Alex groaned as he opened his eyes. The surroundings seemed to bear no significant change. All was intact and at its place. He was still right outside Stiller's, in the middle of the street, where he was supposed to be. Realizing that he was lying flat on his back on the ground, he helped himself up.
He glanced around to observe anything different and found it right over his right wrist. He held it up to his eyes and blinked twice. Where there was supposed to be just empty air, there was what appeared to be a virtual dialog.
There were two distinct options on it. One said "JOIN WORLD" while the other read, "EXIT WORLD".
The exit world button had been blurred out.
"That damned bastard did it."
When he contracted his wrist into a fist, the screen vanished. Relaxing the palm brought it back. Being new to such a tech, Alex started investigating it. He tried touching it, but his other hand just slid passed like if it were air. He tried waving instructions at it like a VR set, but nothing happened. He started to become anxious and restless. With a pang of annoyance, he said with a firm voice, " At least tell me what to do, dammit !"
Suddenly, the dialog expanded containing within it a set of instructions.
[ {RIZE: A GUIDE TO ANOTHER WORLD}
ADVENTURERS OF EARTH! WELCOME TO RIZE, A WORLD DIFFERENT FROM YOURS. HERE, YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU SEEK AND WHAT YOU ASPIRE.
WE HAVE NOTICED YOUR DETERMINATION HAS BROUGHT YOU TO THE "PORTAL", THE GATE TO OUR WORLD. THE PLACE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW IS THE INTERMERGENCE, THE BORDER BETWEEN OUR WORLD AND YOURS. IT RESEMBLES THE WORLD YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING IN, BUT YOU CAN'T TOUCH OBJECTS AROUND YOU PHYSICALLY.
FROM HERE, YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO ENTER OUR WORLD OR TO RETURN TO YOUR MORTAL ABODE. TO CHOOSE, YOU MUST SAY "I ENTER", TO EXIT, YOU CAN SAY, "I LEAVE". ]
Alex was nonplussed. "Couldn't touch the surroundings ?....."
His fears were confirmed as his hands passed right thorough the wall of the confectionery.
"To return, I can say "I leave", right ?"....
With a firm voice, he roared, "I leave!". With a ray of hope, he tried to touch the wall again. But to his dread, his hand passed through it again.
He thought for some time, and then hung his head. "I think I have no other choice."
Now, again with the same firm voice, he proclaimed, "I ENTER!".
In the first few seconds, nothing happened. But then, the world around him started to dissolve in a mist. It became more and more hazy. Alex cautiously removed his hands from the wall and staggered back to the middle of the road. His breathing had become faster.
He felt the ground leaving his feet.
The world dissolved into nothingness. Blackness enveloped his whole body. He was falling into a stark abyss. He tried to scream but no sound escaped his mouth.
Suddenly, he felt his descent becoming slower. A distant source of light illuminated the darkness beneath him. A minute later, he was floating right in front of it.
A giant porcelain door was residing in the ephemeral darkness. Large enough that he could not see its top and bottom. It had large grooves on it forming the figure of a Mandelbrot set in vertical alignment. The corners of it were radiating a faint white light.
Alex looked around. In the vast blackness surrounding him, the "Portal", as the system had referred to it, was his only companion.
The screen again popped again. But now, in front of him. It was large enough to cover the entire living room of his apartment. The thought of his apartment brought back the memories of that horrific night on which his only friends were brutally murdered. A pang of guilt struck him like lightning.
"I have to avenge them."
Returning his attention back onto the screen, he read,
[ THE PORTAL TO RIZE LIES IN FRONT OF YOU. WOULD YOU LIKE TO OPEN IT ?
1. YES
2. NO ]
With a blazing look on his face, he declared, "Yes!".
[ CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE NOW GAINED ACCESS TO ANOTHER WORLD !
YOU WILL NOW BE PROVIDED WITH A KEY TO UNLOCK THE PORTAL.]
The screen then vanished popping out a quite large, polished key plated with gold as its final remnant. Alex caught hold of it in time.
Looking again at the gate in front of him, he noticed no keyhole.
"What the hell, how am I supposed to put this thing inside the gate ?"
Nevertheless, he made his way to the portal. Standing right in front of it, he tried to put the key into the door expecting there to be a hidden keyhole or something.
To his utter surprise, when he extended his hand to do it, the key started radiating. It seemed like it was resonating with the door it was supposed to open. In an instant, it left Alex's hand and went right into the door, dissolving into it. The grooves of the portal started to illuminate as well.
The door made a large creaking noise. With a slow elegant movement, it swung forward, bathing Alex into a brilliant white light. He could not see anything, the light was obstructing his vision. He shut his eyes to avoid being blinded.
...
Alex felt hitting hard ground.
"Ah! the feel of solid earth, though it is not even earth."
He opened his eyes.
What lay in front of him could give an old crony a heart attack.
The sky around him was an eerie orange. The ground below him was the darkest shade of gray, as though it was dead. Skeletal plants grew all around him.
Getting up, he moved forward to have a better look of his surroundings.
He found out that he had "spawned" on a high cliff. From the cliff, he could see the dark outline of a very tall tower in the distance. All around it in a ring seemed what was like a city. Behind the settlement were two suns, which were setting, giving way for the night to take control.
He glanced at his wrist.
He supposed he would be provided with a quest or something, as it was in other such games, but what he saw was just his own wrist. But what was engraved on his wrist surprised him.
On it was a large symbol of the Mandelbrot set, as he had see on the portal, and inside it was written, "KHURD FLA'EN".
"I suppose that is what my name is, in this world."
Khurd.. Fla'en... he whispered, trying to make some sense out of those random letters.
After failing to do so, he turned his gaze again to the city. "I should probably get going before night falls."
He started making his way forward in the barren wastelands. Hacking through the unknown plants, he had already demolished all of the t-shirt and trouser he had been wearing. There were big rips in the shoulders, as he had bolstered right through the spiky hedges.
"I wish I could get some damn better clothes", he said.
...
It has been two hours and the city seemed as far as it had been from the cliff. Alex was now tired. He needed rest, and food. The sun had already set and he was having a hard time navigating.
He found a big thick tree in the middle of the field. It had dark brown leaves and a dark gray trunk. He sat down against the wide trunk and tried to get some sleep. But it had not been two minutes when he heard a strange, deep "grring" sound from behind him.
He spun around to locate its source.
"Hell no."