I reincarnated in game

2 Re-Awake in Game?!

A light blinded him, making him squint.  Hugh opened his eyes, looked up, and found himself staring at a landmass that was suspended in the air, far above his head.  

“What? A floating island in the sky?  That’s impossible; I must have hit my head harder than I thought,” Hugh said in bewilderment as his eyes adjusted to the brightness around him.  He struggled to his feet and took in his surroundings.  This definitely was not the gaming convention venue!  He was on some kind of a street, in a questionable neighborhood… pipes and vents were abundant along the walls. 

Recognition dawned on him … “Holy crap … I have been reincarnated into the world of Ether Sword!”  

He walked a few feet, stumbled, and then fell to the ground.  That was when he looked at his legs and noticed that they were unusually thin.  His gaze then took in his body; it seemed malnourished and feeble; he was clothed just in rags.

Hugh pulled himself up to his feet and entered a nearby alley.  All of a sudden, three people came out from a door in one of the buildings backing on to the lane and pushed him to the ground.  Kicks and punches rained down on Hugh as he covered his head and chest with his arms as best as he could; trying to ward off the blows.  Thanks to his experience in Ether Sword, he managed to avoid a fatal strike on vulnerable areas.  Still, his body was wracked with pain.  He opened one eye and spied a small pebble on the ground beside him.  It wasn’t much of anything but he palmed it, waiting for the opportunity to avail itself. 

A guard walked by the entrance of the alley.  Hugh knew he had to get his attention.  He threw the pebble at the guard’s head, hitting him just above the left ear.

“Hey! You think its funny throwing rocks, huh?” the angry guard said, and turned into the alley.  The guard quickened his step as he took in the scene.

One of the boys looked up, and noticing the guard coming their way, told the others.  They all ran, leaving Hugh in the dirt, clutching his sides.  Blood was running from his nose; the result of a boot that connected while he was trying to protect his face.  He got up on shaky legs just as the guard passed him, in pursuit of the bullies.

Hugh couldn’t understand why those bullies had beaten him up, nor why he had felt so compelled to come down into the alley in the first place.  A dumpster was off to the right.  He bent over and pulled a small, brown satchel out from behind it.  He held it to his chest. 

“What is this? And how did I know it was down here?” he said to himself, as he quickly exited the alley.  His feet moved like they had a mind of their own; on a path that seemed familiar but he wasn’t quite sure why it did.  It led deeper into the slums of the city. 

It felt like he had walked for miles when he came to a small wooden shack that buttressed a long pipe that ran along the back of the house.  Hugh felt a sense of connection to this house even though he had never been here before.  He recognized the terrain and buildings as being part of the Third Level Land of Ether Sword but wasn’t quite sure what his role was here.

With no answers to his questions, he decided he would just go with his gut, hopeful that some of the answers he sought lay inside the hovel.  The door creaked open and Hugh walked into a small kitchen; a table in the middle of the room took up most of the space. Coughing could be heard from one of the two doors that were to the right of him.  Hugh walked cautiously toward the sound, clutching the satchel, ever tighter.  As he opened the door, Hugh was shocked by what he saw.  An older woman lay on a mattress on the floor, holding a picture to her breast.  She looked lovingly at him, and said, in a raspy voice, “I am so happy that you made it back home to me, Hugh.”

Even though he had never met this woman before, Hugh immediately felt a strong connection to her and bent down to where she lay.  He felt compelled to give her the small bottle which was in the satchel from the alley.  Hugh unlatched the metal clasp at the front and reached inside, pulling out a bottle filled with a dark, viscous liquid.  He handed the bottle to his mom.

The woman looked at him lovingly, as she reached up, with as much strength as she could muster, to caress his cheek with her hand.  Hugh caught a glimpse of the image in the framed photo in her arms; it showed a man, a woman, and a little boy at some sort of gathering.  He looked back to the woman; he could see that time had aged her, weathered her face, but it definitely was the same woman in the picture.

“Take this, mom … it will help,” He whispered.  He felt a strong need to comfort this woman whom he barely knew.

Hugh got up and walked out of the room, overcome with emotions which he didn’t know how to explain.  He went to the bathroom, a few feet away; turned on the tap, and splashed his face with cold water. He raised his head and looked into the cracked mirror; he didn’t recognize the face that stared back at him.

He closed his eyes as he was bombarded with flashes of memories that came flooding into his mind.  Stories which his mother; the woman from the next room, had told him, while they were sitting around the kitchen table; how she had been a stowaway on an airship which came from the fourth-level to the small town of Valari, of Third Level Land.

Memories of a childhood that Hugh had not lived, came to him; how he was discriminated against because he was a Crystal of mixed race.  He was always being bullied by the kids at school and in the neighborhood.  His father, a Crystal from Sisilia, didn’t stick around after he found out his mother was pregnant with him.  They had to fight for their very existence and often went hungry.  Hugh learned the art of stealing at a very young age, suffering many beatings along the way.  As he grew older, there were no opportunities for jobs, so he continued to steal for a living to support him and his mother.

It was at this point that Hugh had a revelation … he was now living in Ether Sword and had been reincarnated into the body of someone else whose name was Hugh.

The word “mother” felt foreign to his tongue … Hugh had never known his real mother. He had grown up in an orphanage, called St. Mary’s.  His name had been Hugh Firth, but now, that had changed.  He wasn’t the same man; he now possessed the body of Hugh Bean, with all of his memories.

Hugh was brought out of his reverie as more coughing came from his mother’s room.  He walked back and tended to her, with a gentle hand, for he now understood the importance of the woman who lay before him.

“Hugh, please come closer; I need you to listen to me … You need to live your life well,” she whispered into his ear as he bent down to towards her mouth.

Although he had known nothing of this woman prior to his reincarnation into Ether Sword, he realized that the retained memory of the original owner of the body which he now inhabited was responsible for the connection he felt with her.  It was the first time he had felt a sense of family.

Hugh looked back at his mom’s face; she closed her eyes and drifted off, peacefully, into a breathless sleep.