003 L‘enfer, c’est les autres.

[Congratulations, you are dead!]

[Thanks for choosing Ascension as the path of your afterlife.]

A cold, indifferent voice rose inside Raven's head when her consciousness came back, before her sight did.

The voice went on:

[We are all sinners, and only through Ascension will your soul be cleansed for Aaru. So please, present us your best game! Please install your system.]

A red symbol in the shape of a pair of antlers appeared in the darkness.

"What is my sin?" Raven asked.

[Please install your system.]

"And if I don't?" Raven asked politely.

[Then you will be extinguished.]

Extinguished. Not dead. She was already dead -- announced by this “Ascension”. Whatever that was.

So basically, it was a “game” for the dead. Raven didn’t die, but she took Emily’s place. For the balance of the universe, perhaps? It was a game played with one’s life. To survive, or to be done for.

Darren was right about one thing -- it WAS her kind of game.

Raven put her wrist under the red symbol, and with a swift sharp pain, the red symbol burned into the inside of her left wrist like a brand.

[System installed. Loading game modules...]

As the voice faded, faint color started forming in front of Raven's eyes, only to stop when the pitch darkness faded into a grey street with thick fog and a black iron door in front of her.

Then rose the system’s robotic flat voice again, using its zero degree tone for scripts written for humor and warmth. A weirdly gross combination that put two words in Raven’s head--

Gallows humor.

The kind that only worked if you were already dead.

[London, 1879. You are a poor little nobody. But lucky for you, just when you were starving, the kind and beautiful orphanage matron took you in.]

Raven the “poor little thing” — homecoming queen with long legs pushing her height to five feet eight, with three million dollars in her bank account — stared at the door with a dead pan.

On the iron door was a shabby wooden plate: The Orphancage.

Raven: “...”

Not subtle at all, the game.

[Although Mama Matron said she only took you in out of kindness, to repay her, you've decided to earn 100 gold coins for the orphanage. You will not leave until you do.]

Not really. I'd happily leave right now. Raven thought.

The voice IN her head didn't hear her mental snark. Or pretended not to.

[Ding! Main Quest Activated!]

This time the sound wasn’t in her head, but out loud, from her wrist -- from the “system” she just “installed”.

Stroking the now glowing antler symbol on her wrist with a thumb, a hologram of a curved screen popped up in front of her, showing her status.

It really was like streaming her games. Raven cocked an eyebrow. On her screen, a red dot blinked. With a click a notification popped up--

[Main Quest: A deal of a life time!]

[Getting a home with loving parents is your heart's deepest desire. Lucky for you, the great, kind, and benevolent Mama Matron has given you a job offer inside the orphanage so you can earn the 100 gold you promised her. You don’t want to waste your life away in the orphanage, sucking blood from the kind Mama Matron for life, do you?]

[Quest Progress: 0/100 gold coins]

[Quest Time Limit: 7 days]

[Quest Reward: Your adoption file]

If the system was trying to hide its intentions, it had failed spectacularly. The quest description spilled everything.

As a top gamer, Raven caught on fast: to beat the game, she needed to take this "job" and earn 100 gold coins. But why 7 days? What would happen if she failed to meet the goal when it expired?

Would she die? Or trapped in this game until she could collect the required gold? But if so, what was the point of the time limit?

More importantly: was completing the quest the only way out?

Obviously, Raven wasn’t a witch who could summon a blackhole like in the hotel room, but--

Her eyes reached further: A thick grey fog swallowed everything on the street except the orphanage. Too thick to see through. Raven doubted anything was actually generated behind it.

Why generate things gamers wouldn't interact with? That's just efficient design.

Usually, in a game like this, players couldn’t enter or touch the black fog that marked the boundary of the playable area. Raven had barely stepped close, and suddenly the hair on her arms stood up, as if something terrible were waiting inside.

Raven had always trusted her instincts. So she stopped cautiously and reached out slowly.

Before her fingers could touch the fog, someone burst out of it.

It seemed that the man had been screaming, but his voice only appeared the moment he broke through—as if the other side of the fog belonged to a world that couldn’t be seen or heard.

“Help! Help! Someone, please help me!” The man wailed and collapsed to the ground.

Now Raven could see him clearly: his body was covered in bloody gashes, as if he’d rolled down a mountain of blades.

Raven stayed where she was and watched quietly. An NPC? Part of the game’s plot? Or—

“Well, look who’s back,” a cold voice mocked. “Told you the game is real. Believe us now?”

Raven turned and saw several people dressed like her —modern clothes—step out from the shadows by the orphanage wall. The one who spoke was the leader, a man around thirty.

“All new players are like this. Jumpy and stubborn, thinking they are the center of the world when they are just dead weight.” the woman beside him said sharply. “Only you would still try to save a newbie.”

So…

The man on the ground was a player?!

Raven clicked her tongue at the bad news: this was not a single player game...

L‘enfer, c’est les autres.