You could fight the man, wrestle the knife out of his grip and flip the situation on its head. Try to fight him anyway. You’ve been in a couple fights before, even took a class or two, but not enough for you to be comfortable with a real knife fight. So, while fighting is a tempting option, you’d rather run if you can.

You are not in the mood to get stabbed or robbed. Considering the wild look in the man’s eye, you’re likely to get both unfortunate circumstances. At the very least he’s distracted enough for you to make a run for it. Still keeping your arms up, you try to slowly sneak away.

You get a couple steps away, but as luck would have it, they remembered you exit. With loud “Hey.” You turn and try to run. You can hear the foot falls as the man begins chasseing you. You run for a couple feet before you feel a sting in your shoulder, pain flaring as the man behind you grunts. The fucker stabbed you, apparently being faster than you.

The pain is enough to slow you down as you instinctively turn around to face your attacker. Just in time, as see the man going in for another swing. You reflexively rase your arms up in a poor attempt to protect yourself. By chance, you manage to wrap both hands around the man’s wrist. In the process, you trip over yourself, indirectly pulling the man down with you.

You grunt as the hard ground aggravates the wound on your back. The man isn’t kind enough to let you get a moment of rest, beginning to push the blade down into you. You resist, straining your mussels to keep the blade from cutting into you. You can only do so much unfortunately, the man beginning to put his whole weight on the knife, inching it closer and closer to your face.

You hear your blood rushing in your ears as you try your hardest to keep the blade from sinking into your face and killing you. The man looks ravenous, a barbaric glee in his eye as he snarls at you. You can’t keep this up for ever, the adrenalin in your blood barley doing anything as it slowly inches towards you.

Your eyes shift to the screen, the bold ‘yes’ seemingly your only opportunity for a quick escape. Seeing as its basically in your head, you attempt to mentally accept the offer. Nothing happens. Fuck. You would need to have to actually touch the damn thing to get any reaction. And since your hands where occupied at the moment, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Unless...

God this was going to hurt. With some effort, you stopped pushing back and tried to shift the knife away from your face. What transpired was a planned but incredibly painful opportunity that you needed. The knife had sunk into your shoulder, digging deep and catching on bone. You are dazed for a moment by the pain, what little confidence you had not preparing you for the experience. But it’s enough.

A hand free now, you slam it on to the yes. Instead of a blinding flash rescuing from danger, you are taken surprised by the stream of windows that pop up.

Warning: Interloper Detected, Attempting to Purge Foreign Entity from Player Account.

Processing...

Attempt Failed: Escalating Defensive Measures: Beta Level Purge

Processing...

Attempt Failed: Escalating Defensive Measures: Priority Breach Detected: Tactical Security Subroutine Engaged.

Dual Approach: Tracing Hacking Origin, Disabling Player Safety Protocol.

Processing...

You are unable to read the disturbingly colored windows any further as a fist strikes your face. You see stars as you feel the man begin to punch you into the ground. You kept one arm on the knife and kept the man from pulling the knife out to use it against you, making him use the other. You feebly raise your one free hand to protect you from the onslaught of your would-be robber.

The action barely protects you but gives you a moment to see the mans face suddenly brighten up for some reason. The man turns his head, stopping his near endless swings, taking an interest in whatever he’s looking at instead of you. You are in too much pain with your vision beginning to swim to really take notice what’s going on at this point. Except for a new window that remains crystal clear and readable.

P̷̤̳̒́͗̒̅͑U̷͚͙̩̔͆͊͛̉̒̚͜R̸̖̜̥̘̉G̷̣̺̮͕̍̌͌͆́͋̚Ȩ̵͙̭̬̩̾́ͅͅ ̶̹̮̼̮̳͚͇̀͐̐͠S̶̢͈͛̔͆̆̑̕͝Ű̴̡̘͔̩̥̻̫̲̃͋C̵͈͈͕͉͖͇̲̬̈́͒͛C̴̨̓̌̕͠E̶̘̖͗͋͛́͠͝͝S̷̢͙͉̗̬̱̏̏S̴͖̃̏͊̋F̵͖̲̙̝̀̍̿̇̕͜Ü̴̱̈́̚Ļ̵͍̱̟̲͍̅̌͑L̵͙͍̞̽͊̈͋̊̋̂Y̸͉̼̥͂̈́̑̒̈̇ ̴͚̼̗͕͔̑̈P̵̛̣A̶͈̹̪̎͌̃T̶̨́͝C̷̡̥̦̮͎̋́͆̉̍̑͋Ḣ̵̫̺̩̭̹̊̉̂͂̄̿Ẹ̵̢̙̮̌̔̈͠ͅD̶͉͉̓̑̃̈̚͝:̷̛͎̹͒ ̸̛̯͓̙̞̏͌̒̒̈̓̕B̶̞͖͌̆̈̔̀͆̎E̷̤͔͂͋̇̾̈́̚G̷͈̈́́̍́I̷̗̫̫͈̤̹̅ͅN̶̨͎̯̋̏N̶͖̙̙̓͋́̈͒̆̚͝ͅI̵̛͎̤̼̻͊̿̽̃͊̾͜͠N̶̡͙̤̬͔̐̎̐̒͋̆͆Ĝ̸͓̈ ̶̛͖̥̪̲͓͓͖̲́̆̔̏̆̇̚P̶͖̲̼͙͖͊Ļ̸̻̼̟͖͓̓̄̌͌͋̊A̵̢̤̯̿̄̓Ẏ̴̪͈̝̈͜E̸̹̻̪͆̂̋͑̈́͝R̴̨̨̛̲͈̥̰͓̾̓͌̓͝͝ ̶̡̤͖̳͕͓̟́̒Ṱ̸͓̲͕͒̽̌R̵͍͍̞̻̖̀͆̋͠A̵̢̻͇̩̹̞͌͋̆̀͒̄̚͜N̸̛͔̯̜̈́̚S̶͙̥͚̮̭̈F̸̜̝͕̿͌̀͒̾͂E̶̢̨̹̳̫͖̜̾̐̾̃̋̐̚R̵̺̎̃̄́̊͒̌͘ ̵̡̥͕̰̓̌̃̂̔́ͅN̸͘O̷̢̯̠͍͇̽̒̋Ẁ̵̖͎͔͆͆̊̚.̴̲͇̙̞̩̣̜͖͓̝̼̮̣͌̓̅͑̈́͜

