White was the world around him and a series of laughter echoed from a distant.
Under the shades of a lonely tree, a young little boy sat there all alone hugging his knees. The boy couldn't have been older than six years old.
How lonely, he thought to himself as he watched multiple silhouettes of children playing a bit far from him, having fun under the sun in this lonely, white world.
He hugged his knees tighter as he closed his saddened eyes, whispering a wistful dream.
If only there was someone out there who would love me, he whispered.
And so the lonely boy sat there silently in peace, but soon he could hear the echoing laughter approached. However, the laughter was… different than the one he heard from a far; it was filled with malice.
He didn't like it… and yet, he slowly lifted his gaze and what he saw struck fear deep into his heart. Those cruel smiles… those hateful eyes... their malevolent laughter echoed ever so loudly, so much that it started to hurt.
"Stop," he cried out, yet no voice came out. "Stop!" he begged those merciless silhouettes, yet the laughter didn't stop.
He closed his ears with his hands and shut his eyes as he began to cry, yet the painful voices echoed louder and much more painful as his cries merely came out as nothing more than voiceless pleas.
The silhouettes hated him; they sneered and insulted him, tormenting him with their merciless, wicked words, the boy was left powerless to stop it and alone to suffer a pain that he unfairly received.
Then suddenly… it all stopped.
Gone were the painful echoes and so was the malicious aura around him. The silhouettes disappeared and he was once again left alone under that shady tree.
In curiosity, he slowly opened his eyes and looked up and he was met with a familiar girl who seemed a few years older than him. She looked deep into his eyes and then gave him one of the warmest smiles he had ever seen. All those fear and loneliness and pain… all of those negative emotions disappeared the moment he saw her smile.
She spoke something to him and offered her hand, but he couldn't hear what she told him much like how his voice disappeared.
It didn't matter. Whatever she told him… it calmed him down brought warmth into his heart.
He smiled at his savior and reached forward to take her hand, but the moment he touched her hand… everything changed.
Everything around him turned into pitch black and everything above him turned into bloody, crimson red. The echoes came back and gave him a headache so painful he wished he was dead. The darkness rose from below and was devouring everything around him.
And who stood in front of him was undoubtedly the same person, but there was something different about her that disturbed him.
Yes, that's right…
Her eyes turned black as a frightening smile was etched on her face with fresh blood pouring out of her eyes, mouth and a hole on her chest.
He felt more eyes staring at him with hatred, malice, suspicion, and disgust from the darkness around him as he his breathing turned erratic. Cold sweat poured out of his body as the darkness kept on devouring the world around him and before he knew it;
He was staring at the girl's lifeless face,
T͉̭̘̯̈́̏͆̄̅͛̒̇̏͜͡ͅH̥͍̟͐̒͒͗̕̚͞͡ͅͅȊ̴̧̮̬̦̯̌̅̔̒̔͆͋͜͟S̴͈̩̮͎̺̝͇̞̻̩̋͊́̄͘͡͡ Ȉ̶̛̱͚̩̰̣̲̬̈́̅͒S̶̡̟͇͈͈̼̠̘͔̀̋̔̒͑͘͝͠͠ A͓̖̞͈̻̝͙͖͊̔̑̆͆ͅL̞̘̯̜͓̇̉̀͗̊̔̚̕L̢̡͈͎̭̺̊̄̿̈́̽̎ Y̷̧̫̘͓̮͍̲̲̽̅̉̈́͗͜O̶̙̙̣̼̻̰͚̟̫͆̅̀͆̕Ų̶̫̘͓̣͓͍̮̈͐̊̋̋͆̆́͢R͉̼̥̳̣̬̗͒̅̿̚͢͞ F̶̛͓̘̥̻͛̎̍́̃̄͌͂̚͢ͅA̛͕͓͓̪̮̯̙̎̊̽̑͢U̧̹͙̩̤̪̳͓͔͌̽̊͗̈͆͑͆̚L̴̢̗̙͚̲̪̱͂̽̓̓͞Ṯ̶̡̛̫̩̩̟̪̇̄̌̓̐̑͞
Calmly opening his eyes, Sans sat up as cold sweat poured out of his body. He felt a sudden sharp twinge of pain and grasped his forehead as he put on a grimace.
