"What better way to celebrate the holidays than by playing Newvering Existen," I thought as I impatiently watched the game's loading bar. Excitement coursed through my body: I was finally going to be able to pour all the hours I wanted into it before my last semester at university began.
"Silia, Myrian, Maya… I can't wait to see you in action again," I murmured with a smile.
The loading bar crawled slowly until it hit 99%. And then… the worst happened.
[Data load error!]
[Press ENTER to start a new game]
"This can't be happening! My 600 hours of playtime! My students, my colleagues, my waifus!!!"
Despair washed over me like losing the 50/50 for my favorite character without any more pulls. But I didn't have time to keep lamenting my mom's voice thundered from downstairs, more terrifying than any final boss.
"If you scream like that again, I swear I'll take your stupid computer, lock it in the closet, and beat your ass first!"
Looks like I really pissed her off.
"Sorry, Mom!" I shouted back immediately, like that was going to calm her down.
I turned my gaze back to the screen. It had changed completely. Now it showed a modern academy with futuristic touches—a setting I didn't remember ever seeing in the game.
"I hope this was just a temporary glitch and everything goes back to normal..."
I pressed ENTER, hoping to recover my data. But instead of the usual intro cutscene, the screen began to fill with portals in bright colors. From them emerged monsters strange, threatening shapes. Something was… off. And then, it happened.
The screen burst with a white light as intense as a flashbang grenade in a shooter. I raised my arm to shield my eyes, but it was useless. A high-pitched buzzing filled my ears, and before I could react, I felt the world vanish beneath my feet.
Huff… Huff…
I woke up panting, my body drenched in cold sweat. I slowly sat up, my chest rising and falling as if I'd run a marathon.
Looking around, still disoriented, I found myself in a simple but elegant room. A neatly made bed, a desk with a closed laptop and a large backpack on top, a chair, and a sleek wardrobe with sliding doors. When I opened it, I saw several black and white uniforms hanging neatly. All of them exactly the same.
It felt like a mix between an elite boarding school dorm and a futuristic RPG room.
"Where... am I?"
I approached one of the uniforms and noticed the embroidered logo on the chest an emblem I knew all too well.
Étherya Academy.
The academy where you start the game as a teacher.
Does that mean I'm inside the game?
"I'm screwed. There's no saving me..."
In Newvering Existen, the starting setting is always the same. The player play as a newly assigned teacher at Étherya Academy, a school for girls who have gone through the Awakening gaining special powers and mastery over an ether element.
During this phase, the game is relatively peaceful. Training, social bonding, minor incidents. A long tutorial, yes, but essential.
Because true hell begins at the end of the academy arc.
An inevitable event. The Fracture Field.
A brutal anomaly that links this dimension to the other eleven. Portals start opening uncontrollably and the world's rules collapse. Monsters pour in. Etheric erosion spreads like a plague. Most students and teachers die. But the worst part? If you don't escape in time, a Behemoth attacks from the other side of the map, completely wiping out the academy and everything in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
And the player can only survive by escaping with a few students through a portal into another dimension completely new and procedurally generated.
And now... I'm inside the game.
But this isn't my saved file, so I don't have my fully developed base.
Silia, Myrian, Maya... my former students... my dear war comrades and lovers. They're all gone.
In Newvering Existen, every new game is unique. Students are randomly generated. Names, faces, personalities, talents, elemental affinities, backstories... everything. Even their emotions were modeled by AI, so each one reacted differently depending on how you treated them. Their behavior changed according to their experiences, which made it really easy to grow attached to them. But it was also unbearable to watch them die.
Some were born with immense potential. Others had rare skills. Some were too fragile for combat.
And now, all those girls are real. Not lines of code. People.
"Each student was a coin flipped in the air..."
And now, if I don't build bonds, if I don't earn their respect, if I don't understand them… when the time comes, many won't follow me. Or worse, some might turn against me.
I walked to the wardrobe. The teacher's uniform hung there, perfectly ironed. Black and white, with the academy's crest embroidered in silver thread. I put it on with trembling hands.
The laptop screen on the desk was lit up, showing only the Étherya Academy logo on a black background. No menu. No clues.
