The first time I died, it was painful, but not physically.
It was something else.
There was a moment of confusion, a white flash, and then nothingness. It was strange.
The second time hurt just as much, if not more, than the first.
The third, the fourth, the fifth... I learned to count the seconds it took for my flesh to tear, the heartbeats I had left before returning to reality.
The seventeenth time, I stopped screaming.
Not because it stopped hurting. But because I understood that no one was listening.
But it was all worth it.
I can finally sit for a moment and ponder how all this crap began.
. . .
The afternoon sun streamed through the blinds, illuminating the students of class 3-B and their desks.
In the classroom, the voices of the students became annoying; it was a place full of laughter, exclamations, and comments crossing back and forth.
But there was one person secluded in their bubble, oblivious to everything happening around them.
A solitary sound broke the rhythm.
Sugawa Shou's finger tapped methodically on the wood of his desk, his gaze lost on the wall clock that marked the seconds with an unbearable slowness. Around him, time seemed to flow slowly.
His hair was short, black, straight, and a little disheveled. Dark, deep, almost indifferent eyes. A face that, in any crowd, would fade like a shadow.
This guy had nothing remarkable about him.
Glances passed over him because he was self-excluded, and even then, they didn't linger for more than a second.
Bzzz...!
Unexpectedly, he felt a slight vibration in his pocket, and with a quick movement, he pulled out his phone.
[New message from Mom: Have you had your snack yet? You better eat before coming home, or I won't cook again.]
A slight snort escaped his lips as he read. He quickly replied to his mother's message to avoid possible repercussions.
[Shou: Yes, Mom. Ate it all.]
He finally turned off his phone screen and put it away.
He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, trying to disconnect from the noise around him. But his classmates' words inevitably reached him.
"Hey, look at this A-rank sword I found!"
"How did you get it?"
"I went to the dungeon at...!"
Shou frowned upon hearing the phrase.
'That game again.'
He turned his head slightly towards another group, only to hear a similar conversation.
"Can I join your party?"
"Hmm... What's your level?"
"I'm level 69!"
"Ehh?! That high?!" It was a mocking tone.
Shou's frown deepened, and a spark of irritation crossed his face.
'You must be joking... It's been six months since Primera Online came out, and it's still the only thing they think about!'
Tch...!
The sound of his tongue clicking was barely audible, drowned out by the laughter and shouts of the others.
To him, Primera Online was nothing more than an absurd collective obsession, a black hole consuming everyone's time and energy.
'It's just another MMORPG like any other, what's so special about it?'
He couldn't understand how something as banal as a video game had captured the entire world.
The numbers were ridiculous. 98% of people under 25 played it; 80% of adults between 26 and 59 were also hooked, and even 20% of those over 60. It wasn't a national statistic.
It was global.
He shook his head, losing faith in his species.
'While everyone else wastes time, I can focus on what's important... I should thank the creator of Primera Online. They're clearing out my competition for the national entrance exams.'
A small smile formed on his lips, barely perceptible, as he opened his eyes again.
And then he noticed it.
He inhaled sharply, surprised, without realizing it.
'The clock.'
The hands, which had seemed to crawl lazily before, were now completely still. He raised an eyebrow, puzzled, and looked around him.
The classroom, normally full of noise, was completely silent.
The conversations ceased as if someone had flipped a switch.
The faces of his classmates looked tense, confused.
'What's going on?' He tried to ask, but the words got stuck in his throat.
A deafening buzz echoed in his ears, leaving him almost deaf for a few seconds.
And suddenly, a pale blue light illuminated the classroom.
A message, floating in the air, appeared before him.
[No saved data detected]
[Player Sugawa Shou, do you want to create a new character?]
A chill ran down his spine as he read those words.
[Yes] [No]
"What the hell...?" He muttered to himself, leaning back in his seat as if the message could physically reach him.
'I... I-It's impossible that I'm suffering from hallucinations. I... don't have that kind of illness...'
He looked around, searching for answers.
What he found was even more terrifying.
Everyone in the classroom had a message floating in front of them. But they weren't the same. The texts varied slightly, and some of them were confusing to Shou.
[Player..., your character "..." has been found. Do you want to use it?]
A whisper broke the silence.
"This... This is my Primera Online character."
A nervous murmur ran through the class.
Shou swallowed hard, his throat dry as a desert.
"To hell with it!" Someone shouted, pressing the [Yes] option.
[Being transported to the world of Primera. Please wait...]
In the blink of an eye, the student's body began to glow with a blinding intensity. As if made of light, he disintegrated into millions of pixelated particles that vanished into the air.
A heavy silence fell.
"Did... did he leave?" Someone asked, their voice breaking.
Someone nodded, though the answer was obvious.
Before anyone could say anything else, a new message appeared before everyone.
[2,000,300,001 have already entered the world of Primera Online. Please select your character to begin transportation.]
Shou felt as if the ground was slipping beneath his feet.
"Two billion...?" He murmured, almost inaudibly.
