<>

<>

<>

Ivan felt unnaturally sluggish, never wanting to wake up from his sleep. But he felt his head hurting as if it had been bashed against a wall numerous times by someone.

Not to mention that irritating mechanical voice, which kept on ringing inside his ears.

"Daniel! Put your goddamn headphones on while playing, or I will stick them right into your ass with... !?" Ivan sat up, annoyed to curse at his roommate that did nothing except playing games all day long, but... he found himself not to be in his room. Ivan unwittingly creased his forehead, seeing himself in a dim cave lighted up only by a torch, hanging by a wall, that hadn't completely gone out.

Turning his head around, he saw piles of eerily white skeletons messily scattered around the dimness. Corpses that had not wholly decomposed also laid around Ivan.

He saw a corpse to his side with eyes open and staring directly at him, unblinking.

A terrifying shiver ran through Ivan's body.

"Ah, shit fuck!..." Ivan used his hands and legs to crawl backward with the look of horror appearing on his face. He almost saw his soul escaping through his nipples, after seeing a fresh corpse so close to him staring at him with lifeless eyes, but then his head hit a wall subsequently.

Bang!

"Oww, oww, oww..." Ivan furiously rubbed the back of his head to stop the head bump from appearing, but his efforts were wasted when his hand felt the lump rising to pierce the heaven... Just kidding, it was too small for even his palm to notice it but it was painful. At least, the pain took his mind off from encountering such a terrifying panorama of corpses the moment he woke up.

"Fuck you pussy god!... Where the hell I am?" Ivan looked up again, and this time, he was expecting to see corpses and bones littered around him; therefore, it felt a little less terrifying than before.

<>

A mechanical sound once again rang, causing Ivan to look around in fear subconsciously.

"Who is it?... Hello?... Is there anyone else here? Daniel?... " Ivan shouted. He hoped it was some kind of a prank his friend, Daniel was playing, but the smell of the decomposed corpse was too real and repulsive to strike them as fakes directly.

Suddenly he felt an itch on his stomach, and it kept on increasing in intensity, forcing Ivan to look down at his bare upper body.

What he saw had shocked him to his soul as he noticed an ultra malnutrition body where even his skin looked like it was clinging on to his backside for its dear life. And another horrifying thing to see was the huge gash tracing from his chest down to his stomach.

The itching was coming from the place.

Ivan slowly started feeling the pain below his chest. He wasn't feeling anything like that before, Ivan only had a slight headache and the pain caused due to his head bumping on the wall.

But now it felt like his pain receptors below the neck were activating slowly, which caused him to grimace in extreme pain and... also hunger. A feeling he hated the most.

Extreme pain, itching, and hunger assaulted his mind altogether. Ivan started screaming while clutching his concaved abdomen. It was something he had never experienced before together.

The itching sensation kept on increasing, while the pain started to subside little by little, but the feeling of hunger stayed the same.

Ivan didn't dare to scratch where it itched the most because he saw scabs starting to form on his wound.

The huge gash was closing in rapidly as the scabs formed and fell soon after revealing fresh skin underneath it...

"Hah... hah... hah..." Ivan was left gasping for air as he tried intaking deep breaths after all the pain from his injured body receded.

<>

<

Race: Human

Level: 1

Status: Apprentice Warrior

Strength – 15

Dexterity – 11

Defense - 11

Intelligence - (9)+4

Vitality: 13

Charisma – 3

Class: Freeman

Adventurer Class: None

HP(Health Points): 10/26 (Fever/ Hunger)

MP(Mana Points): 26(Locked)

BSP:(Battle Skill Points): None

AP:(Ability Points): None

Battle Skills: None

Ability: ??(Dormant)

Weakened state - All stats reduced by 75%>>

Ivan: "!!"

It was like he had seen a ghost or something. Texts that could float started appearing in the space to his front, which startled him for a moment. But after reading the text, Ivan felt like he remembered something.

That's right; he remembered he had just worn a game helmet after being pestered contin0ously by his rich otaku roommate to play the new virtual reality game just launched worldwide with him. But he doesn't remember anything after Daniel had turned on the switch for the helmet... "Am I currently inside the game?... But isn't this all fucking too real?... Daniel, are you there? Answer me, my friend, I will never call you a pussy?"

