CHAPTER 1 – "Death by Design".
They say never fall asleep while playing a cursed game.
I wish someone had told me that before I woke up in the middle of my own execution scene.
I gasped as the cold metal of the executioner's blade pressed against the back of my neck.
Wait.
Metal?
Why was I feeling things?
I opened my eyes—really opened them—and immediately regretted it.
I wasn't in my room. I wasn't holding my controller. And I certainly wasn't dreaming.
I was kneeling on the cobblestone floor of Velhira's public square, in a white silk gown soaked with blood, my own character's name echoing across the square like a death sentence.
"Elysia Vora. Former Duchess. Traitor to the Crown. You are hereby sentenced to death."
No. No. NO.
Not her.
Not me.
I made this world. I beta-tested the game for weeks. I wrote the death scene playing out around me.
Elysia was never meant to live past the prologue.
She was just the Level 1 villainess—beautiful, cruel, and disposable.
I glanced to my left and locked eyes with Prince Kael—one of the game's love interests.
His expression was colder than I'd ever programmed.
His lips moved.
"Die as you made me die. Over. And over. And over again."
What the hell?
How did he... remember?
A hand gripped my chin roughly and forced me to look up.
The Grand Inquisitor, a minor NPC. One who never had dialogue in this scene.
He smirked.
"You thought you could rewrite us again, didn't you, Creator?"
Creator.
The word hit me like a bolt of lightning.
They knew.
The characters—my characters—knew who I was.
I screamed as the blade dropped—
And everything went black.
Two Hours Earlier – Reality
I was on my fifth coffee, buried in lines of debug code and unfinished story routes for Crimson Reign, the most ambitious romance RPG our studio ever attempted.
It was my last night with the test server.
And of course, I was replaying Elysia's arc—the villainess no one was supposed to root for.
Maybe it was the stress. Maybe it was the exhaustion.
Or maybe I shouldn't have dozed off with the headset still on.
But the second I closed my eyes…
…I fell in.
Back in the Game – Present
I jolted awake in a plush, red-draped bedroom I recognized too well.
Elysia's chambers.
Chapter One: Rebirth.
It was the first scene after her "execution" in the alpha version. A placeholder test loop.
I sat up and looked into the ornate mirror beside the bed.
Long silver hair. Ocean blue eyes. The same smirk I coded into her idle animation.
I was her. Fully.
But this wasn't the same game anymore. The scripts were missing. The control menus were gone.
And someone had slipped a note beneath my pillow.
"We remember you.
This time, we play by our rules."
—K.
TO BE CONTINUED...