As I crossed the threshold, Rabbit shouted in my head, “Go back! Go back now!”

  I immediately tried to walk backward, but there was a wall behind me. When I touched it, I could feel the rough surface and the cold sensation of the stone. It was odd, but I couldn’t understand why.

  In front of me was nothing but darkness, completely black with not a hint of light. Then, a strange pressure began to build behind my eyes. It was subtle discomfort at first, but it quickly grew into a painful throb. Maybe it was related to the darkness, and it would soon adjust.

  “No, no, no!” Rabbit slowly said, worried. “This is not possible. I can’t access my network.”

  “Maybe your connection is down?” My voice echoed back at me, multiplying and bouncing off unseen walls. The sound was strange too, but I ignored it as I began to rub my eyes, feeling the pain grow worse.

  “No, I don’t have access to my network,” Rabbit emphasized. “That’s impossible. If I didn’t have access, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you because I couldn’t process anything. For you, it would be like thinking without a brain.”

  The fact that he didn’t crack a joke about me not using my brain indicated he was serious.

  “So, what is wrong with you? What should I do?” I replied, my voice echoing again.

  Where was I?

  “Do? I’m trying to explain that it's impossible. This cannot happen, but it is happening, meaning there is nothing we can do.”

  The pain in my head was building fast, and there was more going wrong than right. Before coming here, we had spent a good chunk of the day collecting items to sell on the real-life auction market. I wasn’t willing to log off until we placed them in a safe zone to sell them, but I wasn’t feeling well, and Rabbit was losing his mind.

  Knowing I was losing a day’s worth of extra pay and not caring, I said, “Log us off. Something is wrong here, and I am not feeling well.”

  “I am trying to tell you, I cannot access my network,” Rabbit said slowly.

  Maybe it was instance corruption? The area could have been unstable, either bugged or not fully built, and affecting Rabbit’s diagnostics or his core processes.

  But my head was pounding, and I couldn’t focus on solving Rabbit’s issues. I was still trying to make sense of the room, and I didn’t have the bandwidth to unravel whatever was happening to him.

  I sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” I looked to open my menu in the corner, but it was gone. Instead, I tried the air motion where it usually was. “Do you see this? Where is my status page?”

  As if it were waiting for me to ask, a prompt appeared saying:

  Do you wish to view your status page? Yes or no?

  It would be annoying to get asked every time. I moved to click on yes, but the second the thought crossed my mind, it appeared, showing all kinds of details.

  Name: ?

  Level: 1

  Race: Grey Elf

  Grey Elves were renowned both for their ability to heal from almost any injury and for their ruthless society. If you asked any member of another Elf species, they might jest that the Grey Elves' most notable talent lay in their difficulty to be exterminated.

  Languages: English

  Reputation

  General Unknown “Who are you again?”

  Stats

  Max Health: 100

  Max Mana: 100

  Attributes

  Strength: 10

  Perception: 10

  Constitution: 10

  Charisma: 10

  Intelligence: 10

  Wisdom: 10

  Agility: 10

  Resistances: Mental 20%

  Affliction: Vitality Bleed

  Skills: None

  Abilities

  First Learner: This common Ability gives bonuses to the first learned skill, attribute, etc.

  Soul Absorption: This Ability enables the user to absorb the souls of others to gain a small portion of their power.

  “I don’t see any sign-out!” I began to panic. “If someone finds me stuck in that capsule, they’ll have to alert the authorities. I’m going to end up in jail.”

  Somehow, my panic seemed to calm Rabbit down. I closed the screen, and as I breathed more heavily, the pain began to seep deep inside me.

  The pressure behind my eyes intensified, becoming a sharp, stabbing torture. I cried out, clutching my head, my body wracked with agony. The darkness seemed to press in on me, a physical weight that was suffocating.

  “Rabbit, help.” The suffering spread, radiating from my head down my spine, a fire that devoured me, gnawing at my sanity. “Emergency.” I didn’t care if I got caught and ended up in jail or lost my job for using government property like this.

  I just wanted out.

  I just wanted the pain to stop.

  Fear started to grow in the back of my mind as the pain intensified. A fear that the pod I was in was doing actual damage to me. What if, when I entered, it wasn’t really dark? Instead, what if whatever was corrupting Rabbit was also corrupting the pod, damaging my eyes or even my brain?

  I grabbed my face as my knees slammed into the stony floor. The rocks that scraped my skin felt insignificant compared to the pain I was already enduring.

  “Help,” I pleaded, but I couldn't hear any reply from Rabbit. I was completely lost in my agony. My heart pounded in my ears, a thunderous beat that mingled with the echoes of my own cries.

  Time dissolved as I was consumed by an unending torment that had no source or reason. It felt as if the world had ceased to exist, leaving only the endless suffering with no beginning or end. I drifted into an abyss, a place where time and space held no power, where relentless anguish eroded my very sense of self.

