“Incredible! The level of control and timing, this series is above anything we’ve seen so far! Randy, do you see this?”

“As you said, James, just incredible. Horn’s main army has engaged the bulk of Shadow’s ogres. They’re holding thanks to that monster regeneration tech that he just finished, amazing timing. But see that! The group of rangers just emerged from the woodland passage. They’re flanking the ogre magi!”

“Shadow is crumbling! He’s trying to pull out, but will he make it?!”

“The magi cast blood shield, siphoning his subordinates health to compensate the damage, but the rangers are relentless. It’ll be over soon!”

“I don’t see Shadow recovering from this. The Magi is about to fall, but what’s that! A burrower worm just appeared behind Horn’s main battle line! His archers are engaging, but it’s not looking like they’ll make it!”

“30%, 25% they’re almost there, the worm is weakening! 10%! So close, that’s still not enough, the worm is out, and Shadow’s reinforcements are appearing from the tunnel, a whole squad of Siegebreakers in the middle of Horn’s support line! It’ll be a massacre!”

“What a turn of the tables. The game is still on!”

The two show casters kept talking as the final game of the series unfolded. Fifty million viewers kept staring at the feed, each thirsty to see the winner.

---

It was the final day of the tenth e-sport championship season for Twilight of Nexus or ToN for short. A mindboggling RTS-RPG that took the world by storm twelve years ago. After initial success, Wall Street just poured money into the game. A worldwide sensation that just kept growing. Tournaments, streams, movies, books, gadgets, everything just seemed to keep appearing only to produce the hype—all that in a bit over a decade.

Set in the fantasy world of the Nexus, in its last days, just before the magical apocalypse. The game was one of these perfect blends of easy to learn, hard to master. With its delicate balance, between an astounding number of eighty-six different races led by various heroes. They battled in one on one matches with a simple objective. One of the players had to defend a Soul well until the timer counted zero, while the other had to take it by force. A mix between building up the base, gathering resources, training and leveling an army, exploring a randomly generated map, and fighting under a ticking clock, created tension, excitement, and, most notably, an excellent show for viewers.

The global phenomenon only blew in size when three years ago, Gaia Entertainment, the developer behind, announced the upcoming sequel or even an evolution of the game - Dawn of the Nexus. It was supposed to be the first VRMMO-RTS-RPG hybrid. The gaming journalists went nuts. The VR market was slowly growing, but GE announced full immersion VR rigs in their game. Such equipment was already used in medical studies and procedures, but it wasn’t widely available for personal use due to its price tag. The decision to use it in the game was just shocking. Even more surprising was the state of the game upon announcement. Thousands of journalists could log into a working alpha version, and live footage was immediately released. It just looked amazing!

Capitalizing on that, GE announced a massive worldwide construction of hundreds of immersion centers. Each state-of-the-art facility would have a thousand VR pods available for long-term gameplay for their hardcore players. At a monthly subscription of several hundred dollars, a significant yet still manageable rate. Combined with time dilatation in the game, which ran twice faster than the real world, it would create a breakthrough in the gaming world. On top of that, thousands of smaller centers with hourly leases were popping up, allowing more casual players to hop onto the hype.

The day the announcement happened, the stock exchange went into a feeding frenzy, skyrocketing GE stock by several hundred percent, and since it only kept growing. To keep the hype up, they announced another feature of their new game. The world would be settled entirely by players. They could claim the roles of heroes or champions. The former were just ‘standard’ adventurers, playing with RPG focus, while the latter were tasked with creating the world by constructing bases, cities, and waging wars. Building on the hype, GE announced that players would entirely build the starting locations in the world, and fans could watch it happen. The rewards for major tournaments of ToN, their current generation game, were fully paid invitations for the pre-release of the game. The champions would be able to start playing three months before the rest of the world in a quest to create the starting cities and to stir conflict in the world.

---

Back in the game, the situation kept developing.

“Why isn’t Horn retreating? What’s his plan? His army is getting slaughtered, and the clock entered the last twenty minutes.”

“No idea James, it starts looking grim for his high elves. He lost most of the army’s support units, and now his main force is trapped between two ogre forces. At least he managed to nag that ogre mage, but it won’t save him now.”

“Indeed, it looks like a done deal, but remember who we’re talking about – Horn isn’t your typical player. He has to have something up his sleeve.”

