Death Within the Game World

My sister and I are the twin bosses of a notorious horror game.

As everyone knows, twin bosses in horror games always share a unique, bound trait: we must be killed at the exact same time. If even one of us survives, we will infinitely resurrect.

So, when my sister fell in love with a player who entered our dungeon, choosing to surrender her boss status and leave the game to live in the real world with him, I didn't care. After all, if things went south and she died out there, she would simply respawn back home with me.

But by the third year of her departure, I noticed myself growing weaker and weaker. It reached a point where even absolute rookies entering the dungeon could easily slaughter me and clear the game.

Finally unable to bear it any longer, I forced my way out of the dungeon, determined to see what on earth my sister was doing.

Instead, I found her in a hospital room, her body covered in tubes, barely kept alive on life support.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend she had abandoned everything to follow was shamelessly using the massive dungeon points she had accumulated to buy rare items, all just to please some cheap, red-lipped woman.

Staring at this utterly ridiculous scene, a chilling, distorted smile spread across my face.

Since you are too greedy to kill her because of her points, then I will do it myself.

When the iron sword pierced my chest, I didn't even have the strength to fight back.

The male player in front of me, clad in cheap, starter-cloth armor, was so terrified that he collapsed onto his backside, letting go of the sword's hilt entirely.

"Did... did I just solo a boss?"

He stared at his hands in disbelief, before erupting into an ecstatic scream, spinning around to shout at his distant companions.

"Holy crap! Is this really the dungeon boss? She's pathetic! She just stood there and let me hack her to pieces!"

"Awesome job! I thought this dungeon was supposed to be the Rookie Graveyard? Guess those forum posts were just hyping it up!"

A group of clueless newbies crowded around, gesturing wildly at my corpse, their eyes gleaming with the greedy satisfaction of an easy kill. I stared coldly at their pathetic celebration as my vision faded to black. What a humiliating way to die.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the core chamber of the dungeon.

The weightless disorientation of resurrection hadn't even cleared before I forced my weakened body upright. The lightning-shaped, ghostly blue sigil at the corner of my eye burned with raw fury. I looked up at the holographic control panel floating in the air. Glaring red warning lights pulsed across the screen.

What was once a legendary S-class dungeon, a nightmare to even the top-tier players, now bore a shameful B-class tag. I clenched my fists, fingernails digging deep into my palms until dark crimson blood dripped onto the floor.

Too weak. My current power wasn't even a fraction of what it had been at my peak.

As twin bosses of this brutal realm, my older sister, Seraphina, and I shared our life force and power. We rose together, and we fell together.

Three years ago, my painfully naive sister surrendered her godlike powers for a player named Marcus. She abandoned the game and crossed into the real world to live what she called a normal life. How had I tried to warn her back then?

"Humans are nothing but bottomless pits of greed and deceit, Seraphina. If you go out there completely defenseless, they will strip you to the bone and leave absolutely nothing left!"

But she had only smiled, patting my head, her once-regal face filled with a desperate longing for cheap, fleeting warmth.

"Val, Marcus is different. He showed me what real warmth feels like. I want to take a chance on him."

Warmth? To hell with that.

A sudden, violent cough tore through my chest, and I spat out a mouthful of dark, stagnant blood. Feeling my life force drain away at a terrifying rate, I could almost smell the rot of my own soul. Seraphina was in trouble in the real world, a mortal danger so severe it was dragging me down with her.

If she had the decency to just die, it would be fine, she would simply respawn here in the core, and we would rule our domain once more. But if she was kept in some half-dead state, she would drag me down to an eternity of pathetic weakness.

Looking at the screen, staring at the absolute system protocol: [Dungeon Entities Strictly Forbidden From Exiting Game], a dark smirk curved my lips. I gripped my bone butterfly knife, channeled every ounce of my remaining power, and slammed the blade directly into the core of the console.

"Warning! Unauthorized system tampering detected!"

"Warning! Critical system vulnerability detected. Dimensional barrier compromised..."

The shrill, mechanical alarm blared through the chamber. The massive backlash of energy instantly tore open the flesh of my hand. Blood dripped down the blade, but I didn't stop. Instead, I drove the knife even deeper.

The indestructible glass shattered, and a dark, jagged tear in space ripped open before me. It was a rift to the mortal realm, filled with chaotic currents that would shred a normal human to pieces. Without so much as flinching, I stepped right into the void.

The agonizing tearing sensation felt like it was ripping my soul to shreds. By the time my feet hit solid ground, my surroundings had completely changed. The sharp, clinical stench of bleach and rubbing alcohol hit me instantly.

A private hospital in the mortal world. The localized reality protocols kicked in immediately, suppressing my already shattered power down to the level of a frail human. I clung to the cold wall, panting heavily, looking up as I followed the faint, agonizingly fragile tether of our twin bond.