The last thing you hear is screeching tires and a man screaming, before a deep pain enveloped your entire being. It overwhelms you entirely, blocking out any other sensation besides the agony you are experiencing. Its not too long after you pass out, your mind finally succumbing to everything its been put through.

You wake up on the floor, head throbbing. You groan and try to stand. You flinch as a pain shoots through you, originating from both shoulders. A quick glance shows that you’re still wounded, al be it with closed cuts at the moment. You grimace, finding the still bloody knife next you. With so effort, you reach over and pic it up.

You stare at what could have been your death in your hands. You don’t really know how to feel about the whole experience.

“While I do understand many individuals have a hard time transitioning, I believe it would be in your best interest to have some situational awareness my child.”

With small hop, you stand hurriedly, facing the direction the unexpected voice came from. You notice two things immediately. You appear to be in a gray seemingly endless void with no horizon in sight. The other thing is that you are in fact not alone here. A man in a gray robe with a cane stands before you. You can tell he is of considerable age by the number of wrinkles on his face and the gray color of his goatee. You hold the knife up, unsure how to feel about the stranger in front of you.

“Come now, you where the one that agreed to become a Player. Is it really necessary to face the first being you come across in such a hostile manner?” He grins, the wrinkles on his face almost completely obscuring his silver eyes. “Although I can clearly see you had a very unappealing experience coming here. It is pleasing to see you did not die in transit.” The corners of his mouth drop into a frown. “We have had one to many failed applicants that way.”

He shakes his head, his ponytail swishing behind his head. “But regardless, let us not dawdle on other participants. We are here to focus on you and only you.” With a tap of the man’s cane, he turns and begins walking into the empty void.

After he walked a couple steps, the old gentleman turns to you, an eyebrow quirked and a small smile on his lips. “Well? Do not just stand their child, come! You volunteered for the opportunity of your lifetime did you not?” Not waiting for your response, the man continued walking.

You don’t move. The entire experience is just too bazaar for you to so easily place your trust in a weird guy you just met in a land of nothingness. Could be a trap. Could be he’s leading you astray for whatever diabolical reason your frazzled mind can come up with. Hell, this could be some sort of test with unforeseen consequences if you fail.

But at the end of the day the old man was right. You signed up for a whole new experience, or at least thought about it. Even if your hand was forced at the time, you can’t really turn back if the window is to be believed.

With a deep breath, you grit your teeth and follow the strange old man. If nothing else, it gives you something to do other than wallow in all the dark thoughts in the back of your mind. You speed up, maintaining a foot of distance between yourself and your guide.

“Myldir.” The old man says suddenly. You are confused for a moment, but he continues speaking. “My name child. Something to address me as other just an old man. And I think it helps start a conversation.” He turns his head, a smile on his face as his eyes seam to pierce your soul. “Now, its only fair if you tell me yours no?”

You hesitate for a moment, but as Myldir’s eyes bore into you, you have an indescribable feeling that its best you answer him. “Sam.” Myldir’s smile grows, a small chuckle as his head face forwards once again. As soon as you break eye contact, that indefinable feeling disappears. You can only frown at the entire experience.

“It is a bit of a distance before we arrive at our destination, so I believe some conversation will alleviate any boredom that may befall us.” He raises a hand, “Before you feel the need to ask one of the hundred of questions you most certainly have Sam, would you be so kind as to tell me about yourself. If not to just satiate my curiosity, I can promise you it would be to your benefit for what is to come.”

The strange feeling return, although far weaker than before. Your starting to feel like you don’t have much of a choice when he asks his questions.

What’s your story?

Spoiler: Spoiler

Are you a boy or girl?

Do you tell the truth?

Lie?

Half truths and vaige answers?