A bright light shines into my eyes, allowing me to see where I am. I’m in what looks like some kind of surgical lab. There are all kinds of different equipment on the walls. I feel the cold steel of a surgical table underneath my body. I try to stand up but restraints keep me on the table.

“Begin experiment codename: Giggin.”

A male voice I don’t recognize sounds through the room. I feel something crawl up my leg... It has spiny legs, lots of them. An unknown fear grips my heart then I start breathing faster and ragged.

More things crawl up my legs, the fear grips me so tightly now that I can’t move my body. I just stare up at the ceiling. Why am I so scared? I have never been this scared of anything in my life so why am I so scared now?

The crawling continues all over my body, there are so many I can’t keep track. I break out into a cold sweat. The fear becomes stronger it now grips my entire body.

I want to scream, I want to run away, I want to ball up and cry.

A spider crawls over my eye. The fear runs rampant through my body. Now, I want to breath, I want to swallow the saliva in my throat but my body just freezes solid as the spider is the only thing on my mind. The very thought of it being near me sends me into a shock.

More spiders crawl over my face and soon I’m swarming with large ugly scary spiders crawling all over me. Why do these spiders make me so scared? How did I get here? Where is here? Who’s voice was that? What are spiders?

Who am I?

“Subject one hundred and seven has successfully crystallized. Commence the operation.”

The crawling vanishes, the fear vanishes and my sanity returns. People in white coats and surgical masks appear with large blades in their hands.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the flaming figure once more. It walks closer the people in the surgical equipment and they didn’t notice the figure approaching. The figure stands over me as the flames waver, revealing a pair of feminine bloodshot eyes.

“Sir, the subject’s mind has stopped fluctuation.”

I continue to stare into the deep blood shot eyes.

“It does not matter, project Giggin will be a success with the collection of subject one hundred and seven’s brain.”

I hear the sound of blades being sharpened but no matter what, I can’t seem to pull myself away from those bloodshot eyes looking down at me. The flaming figure moves in close to my ear... I expect to hear something, instead everything changes and I’m now watching the person on the operation table.

What I thought was me is really a young boy, maybe only thirteen. He has messy dark brown hair and sky blue eyes. He is just staring at the ceiling as the people in white coats cut into him with their blades.

The blades and saws cut deep into him blood splatters everywhere, organs are exposed and bones are broken but the boy never even flinches. I feel sick just from seeing the scene. Suddenly, his eyes shift and he’s staring at me. He mouths to me.

“... He-… lp...”

Again, everything goes black.

I wake up inside the VR pod, dripping in sweat. I rush to the kitchen sink and throw up as the images of what happened in there make me sick to my stomach. I throw up some more then turn on the tap and drink down mouthfuls of water after that. I just stick my head under the tap and let the water run over me.

What was that some kind of weird dream? No, it couldn't be it felt so real. They called it the Giggin experiment- Could it have something to do with the boss monster that me, Damn and Midnight killed in Elemental Online? No... That’s impossible.

The calendar alarm on my wall goes off. Shit! It’s already that time of the month... I take a shower to try and get the stink of vomit off me while trying even harder to forget what just happened. I quickly get dressed and place my bank card into my pocket.

I lock my door as I leave my apartment. Once I’m outside, I signal for a hover taxi. A yellow hover cab with a robotic driver stops in front of me. I hop in.

“Destination, sir?”

“Saint Gerald’s public hospital.”

“Yes, sir.”

The taxi takes off. I place my Earcom into my ear then turn it on. I begin to scan through different forums, trying to see if anyone knows of something weird that happens when you defeat the Giggin boss. There are a few mentions of rare item drops but beside that nothing else.

“We have arrived sir, that will be 67 E-currency.”

I swipe my bank card into the back of the driver's robotic head.

“Thank you for the transaction, sir. Have a pleasant day.”

I turn off my Earcom then exit the taxi. I walk through the large automatic hospital doors into a waiting room. I walk over to the teleporter disk for floor three.

Floor 3 Yes/No

A blue hologram window appears in front of me. I press the yes button then I’m quickly teleported to the third floor. I walk the hallways that say the words intensive ward as I try to ignore how bad those words are. I reach room 109.

I walk inside and seat down into the chair. A man in a white doctor's coat walks in. He has curly brown hair with a thin brown mustache. This is my doctor, Mr Oswald.

Small flashbacks of what happened inside the room hit me but I quickly push them to the back of my mind.

“Hello Jun, punctual as always.”

“Well... If I wasn’t, I would be dead now, wouldn't I?”

“Hahaha! True. Now, how about that injection?”

Mr Oswald pulls out a long syringe as he taps it a few times.

“Now, roll up your shirt.”

I do as he says and before I can say anything else, he stabs the syringe into my arm so there's only minimal pain.

“There, that should tie you over for another three months.”

What Mr Oswald just injected into me was a cell rejuvenator, it heals dead cells and keeps me from dying. I was born with a rare disease called Cellular Decomposition, it means the cells in my body will die faster than those in a normal human.

When I was born, it was just in stage one but when I entered my twenties, it entered stage two. Now, the disease has become increasingly more aggressive and my body's cells are dying incredibly fast.

So now to earn money, I dive into Elemental Online for the money I need to pay for my medication.

“So how much is it doc?”

“Five hundred E-currency.”

I use my bank card to pay for my treatment.

“That’s all for today, doc.”

“Yes, it is. See ya next time then.”

I just lost more than half of my money in one day. Fantastic... I need to log back in and earn some money fast.