I stared at the screen, blinking, willing my mind to focus. The hours had blurred into one long, exhausting stretch, but the error in my code had refused to fix itself. It was a small bug—a minor glitch in the patch I was working on for Worlds Beyond, my game—but it was enough to drive me crazy. I could feel the weight of my failure pressing in on me as the cursor blinked, taunting me in its emptiness.
I muttered under my breath, "Come on, just… come on."
My fingers hovered over the keyboard, ready to rewrite the line of code, but something felt off. A chill swept through the room, not from the AC, but from something deeper. Something wrong. The kind of wrong you can't quite explain, but you know in your gut that it's bad.
I glanced around, but nothing had changed. My small apartment was still the same—a cramped, cluttered space with piles of coding books, half-drunk coffee cups, and fast food containers scattered across the desk. I turned back to the screen, eyes narrowing as the bug remained, stubborn and silent.
Then, it happened.
A flicker. At first, I thought it was just the screen glitching, but no, the light in the room dimmed, and I felt an electric hum vibrate through my body. My heart skipped a beat.
"What the—?"
Before I could react, the room around me started to distort, bending in unnatural ways. My desk, my chair, the walls—all seemed to warp, like they were being pulled apart by some unseen force. I tried to move, but my limbs felt heavy, like I was stuck in some kind of dream. The air felt thick, as if I was suffocating in it.
No. This couldn't be real.
The next moment, the world around me vanished. The last thing I saw was my own reflection, distorted in the screen, before the reality around me shattered completely.
...
I gasped, the sharp cold of stone hitting my bare feet. I stumbled backward, my hands reaching out in panic. But there was nothing. No familiar surroundings. No apartment. No code.
Where was I?
I looked around, my mind reeling. The air was heavy, the room dimly lit by flickering torches on the walls. The floor beneath me was rough stone, and the air smelled of dust and old wood. This wasn't my apartment. It wasn't even a place I recognized.
I staggered to my feet, my breath coming out in short gasps. "What… the hell?"
My voice echoed back at me, a strange sound that didn't belong here.
I stumbled forward, trying to steady myself. I needed to think. I needed to figure out what was happening, but nothing made sense. I was still reeling, my mind desperately trying to connect the dots.
I didn't know how long I stood there, trying to process what was going on, but eventually, I forced myself to focus. Okay, okay. First things first—check your surroundings.
The room I was in was small. Too small. Stone walls, a few old wooden crates in the corner, and a thin bed in the farthest corner. No windows, just flickering torchlight casting long, jagged shadows.
I blinked, my heart racing as I noticed something else—the clothes I was wearing. Not my usual hoodie and jeans, but ragged, worn merchant garb. No. That couldn't be right. I didn't wear this. This was—
I'm in the game.
I froze.
It couldn't be. It shouldn't be. Worlds Beyond was just a game—a virtual world, an escape. But as my eyes darted to the low wooden shelves, the crude furniture, and the way the air smelled, I knew. I could feel it deep inside me. This wasn't a simulation. This wasn't a VR headset malfunction.
This was real.
I could feel my pulse pounding in my temples as panic started to rise within me. Focus. Focus, Aryan. I needed to stay calm. I had to understand what had happened.
I reached up and touched my face—my hands trembling. My reflection in a small shard of glass revealed that it was me. Same face. Same body. But not in the world I knew. This was an NPC's life. I was nothing more than a low-level merchant in the town of Istrath, far from the center of the action.
"Shit," I whispered. This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a glitch.
This was a problem.
But I wasn't stupid. I could figure this out. I was inside the game, but that didn't mean I was powerless. In fact, I knew the world's rules better than anyone. I had created this place. I knew its mechanics, its structure, its weak points.
But even so, I couldn't be reckless. Patience. Patience is key. I needed to keep my head down. I needed to blend in and gather information, figure out what was really going on. I couldn't rush this.
I could manipulate the situation. I could use my knowledge to my advantage, play the game, and bend it to my will.
But first, I needed to understand why I was here. Why now?
I stepped cautiously toward the door, forcing my breathing to steady. The world outside could be full of enemies. I couldn't trust anyone. Everyone had their own motives, their own goals. And I… I had mine.
End of Chapter 1