At the end of the corridor was a tightly closed intensive care room. My twin senses screamed that Seraphina was on the other side of that door. Peering through the small glass window on the door, the horrific scene inside finally met my eyes.

On the bed lay a woman who was nothing but skin and bones. Her cheeks were hollow, her skin a ghastly, translucent grey, and her once-glorious dark hair was a matted, dry mess scattered across the pillow. A dirty, oversized hospital gown hung loosely off her skeletal frame, soaked through with some strange chemical fluid.

If it weren't for the residual thrum of our bloodline, I would never have believed this pathetic husk was my older sister, the legendary boss who had once slaughtered countless elite players without mercy. Dozens of thick medical tubes clung to her skin like bloated leeches, draining her veins.

A heavy monitor beside the bed beeped rhythmically, actively harvesting her accumulated dungeon points and pumping them out. I watched her through the glass. I felt no pity, only a deep, burning contempt for her sheer stupidity.

No wonder I couldn't even beat a rookie back in the dungeon.

I spun my blood-stained butterfly knife with practiced ease. There was no room for hesitation. I had to kill her. The moment she drew her last breath, the twin-reset protocol would trigger. We would shed these fragile, pathetic mortal shells and respawn at full strength back in our domain.

My hand gripped the cold brass handle. But just as I prepared to step in and slit her throat, voices drifted through the crack in the door.

"Marcus, baby, how many points does this monster have left anyway? I saw these gorgeous S-class glowing vanity wings in the shop yesterday, and I'm still short thirty thousand points."

A woman in a skin-tight, scarlet leather dress leaned against the bed. She twirled a strand of her dyed burgundy waves with bright red-lacquered nails, her eyes dripping with smug condescension.

Beside her stood a man in a tailored designer suit, pushing up a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Marcus, the pathetic worm who had coaxed Seraphina out of her kingdom.

Marcus offered a sleek, greedy smile. "Don't worry, Raven. That stupid bitch is a walking goldmine. As long as we keep her on life support, the points will keep rolling in."

Raven giggled, casting a disgusted look at Seraphina's limp body. "God, she's repulsive. If it weren't for the free points, I wouldn't spend a single second in this smelly room looking at her pathetic face."

"Just bear with it a little longer," Marcus chuckled, pinching Raven's chin. His voice was filled with sheer mockery. "If I hadn't played the devoted boyfriend and fed her a few cheap lies about warmth, she would have never surrendered her core crest. A literal monster thinking she could live a normal life with humans? It's hilariously pathetic."

"Oh, Marcus, you're absolutely wicked." Raven giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling down his expensive silk tie.

Marcus pinned her against the edge of the mattress. To the steady, mechanical beeping of Seraphina's life support, they began to make out, tearing at each other's clothes right in front of my dying sister.

Listening from the hallway, my stomach churned with pure disgust. I knew my sister was blind, but I didn't realize she had crawled into bed with garbage. Trading her divinity for this cheap piece of trash, reducing herself to a living battery. It was pathetic.

I gripped my butterfly knife tight, the blue sigil on my temple throbbing with sheer hatred. I couldn't stand the sound of their breath for another second.

Inside, the rustling of clothes indicated they were finishing up. I took a half-step back, raising my leg to kick the door open and slaughter them both. But before my boot could make contact, the brass handle clicked, and the door swung open from the inside.

The moment the door opened, I found myself face-to-face with Marcus. He was casually adjusting his tie while Raven stood behind him, smoothing out her tight red dress. When his eyes landed on my face, he froze, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

"Seraphina?"

Raven shrieked, her manicured finger trembling as she pointed at me. "How is that possible? The brain-dead bitch is literally still hooked to the machines inside!"

Marcus, however, was quick to recover. The shock in his eyes melted into a chilling wave of pure greed.

"She's not Seraphina," he whispered, his eyes scanning me like I was a mountain of gold. "She's the twin boss... Valerie!"

I didn't waste time on words. Reversing my grip on my bone butterfly knife, I lunged, aiming directly for his carotid artery.

But as the blade cut through the air, my limbs felt incredibly heavy. Seraphina's dying state, combined with the crushing reality suppression of this realm, had reduced my physical capabilities to practically nothing. I was weaker than an average human.

My once-lethal strike was a joke to him. He stepped aside easily, slipping a gold-glowing card from his jacket. "High-tier item: Absolute Stasis."

A blinding flash erupted, and translucent, heavy chains materialized out of thin air, binding my wrists and ankles. I hit the floor with a dull thud. The bone butterfly knife slipped from my grasp, clattering into a dark corner.

"Oh, Marcus, you're amazing!" Raven cheered. She strutted over, slamming her sharp heel right onto the back of my hand, grinding it into the floor. "Talk about a buy-one-get-one-free deal! Hook her up to the harvester too! I'll get my wings in no time!"

Marcus grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back with a cruel laugh.

"Patience, Raven. The twin boss system is complex. We need to figure out how to siphon both of them without triggering a system override. Take her to the basement."

