The game started, there was no loading screen, a surprise for a mobile game, and the start was cut straight for two silhouettes.
[CHOOSE THE VESSEL YOU WANT TO USE
VESSEL 1 - MALE - DEFAULT NAME: ELLIANOR
VESSEL 2 - FEMALE - DEFAULT NAME - ELIAS]
Isaya was distracted by the names for one second. 'Arent their order inverted?' The black-haired young man was sure the female and male names were swapped.
'Whatever, I won't be playing it for long.'
Isaya chose the male character. He had long hair held in a ponytail, his side bangs swinging to a non-existent wind.
He was thrown right at a cutscene. The character opened their eyes in what seemed a derelict laboratory or a bunker.
Ellianor got up to stare at the world around him. An enclosed space, with many collapsed corridors and broken walls beyond a corruption that slithered across the ruins, walls, and ceilings.
Strange golden and purple goo constructs and tentacles were spread across the walls and nauseously moved their textures, almost like an infection or necrosed flesh.
The character held his back and stumbled forward.
[USE THE DIRECTIONAL DISK TO WALK. GO FORWARD]
The tutorials started. It was not hard to control the character's movement, it felt janky, and the character stumbled everywhere, slowly walking. It was "understandable" since the character appeared to have awakened after a catastrophe.
It continued until the character stumbled upon a box blocking his path.
[PRESS THE SWORD BUTTON TO BREAK THE BOX]
Isaya pressed the button, and the character kicked the box away, allowing him to proceed further.
It was a wide corridor, sounds of damage, damaged electronics and electrical components, and the falling of debris echoed across the entire corridor.
Red lights flashed in the corridor, as the corruption made obnoxious sounds.
The corridor ended in a wide vault door, that suddenly opened after its valves started to spin and gases were released by it.
The path ahead was open, and Ellianor was guided to the other end of the vault door. There, a strange beast was waiting for him.
It was a creature covered in corruption, its form akin to a reptilian-humanoid.
Wide-blade claws on one of its hands and the other had strange scales that looked like armor.
Its mouth was a mess of jacked teeth that broke out of its jaw and skull, forcing the monster's maw open.
[DEFEAT IT]
The creature advanced, and Isaya did his best to defeat it with his character. Sadly, it was defeated quite easily because of its stumbling state.
"Is that it? What a bother…" Isaya sighed, as another message appeared on the screen.
[IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE STARTED, DEAR VESSEL. I WELCOME THEE INTO THE BIG BIG WORLD. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME, ELLIANOR]
Isaya opened his eyes wide, before a black void enwrapped his body, a suffocating haze that pulled him into the screen.
It was as if his soul was dragged into the depths of stars and space, to a special kind of hell where only emptiness remains.
His throat clenched shut and his body felt like it had been boiled alive. Like a beast's maw, darkness devoured Isaya.
The only thing left was his phone, which was thrown against his monitor, the object pierced it like a bullet before it stuck to the wall like a knife.
His aunt entered his room, only to find a destroyed monitor and phone. All signs of Isaya had gone dark.
(...)
Ellianor opened his eyes, he was on the ground, on his knees, one hand grasping his chest. He breathed hard, his eyes heavy as black bags appeared beneath them, and a wave of tiredness crashed on him.
'Wait… I was in my room before!' Ellianor looked down at his body. It was no longer the frail body of an overworked office worker, but a slightly older, and fuller body in comparison to the one he had in the past.
It was strange, Ellianor grabbed a handful of his hair, and it was a different shade of black, a more brownish black than the raven black he had previously.
His clothes were changed into one of the characters in the game. He was now the protagonist, Ellianor.
[YOU HAVE FAILED IN DEFEATING THE CORRUPTED BEAST, YOU BETTER CHOOSE A CLASS IF YOU WANT TO PROCEED. YOUR BODY IS FAR TOO WEAK RIGHT NOW]
Before Ellianor's face, a screen jumped.
[NAME: Ellianor
>THE ECLIPSE
>CLASS: VAGRANT
>Rank: G
>LEVEL: 1
>EXP: 0/1000
>STATS:
-STR: 1
IT IS A REFLECTION OF YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH.
-END: 1
IT IS A REFLECTION OF YOUR ENDURANCE, AND HOW MUCH DAMAGE YOU CAN SOAK BEFORE DYING.
-RES: 1
IT IS A REFLECTION OF YOUR RESILIENCE, HOW LONG YOU CAN WITHSTAND WOUNDS AND PAINS, AND YOUR STAMINA.
-SUP: 1
YOUR AFFINITY WITH THE SUPERNATURAL AND WHAT SHOULD NOT BE.
-SPD: 1
IT IS A REFLECTION OF YOUR SPEED, HOW FAST YOU CAN MOVE IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE.
-DEX: 1
IT IS A REFLECTION OF YOUR DEXTERITY, AND HOW QUICK AND PRECISE ARE YOUR REFLEXES AND PERCEPTION.
-ENU: 1
IT IS YOUR (EN)ERGY AFFINITY (U)SAGE, THAT DETERMINES HOW GOOD YOUR ABILITY TO USE ENERGY IS.
-ENP: 1
IT IS YOUR (EN)ERGY (P)RODUCTION, HOW MUCH OF IT YOU CAN PUT OUT AND HOW MUCH YOU PRODUCE.
-INT: 1
YOUR INTELLIGENCE AND YOUR INTELLECT]
Ellianor held his arm, as a screen showed him nonsense that shouldn't be real, none of this should be real.
'Am I daydreaming?' It was too strange to be real. maybe he passed out while playing and watching videos?
[NO, YOU DIDN'T. STOP WITH THE USELESS THOUGHTS, AND CHOOSE A CLASS SOON, OTHERWISE YOU WILL DIE, AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL SUFFER MORE THAN ONE DEATH UNTIL I GET WHAT I NEED YOU TO DO]
Instead of a screen, the voice directly spoke into his mind. Its displeasure at his thoughts was made known.
Ellianor's heart almost stopped. The voice wielded power, a great power capable of forcing his heart to clench and mind to halt.