Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

"Hey, Mira," I said, gliding up to her and stopping awkwardly.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said. Discover hidden content at empire

"I get it, but we have to. Your life depends on it," I said.

She stood still for a few seconds saying nothing, until, "I'm listening."

"I'm sorry I scared you. I really am. I only told you that stuff because I think I can save your life," I said.

"I'm still listening," she said.

"There's two parts to it. One, the game mission told me to give you a good last day. I'm interpreting that to mean you'll die at some point between tonight and tomorrow. I have a medicine that can cure all diseases including death itself. I can give you that to save your life," I said.

"Second, I don't know what happens to a game world when I leave it. I don't know if you continue to exist or if you enter a state of suspended animation or you cease to exist. I don't know. What I do know, is if I take you to the quote, real world, you will continue to exist and live there."

"Does entering a different world to guarantee your survival sound like something you'd want? This is still your choice. I just wanted to present you with the option. It's up to you what you do with it."

"Whoa," she said, her eyes widening. "I need a minute. Let's get some water or something while I process this."

We got something to drink and sat down while we waited for them remove the ball from the arena and set up the actual race course. Mira sat there drinking water for a little while, just staring into space, thinking.

Until she said, "Survival is all I'm ever thinking about so of course I want to do that, but my dad still lives or exists here. I can't leave without him and he's in the hospital so it wouldn't be safe to try to take him out into this real world. If that changes somehow, I may change my mind, but that's where I'm at right now."

"Even if we both cease to exist when you leave, I'd rather cease to exist with him, rather than live without him."

"Ok. Well, we still have to make sure you have a good last day, whatever that means, so let's go win you a race!" I said.

"Yeah. Let's do that," she said.

We got up, threw away our drinks, and made our way back to the race track. Everything was mostly set up. We just had to check in with the race staff.

Before they walked us to our separate starting positions, I said, "I'll be your defense, your back up, and your medic, but you have to actually win this. I'm not here to win this for you. This is your day, so you ultimately have to be the one to make it great."

"Ok," she said, and nodded her head, a look of determination etched across her face.

We got into our starting positions. There was a large red, yellow, and green countdown light for the start of the race. The announcer counted down the countdown and then the red light turned on and beeped.

Then it went to yellow, then green, then the race was on. Everyone jumped to start as fast as they could. Everyone except me. Mira was positioned on my right, so I was going to toast everyone on my left.

Which was only two people, but it was at least more than one. I pointed my blade straight forward, used Blood Draw, and extended the blade to ten feet long. Then I swiped left with it, cutting off the legs of the two competitors to my left.

As I expected, they had cybernetic legs, so I had only cost them money rather than their lives. Still, it was probably a lot of money. But then again, they were AI in a video game simulation, so did money even matter at that point? I didn't know. All I knew is I was wasting time thinking rather than skating.

Everyone on my right zoomed past me including Mira. I sped up to catch up with them and pick off the stragglers while leaving Mira to do the real work of winning the race.

I took out one guy who had tried to brake in front of me to try to get me to swerve out of the way and fall over, but he didn't know I wasn't coordinated enough on these things to swerve.

So I just barreled into him and with the balance assistance of the Gravitron roller blades, I stayed up but he didn't. I kept going until a felt a tug on my leg. I looked down and a harpoon was sticking through my leg with a cord attached to it.

The guy was using me to pull him along with me. He tried to reel in the harpoon to pull up to me, but it was my turn to brake and throw him off balance. He shot past me after swerving out of the way and took a tumble on the ground.

I noticed the harpoon gun seemed to be attached to him with a harness, so I got an idea. I pulled on the cable and started swinging it over my head with my right arm, waited until I had good momentum on my swing and cut the cable with my sword in my left hand.

It sent the guy flying into the stands. He crashed into the popcorn guy and popcorn flew everywhere. I pulled the harpoon out and tossed it on the ground.

I looked up and everyone in front of me was gone around the next corner. I needed to catch up so I leaned forward and sped up as fast as I could. After a minute I came upon a blader who was a mess of body parts on the ground.

When I looked at them, I realized it was Mira. Her legs and arms had been ripped off. Luckily, they were cybernetic so she wasn't bleeding to death, but she was in no shape to win or even continue the race.

She turned over onto her back and screamed at the sky, "Fuuuck!!!" Tears were streaming down her face and snot was coming out of her nose.

I slowed down as I caught up to her and kneeled down, "Hey I got you. You'll be alright. What happened?"

"I'll be alright? I'm a mess! They ganged up on me. Bruno and Stinger. They ripped me apart," she said, sniveling.

"Those guys have names?" I said.