GAME OVER

>RESTART?

I thought dying would be enough to exit the game, giving me a chance to talk to Somi again and getting more pointers, but I was wrong. The only option I was given in the pitch black Game Over screen was to restart, which didn't make sense. If there was no other option, then why bother asking me what I wanted?

I used this moment of nothingness to take a breather.

The arrow Dahyun had shot into my brains wasn't there anymore, but what remained was some kind of phantom pain. I tried to touch my forehead with my real life hand, hoping to give myself some kind of comfort after the headshot, but I was wearing the headset, so I wasn't able to do that without adjusting it. Then I realized... I couldn't feel anything at all. The fingers I moved around during the attempt to touch my forehead felt nothing, and I wasn't sure if I had even moved my arm at all.

If this is what had happened to Mina, that was horrifying. If I completely lost my ability to sense real-world things like this, it could mean this game was somehow rotting my brain, damaging my nerve endings and touch receptors. I wasn't completely sure that was the case, but nonetheless I ended my little break and got back to working on finding my best friend.

I swallowed away any lingering fear and with a deep sigh, I checked to see if I could still use my hand IRL to press buttons. I selected the restart option.

>You will be dropped off at a random location. Continue anyway?

I rolled my eyes. I literally could not do anything else except continue. Seeing that my hands did indeed work despite not being able to feel them follow my command, I chose my only option and the game dropped me in the middle of a damp forest.

It was a dark night, the wind blowing hard and shaking the leaves off trees. There seemed to be a storm brewing, and I couldn't just tell because of the wind, but because thunder rumbled above me, threatening to rain at any moment.

I didn't know where I was, but that time, with my previous knowledge of how the game worked, I began looking for a place to hide out in. Since it was a forest, maybe there was a tree somewhere that was hollow on the inside. That would be a good place to temporarily set up camp and shelter myself from the storm that was surely about to arrive. I was already shivering thanks to the inadequate clothes I was given by default, so there was no way I was going to risk braving the storm.

I followed a slight path for a few seconds until, to my right, I heard three distinct voices. All of them were loud and angry-sounding, like they were in the middle of an argument.

I stepped closer to hear them and see who they were. I needed to know if those players were as hostile as Dahyun and Tzuyu were.

I still remembered what Somi had told me about finding a guild. Maybe she had been completely right. The part of this world that I had already seen was huge, and I was sure that that wasn't even a fraction of the entire map. I needed to get Mina soon, before her brain melted, and maybe help would be useful.

I was going to follow Somi’s advice, I really was, but once I got really close, I stepped on some leaves that were crunchier than the others.

The voices stopped immediately, remaining completely silent for a couple seconds. I panicked, not moving at all.

I decided that I could survive on my own for a bit longer. Last time I tried to make allies, I got an arrow to the knee.

I gotta level up anyways, or else no one will ever let me join them, I reasoned within myself as I darted between trees, turning around every other second to make sure I had avoided being caught. “Gotta find a shelter, then a weapon. Until then, I’ll lay now.”

After five minutes or so of nonstop sprinting, I was sure I had lost the group. Not far from where I stopped to catch my breath, I spotted a large clearing in the middle of the forest. I don't know a whole lot about measurements, but it looked to be about the size of an American football field. At the edge of said clearing, near where I was, there was an old shed that looked sturdy enough to keep me safe for the night.

The wind picked up a bit, blowing my hair into my face and sending goosebumps down my arms. Despite the worry about losing touch with reality, I was still pleasantly surprised that I could feel things inside there, like the wind tugging on my hair and the grass tickling my legs.

Sure, the parts where you can feel an arrow go through your shoulder and feel a giant three-headed beast slam its entire body into you isn't cool, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl, so I allowed myself to be impressed by some of the other, more welcome sensations.

I gathered some crunchy leaves in hopes that I could use them as a blanket and keep warm if it did indeed rain, planning to take them with me inside the shed I had found. As I was returning to the shed with an armful, the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms straightened, giving me a really, really bad feeling. I looked up to the sky and saw a cloud, much darker than the rest, right above me. It looked menacing enough to make me decide that I could gather up the leaves later when the skies were calmer. I dropped what I had in my arms and speed walked to the shed.

