Fate and Destiny

I've always questioned the concept of Fate and Destiny. One person being tied to an external string that won't change no matter how hard they try.

I find that concept a fancy definition for a cage. So if I don't believe in fate, what do I believe in? I can't just be walking without purpose now, can I? Well, of course, I have a purpose, but it's not something cooked up by a concept called fate.

Rather, what I believe in is working out your own good, constructing the life you believe is there, through hard work and desire. Well, that's what I believed until I started playing the Tale of Failed Heroines.

What's that, you may ask? Well, it's a multiple-choice game where you play as heroines in a world of sword and magic. Each one having their own desires and their own wishes. It was all fun and nice until I realized that this game was a tragedy.

I finally understood why the name was Tale of Failed Heroines, because no matter what path I chose, the end of the game always brought the death of the heroines. But I refused, I refused to believe that the heroines I had fallen in love with, their lives, their struggles, would all just die with no way to save them.

I believe that was how my obsession began. I played the game, going through every method, every combination. It became a grueling mission that I promised myself to see the end to.

All I wanted was the survival of not all, but even one heroine, a happy ending for them. I went through play route after play route, studying and trying repeatedly for two years.

Yeah, it was that bad of an obsession. Whatever free time I had, I spent it on the game. I was a scholarship student at one of the best universities in the world, the place where the rich and influential went.

But don't rush to conclusions. I am anything but rich and popular, I was the direct opposite. I was an orphan, I clawed my way here. How exactly, you may ask? Well, my freaking studying and refusing to believe that my fate is tied and set in stone.

So I can believe that you sympathize with my refusal to let go of the game until I make the perfect ending, right?

I managed to keep up good grades, but aside from that, everything else was poured into the game.

I barely spoke to the little friends I had because I was always on the game. That was how big of an obsession saving the heroines became to me.

--

I sat inside my room, a Saturday night, no classes the next day, so I could play through the night. The monitor sat before me, displaying the menu screen of the game.

The night wind blew through the window, chilly, it made me shiver. I got up and walked to the small one-person bed. It was a complete mess, with books and clothes lying on it.

But I wasn't going to be sleeping tonight, so there was no need for it. I picked up the black hoodie.

As I walked back to the worn-out gaming chair, I stopped to take a look at my mirror, and there I was in the reflection, looking good. Haha, I can't lie, I looked like shit.

My white shirt and black underwear like some NPC. I couldn't even spice it up. Maybe wear some Spongebob boxers, that would have looked nice. Fine, that does it, underwear shopping tomorrow.

I was a pretty tall dude, at six feet two, well, six feet one, but come on, whoever agrees to their real height? I had completely black hair, and eyes that looked devoid of sleep.

I turned away from the mirror and returned to my chair, put on the hoodie, and got seated. It was time for me to try a new route. I logged in and the screen displayed:

[Welcome back User Peter]

"Why did I use my real name, I still ask myself this question."

I dragged my hand over my face. It's not like anyone would see it, but why could I not have used something like Didy's Baby Oil or Sigma Alpha? Haha, that would be funny. Well, maybe if it was an online game and people could see my name.

After waiting for a bit, the game started. The first screen displayed a lady. She looked fourteen, stunning red hair and dark eyes. She carried a real regal aura.

"Angela," I muttered as I looked at the screen. I had seen her over a thousand times now.

She was to me the most intriguing character, and her death was the last and most gruesome of all.

She was what I would look for in a woman if my introverted ass got to dating. Well, back to the game. I played with a new strategy this time, going through the patterns in a way I hadn't before.

But much like before, I watched as each of the heroines got killed. One, two, three, four, five, six. I stared at the screen, my heart racing. Had I failed again?

It seemed so. I took a deep breath and allowed the air to leave my lungs slowly through my nose. I clicked the mouse, beginning my next sequence. It looked like the same result would come, but then something happened.

The game didn't go down the same path. Angela didn't die. She didn't lose her life. I saved her.

I looked at the screen in disbelief, my hands trembling. I was shocked, I couldn't believe what was happening. Two years, two years in the game and I managed to finally change the fate of one of the heroines.

I took a deep breath, calming my racing heart. I needed to save this. I clicked on the save button. The screen glitched before my eyes, all my saves vanished, everything I had worked on till date vanished.

The scene was worse than watching a loved one die. A new type of fear gripped me. I started trying anything, mashing keys on the keyboard, but it didn't change. Then suddenly, the screen went blank. A few seconds later, everything

went dark.

