1

I looked at my surroundings and I eventually saw Zan, and shouted out "Zan! Where the fuck are we?" He looked at me with his eyes widened and immediately responded "I don't know." "Z, Look behind you. There's someone behind you." Zan looked at me and then shook his head, "Val, you're fucking with me aren't you?" Until a black figure tapped on his shoulder and teleported us both into another room. It was like a security camera room, but except for the cameras they were holograms. The black figure was

sitting on a chair, they grinned and greeted me and Zan.

"Welcome to my abode, and to the game of course!" The figure then transformed into a woman, her body was of an hourglass, she had red side swept bangs that went over her left eye, she wore a black silk dress that hugged her curves perfectly. "Am I hallucinating?" Zan then turned to me in shock from a shadow turning into a woman. The woman then teleported to Zan and pulled on his school tie and said seductively "I'm not sure..maybe you can touch me to make sure it's real..?" Zan's face went red, and he looked at me for assistance.

I playfully smiled at him but then realized what type of weird ass situation we were in. "Hmm, I just wanted to play around for a bit anyways let's get to the point." The woman then transitioned into a male dark elf with purple hair, he was taller than Zan and he spoke with conviction in his tone. "My name's Phoenix, I did not create this game, however I am the keeper of it, I make sure the game runs smoothly. I make sure there's no bugs or anything. Before you ask, I do not know why you're here or why you were removed from your home world." "But wait how do you-" Zan tried to speak then was interrupted.

"I can send you back, but only if you can complete 3 stories for me. All different difficulty levels, and you will do this because I don't think you're willing to wait until the creator gets here. This is the quickest way, and we're both helping each other."

I spoke up "Okay so hold on, why do you need these stories to be played?"

"Well, maybe because we need to test this game out, or maybe- I actually don't know, I'm just the messenger. The creator told me that he like casted some...Let me think...Uhhh.. well did something to the disc and now you're here. So just complete it." I hear Zan sucking in his teeth in annoyance. I look at him and sigh, he pulls me closer to him with his arm on my neck. Phoenix then has a white board pop up out of nowhere, and starts writing the rules for the game and information we need to know. It goes as follows, number one you can feel pain,and the emotional damage that was done to the character in the past that you're playing as. The game can force you to do certain activities even if you do not want to. Those are events in the game. This game amplifies your desires but in a bad way, number three you have to do minigames in order to pass certain stages in the stories.

Number four we need to stick together no matter what, but like we weren't planning on working separately or against each other. "Use your brain! and maybe common sense." Phoenix smiles once he finishes explaining and asks us if we have any questions left, me and Zan sigh, Zan then pulls me aside and we start whispering.

"Okay, so what the fuck, I really shouldn't have even looked at that game cause I don't even know what to think-"

"Just know if anything goes wrong I got your back like I for real think I'm ready for all of this right now, my mom's probably so worried-"

"Yeah I do too, we need to stick together in order to end this shit, let's ask him what's our first story and we'll see from there."

He pats my back as reassurance.

Me and Zan then walk towards Phoenix and ask them "What's our first story?" Phoenix then smiles once again and says "Eager to play, aren't cha? Well it's a romance story, however it's oh so tragic." Me and Zan look at eachother with widened eyes "ahem.. what?" Zan clears his throat before blurting that out. "Yes, I know what you're thinking, but it's just a story! Nothing more, nothing less. You are both love protagonists!"

The room stays silent after that, I don't think we've ever thought of each other as potential lovers? I mean Zan is pretty attractive but still, I can tell this is gonna be awkward as fuck. "Can you tell us the plot though?" Phoenix jolts up and teleports us to a campfire, me and Zan then collectively roll our eyes.

"What's this for?"

"To tell a story obviously, jeez you teenagers are so ungrateful."

"Bruh, can you just start?" I say.

"Okay fine, this is a tragic romance, Valentina is supposed to be the female lead, and Zan is the male lead. Valentina has to escape from a forced marriage with Zan's brother. Valentina, you will have to assist Zan into becoming the emperor, and Zan you have to prevent her death. By all means possible, this takes place in a noble setting. You will be seeing progress bars as you along the storyline. You will have past memories of the female lead's death, V. She is supposed to be turned back in time from the male lead casting magic on her. It's quite tragic, and when you guys complete the game. You will come back here and I'll disclose the second game." I speak up and try to say something before I'm rudely interrupted-

"There's more to the story, but you have to find it out."

I sigh and let it go, we then get teleported back into the hologram room. I look at the ground sighing at the mess we got into, Zan holds my hand and squeezes it as a sign of 'We got this.' He didn't say it, but it felt like he did. Phoenix then placed a red gem in my hand, and a blue gem in Zan's hand. He told us to squeeze it, and we did as told. The black fog consumed my vision and my sense of touch once again.