Chapter 1

Regretting The Past

Making mistakes is something that is unavoidable. No matter how we try, none of us can avoid doing something that we end up regretting later. The only question is just how big of a mistake one makes, as it can determine whether one can be forgiven for it.

However, what if a mistake is so big and damaging that not only are the ones you affected unable to forgive you, but you cannot even forgive yourself?

In the middle of the night, in the poor side of a city, there was a single apartment with lights still on and the occupant awake. Even if the whole neighborhood was asleep and silent, this one person living alone in their apartment couldn’t sleep. They were simply sitting on their bed, thinking about their past.

This person’s name was Erin. She was a young woman living on her own in a rather small apartment in the not so good part of the city. She had short brown hair and bright blue eyes that would normally shine like gems. However, her eyes were devoid of any brilliance, almost like they had been depleted of life itself. There were also bags underneath them, a marking of the many sleepless nights she had gone through.

The reason for Erin’s lack of sleep came in the form of nightmares that kept haunting her dreams. These dreams had been happening for years now and had at one point seemed to have disappeared, only for them to return stronger than ever. Nowadays she was lucky to get even one night of sleep.

The worst part about her nightmares was what caused them. The thing that had been tormenting her for all these years was something she did years ago. Something she regretted and wished she could undo, but knew was impossible now.

Erin was holding a picture in her hands. It was a picture of herself and a group of people that she at one point called her friends. In the picture she also had her arm around a boy’s shoulders and was holding him close with a smile on her face.

However, most people who knew her would never think that these people would be ones that she considered her friends. In fact, they would be surprised that she would even have this picture, as they were under the impression that Erin hated them.

This was because of a lie that she had told years ago and kept hidden all this time. It was something that she has regretted all this time, as it had ruined the lives of the people in the picture.

What was this mistake? Well, in order for one to know it, they would have to go back in time a few years, when Erin was still in high school. Back then, she had been hanging out with another group of people and had been a completely different person from what she was now. During those times, Erin wasn’t exactly what you could consider a nice person. In fact, she was everything but that. She was superficial, vain and downright nasty. Everyone else around them was beneath them and had to prove themselves to even be worthy of their attention.

The group that was in Erin’s picture had also been in the same high school as her and her group of friends at that time. Unlike Erin’s group, the people in the picture were completely different. They were kind, fair and open-minded. Unfortunately, they were treated badly by the more popular students in the school, which included Erin. This was simply out of people seeing them as “losers” for having different interests, as they were into things that were part of the geek culture. Due to this, they were often the targets of insults, pranks and bullying. However, they never let this break them down, no matter how hard it got.

Things seemed to turn for the better, when Erin suddenly seemed to ask out the person that could be considered the group’s “leader” in a way. His name was Devin and he was really into things that many would consider geeky. Anime, video games, comic books, roleplaying games, he had an interest in all of them. Because of this, it had been a huge shock not only for his group, but for pretty much everyone in the whole school, when Erin had decided to approach him. With one of the more “popular people” now with Devin’s group, the harassment they normally had to suffer dropped dramatically to the point of being practically non-existent. Devin and his friends took this whole thing as a sign of things turning out for the better for them at last.

Unfortunately, the truth of the whole matter was far different and very cruel. The real reason Erin had approached Devin and his group was not out of pure intentions at all. The real reason she had done so was because of a bet she had lost to her friends. Thanks to her losing, Erin was now forced to go and pretend to be Devin’s girlfriend until her friends would let her stop. In other words, it was all just a big joke at Devin’s expense.

Once the truth was revealed, Devin had obviously been heartbroken and humiliated. It didn’t take long for the whole school to find out about the whole thing, which made the poor boy into a laughingstock. The abuse he had been going through on a daily basis increased a lot, making his life unbearable.

Even Devin’s friends got dragged into the whole mess, as they knew just how much their friend must have been hurting. They did their best to defend and help Devin, which only resulted in them getting dragged into the crossfire. The geeky group of friends were no longer just the unpopular kids, but the pariahs of the whole school.

Erin was honestly surprised that neither Devin or any of his friends didn’t try to get revenge in any way at all. She didn’t know whether this was because they knew it would only lead to bigger troubles for them or whether it was them trying to be the better people, but the most they ever did to her was give her nasty looks. This unfortunately was enough of a reason for Erin’s friends to take things a step further, in order to put Devin and his group “in their place.”

What happened next was that Erin’s friends started to make up stories about how Devin had been abusive towards Erin during their fake relationship. They claimed their friend was too scared to admit anything, which is why she never spoke about it. They even said that Devin’s friends always knew about the whole thing, but never spoke about it, which made them practically into accomplices.

