"What the hell is this?" I said aloud, squinting my right eye as I stared at the menu in front of me.
And from the look Kirito and Klein exchanged... they also noticed the same mistake I had made, implying that no one could get out of the game.
"I have things to do later, I can't stay here in the plains of Sword Art Online for too long," Kirito said with that impassive look, already opening the player menu again trying to find a way out.
"Relax, I also need to leave as I said before... but this is strange, why can't we access the exit?" Klein added with the same question as Kirito and also opened his menu.
That's when everything went wrong.
No one in Aincrad could access the exit button. I watched them from afar, and even without hearing clearly, I realized what was happening just by their expressions. The logout button... simply didn't work.
And then, as a reflex, I opened my own menu.
| LOADING: 10%... 50%... 100% |
| Opening menu... |
= Player Menu =
— Select: EXIT SETTINGS —
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _ -
[Data backup] Saving game progress.
[Layout customization] Customize the background and buttons of the exit settings.
[Storage] Size of data to be saved after saving the game.
-> [Exit game] ???
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _ -
Three question marks?
I clicked. I clicked again. Once, twice, ten times.
Nothing happened, and the feeling became even more negative... as if the button had turned into a concrete wall where you couldn't interact with anything.
With no response, no movement animations, and no sound effects... it was all for nothing.
"What the hell is this, I can't leave here," I muttered over and over as my forehead wrinkled. "It must be just a bug... since after the offer, many new players created accounts and started playing here, causing bugs where the server wasn't used to so many people online."
Closing the player menu, I took a deep breath and calmed down as I watched Kirito again. He was motionless, with a neutral expression, as if he already knew that this was more than just a simple mistake.
"I can't stay in this area for too long... if they realize they're being watched, they'll think I'm some kind of stalker." I thought as I took immediate action.
I started to back away slowly, taking careful steps behind the lawn. However... luck wasn't on my side this time.
My foot ended up stepping on some gravel that made a loud noise, causing Kirito himself to turn his head in my direction.
Feeling the presence of someone watching him, our eyes met for a second... recognizing each other immediately.
"Hey! Reno?! Wait there!" Kirito shouted, waving his right hand in the air.
"Damn... I have to get out of here." Muttering in my mind with an expression of shame and regret... I took action.
I turned my back to the valley exit and started running. Panic wouldn't let me stay near them, it was as if the weight of that bug discovery beside them, the feeling of being trapped in something... began to crush me from the inside out.
That's when something suddenly happened, the tip of my shoe began to release some shiny triangles, the glow began to be exposed from under the soles of my boots.
"No, no... NO!" Screaming in despair, I forced my body to run much faster, managing to get close to the exit gate.
As I approached the gate, my body began to glow bright white. And not just mine — Kirito and Klein were also experiencing the same sensation as me.
"I think I'm being teleported without my consent..." I thought, as my vision began to be swallowed by an intense light.
My heart was racing, but my mind was... strangely empty and indifferent.
In a few seconds, shining near the gate, I disappeared as if Marvel's Sentinel had turned me into a blurry shadow on the ground.
Even after the teleportation, Kirito remained in the same place. The glow surrounded him, but he still stared at where the exit gate had been and saw me disappear.
"Why did he run away? I wasn't going to do anything..." He reflected, almost as if he were putting together pieces of an incomplete puzzle.
"Kirito! Where are we going?!" Kirito heard Klein's voice before everything turned into a flash, and both of them disappeared as well.
The only thing left was a leaf... falling slowly onto the grass where the swordsman had been standing. Such a small detail, but it made everything seem more real. The nature that didn't follow the teleportation, the meticulous rules of the system... everything programmed to the end.
A voice echoed in my head, cutting through the silence in my mind, as I still didn't know where I had gone, and I could hear familiar voices as the game loaded.
"Mom, is Reno still playing? I haven't seen him leave his room in hours..." It was Jully. My annoying sister who wouldn't let me play late.
She sounded worried. And rightly so... I shouldn't have been playing this game yet, I needed to finish the last things I had left to do for school, even though I was practically accepted into the academy.
But the worst part of it all... was that she had no idea where I really was, or what had actually happened.