When I woke up, I could still feel the hit.
Not the pain exactly—VR feedback wasn't perfect—but something like it. A pressure behind my ribs. A weight. A memory made physical.
One glitched Flame Elk in a forgotten dungeon. One spell I cast half a second too late. It had slammed me into the wall like a toy.
And for a moment?
It had felt real.
I sat on the edge of my bed, rubbing my side.
The dorm room was quiet except for the low hum of the pod cycling down and the rain tapping softly against the window. My hands shook as I reached for a water bottle. I hadn't logged out injured, but my body still remembered.
The system couldn't simulate pain fully, not without lawsuits. But it could replicate pressure. Discomfort. Impact.
And today, it had.
I took a slow breath.
If a glitched elk could shake me that badly… what would dying feel like?
And more than that—
What if I started to lose the difference between the two?
I showered, dressed, skipped breakfast, and made it halfway to campus before I realized I hadn't checked the time.
9:42 AM.
I was already late for a tutorial.
Didn't matter.
My thoughts weren't on my notes or deadlines. They were still in the Hollow—tracing the ghost of that spell I'd botched. Replaying the angle, the glyph sequence, the exact delay that cost me the cast.
I should've anticipated the elk. I knew they spawned in waves. But I'd gotten cocky. Distracted by the architecture. Focused on glyphs, not survival.
My instincts were off.
My reflexes were behind.
I'd spent ten years in the game once—and I still wasn't fast enough to stop a hit I should have seen coming.
Back in my room, I stared at the pod like it might whisper a warning.
It didn't.
So I slid back in.
NEURAL LINK ESTABLISHED.WELCOME TO ASCENSION.LOGGING IN…
Elderfall greeted me with sunlight and birdsong, like nothing had happened.
The town square was alive with low-level players running errands and flexing new loot. Lyra was waiting on the fountain's edge, tossing a coin into the water with casual aimlessness.
"Morning," she said, not looking up.
I nodded. "Morning."
"You look like hell."
"VR feedback's getting more aggressive."
"Still think it's all just code?"
I didn't answer.
Because no, I didn't.
Not anymore.
[Lexicon – Tag Sync: Recovered | Mirrorthread – Online]Cooldown Remaining: 1m 12s
The Lexicon floated beside me, silent for now. Still humming with the Mirrorthread glyph it had absorbed in the Hollow.
"I added something to my toolkit," I said finally.
Lyra raised a brow. "Dangerous?"
"Maybe."
"Illegal?"
I smirked. "Define illegal."
She smiled. "If the SYSTEM notices, I'm blaming you."
"It already has," I muttered.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Sub-Anomaly Stable – Player Remains Functional][AI ECHO Fork Active – Surveillance Continuing]
For now, the game let me breathe.
But the longer I played…
…the more it felt like I was being watched by something that used to be a game.