I felt a shiver run down my body when I was a few yards away from my shelter. I looked up again and saw the menacing cloud flash brightly. I had no time to think before lightning struck, heading directly towards me.

I knew it was too late to do anything, so I resigned myself to the lightning. In the microsecond I had before it struck me, I prayed that 1 billion volts of electricity weren't as painful as they sounded.

I was thrown back suddenly, not by lightning, but by a figure ing itself violently into me. I landed hard on my back, my head slamming onto the ground and making me pass out for a couple seconds. When I managed to regain consciousness, I was hit with a sudden wall of pain.

I barely noticed, but my mysterious savior (attacker?) was eating dirt a couple feet away from me, stunned by the lightning that narrowly missed us.

I grabbed my head and howled out, feeling like I had just cracked my skull open. I touched the extremely tender part of my head and when I checked for blood, there was indeed a lot of blood coming out of me. I just gripped my head harder, hoping to die a quick death soon and stop this torture.

There was a slight shuffle next to me, so I turned to look at the person that had both just saved my life and made it worse.

It was Mina.

“Mina!” I screamed, immediately regretting it after my head felt like it was going to implode.

“Your head...” She whispered, realizing that my head was bleeding. She reached into a small bag that rested on her hip and produced a small vial of green liquid. It looked a lot like the health potions I had found before.

“Drink this before you pass out.” She handed me the vial and I complied, chugging it like my life depended on it, which I guess wasn't very far from the truth. I caught a glimpse of the description the game gave the liquid inside:

Best when used as a last resort during a battle, this vial completely heals the user and refills their magic. (Recover full HP and MP.)

The second after I drank it felt more like an eternity as I felt no difference in my state. The following second, however, was different. The potion made my insides tingle as if there was an entire colony of ants residing somewhere between my muscles and my skin. After that, my head felt like it was being stitched closed, which was a more welcome sensation than the soul crushing and migraine-like pain I had felt before.

I opened my eyes once the potion finished doing it's job and noticed that it was raining. It looked like I had out for a while. Mina was drenched and staring at me intently.

“Mina? Is that really you?” I got on my knees and crawled to her, afraid it wasn't actually Mina. I gently grabbed her face and looked into her eyes.

“...I saw you. I didn't believe it. My mind couldn't process it; you don't like video games, so I thought I was crazy,” the girl who was indeed Mina whispered, getting on her knees and hesitantly grabbing my face. “I followed you anyway, watching from afar just in case. I saw the cloud above you… I was so scared, I thought I'd be too late.”

I looked into her eyes and rubbed her temple with my thumb. “I'm fine now, Mina. I'm fine, you saved me.”

Mina swallowed hard and nodded. “Chaeng… Let's go inside your shed and warm up.”

That sounded like a great idea.

“Let's do that. I'm freezing in this rain, plus the wind isn't making it any better. Let's hope we can't catch colds in this game.”

Mina’s big eyes somehow grew even larger. “Don't tell me that you were affected by the bug too...” She seemed to freeze for a second before slowly turning away and walking toward the shed, her dark cloak twirling around as the wind caught it. I thought she was going to enter the shed once she got to it but she walked past it, deeper into the woods.

I wasn't sure why she was so upset, considering it wasn't really her fault at all, but I had to comfort her anyway.

I found her about twenty feet away from the shed, staring at the ground and holding her head like she had a headache.

“Mina, hey…” I faced her and pulled her into a tight hug. At first, she gave me no reaction. She just stood and let me embrace her. When I looked up at her eyes, though, she came to and blinked away whatever spell she'd been under.

“Minari, are you okay? JYP didn't remove the glitch thing, I guess, or didn't fix it, or whatever you call it. We talked about it before, remember? That night wh-”

Mina grabbed me by the front of my shirt and threw me against a tree, causing me to shake it and make all the water droplets resting on it pelt us.

I fell to my knees, which gave out. I was completely out of breath and extremely confused, as that action had made zero sense.

“What the hell, Mina? Are you trying to kill me? Did you not understand what I was trying to say? I can feel everything in this game! That includes you tossing me ar-”

She spun around and roundhouse kicked my head, knocking me toward a muddy area near us and effectively shutting me up.

