Rumble. Crackle. Boom
Thunder and lightning shook the sky, its bright flashes illuminating the night skies. Rain poured down heavily, hitting against the roof, sounding like the drums of a marching band.
The doors of an old, small apartment swung open. A man soaked from head to toe in a black suit walked in. He flipped the switch on the wall and threw his briefcase on the small one-person bed that was at the corner.
The ID card tagged to his suit read out his name, Zane White. He took off the ID card and tossed it on the bed as well before taking off his clothes and kicking them into a pile in one corner, planning on dealing with them later.
The apartment was nothing pleasant, with just a kitchen, a bathroom and toilet, and the room. There was a wardrobe inside the room and a desk with a gaming PC on it.
Zane walked to the wardrobe in his underwear. He opened it and took out a towel and immediately headed into the bathroom. A few seconds later, the sound of water falling from a shower rose from the bathroom.
He walked out of the bathroom minutes later. He cleaned himself up and put on a white shirt and fresh underwear. He walked into the small kitchen and pulled out a can of beer from the mini fridge before walking out and going to the gaming PC.
He sat down on the worn-out gaming chair, opened the can of beer and placed it on the table. He stretched out his hands and turned the PC on. The fans whirled immediately, getting faster by the second, and light started coming on.
"Ahhhhhhh, today was shit, but nothing beats gaming at the end of a very hard day." He said. The PC came alive, and as if he was startled, he grabbed the mouse, refreshed a couple of times in a rush and clicked on one particular game.
Cursed Bloodlines, a global game that took the world by storm its first year of launch. It featured a world ridden by monsters and creatures of all sorts, different races, magical innovations and technology, some heavy political lore and lots more.
Heroes which were the players awakened ancient bloodlines and grew these bloodlines from scratch all the way to Godhood. Mastering the ability of their bloodline and more.
The only issue that existed with the game was the fact that no one could choose the bloodline of their choice, it had a random method of giving bloodlines, and that alone soon made people hate the game and stop playing it.
Yet for over six years the server still remained for the faithful that wanted to keep playing. See honestly, when one grew his bloodline enough, he grew to a point near Godhood.
Zane was one of the few that kept playing the game for six years now, ever since his college days. He had the Bloodline of a being called Ashkerine the Sword Master.
The bloodline had heavy battle power yet very weak growth potential, which meant Zane had to spend lots of times gathering materials needed to grow his bloodline.
Bloodlines consisted of a hundred levels, and if one could upgrade theirs to a hundred levels and Ascend to Godhood, they would have basically become a top player.
Six years and he had tried to get there, and now all that was required was one level for his bloodline to get there.
He remembered the sleepless nights, hunting rare mobs, the auctions, the betrayals—six years of grinding for a single goal: Ascend.
The game came on, and finished loading, he entered the game inside his save point. His character was a man in full armor and a great sword.
He stepped out of the save house, thinking he would continue his journey, but as soon as he stepped out, he was suddenly transported into a massive dark castle.
'What the hell? What's happening? Is there some sort of game glitch or bug?'
[Do you want to reach the pinnacle of power?]
The game text interface suddenly showed, he was stunned to see it, but his curiosity as a gamer got the better of him and he clicked yes.
[You have rewritten your Bloodline, you now possess the Cursed Bloodline of the Vampire Progenitor, your bloodline will begin back from level one.]
"Wait what? No, no, no, no, this can't be happening, please no, please please please." Zane cried out. He immediately checked his player interface, and what he saw there made his heart sink—his bloodline had been changed and reset back to the very first level.
"No, no, no." He began mashing keys, trying anything to stop this from happening. His heart thudded in his chest, hands shaking above the keyboard. Six years. All of it—gone?
While he was doing this, a sudden voice reached everyone's mind all across the world.
[Attention, inhabitants of Earth.
Your world has been selected to participate in the Realm of bloodlines.
Welcome to the Realm of Bloodlines.
Survive. Ascend. Or fall.
You have been given Mercy by being selected, you have sixty seconds before the transfer, all ages from sixteen to thirty have been selected]
The voice was sharp, quick, and it finished speaking in a few seconds, leaving the entire world stunned. No one understood what was happening right now.
Zane didn't understand as well. He looked around for who could have spoken, but there was no one. He turned back to his PC, but noticed that the screen had turned black.
Everything felt weird and off. Was someone playing a prank on him? He wished it was a prank, because as soon as the sixty-second mark hit, everything went blank.
That night, every person from ages sixteen to thirty all around the world vanished—no trace. No goodbye. Just silence... and a game that had become their new reality.