The night sky above the two of them rumbled at this moment. Followed by heavy rain and strong winds in the distance, the sound of thunder occasionally roared as if witnessing what was happening between them at this moment.
"Navien..." Cedric stared sharply at the man in front of him at this moment, his eyes full of anger and determination. He extended his sword straight, trembling with emotions that were difficult to control, directly towards the man's chest. "No, should I call you, Lucian Hale?"
The man smiled cynically, then chuckled for a moment as if the name was an old joke that had lost its meaning. "Lucian... Hale, huh?"
"I think this is the first time I've heard someone call me that again." The man held the tip of Cedric's sword, positioning the tip of the sword right in front of his heart.
"It's been so long... so long that I myself have forgotten what it feels like to be him." The man's eyes cynically stared at Cedric from behind a half-face mask that was cracked on one side. He pressed the tip of the sword deeper into his skin, and drops of fresh blood began to seep, wetting his dark black robe.
Cedric fell silent for a moment. His hand trembled as he held his own sword. For some reason there was an uncomfortable feeling in his heart now, this... This wasn't the reaction he expected.
Why was the man in front of him at this moment acting so relaxed? Shouldn't he be fighting him? Throwing insults and at least trying to run away for his safety?
"Too bad, if you're looking for him, that kid has been dead for a long time." Quickly, the man stabbed the tip of Cedric's sword in deeper. Blood now flowed heavily from his chest, soaking the cloth with a deep red color.
Cedric's eyes widened, surprised. He immediately pulled out his sword in a panic, his steps retreating halfway, "You, what are you doing?!"
The man began to cough lightly, splattering blood from his lips. Even with his body trembling, the man could still straighten his back, he stared sharply at Cedric, a cynical smile visible on his face.
"How stupid. Didn't you come to meet me to kill me?" he said calmly, as if his life at this moment was not important.
"I'm just making your job quick." The cynical smile was still visible on his face, but now it wasn't with an aura of hatred. The look in his eyes actually held... pity. Full of regret. Full of compassion.
"Well, anyway, if you kill me it won't produce anything." The man's voice sounded faint, as if the bitter truth he uttered was not something that could be debated.
Cedric fell silent for a moment, the rain hitting the ground harder at this moment. Cedric clenched his trembling hands, he frowned then looked back at the man.
The man smiled thinly. This time there was no cynicism, just deep exhaustion.
"Seriously... even after killing me like this, you don't realize what's really happening."
Casually, he combed his long hair back using his hand, causing the mask that covered half of his face to now come off of his face, the mask fell hitting the wet ground. For the first time, Cedric saw the man's face, which made his eyes widen instantly.
"Your arrival in this world really helped me," the man said in a quiet voice, but every word felt like a blow to Cedric.
"Yeah..." he nodded slightly, a thin smile gracing his lips. "It was indeed the right choice for me to tell that woman to call you."
Cedric furrowed his brow, he completely did not understand what the man was saying. However, before he could ask further, more blood came out of the man's mouth. He coughed hard, his body trembled, and for the first time he looked truly fragile in front of Cedric.
"It seems..." he tried to speak in the midst of his shortness of breath, "Our meeting... only goes this far this time."
As the man's body slowly collapsed in front of Cedric, the rain was still pouring down mercilessly. Blood mixed with water created a dark color on the rocky ground, and the world seemed to fall silent in a painful silence. Cedric stood frozen, his sword still gripped tightly in his hand, but it no longer felt like a weapon of victory.
[You have successfully completed the main story.]
The writing was clearly displayed on the screen, accompanied by a dark background and the typical notification sound that usually marks a major achievement in the game.
Kalandra Adytama threw his iPad onto the bed in annoyance. The screen was still on, displaying the figure of the main character standing in the rain, looking at Navien's collapsed body—the last scene from the main story of the game he had just completed.
"What the heck, the ending is just that?!" Kalandra ruffled his hair in frustration, the expression on his face a mixture of anger, disappointment, and disbelief.
He dropped himself onto the bed, staring at the ceiling of the room as if looking for answers from the god of the game himself. But what he got was only silence... and a feeling of dissatisfaction that was lodged in his chest.
The Luminous Hero of Avandor, that was the name of the game that he had just completed earlier. That RPG game was currently on the rise, attracting the attention of both male and female players. The captivating character visuals were the main attraction for female players, while the challenging battle royale system managed to bind the male players. Therefore, its player base was also diverse, consisting of men and women.
"Why is this game so famous even though the ending is trash," he grumbled again, still unable to accept the bitter reality that he had just experienced.
