Sleeping is such a waste of time. I'd never realized how much time sleeping wasted until after I stopped needing sleep. Working tirelessly on endless belts, pipes, and factories under the light of a foreign sun. Sitting atop a stonewall I observed my latest creation of conveyors, assembly machines, and inserters. Through my helmets audio filters the sweet discordant symphony of ever working machines sang to me, everything working perfectly as intended. Nodding to myself I hopped lightly off my stony perch onto the dusty concrete ground below, to either side of me large skeletal turrets panned side to side their elegant blue barrels scanning for targets on the rocky horizon. Briefly rolling my shoulders I began walking towards the center of my 'factory', the assistive motors in my suits arms and legs whirring softly as moved. All around me assemblers and inspectors endlessly toiled, various ingots of various metals, and materials of every kind being moved and used to create various other products and components. Substations wirelessly feeding the power hungry machines. As my Factory worked around me and I walked mindlessly onward, I slipped into my own mind. Thinking back to how I arrived here, why I was building this endless, sprawling factory.

I was once again forgoing sleep, although it had obviously taken its toll on me. Brown eyes were lidded and bagged as the white glow of my desktop lit up my face. My computer was the only light in the room, the solitary window in the room wide open admitting a cool breeze and showing a dark moonless night. I was intently working away at my newest addiction, Factorio. A game that while in Alpha was so full and complex it had me completely enthralled. I watched as my little engineer ran through my massive mess of belts, mechanical inserters, and bulky assemblers. I had been working on this particular factory for some twelve hours, wasting away a perfectly good Saturday stopping only for food and the bathroom. Everything was progressing as normal, spawning in, getting in my initial production lines, killing bugs, and doing research. While this factory was different it wasn't unique. Until a second player logged in.

I was never a socialite, even online I had few friends, being an introvert who all to often fell into his own little world meant I eventually drifted away from anyone I connected to. In turn it meant I always played games alone it simply felt better that way, people were to distracting for me. I had never even played a multi player game in Factorio before, but I knew it required a multi player sever, which I was not playing on. Blinking I leaned forward to scrutinize my screen, tired eyes squinting at the name of the new player.

&̖̠̬̯̦͂͂̇̊ͨͦ͐ͅE̢̱͕̰̪̥̹̹̼̜̍̿̿̊̀ͨ̆ͬ͟{E̡ͤͮ̊̾Iͥ̍̀͆̚V̸͖͎͖̖̆̋̿̌̿ͨͅͅ ̙̬̲̥͓̐͂̈ͭ̀̚͟R̡͉̫̝͙̳̊̊͒͗̿̆

I recoiled from my screen hands flying to my eyes. Nearly falling from my chair as it tipped in response.

"Arhg!" I moaned rubbing the heels of my palms into my eyes, what felt like red hot railroad spikes jammed through my corneas and into my skull, setting my brain ablaze. I swallowed down a choked breath with gasp. Bringing my head down to my table less then gently, I cradled my aching head in my hands. The world seemed to disappear; my everything was white-hot pain.

"Hello." The words soothed my impossible agony immediately, wiping away the pain and the daze that normally followed, but in turn filled me with shock. Now that I was no longer detached from reality I instantly realized something was wrong. My hands still covered my eyes, which in turn were closed, but I could still see the unmistakable glow of sunlight through them as well as feel it's warmth on my skin. I was still siting in my office chair, but now I could feel warm sands beneath my bare feet, I had been taken from one place to a completely different one without even realizing it.

"Hmm, are you alright?" The voice repeated, now that I could properly focus on it I realized it to was completely wrong. It sounded… alien, not a green man from mars alien, but something so completely different from anything else I had no words to describe it. My mind grasped, scrambled to make sense of it. Old, not the coarse gravely drawls of a wizened grandfather, but a voice that conveyed countless eons of experience, one that had experienced everything a hundred thousand times. I could hear curiosity, but not concern. The owner of this voice knew I was I no true danger, but was simply curious. Perhaps it had not realized or anticipated the shock I was going through. And finally it was… an it, I could not describe it in any other way, but as voice that completely lacked gender, a voice somehow completely neutral yet conveying emotion.

Slowly moving my hands away from my face I opened my eyes. The light reflecting off the sand around my feet should have blinded my dark adjusted eyes, and the sunlight itself should have made it so hot as to be scathing, but it seemed no more than a gentle glow and a comforting warmth around my feet.

"Well, I hope the trip was not to… jarring." A shiver ran down my spine, both disturbed and strangely comforted by the impossible voice. My eyes darted up as far as they could without moving my head. There at the edge of my vision were the bottoms of black… robe? Well whatever the article of clothing was, it was pitch black, as though it absorbed the very light it self, and it pooled slightly concealing the figures feet.

"Maybe I should have used a… gentler mode of transportation." I could somehow hear the frown the figure was wearing, and a faint undertone of… disappointment? I paused for second blinking and looking back down to the earth below me before taking in a deep calming breath. Exhaling slowly I straightened in my chair, placed my hands on my knees, and looked chin high to the being before me.

It was taller than I would have thought, at least seven foot tall, and fairly broad. Covered entirely in a pitch-black robe, it's arms, if it had any, were completely enveloped by the figures voluminous robes. Further up, sitting on its shoulders and draped with this strange material was the beings head, where its face should be was a void. A lack of light, where there was such pure darkness nothing could be discerned. And to the left of the figure seemingly resting on its shoulder was a large white star, despite looking almost directly at it there was no glare. The sky was sky blue at the horizons and almost black as night above me, stars shining brightly all around.

"So I see you are as strong as I expected." The voice sounded please, the frown hew was wearing having disappeared. I took in another deep breath before speaking "Well I- I don't know what to say." It was the true, I had no clue as to what was going on. "Good I would have been worried if you did." I could here the smirk in its voice, but I wasn't to bother. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. "Well you're probably confused about all this, so let me explain." It turned slightly, an arm emerging from a large fold in its robes before waving it behind itself. An ornate wooden armchair appearing in the sands. It sat down slowly, its other arm appearing to help lower itself into the chair before 'looking' to me, my face naturally neutral. "I am Death"

Disclaimer: I own Literally nothing

Edit: 6/15/17

AN: This is my first story ever, and the first Factorio fic on this site. Um I hope you enjoy and please do leave some reviews if you notice anything out of place. I don't have a beta and feedback is always appreciated.

A Hui Hou