Dear players,

We would like to thank you for your support over the 7 years of our award-winning MMORPG, Red Ocean Online. Due to urgent economic and administrative issues (which definitely do not involve the recent case of our former CEO disappearing with the company's money), we will be shutting down the servers approximately six hours after sending this message. We recommend that those who still play this failed game uninstall it and look for new horizons (and maybe a job).

We are so honored to have had you on this journey with us and we hope to end it with joy, good memories and no lawsuits.

Yours sincerely,

Black Cat Games.

— HOLY SH*T?!

Lauren nearly choked on the medication she was taking as she stared at her computer screen, her face contorting in a mixture of surprise, horror and outrage. She had just gotten home after a tiring day at a work she hated, getting ready to finally sit down and relax by playing her favorite game, when she opened her email and saw that. It was not possible that the game that had been her second life for more than seven years would end like this, with a generic email that looked more like a resignation letter from some company. In her mind, scenes played of her entire legacy destroyed by a single click. One pull of a plug and xxXDarkChaos_18Xxx would be reduced to a memory.

She stood up silently and began to walk around the room, trying to put her thoughts in place. Her character's story... they wouldn't even have the dignity of ending the game's complex lore, where the protagonist woke up with amnesia and needed to recover his memories while exploring the continent of Argrene and its three large provinces, Oenith, Ninell and Ingrena, in a world that mixed magic and machinery with a fantastic steampunk vibe. Lauren was finally managing to put together the key points of the story after many quests and side quests, incessant searches for books and documents in the four corners of the game's open world...

Until something clicked in her mind.

— Amara!

She was going to lose Amara.

In the story, the protagonist, as the player's character, was gradually hated by the NPCs as he progressed and discovered that his erased past was not so innocent, as he was the son of the great witch who destroyed part of Argrene before and was now doomed to end what his mother started. But there was an NPC who, no matter what happened, how bad the protagonist's reputation was, always welcomed him with a smile and a simple quest: help collect tools. Amara was the first NPC that the protagonist encountered after waking up and the first to give him a quest after the tutorials, but unlike all the other NPCs in the adventure, those attitude towards the protagonist changed to hostile as the story progressed, Amara was the only one who didn't treat him badly. Lauren thought it was probably a bug or programming error, but ended up growing attached to that golden-eyed mechanic who welcomed her avatar even though the world hated him. Over time, she used to return to the starting town just to see Amara, sit next to him and talk about her life in and out of the game. There was something about that NPC that brought a comfort that Lauren didn't have anywhere else.

It definitely shouldn't end like that. If she was going to lose him, she needed to be there with him until the last minute.

— Okay, okay. Focus, Lauren! The email was sent at 6pm and now it is... 11:40pm! — The girl ran the mouse across the table, clicking as quickly as possible on the game icon. — There's still time, the game starts in three minutes and I think I left my character west of the capital... maybe it'll take me about ten minutes to get there... Oh no, a cutscene??

The screen began to flash with the scene of what appeared to be an intense fight, with flames and screams everywhere. Lauren found the cutscene strange, as it wasn't there the day before when she played the last time and even stranger was that something new appeared with the server closing in a few minutes.

She fervently pressed the keys to try to skip the scene, but the lights and sparks from the fire shone brighter and brighter. Clicking on the screen seemed to be having no effect either, as the scene continued to get louder and the fire flashes even more. Until an explosion was so realistic that the girl felt her body being thrown away.

— What the f...

And the screen went out, along with Lauren's mind.

✰★✰★✰

A burning smell rose through her nostrils, leaving her throat dry.

"My PC burned down. I can't believe it." Her consciousness slowly began to return, with lazy thoughts trying to process what had happened. "Worse still, it exploded. And I must have died in the explosion. Shit, I must have broken a rib."

Lauren's head finally seemed to have connected with the rest of her body, now associating the pain and discomfort. She felt like she was lying on some bumpy surface, with rocks poking her back and heat stifling the air around her.

