BXBX NOVEL Chapter 37: I am back.
"I am back," I whispered.
There was nothing that looked different from my life last week. And if I forgot about all I experienced the world of reapers just seemed like a bad nightmare. Yet the moment I got off the bed a box I wasn't familiar with was present. Aside from the box being completely black it didn't have any markings.
I tried fiddling with it and studied how to open the thing. A side panel suddenly slid out and inside was a sleek black smartphone along with a note.
"Let's see here. Greetings Reaper! Congratulations for successfully joining the army. This phone is a small gift that would allow you to stay connected to the rest of Hellsgate. It has a graveweb connection to the reaper Internet known as G.R.A.V.E.Y.A.R.D. Please check out the FAQ to learn more."
This phone was the only thing that made me certain that I wasn't going crazy. That I didn't just imagine what I experienced. The people I met as well as everything I did were all real. Consequently I began remembering all the screams and faces of the ones that died and the ones I murdered.
'NOOOOO! SAVE ME! SAVE ME PLEASE! DON'T ABANDON ME!'
'Please spare us, oh great one! We didn't know you were here!'
'THEY WILL COME AND GET YOU TOO BOY! YOUR TIME WILL ALSO COME!'
'Please don't kill me! I won't bother you anymore! Just let me get away! I don't want any trouble!'
'I want to go home! Mommy! Waaaaah!'
Immediately my breathing became labored, while my head went hazy from nausea. The voices of the dead kept echoing in my mind. Their terror, their anger and most of all their pain. Was this what it meant to hold the souls of people? Unknowingly I began to hyperventilate as my heart tightened like someone crushed it in their palm.
Like a ragged doll I fell to the floor unable to breathe. Feeling weak all over I was in agony and my mind was drowning in hysteria. Just like when I died, my body felt cold as ice. Even with my eyes open I could not see. I could not even hear myself think as the thousands of voices all continued wailing inside my mind.
'Am I going to go just like this? After everything I have accomplished?' I wondered.
In Hellsgate I fought zombies, took down bosses even traded blows with David Thomas, yet here I was nothing more than a nobody…
"BULLSHIT! I REFUSE TO DIE," I finally grunted out.
Mustering every bit of my will I struggled to stand up, I tightened every muscle and forced the nausea and weakness down. I was John Smith. I was a reaper. Someone who would become the strongest Revenant. This was who I am. I would not allow myself to die from depression nor fear.
If I was to die, I would die in battle!
"ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!"
With a ferocious roar like a crazed beast, I regained control of my body. Pulses of energy came from my soul gem warmed my body as I struggled to stand. Sweat drenched my clothes from over exertion. Unsure if it was due to my determination of the pulses of energy, the throes of the departed disappeared. It was like by embracing death, it no longer had any hold of me.
"Huff. Huff. I need a break. Hopefully no one heard me."
I got up and took a change of clothes and went to the shared bathroom for the tenants of my building. Luckily, I didn't encounter anyone on the way as it was still in the early morning and the start of the weekend. I took a quick shower, made a cup of coffee, came back to my room and grabbed the reaper phone.
It looked similar to the modern smart phones sold today. I pressed the power button to the side and turned it on. A welcome screen opened up and lit up the phone in a green shaded interface. It looked classy and futuristic.
[Welcome to the G.R.A.V.E.Y.A.R.D]
[Please place your finger on the sensor for Biometric and soul scanning]
Well, I guess that is expected. I placed my finger on the fingerprint scanner that light up on the front of the screen.
[Scanning…]
[Scanning complete. Please Register a Username]
Username? So it really behaved like a typical phone or social media. Guess even reapers cannot ignore the benefits of technology. I then typed my name to register.
[Username John Smith has already been taken, please select another.]
Well, couldn't say I didn't expect it, after a few moments I tried numerous versions of my name, and everything was rejected. I refused to add numbers at the end of my username like a retard, so I didn't have many to choose from.
"Oh come on! How many John Smiths became reapers?! Why is everything already taken?!" I complained in frustration.
[Using a title is also acceptable, i.e. Marauder Shields, Dr Whoa, T9000, TheOne, Ballsdeep69…]
"Eh? Title eh? Like Invincible, Virtuous or Untamed?"
