Beyond the Abyss

Chapter 2: Wait, what happened?

And when I finished the word there is nothing happened. I really feel annoyed because of this old man's prank. I turn my back and continue my walk. I put my earphones on. But, I heard no sound. I ran to the main road, everything stopped in time. And I am thinking out loud.

"This is HAVOC!!!"

I heard a blinking sound from the card that still in my hand. For a second I saw a kind of holographic screen on the card written in a pixelated font.

"What is your name?"

With a big column below it with written text in the capital.

"HAVOC"

Just a bit after I saw that, it seems like the world is collapsing into a void. But I still standing there just like I am inside the game and I am about to enter the loading screen with shitty tips. The world around me still collapsing then I saw a text coming out of the void just like someone is writing the text in reverse from behind the void.

"Welcome to the Abyss"

Not long after that, the world is fading away, then the environment around me starts to load up like revealing to my sight. Right now I am inside a corridor of a clothing shop. Once again, I check the card, and my gut was correct. There is a text on a card with the exact same font from the previous. The card says.

"What do you want to look like?"

Here, I just realize that my body is transparent. I walk through the corridor, I look to the left and right. There is a lot of robot-like full-body figure, from head to feet, with a variety of shapes. First, I saw a big body with wide shoulders thin hip and kinda tall. The body is painted with black, red and blue color, I think it doesn't really suit me at all. Then, I saw a short body just ideal, painted with black, white and grey color. But it looks like a 10 years old body, I also think it is not suitable for me. Next, there is a girly slim body with a big thigh and breast, painted with pink, black and yellow color. And you know, I will never choose this kind of body. After checking some of these robotic bodies, I just realize, this is a character making section that most of the gamers taking hours or days to finish. After browsing some of the assets collection of this game, I found one most suitable body for me. Almost as tall as me, or a little bit taller than me I would say. And the body just professional, not like me with a big belly. The body is painted with black, dark grey and light grey, just how I like it. Whatever, I am thinking out loud.

"This is it!!"

And again, the card emits blinking sound and there is a text coming up.

"Avatar selected"

After that, my surroundings are collapsing again into the void. I see my own body, and yes I have the body that I choose.  And I was correct all along, this is a loading screen, but it also gives me information as a tutorial. From here I know that the main feature of this game is a card with several different functions and everything is activated with a voice command. Mainly, there are 3 types of cards, weapon card, armor card, and skill card. You have to mention the name of the card while you have the card on your hand to activate it. Then I also know that there is 6 class of the card color-coded. Just about when the information comes out I am distracted, I saw the card is no longer on my hand, but it is planted on my wrist. The next moment I stare into the void, I only saw a glimpse of a text.

"You can check your deck for further information. Remember to protect your deck! if you die or the deck is broken, you will be forced to log out and your memory of the Abyss will be erased"

Then the text is vanishing into the void, as the environment around me is loaded into my vision.

After all that, I just got back to my clear mind.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!, WHERE AM I??? WHAT AM I DOING HERE?"

My shout just exploded, some birds fly away from the trees. I just realize that I am in the middle of a jungle-like stage. However, I notice that there is a lot of broken building that looks like the edge of the main road where I ran before I choose my character and stuff. It seems like mother nature has taken away the town forcefully. While I observe the surroundings, I heard a noise. A noise like a rushing beast running toward me. I heard it from my back. I look back and I saw a very fucking big mutagenic rhino rushing to me. I panic, my body freeze, I can't move. Then I heard a shot, a blitz of light hitting the rhino real hard. The rhino blasted to the ground and broke its neck. Its head almost severed from the body. Then, silence comes. "Thud". I heard something fall beside me, I slowly look into the source of the sound. There is man, or a figure, or whatever, that actually landing on his feet behind me.

"Newbie?", He said.

"Umm, yes"

I observe him as he staring right into my eyes, even though the avatar doesn't have any eye visual but I feel it, I am sure.

"That is not a wise choice to shout in here, beast everywhere, they can kill newbie very easily, by the way, where did you get the referral?"

"A... There is a random old man who collapsed and gave me a transparent card..."

I am blindly answering him, a mysterious figure with a black robe all over his body. He seems to carry a kind of rifle on his back.

"Stupid, but whatever, here some weapon, melee is the best because it doesn't need ammo"

he said while swapping a holographic card out of his left wrist, where the transparent card planted, and throw the transparent card to me. I observe the card, a green weapon card, a machete.

"Put it on your deck to keep it, you don't have to use it now... It's a common card, once you use it, you only have 24-hour duration before it breaks", he said

"What? Common? Deck? Where is my deck?"

"For fuck sake! Don't you paying attention when the information screen comes out?"

"Sorry, I was distracted"

"Well, okay, this is my good deeds, and you need to pay me back some other time. The transparent card you mentioned is the deck, it also a login form, to log in just put the card on your hand and tell it your user name, then you will be logged in, to go out from this game, just tell that card L.O.G.O.U.T., I don't want to say it because I still have something to do in here, you got it so far?"

"Yup, I think"

"Okay, 1 hour in here, is ten minutes outside, and on the outside, our body just seems like spacing out. So if you are here 24 hours, your real body seems like spacing out for 4 hours. Is there anything else?"

"Umm... The color, why did you give me a green color or all the card is in green color?"

"Nope, it is a level, green is for the lowest a common card, on top of it there is a blue for an uncommon card, then red for a rare card, purple for an epic card, holographic rainbow for a unique card, and the last, shining gold for the legendary card. In total, there are six levels. Having a set of a common armor is the basis of a newbie, you can gain a card from monster drop item, or PKing, player-killing. However, the monster only drops up to the rare card, start from the epic card you need to follow a major event or steal other player cards by killing them. It is a battle royale game I would say. I think that's enough I have to go"

"Wait!!!!" I say, "thank you for everything and stuff but I need to know your name"

"For what? It is foolish to give a name in here!"

"Well, my name is Dary.."

"STUPID!" He cut, "IT. IS. FOOLISH! TO GIVE A NAME IN HERE!, Some people play really serious, if they can't kill you here, they will kill you in the real world, and if you tell them your real name, you are dead meat. If you give your in-game name, people can add you into their friend list and they are capable to track you down in the game! Don't do that!"

"Okay... I'm... I'm sorry... Thank you though..., At least I want to have a friend in here, my name is", I approach him and almost whisper "Havoc, I hope you can add me to your friend list"

"Maybe later if I found the moment, for now, if you meet me coincidentally, you can call me Phan... No, I mean Monkey", he continued.