Jiroh stood silently at the heart of the Throne Core, deep within the capital city of Aeterna—seat of the nation of Helios. And yet, he still couldn't understand what had just happened.
He turned toward the massive panoramic window. The skyline of Aeterna was still there—steel towers piercing the sky, maglev trains gliding across skyways—but something was… off.
The NPCs across the streets had frozen in place. Silent. Unmoving. Their expressions blank, confused. Just like him.
"Everything looks fine… like nothing even happened," Jiroh muttered. But he didn't get to finish the thought.
His eyes widened.
Beyond the horizon, where digital textures once simulated endless asphalt and reinforced megastructures, there now stretched an unspoiled sea of green forest. Towering, unfamiliar mountains loomed in the distance—and was that… smoke?
This wasn't Dominion Reals Online. This was real.
Hiss—The doors behind him slid open.
"Sir," came a familiar voice.
A woman entered—white-haired, graceful, with a sharp, intelligent aura. She looked to be in her mid-20s, her presence radiating calm authority. It was Alira, his Chief Advisor and Data Strategist.
But there was something different about her.
Her voice… it no longer had the cold, synthetic tone of an NPC. It was soft now. Warm. Alive. Like a songbird's call in a quiet forest.
"Something isn't right, Your Majesty," she said, bowing slightly. "The systems remain functional, but long-range communication with our other provinces has failed. None of the relay towers are receiving signals."
Jiroh's expression tightened. "Have we confirmed uplink with Zenith Station? Or Orion's Bastion?"
"Negative," Alira replied. "All satellite paths are empty. Atmospheric scans show star patterns inconsistent with all known celestial data."
Jiroh's heart pounded. "Send recon drones. Full spectrum sweep. I want confirmation that Helios still exists—beyond Aeterna."
Alira nodded and turned to carry out his command, unaware of the deep dread behind her king's gaze.
This wasn't a glitch.This wasn't just a bugged patch or a crashed server.This world… might be real now.
Minutes Later
The Central Council had gathered.
Alira, ever-calm and composed.Commander Rhazen, the battle-hardened leader of Helios's defense forces.Director Vetra, master of infrastructure and resource logistics.Juno, the head of civic harmony and internal stability.And finally, Dr. Nevik, the sharp yet nervous head of science and technological progress.
They all stood before him—familiar roles, familiar faces. But these were no longer digital constructs. They were breathing, thinking, speaking individuals.
And they looked at him not as a player—but as a sovereign king.
Jiroh's voice was low, composed. "Status of the nation?"
Alira answered first. "All twenty-three cities of Helios are unresponsive. We've lost contact across the board. Only Aeterna and its surrounding districts remain under our control."
Commander Rhazen stepped forward. "Defense forces are at full readiness. Civil patrols are stable. But without contact from the outer sectors, we cannot confirm whether the rest of Helios has survived."
CHH Juno added gently, "The citizens are calm. There's no panic. They believe it was simply an earthquake that disrupted the network. They've sensed no… greater threat."
Jiroh's brows furrowed. "What do they remember? Of Helios? Of me?"
Juno gave a soft smile. "They remember your rise to the throne. The reforms. The construction of Aeterna as a beacon of stability and progress."
So they remembered the story—the scripted history of the game.They just didn't remember it was a game.
He looked at the council again.
These people had once been lines of code. NPCs. Nothing more.
But now? Now they stood with purpose, with life… and none of them questioned their existence.
"I want every recon unit mobilized," Jiroh said firmly. "Deploy beyond the Aeterna Walls. Scan, map, analyze. I want to know exactly where we are—and what else is out there."
"Sir, yes sir!" the council answered in perfect sync.
Outside, recon drones launched into the sky—silent shadows darting into the reddish dawn.
Below them, Aeterna moved like a living, breathing machine. Exosuit patrols redirected traffic. Engineers tended to fusion cores and rail systems. Citizens carried on with daily routines—unaware that everything had changed.
They still thought it was just a system failure. An outage. A quake. They didn't realize they were no longer in Terra.
They were somewhere else.
The night sky held no familiar constellations. The stars were different—alien. Even the moon was wrong, its surface unfamiliar.
"Still no contact from any Helian city?" Jiroh asked.
"None, Your Majesty," Alira replied. "Either they're lost... or we've been relocated entirely."
Jiroh turned to Dr. Nevik. "Hypothesis. Could this be a translocation event? A forced dimensional shift—maybe from the Warmonger Nations?"
Dr. Nevik tapped nervously on his tablet. "We lack a baseline. But all indicators point to this not being Terra. We're in a stable physical space—but it's not one we've ever mapped."
Commander Rhazen clenched his fist. "We must treat this situation as a hostile one until proven otherwise. Isolation is vulnerability."
"Agreed," Jiroh nodded. "But we proceed with caution. No unnecessary aggression."
This wasn't the game he had logged into.
This was something else.
And from now on… the only way forward was to lead.