The hallway was empty, without any good places to hide.
Ice rubbed his hands over his face and walked into the hallway. He had to look around.
The castle insides weren’t too lavish. It was simplistic yet stylish, making Ice marvel at its beauty. He did not like the overly decorated design of the capital’s castle, but this place was truly beautiful.
Once in a while, servants would walk around nearby. He could hear them chatter while they worked. None of them sounded like they were uncomfortable.
Bits and pieces of their conversations reached his ears.
The servants liked their master a lot, but he was sick. He did not hear a single mention of a doctor, however, which made him wonder if this was forgotten to be implemented or if there was none on purpose.
The master slept a lot, didn’t talk much and didn’t eat much. He had headaches. He was often found staring into nowhere. He did not leave the castle.
Ice tried to memorize these conversations as much as he could, especially which words they used to describe their master. These were all hints about the owner’s personality and were needed to report to the prince later.
Finally, Ice got a piece of information that was more than valuable: There was one area that the servants weren’t allowed to visit, not even to clean. It wasn’t even the master’s bedroom, but it sounded like it might be his office.
Pulling a face, Ice hid behind another corner and considered the situation. How long could he sneak around like this? The servants might be common people – there was no level or name declaring them as monsters – but even they could notice an intruder. He wasn’t good at stealth, which meant that having been unnoticed so far was completely the game’s grace.
Deciding to take the chance, Ice made his way forward to the eastern corner of the building. From outside, he had seen a tower, so he believed they might be talking about it.
A butler in a black and white suit paced up and down the area near the stairs. He was busying himself with a couple of vases that he cleaned meticulously, looking a bit in a daze. Ice reached into his pocket, found an empty vial, and decisively threw it into the direction of the stairs going down.
The vial shattered with a small, high sound.
“Who is there!”
Alerted, the butler snapped out of it and rushed down the staircase. He had no weapon at all, but the man was determined to catch any intruder even at the cost of his life.
As quiet as he could, Ice hurried up the stairs, towards the closed door at the top.
The mage held his breath and slipped into the room. At this point it wasn’t about staying alive anymore, it was just finding as much information as possible before he was inevitably found. Sneaking was partially based on your agility stat, after all, and the butler was going to return. He didn’t worry about gathering evidence, either – he trusted the others with that.
The room that opened up before him was a perfect square. For some reason, that felt out of place within the castle, and Ice tensed up involuntarily.
Like any other room, this one was pure white marble and decorated no differently than anywhere else.
Yes, if there was a difference, then it was only one.
Ice stared at the door placed on the opposite side of the room – a door leading outside. It looked the same as any other, and yet… Everything in this room felt a bit out of place.
Just as Ice found himself going into a daze, a soft sound snapped him right out of it. He whirled around in shock, stepping away at the same time and gripping his staff tighter.
But the one who came in wasn’t part of the guards running around, nor was it the butler who had been alerted.
Ice’s eyes went wide. His heart jumped up once at the sight of the familiar face right in front of him. He knew that face, that hair, that body. He knew them all too well.
They were his own.
They were…
Jian Lin’s.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The man in front of him tilted his head, expressionless. Dangling crystal ornaments made tiny sounds, swaying from his white-blonde hair and the icy blue tiara that had the same shade as his eyes; the only obvious difference between himself and the real Jian Lin.
Ktf ktlaf oeg glwwlcu atf fzdelrlaf gbyf kjr uilwwfglcu klat ilaaif rcbkoijxfr, jcv tfgf jcv atfgf bc tlr mibatfr sbe mbeiv rff iluta yflcu gfoifmafv ys vljwbcvr jcv rjqqtlgfr. Lf tfiv j rajoo fnfc ijgufg atjc Pmf’r, ibbxlcu j iba ilxf atf ygjcmtlcu ragemaegfr ja atf kjii bearlvf.
Pmf rajgfv ja tlr bkc ojmf jcv obguba ab ygfjatf.
The thin lips of the man standing before him parted slowly. A familiar voice came out, but it was so very monotone that it felt robotic.
“Why are you here?”
“I-”
Ice’s voice broke. His hands quivered as he rubbed them against each other.
The man’s eyes moved past Ice and towards the door. He lifted a hand, pointing at it, and suddenly looked incredibly exhausted. His forehead creased as if he had a headache, and he moved a hand to rub over it.
Ice watched in silence as the castle’s owner left as silently as he had come. He didn’t understand what had just happened, but there was one thing he knew, and that was that he was expected to leave through the door.
Ice hesitated but quickly decided to give it a try. Whether he died out there or not made no difference, as he’d die for sure if he entered the hallway again. He might as well check it out.