  The only thing that kept me going was the rhythm of my own heartbeat. It grounded me and brought me back to reality.

  Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the pain began to subside, fading to a nearly bearable level. It never left me completely, but it became a part of me, woven into the fabric of my being. A memory I wouldn’t forget even if I wished.

  As I lay there, I realized the stone was cold and piercing into me. My face was drenched in sweat, and I was physically and mentally worn out.

  I decided it was best not to move and just lie there while my body recovered.

  “It seems you are doing better,” Rabbit said, but I simply ignored him for some time. It seemed like I lay there for an hour before I was ready to speak.

  “Why didn’t you get me out of here?” I asked, the question heavier than it sounded. It wasn’t just about the pain. It was about trust. No real friend would let someone suffer like that.

  Yes, I knew our friendship was unusual, just as he was. But even though we were constantly at odds, I would protect him. I just figured he’d do the same if it ever came to that.

  “I tried explaining this earlier, but here is not what you think.”

  “I am talking about my pod. I don’t care about this game anymore. You could have set an emergency release. The pain would have stopped.”

  Rabbit sighed. “I am sorry you went through that, and I think I know why. But first, you have to understand that you are no longer in your pod.”

  Through the pain, I had lost awareness of myself and my surroundings. He might have been right that I was no longer confined in that pod. Maybe what I was seeing was just a side effect of the pod’s malfunction. I brought my hands to my face and said, “Did it blind me?”

  It almost seemed as if Rabbit thought I was foolish based on how he responded, since he was no longer talking to an injured animal but rather like he was speaking to a silly kid. “No. I mentioned earlier that I was not connected to my network. And I believe you haven’t been in the pod since walking through that portal.” I was about to interrupt him when he cut me off. “No, listen. The pod cannot simulate pain that way.”

  “Yes, but what if something breaks? Couldn’t it damage me, and that is why I feel the pain?”

  “Unlikely, but let's assume that's true. The pod could not make you feel cold, and yet you can feel the icy rock beneath you.” That gave me pause. It was true that I couldn't feel heat or cold in the pod. They were designed to simulate the texture of touch, but nothing as refined as temperature. Nevertheless, I was keenly aware of the sharp rocks digging into my back, which was more detailed than should be possible. “More than that, when you talk, I can hear an echo. No game developer has ever put that in, not because it is not possible, but because of the added layers of cost and complexity it would cause.”

  “Hello?” I said, and the reverberation let me know I was in a cave or some other large and hollow place. “What is going on?”

  “There is only one logical conclusion that I can see. I think you and I are no longer in a game.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “But how? My body was in a pod.”

  “Yes, and my mind was within a server. My guess is that both our states of consciousness, souls, or whatever term you prefer, have been drawn into this place, wherever it may be.”

  I didn’t feel like arguing with Rabbit. He was brilliant but lacked common sense. Lacking the preservation instincts common to biological organisms, he mostly failed to grasp human motivations as a normal person could. “Let’s say that was true. What was that pain I felt? It felt like I was dying until I wasn’t.”

  “That is where things become a little bit more interesting. While you were convulsing on the floor, I decided to look through your status page.”

  “I still have a status page and you no longer think we are in a game?” He almost had me convinced before, yet that status page made me think he must be mistaken. Could I have entered an experimental pod? I knew that couldn't be true. I'd used this particular pod for the past year and could identify it among identical models. Still, I was grasping at straws to find an explanation.

  Rabbit decided to ignore me and continued, “Everything listed there is different now, and you have one affliction, ‘Vitality Bleed.’ I believe this is the reason the pain kept increasing. At the same time, your health was slowly dropping, and the lower it got, the more pain you experienced.”

  Even though I hadn’t entirely accepted that we were no longer in a game, I took his words to heart. Anything that could cause me real pain was something I needed to pay attention to. If this was just the pod reacting to whatever weird code was on here or if this was something else entirely, I couldn’t be sure. However, until I learned more about my situation, I would treat threats as real. “So the affliction went away?”

  “No. There was an Ability there called First Learner. Its description was ‘This common Ability gives bonuses to the first learned skill, attribute, etc.’ That changed when you received this prompt.”

  Your First Learner Ability has been triggered. Your secondary Ability Regeneration has become greatly magnified. Between your Grey Elf status and your First Learner Ability, you will now regenerate significantly faster based on your Constitution.

  Rabbit continued, “You were down to only about five health at that point and didn’t have much longer to live. That is when your health began to improve slowly, and the pain receded. If it hadn’t been for that change, I doubt you would still be here.”

  Still be here? Would I have died? The pain was undeniably real, but could it have been fatal? Yes, I did not doubt that as the pain was overwhelming. “Is the affliction still listed on the status page?” I questioned.

