*Drip* … *Drop* … *Drip* … *Drop* … *Drip* … *Drop* …

Ren gradually opened his blurry eyes, the entire world twisting and turning around him until it once again became clear.

"Wh-where am I…"

He mumbled to himself staring at an unfamiliar stone, mossy ceiling dripping what he assumed to be water on his head.

As his hazy vision and hearing became crystal, his smell followed right after.

*GAWK*

Suddenly, the blurriness in his eyes returned, his mind felt like it was spinning and about to explode out of his skull from nausea as he clenched and contracted his turning, shrivelled stomach from completely erupting out of his mouth; the odour entering his nose was completely disgusting beyond his wildest imagination.

The smell was so horrid that the polluted, black and yellow air that roamed the streets of his city paled in comparison.

He had absolutely no idea what it was. If a mountain of feces was sitting mere centimetres from him, he doubted that it would be even able to compare.

"Wh-where am I… *Gawk*"

He muttered to himself, still lying down and blankly staring at the ceiling, trying his best to ignore the smell before suddenly.

*SQUEEK*

"AHHHHHH!"

He screamed a high pitch scream— A massive, gray red-eyed rat crawled onto his face like he was nothing but a corpse, the sensation of its hairy, wet, disgusting body on his face scared and revolted him beyond his wildest dreams.

"AHHHHH AHHH!"

Shuddering, he Instinctively tried to run away from the monstrosity in front of him. However, when he tried to move more than an inch, he felt the deepest, most disturbing wave of pain in his entire life. Like his bones were crushed to dust all at once.

Luckily for him, due to his screams alone, the rat scurried away in absolute fear, completely out of his field of vision.

Ren was breathing heavy, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets yet absolutely no sweat was escaping from any of his pores, and he did not feel his heart beating at all when he would have expected it to be pounding like a battering ram on steroids.

His cold, familiar yet unfamiliar feeling body that he was not even able to grasp immediately tensed up as he slowly looked down at it with his vision that had once again grown hazy and dizzy, time suddenly slowing down in his mind.

*Drip* … *Drop* … *Drip* … *Drop*

With shaky, horrified eyes that shrunk to the size of pees, he witnessed the traumatizing sight of his naked limbs, twisted and turned in odd ways that were not in any world natural: like some sort of bent spaghetti or messed up tree branches, wounds and bruises all over what he could only assume to be his flesh.

He was surprised to even be living with such injuries...

The sight nearly made his heart leap out of his chest, but instead, he threw up everything in his stomach as he managed to roll slightly to his side, horrified beyond his wildest dreams.

There, in his own, bloody barf he witnessed small pieces… small pieces of a red apple… The simple sight of that made everything click in his mind, like it was some sort of missing link…

He remembered everything… Everything from starting up the game until he got nearly killed by a city guard along with everything before and in between…

He was feeling pain… Actual pain beyond any human capacity he had ever imagined, and he was feeling that right now. It was like his worst nightmare come true only it sadly felt too real to be one…

His mind was in more turmoil than almost ever before in his life— only the death of his father could compare.

He was not in a game… No way he was in a game… New Era would have been sued to oblivion if he were.

Other than certain situations, Rebirth did not allow any blood in their game of any kind, let alone pain beyond the very basics.

Characters and NPCs were simply nothing but numbers, biting into a person as a vampire felt more like biting into cardboard, upon death, NPCs and Mobs simply dropped their loot on the ground and disappeared, the game took so many precautionary measures to separate itself from real violence.

In a game centred around killing and adventuring, especially one as realistic looking and feeling as even the old version of Rebirth, a line had to be drawn.

No one would play the game if the killing was too realistic, most humans would refuse and be absolutely disgusted at taking a human life so making an entire game centred around realistically doing it was not a smart move, not to mention completely illegal.

And, pain receptors were suppressed for a reason, it was simply a game after all. No one would pay to constantly fight life or death battles, only to die and respawn over, and over, and over, again until they achieved victory; no one wanted an endless, realistic war simulator unless they were the military.