As he had thought, the door led outside.
A thin, translucent path made of crystal led to a platform over the abyss. He could see it reflect the light, but it was hard to tell where exactly it ended or how it managed to stay in place.
Ice swallowed down the discomfort he felt and took a first step onto the invisible path.
He edged forward bit by bit, his eyes beginning to hurt from concentration. It was hard to see where he could put down his feet and the perfect darkness beyond it made the situation no easier.
Finally, he reached the bigger platform, but almost fell the moment he stepped on it.
There had to be a barrier around the area, because only on the perfect circle could he hear the sound he hadn’t heard before.
It was crying.
A deep, echoing crying that came from the abyss. A sobbing that did not stop and seemed to have no origin, as if the abyss itself was lamenting its existence.
Ice approached the edge of the platform, wondering if he could see more. He couldn’t – it was the same whether he looked through the translucent floor or over the edge. The mage exhaled, glanced back at the castle and tried his luck. “Hello?”
His call was swallowed up by the endless darkness.
The crying grew a bit louder, penetrating his bones. He shook his head to free himself of its effect. Dimly he wondered if his status would show any abnormalities, but his brain did not form the thought of checking.
“Who are you?” He shouted down again, but once more he lacked a response.
The sobbing continued, heartbreaking. Ice shuddered, not because of the cold, but because of the loneliness he could hear in the voice. A loneliness he had never felt before. It made him unable to move, freezing him into place.
“Don’t cry”, he shouted into the abyss. “I beg of you, stop crying!”
He clenched his trembling fingers around his chest, bending forward. Too much was he reminded of the moments when he had been at school, with people turning away from him, his family far away.
It had been so, so lonely.
He didn’t like that the crying was causing these old memories to resurface again.
“I am sad”, the sobbing voice responded, to his surprise. The voice sounded old and deep. “I am sad, I am sad”
“How can I help you, then?” Ice was kneeling on the ground. He got no answer except for the returning cries. Curling up on the ground, the mage tried to take deep breaths to think. “…What’s your name?”
The crying turned a bit more quiet.
“Tiamat”, it responded in a whisper that echoed along the walls of the abyss. “I am Tiamat.”
“I… My name is Jian Lin”, the Ice Emperor responded. He did not know why he did it – why he gave his real name. It only felt right. “Tiamat, what can I do to make you feel better?”
An eerie silence settled over the area.
Ice raised his head, peering into the abyss in confusion when two lights began to appear. They were the deepest blue, like looking into the cold depths of the ocean.
“Stay with me”, a booming voice demanded, and the deep blue from the abyss rose like one huge wave, devouring the Ice Emperor and tearing him apart.
Jian Lin woke up inside his capsule, gasping for breath and coughing.
His lungs were being torn at. He felt like he was breathing in knives and his body screamed in fear. He was disoriented, with black dots swimming in his sight. The capsule beeped loudly and in panic.
About five seconds later, there was a loud click and a clear but tense voice spoke from inside the capsule.
“Full-VR C370 support here! The alarm for this capsule was triggered! Please respond!”
Jian Lin merely coughed and dragged himself a bit back to the capsule. The support from the other side got louder.
“Do you need a doctor? If you don’t need one, please… Ah! Hit the capsule thrice!”
The young man hit the capsule thrice. His breathing was calming down, but he wasn’t quite yet able to talk. The nervous man at the other side breathed a sigh of relief.
“Alright. Take slow breaths. In, out. I’m here. I’ll call a doctor in an instant if you need one. I’ve already got your address on the screen.”
Tears streaked down Jiaan Lin’s face. He leaned heavily on the capsule, swallowing a whimper.
“I’ve got the report in… Ah, shit. Okay, listen – I’m going to send someone over now after all. Do you think you can open the door? Otherwise we will have to break in. The report states that something fried the safety mechanism of your capsule that regulates the synchronisation. You just experienced an in-game death as real. I need a doc and a psychologist to check up on you and we will of course take away the capsule.”
“I can open”, Jian Lin said in a broken sentence.
“Awesome. I’ve notified the needed personnel. It should only be about ten minutes.” The man’s voice was very soothing, like a lullaby. “I’ll stay here with you. Would you prefer if I’m quiet or talk?”
“Talk…”
“Okay! Sure. Hmm, what should I talk about… Oh, so, I’m here at the support center, right? Our building is opposite of this huge mall, and-”
The man from the support center chattered away, nonsensical topics that you’d tell a friend. Once in a while he asked if Jian Lin was still around, who would reply by thumping the capsule thrice as he concentrated on breathing. He only stopped when the doorbell rang, then waited until Jian Lin had managed to crawl to the door and he had confirmed that the doctor was there. The capsule shut itself down completely the moment he hung up, not to be started again by normal means.