This private clinic was Marcus's personal playground, and he had a fully equipped dungeon of his own beneath the floorboards. I was dragged down into the pitch-black basement and suspended from the ceiling by heavy titanium cuffs.

"Tell me," Marcus snarled, holding a crackling high-voltage whip. "Where is the link to the twin core? How do we drain your point reserves?"

The whip lashed across my chest. Blinding blue electricity surged through my skin, sending agonizing shocks straight to my nerves. I bit my lip until it bled, letting out a weak, raspy chuckle. I stared at him with eyes that promised his absolute death.

"Think you're tough?" Raven sneered, stepping forward with a vial of corrosive acid she had bought from the system shop. She grabbed my jaw, her face twisted with bitter jealousy. "This pretty little face of yours is just as annoying as your sister's."

She tipped the vial, pouring the acid directly over my shoulder. My flesh bubbled and hissed, the agonizing chemical burn eating through skin and muscle to the bone. I entire body convulsed. Cold sweat soaked my clothes, but I refused to give them the satisfaction of a scream.

They took turns torturing me, using every cruel item in their inventory. Soon, there wasn't a single patch of uninjured skin left on my body. My blood dripped steadily from my toes, pooling on the concrete floor. But my mind remained razor-sharp.

With every strike, I mapped out a hundred different ways to tear them apart. Pain was nothing. As long as I kept breathing, I would carve this debt into their very souls.

"Marcus, the bitch is about to pass out, and she still won't talk," Raven huffed, wiping blood from her hands.

Marcus frowned, reaching for a more brutal tool, when the system tracker on his wrist began to beep frantically with a loud countdown.

The shrill countdown echoed through the damp basement. Marcus's face darkened, and he ripped off his tie in frustration. "Damn it. The mandatory dungeon queue is pulling us in."

Raven pointed a blood-stained finger at me. "What about her? We just leave her here?"

"We have to. If we ignore a mandatory summon, the system will delete us," Marcus growled. He tapped the wall panel, tightening the cuffs around my wrists until they cut off my circulation. "Leave her alive. We'll finish her off when we get back. It's just a low-tier B-class run anyway. We'll be back in a few hours."

"Lucky bitch," Raven spat, kicking dust in my direction.

Two flashes of light enveloped them, and they vanished into thin air. The basement plunged into a heavy, suffocating silence.

I stared at the heavy titanium bands around my wrists. The high-tier magic keeping them locked was incredibly strong, but my physical body was already numb from the torture.

A bloody, chilling grin stretched across my lips. With a sudden, violent wrench of my left hand, I slammed my wrist against the sharp edge of the cuff, deliberately shattering my own thumb and wrist bones.

The loud pop of cracking bone filled the quiet room. Without blinking, I dragged my mangled, bloody hand out of the metal ring, leaving a trail of skin and flesh behind.

With one arm freed, the weight pulled me down, and I crashed onto the hard concrete. My internal organs screamed in protest. Coughing up a glob of dark blood, I used my good right arm to drag my broken legs across the floor, inch by painful inch.

In the dim light of the corridor, my bone butterfly knife lay waiting. I grabbed the hilt, and the familiar cold texture made my blood boil with adrenaline.

Step by step, I dragged myself up the dark, narrow stairs, leaving a thick trail of dark blood behind me. I clawed my way back to the top floor, right back to the intensive care unit.

I pushed the door open. Seraphina lay there, looking more like a rotting corpse than a living being, the monitor still pulsing with that weak, mechanical beep. Clinging to the bedside frame, I forced myself upright. I looked down at her gaunt, ruined face, feeling nothing but a cold, hard resolve.

"Sera, this pathetic nightmare is over."

Without another word, I raised the knife and drove it straight into her heart.

The blade sank deep. Warm blood splashed across my face, and the monitor emitted a long, shrill, continuous tone as the green line went completely flat.

At that exact moment, in the dead forest of the B-class dungeon, Marcus stepped out of the portal, his arm wrapped around Raven's waist.

"Marcus, it's so creepy here... I'm scared," Raven whimpered, clinging to his chest.

"Don't be," Marcus said, adjusting his glasses and kissing her forehead. His voice was oozing with arrogance. "It's just a low-tier run. With the legendary armor I just bought, we could clear this with our eyes closed. Just think of it as a vacation."

But as the words left his mouth, a massive, jagged crimson tear ripped open the dark sky above them. The ground beneath them began to violent shake, and then, the cold, mechanical voice of the system, a voice that struck terror into the hearts of every elite player, boomed across the sky:

"CRITICAL WARNING!"

"REAL-WORLD TWIN CORE RESYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED. DEATH-RESET MECHANISM SUCCESSFULLY ACTIVATED."

"CURRENT REALM UNDERGOING FORCED STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION... RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETE."

"THIS REGIONAL B-CLASS DUNGEON HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO: SUPER S-CLASS!"