A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that had just released just a year ago back in July of 2023 and had become a global hit almost instantly. The game was called “hollow”, it was an open-world fantasy set in a vast and immersive world, filled with magic, monsters, and adventure.
Hollow was a global sensation.
It was developed by a previously no-name studio.
However, the studio had poured their hearts and souls into the development of the game, and the results were evident. The game has a massive massive open world, it had a procedural generation but not truly, half of it was made manually while half of it was made with PG.
It could literally go on forever, but it made the game truly beautiful, the main story of the game is pretty cliché though, but not the bad kind of clichéd, it’s the kind of cliché that people enjoy.
There are two types of playable races :
A — Humanoid’s
B — heretromorph’s/non-humanoid-races
The main conflict of the game was that the humanoid races for example human’s, elves, dwarves, dark elves, Neanderthal’s are the good guys while the non-humanoid races like demons, undead, slimes etc are the bad guys.
In the beginning of the game, the players are given a character editor, the players can choose from any race from a race pool of one thousand two hundred. There were nearly two-thousand five hundred classes and over five-thousand spells.
Anyone would probably wondering what makes this game so much better than every other game. Well it’s because there’s no classes locked to races, which means you could be an undead mage or a human warrior, a dwarven mage or a dark elf paladin, a vampire cook etc etc.
Even more interesting was the fact that each race has certain racial bonuses and racial powers, for example, dwarves receive a small power bonus, while elves have small agility bonuses, dark elves have dark magic power bonuses, demons are resistant or completely immune to fire based attacks etc.
In the game, there were 8 humanoid kingdom’s and 2 non-humanoid kingdoms, in the cities of those kingdoms both sides (Humanoid’ and non-humanoid) although at war could freely interact. The strongest of these 8 humanoid kingdoms was the Kingdom of lithrum and the main leader’s who led this kingdom’s war against the non-humanoid’s were from a guild completely made of Npc’s called “Valhalla.”
This was a game of the — Future.
——————————————————
A computer screen was the only source of light in a dark room.
The room was a bit messy, there was a bed in the middle, in the corner of the room was a bookshelf filled with manga’s, novels and light novels — some of them were very rare.
“hah...I’m so tired!”
A man with spiky short brown hair and dark brown eyes exclaimed as he leaned back on his gaming chair.
“...I should go to sleep,” the man said to himself.
His eyes were bloodshot, his body was sore from sitting on his chair for so long, he was clearly exhausted.
The man let out another long sigh as he ran his fingers through his spiky hair before glancing at a clock on his wall — 23:59, 20th November, 2024.
“It’s already that late...”
The man muttered to himself as he rubbed his eyes, after glancing at the clock, his gaze shifted to his computer screen.
On the screen was the exit tab to a game — Hollow.
Hollow was this man’s — Hayate sato’s — Favourite game.
Hayate Sato was a 20 year old Japanese man.
He was rather average, nothing extraordinary about him in the slightest, he was a normal guy you’d find in the streets of Japan, but he also wasn’t like those shut-in’s — no, he was rather the opposite.
He was a extremely close friend group, a loving father and mother and recently even a girl had asked him out to a date.
This man — Hayate wasn’t an extraordinary person, but he was one of the most ‘lucky’ people in this world, he had a good life, a good family, a good education, he had a bright future ahead of him, and yet...
“heh, maybe I should shut down the PC for tonight...” Hayate muttered as he shut his eyes and slowly exhaled.
He looked at the screen again, behind the exit tab was his level 100 avatar, he had spend countless hours upon hours grinding to get here. And behind his avatar was the entrance to a special event dungeon. This dungeon would only spawn every year, but this one was extra special was it was also to celebrate the birthday of the studio’s creator.
He spent months upon months waiting for this dungeon to finally spawn, he just needed to wait one more day and he would be able to beat this dungeon, and get exclusive loot, that only few could get.
A mythical item, the highest of item.
There were 7 ranks for items — common, un-common, rare, very rare, lesser-legendary, legendary, Mythical.
The same also applied for spell but there were 8 instead — 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, 4th tier, 5th tier, 6th tier, 7th tier and the most powerful of spells — 8Th tier/Divine magic.
