Beyond the Abyss

Chapter 1: My Name is Daryl

"My Name is Daryl, Daryl Watson, I graduated with an Associate Degree in Art".

At least, that is what I used to introduce myself. Currently, I am taking a part-time job in a small coffee shop in an urban area, the job pays well and my colleagues are nice. My parents and I live in a separated place, I have to convince them that I can live by myself. Even though, sometimes I pay them a visit and bring them some gifts.

In this city, I live in a small apartment but a modern one. I live by myself, no roommate, no girlfriend, and obviously no boyfriend, I am a straight male. I live in this city since I start my college life, it would be around 6 years ago. In 6 years, I move around this town, looking for a good and better apartment to rent, and for the last two years, I have been changing around my job to find a suitable one for me.

Nowadays, I have a kinda boring routine. Every weekday, I wake up at 6, prepare some toast and take a shower. When I finish, I eat the toast with some warm drink while putting on something to wear. If I have the morning shift, I need to rush to the coffee shop because the shift is starting at 8, if its the evening shift, I continue my sleep till the time.

I have no choice but to live on my boring routine. But you need to know that I still have entertainment at least for my boring weekend. Games. I play a lot of video games. Skyrealm, GTM, Legend of Zolda, Noir Android, you name it. On every multiplayer game, I always have a virtual friend. Then, I got this one guy who always plays with me in most of my co-op games, his user name is always "phantom monkey" in it and my username always used "alpha", you know, because I want to be alpha human who can lead, just kidding lol, I only thought the word "alpha" is cool. Long story short, I befriended with the guy that I mentioned before, and call him "Tom" and he calls me "Al". Tom, he introduces me with more co-op games such us Unidentified Player War Zone, a.k.a. UPWZ. It's a battle royale game, you respawn randomly with your teammate, going around looking for weapons and stuff, hunt other players and survive until no one's left. But one day, Tom is missing. I never meet him online ever again. It was very sad for me.

But it's not for long until I actually meet him again. One day after my shift at the coffee shop, I decided to take an alley on my way home, I just need a quiet place to puff my cigs, and enjoy some music. Suddenly, I heard someone falls behind me. I was sure that there is no one else besides me. I courage myself to check who is that. I saw a middle-aged man, that seems like dying. I approach him and ask.

"Are you okay, Sir? How did you fall? Do you need my help?"

The man cough, and lay on his back. I think he is dying, dying as in he will die at any minute. I watch him slowly pull up some kind of translucent card out of his shirt pocket. His weak arm just drops to the ground swinging that card into me. Now the card is actually an inches away from my shoe. At first, I was shocked I almost step back a little, but I didn't. This man starts to take a really deep breath, he whispers something that I couldn't hear. He took another deep breath, he tries to talk to me with a really heavy voice held on the tip of his throat.

"Take.. it... And say... Login"

I don't know what actually happened, but I know it happens quiet, so quite. It feels like I have been hypnotized, I take the card like I know what will happen. When my skin touches the card, it feels like the world turns into the card, all noise canceled, all odor vanished, I feel no heat or cold, just like everything is absorbed by the card. Somehow, I follow that man's words. When I am about to say "login" I saw a glimpse of a smile in his lips.

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