How pathetic was I that the phone gave me a hint due to not being able to come up with a alias. I then began to ponder. What did I wanted to be known by? I was John Smith, a Formless wraith, who used guns.
'Bullet? Bullet Lord? Bullet Hell? John Bullet? John Gun? Gun Smith?
John Formless? Formless Smith? Formless Bullet?'
This was one of the hardest things for me whenever I played any game, figuring out a name to use. As my mind raced across stupid possibilities, I eventually thought back to the promise I made to myself when I died.
'If I did get the chance to live again, I would live differently. I was done with following the rules of others. I would go beyond my limits!'
"Thats it!"
Excitedly I entered the alias that carried my ideals for my life as a reaper.
[Username has been accepted.]
[Good morning, Limitless]
Limitless, otherwise meaning to be devoid of any limits. It tied well to being Formless. As in a way having a form actually defines one's limit. This was the principle I wanted to govern my second life.
I looked at the screen and saw a number of apps that showed different icons. Just from the name you could already understand what their intent was. There were eight of them which gave me a general idea of how much the reapers interacted with one another.
[- News
- Forums
- Goods and Services
- Recruitment
- Continental
- Love and War
- FAQ
- Contact US]
As I wanted to read more I clicked on [News]. A new row of options came out. The options made the Graveyard look like a common social media news feed.
[News
- Front line
- Revenants
- System Announcements
- IRIS Announcements]
I again checked the first one.
[News - Front line
- WIPE OUT! The ranking Assault group Sacred Saber reportedly missing on floor 52!
- UPDATE! Mapping of floor 52 now at 78%, rumors of the final assault begin to make rounds!
- EPIC FAIL! Sponsored combat units by Google, Facebook and Tesla annihilated during Enlistment!
- FLOOR BREAK! A rogue undead army assaulted Floor 1 of the NA battlefront! Invincible dominates the scene!
]
"… The news had the same provocative click bait titles from the internet. The last one seemed familiar. Now that I think about it are the sponsored units referring to the Alphabet, Meta and Tesla dudes?"
Jasmine and Josephine said something about their continent being stuck on a specific floor. It seems that the very front was at floor 49.
"Not that it matters to me at the moment. In the future however, I will be at the very front."
I then checked the other apps and verified their contents. [Forums] was literally forums with reapers discussing shit like reddit. [Good and services] was the marketplace where you buy or sell. [Recruitment] was for applying to various jobs or looking for work. [Continental] was for matters related to other battlefronts.
What freaked me out was [Love and War], the app had two main functions, a reaper dating app like Tinder. And a fighting app like Rumblr. The former encourages reapers to meet up to date and procreate. The latter encourages people to engage in sanctioned reaper duels with souls on the line.
[FAQ] was like a Wikipedia of reaper content, including organizations and an undead bestiary. [Contact us] was for reaching out to the developers of Graveyard.
"Holy shit, this was really like an underground society. Just from the number of users, posts and info it looked like reapers have been around for a very long time. One of the forum posts dated before world war I. How did the forums even exist then?"
Reapers seemed to mingle with each other like a community. The only thing different with those of normal people was that every night. Everyone with this phone would go into hell unsure if they would ever see the next sunrise.
I then remember Bella's words from before.
'Think of it this way. The Reapers only have one goal: closing Hellsgate. The fact that Hellsgate remains open today means every reaper since time memorial has either died or is still out there fighting. If this were a game, it would mean no one has ever cleared this game. Not even once.'
Despite exchanging goods and services, listing the information for everyone to see, even going so far as to keep everyone updated, they all still failed. This could have been going on for hundreds or even thousands of years. With each day that passes some reapers would never be able to wake up.
Yet they fought on, no one would ever acknowledge their sacrifices. No one knew they even existed, yet they all fought on, until when they could fight no more. I took a moment to thank the silent warriors who have lived and died in Hellsgate defense. No matter how pathetic their results, they deserved that much.
Just then I heard a doorbell ring. It meant the visitor to the apartment complex was for me.
"Who would come here so early in the morning?"