Roaaaaaaaaar!

The thunderous sound of people yelling was the first thing I heard. What the hell was going on? I felt the weak air on my body, and the shine of the sun hitting my skin.

My eyes flickered open, the light from the surroundings rushed in. I had to shut my eyes again, slowly opening them until I could see. What I saw blew my mind.

I sat in a colosseum so grand it shook me. My eyes scanned the hundreds of seats that went in a circle, filled with people dressed in a way that was new to me.

No, I had seen those clothes before. The fantasy-style dressing, the gowns the women wore, and the simple shirts and trousers of the men accompanied by their boots.

What was this fantasy setting I was looking at, and how had I come here? My mind raged with questions. I looked to my side and noticed that there were kids no more than fourteen seated beside me, all dressed in a similar uniform, a white silk-like coat with black trims.

I knew that design.

I had seen it a thousand times, I could draw that design with my eyes closed. It was the uniform of the prestigious academy of magic and martial arts, the Lumeria Academy.

What was the Lumeria Academy? It was the freaking place where the majority of the game I loved happened, Tale of the Failed Heroines.

If this was the uniform, then I was currently sitting in the academy arena, and this was definitely the first day of the new session where all the students were welcomed.

Everything seemed so unreal to me. Had I started hallucinating because of playing the game a bit too much? That had to be it, right? No, it wasn’t. I was living in reality, and I knew that because I could feel the air rushing down my lungs, I could see the arena, and I could smell some dude that had definitely eaten one too many cheese-related foods and was behind me.

Yet still I didn’t want to believe that I was here. That wasn’t possible. It was a game, nothing more than a game created by a team of developers somewhere.

I kept telling myself that until a man took the arena, dressed in a black coat that went down to his ankles. White hair and fancy silver glasses.

His name was Legion, a teacher in the academy. He was the one who handled the welcoming of students into the academy on the first day. That was exactly what the game had said.

Seeing him standing there solidified my belief that this was in no way a hallucination.

I had somehow entered the game that I had played for two years.

I didn’t know how to feel about it, but I knew I was confused. I needed air, space to breathe. I looked around, but there was no way to leave. The entire arena was filled with students from the academy, parents, and anyone who wanted to watch.

Trapped there, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. One step at a time, I would get through all of this. I had somehow entered the game that I loved, so the next question that I should ask was which character I was.

I looked at my palm. I could tell that these weren’t my hands from Earth. My hands were bigger than this for sure. This skin also looked all too pale. Had this body never been through hard work? Or suffered a paper cut?

It was like a baby’s. It was kinda off-putting to see such clean and flawless skin. Still, I deduced that I was in a younger body. As for my face, I had no memory of it.

Yes, I didn’t have a single memory of the body I was in. It made no sense at all, but even as I tried to find some information about this body, I found nothing. I couldn’t even recall how I got to the academy, or who I was.

The only thing I could remember was a name. It kept ringing in my head on

repeat.

“Leo,” I muttered. Was it my name? It probably was.

That was the only information that I knew of myself currently. If I wanted to understand myself more, I needed to know more. I slowly dug through the pockets of the coat. My fingers felt a key. I pulled it out and there was a tag on it.

(Beta Hall room 12)

It was a room key, probably my room key. It wasn’t much, but I took what I got.

It was more information about who I was.

“Good day everyone and welcome to the entrance ceremony of the Lumeria Academy, one of Vermillion Kingdom’s greatest academies.

Today, many young students with great potential will be starting their four-year journey to the top. They’ll be aspiring to graduate and make the kingdom a better place.”

Legion started speaking. His voice was amplified through some sort of magic. I looked at him with no particular thought in mind. Regardless of the fact that this was a real-life version, I had lived through this many times already.

I knew what would happen every time, and now, he would be talking about the top students that scored the highest in the exam.

He was about to speak again and call the top students, but then a loud bell sound rang in my ear.

Ding.

[System synchronization complete]

[Core mission: Save the heroines]

I stared at the screen, shocked, confused, what the hell was happening? Why was I seeing a holographic screen in front of me? I looked around, wanting to know of someone else also saw this screen with me, but no, it was me alone, no one paid attention to me at all.

I looked at the screen again, the message remained there, Save the heroines. I stretched out my hand and tried ti touch the screen, but it went through, i looked around, making sure no one saw my unusual behavior