The number kept climbing rapidly, increasing by thousands, then millions more, as he watched in horror.
In less than a minute, the counter surpassed three billion.
He clenched his fists in anger.
His heart pounded like a war drum as he looked around.
The classroom was almost empty...
Only six people remained, including himself.
He pressed his head as if it hurt with an intense, unbearable migraine.
'I-I don't understand... What...? What is this..?'
He looked at his own message, feeling the air grow dense around him.
With trembling hands, he pressed [No].
[Sugawa Shou, are you sure about your decision? After choosing this option, you will not be able to be transported to the world of Primera, and you will be eliminated along with planet Earth.]
[Yes] [No]
His vision blurred.
"E-Eliminated...?" He stammered, feeling his stomach drop.
He felt like he wanted to vomit.
'M-My mind isn't working right...?'
A heart-wrenching scream resonated near him.
A girl read Shou's message and, without hesitation, pressed [Yes]. Her body glowed and disappeared in an instant.
'Is this a dream...? A-A nightmare? The mind usually takes desperate measures in extreme cases... Ma-Maybe I'm misunderstanding this message...'
Shou felt despair begin to consume him, and he looked at the five remaining people in the room.
Their faces reflected disbelief, but their eyes were clouded with confusion and fear.
"Sugawa, what does that mean?!" Shouted a stocky boy from the back, his face pale and distraught.
His head spinning, Shou observed him with an expression that almost bordered on contempt, as if he were watching a talking pig. But that flash of disdain disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"Su-Sugawa-san... did that message say that... that we would be...?" Finally spoke a thin boy who had been motionless next to Shou the whole time.
His voice was weak, broken, as if he didn't dare to continue speaking out of sheer fear, and although he couldn't finish the sentence, it wasn't necessary. Everyone in the classroom knew exactly what he meant.
'If everyone can understand this message... Then... it doesn't seem like I'm misunderstanding it...'
Shou didn't respond. His gaze remained fixed on the floating message before him.
His fingers trembled, hovering over the [Yes] button, as if they were both attracted and repelled at the same time.
The thin boy watched him closely.
In his eyes, there was a mixture of fear and acceptance. And to himself, he understood at that moment that what he had read was real.
It was the push he needed. Without hesitating further, he pressed the button in front of him.
The boy's body immediately began to glow. Then, his figure crumbled into luminous pixels that faded into the air.
"This... This can't be real... Right?" Asked a girl with glasses, her voice trembling. Her gaze wandered frantically around the classroom as she watched yet another classmate disappear.
There was no response, only the spectacle of more classmates disappearing one by one, each making a decision. Their bodies disintegrated into the air, making it clear which option they had chosen.
Finally, only two remained.
Her, hands trembling as she backed towards the wall, and Sugawa Shou, who remained motionless, as if petrified. His finger hovered just inches from the button.
"S-Sugawa-san... are you...?" The girl stammered, but the words faded before she could finish her question.
Shou's expression might have seemed mildly uninterested and confused to inexperienced eyes, but the reality was different. Every fiber and muscle in his face was tense, his pupils were fully constricted. His breathing was agitated internally, and an invisible heavy aura formed around him.
'I... Will I really die if I choose this option?' His interior became a spiral, as if something wanted to devour him whole from the inside.
Shou couldn't tear his eyes away from the message.
His thoughts were a whirlwind. Someone without major worries would have pressed [Yes] on the previous question without hesitation, but for him, leaving everything behind without more wasn't so simple.
He clenched his jaw tightly. The air in his lungs felt heavy, difficult to expel.
'I've worked so hard...' His left hand clutched his chest.
The endless hours studying for exams, his family's expectations, his own desires and dreams.
'For what? To end up here, reduced to this...?'
For a moment, he let his head drop, allowing his hair to cover his face. His expression was hidden, but his fists, now clenched tightly, trembled.
'Calling it a dilemma makes it sound too sophisticated... Th-The damn answer is obvious...'
The words echoed in his mind. He wanted to scream, to hit something. But all he did was clench his hand tighter.
Almost involuntarily, like a survival reflex, he pressed [No] and the text changed.
[Player Sugawa Shou, do you want to create a new character?]
[Yes] [No]
'Damn it!'
Suddenly, something inside him burst. He raised his hand and, with a mixture of rage and fear, hit the button. His gaze was still fixed on the floor, but his decision had been made.
And so, suddenly, the sensation that followed was unexpected.
There was no pain, no despair. A warm current ran through his body, as if he were being immersed in warm water. It was comforting, almost pleasant.
The classroom began to fade around him, pixelating like a mosaic coming apart piece by piece. A buzz filled his ears, a dull vibration that seemed to rise from the depths of his chest.
He tried to cling to reality for a moment, and there, he managed to see the expression of the girl who had spoken to him earlier.
Without understanding how or what, Shou's lips moved, uttering a series of words that not even he himself was conscious of.
Moments later, the girl's body was also enveloped in a blue light, and everything faded, consumed.
In that world.
On Earth, nothing remained.