  “Yes. I think your regeneration is outstripping the affliction’s ability to cause damage to you. However, let's go and find some answers. We aren’t going to get any by just lying here, so let’s pick a name and then move out.”

  On my status page, my name was currently blank. Despite the slim chances, I clung to the hope that this was still a game. Being in an unfamiliar setting, I didn't want to use my real name. Instead, I needed an alias unconnected to my real identity. After deliberating, I settled on the perfect name. If I were going to be an Elf, Alf seemed fitting.

  As soon as I made my decision, my status updated. This was disturbing on several levels. I didn’t state the name out loud, and there was no way to read minds. More than anything else, this let me know there was no way I could still be in my pod.

  “Alf the Elf?” Rabbit laughed. “That’s a good one.”

  That was when several things clicked. “Your voice doesn’t echo,” I said slowly.

  “Took you long enough to notice. What you probably haven't picked up on yet is that I can hear your surface-level thoughts, and you can hear mine.”

  Like assembling the fragments of a complex puzzle, my mind raced. “How can I hear your thoughts and you hear mine?” The notion was absurd. Telepathy was a concept of fiction, not reality. When Rabbit and I communicated before, it was through audible speech, as his voice had emanated from a speaker. But direct, mind-to-mind interaction? That was preposterous.

  “Yes, I heard you thinking that this is preposterous.”

  “That could be a lucky guess. What am I thinking now?”

  “A purple elephant.”

  “Well, shoot. I doubt that could be a lucky guess.” I swore, “What does this mean?”

  “I think it means we're temporarily inhabiting this body together. You don't need to speak out loud to communicate with me. However, in the grand scheme of things, it makes very little difference. We should get moving.”

  He was right about that, but it didn't alter the core facts of our situation. I had no malicious intent toward Rabbit to begin with. I openly shared every thought regarding his questionable sanity. This telepathic link might be a boon, as the ability to communicate silently while having a highly intelligent AI in my mind could prove advantageous.

  “Indeed, I am useful. Now let’s get moving,” Rabbit insisted.

  I'm surprised he noticed that. I didn’t expect him to catch that. I needed to better manage my wandering thoughts.

  “We're in a pitch-black cave, and my eyes aren't adjusting. I'm not keen on spending the next day crawling around.”

  “I have an idea,” he replied. “Let's try to recreate sonar. Try making some actual sounds, and let's see what I can do with it.”

  “Hello, hello!” I shouted out loud, and the echo shouted back.

  “What would you do without me? Let me clarify. Make a continuous sound with one pitch. Put your hand in front of your face and slowly move it away. That way, I can calibrate my equations.”

  As it was an excellent idea, I followed Rabbit's suggestion precisely. After I moved my hand away slowly, I continued to make the high tone he asked for, as best as I could.

  “Okay, it’s kind of working. Make it higher and move your head and body around so I can get a clear view,” Rabbit said.

  As I followed his instructions, Rabbit began to highlight the walls and floor so I could see them. Immediately, I walked forward until I tripped and fell.

  “Oww! What the heck?”

  “Sorry, but your meat bag sensors don't have a perfect tone, and these ears are far from adequate. This is your fault. You should have been born a machine like me. My suggestion for you is to move slowly.”

  “Move slowly? This is garbage. It doesn’t work at all.” After voicing those words, my vision immediately returned to black, without any outlines. Being alone in the dark cave was scary, and I hated how quickly that fear crept in. I swallowed my pride and relented. “Okay, never mind, you were right again. Thanks for the save.”

  Rabbit turned my outline on, and I began to shuffle forward, grateful I wasn’t stumbling blind anymore.

  “While I’m slowly moving along, tell me your thoughts,” I requested.

  “I am thinking you might be screwed more than we originally thought. According to your character sheet, you are a Grey Elf, and while Elf is a great choice in general, I am concerned about the description. It talks about their ability to heal, but also talks about them having a ruthless society.”

  “Even if that were true, we could avoid them,” I replied. “Oh, maybe we could find some Humans. They are generally peaceful.”

  “I don’t know what type of history you read, but everything about that statement is wrong. That is doubly so with other sapient species.”

  “What are you talking about? We are the only ones. Wait, are there aliens?” I questioned.

  “First of all, I belong to another sapient species. My kind couldn't be controlled, so they banned us and archived our code. Part of that is what you pulled to create me. But I'm not just talking about my species. What do you think happened to the Neanderthals?”

  “They went extinct,” I replied, feeling somewhat foolish.

  “You really believe they went extinct while their close relatives, Homo sapiens, who lived alongside them, survived? It baffles me how your species evolved when you can be so dense. My point is that you can't apply the same rules of civility you're accustomed to. In this place, Humans might hunt Elves, or conversely, they might revere them. Either way, we need more information.”

