「You have met the clear condition of the battle, The battle has ended」
A familiar message flickered on the screen of my aging gaming monitor. My fingers trembled as I exhaled sharply, my gaze locked onto the nearly depleted HP bar in the bottom-left corner.
[Congratulations, Player 'Noah Vance'! You have achieved Victory .]
I let out a deep sigh of relief.
"…I did it."
My body slumped back into the chair. Three years. Three years of grinding, climbing, and fighting tooth and nail in Aether Odyssey. A game where players clashed in historic battles for supremacy. A game where strategy, skill, and mechanical precision dictated survival.
And now, I cleared one the toughest battle of Aether Odyssey, The Battle of Stalingrad.
I briskly pulled up the global player rankings, my gaze settled on the No.1 spot, now bearing my name.
Rank #1
Player: Noah Vance
My lips curled up as I started to smile. I grabbed a can of beer from my mini fridge and clinked it against my plushie bear in a private toast to victory.
A notification popped up.
[System Announcement: The player rankings have been updated.]
It felt unreal. Players in the chat exploded with messages.
[Who the hell is Noah Vance?]
[He won 150 Battles in a row?! That's impossible!]
[I fought him in a Battle once… it was like fighting an AI designed to kill.]
[Noah Vance? Winning 150 Battles in a row? This has to be a joke!]
I leaned back, smirking. This was my moment.
A message popped up in my inbox.
[Admin – Aether Odyssey]: Congratulations, Noah. It looks like you are capable of ■■.]
"…What?"
I frowned. What did he mean by ■■?
Another notification flashed on my screen.
[A special gift is being sent to you.]
My room suddenly flickered. The overhead light dimmed, my monitor screen distorted, and an unnatural hum filled the air. My vision blurred, and my heart pounded as a strange force wrapped around me.
Then—
Darkness.
Welcome to the Game!
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my room anymore.
I was standing at a place that I could never forget.
A vast, clear blue sky stretched overhead. Towering stone structures loomed in the distance, their massive silhouettes casting long shadows over a bustling city teeming with life.
I knew this place very well
This was Aether Odyssey.
But it wasn't just a game anymore.
I clenched my fists and looked down at myself, clad in armor I had only ever seen on my in-game avatar. A relatively heavy longsword sheathed in the scabbard on my waist, glowing with arcane inscriptions. I swiftly performed an air gesture to look at my interface instinctively—but nothing appeared. No stats. No abilities.
A cold realization settled in.
The game was real.
Around me, countless other players were appearing in flashes of light, materializing in the city square. Confusion and panic rippled through the crowd.
Then, the sun casted an ominous shadow and the atmosphere began to darken as something enormous began to rise. A towering figure emerged from the darkness, its very presence sending a chill down my spine.
My instincts screamed. Something was wrong.
Then he spoke—