He looked around and realized that he fell asleep on the sofa had just woken up from his nightmares. Upon remembering that everyone else was still on a week long expedition above the tenth floor, he sighed in relief; he didn't want anybody to see him like this. Ever.
"gotta watch where i sleep, huh…? wonder if that's your message, big sis…" He asked out loud to no one in particular. He laughed bitterly, "heh… i afraid i'm getting used to this… oh well..."
He turned his gaze outside and saw sunlight shining through the window as a faint sound of chirping was heard coming from outside. He opened his menu and saw that he was a part of this guild.
Looking back, it seemed rather random that a person he 'saved' asked him to join him in his guild rather than the other way around. He chuckled to himself, feeling a little nostalgic.
He kept staring at the Guild section then saw how he only had two friends in his friend list; Klein and PoH. It was then Sans suddenly realized how dumb he was, [ah. after all this time… i forgot to add them all as friends...]
Well, it was understandable really. As friends you can see each other's names and health and stamina points. You can also see their locations and statuses like if they are in a party or not, or if they are in the middle of combat or not. Sans wanted to hide these information as much as he could so it became a bad habit of not adding people into his friend list.
It is safe to say that the friend list system is a system that you are supposed to give to people you truly trust as friends.
Oh, well, it's not like Sans cared. It wasn't as if he didn't see the rest of the Final Seekers as friend, but it's more along lines of he forgot and he was too lazy to add them to a friend list. He was rather reluctant in being 'friends' with PoH, but it was on one night long ago that Sans decided to accept and explained it to him; after all, that's why only he knew of Sans status glitch.
Sans never told him anything about his power though, since it's not like he was going to go out and risk his life playing hero, beat monsters, and get erased by the Cardinal System for being a glitch.
[oh yeah… sans mentioned that the cardinal system recognized my nerve gear malfunction and utilized it into this power based on memories… does that mean that i'm safe to use it now without fear of getting erased by the system correction program? hmm… i'm not going to take the risk for now...]
Anyway, his power aside, being a guild member has a similar function to being friends, however since it is possible for there to be strangers among a guild you cannot see who is who and how much HP or SP each other have; the names and statuses of the members are listed in the guild members' list though. You can, however, see their location if you were in the same floor.
In a sense, being the guild member system works like an acquaintance list compared to the friend list system.
After pondering, he sighed to himself, [doesn't change the fact that i'm still not 'friends' with them… oh well, i'll do that when they get back in the evening.]
Sans stood up, "welp. gotta make a feast for their return."
And for a moment, Sans frowned, asking himself a question, [Why do I feel like something's going to happen…?]
11th Floor: Taft
The town of Taft was full of life. The Clearers, players who fight on the front line to beat dungeon and bosses, were in this clear streak where they rapidly cleared the floors despite only been playing for a few months.
It was no exaggeration that beating the first floor's boss boosted up the morale of the players trapped in the game by a lot.
Right now, you can see a lot of players walking around every floor; grinding levels, fighting dungeons, exploring for treasures, clearing hidden quests. Even the non-combatants took the opportunity to become info-brokers, merchants, blacksmiths, etc. to help.
"However, there were some… disturbing rumors lately…" A young man told PoH and the rest of the Final Seekers in a pub.
"What it is?"
The man seemed nervous, but after looking around, he leaned forward and whispered, "Rumors that some parties were disappearing."
Everybody flinched and Raul thought out loud in a venomous tone, "Player Killers… huh?"
The man nodded grimly, "Yes. There are rumors that they even created small parties of player killers due to different reason… some did it to survive, some did it out of spite, and some did it out of the delusional thought that dying in game was a lie and by dying we actually returned to real life…"
"I-Isn't that bad?" Tanya asked, feeling rather disturbed.
"Bad? Oh, there are worse, Miss. For example… those committed to kill players just for fun."
Disgust was evident on the faces of the Final Seekers and the young man sighed, "I'm sorry, as I've said before, it's a disturbing rumor."
"Ah, no, no, it's fine. That information alone helps us." PoH smiled.
"Oh, I see," the man then smiled, "But still, I don't think that such information and this meal are enough to repay all of you. You saved me when I was in a pinch in that forest after all. God knows what could've happened to me if you didn't come to kill those monsters."
"It's okay, sir. These are enough to repay that favor. Isn't it, big bro?" Z asked, turning to PoH.
