The Extra’s guide to Survival

The cracked plaster ceiling swam into focus, a dizzying kaleidoscope of beige and crumbling white. My head throbbed, a dull echo of the impact that sent me tumbling down the stairs, phone clutched in my hand. Except this wasn't my dingy apartment. Flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows on the walls, illuminating strange symbols etched into the stone. Hexes? Was this some elaborate prank?

"Master Kai? Are you alright?" A young woman with short dark black hair and eyes wide and concerned, almost like buttons. She wore a simple, clean maids uniform.

"What… what happened?" I croaked, my throat dry.

"You were… indisposed after the duel, Master Kai," she hesitated, wringing her hands. Master Draco… he won." Duel? Draco? My foggy brain struggled to process the information.

"Duel? For what?"

"For Lady Elizabeth's hand, and to be named heir of course," she replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Elizabeth? The name sparked a distant memory, a random stranger I'd met in my favorite online game Ashen Blood, ranting about how he couldn't beat some crazy boss. Darkfall was his last name, wasn't it? Darkfall… my blood ran cold. Lysander Darkfall, in Ashen Blood, the Darkfall house is a corrupt noble household who does heinous things to the main character and his companions, if it weren't for them the main story would've been much easier to clear. But I just lost a duel to Draco? The only son of Lysander. So if I just lost a duel to Draco then I must be a Darkfall, maybe they hid the second son in the game. How could I be in the game I was just playing?… before my accident. Maybe this a dream I'm having. The dream theory shattered as my maid told me I had been summoned to a lavishly decorated study. A slim man with sharp features and eyes that could pierce the soul sat behind a massive oak desk. This would be Lysander… my father? He didn't waste time on any pleasantries.

"You have shamed this family Malachi," his voice boomed, it felt like 10 pounds of pressure were added to the room. "Dabbling in forbidden magic, trying to summon demons. You are no longer worthy of the Darkfall name." Forbidden magic? Demons? Before I could even understand what was happening I was being escorted out of the manor, disowned and stripped of all my possessions. The maid with button eyes trailed behind me.

"The academy, Master Kai," she whispered, her voice laced with pity as she slipped me a map. " perhaps there you can…" my vision faded black as the blunt handle of the blade of my fathers knight hit me. the academy, the prestigious institutuion where the games main story began. This isn't a dream, but my new reality. The games plot is a ticking time bomb, and I, Malachi Darkfall the villain's abandoned son was caught right in the blast radius. I have to make the journey to the academy. And I have to figure out how to survive and navigate this twisted game world, and avoid the fate of Malachi Darkfall.