[Warning: Player's heart rate rising beyond normal.]
[Warning: Brainwave activity shows multiple signs of anxiety and trauma.]
[Warning: Emergency Logout Activate.]
[Player Lucent has Died.]
[Warning: Emergency Awakening Function Initiating.]
---
"ARGHHH!!!..."
Luel woke up screaming, trying to shake off the horrifying humiliation he had just experienced in RAIDS ONLINE, after being crushed by the overwhelming strength of the Rank A Ragnarok Beast: Cerberus.
His heart rate spiked, reaching 160 beats per minute. As he endured the intense chest pain caused by the sudden surge, his vision blurred, and he could no longer perceive the distance between himself and anything around him. His hearing grew hypersensitive—the softest chirps of midnight insects now echoed in his ears like blaring alarm bells.
Luel tried to get out of bed to grab his medicine, but a wave of vertigo slammed into him. He stumbled, collapsing to the floor, his limbs growing weak. His breathing turned ragged—then everything went dark.
---
"Arghhh!..."
"Ahhh!... He's awake."
"Mom! The fluffy-haired uncle is awake!"
When Luel came to, he found himself back in bed, surrounded by two familiar children. Two nearly identical girls—about three or four years old—stared at him from either side.
One of them kept her wide eyes on Luel, while the other ran excitedly around the room, shouting for her mother.
The twin girls, whom Luel recognized as his nieces, quickly lost interest the moment their mother entered the room.
"So... how are you feeling, Luel?"
A woman with long, wavy hair—strikingly similar to his—greeted him warmly.
"What are you doing here, Rammie?"
Rammie, Luel's older cousin on his mother's side, explained what had happened the previous night.
During Luel's anxiety attack, his smartwatch's health monitoring system had sent an SOS signal to his emergency contact—Rammie—alerting her to his condition.
Luel's younger brother, Nedd, had given Rammie a spare key to the house and registered her as the emergency responder for Luel's device.
Since she lived just a few blocks away, she'd rushed over immediately to help.
"I hate to say it, but recovering alone probably isn't working for you, Luel."
"Don't worry. I just need time to adjust. Thanks for the help, by the way."
"If you need anything, just let the family know. I also made breakfast, but me and the twins need to head out. So just eat whenever… Okay girls, say goodbye to Uncle Luel. Ram, Mie..."
"Bye-bye!"
"Bye, fluffy-hair uncle!"
Luel watched from the front door as his cousin and her daughters left. Once they were out the gate, he returned to the kitchen and quietly sat down to eat the breakfast Rammie had prepared.
"So much for trying to redeem himself..."
---
[RAIDS ONLINE: LUCENT @ RAIDS - Channel]
KCID@EID: Holy crap!... Cerberus is currently in Area CC+63!
SILVER@SHOELACE: That damn dog smells new prey to bully!
RAIDS@CURSE: The Orion Guild's Cerberus hunt is gonna go nuts with this news!
SILVER@SHOELACE: So will the trash-tier players trying to snatch some leftover glory.
RAIDS@CURSE: Forget Cerberus! Did you all see what happened to that Lucent guy?!
SILVER@SHOELACE: Yep, yep, yep... Poor guy got stomped like a bug!... Hahaha!
UR@DUDE: Where's your Goddess Selene now, dude?!
MOONSHINE@SELENE: Don't you dare insult Selene, faqer!
UR@DUDE: Then pray she saves your Lucent boy from Cerberus next time!
RAIDS@CURSE: That poor guy's gonna be hunted down every time he logs in.
SILVER@SHOELACE: Can't wait to watch it happen!
UR@DUDE: If he even has the guts to log back in. He's probably scared stiff.
RAIDS@CURSE: Right, right, right... Hahaha!
---
Back on the ground-floor balcony overlooking the grass-filled garden, Luel sat eating his breakfast—a stack of four pancakes topped with butter, cream, and honey—paired with a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
As he alternated between bites of pancake and sips of coffee, he scrolled through the comments on his latest RAIDS livestream. Every bitter remark seemed to poison his brew just a little more.
Amid the mockery and pity, Luel came to a grim realization:
If he wanted to keep playing RAIDS ONLINE, he had to deal with the looming threat of the Rank A Ragnarok Beast, Cerberus.
Cerberus wasn't going to forget. It would keep coming for him—relentlessly—until Luel either quit or broke beyond repair under the weight of his humiliation.
"What the heck can I even do... against that faqing dog..."