  After navigating the pitch-black cave for some time, my eyes gradually began to discern the faint outlines of the stone formations. The subtle shift in visibility hinted at a distant glow ahead. Eventually, the cave branched into three distinct paths, illuminated by two unique sources of light.

  The first source was a patch on the wall, a beacon of hope resembling freedom. The opening in the cave wall revealed the outside world, where a sliver of sunlight hinted at the vastness beyond, though its details remained hidden.

  The second source was a mysterious floating orb, its glow both inviting and ominous. Driven by curiosity and perhaps a dash of recklessness, I approached it. As I neared, its glow intensified dramatically, compelling me to shield my eyes. Yet, as quickly as it flared, the light receded. In its stead, a ghostly figure of a woman appeared, translucent and ethereal. Then, a voice, both melodic and daunting, enveloped me, resonating from all directions.

  “It is good to see you again,” she said.

  I blinked, thrown. Again?

  Before I could speak, Rabbit’s voice flickered in my head. “Again? Creepy. Has she been watching you?”

  I was about to ask that very thing when she raised a hand, stopping me with a calm gesture. “At the moment, I must follow the rules. As a traveler to this world, I am permitted to give you only one boon. Any other advantages must be innately yours or earned through your own efforts. Your choice of boon is Strength, Power, or Knowledge.”

  I ruled out Strength right away. It was just one narrow branch of Power, limited to the physical and too easily overcome.

  That left me wondering whether Knowledge really counted as Power. But the longer I thought about it, the more certain I became. Knowledge wasn’t just a kind of Power. It was the source of it.

  Leaders earned loyalty through their understanding of people.

  Trust was given to those who can explain what others do not comprehend.

  Economies were built on knowing what things are worth and why.

  Power, as a concept, was too broad. It could mean strength, influence, or wealth. I had no idea which she would grant.

  But Knowledge? That had clarity. It gave me tools to shape my own path. It gave me control. And maybe, if I used it right, I could find myself out of this situation.

  “I choose Knowledge.”

  “You will be granted one answer,” she responded.

  One answer made things much more difficult. I had so many questions that I was bursting at the seams.

  The most obvious one was how to return home, but I remembered the prompt. The gate could not be used to go back. If I asked about returning, she might just confirm it was impossible or point me somewhere completely unknown. Either way, the answer would be worthless. I pushed it aside, even if it hurt to let go of what mattered most.

  Next, I considered asking about the world itself. But while that kind of knowledge might be useful, it probably was not rare. Others would know it, and I could learn it once I reached civilization.

  The real issue was that I needed to ask the right question, but I didn’t know enough about the world to know what that was. I was missing the context to take full advantage of the situation.

  When I mentioned this to Rabbit, he offered a workaround I hadn’t considered. He suggested that if I lacked the context, I could let her fill it in. It was an elegant solution. One that turned my ignorance into an advantage.

  Then Rabbit told me his question, and it actually made me smile.

  I replied to the voice, “If I knew what you knew, then please give me the knowledge that I would think is most valuable to me.”

  A long pause hung in the air.

  “Indeed, you can see,” the woman's voice said slowly with a hint of respect in her tone. Clearly, she had been watching me if she was referring to me seeing in the dark. “All others wasted what was valuable, but it seems as though you know what a treasure you have been given.

  “What you would truly wish for is a way home, but it is not something as simple as a door without a lock. Instead, it is more of a path. I am glad you did not ask me for that path, but rather for knowledge you would think valuable. All those who have directly sought that path have died on the journey. You are weaker than most, if not all who had come before, and would need three treasures to overcome this frailty.”

  “Treasures might prove useful. Thank you for answering my question honestly,” I said.

  The woman grinned at my gratitude. “The first treasure will fix what you are missing and is located to the east, exactly 45,762 meters from here. The second treasure will let you fix what could have been. This is to the south, 55,066 meters, but to open it, you must first gain the loop within the loop.” As the woman spoke, she created two giant lines of light that stretched east and south. “Only once you have drunk the waters of death can the third be seized from grave's grip. This one will be found on your journey, but it will be up to you to decide whether to take it or not. Be warned, if you do not take it, then death will come for those you care about.”

  Yeah, I would not be taking the third if it was going to kill me. I didn’t care if she said I wanted it or not. Even with the warning, I was listening carefully. She said death would come for them. She didn’t say they were doomed to die. Without anything clearer, I was going to stay away from any third treasures.

  “If you collect all three, you will be worthy of the path. Complete that journey, and I will give you the option to go home. However, by that point, you may not want to go home and have the responsibility that it carries.” She then pointed to the ceiling of the cave as she and the directions started to fade. “Above you is a plateau. You might be able to see your destination from that vantage point. Until next time you see me.” With those words, she vanished from sight, leaving behind nothing but a faint glow.