Carter got slapped so hard, he became dazed from the strike. Everything was blurry, and the light went out on him.
He could feel his body drop on the floor, heavy and tired.
He never had any luck with women before, but he didn't think that she would react so fiercely to his mere joke.
The woman claimed to be a goddess, the god of darkness and bloodlust. She was the sole developer of the game of the same name, Darkness and Bloodlust.
Carter thought they would have shared a laugh together, but no, her reaction was a slap that pushed his soul out of his body. Literally.
A gigantic flood of pain overwhelmed Carter's mind. He felt dizzy and shocked, as if he had just finished a roller coaster twice in under a second.
The headache caused him to groan in pain.
Carter got up slowly, one hand holding his head to keep it from moving so much.
And he opened his eyes again, taking in the scene of the surroundings.
A dungeon devoid of light with stone walls formed from gigantic cut stone. Darkness filled the corners, and the only illuminating light source was a torch on the ground.
Carter felt the cringiest emotion in his heart. The feeling that told him that he was in a bad dream.
"This must be an illusion," Carter convinced himself, trying to stay as positive as possible.
He shook his head, thinking it would snap him out of this stupid, vivid imagination he was having. But the only thing that followed was an insane headache flooding over his mind.
"Dev? God of Darkness and Bloodlust? Delusional woman, where are you?"
Carter called out to the dark, but nothing replied to him. Only the cold, dry wind of the dungeon.
Carter's skin crawled.
"No! No! No! I am dreaming!"
Carter walked to the torch and picked it up. The torch was rough, hard, and felt real in the hand.
"This must be some kind of deep dive virtual reality game. Yes! That must be it!"
Carter was still in denial, trying to find a reasonable explanation for all of this.
There was no way that he was cast into the deathly world of Darkness and Bloodlust by a goddess.
It must've been a clinical experiment for the newest virtual reality headset. And the woman from before, the developer, must have drugged him and carried him to a top-secret lab and put a headset on him.
That must be it, right?
Carter reasoned with himself.
And then, a transparent window popped up in his vision. On it, a short message was visible.
"To my champion,
I hope you will have a lot of fun in my world.
As a parting gift, I will grant you the access to the game interface that you know so well.
The game you played so much is an exact replica of this world.
But there is one catch.
You can start from the beginning if you die in the game.
But in my world, there is no do-over. If you're dead, you stay dead, and I will happily consume your soul. I bet you are very tasty!
Have fun, my champion!
Yours sincerely,
The God of Darkness and Bloodlust,
Lucille."
Carter reached his shaky hand toward the transparent window, his fingers went through the hologram.
He clenched his two fists and wanted to scream at the top of his lungs.
But he restrained it, holding back the anger.
If what she had said was real, then. He. Is. Fucked.
Carter began to breathe heavily, dropping the torch on the floor. He scattered into a dark corner of the room, curling into a ball of shame and fear.
"This can't be real. This can't be real. This can't be real."
He muttered the same word over and over again, dwelling in his emotions without any way to crawl out of them.
He looked around the room in his panic.
A collapsed tunnel at one end, the other leading to a vast open area. At the collapsed tunnel, many fresh corpses lay there.
The tunnel must have collapsed not long ago. The dead wore steel armor, covered from head to toe. Weapons were scattered on the ground.
Big shields, small shields.
Long swords, one-handed swords.
Curved blades, knives, clubs, and mallets.
This scene was so familiar. Carter saw this place a thousand times before.
The beginning of the dungeon level in Darkness and Bloodlust.
The only difference was he had always seen it from the top-down view of a computer screen, now he was seeing it in the first-person point of view of the character.
The curiosity snapped Carter out of his panic attack. He looked down on himself.
He, too, was wearing armor made specifically for himself. The armor fit to a tee, without any feeling of discomfort.
Carter touched his face, trying to get a feel for it. He wanted to know who he was.
There was no character creation in Darkness and Bloodlust. You can only choose from a limited range of characters to be your avatar.
The characters differed depending on what level you were playing.
Carter grabbed the torch and crawled to a shiny shield nearby.
His face was reflected onto the shield's smooth surface.
That was his face, his hair, and his eyes. His body also felt the same. The only difference was his clothes and the additional armor outside.
With the shield in his hand, Carter felt assured again. His breath slowed down, and his mind was cleared of doubt.
Darkness and Bloodlust was a cruel and unforgiving world. But not all the places in this world were deathly.
Carter bet if he got out of this dungeon, he could find a peaceful place to live on. Finding a regular job, marrying a fine maiden, and living luxuriously as a lord.
He was from a more advanced time than the historical background of the game. He bet he would be able to use his knowledge to become wealthy and powerful.
All he had to do was get the hell out of here.
But he asked himself, "Is that really what I want?"
He chose to be a speedrunner for the most difficult and rage-inducing game there was on the market. He mastered the game to such an extreme level that he was confident no one could be compared to him.
He didn't do it because of the streamer fame nor money. He played the game because he loved it.
The game could be cruel, violent, and disregard players' feelings. But it was always fair.
Through your cunning and wisdom, you could always find a way to survive.
He loved the eerie feeling it provided and the challenge he had overcome. It made him exhilarated and alive.
Because nothing else in his life had made sense. Only the game was.
Carter picked up a sword and clenched it tightly in his hand. The feeling of the sword gave him courage and determination.
Now, he had a choice. To continue to cower in fear or to revel in this violent world.
He chose the path of violence.