Thanks to these new lies, Devin and his group were no longer just the outcasts of the school, but hated criminals in everybody’s eyes. Even the few people who originally been sympathetic towards Devin over being tricked by Erin were now downright hateful towards him. This led to the abuse Devin and his friends suffered to get even worse than before, as it was now seen as justified.

This went on for some time, until Devin and his group suddenly all disappeared. They didn’t come to school anymore and no one, not even their families, knew where they had gone. There were rumors about them running to another country to escape the accusations, but they were never confirmed. However, Erin always knew that the cause of their disappearance was always the treatment they got from the lies she and her friends made up.

Despite what most people would think, Devin’s group weren’t the only victims of this tragedy. There was still one more. That was Erin herself.

She had never admitted it to anyone, but the time she had spent as Devin’s fake girlfriend had actually been quite enjoyable. Even if they had a bit of a rocky start, Erin soon warmed up to the geeky group of friends, who also accepted her as part of them. It turned out that the people she had used to look down upon were actually not only nice, but also very fun to hang out with. Erin even got into many of the hobbies they were into and found herself new things to be passionate about, such as gaming and anime.

But the biggest surprise for Erin had to be Devin himself. At first, she had considered him nothing but a spineless, weak and pathetic waste of time. However, once she got to really know him, she found out that Devin was much more than that and a lot better. Not only was the geeky boy sweet and kind, he was also very thoughtful and considerate of others. No matter what it was, he was always ready to offer help for others and do his best to make those close to him feel better. This charming nature of his eventually did something that Erin could not believe would ever happen. She actually fell in love with him.

Despite these new feelings that she had developed, Erin decided to go along with the idea that it had all been a prank in the end. This was because she had been scared of what could happen if she didn’t. Before she started hanging out with Devin’s group, Erin was considered one of the most popular kids in her school. If she started to actually date Devin, who was one of the least popular people, what would happen to all her popularity? Not only that, but would her old friends still want to hang out with her? There was also the possibility of her becoming a target of bullying as well.

Because of all these fears and doubts she had, Erin never admitted the truth that she had actually enjoyed her time with Devin and his group. Instead, she went along with what she had been originally planning with her friends. That the whole thing was just a big prank at the expense of Devin and that she had never cared about the geeky boy or his friends at all.

There were times when Erin thought about confessing her true feelings and apologizing to the people she had hurt, but the fear of the repercussions from it always scared her into silence. Even when Erin’s friends made up lies about Devin being abusive, which just made everything far worse, the brown-haired girl remained silent. She was obviously horrified by just how bad things had turned out, but she just couldn’t bring herself to speak the truth. Her fear of what would happen remained way too strong to allow herself to do what was right, even when she knew this.

Throughout all these years after the whole thing, Erin had been living a life where she was torn between two things. Her guilt over what she had done and allowed to happen, and the fear of what would happen if the truth were to ever come out. Despite her best attempts to steel her resolve and go public with what had truly happened, she never could do it. Her fear always won in the end.

When Devin and his friends suddenly disappeared, the guilt Erin felt just got worse. She had no idea what could have possibly happened to the people she had wronged so badly, which caused her mind to go into all sorts of possibilities. Were they dead? Had they moved to another country to start new lives? Thoughts of what sort of things they would be going through plagued her mind to no end.

Erin had obviously tried her best to just get over the whole thing, knowing that there was nothing she could really do to fix the whole mess. Yet every time she felt like she had gotten better, the guilt would come back stronger than before. Even after she had graduated high school, she couldn’t bring herself to confess what she had done. The fear of the repercussions she would suffer had become stronger, as the fate of Devin and his friends was something that haunted her. Erin felt that she was basically a murderer now thanks to what she had done, so she was even more afraid of what would happen to her once the truth was revealed.

The brown-haired girl had tried to make amends in some capacity, if only to calm her soul. After she had graduated high school, she tried to go and study law in order to become a lawyer or something. Her idea was that she would then help people that had been hurt the same way she had hurt Devin get the justice they deserved. This managed to make her feel better for some time and gave her a goal to pursue, but it didn’t last long. Even if her goal was noble, it still wouldn’t wash away what she had done. The people she had hurt, Devin’s group and their families, would never get the justice they truly deserved, so what difference did her new goal really make? This led to Erin flunking out of her school, after which she started taking up dead-end jobs that didn’t pay all that much.

