"So it was you after all, Kai." He spoke his name with malice.
He chuckled, now it all started to make sense.
"Tell me one thing street scum, how? How did you obtain the beast manifestation that you used to beat me?"
"It's as I said before, you're not smart, it's not everything money can buy. A gamer's worth is defined by his skills, skills you lack. Even without it, I still would have won."
"Ah... I see."
Quickly, Neo pulled out a gun from his back and pointed it at Kai.
"Hey!"
Kai stumbled back in shock as Neo held him at gunpoint.
"What are you doing Neo!?"
Sonia shouted in confusion, but Kai quickly stretched his arms out to stop her, trying to keep her from stepping forward and getting caught in the crossfire.
"Since the day Sonia broke up with me, I knew, I knew it was because of you! I didn't want to believe it all this years, then you took my championship and now you took my girl."
Neo was clearly drunk, his judgment clouded by alcohol. It had fueled his anger toward Kai, pushing him to take such drastic and dangerous actions.
"It wasn't my fault she broke up with you, and it certainly wasn't my fault you lost that match. I was just that much skilled than you, so stop this madness."
Kai thought to himself that he probably shouldn't have said that to someone who wanted to kill him but it was the truth.
"You can decide whether I'm smart or not, after you're recuperating in the hospital!"
Neo didn''t want to hear anything anymore. Driven by malice, he fired a shot at him.
In that split second, Kai shoved Sonia out of harm's way, then jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the bullet.
The wail of sirens grew louder as police vehicles neared, but drunken Jake was oblivious, lost in his alcohol. Kai, using the momentum from his roll, quickly pushed himself away from where Sonia had fallen.
"If I can't have you Sonia, no one will."
Neo in his drunken state aimed the gun at Sonia who cowered in fear being held at gunpoint.
"Don't do this Jake.."
Sonia pleaded with him, her voice desperate, but he was consumed by hate and alcohol, unable to hear her.
In his rage, he didn't even realize he fired the gun at the girl he loved the most.
"No!"
Kai leaped towards Sonia thinking he could save her and he did, however.
"Kai!!"
Sonia shouted in shock as Kai fell to the ground with a bullet hole at the side of his head, a headshot.
Neo aimed the gun again at Sonia but was stopped by a shot to his shoulder as the police finally arrived at the scene but a little too late.
"Kai..Stay with me Kai!."
Sonia cried out loudly, Kai was fading fast, after all it was a headshot. There was no way to save him, once the brain's been shot it's game over. His pupils dilated and turned blank as Sonia wept bitterly with her head on his chest.
[Minutes Later]
Kai's mother yelled her son's name arriving at the scene of his demise, Sonia called her over the phone but she couldn't believe her ears.
Even after seeing a dead body strapped and completely covered by fabric in a stretcher she still didn't want to believe it, that was until she saw Sonia's tears.
"S-sonia, i-is that...m-my son?"
Sonia couldn't respond to her question with a straight face, instead she broke down in tears even more and that alone was a clear answer to Kai's mom.
"Kai!!"
His mom fell to her knees weeping bitterly, she had just lost her only son and child, the medics around tried to calm her down but they just couldn't.
She was a single mother, lost her husband a year after giving birth to Kai and now this? She was left alone.
[Elsewhere]
As Kai slowly opened his eyes, he was surrounded by literally nothing, floating in an empty void but for some reason it was bright.
The image of his death was the only thing that replayed in his mind over and over again in a continuous loop.
"This is a dream right? It has to be some kind of sick joke?"
It felt like a cruel and twisted joke.
"Why?" He mumbled to himself.
"Why?"
He had just finally found happiness after the cruelty and hardship he had faced all his life.
He lost his father to cancer, struggled to make ends meet with his gaming career, and was forced to experience this at a very young age.
Just when he thought he had finally found the light in the darkness that covered his whole life, the world decided to play a twisted joke on his life.
[Ding! You have fulfilled the requirements of unlocking the bonus stage!]
"W-what.."
[Would you like to unlock the bonus stage?]
[Yes] [No]
Kai's brows rose in curiosity as a blue holographic panel materialized in his field of vision, bonus stage? Wasn't he dead? And what bonus stage was it referring to?
'Bonus stage? Is it referring to the last son of Sparta?"
He had never heard of a bonus stage all his years of playing the game, and he almost completed it.
It wasn't mentioned in any online forums and official page either.
Even at death, his gaming instincts flared up like an erupting volcano. One thing was for certain, he was dead, there was nothing that was going to change that.
Without hesitation, he selected the "Yes" option.
For a moment, everywhere went blank, almost as if he fell into an eternal slumber once again.
Then, a strange sensation washed over him.
