A thick blanket of clouds covered the night sky, filtering the moonlight into sparse pillars of silver light. This murky pond of a night sky cast deep and wide shadows, perfect for the figure that was slinking between them.

This figure bathed in the shadows, moving slowly but with purpose, careful to not be seen by those patrolling and staggering through the streets. The shadowy figure stalked their prey, gradually approaching with silent steps from behind their target, who stood static in the doorway of a rundown building.

The stealthful assassin drew a blade from their waist and raised it above their head, poised to strike like a python. However, just as they swung their arm down, a blaring ringing noise took them by surprise and made the would-be assassin flinch.

The intended target turned, the assassin's blade stuck into its shoulder instead of its intended target, the head. As it turned to face its attacker it let out a guttural groan, baring its blackened, rotten teeth and opening its mouth wide.

Now disarmed, the once hopeful assassin could only let out an annoyed sigh as the zombie that he failed to slay lunged at him and bit a chunk out of his throat.

Darkness filled the failed monster slayer's vision, before it was replaced with a bold line of text written in overly dramatic, bloody lettering.

[You are Dead]

***

Seth let out another frustrated sigh as he pulled off his VR goggles and tossed them onto the bed. As he was pulling loose the controller straps, he narrowed his eyes and tried to get his brain thinking about something other than the game. Mainly, whatever that noise was that killed his best run.

It took him a few minutes to come out of his hyperfocus, or his 'Sweat mode' as he would call it, before it finally clicked in his brain.

It was his alarm. He had been distracted by his alarm, because he spent all night long playing games… Again.

"Ah, Shit." Seth muttered to himself, mentally chastising himself as he placed down the haptic gloves and set off to do his morning routine. Preparing to go to another thrilling day of work on a resounding zero hours of sleep. On the bright side, it wasn't like it was the first time, so at least he knew what he was getting himself in for.

However, before Seth could leave for his morning shower, he heard a faint whisper in the back of his mind. It was a voice that made him halt in his steps and frown deeply. A cold, mechanical voice that, although it only said a single word, caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end and his body to tense up completely. Shockingly cold and leaving his very mind feeling violated as if it was being kneaded and massaged by the oiled up hands of a complete stranger.

[Initialising…]

It was so brief and quiet, that Seth swore that he must have imagined it or misheard someone speaking outside. He glanced down at his VR goggles, which were still on and displaying an image. 

"Must have just been that." He said to himself with a half hearted chuckle, making sure the device was off this time, before heading out of the room. He shuffled his way into the living room of his small, shared two bedroom apartment. As he walked, he had to kick some discarded clothes out of his way and ignored the person passed out on the couch, cradling an empty beer bottle in his arms like a teddy bear.

"Seems like Jack had some fun last night." Seth muttered to himself, turning off the TV which had been left on. Jack was his roommate, someone that he had just found online to help pay the rent. They didn't speak much, and when they did it was usually just about rent or polite small talk in passing. In fact, they barely saw each other because of their different work schedules and when they did, well it was usually like this. 

He picked up some of the beer bottles that littered the floor, carrying them into the kitchen and tossing them into the trash. He then moved onto his own business, speaking under his breath as he searched through some of the cabinets.

"Coffee, Coffee, Coffee… Where did that idiot put the damn Coffee. Aha!" Letting out a small shout of success when he found the powder of morning goodness. He filled up the machine, picked out a cup, changed his mind and picked out an even bigger cup and left it to brew while he went to the bathroom

When he entered the bathroom, the first thing he did was assess his appearance in the mirror. His short, brown hair was naturally dishevelled and sticking up in the front, with obvious grooves from where the goggle straps had rested.

His skin was still in nice condition, no blemishes in sight, although he was on the pale side as he often substituted screens for sunlight. Faint, black circles surrounded his startling silver eyes. Not grey, but silver. As if someone had poured liquid mercury into his eyes at birth, they even seemed to shine in a certain light. When he was young he had asked his mother about it, since she had the same eyes, to which she told him that it meant that when he was born the star spirits had come down, blessing him with their divine energy.

And since that answer was clearly pure and absolute hippy nonsense, He later found the real answer in the library. It was simply a strange, rare genetic mutation. Answers like those were the problem with having hippy parents and were fairly common whenever he asked anything.

These silver eyes, that should have been his best feature, were unfortunately hidden behind half closed eyelids and rested above permanent eyebags. 

Seth wasn't the type that was secretly handsome but with him somehow not knowing about it. No, instead he was just the slightly below average type that was often mistaken for being a bit ill.

His body was decently fit, not enough to have visible muscles or anything. Just fit enough to be able to walk up the apartment building stairs without getting winded, and to Seth that was enough.

After he was done 'admiring' his less than stellar appearance, Seth stepped into the shower and officially started his morning routine. Eventually he was dressed in a plain white, dress shirt and dark jeans, with a breakfast of double strength coffee sloshing around in his stomach as he left for work.

As he was fiddling with his keys, trying to find the right one to lock the door, he heard another whisper;

[Beginning Integration…]

He whirled around, wielding his keys like it was some kind of dagger, as he looked around for whoever was whispering in his ear. When he saw no one there, once again, he let out an annoyed sigh.

"I really ought to sleep more…" He lamented, locking the door with his makeshift dagger before setting off, cracking open an energy drink can and stuffing two more into his messenger bag.

Hopefully, this would just be a nice, easy day. One where he could kick back and relax, catch up on some much needed sleep. A totally and utterly normal day, just like any other.