[ Death is occurring ]
[ !Unable to process death due to a higher being's interference! ]
[ Transporting into Endless Trials... ]
I woke up. My head felt throbbing, unable to recall what happened a few minutes before. I vividly remembered two things though: the feeling of death, and the messages that appeared before my eyes.
Needless to say, I felt like shit. Dying was not really pleasant, it seemed.
As I looked around, I realized I was in a plain at noon, with nothing around me. My clothes were thin and shabby, like from a medieval setting. It felt almost like a game.
What confirmed my thought was that the scenery was all too familiar. It's this hellish game again.
This game I've played since my teen years, Endless Trials. It's a hellish VR roguelite, that is composed not just of rooms, or anything standard in that regard. The 'rooms' of this game are full-fledged worlds, trials, who took dozens if not hundred of hours to complete. To add to that, the game has permadeath, even in higher worlds, meaning if you spent a 100 hours clearing the first trial and died right at the start of the second, you would have to restart from the ground up. Very, very unpleasant.
'Thanks' to this the game quickly lost the interest of the general public, but a small hardcore playerbase remained, which I, of course, was a pioneer member.
The game was actually quite well made, and I enjoyed piercing the mysteries of those trials. I didn't think it'd take that much time though.
I was the only player to ever arrive at the end of the 40th trial, the last one. As the Endless in the title implied, I don't think it was ever intended that somebody cleared the entire game.
Now I was back at square one, on the very starting hill of the first trial, which I knew by heart down to the last minute details.
It was quite unnerving. All of those years, all for naught. The familiarity of it, of returning to this place after death, made swallowing the pill both easier and harder. On one side, it was a familiar feeling, so I wasn't that much disappointed. Plus, I should be happy that I got another shot at life, even if I still don't know how I died.
However, as soon as I opened my [ Status Window ], my perspective changed.
[ Status Window ]
[ Name: Sean ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Stats: ]
- Strength: 2
- Dexterity: 8
- Magic: 6
- Intelligence: 9
- Luck: 5
- Mental: [ MAX ]
[ Title(s): ]
- One who Overcame the Trials
I clicked on the title.
[ Title: The One who Overcame the Trials ]
[ Rank: ??? ]
[ Reward for the only ever person to have seen the end of the Trials ]
[ Raises the mental stat to the maximum, as well as granting the player more probability ]
More probability, huh ?
The Mental stat is the only stat in the entire game that cannot be permanently enhanced. It can only increase due to item, artefacts or equipments, and can never really level up. Even I had never seen a title that increased the Mental stat.
Finishing dozing off, I got up. The familiar sensations resonated throughout my body. I was on top of a hill, with plains and forest surrounding it. In the distance, I coule see a castle. The castle that was home to the first trial of Endless Trials.
The trials of this game were simple: each trial had an cryptic clear condition to players, that you must discover in its entirety and fulfill to advance to the next trial. It doesn't sound that difficult but, trust me, when each trials is this big, finding a hidden condition is very long. And it's often not the most difficult part.
Anyhow, I was now walking in the opposite direction to the castle. I could walk there, but it would've been a pain, so I just went into forest instead. Let's just take the shortcut
In the forest, everything felt familiar — the trees, the same birds flitting through the branches, and the faint rustling of leaves beneath my feet. However, this time it wasn't just a game, or a headset simulating everything.
Soon, I reached my destination, and saw a sight I knew by heart.
A man was being attacked by a goblin. Goblins were, like you'd expect, the least powerful monsters from the trials. However weak they were, the man was not a fighter, and was desperately trying to protect his horse. I laughed. No matter how many times I see this, he always looks so weak.
Like always, I just ran straight to the goblin. No hesitation, no emotions, just the same ol' movement I know by heart. I tackled the goblin to make him fall exactly in front of the traveler. I still have my habits here it seems. Still, it was harder than usual, probably because of my very low strength stat. Even this hellish game tells me I don't work out enough. It's your fault, you know!
As I held it down, the man put his sword upside down, in reverse grip with both hands, and down forcefully into the goblin's head. Blood splattered all across my body.
The man extended a hand to help me get up.
As I stood up, I opened my mouth in a wide smile. "I'm Sean. What about you?".
He replied with the same smile "Tim. Pleased to meet you.". My smile turned into somewhat of a grin.
There goes my ticket to the castle.