My name is Wicky Varian.
Twenty-five years old.
Still jobless.
Still hiding in my room—just me, my games, and the same cursed login screen I've stared at for the last three years.
They call people like me "lost."
My sister says I should touch grass. That I should get out, find work, be normal.
But the truth is… I already found my world.
A world where I'm not a disappointment. Not a nobody.
Where every battle is mine to command, where I don't have to fake a smile or pretend the past doesn't haunt me.
I don't play games to escape.
I play to breathe.
No judgment. No crowds. No grave visits or lectures from strangers pretending to care.
Just skill, strategy… and silence.
---
It was supposed to be another regular night.
I had my headset on. A bag of stale chips beside me. Queueing into a monster raid in Crimson Hunt Requiem with a full guild.
The clock read 1:42 AM when it happened.
My screen flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then… black.
For a second, I thought my GPU fried again. I slammed the spacebar. Nothing.
But then something new appeared in the middle of the black screen—a single blinking message, glowing in ghostly green:
> [INVITATION: YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED]
Prize Pool: $100,000,000
Genre: Survival | Fantasy | Real-Time Combat
ACCEPT / DECLINE
I blinked.
Laughed.
Fake. Clearly fake.
Some creepy phishing ad from a back-alley dev trying to hijack my PC.
I moved the cursor to DECLINE.
Then paused.
There was a name in the top-right corner.
"Dear Mr. Varrian..."
Varrian. With two R's.
That's not how I spell my name. My name's Varian.
I don't use that spelling anywhere.
No gamer tag, no emails, not even old school documents.
Weird.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard a whisper:
> Click it.
---
Against all logic, I clicked ACCEPT.
Nothing exploded.
The screen vanished. My game booted up like normal.
I shook my head. "Weird-ass glitch."
And just like that, I shrugged it off and played until sunrise.
---
The next day, I found it.
A package.
Plain. Black. Sleek.
No logo. No sender. Just a biometric scanner built into the lid—and a note.
> Welcome to the Game. Please complete biometric verification.
I froze.
It wasn't from Amazon.
Wasn't a prank.
I stood in the hallway, blinking like an idiot. My sister Reya wasn't home. It was just me.
I hesitated. Then placed my fingers on the scanner.
A soft beep. Then—click—the box opened.
Inside: a strange console.
Metallic, thin, not like anything I'd ever seen.
It looked ancient and futuristic at the same time.
The screen lit up on its own.
> "Biometric scan accepted."
"Cognitive sync in progress."
"Eye scan initializing."
"Blood sample required."
Wait—what?
Before I could pull back, a sharp sting hit my finger.
A needle had ejected from the console and drawn blood.
"WHAT THE—?!"
I stumbled backward, cradling my hand. But the damage was done.
The screen turned crimson, pulsating like a heartbeat.
Then it displayed:
> Do you accept the terms and conditions?
[Y] | [N]
There were no terms.
No details.
Just that question.
And then… I heard it.
Not from the console.
From inside my mind.
> Say yes.
A voice. Whispering. Ancient. Calm. Certain.
> Say yes.
The room spun. My head throbbed.
This wasn't a game.
This was something else.
Something watching me.
I don't know why I did it. Curiosity? Insanity?
I reached out… and pressed Y.
---
The air ripped apart.
Sound disappeared.
Light folded in on itself.
And then—
Everything shattered.
---
I wasn't in my room anymore.
I wasn't anywhere that made sense.
I was lying on cracked stone, beneath a red sky that burned like fire.
The air was hot—metallic, oppressive.
The sky above churned with black clouds, lightning veins writhing through them.
The scent of iron and ash filled my lungs.
Far away, I heard it.
Screams.
Human. Monstrous. Terrifying.
A battle? A war?
My body felt heavy. Wrong.
Like I was moving underwater.
I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn't open.
Then a soft ding echoed in my ears.
And a screen blinked into existence before me—floating mid-air.
---
> [GLADIATOR SYSTEM BOOTING...]
Classification: UNASSIGNED
Current Rank: UNRANKED
Title: "New Blood"
⚔️ First Challenge Assigned:
Survive the Arena – 24 Hours
---
Arena?
Challenge?
What the hell was going on?
I stood, or tried to. My knees buckled.
I wasn't in VR. This wasn't a simulation.
The pain in my bleeding finger still throbbed.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
This was real.
A mechanical voice echoed in my skull:
> "Welcome, Gladiator."
> "Your life now belongs to the Arena."
---
I turned around.
In the distance, I saw it.
A coliseum carved from black stone, its walls stained with ancient blood. Torches flickered along its rim, and banners of unknown symbols flapped in the wind.
Chains hung from the towers.
Cages.
Bodies.
Far off, creatures howled—inhuman, hungry.
I wasn't in any game.
I had been transported.
Ripped from my room. From my reality.
Thrown into something that didn't care who I was. Only what I could survive.
---
> 23:59:53
The countdown had begun.
I wasn't trained for this.
I didn't know how to fight.
But one thing was clear.
If I didn't survive… I'd die here.
And maybe there too.
And that whisper—deep in my skull—spoke once more:
> "Prove you belong."
> "Earn your place."
> "Become more than a gamer."
> "Become a Gladiator."