A sharp pain in her left shoulder made her open her eyes with a gasp.

— Argh! What the hell is this?? — She got up and sat down with difficulty, panting and trying to see where the pain was coming from. A trickle of blood was dripping from her shoulder from a shallow cut, her clothes were different, strands of white hair hung on her face and her skin was a little more tanned than normal. With a quick look around her, she also noticed that she was in the middle of what appeared to be a square surrounded by burning rubble, lying on top of a pile of rocks that had once been a fountain. Water still ran from a broken copper pipe next to it.

"I think I overdosed on Zolpidem and I'm hallucinating on Red Ocean..."

— Are you still alive, you demon?!

A figure appeared on the other side of the square, brandishing a sword in Lauren's direction. Still a little confused, she vaguely recognized the woman in front of her.

— But what... Katarina?! Katarina Aurea??

— Don't you dare say my sacred name, scum! You will meet your end here and now!

— Wait, I don't...

A flash came from Katarina's sword towards Lauren, who dodged just in time to avoid having her head exploded by the energy beam.

"What the hell?? Is that really Katarina? Where am I?"

Her mind was spinning, trying unsuccessfully to find a logical explanation for being in that situation. Everything around her seemed equally familiar and unfamiliar, from the ruined scenery to the angry expression of the woman walking towards her.

— Your hateful mother's legacy will have...

— ... its end before the glory of Tharia ... — interrupted Lauren. She knew those lines, she had memorized them after hearing them about ten times in the last week. It was the scene of the last story mission available in the game, where the protagonist finally recovers all the memories of his past and is confronted by the main heroine of that world, Katarina Aurea, the sacred knight who carries the spirit of a goddess from beyond the sea and the blood of the warrior who sealed the player character's mother. Lauren never made it past that fight.

The paladin had a brief moment of surprise when she heard her enemy finishing the sentence, which was enough of a distraction for Lauren to act. Wherever she was, it was still a dangerous situation and she barely thought when she had a small moment of impulsiveness and ran towards Katarina, who was also preparing to return the attack. A strange muscle memory made her body move naturally, as if her brain's commands related to the game keys were converted into actions instantly.

And her best command was to avoid that woman and run away.

Like a bolt, Lauren threw herself to the ground, slid between Katarina's legs and ran towards the flames, leaving the knight extremely confused by the action. If that was what it looked like and she really was in her character's body, her cape would be the legendary Aramid Cloak that she won in the lava mountain event and which guaranteed high resistance to fire. If it weren't... well, she's more likely to come out alive from a fire than from a sword stuck in her chest.

To her relief, the cloak actually protected her, and after some clumsy somersaults she managed to find her way into a tight alley. With some difficulty due to her injured arm and her lung burning due to the smoke, Lauren followed the map recorded in her memory to run out of the city through the most hidden alley, while hearing her opponent's angry screams in the middle of the square.

— Okay, I think I died... — She stopped at one of the exit gates, panting and trying to calm down. She hid in a dark corner of a stable, in a blind spot from anyone passing by. — I died and I'm having one of those near-death experiences I saw on TikTok. Or it could be a dream! I was tired from work, I must have fallen into my bed and hallucinated that email...

A twinge of pain in her shoulder made her flinch. As she tried to get a better look at the wound, she noticed that blue marks on her skin glowed subtly as the cut closed on its own. The feeling of being in another body was strangely familiar, so her gaze searched for something to check her appearance. The glow of a tub of water in the corner caught her attention, and she moved closer to see the reflection. The long white hair and black skin that highlighted her character's blue eyes confirmed her suspicion.

— Darka... I really am Darka. — xxXDarkChaos_18Xxx was the nickname that 17-year-old Lauren thought would be perfect for her edgy character with a mysterious past. A strong and impactful name, which would impose fear. Too bad 17-year-old Lauren had the head... of a 17-year-old teenager. Anyway, her friends in the game only called her Darka, out of practicality. Her moment of self-knowledge was interrupted by something poking her back.

— Got you.