I dreamt about the day my hell started.
We ate breakfast together that morning, all four of us, complete as a family.
We were laughing and having fun. It was the usual family gathering, and everyone was so eager to start their day.
Dad was in his highest spirits that morning. Even though he had received the headmaster's news of me repeating another grade, he never once consulted me about it.
Dad wasn't like the father stereotype. Even though my grades were poor, Dad never scolded me.
After all, he was a gamer like me and has repeated a year in high school as well. We get along more like brothers than actual father and son. Of course, we often play video games, and I couldn't ask for a better father as cool and hip as him.
Mother didn't have the same mindset as Dad, though. She was a responsible yet strict mother, and a really beautiful singer.
She sang for us that morning, unaware that it would be her last performance.
My sister Lisa was ten. She aimed to be a ballet dancer when she grew up. We were all rooting for her so we enrolled her to a ballet school.
She was supposed to receive her first dancing shoes that day.
I dreamt about her smiling face.
I wished it could go on forever.
I wish I hadn't heard of the news that they died...
No.
I wish I had died, too.
*****
After a moment of total blackness, an unexpected miracle happened.
Like a dusty door that hasn't been opened for years... my pupils contracted as it perceived a streak of light.
What is this? I... can see?
Maybe it's just a hallucination, but the light has coated the entirety of my vision, like an empty cup that was being filled to the brim.
I couldn't even shed a single tear.
No way this was a hallucination.
This is real.
Even though it's VR, this is actually real.
It's as if my eyes have been healed.
This game that Carrol, Hiro and a lot others have worked on for years... Did they somehow develop this game with people's disability in their minds?
If it's Hiro, then that must be it.
Hiro Haneda, you airheaded genius. You still haven't fulfilled your promise to me, so let's meet together in-game someday.
As my newly restored vision readjusted like a camera, I found myself in a futuristic-looking metal room with a wide, glass-sealed window.
I was in a space station of some sort, but the vibe it gave off was something ancient, but technologically advanced.
Outside, there was a lush, green planet that resembled the planet Earth, but the continents were in the wrong direction.
Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw it. The planet's moon, but it was nothing like ours.
It was a small spherical moon completely encased in a metallic plate. On a closer look, they were actually large metallic cities that have completely covered its surface.
Small ships numbering millions were floating in its atmosphere while its lights twinkled in small intervals. It was quite fascinating to see.
It closely resembled the Death Star.
In video game slang, this moon is called an Ecumenopolis. A total urbanization of a planet that the natural landscape of the biosphere has been urbanized. No trees nor even empty grasslands remain on its surface.
[Come.]
The soft, angel-like voice belonged to a hooded specter who sat in front of me on a seemingly levitating iron throne.
It looked exactly like the Grim Reaper that I saw in movies, but the aura it was emitting was pure white, as if a sign of divination.
As a sign of respect, I took a bow.
The specter reciprocated and returned a bow, then it raised its bony index finger and pointed at the lush planet.
[Can you see?]
[Ah, yes. Earth.]
[...Xenania.]
The specter corrected me.
He rose up from his throne and levitated towards the window. I followed behind him.
The threads of its tattered robe floated on the air in slow motion, like fish fins caressing the water as smoothly as possible.
[Xenania and its moon Cosa. Two beautiful worlds that I have created, locked in an eternal dance. But the Age of Aggression has come and led the races astray, and bringing with it the destruction of the world.]
I wondered why the specter was monologuing, but then I realized that this must be the game introduction itself.
Interesting.
[I am Kraniel, God Almighty of Xenania and Cosa. I am the God of every animal and plant, every wood and rock, and every human, halfling and demon. In the beginning, I created this world as a symbol of peaceful coexistence between my different creations. It was supposed to be a jewel.... and yet it was defiled by its very protectors.]
The sorrow in its voice was so intense I almost shed a tear. In my heart, I saluted the writers of the game. They were phenomenal.
As a sign of respect, I need to committ myself to the story too.
[Um... but aren't you their God? Can't you intervene in their affairs?]
I said.
[I did, but I was defeated.]
[Defeated? Aren't you supposed to be powerful?]
[...My creations have surpassed me. They have acquired the power to corrupt the balance of nature, tweak it to their liking, and use it against me. My physical body was annilihilated from a one-sided battle, and my spectral body, you see, is tattered and in disrepair.]
[One-sided battle? Were they that powerful?]
[No... I didn't use my power against them.]
[Why not?]
[...I didn't have the heart.]
[That's...]
I couldn't say a thing. No, I don't know what to say. He has a point.
[But... Finally, after years of waiting, hope has come. Hope, in the form of you, Crusader.]
[Me? What do you mean?]
[You...are not my creation. Thus, you are spared from this world's cruel fate. I ask for your help in restoring the world in its intended form. Are you up to this task?]
Kraniel asked me.
I wonder... is this how the game dictates if I'm aiming to go on a path to righteousness or to evil?
No... or could it be that this is the intended canon path, the main quest? The game's title is
No, as a respect to Hiro and Carrol, I will play this game properly, and that means going with the main quest.
[Yes. I am up to the task.]
I said to Kraniel.
He showed a little smile beneath his spectral face.
[Then, you shall become one of my Crusaders. Come, and receive my blessing.]
With its spectral hand, Kraniel hovered its palms above me as it radiated white light.
A hovering rectangle that looked like a game's window popped out in front of me.
[YOU HAVE BEEN BESTOWED WITH THE TITLE "CRUSADER" BY THE GREAT GOD KRANIEL. GAME INTERFACE UNLOCKED.]
And then, the sound of epic orchestra music began to blast out of nowhere as the title of the game hovered in front of me in glittering letters.
[WELCOME TO
[PLEASE INPUT YOUR NAME. _________]
As this query popped up, the fact that this was the first time since my blindness that I could finally play a game was starting to sink in.
I started to get shivers. Yes, I was that excited.
A smirk appeared in my face.
I'm going to go all out on this one, Hiro. You shall see once more this genius power of mine.
And I will meet you in another name.
The name that we chose in the very first RPG game that we played as kids:
Saruquin.