I felt I hid my annoyance reasonably well as I signed the papers in front of me. Apparently, if a company that you sell your artwork commits tax evasion, it can at times ripple down the chain. Thus, I had unwittingly committed tax fraud for the last five years, being none the wiser. If I ever had the chance to work again, I would make sure to do my own taxes from that day on.

My lawyer, some guy whose name I couldn’t pronounce without butchering it, placed another form in front of me. “Alright, Miss Amara. This is the last document. It will at least keep you out of jail for the time being.”

“Yay,” I said halfheartedly. Spending the next twenty minutes, I made sure I wasn’t getting screwed… again before I scribbled my name over the line.

“Great! That’s everything. It is good that you had some life savings. This sort of thing happens more often than you would expect.” He gave me a crooked though somewhat reassuring grin. “I’ll keep you out of prison, but I can’t do anything about the house arrest.”

I waved his concern off. I was used to being at home most of the time anyway. It just hit me hard that I didn’t have any work at the moment. Sort of hard-to-get clients when they only knew you through your company. “I know. I’ll be fine. Since I don’t have any work, maybe I’ll check up on my sleep.”

“That’s the spirit!” The lawyer packed up all the paperwork before I showed him to the door. “Now. I’ll be here to pick you up for your court date in two months. If you miss it… Just don’t miss it.”

“I won’t. Where am I going to go?” I replied with a snort.

“Good. Until next time.” He turned on his heel and made for his car in the driveway, a nice 2035 model from Yelsa. It could do everything but fly. I waved until he was on the street before I around, closing the door.

My usually welcoming home felt empty and cold. The three-bedroom house might be a bit large for one person, but I had my uses for each room. My bedroom, a workroom, and a space to showcase said work for prospective buyers. Not that anyone physically came to my house. Cameras allowed them to virtually tour the place well enough.

The police had raided it for anything and everything that was related to my work. The thought that all my art supplies were sitting in some evidence locker made me chuckle. At least until I remembered that I couldn’t physically go buy more for almost two months. That soon led to me remembering that the government was going to take just about every last credit that I had.

I thought about what I told the lawyer and went to the bedroom to catch up on my sleep. A week ago, I was lucky to get even three hours of sleep; I was so overworked. Now I could sleep for fifteen hours a day without having to worry about making a deadline. Looking around the bare room, most of my clothes in the laundry, I spotted one of the few electronic devices that the police hadn’t taken. “They took my art stuff but left you,” I mumbled as I fingered the dive recliner.

I had bought it about ten years ago, so it was quite old. It allowed one to escape the modern world into whatever world you wanted. Fantasy, science fiction, horror, or whatever you named it, some company had created a virtual world that you could escape to. I had been quite into a few games when I was younger, the result of my parents hating each other and thus me.

Flopping down into the seat, I activated the calibrator. It had been almost four years since I had used it for more than a literal seat to do my hair or make-up. The stress and workload had taken more than a few pounds off my bones. Plus, I had to make sure the device still worked in the first place.

“Please remain perfectly still.” I did as the metallic voice instructed as two bars extended from either side of my face. A light that signified I was being scanned started at the top of my head. The scanner soon worked its way down to the tips of my toes. When it finished, the bars retracted. “Thank you.”

“Load the last world played,” I ordered since I couldn’t remember what I had on here. I figured if I played something that I was already established in, I could go take out my stress on some poor monster sooner rather than later.

The metallic voice returned. “Confirmed. Please wait ten seconds.” A metallic clamp extended and attached to my arm. I never played long enough for it to matter, but there was a bag of nanites that would supply nutrients to my system if I played for longer than a day. I used them for non-gaming purposes when I didn’t want to eat and keep painting. Not recommended, but at least I knew they were good to go in case I decided to go on a massacre.

I closed my eyes and slowly counted. At eleven, for good measure, I opened them to see my room had vanished. Instead, complete darkness met my gaze. It was pitch black, but my sense of touch was working. I felt cold, slightly damp stone under my back and legs. I tested my arms and found I could move. “What the hell had I been playing last time?” I asked myself as I felt around. Pushing up, what appeared to be a stone lid shifted ever so slightly. That was when things went weird.

: Error: Unable to reconcile data to local network.

