The Exchange

Si Chuan
Unknown Time, 2013

Sunlight descended on the weather-beaten house. It was considered as an antique; older than the ages of the dinosaur skeletons, stacked in the National Museum, added together. The owner didn’t bother to repair it. A hole there, a pit here, a few years later and it would probably be in ruins… if it wasn’t for something that was holding it together…

Si Chuan
Unknown Time, 2018

It was dark, probably around mid-night, quiet also. Amongst the silence, a slight whirring could be heard, like the whirring of a computer. Down the deserted roads, trying to locate the source of the sound, a girl in her 16’s pulled up a tracker device. “Anes, give me the coordinates of the location.” Green digits appeared on an invisible screen, another command could be heard, “transfer to GPS unit.” Data processed as her tracker started the formation of a 3d landscape. A pulsing dot indicated the whereabouts of the whirring.

Another voice budged into the night, “Lorraine, the appearance will happen in 5 minutes, you must intercept it before it relocates itself!” Lorraine blocked out the rest of the message from her helmet, she couldn’t be distracted at this vital time. She sped up; her onyx black suit ran down her svelte body. The location was near, only a few meters left. She arrived at the indicated place, looked up, and saw a shabby cabin that was half in ruins… “This will be the place of the appearance?” she muttered doubtfully… and entered.

As she carefully went up the broken stairs, creaking with each step, the whirring got louder. “1 minute left…” said the voice from before. Lorraine finished her small climb and was faced with a single door; she took a breath, and stepped inside.

What she saw, was quite abnormal. The components of the room were all regular, a bed, dresser, and a small closet, but directly facing her, something much more intriguing was emanating a soft, distant hum, calling out to her…

A computer screen, slim as a waffle cracker, with no attached hardware pulsed gently with blue plasma. The voice from before came back, “in 5… 4… 3… 2… appearance due.”

It all happened in an instant, a body was propelled out, the exact form of a teenage boy, heavy armor was plated over his body, and a slick, pitch-dark sword was hung around his back. The boy looked around the room, and wondered, how the hell did he get here? He turned around and looked at the screen, a big sign showing “Maple Story” was there in big letters… and, a small white hand was moving around rapidly on the plasma screen, clicking at places.

He approached the screen and realized that a game, probably with the name “Maple Story” was being played… by whom, he doesn’t know. He looked closer, and saw that a female character was being created. Looking at the small box where the name was displayed, 8 letters were shown.

“Lorraine”

As if it was magic, a keyboard, along with mouse and armchair appeared. The boy, curious, sat down and kept on watching the hand whiz around, as though mesmerized. With a final click, the forefinger of the hand pressed the “Ok” button.

The screen went black, dragging the room into darkness along with it.
–

At Hong Kong, inside of a small apartment building, the voice that urged to Lorraine to the house made a phone call. ” I have done what you desired, now I think that I am in order for a payment?” A screech suddenly emanated throughout the room, coming out of the phone. The owner of the voice made a last breath, and he slumped to the ground. Dead.

The next morning, the police came with a tag team of doctors and physicians, with the invitation of an anonymous call. When they saw the body on the floor, a doctor sprang out to examine it. “My god. His eardrums have…” He pushed the body upwards, blood was still gushing out its ears.

“Who could’ve done such a thing?!”

—
Notes: I’m sure that your wondering that this has only a bit of detail that pertains with Maple Story, but it is still a prologue, I’ll assure that the next few chapters will contain more of that.

I’m not sure however, if this is very much like Frecce’s fan-fic, having read only bits myself, I’m not sure if these resemble in anyway.