Rain hammered the glass like a thousand drumming fists. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows of the 214th floor, lightning fractured the night into a mosaic of electric white, each strike searing Ellis Brown's retinas as he hunched over the keyboard. The monitor's cold radiance carved hollows beneath his eyes—forty-three hours without sleep, forty-three hours chasing perfection through lines of code that shimmered like spider silk in the gloom.
"System check," he growled, the words tasting of burnt coffee and desperation.
His apartment's AI answered in that dispassionate feminine tone he'd come to loathe. "Neural Engine version 4.2.7 operational. Subsystems nominal. Alert: User exhibits cardiac arrhythmia and adrenal depletion consistent with terminal overwork."
Ellis snorted, fingers never pausing their dance across the holographic keys. Around him, the curved wallscreen throbbed with his obsession—wireframe continents birthing mountains in real-time, fractal algorithms spinning celestial mechanics, the delicate neural lace that would let players breathe Veldoria's air. Five elemental realms. Nine thousand bespoke creatures. A magic system woven from the bones of forgotten philosophies. His magnum opus.
"Final compilation. Deploy simulation framework: Veldoria."
"Compiling. Estimated completion in three minutes, forty-seven seconds."
Thunder shook the penthouse as the progress bar crawled. Ellis leaned back, tendons creaking like over-tuned piano wires. His reflection stared back from the black glass—a gaunt prophet with wildfire eyes, crowned by the faint scar from prototype #12's explosive failure.
The chime struck like a temple bell.
"Compilation complete. No critical errors detected."
Ellis smiled wearily. "Initialize test sequence alpha. Target: developer override."
Ellis reached for the neural band with hands steadier than his pulse warranted. Moonlight slithered across its obsidian surface, catching the fractal etchings only he knew were containment runes. Quantum filaments whispered against his temples, colder than a lover's last kiss.
"Direct neural integration exceeds all safety—"
"Override. Authorization Brown-Epsilon-Nine-Seven."
The protest died mid-syllable.
"Override accepted." The AI's tone seemed almost reluctant. "Preparing neural interface. Please secure testing apparatus."
When the buzzing feeling began—a subviral thrum in the marrow—Ellis closed eyes gone raw from screen glare. His hands trembled slightly, not from fear but from the precipice of discovery.
"Neural interface active. Beginning synchronization."
He expected the usual testing Fissure. The sterile white room where he'd debugged a thousand sunrises.
Instead, eternity opened its jaws.
Agony.
Not pain, but the concept of pain given form—a white hole devouring synapses. His scream dissolved in the howling dark. Just as his consciousness frayed to its quantum threads...
Grass.
Cool blades pressing palm-flesh. Bird-song woven through air sweet with loam and distant rain. Ellis gasped, lungs flooding with oxygen so rich it burned. Above him, Veldoria's twin suns wove light through oak branches older than civilizations.
"Impossible," he whispered. The voice was his. The callused hand before his face—his, yet more. The scar from the soldering iron accident still laddered his left thumb, but the nail beds were unchewed, the skin untouched by eczema.
The blue rectangle shimmered into being like reality itself had glitched:
[Welcome to Veldoria, Traveler]
Level: 1
Class: Unassigned
Cultivation: Uninitiated
Primary Attributes:
Strength: 10
Agility: 12
Endurance: 9
Perception: 14
Intelligence: 17
Willpower: 15
Elemental Affinities:
Earth: 10%
Fire: 8%
Water: 12%
Air: 15%
Aether: 35%
Skills:
[Advanced Programming] - Level MAX
[System Analysis] - Level MAX
[World Creation] - Level UNIQUE
[Physical Conditioning] - Level 3
[Survival Knowledge] - Level 2
Available Skill Points: 0>
Ellis froze. He'd coded Aether as the rarest element—a 0.03% spawn chance. "System exit!" he called out. "Authorization Brown-Epsilon-Nine-Seven."
Nothing. He tried again and again. Still nothing.
Rustling silenced him. Between gnarled roots, a creature cocked its head. Fox-shaped, but wrought from living topaz, crystalline spikes erupting from its shoulders in a crown of frozen fire.
A name appeared above the creature:
[Crystal Fox - Level 5]
It trilled—a sound like wind chimes dipped in starlight—then vanished in a ripple of refracted light.
Ellis stood on legs that remembered different muscles. Whatever had happened during the initialization process, he was now fully present in Veldoria—a world that should exist only as data in his system.
He checked his pockets, finding them empty save for a small leather pouch at his hip. It clinked with a few copper coins, a pocket knife, and a smooth stone engraved with a spiral pattern. The stone felt warm to the touch and pulsed like a captured heartbeat.
Another notification appeared:
[Quest Available: The Way Home]
Difficulty: ???
Rewards: ???
Accept? [Yes/No]>
Ellis hesitated only briefly before mentally selecting 'Yes.' The notification flashed and was replaced by:
[Quest Accepted: The Way Home]
Location marked on map.>
A miniature map appeared in the corner of his vision, showing his current location and a marker approximately five miles to the northeast.
"Five miles," Ellis muttered. "Perfect."
Somewhere beyond those oaks, Terravale's peaks clawed at a sky he'd painted with code.
He took one last look around the clearing, trying to process everything that had happened. Whatever this place was—hallucination, simulation gone wrong, or actual alternate reality—he needed answers.
And Veldoria, his own creation, was now the only place he could find them.