If anything, if that were to happen, the game would be simply used as a means to cultivate serial killers as killing would become so numb, and the sick-minded might even find it fun and try it in real life. It would be completely different than playing any other normal video game such as GeeTeeAe since it lacked many of the realistic elements and drew a clear line between game and reality.

But now, all those rules seemed to have been gutted out the window.

That only left him with two options… And none of them said this was simply a game…

Either he got transported to another world, or he was living in a realistic simulation illegally conducted by New Era.

No matter what choice it was, he was certain of one thing… Someone was messing with him… And there was only one way he could find out as he mumbled in his beyond hurting mind.

"Options"

And suddenly, a familiar screen appeared right in front of him.

He was obviously unable to scroll down with his broken arms, so he simply had to use his mind and eyes until he reached the very bottom.

"Log Out..."

He issued the voice command, only to be left in silence… but then a message appeared.

{ This option is currently not available! Please get past the tutorial first! }

He expected to see the message but the realization of seeing it in real life incited some sort of primal instinct from within him— maybe it was the part of him that had faith and wished from the bottom of his heart for his instinct to be wrong...

"Log out..."

{ This option is cu-

"Log out."

{ This o-

"Log out!!"

{Th-

"AHHHH!!!"

He was going crazy. He wanted to cry but his body would not even allow him to, the horror, sadness, and hopelessness in his soul were immeasurable and he could not even let it out in tears other than small hints of blood...

Someone was clearly messing with him, either a god or a game developer. In hindsight, he should have realized it when he was unable to reload a checkpoint... He should have realized it when he saw hints of what he assumed to be blood on Luck... He should have realized it when he sniffed the awful smell of the armour he wore that he now knew was the smell of a corpse... He should have realized it when the entire game felt all too realistic and NPCs felt like actual humans... His carelessness and excitement blinded him and this was the punishment he received for it...

"Oh whatever god or higher being is seeing this... Stop screwing with me... Please stop screwing with me... Why did I deserve this? What did I do? What do you want? Answer me!! Please stop and end my misery..." He murmured, staring at that dreaded, life-sucking blue error screen only to receive absolutely no response but the drops of water falling from the ceiling and the slight sound of metal clanking in the air.

*Drip* … … *Drop* … … *Drip* … … *Drop*

'If I'm here... I might be dead in real life… I might be… DEAD IN REAL LIFE!'

That sudden realization abruptly sunk in even deeper.

He, with all his money and fame, might have died… But dying after success was not the crisis he was facing… It was simply the fact that his mother, the only family he had left would be receiving his entire inheritance, which left him in even more turmoil than before.

However, that was when a small smile appeared on his face, remembering that he had taken precautionary measures to ensure his money did not ever end up in her hands; if only he could see the look on her face when she finds out.

However, his smile and slight moment of bliss were then immediately taken away by a drop of water falling on his face, the squeak of the rat in the distance along with that same loathsome smell re-entering his nose that he now recognized as the smell of rot, death and decay…

*Drip* … … *Drop* … … *Drip* … … *Drop*

*GAWWKK*

With shaky, blurry eyes, he looked around the room only to notice exactly what he expected. Beyond the pool of his own bloody barf beside him laid rivers of disgusting, unknown liquids running through the cracks of the cold, dirty stone ground, moss was growing from every inch of the room, shackles on the cracked walls, a bucket in the corner surrounded by various rats right next to it.

The more he looked the more his fear increased. He was no doubt in a prison or some sort of dungeon. If his body had not been broken beyond repair, he was certain it would be shaking uncontrollably.

Just by looking at his surroundings, the cold, ruthless reality of his new life and existence became more than apparent... All that awaited him was gloom

He wanted it all to end but the end did not seem anywhere in sight as his mind raged and brewed like a storm, tears of blood finally coming down from his eyes. But, even through those thoughts, he did not wish for death... he still had a will of his own, and wanted to live...

Even he was unsure why. Was it his father's words to him? Or was it something else within him he did not even know about?

*Stomp* ... *Stomp* ... *Stomp* ... *Stomp*

*CLANK*

And, in the deepest depths of his dark cave of panic, fright, and despair, the exit now only seemed to get even farther… Or had it just gotten closer?

"I thought I heard something from here! Glad to see you're finally awake… You disgusting little vampire…"