"Yes, it is," PoH replied, "Anyway, thank you, but we have to get going."
"Oh, I see. Mister PoH?"
"Yes?"
"Since you said that you and your party are in an expedition, then may I suggest going to the eastern side of the floor's dungeon? It is rumored that finding the Dungeon Boss' room so quickly in the 11th floor Dungeon was a coincidence, so there are still so many places to explore in that dungeon… who knows, you and your companions, might find a treasure or two!"
"Oooh! Is that true? Then I guess, we're going to make sure we got 'em then, haha!" PoH's and the rest' faces brightened up after hearing that, "How did you know these rumors, anyway?"
The man smirked, "The line between being merchants and info-brokers are thin after all, you know~! One has to be careful giving and receiving information after all."
They all laughed and bid their farewells as they exited the pub, however there were two familiar faces that didn't laugh nor smile the whole time.
"Lily… Milly… do you really need to be that cold?"
"It's not our fault." Lily crossed her arms.
"Yeah. I don't trust that guy, at all." Milly crossed her arms too.
PoH sighed at their stubborn antics toward strangers. Honestly, the phrase, 'My parents told me not to talk to strangers,' fits them and their small and young stature… if only not for the fact that all of them knew that both twins are already studying in a university.
"The food was great, but as I expected, Sans' cooking is the best after all," Tanya sighed.
Raul flinched, "I-I can cook too, you know!"
Tanya giggled and pinched his cheek, "I know~"
Raul blushed and simply stared at the woman who walked past him then his attention shifted toward the rest of the four members who was staring at them in pure disgust.
"W-What…?"
"…Normalfag/…Disgouple (Disgusting couple)/…Go die normies/…Pathetic."
The rest of them walked past him to follow Tanya toward the dungeon, while Raul could only sweat drop.
"HAAAH!" Raul lunges forward and swung his great sword to cut a giant mantis into two. Then a golem dashed forward and swung their giant fist at Raul, but he was prepared, "Swith!"
"On it!" In quick succession, Tanya switched with Raul and blocked the attack with her shield and counterattacked with her hammer attack. The golem staggered backward, but then two goblins ran forward in an attempt to surprise attack their opponents.
Sadistically smiling as if their victory upon killing the team's tanker was secured, they thought wrong.
"Alright, now!" PoH commanded. He and Z switched with Tanya and parried the goblins' attacks, then Lily and Milly sprinted forward and lunged forward for a combination of their diagonal slash attack, cutting through the two goblins and the golem behind it in a X-like pattern, killing them as they broke into tiny pixels.
Everyone cheered after their little victory while PoH did a cool pose, "Hmph. Just as planned!"
Breaking the cool atmosphere, Z sweat dropped, "Big bro… what's up with that pose?"
"E-Eh? Uh… This is—"
Raul face palmed and hit the top of Z's head lightly, "Z, it's rude to interrupt a man's cool moment. It's a common knowledge in the VR Bro Code, you know."
"Oh, right. Big bro's trying to act cool, got it. Sorry for interr—"
PoH's face reddened in embarrassment, "A-Alright, alright, I'll stop! Shut up, already!" After sharing a series of laugh, they continued, going deeper to explore the eastern side of the tower dungeon.
As they walked, Lily suddenly stopped dead on her tracks and immediately looked back.
"What's wrong?" Milly asked.
"Just a moment ago…"
"Huh?"
She took a moment to scan her surrounding, but then shook her head, "…No, it's nothing. It must've been my imagination."
"Is that… so… well, then let's go. We're falling behind!"
"Alright, alright."
And so they continued on their way forward.
From the darkness echoed a laugh.
"Aha~! She almost saw you~!" teased a robed figure to its comrade.
"Tch. Shut up. I know what I'm doing and they didn't see shit!"
Another one cut through their bickering, "Alright, alright, break it up. Don't wanna get loud enough for our guests to hear, now do we?"
"Mmm… I don't know, I like it more when they know that they are being watched." A new voice joined.
The robed figures chuckled sadistically, "Have fun, adventurers. Soon, we're going to give you your warm welcome!"
The Final Seekers went on forward and fought like they always have been. Lily and Milly would scout ahead and report, Raul would agro the monsters with Tanya prepared to switch in if necessary and PoH would think of a strategy and provide offensive or defensive support with Z.
