Rey sank into the soft waiting room bed, letting his eyes drift shut as the distant roar of the arena faded into background noise.
Within minutes, his mind slipped away from the tournament and plunged into memories he rarely talked about.
...
Before this world, Rey spent his life inside four white, sterile walls.
The smell of bleach was always thick in the air. The only sound in his small room was the steady, rhythmic "beep... beep..." of a heart monitor hooked up to his chest.
Cancer had taken over his body when he was just a kid. While other children were running around outside, Rey was stuck in a hospital bed, watching needles pierce his pale skin day after day.
Despite the pain, Rey tried his best to keep a smile on his face. Whenever the nurses came in to draw blood, he would crack a joke.
Whenever his parents visited, he would sit up, force a bright grin, and tell them he was feeling better.
{It never mattered.}
As time went on, his family's situation got worse by the day.
His father would mutter, staring out the hospital window with crossed arms, not even looking at him. "Your mother and I are working overtime every single day just to keep you in this bed, so don't give up."
But whenever his father walked out that door and thought he was out of sight, he would drop to his knees in the hallway. "Do you have any idea how much this new treatment costs?" he would whisper, breaking down.
"It's okay, honey... we can keep trying," his mother would cry, holding her husband.
Hearing them through the door, Rey let his shoulders drop. He realized he was becoming a financial burden on his parents.
He had no friends. No one ever stopped by to say hello or ask how he was doing.
Sometimes he would borrow his mother's phone and scroll through the internet for hours while his parents were taking advice from doctors.
Eventually, his dad bought him a small handheld gaming device that Rey kept hidden under his blanket.
He spent thousands of hours diving into virtual worlds, obsessing over character builds, skill trees, boss fights, and stat sheets. He would look down at his own bruised arms and laugh softly to himself.
[Strength: 1 | Speed: 1 | Endurance: 0]
{Man, I spawned with the absolute worst build possible,} he used to think, tapping the plastic buttons on his screen. "I wonder how it feels to take a single step without gasping for air. Yet there are people out there who aren't even grateful."
"I wish I could either get healed or just... die, so my parents could live better."
When his monitor finally let out a long, flat tone on a rainy afternoon, he closed his eyes, let out a soft breath, and felt a deep wave of relief wash over him.
{Game over, I guess,} he thought as darkness swallowed his vision. {At least I'm not wasting their money anymore.}
...
{Do you wish to be normal?}
A voice from the void spoke directly to Rey.
"Who are you?" Rey asked into the void.
{I can make you a deal. Time will pause here, and I will take you to a place far away. If you complete your objective, I will heal you and create a way for you to help your parents.}
"What objective? Is it like a game? How long will it take?"
{Just answer, yes or no.}
"Uhh... yes?"
...
He opened his eyes.
He was not in a white hospital room anymore. He was lying on a grassy hill under a bright blue sky.
When Rey sat up, his body did not ache. His lungs expanded fully, pulling in cold, fresh air.
Confused, he stood up and took a step forward, only to launch himself 20 steps forward almost crashing into a tree, but he barely dodged it.
"Agh! Am I gonna die again?! Can I respawn?!"
He crashed face-first into the ground, but when he pushed himself up and dusted off his clothes, he realized he wasn't hurt at all.
"Whoa... Am I the main character or what?"
Rey stared at his hands in shock before bursting into loud, hysterical laughter.
From that second on, he viewed this second life as the ultimate open-world RPG. He was going to explore every corner, make as many friends as possible, enjoy every single fight... and complete his objectives.
...
"Rey! Wake up!"
A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders, shaking him back and forth.
Rey jolted awake, nearly falling off the bed.
Lucia stood over him, her hair still damp from her shower in the private washroom, wearing an elegant black dress. She looked around the empty room with a worried frown.
"Where's Lynx?" she asked, her voice tense. "Did he leave?"
"Eh..." Rey groaned, throwing a pillow over his face to block out the light. "Chat, let me sleep. My stamina bar is at ten percent."
"Rey, be serious!" Lucia said, pulling the pillow off his head. "The next match could be called any minute!"
Rey sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning loudly. "Chill out. He said he was going for a walk. He's probably just walking around looking cool and aura farming somewhere."
Lucia folded her arms, staring at him in total disbelief. "A walk? He hasn't been back for a whole day and you've been sleeping for a whole day! And he is nowhere to be seen right before our next match?!"
"Wait, what?" Rey blinked, side-eying Lucia in confusion. "It's already the next day? How long was I asleep? What about the other matches? Wait... how long were you showering for?!"
"I shower every day, you dirty trash!" Lucia yelled, pulling Rey hard by his ear.
"Ouch! Hey, that hurts!" Rey winced as she finally let go.
"He'll be back," Rey said with a grin, flopping back onto the mattress. "It's not like we need to be right on time anyway. We're bad boys. Lynx never misses a chance to act mysterious."
Lucia grabbed his arm and hauled him straight out of the room.
"What the—?! Why are you kicking me out, gang?!" Rey yelled from the hallway.
SLAM!
Lucia locked the door from the inside. "Go on ahead for us! I need to get my hair done quick!" she called out through the wood.
Rey stood outside in the corridor and let out a long sigh.
...
Meanwhile, outside on the busy roads, Lynx moved quietly through the bustling crowd near the main crossroads.
High-level combatants, cultivators in ornate robes, and armored knights pushed past one another, talking loudly about the tournament matches.
Lynx kept his high collar pulled up to his nose, blending in effortlessly with the passing crowd. He barely paid attention to the noise around him, his mind completely focused on the strange power inside him.
{I need to test the limits of this scroll,} Lynx thought, looking down at his palm. {I can copy and steal abilities, but is there a cap on how many I can hold at once? And what does 'Hidden Usage' mean?}
He turned a corner near the back alley of an old restaurant, stepping away from the main thoroughfare.
{The other matches were decent,} Lynx reflected. {We won the first match, Team Seven over Team Nine. And it looks like they don't accept draws.}
He recalled the results of the First Stage:
Team 7 > Team 9
Team 2 < Team 5
Team 3 ≠ Team 6
Team 4 > Team 12
Team 1 > Team 8
Team 11 ≠ Team 10
{The match order was completely messed up, like it was all a set up, and we're just pawns in their game. Since it was just the first stage, nobody went all out, so I wasn't interested in watching them.}
{Still... from the way everyone was talking about it in the crowd, it sounds like I missed something big.}
"Hey... you."
A voice called out from behind him in the quiet alley.
Lynx stopped in his tracks.
A few steps back, Reilly stood frozen in place. She was staring at Lynx's back, her eyes wide with shock and pure disbelief.
"Is that... really you, Vrren?"