'Leon!'
It was the protagonist of this world!
Seeing him, a series of thoughts suddenly flashed through my mind.
I could remember that when I played the game back in Seoul, controlling Leon, after crossing the veil for the first time, I woke up in a Grade One territory. Even though I died several times and had to restart from my checkpoint, it was still relatively easy. If things follow the game's script, then Leon should be waking up in a Grade One territory after crossing the veil, right?
But there's been a nagging thought that has been bothering me for a while now. Will things really follow the way it was in the game? Or will things change?
And if it did change, just how much would it change?
As I pondered this, a cold dread began to settle in, and I found myself hoping for two things. The first was that things would not change and remain exactly as they were in the game. The second, was that I would wake up close to Leon when I crossed that veil.
'If I wake up close to him, then I would have a higher chance of survival.'
While I was still lost in that line of thought, I heard Leon's voice.
"Oh, it's you, Cedric."
He must have turned around and noticed that I was behind him.
I quickly focused my gaze on him, and pretended like I was just noticing him for the first time. "Leon?"
"What a surprise."
He gave a large smile, but when his gaze scanned my figure, a small frown formed on his face. Then he asked in a concerned tone. "Where is your haversack? Aren't you carrying anything with you?"
I winced at that question, and since I didn't know how to answer that, I quickly changed the topic:
"Is it just me, or is one of your eyes pale?" I asked, pointing to his left eye which was a translucent, icy white, starkly different from his other vibrant green eye.
Leon chuckled nervously and said, "Uh… maybe it's just the light?"
He quickly averted his gaze and kept moving forward, the smile he had given me moments earlier having completely faded.
Of course I knew he was lying. His eye being pale meant he had used his bonded ability.
I couldn't help but be curious: why had he used it? And more urgently, what had he seen that made him so visibly nervous?
After a moment, I said mentally.
'Aika.'~
Aika turned her head to me and replied, 'Yeah?'~~
'I have a really, really bad feeling about this lunar eclipse.'~
Immediately, Aika nipped my ear with her beak and yelled mentally: 'Don't jinx it, you bloody fool!'~~
"Ow, ow, ow!" I groaned, reflexively clutching my ear as I continued onwards toward the blue portal in slight discomfort.
When we finally reached it, Leon turned to me, smiled, and said in his casual tone. "I'll see you on the other side."
I grinned and nodded. 'You have no idea how much I pray for that.'
He then turned and stepped into the massive, shimmering blue portal, and his form vanished in a flash of warped light.
I sighed, staring into the chaotic, humming energy field. 'This is it, Aika. Here goes nothing.'
Then I stepped forward into the portal, and the world disappeared entirely into a suffocating, soundless black void.
***
"…ic!"
"…"
"…dric!"
"…"
"Cedric!"
"…"
"Wake up already goddamn it!"
I immediately jolted awake to the sound of Aika's voice. She was in her human form kneeling beside me with a look of feverish alarm on her face, while I laid on what felt like swampy, muddy ground.
For a brief moment after waking, I felt disoriented, my vision was hazy, and my body felt like dead weight. But this feeling of total numbness didn't last; it didn't take long for the sensation to flood back in, and then I felt normal again.
The fact that I was unconscious was no surprise as everyone knew that once you entered the veil, your body would remain inert until you crossed over to the other side, after which you would wake up a few seconds after.
However, my immediate, pressing concern was:
Which territory did I wake up in?
Did I wake up in the same Grade One territory as I did while playing the game?
I really hoped that this was the case, and that I had woken up near Leon.
I instantly sat upright and began scanning the surroundings. The only things I could see were dense, endless green forest canopies, stretching in every direction. The air was thick and humid, carrying the heavy stench of something rotten and organic. Tiny droplets dripped steadily from the sky, suggesting a heavy rain had just ended.
Since it was almost evening, I couldn't see much, but the constant, abrasive buzz of noisy insects made this place feel claustrophobic and deeply hostile.
Looking around the claustrophobic, rotting jungle, I began to feel an intense dread because, one, it looked like I was the only dominant around. Two, I could immediately recognize this place, and it was a Grade Two Territory.
But that was not the worst part.
The worst part was that I knew exactly which Grade Two Territory this was.
'No, no, no, no, no!'
I immediately panicked, stood up to my feet, and braced myself for the worst.
'Why the hell did I have to wake up here?!'
No one could be in this territory without the owners knowing, and since I was here, it meant they were probably already on their way to me or worse, already surrounding us.
Shivering with fear, I immediately decided to use my map to find a way out of here as fast as possible.
'Gamer Privileges!'
[Activating Gamer Privileges…]
'Pull up the map!'
Suddenly the screen enlarged, and a big map popped up before me.
However, the moment I set my gaze on the map, my eyes widened, and my already wildly beating heart thrummed even faster.
On the center of the map were two glowing blue dots, and surrounding those dots, were twenty-seven glowing red dots. Me and Aika were the blue dots. Which meant… we were already encircled by the monsters of this territory, and they were closing in.
Just then, Aika, who stood beside me, grabbed my hand and muttered through gritted teeth, "Ced… Run!"