The last few years of Erin’s life had been spent pretty much doing nothing but going to work and coming back home to spend the rest of the day in loneliness. She had cut ties with her old high school friends a long time ago already, as she couldn’t stand being close to them anymore. Their horrible attitudes and how they didn’t care about others, like the ones whose lives they had ruined, was sickening to Erin. She hadn’t seen them for years and hadn’t even kept any pictures of them. The brown-haired girl didn’t want to be reminded of what kind of a person she used to be.

Tonight was pretty much like all her other nights for the past few years. Erin was alone in her apartment, sitting on her bed dressed in a simple T-shirt and sweatpants, as she no longer felt the need to really dress up for anything anymore. Her uniform from the fast food place she worked at had been carelessly thrown to the floor.

Erin was staring with saddened eyes at the picture she was holding. It showed herself with Devin’s group, back when they had been friends. They were all smiling and happy in the picture, which made the brunette’s heart ache, knowing just what she had destroyed due to her own mistakes. Yet despite the pain and sorrow she was feeling, Erin didn’t cry. All these years of living like this had numbed her body to the point she no longer could cry.

“If I could, I would make things right for all of you,” Erin whispered while still looking at the picture. “Especially you, Devin. If only I just could do it, I would not hesitate even for a second.”

After letting out a deep sigh, the brunette put the picture in her pocket and laid down on her bed. She knew she had an early morning tomorrow, but couldn’t bring herself to sleep at all. Her thoughts were running too much, making it practically impossible to fall asleep.

Out of the corner of her eye, Erin noticed her laptop that was sitting on her desk. Knowing that she wasn’t going to get any sleep regardless, the young woman decided to use her time on something that could at least take her mind off the things she had been thinking about. It didn’t take long until the laptop’s screen lit up, allowing Erin to go through what the machine contained.

The brunette’s attention immediately went to a certain icon on her desktop. It was for a computer game called Five Realms that Devin had introduced her to back in the day.

Five Realms was a highly popular RPG that was known for the freedom and massive amounts of things to do that it provided to the players. For starters, the game had numerous races to choose from to create your character. There were the obvious classics in fantasy that consisted of humans, elves, orcs, dwarves and such, but there were also numerous races that you didn’t see so much. These races included lizardmen, beastmen, undead, elementals, angels and even demons. Not only that, but thanks to constant updates and even a loyal community of people making mods, the amount of possible races grew exponentially. With all the updates and mods, it was actually unknown just how many races there truly were.

Not only were you given tools to make just about any type of character that you wanted, but the world in the game allowed you to have just about any type of an adventure in it. Players weren’t placed in a restrictive story where you had to complete certain objectives. Instead, you were encouraged to explore the world around you and make decisions based on what you found. You could become the savior of the world, the next evil conqueror or just a wandering mercenary if you wanted to. There were practically no limits to the ways you could play the game.

The game’s world was a mix of fantasy and science fiction elements. While the different races and things like magic came from more of a fantasy genre, there were also things like cybernetics and futuristic weaponry that provided the world a different feel from your usual games set in a fantasy world. The creative world provided for the players was also something that drew in people.

The world of Five Realms itself was divided into five different areas, each with their own settings and backstories. These areas were commonly known as Western Continent, Northern Continent, Eastern Continent, Southern Continent and Central Continent, which were then divided into different areas themselves. While players could choose to start their game on almost anywhere, the Central Continent was locked until you managed to fill certain requirements in the game. This was due to the much higher level of difficulty it had compared to everywhere else in the game.

Since it was practically impossible to keep the game perfectly balanced due to all the things in it, there was no competitive aspect to the game. Instead, the developers made Five Realms based on the idea of providing players with a chance to experience adventures they themselves wanted without restrictions. The only form of multiplayer was through joining your friends as a group to go on quests together. You could still battle each other, but there was no real reward in winning those types of matches.

Since she was certain that she wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep tonight, Erin decided that she might as well try to entertain herself in order to escape her regretful memories. The brunette was certain that she still had her old character saved in the game, so she could continue playing with it. However, it could also be a good idea to start a new character and see where she would go from there.

Erin clicked on the game’s icon and waited for it to start up. The screen showed that her laptop was beginning to run the program, so it shouldn’t take long. But instead of the usual window popping up, her screen suddenly went completely dark. For a moment, the brunette began to panic, as it seemed like her computer had suddenly crashed.

Before Erin could really do anything, the screen lit up again, except this time the lighting was far brighter than normal. Erin had to actually shield her eyes from the light, as it was so bright it actually hurt her eyes.

As her eyes somewhat adjusted to the brightness, the brunette was able to peek from between her fingers and see something happening on the screen. It was no longer completely white, as a small black spot had appeared in the middle of it. The spot seemed to be slowly growing larger, and as it grew it became clear that it wasn’t a perfect round shape. Instead, it was like a writhing mass of black tar that was slowly gaining size.