He felt his astral body being carried away with a great force, almost as if he was sucked away into a black hole as his consciousness began to fade.
Then the empty space fades away.
"Guh-glk! Hckk—glb—glkkk—!"He gurgled.
Almost immediately, his eyes, he found himself sitting on an unfamiliar bed, his entire clothing as well as the bedsheets soaked completely.
"Wake up you useless fool!"
Right in front of him was a woman with a large bucket in her hands, shouting at the top of her voice.
"It's bad enough that you have disgraced our family, but you have the nerve to oversleep on such an important day!"
In a fit of rage, she hurled the bucket at him and it made direct contact with his forehead, dropping him right back to the bed.
"You!" She pointed her finger, signaling for the maid at the door to come in.
"Make sure he's ready for the exams on time."
With her final orders, she stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her.
Kai had his hand on his forehead, he was still trying to process everything that happened so quickly before the bucket flew into him.
The ceiling above him was made of wooden beams, the floors made out of wood as well. Rather than light bulbs, the walls were lined with candles that were barely lit.
He blinked, his head aching as several memories rushed through his mind.
"Ugh.." He groaned, finally feeling the sharp pain that seared through his head, followed by the blood that dripped slowly from the cut on his forehead.
"Young master!" The busty, yet beautiful maid rang out, hurriedly rushing to his side with a clean towel.
"Eh? Young what?" Despite his aching head, her words were concerning, when the hell did he have a servant?
Infact where the hell was he?
As she pressed the towel against his forehead, he let out a soft groan and immediately covered his mouth.
"It's alright young master, it's okay to scream."
Neglecting how sauce she sounded, his concerns were of a more pressing matter, the groans he let out wasn't that of a man, it was of a boy.
The room was quite large and spacious, with double windows at the side of his bed letting in the early morning sunshine.
It all looked, felt... Medieval.
"Are you alright young master?" The alluring maid asked with concern as she squeezed the towel inside the bucket.
"I'm fine... I think, can you refrain from calling me young master? It sounds inappropriate."
His request left the maid confused.
"But you were the one who requested I call you that, remember? You said it was one of the things I could do to make you feel like a part of the Montclair family."
"Oh... I see."
"Are you sure you're okay young master? Do I need to get some herbs to help with the pains?"
"No, that won't be necessary, thank you for your assistance."
With a bow, the maid picked up the bucket and left the room.
As she left, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. His body felt strange, smaller and his sense of awareness altered.
He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and froze, immediately, he ran towards the mirror like a starving lion chasing it's prey.
As he stared into the mirror, what stared back wasn't Kai Zephyr the 18 year old W.G.O champion. It was the image of boy, barely above the age of 13 with a scattered black hair and eyes.
"W-what!?" As he saw his reflection, a wave of anxiety washed over him as the scattered memories that swam in his mind arranged itself piece by piece.
As they all aligned properly, his eyes began to widen like he had seen a ghost. This wasn't his world, and it most certainly wasn't his body.
He was in the world of The Last Son Of Sparta, as Maximilian Montclair, the youngest son of the Montclair noble family.
"No no no no this can't be happening." He gripped his head tightly as he refused to take in this new reality.
For the first time in his life, everything was going according to plan. He finally achieved a chance to fight against cancer and save many lives despite the hardships he faced to get there, most importantly he finally got together with the love of his life.
Now he was inside a game that was considered one of the most difficult games to ever complete. And not as the last son of Sparta, but as a background character that isn't even loved.
"Okay okay, I need to calm down, freaking out won't help anything."
He took a deep breath, calmly analyzing his situation, and when he finally did.
"Ah fuck."
The Last Son Of Sparta was a game that he had nearly completed, he studied all the characters, their strengths, their weaknesses, creating tactics and counterattack to strike back in the tournament.
So he knew most of the characters like the back of his hand, and that's how he realized he was in trouble.
Maximilian Montclair was a background character in the game, a character loathed and despised by his parents so his mother's attitude earlier was no surprise.
To make matters worse, he was destined to die later on in the game.
Kai, now in the body of Maximilian groaned a bit and buried his face in his palms.
This wasn't a game anymore, it was his life, and somehow he got transmigrated into the body of Maximilian.
"Okay." Despite the frightening revelation, he remained calm, composed. Now that he knew everything that was going to happen, he can prevent it, it was only a matter of preparation.
He knew if he wanted to survive the fate that awaited him, he couldn't remain as he is.
He smiled, recalling the hours of grinding and tactical strategies he developed in clearing the game. He knew all their strengths, weaknesses, how to counter them and how to neutralize them.
He knew the game like the collection of controllers he had acquired over the years.
"It seems even on both worlds I'm not welcomed, okay then. It's on, once again, I will conquer you."