Hayate let out another yawn as he rubbed his eyes once again, the dungeon would spawn in a few hours so he might as well get some sleep, at the very least so that he has the necessary energy to beat the dungeon.
He wasn’t like he really needed another mythical item, he already had one — “fallen god’s heart”
But with that said, there was something about having more than one mythical item that just made Hayate feel a certain way, and that was not even mentioning getting to brag to his friends about it. But, he probably won’t be able to conquer this dungeon alone.
Not that he was bad — no, Hayate’s PvP (player vs player) and PvE (player vs environment) skills were decent, and he considered himself to be quite skilled in combat. However, his build was focused on spell casting rather than being a front-line fighter.
And for this dungeon — being a front-line fighter was a bit more beneficial, which was why he needed to find some people to join him, he already asked some of his friends but unfortunately non of them had replied so he would need to wait until tomorrow for them to come online.
Hayate want— no, he needed to obtain the mythical item from the event dungeon, as it was only available for a limited time. He was a collector at heart, and he wanted to add it to his collection before the event ended and the opportunity was lost forever.
Hayate glanced one last time at the screen, his avatar — a higher demon sitting in front of the entrance to the special dungeon, ready to venture in and claim the reward if only he had someone to come with him, after that he finally shut his computer off and let out a long sigh.
[23:59:50]
He stretched his tired and aching muscles, the pain of being in his chair for over 12 hours was finally catching up to him, he slowly leaned from side to side as he worked the knots out of his body.
[23:59:55]
“Ah... I think I’m going to go to sleep now.” Hayate muttered, yawning once more as he slowly shuffled his way to his bed across the room.
[23:59:59]
He opened his eyes one last time to see if he was in the right spot but he saw darkness.
[00:00:00]
Hayate closed and opened his eyes again, expecting to see the familiar surroundings of his room. But instead, he found himself in a completely different place. Confusion and disbelief washed over him, he looked around talking in his surroundings.
He was standing in an endless wasteland, devoid of any signs of life. There were no trees, water, animals, or other humans in sight. The ground beneath his feet was dry and parched, and it was currently snowing, but instead of the familiar white snowflakes, the snow was a dark brown colour. The sky was obscured by a thick layer of what appeared to be ash and smog, making it difficult to tell the time. The air felt heavy and polluted, and Hayate could distinctly smell the foul stench of pollution and decay.
Hayate’s mind was swimming with confusion as he tried to make sense of his situation. “What had happened? Where was he? Was this some kind of dream, or was he actually in this strange and desolate place?” He took a step forward, his feet crunching on the dry ground beneath him, and looked around, trying to find some clue as to where he was or how he had gotten there.
He thought back to his geography classes in school although that was 2 years ago now so he didn’t remember much, geography wasn’t really his strong point. He tried to recall any information that could explain the area around him.
Pollution!
Hayate thought to himself. The smog and the polluted snow must be the result of severe environmental pollution.
But if that was true, then did it mean he was still on Earth? Had humanity’s pollution gotten out of control and led to such a drastic change in the environment? For now he decided to think of this place as another world and not earth.
Either way, the air was thick and acrid, and he could feel it scratching at the back of his throat with every breath. Taking a tentative step forward, Hayate felt the dry, crunchy ground beneath his feet. It was so unlike the soft soil he was used to, and every step he took sent up a cloud of pale brown dust. The sky, or what could be seen of it through the blanket of smog, was an eerie grayish-brown colour.
He noticed something else. He felt... taller. As if he had suddenly grown taller than usual. How was this possible? He wasn’t tall, he was barely 5’8 so he often wore shoes to make himself taller but right now he felt like he was 6ft? Maybe even more?
He looked down at his hands, and his eyes widened in shock. There, on his left hand, was the [Gauntlet of the All Seeing Eye], a legendary rank item he had obtained from killing a high tier boss in a dungeon. And on his right hand, five fingers adorned with legendary rank rings, each radiating with passive skills he had personally chosen himself.
The [gauntlet of the All Seeing Eye] he wore was a legendary rank item, and the rings he wore were all legendary rank as well. He had spent much time in the game grinding and working hard to obtain these legendary rank items, now to mention the amount of gold he has wasted trying to choose the perfect skills for them.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
These items were from his favorited game, but they were supposed to be virtual, not physical.
