The sharp tang of ozone, thick and metallic, stung Elias's nostrils. It wasn't the sterile scent of the server room he remembered, but something acrid, almost organic. His head throbbed, a dull bass drum against his skull, chasing away the fading echoes of a game over screen. One moment, he was meticulously farming an Eldritch boss in "ECU," twitching his mouse, muttering strategies. The next, a blinding white light, then... this.
He blinked, focusing. Rough concrete met his gaze, smeared with something dark and slick. Rain, cold and incessant, lashed down from a sky the color of bruised plums. Sirens, a discordant chorus, wailed in the distance. This wasn't his apartment. This wasn't even his city. A grimy alley, overflowing dumpsters, and graffiti-scarred walls framed his new reality. He pushed himself up, his limbs feeling strangely light, yet powerful. A quick glance at his hands – calloused, sure, but these weren't his gamer hands. Younger, perhaps?
Then he saw it. A shimmer, like heat haze, rising from a puddle near a rusted fire escape. It pulsed with an ugly, almost nauseating energy, distorting the rain-slicked asphalt around it. Elias recognized it instantly, a chill more profound than the rain seeping into his bones: pollution. Not just environmental decay, but the raw, spiritual pollution that spawned Eldritch entities in the game. His heart hammered a frantic rhythm. This wasn't a dream. He was here. In the world of ECU.
A low growl vibrated through the alley. From the shimmering puddle, something began to coalesce—a dark, amorphous mass, tentacles writhing. A Level 1 Eldritch. Elias instinctively raised his right hand, a phantom sensation tingling in his palm. This was it. Game on. Except this time, there were no respawns.