I couldn't get up, so I settled with opening one eye and looking around, desperately trying to figure out why she had just hurt me twice. She had looked so worried about me only seconds before, what did I do to make her change suddenly?

Mina bent over me and stared into my eyes. They were completely blank.

“I came in here to keep you from starving. I came here to make sure you stayed healthy, yet you come and put yourself in danger.” She stood and paced the area around me. “Never in a million years did I ever think you'd ever pick up a videogame and join me,” she said, every word in that sentence completely monotone.

I tried moving my arm but Mina stepped on it and put her weight on it. Her heel wasn't sharp at all. Her boots had simple flat heels, but the one on my hand was still cutting into it. She noticed me focus on my hand and I had to watch helplessly as she crushed it harder.

“Get out of the game, Chaeyoung. Go back to the world you're safe in. You don't belong here. Look at you. Still level 1.”

Mina crouched near me and grabbed my chin. She made me look at her. She looked terrifying now, nothing like the Mina I had seen just minutes before. The empty look in her face was now replaced by an wild, wide-eyed look.

“Now look at what level I'm at, Chaeyoung.”

Some rain managed to slip through the leaf barrier of the forest and get into my eyes. I tried blinking away the water. I couldn't though, and I shook my head to clear my vision. It seemed to frustrate her. She took a deep breath. “I'm level 99. In only two weeks.”

Two weeks? Did she really think it had been that long? Did time feel different in-game?

“M-Mina, it hasn't been two weeks. It's barely been one.” I said all of that quietly, hoping it wouldn't make her angry and make her hurt me more. I didn't think I could stand more than a broken back and a bleeding hand.

“Oh. I see. Oh well, that means I have more time to level up, I guess.” She smiled at me and turned away. “Wanna know how I got to this level?” She asked behind her back.

“No, Mina… I don't... Let's go home. I don't care about this stupid game! I'm sick of getting hurt! I only came here to get you out of here.”

“But it hasn't been two weeks. Didn't you just say that?” She was still turned away from me. I took the opportunity to grab a nearby tree branch. I masked the sound with my voice.

“Yeah, it hasn't, but in the real world, you're in very bad shape. You've lost too much weight to be healthy, and you smell really bad too. I was hoping you could come back and shower, maybe eat a bit, then come back in.”

Hoping my back wasn't actually broken, I tried to gather the strength to get up, but it was so hard. The rain made everything ten times harder to do, and now I was the one getting frustrated.

“I don't care. I'm still leaving next week. I wanna get as powerful as I can in this game, and leaving for a little bit is a waste of time.” She paused for a second. “Anyways, even if you don't want to know, I've gotten to level 99 by killing everyone. People want to make alliances and start guilds here, but no one can win when they're burdened by an entire team. So I slaughtered everyone that asked me to join them and got experience for it. I tried charming someone into being my friend only once, but it was boring. She seemed too infatuated with me, so I left her for dead. I haven't bothered trying to befriend anyone after that, really. I've been using two low-level girls to do my bidding, but it's getting kind of boring too. They take too much time to do anything... I'm telling you this to give you an idea of what to do whenever you come across someone. It'll be useful if you want to level up quickly.”

What the was wrong with her? She was murdering players in cold blood. “That's… ed up, Mina. That's what two girls did to me. It hurt like hell, and I think I might be traumatized by that!" I shook my head, changing tactics, getting a feeling that something was wrong with Mina's empathy. "Mina! You can get back in later! Your body is a ing skeleton right now and you need to keep it healthy! And this game is making you crazy. You need a good dose of real life. You're turning into a serial killer or something!”

Still turned away from me, she sighed. “Chae… Understand that in here, that's how things work. I’m supposed to get stronger one way or another. I wouldn't expect you to know that. You're a noob.”

I didn't need to be an expert player to know that was an awful thing to do, going around killing people and ruining their fun. Power was getting to Mina’s head. I imagined this was how evil rulers started out.

“I’ve exploited some powerful moves that this game has and they're even better when you execute them as other player’s games lag.”

I didn't care. I wouldn't be able to understand her off-topic rambling anyway, so instead of listening to her, I focused on my plan.

