"Y-you? You are alive?" The teen looked visually shook, his voice almost on a crack. No one else spoke anything.
Mark wondered what he should say to the teen who looked on at him in confusion. At the teen's side, En shot him a worried look and Mark could almost read it. 'Don't tell him the truth.'
"I'm sorry, have we met before? I don't think I know you" Mark kept his voice faint because he was not sure if the teen remembered his voice or not. Trauma could make a lot of details of an accident blurry.
Especially if it was traumatic.
"Officer En, you're finally here. You were right, we did see those creatures on the camera. The higher-ups have become alert and are taking this threat seriously. All the important people are being evacuated secretly before the news is made public" the woman's voice was firm as she held Maya in her arms.
From the corner of his eyes, Mark saw the woman eye Luna in interest and it made sense. The teen was good looking and also looked older than his age with his tall muscular body type.
And he was the main character of the video game so of course, he would have some women chasing him. He tried to avoid looking at that too much.
"Calm down kid, here is a doctor friend of mine. You're mistaking his identity" En roughly shoved Luna a bit and the boy almost fell before he straightened himself. All he did was give the police officer a glare before settling down.
Mark felt his eyes on him a few times in curiosity but he just ignored it and focused on En.
"I won't lie and sugarcoat it - everything from here will be a nightmare and you will need to be prepared for that. I hope you are ready to survive in hell" En's words did not inspire confidence in him but it was not he was anticipating it to be anything else.
"What are we doing next from here?" Mark asked, keeping his tone flat. It came easy to him now. He felt people turn toward him and he waited for an answer to come.
"I'll get to that now, but Mark can we talk for a little bit first? There is something I need you to do for me" En asked in his commanding voice. Mark could see that the other two were interested in hearing their talk but En seemed not in a mood to share.
So he nodded as he made his way a little away with En into another room. As soon as En entered after him he turned around and closed the door with the lock. Then he turned back to Mark with a serious face that made goosebumps stand on his skin.
That look did not promise anything good for him. That was the look En pulled before telling him that they got into trouble for a prank and were ratted out.
"What is it?" Mark asked, wanting to rip the bandage off of the question. It was scary to be faced with an unknown fate.
"Wait, I'm still thinking how to say this. It's difficult to tell alright" En looked torn, his face in a frown. It really seemed as if whatever he wanted to tell was taking a lot out of him.
"Just speak. I'm sure I can take it" Mark assured. He wanted this talk to finally be over so that he could finally rest. His body was complaining and the black spots were just increasing in front of his eyes.
"Take it, right. Well, Mark, you will have to make your way separately to the safe house from here. You see, in the original story, there was a character who did not exist at this time - you. It could have a lot of unknown impact on the story if we take you with us" Mark felt his heart sank.
So he was being abandoned. Why had they even told him all this if only to abandon him now? How were they expecting him to make his way back to the safehouse all by himself when he could hardly get to this spot?
He was at a total loss about what to say for as much as he was loathed to, he could see their point as well. They had to take the safest approach to complete this story.
He was not sure what it was for them to do so, but they sure were committed to being here and leaving their own world behind. So he would have to compromise.
"I understand" still, he could not keep the contempt out of his voice fully, nor did he try too hard. En flinched at his tone but did not complain too much.
"I'll give you the coordinates. You can take your time getting there but try to make it there in a week. It's in another town and only one way connects there currently. Once you get there, please keep yourself hidden. I need to leave now. Feel free to use this space as you like, it's a safe spot for the players. And please try to keep your involvement to the plot as minimum" En did not tell him a lot but Mark just nodded.
The coordinates were confusing but his map made it convenient to know. It was too far and had a lot of red and green zones - safe and danger zones.
It would not be possible to completely avoid the danger while travelling but at least he would have resting points in between. He spent some time collecting his thoughts inside the room alone while En went out to arrange the team.
When he came out, the party was about to leave. The first to spot them was the little girl he had accompanied.
"Thank you for getting me to my daddy. Why are you not coming with us though?" the girls looked confused and the female with her just gave him a once over before her attention was snapped somewhere else.
"I have other people to help now. Have a safe trip" Mark kept his words short for he could not bear to speak more. The girl seemed to nod as he hurried up after the group.
Mark waited for En to turn toward him but he never did and then the group left. Mark once again felt the helplessness and anger rise inside him as he wondered why he was left behind by his friend.
But he took in a few deep breaths as he calmed himself down. It did not matter at all and he had to remind himself that En was a worker here first and his friend later. Of course, Mark would not be placed over his work.
Now he was alone with a destination he had to reach in a week which would be tough. But he at least had time now and a resting place.
His body was giving him problems so he decided to lay down and examine his body. It was bruised, a canvas of blue, black and normal skin colour. The skin had broken at a few spots and blood seeped out from there which made him winch.
Thankfully, the safe house had medicine available which he made use of. While doing so, he also decided to explore around and found a developer's note. He was not sure if it was a bug or a hidden easter egg that had been incorporated later but he was thankful for it.
It had a lot of hidden information which was not available in the manual. It also highlighted the use of the safe house. Staying there for a certain amount of time would rejuvenate and heal him to an extent.
The medical text was somewhat vague to him with many things he understood and many he had no idea (which made him think they might be from the game) but the manual was helpful in that regard.
The day was productive and he was sure he fell asleep somewhere in between too, but if he did he could not recollect.
And just like that, one day was gone from the week before Mark felt anywhere near ready to get going. He had everything ready and his body felt much better like magic. He opened the door carefully as he looked around.
Just as he did, the system beeped with a notification. He quickly took a look around but found nothing of danger and he breathed a sigh of relief before opening the system notification.
____________________________
System mission: Get to the safehouse on time to unlock future events
Location coordinates: XXXX-SSS-S-XXX
Time Limit: 6 days left (counting)
Reward: Unlocking future events. Hints about an important drop to come
____________________________
There was nothing else there for him and the map only showed one way - through the forest. The setting of the forest was very much the same as before which made him groan.
He was just put through hell and now he had to do it again? The only silver lining was that he had no kid with him this time so this should theoretically be easier.
But even he knew that was wishful thinking on his part. A deep breath and he was walking toward hell.
He just had to survive long enough to get out. He'll think of other things on the way out of there.