BOOOM/

Fire, the smell of burnt skin, the smoke arising from the ground…

"Cough-"

"Cough-"

"Hrrr-"

Rough breathing noises…

/TING/

The tingling voice in my head…

"Cough, cough."

"My child, listen to me."

Rough voice of someone very close to me…

"Cough, cough. You must live-"

/TING/

"Cough, you must live and escape from this place. Your future, it will be thorny, but rem-"

/TING/

"Cough, remember. You are my child, and you will always stay like that."

/TING/

Between that annoying ringing sound, the person I was holding in my arms was saying those things to me.

I must move and leave this place.

I need help. No, we need help.

With that, I tried to stand up, but not to avail.

"Cough, my child. It is over. You need to leave. You shall live- cough, cough."

That rough voice was saying.

"No, father. I won't leave you. I won't leave you. Please, we can find a way, ple-"

I was saying, repeating hysterically.

"Hush. My child, you were always smart, and you know that as well, don't you? Cough. That you need to leave alone."

The person I called my father was breathing roughly, and with a gentle smile, he put his forehead over mine.

"My child, your destiny is not simple.

Your path will be thorny; the people will be harsh on you.

But you must promise me that you will never give up. See it until the end.

This is my last wish from you. Live your life until the end."

My father(?) said that to me.

Even right now, I can see he is on his last breath.

"No, father. Please don't, don't leave me."

I was screaming, looking everywhere to find something useful, but not to avail.

At that moment, I heard my father's breathing stop.

"No, no. Father, faatheeer!"

That was it.

At that moment, on this bloody battlefield, the only person breathing was me. Just a lost child…

/BUZZZ/

/BEEP/

"Hey, fucker, what kinda fucking driving is that?"

/BEEP/

"Hey, Aaron, did you see the new game? Look, everyone is talking about that in the college right now. Apparently, it went viral, even though it didn't even pass one day after it launched."

Between the traffic noises and arguing, I heard my friend James saying something.

But, what the hell was that dream, I had yesterday? It felt like I was really there.

"Hey, are you listening? Hey, Aaron?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I was thinking about something. What did you say?"

I said to James. But that dream has been bugging me for quite some time.

"I was saying, did you see the new game 'Chronicles of Aeris'? The newly launched erotic RPG game."

Huh, I see. So he is talking about this game, huh?

Well, I am already halfway through the game, but of course, I won't say that.

"Yes, I heard about it. Albeit, this game is the only topic our classmates were talking about."

"Yes, yes. Apparently, everyone was talking about that game. They say that the snu-snu scenes in the game were well-written and directed. Heck, some of them said they couldn't even hold it in for a minute. Che, losers."

I heard James say while snorting.

Although I can understand how this is the main topic of the game, I still think the game's strong point is its RPG element.

However, the horny people will always be horny, I guess. No matter what, if you show them a picture of a female with a bit of nudity, they will jump over it.

Well, I am not saying I don't feel anything. It is just that I am a bit mad to see all those good elements being ignored just because of some sexual attraction.

I think it deserves more attention on those points.

I thought.

"Then, I will look into it when I reach home. I ordered it already."

"I see. You finally listened to my advice this time, didn't you?"

"Okay, okay, champion. You are the best game analyzer, okay?"

"Hey, don't make fun of me?"

After that talk, we reached our neighborhood and separated.

As you can understand, James and I are living in the same neighborhood. We are childhood friends.

We went to the same middle school and high school, and we are attending the same college as well, albeit our departments are different.

And today, the first semester of college is finally over.

Today was the last final exam, and the last boss, the legendary 'Differential Equations'.

Well, since I nailed it, I am in a pretty good mood, so I will just play some games and chill at home.

By playing some games, of course, I am talking about 'Chronicles of Aeris'.

That game got me hooked from the start.

Normally speaking, I like playing RPG games, and I always try to finish the game until I can find all the easter eggs in the game.

Without seeing the count %100 completion rate, I would never stop playing the game, and this time I am planning to do that as well.

The moment I reached home, I first ordered some fried chicken and started playing the game.

Since I am living by myself, I don't have to worry about the nagging of my mother or other things, so I am planning to play this game for a whole week until I go to my hometown.

With that, I launched the game and started playing.

Play- eat- sleep- shower- play- eat- sleep- shower- play- eat- sleep - …

Just like that, I played that game for a whole fucking week and finished the storyline.

And I must say, the person who wrote this game's scenario is a fucking NPC or something.

I feel like I will puke if I don't stop thinking about that trash story.

I am saying thrash because even though the game started pretty well and the world-building was good, in the later parts, it just became an eroge.

Yes, a fucking eroge.

In the later parts, the only thing important was fucking the heroines, capturing their hearts, and that was all.

Even though the events in the world are pretty huge, and the future is uncertain, our stupid Main Character, who is supposed to be the hero of the world, is busy fucking girls.

What the fuck is that?

How can you write such a senseless bastard as the main character? I don't understand.

There are some plot holes as well, and the heavy atmosphere of the game is lost with all those snu-snu scenes.

And I couldn't even get an erection at that time since, in the corner of my mind, there were the events of the storyline, and I was wondering what would happen next.

So for me, the game messed up in every part of it.

I will leave a fucking 1-star review on this game; I don't care what other people think. This game is shit.

Fuck, I am mad right now. I feel like I wasted my whole week just watching some nonsense content.

With those madding thoughts on my mind, I started writing my review for the game on the most popular online platform.

And, I am pretty proud of myself, for the fact that I am pretty famous for giving exact reviews, so I think my review will get good recognition.

After writing all the things I noticed about the game and listing them one by one, I went to take a shower.

I need to cool my head down; this game is really getting on my nerves.

Don't worry, and I am not some sort of smelly bomb which only takes showers once a month or year.

No, I am taking care of my hygiene. I always shower when I wake up, and I always clean my house at least once a week.

And I never leave any laundry in the kitchen, and I always wash the tables after I eat a meal.

Since I am living all myself, I am pretty used to doing all those chores alone, and I don't hate that either.

After cleaning myself, thoroughly, I started preparing a meal.

Since for the whole week, I always ordered from outside and never made my meals myself, it was starting to get very unhealthy.

With that, I prepared a healthy meal with balanced portions and started eating while checking the comments on my review.

And, as expected, my review got good recognition.

Well, to be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed with rage, so I might have written the review in a bit harsh tone.

But it is not like I wrote something wrong and slandered the company.

No, it is the reverse. Everything I wrote there were my genuine observations, and I didn't make anything up.

And while scrolling through the replies to my review, the one reply at the bottom caught my attention.

"Even if you don't like the story, would you change it?"

What kind of comment is that?

Of course, I would change it.

I have been saying, but the story is thrash, fucking thrash.

I won't ever play a game this company made. I swear.

After that, I started writing replies to the person, and we got into a pretty heated argument.

This 'God 6969' is either trolling me, or he is really stupid.

This guy thinks the sex scenes are good, and the story progresses very well.

What bullshit.

Even though I can say the sex scenes are good, If the story won't progress, why put the RPG element in it and advertising?

And what is with that shitty name?

This guy is probably trolling me right now.

Anyway, after finishing my meal, I went to sleep since I will return to my hometown tomorrow.

But when I woke up, there was a not-so-pleasant surprise waiting for me.