"The Game Master?"
Yes, the Game Master. I'm the creator of the System of the Game, the one who bestowed the System upon you lot, and I'm also your sponsor. However, never reveal that to anybody once we're done here.
The scene in front of me started to move very slowly like it was a tape being rewound in slow motion.
My mind was still reeling from what this disembodied voice just said.
"Wait, what do you mean Game Master?" my voice croaked out as I watched a version of myself seemingly going back to being unconscious as Anna and Aaron knelt around me.
"What part of this is a game?" I asked incredulously.
It may not be a game to you humans, but to everyone in my realm, it is. And I'm the master of the game.
A vitriolic anger rose from within my chest — or at least what I assumed was my chest. The light source did nothing to light the space I was floating in, it simply worked on the images in front of me, continuing ever backwards.
Yes, that anger that fights against the shitty lot you've been given. That's exactly what you need.
"What do you want?" I yelled. I couldn't help myself, the anger slipped out before I could control myself. "Are you taunting me? Is that what you're doing here? Talking shit about me while forcing me to watch my final moments?"
Well, I wouldn't call it 'taunting', more like a scolding from a teacher sort of thing.
The casual nature of the voice's words and manner of speaking caused my voice to get caught in my throat for a moment. A question formed in my head—
What am I? It's hard to explain without causing your head to literally explode. But, base line, what you believe is reality, is a mere form of entertainment for me and my peers.
Entertainment? The two moments right before I was going to die flowed back into my mind. The helplessness that I felt, the fear that washed over me, the defeat that almost covered me. All that was simply a form of entertainment for whoever this voice is and his…peers?
We really have to move on from your seeming obsession over the truth of your existence. Nobody can know I'm contacting you directly, and not through the System like everybody else has to, and nobody can know that I'm your sponsor.
"You said 'sponsor' again," I growled as the image in front of me has now rewound back to the time I entered the Falcon Plains Dungeon, "Are you the one who gave me the Prestige Ability?"
Finally moving on, that's great. Yes, I am the one who gifted you the Prestige Ability.
My built-up resentment finally overflowed again as I half-screamed, "Why the hell did you give me the most useless ability I've ever seen?!"
For the first time since I woke up in this space, the voice didn't have an immediate response to what I said and that gave me a nice sense of satisfaction.
What do you mean it's a useless ability? You know that there are no other Players who are gifted with such a versatile ability?
"It's hardly usable! Just look at the prerequisites I need to fulfil to even use the ability!" I argued into the void, "You complain about me being boring, but what else can I do to get the prerequisites?"
W-Well, I see your point, but there are quicker ways to lose weight than what you've been doing in Prestige One—
"Do I have any other choice than what I've been doing so far?" I interrupted the voice. Its resounding silence gave me a sense of satisfaction again.
"What even is the point of the Prestige Ability?" I asked the voice, "The prerequisites to activate it alone are outrageous. The first one is extremely-time consuming, while the second one is literally fulfilled as I'm about to die.
"For a supposed 'sponsor', you're a pretty crap one." I finished berating the unknown voice.
Suddenly, the area I was in darkened. I could still see my… 'Prestige One' life still rewinding slowly, but the image was slightly darkened. There was an overbearing sensation around me as well, that kinda reminded me like a parent who had caught their child doing something they shouldn't, and the child could feel the anger and disappointment from that parent.
I will forgive you your short-sighted and impudent whining as you don't know exactly how everything works. You're only a lowly human after all.
The cold tone that came from the voice caused me to shiver in fear and for a split-second, even though I couldn't see it, I felt like I had a physical body in this space, and it was cowering.
There is simply not enough time to allow you to understand all that you need to know. But I am the Game Master, and you, a lowly human, should at the very least respect that much.
The voice's manner of speaking changed completely and it caused a lot of discomfort in me. I instantly regretted berating the voice and the Prestige Ability and its uselessness, even if I was right—
It is only useless as a measure to be unnoticed by the others.
The voice interrupted my thoughts, but what it said shocked me even more. Once again, what the voice had said seemed to imply that what he was doing right now was against some sort of rules or agreement, and I thought back towards the language that he was using.
Obviously, whatever this being that owns this disembodied voice is, it's using familiar concepts that I understand to communicate with me. That could very well include its manner of speaking before this recent change. I came into the frightful realisation that 'Game Master', was simply a simile or metaphor for what the being truly is, and was chosen so that I would understand somewhat the true nature of the being.
The same could be said about the System.
"Are you God?" I asked quietly.
In some respects, you could say that I am. But that is not important right now. Like I've said since the very beginning, we don't have much time.
The scene in front of me seemed to be one of my many gym sessions during the time I was focussing on losing weight, only I was visibly fatter in the image.
"The others, whoever they are, they don't know we're talking right now, do they?" I asked.
You're finally getting it. The single-track mind nature of humans annoys me sometimes.
"From the very beginning, you've been acting secretive about what's happening here right now."
Because it is.
"Why?" I asked the voice.
You know why.
My mind raced as I thought back through our conversation, and what I know about the System, and gaming in general. So far, with the way that the System has revealed itself to humanity and functioned, it has resembled video games. The grading system of the attributes. Skills. Abilities. Even my Prestige ability that the voice entity has gifted — sponsored me with.
Everything has been like a video game, but games have been around for a long time before video games. There was a resurgence of another type of game right before the EVENT occurred: Table-top Role-Playing Games. TTRPGs were an analogue type of game, that didn't necessarily rely on video game concepts but were similar. And that was when the language of the title that the entity gave itself suddenly made sense for me.
Game Master. Also known as 'game manager' or 'game moderator'. For a lot of TTRPGs, game masters weaved stories cooperatively with their players, but at the very base level, they should be unbiased. They're tied to the rules of the game almost as much as the players are. Once the story of the game has been set, the game master is tied down to continuing the story no matter what happens to the player characters or the players' actions.
"You shouldn't be sponsoring anybody." I finally realised.
Exactly.