Everything felt so surreal. He could almost convince himself that he was just hallucinating all of this, that the items were just a figment of his imagination. He pinched himself on his cheek with his right hand but he felt it, so he was not dreaming.
Was this some sort of freak accident? Had he somehow been magically transported into the game? But there wasn’t any location like this in the game as far as he remembered. No, he was sure this wasn’t a part of the game. The game had many locations, but he had explored almost all of it already, and this place was not one of them. Plus the smog was unusual. This wasn’t part of the game, unless you counted the one made by a spell but he didn’t remember the name of the spell nor had he learned it.
He turned his attention back to his rings but this time, something else also caught his eye. The clothes he was wearing. They looked exactly like the ones he had on in the game, down to every last detail. His entire outfit was made up of legendary and lesser legendary rank items.
What he was wearing was a set of fine, silk-like robes made of richly layered fabric dyed a deep jet black with silver threading woven through it in intricate patterns. His boots were made of the softest of leather, dyed a dark grey to match his robes, and they fit his feet like they had been made solely for him. The robes themselves were long, extending down past his ankles and pooling around his feet in a thick puddle of fabric. The sleeves were wide, and the cuffs were cinched around his wrists with thin strips of the same grey leather that adorned his boots. The neckline was high, rising up to almost brush his jawline
The front of the robes were closed with a row of silver buttons that mirrored the silver threading throughout the fabric, and a slender black leather belt encircled his waist underneath the robes.
Underneath the robes, he was wearing a simple undertunic of the same black fabric, albeit plainer than the robes themselves. The undertunic was form-fitting enough to show the lines of his body. He also wore a simple set of black trousers made of a thin material. The trousers were fitted closely to his legs, ending just above his ankles and held up by a drawstring waistband.
Although anything he wore underneath the robes weren’t additional items that he had equipped separately. They were pre-equipped, coming automatically with the robes as a part of the set.
There was only one word which could define the outfit — luxurious or rather expensive.
The entire outfit screamed of wealth and the kind of extravagance only a king could afford. He would never even come close to wearing something like this in real life. It was way out of his budget.
If he had to guess the actual price, it would easily be more than his dad’s yearly salary. And to think this was exactly what he had been wearing when he logged out of Hollow didn’t help either.
“I must be losing my mind,” he muttered to himself, running a hand through his hair but he felt something hard brush his hand. “Strange..” he muttered, grabbing a strand of his hair and staring at it. He was sure his hair wasn’t black, yet it was. He ran his hand through his hair again and felt it brush against something hard, curving surfaces on either side of his head. Horns. He had horn’s.
He froze, his hand halfway up his scalp. Horns? He had horns?
He touched them once more with his other hand. He quickly grabbed hold of the horn and pulled slightly and felt the pain shoot through his scalp. “Ouch,” he grimaced and jerked his hand away, quickly running his fingers over the horn, confirming that it was real.
Horns. He had goddamn horns.
He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. This couldn’t be real, could it?
The two horn’s on either side of his head were black, the same color as his now black hair. It was about 7 inches in length and was sharp and curved in the end towards left but not too much.then the next thing he noticed were the pointed ears. He touched his right ear, his fingers ghosting over the tips of his ear and felt that it was now pointed.
It was a different feeling compared to his previous, rounded ears. It was strangely... cool. He moved his fingers away from his right ear and touched the left one, feeling the same pointed tip again. Was he truly no longer human? He had black hair, black eyes, pointed ears, and freaking horns!
He couldn’t deny it any longer. He wasn’t merely wearing the same clothes and gear as his game character, he had become his game character, down to the very last detail. The clothes, the gear, the weapons and the very body itself. Everything had changed, he was no longer the ordinary human he was before. He was now the black haired horned demon character from Hollow he had been playing only moments ago.
He had to be dreaming, this sort of transformation was impossible. But no matter how many times he pinched himself, the pain was still there. This was real, he was in the body of his game character.
He had played through countless games in his life, but none of them prepared him for something like this. He had always felt a sense of detachment from the characters he played, but now that detachment was gone. This was his body now after all.
He stared down at his hands in fascination. These were supposed to be the same hands he had been using to type away on the keyboard to control his character in the game. But now they were completely different. He flexed his fingers, watching the way the muscles and tendons moved beneath the skin.
