Darkness pressed down like water. Saul's body felt weightless, motionless, detached from everything. His ears rang, his thoughts scattered. Then something flickered before his eyes a faint blue light against the void.A digital tone echoed.
System initializing…
Lines appeared in midair, forming a translucent screen floating above him. It loaded slowly, streams of data crawling across it, symbols rearranging into words.Would you like to be a player?Saul blinked. "What…?" he whispered, voice trembling. The question hung there, pulsing faintly. He tried to move, to breathe, but nothing made sense. Blood still rushed in his ears from the explosion, yet this felt detached, unreal like he was drifting between life and death.The text glowed brighter.
Yes / NoDriven by fear more than reason, Saul reached out. His hand passed through the digital words, and the system chimed again.Registration complete. Player identified: Saul Weber.
Status initializing…A new screen unfolded, lines filling with information height, age, and beneath them a single flashing alert.Choose an Element: Fire / Earth / Water / Lightning He stared. The names floated before him like planets in orbit. "This has to be a dream," he muttered. "Maybe I'm dead." His pulse quickened, and before he could think further, his hand moved. He touched the fourth option.Lightning.A soft hum rang out. His surroundings rippled as if reality itself recognized his choice.Element confirmed: Lightning
Activation sequence in progress.Then everything snapped back.The freezing terror of the real world slammed into him. Dust and debris filled the air; cracks ran through what remained of the classroom. The monster was still there towering, grotesque, its blood‑stained jaw turning toward him again. Everything that had paused resumed at once.Saul's heart pounded. The creature lunged. He stumbled back instinctively yet this time everything around him slowed. The monster's charging steps, each movement, seemed clear, sharp, predictable. He could see every twitch of its muscles, every shift of its weight. His senses felt sharpened beyond reason.A new notification blinked in front of him.
Combat tutorial: Use Lightning Strike?
Confirm: Yes / No Saul's breath faltered. Electricity tingled in his fingertips, like static crawling under his skin. Without fully understanding, he whispered, "Yes.".A bright flash erupted. Thunder cracked through the air, shattering glass across the entire wing of the building. Bolts of blue lightning engulfed the mutant, reducing it to ashes in less than a heartbeat. The shockwave demolished walls, uprooted steel, and hurled desks into the streets below.Silence followed pure, absolute silence.Saul stood dazed in the center of the ruin, his hands still glowing faintly. The heat and ozone filled his lungs. Then darkness rolled over him once again. As he collapsed amid the smoking rubble, faint words flickered on the cracked screen before fading away:System rebooting. Player unconscious.And then there was nothing but calm.