Chapter 10

"This is the price we paid to come into your world," Michael said, his voice steady but weighted with something unshakable."

"We weren't supposed to be like this. In the game, we were nothing but scripted beings-programmed, predictable, lifeless. But you…" He paused, his gaze softening as he looked at me. "You changed everything."

"Your kindness, your care, the way you treated us like we were real-it woke something inside us. For the first time, we had thoughts, feelings, and a sense of self."

"We started to look forward to the moments when you logged in. Watching you run around, asking questions, exploring every corner of our world-it brought color to our otherwise monotonous existence."

"And every time I received one of your letters, telling me about your progress, the places you'd visited, and the things you'd accomplished, I felt… alive. Happy, even."

"I used to think… if life could always be like that if I could see you every day, and then even if I had to endure being beaten down by players thousands of times as a boss, it would all be worth it."

His voice faltered, and his expression darkened.

"But then… the developers announced the game was shutting down."

"They decided to erase us-just like that. All because the game wasn't making enough money."

"They were going to take everything from us. Our lives. Our memories. And worst of all, they were going to separate me from you forever."

His hands clenched into fists, his voice trembling with the weight of his anger.

"I couldn't accept it. None of us could."

"Our desperation, our will to survive-it called out to something ancient. Something dark. A mystery man who existed beyond the boundaries of our world."

"He answered us."

"He offered us a deal: he would bring us into your world. But in return, we had to give up our souls-the very consciousness that made us who we were."

"He warned us that the longer we stayed in your world, the more our minds would unravel. That we'd lose ourselves completely."

"But there was a way to stabilize our consciousness-we needed the accounts of players who had once logged into the game."

Michael let out a bitter laugh.

"We thought we'd won. We thought we'd finally found a way to escape."

"But the mystery men's promises… they're never as simple as they seem."

"On the day the servers shut down, we hacked into the forums and gathered as many player accounts as we could. We were so excited, so full of hope-we thought we'd meet you again in the real world.

"But instead, we were thrown into darkness.

"I could hear them-the developers, the ones who created us. I heard them laughing, saying things like, ‘Just delete it. Who cares? The game's gone. There's no point keeping it anymore.'"

"And then… the pain began."

"My body twisted, snapped, and shattered. Over and over, I was torn apart, only to be rebuilt and broken again."

"I wanted to scream, but I couldn't."

"All I could do was endure it. The endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction-it felt like it went on forever."

"I don't know how long I was stuck there. Hours? Days? Years?"

"But eventually, the darkness broke. And when it did, I was still here."

Michael's voice wavered, and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. He was breathing hard now as the memory itself had drained him. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, worn stone.

"You gave me this," he said softly, holding it up. His voice was almost tender. "You sent me hundreds of these little things. I kept every single one.

"But when the darkness lifted, this was the only one left."

His hand trembled as he held it out to me. My heart twisted painfully in my chest as I reached out and clasped his hand in mine.

He smiled at me, faint and weary. "It's okay. At least I made it through."

"But so many others didn't."

His smile faded, replaced by a haunted look."

"Most of them lost their minds in the darkness. Their consciousness couldn't survive. Now, they're nothing more than empty shells."

"People like Elizabeth… their bodies remain, but their souls are gone."

"And those who completely lost themselves became the monsters you've seen."

Michael's voice grew quieter, thick with grief."

"In our entire starting village-over two hundred NPCs-only Coco and I made it through.

"We used everything we had to break through the barrier between our world and yours. We came here to find you."

"But we weren't alone. The broken souls followed us… the ones who lost control."

He laughed then, a strange, hollow sound, and his lips curled into a smile that didn't match the Michael I knew. It was sharp, almost defiant, but underneath it, I could see the pain."

"And still… I don't regret it. Not for a second."

"Call me selfish. Call me cruel. But I don't regret breaking through to your world."

"I couldn't stand it anymore-watching you from behind a screen, trapped in a program that only let me respond with a few lifeless lines of dialogue."

"I couldn't stand seeing you cry, watching you be bullied or hurt by others, knowing I couldn't do anything to help."

"I wanted to know your name. To see the real you. To protect you. To encourage you. To comfort you."

"I wanted to hold you when you were sad-the way you held me in that world. You showed me love, and I wanted to give that love back to you."

His hands tightened around my arms, his grip firm but full of desperate emotion. His gaze burned into mine, raw and unguarded."

"Love changes things. It gives you flesh, blood, a heart-all so you can reach back and give something in return."

He smiled faintly, but there was something fragile in it, something that felt like it could shatter at any moment.