《A Nerd's Wuxia Tales》Chapter 2 -- Alone
Advertisement
Chapter 2 - Alone
As his consciousness awoke, he finds himself unable to feel anything. The stillness makes no noise, or maybe he is just deaf. The intense feeling of not being able to identify his location nearly makes him go crazy, bordering on insanity. Does he still even exist? He cannot help but ponder. Was it all just a nightmare? He tries to wake up but fails. Whatever he does, he would end up facing failure, unable to do anything but...think.
Time passes, or something akin to time passes. Whether his thoughts can count as passing time or not, it is the only thing he has, his memories and his thoughts. Was he destined to remain in this state forever?
In the infinite blackness, Mark starts to contemplate on the subject of life and death. For example, why would he still be alive if his body has been destroyed? And why isn’t he in heaven, then? Could it be that all those stories about ghosts are true? Then why can’t he see them? Or, wait, maybe he is a special case since his death was so super-natural? Yes, that would make sense…
This situation of him thinking to himself went on for what felt like weeks, months or maybe even a couple of years! He slowly forgot the sound of his voice and what it meant and felt like to be alive. The thing he regretted the most was that he hadn’t been able to finish the episode of Lookism he was reading the night before it all happened.
Strangely, even though time went on, his memories, instead of dispersing, seemed to have been entirely restituted inside his brain, giving him back all of his memories from his time on Earth up till when he was 4 years old.
Advertisement
During his wait in this dark place, he either slumbered or recalled his past memories. He remembered how, when he was small, he had been introduced to the world of fantasy by some of his friends. Since then, he had been either reading mangas, watching animes, or playing games, mostly fantasy games like MMORPGs or Final Fantasy.
He remembered his dislike and contempt for his friends. He initially had not wanted to play with his friends, he did it out of boredom. He eventually came to like it, mostly because he was so good and adept at playing MMORPGs. He had ranked number 1 in many PvP tournaments, events, and dungeons. Not only for one game, but many.
And the mangas, after reading so much, the author was giving out less and less content to read. New mangas progressed so slowly, it truly became a nuisance to wait for weeks on end, for a single chapter of a few pages. Happily, animes had been faster. A chapter that took only two minutes to read once every two weeks, or an episode that takes 20 minutes, every week.
The regret he felt, he had recently started a manga, or was it a manhwa? Not sure, whatever, it did not matter. What mattered was his regret. He was close to catching up, but in the midst of a filler, he chose to take a pause and play games instead.
Now, would he ever have a chance to finish reading it, could he ever dominate the MMORPGs again? The fact that everything that was happening right now was so unknown to him made him distance his feelings. He truly contemplated life.
Life is like the touch of a breeze, the wind at that moment of collision, it can be strong, or weak. In the end, the breeze fades away and is replaced, by yet another breeze. Could it be that he was meant to be like those weak breezes, diminishing in a short amount of time, life fading discontentedly?
Advertisement
Truly, sorrow is hard to distinguish, like immortal flames forever blazing. Some flames even soaring through the skies and ascending heavens. Like those flames when he was forging and crafting advanced items, the gathering of superior grade materials. All his hours spent on MMORPG’s wasted, his fame would eventually be forgotten, and so would he.
Oh yeah, how about his dad, mom, and little sister? He had never felt very close to them, yet, in this new trance-like state, he could easily see all of his memories from a young age. He could see how his parents doted on him, and remember how he felt jealous, but also fond of his little sister when they were both young. He did not know how, but he could feel some kind of pain. Not physical, it felt more delusional.
The emotional impact of sorrow, missing his loving sister. How many times had he not been cold and pushed her away, spending her savings behind her back? He could already guess that she knew. In spite of this, she never raged on him or corrected him, truly the love of a sibling.
He went more and more in depth with his bad character, his wrongdoings and the cold shoulder he had offered his family through time. If he could shed tears, it would have rained.
For what felt like a week or maybe months, he contemplated on the things he could have changed, on the things that could have been different. And lastly, he thought of how useless these thoughts were, as he could not change a single thing.
Calmness, for a while his thoughts ceased. Blackness or more correctly nothing, pureness of mind. It was as if the last drop of his intentions had disappeared, like he was part of nothingness.
One day, a subtle thought echoed in his mind. ‘Power’. The origin of this thought was unknown, and he himself did not know why this word flashed in his mind. But the reaction it sent off bewildered him because suddenly a sound forced itself onto him.
A majestic and enchanting sound suddenly rang out. It was unknown to him why it reminded him of a bird calling or commanding him to wake up.
