/world_deletion.

/world_delete.

"No one can die. It's a world adrift between time itself. We have nothing else to do, we have lost our purpose in life... a lot of us wander now."

/𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥_𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦.

The Kingdom of Lazareth.

It has stood the test of time for many years, gone through both natural and manmade disaster. The kingdom was in relative peace, but not everything last forever.

North, the Unkown strived to devour it. Knowledge on the Unknown was sparse, and if any was available, it detailed the eyewitness accounts of soldiers who ventured close to it.

The king, seeing the threat of the Unknown, appoints his best soldier, the main character, to lead a expedition deep into the Unknown. The guard when around town, gathering enough resources for the trek ahead of him. In his venture, he encountered a fellow soldier, who asked for his help for bandits attacking villages at random. The main character obliged and went out to deal with the bandits, but hasn't returned.

"By gods, where is the main character?" The guard said. "It's been a a week and a half already, simple bandits shouldn't be that hard for him, he's the best soldier in the kingdom!"

The soldier looked around, watching citizens go about their daily lives. They probably weren't aware of the Unknown, but he assumed it was best they didn't, less they cause a mass hysteria across the kingdom.

He shook his head wearily. "Something like that is easy xp for him. He can even sell all those loot to the local blacksmith around here for some coins for that expedition. Ah, I'll just rest my eyes for a few minutes, maybe he'll stop by and wake me up about it."

Sheathing his sword, the soldier cross his arms and lowered his head. Slowly, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber, expecting nothing out of the ordinary to occur during his sleep.

Wasn't the first time he slept like this, he did it when the main character, on separate occasions, took one or two days to complete a side quest. But they made sense like clearing out a bandit camp or helping out local villages with their needs. Maybe he's being lazy, and if so, who knows how long he'll be here before he comes around and talks to him.

.

.

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... Wa... p..

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... Wak... p...

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.

"... Wake up..."

The soldier slowly woke up, looking around; he saw grass, grass that reached his knees as houses and stone buildings lay abandoned and in ruins.

Next to him was a soldier just like him. He thought it was the main character, but it was debunked by the gruff monotone, yet caring tone from him.

"I figured it would be best to wake you up." The stranger said. "I don't know how many years you've been sleeping, but I feel you should at least have a choice on your future."

"W... What happened?" The soldier asked.

"The main character stopped playing. He stopped playing hundreds of years ago." The stranger informed. "Before that, he went on to make a new game and deleted this save file. This world is corrupted, adrift in the great nothingness."

"No... no they'll reinstall the game!" The soldier tried to reason.

He was certain they would reinstall it. Maybe they didn't have enough storage space and had to delete it, maybe the disc was broken or something happened with his console. He was minuscule in this big world, but the side quest he could give to the main character gave him the feeling of belonging he so desperately wanted.

"Even if he does, this save file no longer exists." The stranger stated. "It's corrupted. Nothing can bring it back. No one is coming back... no one."

"I... w-... why?" The soldier was on the brink of collapsing. "What do I... where do I...?" He asks himself.

"How I see it, there's only two options left for you." The stranger said. "Game rules don't apply, no one is able to die. You can either sleep here, forever until time itself lets you, or you can wander along this barren wasteland. A lot of us wander the wasteland."

"What... what about the Unknown?" He asked. He has to know what happened.

"The absence of the main character cause the downfall of the kingdom from them." The stranger said. "Time works differently. Two months here is mere minutes in his world. They devoured everything in their path. The unimaginable horrible creatures it carries can make the strongest go insane."

"I... b-but..." He stuttered our.

"I leave you with those two choices..." The stranger said, turning around. "Farewell."

As the stranger left, the soldier stood there, alone and questioning himself. He questions his entire existence. What is there to do now? Sleep? Wander? He couldn't kill himself, so those are the only two options he has. The little joy he had at being acknowledged, even feeling belonged to the world by the main character, was gone. He was, like the stranger said about the world, adrift. The sunset was setting, but the orange hue was purple with hints of black.

The soldier sat down on a set of broken stairs, staring at the grass move elegantly at the wind. It felt peaceful, but so horrendous. Nature thrived as humanity suffered. Should he just continue his sleep? Should he be like many others and wander aimlessly? What laid beyond the kingdom's walls now? He shuddered imagining how insane, desperate, and cruel people could've gotten all these years after the save file was deleted and everything went to shit.

"I'll... I'll just rest my eyes for a few minutes." The soldier said, lowering his head and resting his eyes.

And so, the soldier went into a slumber again.