I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

Outside the Game

Her curiosity pushes her to step inside and explore what’s there. She looks around and approaches the door of her room. She locks it and goes back to the tear on the wall. “Does this lead to somewhere out of this game? It doesn’t so magical for a world like this.” She caresses the edge of it, she can see some glitching texture of the wall at the edge of the hole. “It must be the way it is torn.” She thinks for a while and just stared in the hole. It really intrigues her on what’s the other side. The glowy things that passed by her at a fast rate make her more curious. It somewhat resembles her idea before what’s inside a computer. She never thought there will come a time that her joke before will be true somehow. “How did it appeared, anyway?” She asked herself as it rings something in her mind. “It might have been the aftermath of that corruption… It might have opened up something.” She stares at it for a much longer while until she decided for herself.

Abigail looks back at her stuff and rushes to it. She hangs her bag on her shoulder and looks back at the hole. “This might be my salvation.” She muttered to herself and approached the hole once more. She takes a deep breath and puffs it, looking at the hole. She rethinks everything as she decided to go on with her plan. “This is a bad idea, but I am going to do it. Nothing will go wrong, right?” She assured herself as she took another deep breath. She steps out of this reality and crouched to get into this small mysterious hole.

She looks around in this tunnel that’s themed around engraved things on the walls that looked like wires. Glowing things are passing them time by time in different intervals. She feels like she’s in a cyberpunk-themed place. She giggles to herself, “I am in a literal computer.” Abigail looks around and started to walk through this hallway. In the end, she can see an open door. She approaches it as she was welcomed yet with another more computer things.

Although, it bears a resemblance to a storage room. There are some chests with the same theme around and some other metal crates. It’s a small room for a storage room but it has some storage things. “Woah.” The only word that came out of her mouth.

In curiosity, she approached some of the chests and opens them. She can see some papers, files, and some other weird things strangely placed in an organized order. It was not like the memory chest she have in her home where things are just scattered all about. Time by time, one thing fades into light blue particles that resemble the color blue that’s used a lot in cyberpunk movies she’s watching. It floats away at a fast speed as another thing replaces its spot.

All of the items are rearranging themselves in the process as well, switching places and even orientation to one another. She attempted to get a folder but she can feel a sudden jolt of pain that made her withdraw her hand. It was quite painful as she holds it and comforts it to reduce the pain. “Huh.” She looks inside again, “That’s weird.” She rubs her hands and slowly closed the chest in fear of getting hurt again by these mere chests.

“Am I in the system?” She asked herself as she looks at the ceiling where the engraved lines continued with the glowing things passing by every time. “This is very cool.” She muttered to herself. There was a hole in the ceiling and it’s the only way out other than the door she came from. She decided to get up top on it. She tried to get on the crates and moving them around to let her reach the ceiling and maybe suck her out of there. She pushed one crate and another one that has stacks. It was a bit hard with the floor and some resemblance of heaviness even though it has things that aren’t that heavy in real life. After some of the painstaking tasks of getting everything together. She took a little break. Then, she tried to get up the stacks and stacks of crates and chests. Contrary to her belief, it didn’t sting her like before when she tried to touch the files. She climbs up to the last one until something touches her hand. “Where are you going?”

She wasn’t familiar with the voice, although, it resembles someone that she knows. She turns her head as she saw an unfamiliar face yet a familiar figure. “Who are you?” She pulled her hands out from his grasp, “What are you doing here?” In front of her was a man that seems in his late 20s. He was wearing a robe that hangs at his back with some suit beneath it. “I should be the one who must ask you that, Abigail.” She was shocked, “How did you know my name—“ She came into realization. “…Dark Wizard?” He snickers, “That’s a pretty grim name, don’t you think? I prefer being called Laurence than the name I didn’t want yet granted to me.”

She was frozen, he was the one that has been hunting and watching her for a while now. He’s the one that has been mocking her and making her confused with all of that’s happening in this world. He is the Dark Wizard. “Hey?” She snaps back to reality as he snaps his finger, “Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost or something. Am I really grim with how they designed me in this game?” Abigail shakes her head, “No, it’s not that. It’s just I am surprised about—“ “—how handsome I am? Well, thank you. They did a great job with my character design in this game that we are trapped on.” She was confused what to react, everything she suspected was right. She’s already getting overwhelmed with the things that she’s discovering right now.