Kalandra sat back up from his lying position, took a long breath before reaching back for his iPad that was lying on the bed. The screen was still on, displaying the main menu of The Luminous Hero of Avandor game with background music that sounded ironic in his ears now.
Quickly, he exited the game and opened the official forum of the game community. His fingers scrolled through the screen, then he opened the Rating & Review tab.
Without hesitation, he typed his comment, "Trash game, the ending is bad, you can't feel the feel, and it's also kinda hanging. Even though the graphics and plot are good, my expectations were too high, definitely disappointed."
After typing that comment, Kalandra's eyes shifted to the rating button then pressed it. He gave the game a rating of 2 out of 5, a plus point because it had visuals that were quite interesting— then pressed the send button with full annoyance.
"If I knew from the start that the ending would be like this, I'd rather have uninstalled it yesterday," he muttered while leaning his body against the head of the bed.
Kalandra closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his mind. The rain outside his room began to fall with a gentle rhythm, merging with the sound of the fan that was spinning slowly on the ceiling.
Ding!
The sound of a notification suddenly broke the silence. Kalandra opened his eyes lazily. He thought it was just an advertisement or spam that usually came in at these hours. But when he glanced at the iPad screen that was still in his lap, a new email was visible in the notification bar.
[From: no-reply@luminousgame.dev]
[Subject: Thank you for completing our main story!]
Kalandra frowned, "Huh? Seriously from the developer? It's not a scam, is it?"
To make sure, he reopened the forum for The Luminous Hero of Avandor. Quickly, he looked for official information posts from the developer and found the customer service email address that was often used as a reference by other players.
He split his iPad screen, opening two windows. One displayed the email screen that he had just received, the other displayed the forum page with the official email address from the developer.
His eyes scanned letter by letter. He compared word by word from the two email addresses. After blinking his eyes a few times to make sure, he muttered softly, "Crazy... it's exactly the same. There's not a single letter different."
The feeling of curiosity slowly began to eliminate the feeling of annoyance he had felt a few moments ago. He then tapped on that notification, the screen changed to display the contents of the email that he had only glanced at briefly earlier.
"Thank you for playing The Luminous Hero of Avandor and for giving a review.
You are one of the few players who have managed to reach the end of the main story.
However, as you already know… the end doesn't mean everything.
What if you were given the chance… to change everything?
Click the button below to 'start over'."
[Start Over]
Kalandra frowned. He stared at those sentences with confusion and suspicion.
"Is this a game promo event or is the developer making a new event?" he muttered, more to himself.
He narrowed his eyes, then reread the contents of the email.
"If so, why do they have to do something weird like this, it's like they don't have any work to do." He muttered to himself.
Kalandra clicked his tongue softly, then his fingers moved quickly to open the game forum tab that he had left earlier.
"There's no way the developer would send emails directly to their players personally? They can just announce it on the forum. All the players would definitely see it." He said annoyed while scrolling through the contents of the game forum.
His eyes focused on scrolling, but there were no announcements posted there. He even scrolled using keywords for a quick search, he even tried refreshing his page again, but it was still nil.
His forehead twitched, he leaned his back against the head of the bed, the iPad was still in his grasp, his screen switched to the email notification that had been sent earlier. His eyes did not leave the screen, his expression changed from annoyed to suspicious. There was something unusual here.
"Oh well, it's probably spam. This kind of fraud model appears very often now." He muttered, trying to convince himself.
He moved his finger intending to close the email page. But strangely, he couldn't. His iPad screen suddenly froze. The response was slow, even when he tapped the home button or the power button, nothing changed.
"Eh. Lagging? Seriously?"
He tapped the screen several times. The more he tried to exit, the more the screen flickered for a moment then returned to the same email.
"Damn, it's just getting weirder."
When he tapped the screen again, his finger accidentally touched the link that was sent from that email, "Eh, wait, that was accidental!"
However, before that page could fully open, a pop-up notification appeared at the top of the screen. Strangely, that notification didn't just appear—but rather opened by itself, as if his iPad was responding to something.
It was a message from the same email.
"Thank you for accepting the invitation. The transfer process is starting."
Then a dazzling white light came out of his iPad. A thick darkness enveloped him, a strange roaring sound filled his ears. He tried to scream, but his voice was stuck in his throat. Panic began to take over him. Where was he? What was happening?
Slowly, his senses began to adjust to the darkness. He realized that he was no longer in his room. Heavy raindrops hit the rocky ground around him, the cold air pierced his skin. His eyes opened wide, he had seen a situation like this before.
"What the hell is this...?"