RAIDS ONLINE: RAGNAROK BEAST

"What just happened?..."

Even though Luel regains his consciousness, his mind still can't process all the information that he's receiving from his surroundings.

"Where are you, Selene?..."

The last thing that Luel remembers is his conversation with Selene.

Luel remembers Selene covering his eyes. He remembers listening to her voice. But he can't remember what happened after Selene told him to keep fighting.

"How long has it been since then?..."

It feels like time has passed for a while, yet Luel also feels like time isn't moving either.

...ARGHHH!!!...

...ROOAAARRRRR!!!....

After some time, Luel's mind was able to adapt and process the sounds that he was hearing from his surroundings. Yet nothing but panic screams comes to his ears along with a familiar loud roar.

A roar coming from a certain Ragnarok Beast.

Luel focuses his eyes, trying to find the Ragnarok Beast in his surroundings. Yet what he only sees is an unfamiliar place, along with strangers running away in panic, lifeless bodies lying down on the ground, and soldiers aiming their weapons at him. Unfamiliar weapons that look like swords, spears, and guns.

Whatever the reason is as to why the soldiers are trying to take him down, Luel couldn't care less. After all, there is something more important he is concerned about.

"Is that you, Amy?..."

Among the dozen soldiers in front of Luel is a person who looks exactly like Amy. Her long, beautiful black hair has been cut short, and she looks more mature than she currently is.

She probably ages for at least 5 or 10 years. Or so Luel thought.

However, Luel is sure that the person standing in front of him is his beloved Idol.

Luel looked into Amy's eyes and saw anger and resentment. But what he's most surprised of all is the reflection that he sees through Amy's eyes.

The reflection of the Ragnarok Beast Amy is looking at, his reflection which looks like the Unique Rank C Ragnarok Beast Garmr.

"What the faq is happening?..."

It's not only the question of why he is in Garmr's body that Luel is trying to understand. But as to why an older version of Amy is in front of him.

Is this a dream? A hallucination? Whatever it was, Luel couldn't wish more but wake up right now. After all, Garmr and Amy, along with the group of soldiers she was leading, began fighting each other.

"Stop!..."

Luel is seeing with Garmr's eyes.

"Don't hurt them!..."

He's hearing everything with Garmr's ears.

"I'm begging you..."

He can feel Garmr's body, yet he can't control what Garmr would do. He can't stop Garmr from hurting the soldiers with its claws and fangs.

No matter how much he tries to close his eyes, he can't stop seeing them suffer.

No matter how much he covers his ears, he can stop hearing their screams.

No matter how much he begs, Garmr won't listen to him.

"Please don't kill Amy..."

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"ARGH!..."

Luel wakes screaming from shock due to the nightmare that he just dreamed of. But this time he doesn't feel any pain in his heart.

At the same time, Luel immediately recognizes that he is not in his room at their house but in a kind of place he is so familiar with.

Luel is in a hospital room lying down on a patient bed.

He's wearing hospital patient clothes, there is an IV connected to him, and multiple health monitoring devices are attached to his body. But what's more important of all, Amy is sitting beside his bed, sleeping with her face buried in a pillow.

Just seeing Amy is enough to remind him of what happened to him.

He wakes up from his nightmare in the middle of the night and tries to go to Amy's room in the guest room of their house since he was worried about her because of seeing her get killed by Garmr in his nightmare.

The lasting thing Luel remembers is seeing Amy before losing consciousness.

Luel raises his left hand, trying to reach Amy. He caresses Amy's head, thinking how thankful he is that right now this isn't a dream, that Amy is safe and alive.

The overwhelming relief that Luel feels is enough to make him feel like he's about to cry.

Amy woke up at the feeling of Luel caressing her head.

Upon seeing Luel wake, Amy immediately embraces Luel even though he is still lying down on the bed.

"I'm sorry... Sob... I didn't know... Sob..."

Amy just keeps on crying, asking for forgiveness for something Luel doesn't have any idea what for. Whatever it is, Luel can't stand seeing Amy crying.

"It's fine, Amy."

"What do you mean it's fine? You have been asleep for two days, Luel."

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After Amy has calmed down from crying, she explains to Luel what happened after he lost consciousness.

Amy was expecting Luel to experience what she calls a Player's Nightmare once Luel broke through the 50 percent Link Force boundary. So after logging out of RAIDS ONLINE, she immediately went to Luel's room to check on him.

Thankfully, Luel never locks the door of his room. But as soon as Amy opened the door, she found Luel collapsing on the floor and losing consciousness.

Rammie then arrived at their house later upon receiving the SOS signal from Luel's health monitoring device.

Luel won't wake up no matter what Amy and Rammie do. So they carried him together towards his parent's car, and then Rammie drove to the nearest hospital.

"The doctors said there's nothing wrong with your body, but you remain asleep for two days."

Two days is nothing compared to the time Luel was hospitalized for almost two years. But for Amy, who's not used to the fear and anxiety of having someone she knew and cared about being hospitalized, looking after Luel for two days in the hospital feels like forever.

The doctors and nurses came by to check Luel's condition. And upon seeing that there's nothing wrong with him, they let Amy and Luel on their own.

"Just what were you thinking, Luel? If you have health problems, then why are you playing RAIDS ONLINE?"

For someone who's recovering from a poor health condition after being hospitalized for almost two years, playing a VRMMORPG like RAIDS ONLINE, which allows the players to feel pain within the game, is something that shouldn't be allowed. Or so Amy thought.

However...

"But it was my doctor who recommended to me to play RAIDS ONLINE."

"What?!"

Luel is suffering from anxiety and panic attacks due to his trauma from nearly dying in a car accident. So, to fight the trauma of his memory of nearly dying, his doctor recommended that he play RAIDS ONLINE, which would allow him to slowly gain resistance to the feeling of pain similar to death.

"Are you sure your doctor is not quack?"

"It's a famous hospital so she is probably not."

"Tell me her name, I'll have someone investigate her credentials..."

"You don't have to bother yourself with that..."

While Luel and Amy are having a discussion about whether to sue Luel's doctor, Rammie arrives and sees that Luel is already awake.

She drops the bag of clothes that she's carrying due to surprise and slowly approaches Luel while holding back her tears. But instead of giving Luel a hug when she made it beside his bed...

...SLAP!...

"That's for making me worry, you idiot!"