They looked very similar to human hands, but they were larger and stronger. The skin was also paler, much paler than his own. Which had been, a small tan instead of pale white. And the fingernails were longer, closer to claw than human nail,
He felt as though he should be freaking out right now. After all, he had just become some demon from a game. But strangely enough, he wasn’t. It was like he had spend years in this body.
He watched as the snowfall increased, covering the ground in even more of the dark brown snow. It should’ve been a frigid, freezing hellscape, but he didn’t feel a thing. A small spark of understanding went off in his head. He knew exactly why the cold didn’t affect him.
One of his rings, a legendary rank item, had a passive ability that granted him immunity to all temperatures, both cold and hot. In game, this meant that he would be unaffected by hypothermia or freezing in extreme cold environments.
It was part of the item’s passive skill. He remembered reading through the long list of skills, buffs, and abilities each item possessed, and this was one of them. It gave him immunity to the status effects, [Hypothermia] and [heatstroke] alongside [dehydration] and [hunger], not that he needed the last two as demons in hollow didn’t require food or water to live.
He tested it out. He picked up a handful of the snow and let it run through his fingers. It was cool but not cold. He felt nothing. No ice running through his veins, no shiver running down his spine. It was like the snow was made of nothing but lukewarm water.
He let the rest of the snow fall from his hand and watched it fall to the ground, joining the rest of the snow on the ground. So it seem’d that these items still held their same abilities and powers that they had from the game and that they weren’t just mere decorations on his body.
He wondered if it meant that the other items’ abilities still worked. He knew almost 100% of all the abilities on every item that he currently had on him..
He reached up a hand, idly rubbing his chin as he pondered just how many more abilities might have become real. He didn’t know what he should be more excited or scared about. Would his abilities and spells actually work in real life now? Could he cast a healing spell and cure a cut on his arm, or was he just imagining things?
But at the same time, he had no idea the extent to which the game’s characteristics had been brought into reality. Would he also gain any of the weaknesses that came with the race he currently was?
He shuddered at the thought. It would suck if he now had weakness to light or holy based attacks just because of the race of his character. That was one of the weaknesses of the higher demon race.
He thought about what he should do first. He had learnt the maximum amount of spells a player could learn, 500 to be exact out of the 5000 total available. It took him many sleepless nights to master them all, but he had done it. He had 500 spells, most of them were high class and of course, fit with his build. There were offensive, defensive and support spells, all packed into one brain.
He contemplated to himself, which one should he try first?
He wanted to start with a basic spell that didn’t require a lot of M.P to cast. The last thing he wanted was to exhaust himself before even testing out any other spells.
But how was he going to cast them? Thinking back to hollow. He had assigned the basic spells to hotkeys, making them easier to cast in battle. For other spells, he would simply click on their icons on the screen. But now, he was in this world, and there were no icons to click on and no hotkeys he could simply press. How would he go about casting spells now?
He had seen mages in movies simply make hand movements and say a single word. Was it really possible to cast the same spells like that or was that just a cheap movie trick to make things easier for the viewers to watch?
He raised his hand and made a small hand gesture, feeling silly doing so but he tried it anyway.
Nothing. There was no magical energy around his hand nor did the snow in front of him turn into magical energy. He felt even sillier now. Why had he expected that to actually work? But still, he decided to try again. He went with [fireball].
“Fireball,” he muttered, moving his hand in a throwing motion. Nothing.
“Come on, you’re supposed to work.” He muttered under his breath, starting to get annoyed. He looked down at his hand and tried to imagine the energy flowing up his arm.
“[Fireball!!]” He yelled. While he imagined a ball of fire in his mind, thinking about the heat of the flames and the bright orange and red colours.
[Fireball] was a straightforward and beginner-friendly tier 1 spell within the magical arsenal of mages. It is typically learned by beginner spellcasters when the game, usually falling within the range of level 5 to 10. Utilizing this spell requires expending 1mp, making it relatively inexpensive in terms of mana consumption. When cast successfully, it deals a modest yet useful 2 hp of damage, which can be supplemented with a 5% chance of inflicting the [burned] status effect upon the enemy.