“SCREECH!”
But how could he wake up, when his body had been destroyed in the core of the earth. At such a high temperature, even his ashes would have been incinerated. What came after that screech crumbled his mind. Was he really destined to cease to exist?
A soul wrenching pain, a pain deeper than a spear lunging into his heart, so deep that he felt death was impudent before this pain. What was more intense, was the fact that this pain that was a result of that bird’s screech, kept growing stronger and stronger. If he had been alive, he would have been dead from this amount of impact long ago.
The pain overlapped with an extremely overbearing thudding sound, like a car passing by him with insane speed, over and over again. When the pain neared the crux, the stillness flooded his mind again, and the pain suddenly stopped. Yet his will was shaken, and his consciousness entered into a slumber.
Slowly together with the pain, the thoughts faded away. His will and consciousness faded as he entered a slumber, whether it would be short lived or not.
Advertisement
- In Serial44 Chapters
Rigged
Life has always been a battle, but for some people that's especially true. Not everyone can take living another day for granted. And that was before the world started ending. Now that the [Trial] is here, and everything is going up in flames... well, life isn't getting easier. That's for certain. Trapped in the [Trial], John is faced with a painful reality: If he wants to live, he has no choice but to climb. And if he wants to survive for the long term, he needs to keep on climbing. Even if that means heading directly into danger. ....... Dungeon/Tower climbing premise with a progression LITRPG focus. Not extremely fast-paced. Not a Super-OP MC. Intended for those with (or those who can relate with) chronic health problems. Being written in the hopes of completing Book 1 before November 14th (World Diabetes Day) New Chapters release on Monday
8 199 - In Serial57 Chapters
Grave of the Goddess
The Labyrinth was a test crafted by the Goddess, an unending and deadly place filled with worlds inside of worlds which threatend to devour any who entered. Many of the people who had tried to pass through to the final floor never even came close, a large amount failing on the earliest floors. One soul fought his way through and managed to reach the final realm, facing off against the final trial and barely succeeding. In the end his life was the cost for that, and with a final breath he accepted the end of his life with dignity and grace. Then he woke up.
8 198 - In Serial7 Chapters
The Phoenix: A Tale of Rebirth
The story begins with the Phoenix. A magical beast that is periodically reborn into the world. In the past, it has been reborn as a goblin, slime, a sorceror and a meriad of other creatures and beings.On this ocassion it is an unfortunate and kind-hearted half troll half human that is experiencing the world for the first time while his psychotic half brother makes a journey south towards the mysterious uncharted continent. What he finds there will change the fate of this world and drag the Phoenix into a parlous conflict.New chapters every week... during the weekend... at some point.Please review, comment and tell your friends!Props to the cover picture goes to Sleeping Soul in the Sky.
8 195 - In Serial37 Chapters
I'm Glad You Found Me [mpreg]
He's not the first to encounter an alien. But he might be the first to fall in love with one.
8 94 - In Serial60 Chapters
Living as a Demon
Jonathan was living the life of a normal human male in modern-day society, until he was rudely awakened one night by a summoning circle that ripped him out of his reality and dumped him into a new world filled with magic, demons, and…mouthy young orphan girls?! Now Jonathan must navigate the trials of playing guardian to a preteen, learning to unlock his inner demon, and somehow managing to find a dang pair of pants! Welcome! I'm E.O. Tenkey; thank you for considering Living as a Demon, my third released work here on Royal Road (following Not a Manga and Mr. Familiar)! Let's set some expectations, shall we? • Not much hard profanity (chapter 1 is the exception!)• Human MC! Our protagonist is a bona fide homo sapiens. Which is not to say there won't be demons, demonic powers, and what-have-you, but this isn't some grimdark exploration of the life and times of a nihilistic, amoral killing machine.• Slice of life. My previous works always ended up there, so might as well get ahead of the curve!• Weekly updates, and a completed story: I will post a single chapter per week on Wednesdays until the story is complete (extra chapters are rare, but do happen).
8 121 - In Serial18 Chapters
Desperate Times - A 49ers GameLit Trilogy
Like first person shooters?If you could feel every bullet, knife, explosion; every injury, every death, would you still play your favourite games?On their last life, the 49ers have no choice.After a war which nearly ended the world, a single virtual reality game replaced war.Trapped, fighting for their very survival, the 49ers will do what it takes to PTFO.If you like Call of Duty, Battlefield, or PUBG, you’ll love this series.
8 175