“Anyway, you shouldn’t move these things out of their way.” He pulls her out of the top of the crates she painfully moved. “You shouldn’t be here at all.” With a snap of his fingers, the crates are back in their original position. Abigail was surprised by the thing he just did. She looks at him as if he was something that she’s been afraid to meet. “How did you got here?” She crosses her arms, “I should be asking you that too!” He snickers, “If any of us is not someone that’s permitted and normal to walk around these connections, it’s you. I can explain my reason later since it’s something not questionable at all. But, you, how did you get here?” She rolls her eyes, “There’s a hole in the room that I am in. I am curious. The end.” Suddenly, his face became more concerned than it was before. “Where? Show me immediately.”

“Fine. But, promise me that you will tell me why you are here as well.” They walked out of the room as Abigail lead him where she came from. She can see the room she rented just on the other side. “There. There it is. Happy?” She looks at him as he looks like his heart just dropped. “How there’s a tear in there? I thought I already took care of the corrupted and they already fixed this?” “So, you’re admitting you are one of them!?” He looks at her, “No, I am not an ally nor something they program to do their dirty deeds. I am against them, Abigail.” She rolls her eyes, “Then, why are you preventing this corrupted thing to destroy this world?” He sighs, “It’s a long story, Abigail. But, it will not just affect them. It will affect us greatly, more than them. For them, this is not a loss.” He groans, “Let me explain it to you. Come with me.” He suddenly grabbed her hands as she resisted. “Why are you touching me!?” Laurence sighs, “Don’t ask, ask when we’re there.” He grabbed it again as he touches the wall. They suddenly became these blobs of blue light and they were transferred to the wall.

From Abigail’s perspective, it was a rollercoaster ride for her. They started to accelerate at a fast speed. It was so fast that it disoriented her for a bit, although, not long enough that it destroyed her sense of time and her gut for wanting to puke so badly. Before she can say anything, Laurence declared their arrival. “We’re here!” They returned to their normal figures as Abigail was dizzy and confused. “What?” “We’re here!” He repeats. Around her was a small room that looks like an apartment. “It was just seconds!” He laughs, “I know! This is fast traveling, baby!” He fixes his suit and removed his robe, “Welcome to my headquarters where I vent all of the things that I needed to. A place where they can’t detect us nor see us with their computer voodoos.” He throws himself at the office chair he has and looks at her. “I guess I need to explain my side now, don’t I?”

She nods as she takes a sit on the bed. “You do, mister, you do.” He sighs and starts playing with the chair. “Well, we are like you. People that trusted those pricks and they just took advantage of it for their mad scientist bullcrap that this simulated world with real humans.” He stands and puts his hand on the pocket of his trouser. “You’re their new victim, right? If I still got my memory and trends right, you are that popular gamer of theirs named Nightingail.” He turns his head to her as she nods, “Yeah, I was a great fan of them. I didn’t know they will be taking advantage of that.” He flicks his tongue, “The last time I am in that internet world, you are the headlines of every article. I still don’t know why those guys aren’t arrested yet. You are a big shot, Abigail. They are getting braver and braver every single day. Probably because they have a lot of money and they are so genius. That’s the hardest criminal to arrest, especially one with a great reputation.”

“How did they even got us here?” He looks at her, “I am quite unsure about that. I have been here just for months. There are few places that I got into, most of them are the ones that are important for us. Besides, even if I try to spy on them with the camera and the microphone that’s connected to this computer, I get nothing. That’s why I need you.” He turns his body to her, with a much serious face. “Is that why do you need me to get powerful in the simulation?”

“Not just that. I need your will to be powerful enough to withstand them. For days, I have been protecting your files. They have been trying everything to get and access your information to rewrite it. They need to delete every memory you have about being someone from the outside world. They need that so you can’t escape in this experiment ground they have for us, their victims. In those days, their techniques have been getting efficient and effective. That’s why I am trying to warn you not to let them in your mind. Even if you don’t want to, if you are weak enough to infiltrate, they can rewrite everything.” He sighs, “You’re the only hope we got here. If they got you as well, it will be yet more months of suffering for all of us.”

“You are already aware that we are here, why you don’t just save us?” He flicks his tongue, “I hope I can do this alone. But, the way we can sabotage them is no one-man task. They are many, we are just a mere program here. But, we can take that advantage.” Laurence approaches her, “You want to get out of here, right?”