He tried to stop. He closed the game. The gems followed him. They were in his peripheral vision, clustering around streetlights, embedded in the cracks of his apartment ceiling. A diamond winked at him from his bowl of cereal.
His heart hammered. He logged in. The Labyrinth was quiet. Too quiet. The usual ambient chatter of noobs farming slimes was gone. In its place, a low, subsonic hum. Kai navigated to the deepest stratum, the Vault of Echoes , where a single, obsidian chest sat on a plinth. No one had ever opened it. The lock required a key that didn’t exist in any drop table. Limited Edition RePack By RG Revenants Unlimited Gems
He clicked.
He had nothing. No gear. No rank. No gems. He tried to stop
He had a choice.
His avatar shattered into a billion fragments of light. Each gem screamed as it was returned to its origin—Lena’s smile flashed across a sapphire, his mother’s voice echoed from a ruby, the rain on his tenth birthday fell from an emerald. The portal collapsed. The Vault of Echoes went silent. Kai woke up on his apartment floor. The screen was black. His bank account showed a zero balance. His phone had seventeen missed calls from Lena. They were in his peripheral vision, clustering around
He could keep the gems. Become a Revenant himself. Spend eternity in the Labyrinth, feeding on the next desperate grinder who clicked the button.