yourself, how can I put my trust in you?"

The force of his words crashed down on Tang-Ji, shattering the walls that she had constructed around herself. She thought that if she buried her feelings, she would be able to keep her strength and competence. But now she saw how it had cut her off from others and alienated her from her only friend.

Even in the actual world, she would have avoided close relationships with the people she knew. The truth was that she was afraid of arguments, afraid of being someone's problem, and this fear led her to adopt the persona of a rationalist. She learned to project an image of calm composure because she realised that avoiding conflict could be best achieved by putting up a wall between herself and other people.

It wasn't like this before she lost everything that night. If only we could meet in person, I would have told you how stupid and naive you were back then, but then again, that would probably result in me disappearing if we ever saw eye to eye. At least you're finally somewhat mature now; too bad you find the worst place to act indifferent. Not only that, but the person that you're acting this way towards is Kazami, no less. Unbelievable. 'I'll protect the one thing I want to protect until the very end.' You said that yourself, yet you are willing to throw all of it away. Despite getting all of his attention, you still haven't been able to change anything. This feeling... It's definitely envy.

"I'm sorry, Kazami," she whimpered.

"NO!" he yelled. "I have had it with your apologies; we are now entirely disconnected from the actual world, don't you see? No one can help us, and I'm neither a strong person nor emotionless like you," he said, sinking down onto the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut, his limbs slowly unable to move.

"All you do is keep a stern face and a cold expression, like a stone wall that is impenetrable by all emotions. It's your business if you choose to keep behaving this way. We're done here, so whatever personal tragedies in real life have made you behave this way, don't bring them into a game where our lives are on the line." He inhaled sharply, realising what he had just said.

Tang-Ji bit down on her lip as the light in her once jewel-like eyes faded. She trembled a bit before clenching her fists tightly.

"I'm sorry, Senpai; I just wanted to help." She whispered weakly before swiftly exiting the room, leaving Kazami alone, slumped on the floor.