However, once it had grown enough, Erin was horrified to see that the blob had more to it than she thought. Countless faces could be seen in the black shape with numerous pairs of completely white eyes with rows of white teeth beneath them. The brunette then realized that it hadn’t simply been something growing on her screen, rather it was something that had been coming closer to her.

Before she could truly realize the danger she was in, the black blob of faces had finally reached the screen itself. Suddenly, long black arms appeared from the screen and grabbed hold of Erin. She didn’t even have time to scream, as she was dragged into the screen and into the world beyond it.

As soon as she had been taken beyond the screen, the brunette came into a world of pitch black nothingness. She couldn’t see anything around her, even as she looked around in a frenzied panic. All she could see were those white eyes, staring up at her while the teeth beneath them were grinning. Erin had no idea what was going on. All she could tell was that whatever this thing was it was dragging her downwards to something.

Erin screamed and called for help as much as she could, but all that seemed to do was cause her voice to echo wherever she was. Tears of terror fell from her eyes, as she prayed in her mind for someone or something to save her.

Just as she was about to lose all hope, a voice came out of the darkness: “I’m afraid I can’t let this continue anymore,” a gentle voice of a young man suddenly said. Erin looked around, but was unable to find anyone. “As much as I dislike doing this, I feel like it’s necessary.”

“Who’s there!?” Erin yelled while frantically looking around. “Please help me!”

“That’s kind of the plan here.”

Before Erin could say anything else, a bright light suddenly shined through the darkness. It seemed to drive away the creature that had pulled her into this world, as she felt the arms holding her let go.

“That should do it for now,” the voice said from behind Erin. She turned around only to blinded by light again, but she was able to grasp a glimpse of a man standing there. “It should take a while before another one is sent after you and by then you won’t be here anymore.”

“W-What’s going on!? Where am I!?” Erin asked in a panic while shielding her eyes with her arms. “Can you take me back home!?”

“I’m afraid that last request of yours won’t be fulfilled,” the shining man replied. “You see, I didn’t help you simply out of the goodness in my heart or anything like that. I actually need you to do something for me, which is why I decided to intervene with what was happening. As for your other questions… Well, I’m sure you’ll find the answers to them soon enough.”

“W-What do you want from me?” the brunette asked, fearing what the answer might be. “And just who are you even?”

“Both of those things will be answered in due time. If you manage to live up to my expectations, I’m certain we’ll meet again. If not, then I guess this little gamble of mine didn’t manage to pay off all that much. But hey, that’s life for you, isn’t it?”

Erin was confused beyond belief at this point. She couldn’t comprehend anything that had happened to her at all and she wasn’t even sure whether this person was a friend or an enemy. He might have saved her life just now, but he seemed to have an ulterior motive. Just what could he be planning?

“Anyways, I feel like our time is just about to run out, so I should probably drop you off. You shouldn’t be too worried, though. As long as you act smart, I think you should be able to survive. Before I send you on your way, I’ve got a little gift for you first,” the shining man said and lightly touched Erin’s forehead. She felt something go inside her, but she didn’t feel any different. “With that out of the way, I think we’re done here. See you again soon!”

Before the brunette could ask another question, she began to fall again. This time, she went at a really fast speed and she was certain she would die upon hitting the ground. The sudden fall caused Erin to start screaming as loudly as she could.

However, once she did hit the ground, she survived it with only minor bruising. As Erin began to get up, she realized that she was laying on asphalt. She could also hear the hustle of multiple people not too far from where she was, so she must have arrived at a city.

Once she had fully gotten up, the brunette noticed that she was in an alleyway. There were walls on her left and right side with a couple of trash cans surrounding her. Knowing that she needed to get help as soon as possible, Erin began to make her way towards the sound of people she heard. Maybe she would be able to find a police officer or someone else that could help her get back home.

It didn’t take long for Erin to get out of the alleyway and make her way to the street. But once she did, she experienced the biggest shock of her life.

While there were certainly a lot of people around her, not all of them were human. There were all sorts of inhuman characters walking around, such as elves, orcs, lizardmen and many more. They weren’t even some people in costumes, as you could clearly tell by just looking.

With wide eyes, Erin looked around, hoping to find some sort of a clue as to where she was. Unfortunately, this place didn’t look like any city on Earth. Instead, it looked like something else that was familiar to the brunette.

This was Rockmoore Town, a place in the Five Realms game. Erin had somehow ended up in the world inside the game.