I gripped the broken tree branch tightly. I needed to knock her out before she hurt me again, and I probably only had one real chance to pull it off. I had to keep the element of surprise on my side.

I struggled to get up, my spine still agonizing after being thrown against a tree. It probably wasn't broken, or else I doubt I could have gotten up, but I'd still need a way to heal quick. If it wasn't a snapped spine that was about to kill me, it was definitely gonna be something else. This game was dangerous and potions were an absolute must at any given moment, I knew that now.

Thankfully, the rain masked the sound of my labored breathing and leaves being moved around. When I finally stood up straight, I raised the tree branch and stepped closer to her.

My eyes subconsciously moved to her username and level.

BlackSwan, LVL 99

Mina is crazy. I definitely gave her some sort of brain damage, because she's out here killing people in an attempt to level up as much as she can.

I knew her actions were my fault. She was probably playing normally and working with others until I almost removed her headset. Any slight movement could have made her game mess her head up and turn her into an evil .

I focused on the back of Mina’s head. She was still talking, completely unaware of what I was about to do to her.

Or, so I thought.

Mina turned around exactly when I swung the tree branch and caught it before it could strike her in the head. She sneered at me and twisted her hands, making me lose my grip on the branch and basically hand it over to her.

Mina waved the stick at me in a celebratory manner, then dramatically threw the branch in the air. I could only watch like an idiot at what happened next.

Mid spin, the branch turned into a staff with a glowing purple ball at the top end. It landed perfectly back in Mina’s hand. She extended an arm in my direction.

“By the way, I'm a dark mage in this game. I'm working on my necromancing, wanna see?”

I watched in horror as the ground around me began to move around. A skeleton hand popped out and grabbed my ankle. Its grip was tight, but it was only a hand, so I kicked forward and detached the hand from the wrist. That's when another five sets of hands arose from the ground. The hands turned into arms, which were attached to shoulders, which were attached to a whole body.

Five skeletons rose from their graves and tackled me. I tried to fight it, but for guys that were all bones and no meat, they sure had some muscle.

Mina watched with evil glee as the skeletons pulled me to my knees and held me down. She strode closer and gave me an ugly smirk, one that I'd never seen on her.

“I'd order my boys to kill you, but I'm guessing you've never even seen a checkpoint since you've gotten here. You'll just come back over and over again. So instead, I'll help you. Here.”

She grabbed one of the skeleton’s ribs, broke it off and held it in front of my face. It instantaneously turned into a white knife. It was pretty looking, but when she it into my throat, it didn't seem so pretty anymore.

I gaped at her, somehow still finding it surprising that she would stab me in the neck.

Mina didn't pull the knife out. Instead, she took a step back and looked at me as if she was admiring a work of art.

“Keep it, it's a gift from me. The knife’s name is Gwantong. Came up with it myself.” Mina waved her hand over the skeletons and they all turned to dust, finally letting my arms free and letting me grab the knife that was still inside of my neck. I tried pulling it out, but it was like it had sapped all of my energy. I fell on my back, my fingers still curled around Gwantong.

Mina dug her knee into my chest. “Level up and meet me,” she breathed into my ear. “I'll leave when and only when you become stronger than me and best me in a one-on-one battle.”

She stood and walked away from me. From behind her back, she said one last thing.

“Good luck. I love you.”

If I had the strength, I would have screamed at her and called her a liar. I probably would have also spat in her direction. But I had no strength. All I could do was try hard to make lasers materialize out of my eyes. It seemed like whatever kind of character I had randomized had no cool powers whatsoever, because nothing at all happened.

Mina’s silhouette disappeared into the forest clearing. She left me completely alone in the rain with a blade jabbed into my throat and a broken heart.

The stab wound didn't hurt as much as any other injuries I'd acquired in the game. Yet...in another way, it was the most painful one. This one came from someone that I had loved and trusted for years now. It was personal, it was raw and it was killing me equally on the inside and outside.

My voice was completely gone. I tried speaking, but all that came out was a disgusting gurgling sound. The rain washed away all of the blood that was pouring out of me.

Must've lost a lot of blood already, I thought to myself.

I set my head back down and spread out my arms, accepting death.

But of course, just when I wanted it, death did not come. It's never that easy in Paracosmos.