All in all, it seemed like nothing is impossible for the solid team that was roaming around this dungeon—
"Ugh, this is impossible!" Z groaned in frustration.
—or so one would thought.
"We've been going around meeting dead-ends, with no clear hints about whether or not there are any treasures around, big bro!"
PoH sighed, "That's why it's called, 'treasure hunting' MegaZ360."
"Hahaha, don't look so down, Z! In a few hours, we'll be back home and I bet Sans would've prepared a feast for us!" Raul tried to cheer him up.
"Ah, yeah, that's right! I hope there'll be puddings! Isn't that right Lily, Milly?" Tanya thought out loud.
The twins nodded in unison, "Puddings are a must for puddings are love. Puddings are life. Praise the pudding lord, Sans!"
"Oh my Pudding Lord, do I praise!" the tanker exclaimed enthusiastically.
The boys chuckled in amusement as the girls giggled between themselves and PoH said, "You girls and your sweets… if you're not careful, you're gonna get fat you… know…?"
A powerful black aura erupted from the three girls standing in front of him, their bloodshot eyes staring at him in pure hatred and killing intent.
"What… did you say…?" They asked as if daring PoH to say that again.
Cold sweat poured out of his body and he turned to the two boys behind him, but they merely put on a look of pity and they stared at each other as if having a telepathic conversation.
'Y-You'd leave me in dire times such as this?!'
'You dug your own grave and for that we'll pray for your peace.'
'H-How could you forsake me! I trusted you!"
'There is nothing we could do. We're sorry.'
Praying to whatever deity up there, he desperately tried to find a way to save himself and so he found one that was worth a shot, "A-A-AH! T-That's right! I found another path in the map! We might find something there if we hurry so let's go!"
The aura darkened and PoH submitted to his fate.
"Is that so? I guess, we should." Tanya replied.
"Hm. It'd be bad if we return without any good news for Sans." Lily agreed.
"Well, then, Leader, show us the way and we'll scout ahead." Milly asked PoH as she stretched her legs.
The leader of the guild stood there with a confused look, "E-Eh? Ah, yeah, it's that way…"
"Alright, let's go sis! I'll race you!"
"Geez, Milly, wait up!"
And so the girls moved forward and the other two boys saluted the confused PoH. Realizing what happened, he began to cry tears of joy and fist pumped.
DEATH AVERTED!
The team encountered a path filled with lots of monsters ahead and thinking that perhaps they'll find something there, they moved forward and began their attack. After a few minutes, they cleared up almost every monsters and one could see that Tanya was struggling from four treants' attacks in their last fight.
"Ugh—Switch!"
Raul jumped forward and dealt a large horizontal slash, killing one while leaving the rest with low HP. At that moment, the three treants focused their attacks at Raul, but it was their mistake to line up perfectly from side to side. Seizing the opportunity, Z dashed to the side and used his spear skill to pierce through all three treants, causing the wooden monsters to break into million pixels.
A congratulatory song echoed, it seemed that Z and Raul have leveled up to LV. 24 and LV. 26 respectively. The two high-fived and the rest of the team congratulated the two players.
"Alright! Great job, Z!"
"You too, Raul!"
Lily and Milly scouted ahead and came back to report,
Lily began, "Leader, it's another dead end, but—"
"We found cracks in the wall and found out that it leads to a secret room!" Milly interjected in enthusiasm, feeling happy that after hours of fighting and exploring, they finally found something.
"Oh, is that so? It seems like today is our lucky day!" PoH laughed and checked his inventory and saw that their health potions are running low. He thought about something, but then came to a decision. "Okay, guys, we're running out of potions, so let's get into that room at the end of the corridor and get whatever inside that room. Then, we'll end our expedition and return to the town with our crystals."
"Hmm, what if there's nothing in that room, Winnie?" Tanya asked.
"Well… guess it wouldn't be our lucky day then. Besides, we've been exploring this dungeon so much and we haven't met any other players, so I bet info-brokers or merchants would want to buy our map for a good price since I think we're one of the first ones to actually explore this floor's dungeon.
"Worst case scenario is the map doesn't worth anything and there are no treasures, but at the very least we've acquired so many materials to sell or use."
Everyone nodded in understanding and they walked toward the end of the room where they could see hidden cracks on the side of the wall, "Alright, then. Let's go see what we have in this room, shall we?" Raul said enthusiastically as he opened the secret passage and ran inside.