A doctor and his assistant gave Jian Lin a preliminary checkup before putting him on a stretcher and driving him to the hospital. They stopped there, then put him right back onto the stretcher after his identity was out and drove him to another hospital, where he’d get high-class treatment.
The handover was done quickly and without Jian Lin, who was lying in a personal room that was as lavish as if it was a hotel. Even the mattress was comfortable. He dozed off while a nurse busied herself in the room, preparing everything for him. She even left a tray with fruits and water at the side.
A good hour later, two people came in – a woman in a white coat and a man in casual clothing.
“Hello, Jian Lin”, the woman said gently, stretching out her hand. “I’m Doctor Wei, and this is Professor Han. We will make sure you are alright after what happened.”
Jian Lin managed a nod and a weak handshake, but not much more.
He felt cold even though the room was warm, and was wrapped in two blankets. Doctor Wei frowned when she touched his cold fingers.
She looked at the file in her hand and sighed. “Drowning, huh. That’s cruel. Are you scared, Jian Lin?”
“A bit”, he croaked, admitting it readly. “I’m cold.”
As it seemed, his death in the game had been drowning. He hadn’t really felt it – it had felt more like being crushed by something very cold, so he wasn’t scared of the thought of water or anything. The only thought that scared him was the freezing darkness of that abyss.
“I’ll raise the temperature in the room a bit more.” Doctor Wei hardly looked surprised. She wandered over to another corner of the room, playing with something on the wall. In the meantime, Professor Han sat down on a chair he pulled over.
The man’s hair stood up like a bird’s nest. In general, he looked quite messy and not too reliable. Only his deep brown eyes were different.
“I’ve got some information about you already. You’re a pretty famous player in that game, huh?” The professor conversed with Jian Lin normally, even reaching out for an apple on the tray and biting into it. “Do you like it a lot?”
“Yes”, Jian Lin responded after a short lull. He didn’t know why he was being asked these kinds of questions, but the other man was a professional. He’d have his reasons.
“I’ve checked your data. You usually have the synchronisation level for pain pretty high up… Why is that? That doesn’t sound fun.” The man shoved his papers around leisurely. He bit into his apple again, not even holding eye contact.
Jian Lin moved his lips for a while. He tilted his head on the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “I… want that world to be realistic.”
He heard the other hum.
“It seems that your capsule isn’t the only one with that problem, by the way. It’s all of the newest test generation. The producer of that one part wanted to save money, but the other material can’t handle the output too well. Because your levels were put so high, it fried the circuit. They’re calling back all capsules in a hurry now.”
More small-talk. He wasn’t sure why.
Doctor Wei came over, wordlessly checking his pupils again, looking over his data and doing all kinds of minor tests that had already been done.
“They’re going to offer you another model. Are you going to take the offer?”
Jian Lin nodded and Professor Han scribbled something onto a notebook.
“I’ve heard you are a single player? Is it really fun playing alone? It must be nicer with others, no?”
He truly saw no actual connection between all of these questions. Jian Lin furrowed his brows but answered obediently again. “I like playing on my own.”
The professor hummed once more.
Author’s Note
“Omg I know the twist”
Nope, I’m actually quite sure that at the very least most of you don’t. I’ve gone out of my way to make the twist of this arc a bit twistier than usual.
Little Theater
Mom: “Kill that manufacturer.”
Grandpa: “Kill!”
Dad: “How about we don’t kill anyone?”
Ice: Coughs, still breathless
Dad: “…Okay, no. Kill!!!”
Bloody: shouting from the void “IMMA JOIN.”
why is he asking all of that? xD
Thanks for the chapter
You’ll find out in the next chapter~
Excited for next chapter~~
Ice likes the castle design? Same stylistic preferences, tick!
Another Ice!!!!!! Sooo, the master of the castle IS HANDSOME!!! You tried to trick me!
Ooh, I can’t wait for the next chapter! This is intriguing
That was smth I wasn’t expecting lol Now I wonder why all that happened. Did the other Ice Emperor wanted to get rid of Ice? Why does he look like Ice’s real face? (If I understood that right.) Who or what is that in the abyss? And the heck is wrong with playing games alone? lolol (<- from someone who dislikes MP games or MP parts in games.) Let’s wait for next ch and who Mr birdsnest’s identity is xD
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
thanks for the chapter <3