Transmigration and Regression stories were my favorite.

  Yes, they were considered ‘saturated’ at some point, but the concepts struck a chord with me.

  I had a fine childhood. Not bad, not good, but definitely poor. While others had ease in their life, we struggled, or rather, my parents struggled to provide whatever they could to us.

  They tried giving everything their parents didn’t, to raise us with love, care and happiness. Of course, there were bad days, days where we had to eat barely anything, but it also matured me to a degree where I understood life much better.

  And it was at this time where I started getting consumed by stories, stories of escaping my shitty life, wanting a much brighter and better future for me and my family.

  Regression was a staple, it allowed one to change the mistakes of the past, but also use their knowledge to advance far further than everyone else. But it was also a double edged sword, as changing history meant that the future would never be the one that you knew.

  Transmigration on the other hand was my desired dream, a world where I can do things that are impossible. Magic, superpowers, anything of that sort.

  Of course, those where just daydreams.

  As I grew older, my desire for these scenarios faded, as I matured and found myself. I finished college, got my degree, found a partner I could rely on, one I wished to grow older with and settled into a routine.

  I poured myself into building our life together.

  Sadly, life doesn’t always go the way you want and I found out my partner was having an affair.

  Things spiraled down from there, divorce proceedings, asset division and whatever else that could destroy me both mentally and physically.

  I had become a husk of the man I was before and I swore to myself to never love again. And so, I indulged my fantasies once again.

  My routine became monotonous. I worked from home, which made things much harder for my mental health and I became a shut-in.

  Family members reached out but I ignored them. The friends that remained had isolated me from their groups and I became an outcast and an example.

  My ex wife and her cheating partner broke up a few months later as he had cheated on her, which was an obvious outcome. But at that point, I was too exhausted with my life.

  Shenvora, that was the name of the game that encompassed my entire being.

  It was a dark fantasy game, one with lore so deep that it genuinely made me question how did the creators even manage to make it. It was a top down rpg game with pixelated graphics, but every character had unique dialogue that was different with each play-through.

  The company behind it announce the game as the first “true A.I.” engine, with each character being self-governing. That to me made no sense, since it was an offline game with barely a few gigs of size.

  However I didn’t question its make too much. That was for other people to figure out. For me, it was my main escape.

  The characters, the story… it was far too fascinating.

  A powerful power system, a main character that changed depending on your playstyle and a mysterious final boss.

  Honestly, even after playing the game for a few years, I had never reached the ending, nor had the rest of the community. There were strategy guides, many different things once could try, even cheats, but they barely worked.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  Data-miners got nothing from the assets and the game engine was far too complicated for even the most competent hackers. A cracked version of it didn’t appear in the market even after 5 years after it’s release.

  The goal of the story was reaching the final piece, “Shenvora”. The main character, Kaelen was a young scion from a betrayed family traveling around the world to find Shenvora. It is here where the game gives you insane freedom.

  You can choose anything.

  The map is so big that it is basically a world of its own, with massive Empires and Kingdoms, unique areas and many many more encounters. Choices mattered the most.

  My current run has taken me three years, and I’m finally close to getting to that damned ending.

  I had specifically requested a day off just to see this ending through till the very end, if it failed, it failed.

  The mechanics of the game weren’t complicated, every battle and encounter was basically a turned based game. The options though were complicated and there was even a ‘free dialogue’ option, which allowed you to write whatever you wanted and the character would say it.

  I saved the game on a new save slot and looked at my party. It was probably the best party you could get in the story, all max level characters with unique skills.

  I had already found the best gear and equipped my main character with the most compatible Sendet. So it was finally time.

  I clicked on the dialogue box and started typing.

  [Today is the final stretch of our expedition. This is our final destination! Shenvora is just in front of us!]

  [Kaelen encourages his subordinates.]

  [Lena has used Blessing of the Sky.]

  [Gregor has activated his Innate Ability.]

  [Ilir is casting...]

  [Bore has enchanted the party.]

  [Vesa has drawn her bow.]

  [Roric’s passive is active.]

  [You have ascended to the peak of the Sky Scar, standing before the Gates of the Sky.]

  [You have Unlocked a Major Achievement: Reaching Shenvora.]

  [Your Achievement will be recorded in the Records of Shenvora.]

  It was a perfect setup and I even got an achievement for it. Although it was depressing, this was the first time I had been so excited over anything in the last few years. I clicked on the gate and watched as the characters entered one by one.

  And then the screen turned black.

  “…”

  I just stared at it for what felt like forever and the screen just stayed like that. At first I thought it was a bug, but I had never experienced one no matter how much I played it.

  So I just waited and waited.

  Of course, I tried alt-tabbing and everything, but the game had somehow frozen my pc.

  Thank god I had saved before the expedition, so I manually shut it off and turned it back on.

  The pc booted just fine at first, but it somehow didn’t get into the windows environment, but rather returned to the black screen like before. I thought my pc was bricked, but I noticed a change soon after.

  In the middle of the screen, a new pop-up message, one that was very similar to that of the game, appeared.

  [You have reached the end. Thank you.]

  The screen didn’t wait for my input. The text box pulsed once, twice, and then, the next message appeared.

  [This world is hollow. It is a simulation of a crisis that is currently occurring in true reality.]

  [The strategy you used has led to the greatest preservation of life out of 859950481822361 simulations. We require that mind. We require that soul.]

  [Do you accept the burden?]

  Underneath the text, two buttons appeared in the center of the darkness.

  [ YES ] [ NO ]

  This was obviously suspicious. If I took into consideration the background of the game, the mysterious company behind it and the current circumstances…

  I knew this wasn’t normal.

  I looked at my reflection in the darkened monitor and then at the piles of trash in my room, the silhouettes of unread mail, the shadow of a man who had abandoned the world before it could abandon him completely.

  I had spent three years meticulously playing this game. If I said no, I would surely lose a great opportunity. It was a gamble, but I wanted to try, maybe my fantasies would become reality.

  I moved my mouse and clicked.

  [ YES ]

  The response was a single pop-up.

  [Good luck, Player. The foundation must be true.]