"H-Hold on, Raul! Oi!" PoH called out.
"UOOO!" Raul suddenly yelled from inside.
"What's wrong, Raul?! Are you ok—?"
The rest of the guildmates ran inside and what they saw shocked them.
"W-we hit the JACKPOT!"
In front of them was no longer a room that looks like that of a dungeon's. With floors and walls made of white marble, similar white pillars stood tall on the sides of the room as magnificent statues that decorated the room. It was like being inside of a Greek pantheon.
However, not only was the room so stunning to see, but there was also something else that took the group by surprise; it was the mountains of gold and chest lying at the end of the room.
"W-wow," Tanya breathed out in amazement, "What… is this place?"
"It's so white and beautiful!" Milly spoke out loud as Lily nodded in agreement as she looked around the room in wonder.
Not being the artistic type, Z said, "Never mind that, look at those gold, big bro!"
"Let's go swim in that gold, Z! We're rich now!" Raul ran toward it as Z followed suit.
PoH stared at how happy the team was. After fighting for days, finally, they found what they were looking for. Today was a good day—
It all happened so fast.
The door suddenly closed shut and the room darkened. Then eerie red light lightened up the room and gone was the illusion of the pantheon that they once saw. An alarm blared as a machine-like voice echoed,
"INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. INITIATING COUNTER MEASURES. DEPLOYING UNITS."
In bright blue light, monsters suddenly appeared one after another. Golems, goblins, treants, dire boars, almost every monster they encountered earlier appeared in great numbers.
Dread swam in the pit of their stomach.
However, instead of freezing in shock, PoH cursed under his breath and shouted his first command, "BATTLE FORMATION!"
Author's Note:
To Fox McCloud:
If you search to google images under the key words, "sans human," that is more or less how I depict Sans, except that he has a black hair and that he is more chubby and, of course, shorter and he'll stay like this until the end of the game. A little SPOILER ALERT is that Sans is still growing up and due to malnutrition of being trapped inside the Nerve Gear, he'll eventually lose his weight and I did mention that he is younger than most characters here (despite sounding older, etc.) but eventually he'll grow into those "handsome" human sans. I even have a reason to change his hair color, but that's for the future.
More or less, Sans look like the chubby version of this black-haired guy from pinterest "pin/293930313162745127/" (just look this one up in Google image)
But, I'm still trying to draw my own cover for this story and I might post in my instagram though I wouldn't count on it. :/
To Sierra117:
To be honest, yes, I intend to make those who knows Undertale as less as possible (though, not non-existent; I already have a few candidates who knows). I have my reasons though, one of them is simply this, "The trend died long ago." Remember that this is set in the year 2020-ish where people are more hyped up with super HD graphics and eventually leading them to development of Virtual Reality Dive system. Oh and no, let's assume that Toby Fox never came back to make another masterpiece like this one. Sad, but it's convenient to be honest. XD
So, sorry for not updating for so long, guys. Aside from being busy, I'll be honest, I simply lack motivation to write. Help me out here and review for me, will ya? Simple criticism, pointing out some mistakes, or perhaps sharing what you wanna see, or giving idea how things would go better, well anything works basically. Well yeah, sure, I have followers and those who favorited the story, and thanks a bunch to you guys for that, but still… without those kinds of reviews, I felt empty whenever I writer. Like… Oh I'm gonna grind my gears and try to make a good story but all I got was, "good. send more." It's not bad per se, but…
Meh, whatever. Don't wanna sound too desperate anyway. Not like you're going to read this, but for those who do read this and those who asked me to comeback like FoxMan888 or zack hopson, I give you another chapter and I thank you from the bottom of my non-existent heart! (lol)
Hope it wasn't too fast paced, thought I did skip most of the trivial "they have normal days with shenanigans" stuffs but… truth to be told, I bet you guys just wanna see Sans abusing his powers and be badass throughout the game, right? Lol, me too, but picturing Sans as a hero is just… well, it doesn't suit him, in my opinion.
And even if he breaks the game, Sans too has his own limits.
Oh well, whatever, the next few chapters might be predictable, but fear not! I have big plans after Sans get back to Canon timeline, so please look forward to that.
Welp, see ya next chapt, Capt!
:v /