I took a deep breath.
"The Fracture Field will happen… and I have to be ready."
When it does, the portals will bring horrors from other dimensions. Of the twelve dimensions that exist, nine are overrun with monsters—from insect-sized creatures to colossi that crush mountains underfoot. Ravaged worlds, corrosive, uninhabitable for humans due to the ether's density.
And if a human is exposed to too much ether... they begin to erode. The effect varies depending on the ether type, but all work similarly. They sicken and weaken the person, causing marks to appear that eventually consume the infected.
If they're not Awakened and they get lucky enough to awaken, they can neutralize the infection. But if the erosion exceeds the resistance gained from Awakening, death is instant. This happens the moment you step into one of those nine dimensions.
Awakened individuals, who have more resistance, can become demi-monsters if they absorb too much ether.
Putting aside the uninhabitable worlds, the other three dimensions are, the human world, the beastkin world, and the ruined world. Though the last one, despite being listed as "habitable," has extreme conditions. It's covered in giant carnivorous plants, ferocious animals comparable to ether monsters, and ruins of a technologically superior civilization.
Also, this world is much more invaded by creatures from the other nine dimensions than the human or beastkin worlds.
Choosing one of those two portals is where the real game begins. No map, no guide, procedurally generated terrain. Every player had a different experience. Every student was different. Every decision and mistake… permanent.
Now, all of it is real. "This isn't a game… and I don't get second chances." I muttered, trying to convince myself, because if I die, I'll die for real. And the same goes for those around me. I can't afford to think things will work out no matter what.
I sighed and tried to calm myself. I walked over to the desk and opened the backpack.
Inside was a smaller bag, a casual outfit unlike the teacher's uniform provided by the academy. I kept searching and found a phone, blank notebooks, school supplies, a chocolate bar…
But what caught my eye the most was a white glove with gray lines. This was one of the three growth artifacts you could choose at the start of the game, the Zero Glove.
I put it on immediately and felt a strange energy flow through it. I activated it, and in my mind, a one-cubic-meter storage space appeared.
Once I confirmed it worked, I looked at the last two items in the bag, a wallet containing an ID card issued by the academy.
I checked the ID:
[Name: Ryan
Surname: Linx
Photo: ------
Sex: M
Age: 16
Height: 1.64 m
Position: Professor
Type: Synchronizer
Element: Aetherium]
I stared in confusion at the age. I was supposed to be older than my students. While I might be older than some, there are probably many students here older than me.
In the game, the protagonist's age was never stated, since you could customize the character however you wanted between 1.50 m and 1.90 m tall.
I looked at the photo. A boy with black hair streaked with silver, golden eyes a pretty extravagant look, honestly. But I was glad it was the character I created in my save. Some might say I overdid his appearance.
But in the game, players usually made the protagonist handsome and striking because the AI-controlled students could evaluate appearance, making it easier or harder to increase affection depending on how good-looking or ugly he was.
Many players tried to create an "Ugly Bastard" and triggered an Easter egg where the protagonist gets fired and locked up in a small school prison if he tried to get too close to the students or teachers. That almost never happened unless you harassed them without consent. It was a commentary on how superficial human society is, and that's why I made a character who wouldn't seem creepy or suspicious when approaching students or teachers.
I stopped focusing on the age and the picture and read the rest. It only showed the essentials.
Once I finished checking everything, I picked up the phone and looked at today's date: February 2nd, year 792. A Monday.
That means today is the first day of class. Lucky it starts in the afternoon, or I'd already be late.
Just as I was about to open the door, someone knocked.
Knock knock...
When I opened the door, a beautiful older woman with golden hair and emerald eyes appeared.
"I'm Laura. Are you the new teacher? I was instructed to give you a tour of the facilities..." she said cheerfully, but then she saw me and let out a stinging comment.
"That's odd. They didn't say the teacher was bringing his son."
"I'm the teacher."
She looked at me skeptically. "Really? Aren't you a bit too young to be a professor?"
"Yes. Yes, I am."
I couldn't bring myself to answer any other way, and I could see the confusion on her face deepen.