Ivan was scared shit for the first time in his life. The feeling of hunger was not going away; even his voice sounded a little hoarse to him. But he still couldn't understand if he was inside a game or this was reality. Was his friend a terrible nutball who abducted people and kept them imprisoned inside this cave until they would starve...

He did not have too much time to question this point; the youth coughed weakly and lifted himself from the dirty yellow ground.

He shouted aloud, "Log out," "Close the game," "Settings," and so on.

But nothing happened, and he only felt getting weaker by wasting his energy.

Ivan dragged himself to the torch on the other side of the cave, carefully making sure that he doesn't disrespect the dead by stepping on them; the flame was getting dimmer and dimmer and could go out any minute.

Ivan felt the small flames with his index finger.

"Ouch...shh," Ivan took his finger back as he accidentally touched some residual of hot oil, which was keeping the flame lit inside the cave.

Everything felt too real. Ivan once again looked back at the corpses, fresh and old, thrown around haphazardly on the ground.

He finally tried to touch the empty air in front of him, where the text kept on floating. His hand passed through the texts as he had thought.

Ivan was feeling scared on top of feeling extreme hunger. His eyes couldn't even form tears as it felt too dry. 'Must not have drunk any water for a few days..." Ivan thought as he felt his parched throat with his palm.

Ivan walked to the corpse that looked the freshest. The dead body was that of an older man garbed in ragged clothes that couldn't even cover his loins adequately.

He also has a deep wound that seemed to have been inflicted by whips. They are fresh; it means the old man should have only died today.

Ivan tried very hard to suppress himself from vomiting when he was checking the old man's blood with his fingers.

Fortunately, his stomach was empty, so he couldn't even vomit realistically.

Thinking back, he had lived quite a boring life with no one to call as a family except for having a few fake friends he made on the streets and an overly-enthusiastic otaku roommate who let him stay in one of his room after he saved him from some ruffians a few times.

That was the only reason he could get out of his rundown orphanage house and move to a home equipped with all the modern facilities as Daniel took him to his rather spacious flat.

Daniel was an introvert who only kept himself behind his computer screen. Still, he was an honest man, and Ivan truly cherished him for who he was after getting to know him, even if Daniel annoyed him every single time when he played games on full volume.

Daniel taught him about games; he also introduced him to the dark side of the internet, the place where all otakus go at least once a day. Ivan would beat him every time he visited that place without putting on headphones. Nonetheless, Ivan would also take a tour of those websites to broaden his horizon.

Fortunately, the only good thing he picked up from his friend was to read novels. Any kind of book, whether it was high fantasy, eastern fantasy, sci-fi, the autobiography of great men of the human world, or publications on business strategies, he would read them all day long without feeling bored.

It was also the only thing where Ivan wouldn't get annoyed when forced by his friend to read something new he brought from the market. Ivan also had dreams but because of living in poverty and time spent to survive each day, he couldn't gather knowledge or practice the necessary skills to become a successful man.

He lived a boring life, but it was still quite right since he had one good friend who unknowingly helped him to get on the right track of society and his life.

Only when you lose something will you know its value. Ivan wanted to see his friend, but he now feels lost, scared, and hungry as he stood alone in the enclosed cave with the only source of light extinguishing slowly. No matter how much of a daredevil, or street fighter Ivan was, he couldn't shake the feeling of dread and fear that humans felt from the unknown.

He tried searching for an exit, a way to get out, but he only found one entrance that was completely blocked by a circular stone. Ivan didn't even have the strength to move his own body; how could he move such a huge boulder.

Ivan slid down slowly as he put his back against the smooth wall of the circular stone. He wanted to eat something very badly; even the flesh of the dead bodies seemed to be quite appealing, but Ivan knew not to take that path to live, or he will lose his mind and heart for sure.

Squeak!

---------------------------------------------------------

Authors Note: Do read my first novel 'The Pleasure Lord' that has more than 250 chapters uploaded. Please do give it a read after finishing this chapter. You can find the above Novel's link in the synopsis or just search the name. Be sure to add it to your library. Its updated every day with 3CHP/day.