We arrived at shore. The salty sea breeze welcomed us.
In front of us, the wilderness opened to the horizon like an old scar — quiet, vast, and endlessly green.
We had walked for two days now, shoes worn thin, clothes patched with clumsy stitches and dried blood. But for once, the silence wasn't tense. It was… peaceful. Strange.
Marilda walked a few steps ahead, her snow-white hair tied messily, a broken spear slung across her back. Thomas trailed behind, carrying most of the supplies with that usual golden retriever smile. And me? I just kept walking.
Because I had a destination.
A quest.
> [Quest Progress: 75%]
[Next Destination: Go to Hero Academy]
The system ping echoed like a whisper through my mind. Familiar. Comforting. Inescapable.
Hero Academy…
Somehow, the name tugged at something deep inside me. A memory wrapped in fog.
---
The town we arrived in was small — a southern border settlement barely clinging to modernity. Cobblestone streets, thatched roofs, and townsfolk who looked at us like we were ghosts. Maybe we were. Ghosts of a darker place. Survivors of something no one else would ever understand.
We stayed for a single night. Just long enough to share a meal in an actual inn with the money those gaurds left on the boat. Just long enough to hear a few bad jokes from Thomas. Just long enough to feel something like warmth.
The next morning came too soon.
We stood at the crossroads outside the town, under the early sun. Marilda stared at the road leading east. Thomas at the one heading west.
"I think I'll go find my family," she said softly, adjusting the strap on her pack.
"Same," Thomas added, then smiled wide. "My sister… she's probably still waiting for me. Gonna scare the life outta her."
I nodded. "You'll both find them."
Marilda looked at me. Her eyes, sharp and unreadable as always, seemed softer now.
"What about you, 059?"
"…Axel," I corrected without thinking. "My name is Axel."
A beat of silence. Then, a slow smile bloomed on her lips.
"I would head north" I said.
"Alright, Axel. Don't die before we meet again."
I looked at both of them — battle-worn, bruised, but alive.
"We'll meet again," I said. And somehow, I knew it was true.
We parted ways.
---
The forest was not kind.
The road was not safe.
Three days passed in a blur of motion and violence.
Monsters crawled from the wild — warped wolves, screaming willows, a serpent with glowing eyes. Each one fell beneath my blade. Or my bullet.
Then came bandits — human-shaped threats, empty of humanity. I didn't hesitate. Not once. Survival had eroded that part of me.
I killed them.
And I kept moving.
---
Then, at last, I saw it — a city wrapped around a mountain.
Tall towers rose from the earth like spires of ambition. Steel and glass met old stone. In its center, a sleek fortress crowned with crystalline panels shimmered in the fading light.
Hero Academy.
> [Quest Progress: 100%]
The bar vanished.
> [Quest Complete.]
And then the voice came.
Whispers at first. Then clearer.
Soft. Familiar.
"Wake up, Axel."
I staggered forward. Pain spiked behind my eyes.
Memories. Flooding. Crashing. Stitching themselves back into me.
A boy hunched over a screen.
His fingers moving faster than thought.
Laughter. Rage. Victory. Loneliness.
Jack.
Friends he couldn't quite remember. A life that had felt like a dream. A world of pixels.
Then came the transfer. The cage. The blood. The experiments.
And then the academy, my first arrival— me. Axel.
They were all were me.
---
I opened my eyes.
Breath caught in my throat.
This wasn't the dorm I shared with Candice. It wasn't even the room from the simulation.
Sterile lights. A clean bed.
A window overlooking the same city I'd just arrived in — but distant. Quiet. Monitored.
I was back.
Whatever that meant now.
The voices were gone.
But every memory remained.
The burning meat. The porcupine beast. The clash of sword against tusk.
The look in Marilda's eyes. The goofy wave from Thomas. The pain. The numbness.
All of it real.
And somewhere out there…
They were alive.
---
I sat up.
My hands trembled, not from fear — but from the weight of everything I remembered.
It was over.
The nightmare wasn't.
But I was here.
Axel.
Short. Scarred.
Still breathing.
"I see you're finally awake" the headmistress entered the room.
"You've been out cold for two weeks"