A surge of energy coursed through him, and suddenly a ball of fire materialised in his hand. It hovered above his skin, the flames flickering and casting a warm glow on his face. He was surprised, both at his own audacity to actually try, and also the fact that it had actually worked. A small smile came to his face automatically.
He didn’t want to admit this to himself, but this was an extremely awesome feeling. To have literal magic powers out of a video game was incredible. He watched as the bright flames danced against his skin, the heat of the fire licking his skin.
But he also knew that he couldn’t continue gawking at this forever, like a simpleton. There was still so much he didn’t understand and was trying to comprehend.
He flicked his wrist and sent the fireball flying in front of him, watching it as it traveled in a small arc, colliding with the snow covered ground where it extinguished in a small puff of steam.
He felt a gentle tingle as his MP depleted from casting the spell.
It was a sensation that had never felt before. It felt weird, to say the least.
He felt... lighter. There was no other word he could think to describe the now lessened feeling of his MP. Was this the same feeling that the game characters felt when their mana depleted? Or was it something completely different?
It was an odd feeling. Like something had physically left him, instead of it just feeling like a loss of energy. It wasn’t a terrible feeling per se, just an odd one. He wasn’t unfamiliar to the idea of depleting MP, he had been low on mana quite a few times while playing the game, but that was when he was still in the game. This was different, his senses made it feel much more... real, for a lack of a better wording.
He was glad he hadn’t tried casting any of the high levelled spells. They consumed a massive amount of mana, and he was already starting to feel a little lightheaded from just the [Fireball] spell. He could only imagine how draining a high levelled spell would be, atleast until he got used to this body. He contemplated his options, he didn’t need food, water, or sleep which is due to the fact that since he is a higher demon and it’s one of his racial benefits atleast in the lore. He also enjoyed the benefits of his legendary rings who’s passive abilities have him immunity to nearly all elements. That gave him at least one less thing to worry about. making staying here in this desolate freezing place less of a problem and more of nuisance.
However, he knew he couldn’t stay here for long. He had to return home. Wherever he was, the current setting was not to his liking. His home, his friends, his family, his life. They were all waiting for him back in his own world. He couldn’t just stay here, stranded in this unfamiliar world. He had to find a way back.
But how? He tried to recall how he got here in the first place. Was there some kind of spell or item that he had used? No, he couldn’t remember using anything like that.
It was like someone had pressed a button. There was no rhyme nor reason for it.
While racking his brain for clues, Hayate noticed something in the distance. At first he thought it was just a trick of the eye or maybe the light reflecting off the snow, but the more he stared at it the more it looked like a faint glow.
His curiosity peaked, he squinted, trying to get a better look at the source of the glow.
With no other clues or leads he made a decision. He would head in the direction of the glow in the hope that it would lead him somewhere or give him an answer to his questions.
He was about to start walking towards the direction that light was coming from but he stopped himself. He had wings. He could fly. Why was he trudging through the snow when he could simply take to the air? He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his own back, and there they were. Dark, feathery wings, folded neatly against his back.
He scolded himself for forgetting about the obvious – he was no longer human, he was an actual demon, and demons could fly.
Hayate’s demon wings, folded against his back, unfurled and stretched outward, they were massive.
He gave them an experimental flap, and the force of the air created by them lifted him several feet into the air, his feet momentarily hovering over the snow. The top speed of his wings were 160 mph (257Kmph), which was just slightly slower than the maximum speed of the [Fly] spell, which was 200mph (321kmph). However, the [Fly] spell, could actually be increased in speed through the use of various buffs. But that was irrelevant for Hayate, 100kmph was plenty enough for now.
A small smirk came to his face. Flying through the air would get him there much faster than walking. And the feeling of the wind rushing through his hair, the feeling of being completely free in the sky – it was an experience he had never before felt in his old body. No humans had wings after all.
He flapped his wings again, propelling himself higher into the air. He looked back at the ground below him, watching as the snow covered ground slowly disappeared from his view. He was flying! And it felt amazing.
The wind was rushing against his face, the air was much thinner the higher he went, but it didn’t bother him. The feeling of complete freedom he got, as the ground slowly became further and further away, was incomparable to anything he had felt before. He even dared to laugh loudly while in the air. He had gained the ability to fly!
This was amazing, he could get used to it. He thought.
