Staring at the scene outside, I could only let out a baffled gasp.
"What the heck was that!"
Just a few minutes ago I had been forcefully ejected from the game and no matter what I did I couldn't log back in.
It felt like my Echo pod was permanently rendered useless.
I had my suspicions about the entire situation, especially since the game notification had mentioned something about the creation of a new map right after mentioning something about a… a Meitosis? Miaetos… ah whatever, merging the towers to Earth but seeing the huge black tower standing tall, I couldn't help but acknowledge the unrealistic scene.
'It's strange.'
No… strange couldn't begin to describe it.
The tower was right there in the distance like an ominous clock ticking the countdown of an apocalypse-scale event.
Yet all I could feel was an endless rush of excitement.
I could feel my heart racing in anticipation of what was to come, never in my life had I actually felt this ecstatic about something before.
The feeling was simply too exhilarating.
Tak!
Tak!
Tak!
Rushed footfalls sounded in the distance, whoever was approaching was coming through the stairs.
"Tae-Min! Tae-Min! Brother?"
It was my step brother, Kang Ryu-Min.
Well it was expected, I doubt his mother would even run to my aid if the world was ending and the pace was simply too fast for my old man to keep up.
Contrary to what one would have expected, my relationship with my step brother was surprisingly okay.
Unlike his mother, Ryu harbored no ill will towards me, and I doubt he knew what his mother had been doing to me all these years.
I spared him a glance, then my expression immediately morphed into a frown.
"Ryu-Min… what are you doing out here, it's dangerous."
Ryu took a moment to catch his breath, his clear blue eyes flickered to the chaos on the streets of Seoul then back to me.
"Tae-Min, it's… hah, game… Echoes Of Ruin, hah… hah."
From the way he was panting I could tell he rushed here immediately.
He didn't run to his mum, he came to me first.
The thought almost made me laugh, my father's mistress could plot and scheme just to secure his position but her son treated my safety as his priority.
'Heh… Karma's a bitch.' I mused.
Shaking the ridiculous thought, I exhaled softly.
"Who do you think you're worrying about, I'm the older brother you rascal, just because you're taller than me now you keep forgetting that."
Ryu gazed at me like he was about to say something but the words died in his throat because the next second a small creature appeared in the sky.
It looked human for the most part, but it appeared more like a beastkin or a chibi version of a weretiger.
SNAP!
"Bwahahahaha! Welcome Humans, to the Echoes Of Ruin… the whispers of forgotten dread and the tales of the damned." it said while its tail wagged behind it. "...I, Yao Yao shall oversee this scenario as your taskmaster, be honoured mortals, Bwahahahaha."
"A gremlin looking midget? That's new." The words slipped out of my mouth as a quiet whisper but I was almost certain Ryu heard it.
The voice of the Creature sounded once again, this time a tad more ominous than the bubbly tone it carried.
"Now…shall we begin?"
"Ryu, get back inside." I ordered but my brother didn't move an inch.
He seemed deeply in thought for a second as though he was trying to ask a question but was deciding whether to ask or not.
"Are you a player too?" He finally blurted out.
I narrowed my eyes into a cold glare.
"Too? You're a—"
SNAP!
My words were cut off before I could even get them out and for once I was glad it did.
Ryu wasn't a kid who couldn't decide for himself, I couldn't do that for him and I certainly don't want to control him.
Without realising it, I had almost lost my temper.
As the creature snapped its fingers.
The familiar screen of the game system appeared a few inches from my face and judging by the blank look on Ryu's face I could tell that I wasn't the only one experiencing it.
____
[ First scenario]
[Mission: Survive.]
[Quest: Arrive at the national museum before time runs out.]
[Reward: 10 stat points, synchronization.]
[Time remaining: 02:30:00]
[Penalty for failure: Death.]
____
"Ryu…"
"On it."
I didn't need to say the words out loud.
He already knew.
We were royally fucked if we didn't start moving.
And we did.
We ran like our life depended on it because… it actually did.
Needless to say we totally left our parents back there.
Good riddance.
It wasn't a difficult decision for me to make but I had to wonder why Ryu didn't even try to help his mother.
Still, it was an unnecessary thought, right now arriving at the national museum was the priority.
As a veteran who had played the game on the worst difficulty possible, I knew hidden cheats and mechanisms regular players didn't know about and I planned on using all the information in my arsenal to my advantage.
The first place we ran to was the garage.
Obviously I wasn't about to sprint like a madman through a panicking crowd.
Not to mention, if everything worked the way it did in the game then there would be a monster horde after us.
There was no way I would use my legs to outrun that.
I went for a Death Rover T7, while my brother took a Panther wheel, two luxurious bikes my father's company had been working on.
Although it was a little too flashy, I didn't care…
If I was going to die then my cause of death shouldn't be something like 'death by exhaustion or being mauled to death by undiscovered species of monsters', I forbid such a fate.
The bikes roared to life and before anyone in the mansion could react, we zoomed off.
That should have been the case…
We should have been zooming past people, far away from the monster horde without effort.
But…
"Shit we ran out of gas." I muttered in an exasperated tone.
We barely even covered six kilometres before the bikes gave out.
Those good for nothing servants.
Forty damned employees yet no one saw fit to tend to the bikes.
"Tae-Min… what should we do?" Ryu asked, the panic finally seeping in.
I turned to him with a bewildered expression.
"What do you mean what should we do? Run you idiot!"