: Attempting to Update: Local… Failed. Attempting to Update: Zone… Failed. Attempting to Update: Node… Failed. Attempting to Update: Region… Failed. Attempting to Update: World… Success:

I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Surely, three years wasn’t long enough for a logged-off character to break the game! If that was the case, they should have just deleted it. I didn’t get much time to consider what was going on, as something that shouldn’t happen started to happen.

Needle-like stabbing pain washed over every part of my body. That was when I really started to panic. Pain simulation had been banned ten years ago in 2042 due to a large number of deaths from people overdoing it. There were always those few that liked to be hurt. Being that I never had a high pain tolerance. I effectively passed out in seconds.

~~~

Flashes of color brought me back to the world of wakefulness. I groaned as I had a splitting headache adding to the already lousy day I had before this little adventure. I blinked my eyes and saw a sliver of light. I must have managed to push the lid or covering enough before all the craziness started.

Reaching back up, I pushed the lid with everything I had. A loud bang as the lid fell off the side onto the ground echoed throughout whatever structure I was in, hurting my head even more. Groaning again, I pulled myself up and looked around.

“I’m… in a… cave,” I mumbled. I was in a coffin in the middle of a cave. A few markings that had worn away from the effects of time could almost barely be made out. A memory sparked as I took in the coffin I was sitting in.

A few years ago, I had been going through a rough period. In an attempt to escape, I made a vampire-like character. In only the first few minutes, I had quickly realized that drinking blood for humanoids didn’t sit well with me and ended up subsisting on animals and monsters. It worked well enough, even unlocking a few powers and skills.

“I don’t think I want to go through that again,” I said to the empty cave as more memories of the few months that I had played surfaced. It had just never been… me. Better to just remake a character or find a new game.

Looking at my wrist, a rune was tattooed onto the skin. I traced it, and the menu popped up. I made my way to the bottom and tapped the log-out button. It turned static for a second before it went back to normal. I raised an eyebrow at the scene and thought maybe the event from a few minutes ago had caused it. I tapped it again, and again it turned static before returning to normal.

“No. Seriously!” I refused to believe I was trapped in a game! This wasn’t some web novel or anime! I repeatedly hit the button with nothing new happening, no matter how hard I tried. I spent more time than was rightfully necessary burning off my anger, pounding the button until I just had to accept the fact that it wasn’t working.

I ground my teeth in irritation then moved through the menu until I found contacts. I smashed the contact Game Master button, and the same thing happened. At that point, I lost it and screamed. The sound echoed around the cave for only ten seconds before I felt something tear in my throat, after which no sound came out of my mouth other than a dry huff.

Okay. Calm down, Amara. There must be an explanation. An NPC! That’s it. I needed to find a non-player character. They should be able to contact the system. Wait. The system.

“…!” I grabbed the edge of the coffin and slammed my head straight down. Are you kidding me!? I couldn’t speak due to my torn vocal cords. I spent the next thirty minutes going through a few mediation techniques that I had learned to cope with my workload.

After calming down, I turned and sat on the edge of the coffin. Looking around, I actually took in more of my surroundings past the casket. I groaned, dropping my face into my hands as all I saw were the cave walls. I was in a room that was barely five by five meters. The coffin, the only thing that was in any sort of good condition, was elaborate but overall useless.

I sighed and looked up toward the light. Maybe there was a hole I could climb? Floating just above my head by a meter or so was a blood-red orb. While I had no idea of its purpose, the image it gave off screamed evil object. I stood up then reached up further, jerking to a stop when the light landed on my arm. The sleeve of the shirt I had been wearing was mostly rotted. The skin was gnarled and sunken. It looked like a mummy’s. I’m screwed. I just know it.

Shaking off the disgust I was feeling, I finished reaching up to grab the object. [Dungeon Core: Vampire. Owner: Aurora Nightingale] I considered the name then quickly pulled the menu back up again. I clicked on the status option. It flashed with static for a second before it glowed red, and another screen popped up.

--

Name: Aurora Nightingale

Level: 1

Race: Vampire,

Sub: Dungeon Master

Sub: Dungeon Core

Total Mana: 2/50

Abilities:

Blood Sucking

Blood Magic

Elemental Magic – Fire, Earth

Basic Sneak

Dungeon Menu

--

I took a breath before I crawled back into the coffin and slowly laid down before I shuddered in dismay for a few minutes. What was going on?! This has to be a nightmare. I was trapped in a game, trapped in a cave, and was apparently a dungeon core. Fuck my life.