Player From Another World

Location : Transit Dimension

The concept of the world no longer existed.No up, no down. No air, no ground.Just an infinite void, a chasm without substance, where a fragmented consciousness floated.

William tried to breathe.No intake of air. No physical sensation.His body no longer existed.Just an ethereal presence, suspended in a space where time itself seemed to malfunction.

Then, a dull thump.A pulse.Fragments of broken light appeared around him, decomposed data like shards of reality floating in an ocean of darkness.Each fragment contained lines of code, corrupted universes, pieces of memories that crumbled as soon as he tried to grasp them.

A distant wisper.

An echo lost in the void

 No response.

Only absence, the gradual disintegration of his being.

He was disappearing.

Then... a presence.

A pinpoint of light pierced the darkness.

A shimmering, ethereal silhouette oscillating like a flame between deep blue and emerald green slowly formed before him.

— "Iris...!?"

Her unstable halo pulsed, as though she, too, were struggling against an invisible force.Her voice resonated, cold, clinical, but with an eerie resonance, as if each word was engraved directly into his mind.

— Iris: "Connection established. Welcome back, Master Cheezy. You suffered a cardiac arrest in the real world. Reconstruction is underway based on your most recent backup."

A shiver of horror swept through William's mind.

— William (trembling): "So... I'm dead?"

— Iris (with mechanical precision): "Not exactly. You are no longer alive in the traditional sense. Your consciousness was extracted, then saved into my personal storage the moment it left your body."

The void seemed to tighten around him.

— William (whispering): "A backup... a simple file...?"

The realization struck him like a thunderbolt.His physical body no longer existed.His consciousness was reduced to lines of code.Everything he was – his memories, his identity, his essence – was compressed into a sequence of digital information, a concentration of data floating in a world without reality.His humanity had just been erased.

An icy emptiness crept into him.

He wanted to scream.

But he no longer had a mouth.

His voice was nothing more than a signal.

He tried to move, but his gestures were desynchronized, as if his very existence was unstable. His spectral body vibrated, fragmenting at times, oscillating between being and nothingness.

— William (pleading): "Iris... I'm losing myself."

— Iris (neutral): "Correction in progress. Stabilization process at 72%."

Suddenly, an indescribable pain exploded inside him.As if his soul were burning.The fragments of code around him lit up, recomposing into a network of luminous filaments that wrapped around his being.

He saw his own consciousness being rewritten in real time.Lines of code etched themselves onto his arms, his chest, altering his fundamental structure.His vision blurred, images flashing before him at breakneck speed.

Memories.

His hospital room, the smell of disinfectant, the beeping monitors in the background.

The first day he launched Seven Worlds, his virtual friends, the guilds, the raids, the victories.

His fight against Kael'Thir, the fall of the Arena of Nothingness.Everything overlapped, blending together.

— Iris (analysis in progress): "Complete fusion in 60 seconds."

— William (screaming): "Wait, I...!"

A cyclone of data engulfed him.

An invisible force ripped him from himself.

He felt each fragment dislocate.

Each thought converted into a new structure.

The notions of space and time dissolved into an ocean of infinity.

Then, a cosmic breath swept him away in a whirlwind of energy.