“I really don’t know what he’s planning, but it looks grim. Maybe the pressure broke him? This is the last chance to get an invitation to the beta. DoN is only half a year from its release!”

“Where are his rangers? They could still turn the tide, but they just disappeared back in the woods.”

“Oh! That looked painful. One of the siegebreakers just clashed with the remnants of the high guard, the exhausted units just melted under ogre’s massive club.”

Horn > Checkmate.

Shadow > ??

“Randy, do you see what I’m seeing!?”

“Holy shit! It’s happening. The whole battle was just a distraction. Horn’s rangers just broke through woodlands into Shadow’s main base and dropped homing artifact!”

“Look at Horn’s base! He’s mustering everyone. Even the workers are being thrown into the portal spell. His two Archmages are pumping all their mana into the ritual!”

“The ogres are rushing back, but they’re completely out of position. The spell went off!”

“Look, the builders are dropping mini-towers and mini walls. They’ll be done in twenty seconds, and then Shadow’s base will become Horn’s stronghold. A masterstroke!”

Shadow > gg

“It’s over! The game is done. Shadow left to the lobby! Horn becomes the last champion! What a game! A worthy final, I still cannot believe it! No one expected it, but here we are. We’ll be back with post-game analysis but now, back to the champion! Here he is the winner of tenth global – Peter ‘Horn’ Kowalsky!”

Cameras switched to the scene, showing a podium with two gaming rigs opposite each other. Two young men behind them.

As Horn saw the awaited letters, gg – good game, he jumped to his feet. A gambit paid off, a risky one, he tried it only a few times and never online to keep it a secret, but it paid out! He did it! He won! Raising from his chair, he threw his arms into the air. A roar of his fans overwhelmed his senses. On a massive screen above him, the camera zoomed on his figure. A photo with his details appeared next to him.

Peter ‘Horn’ Kowalsky

25 years old

The Champion of 2032 global, third place in 2031 major in Seattle, second place in 2031 major of Berlin, finalist of semi-finals of Sydney 2030…

The list went on and on. Horn has been playing since the first day and went through scores of tournaments. The winning of the global was the final challenge, and winning on the last global before the sequel's release was his dream. He made it! It was his work, his life, and his passion.

A few steps away, another figure stood up, his defeated opponent. Peter moved toward him with a grin on his face. “Great game, you almost got me, but as they say, mess with the best, lose like the rest.”

“Obnoxious as always, enjoy your win Horn as long as it lasts,” Shadow replied with a sneer while shaking hands for the camera.

“See you in the Nexus, looser,” Peter replied, keeping a smile glued to his face.

---

Three months later

“Yes, I’ll call in a week, yes I’ll take care of myself. Yes, mother.” Peter said through com implant, while the autonomous cab drove him towards immersion center, “I’m almost there - need to finish. I love you too. Bye, mom.”

“Finally,” he muttered to himself. It was time. Finally, it was the start of the pre-release. The past three months were a blur. The time just flew by between the massive amount of medical checks, agreements, NDA’s, streaming rights, and god knows what. Thankfully Dimitri, his manager, took care of most of it.

Peter tried to prepare for the upcoming beta, just soaking every scrap of information available, but there wasn’t a lot available. The base mechanics were supposed to remain more or less intact. The most significant difference in the game would be moving from closed maps to open world and from third person ‘godly’ overview to the first-person avatar. Other than that, it was everyone’s game to discover the world of Nexus.

He was ready. The greatest adventure was about to begin.

---

“There you are!” A familiar voice with an eastern accent welcomed Peter as he stepped through the Gaia’s Entertainment immersion center door.

“Good to see you Dimitri, are we set?” Peter replied.

“Yes, we’re golden. Excited for the new game?”

“Not at all, hence why I’m here, half a world away from home, at 6 am,” Peter replied, snorting.

“Yea, a stupid question. Ok, let’s get you registered. I’ve got it all set up. You’ll just need to sign. Then there’s some introduction ceremony and into the pod. The game opens at noon. We won’t be able to talk until your first log out. That should happen in a week. The rules are simple, six days in, one day out, with time dilatation that should be almost two weeks inside. The first log-out is scheduled just after the tutorial segment. No idea when it’ll happen,” Dimitri explained.

Nodding, Peter said, “Good, and the streaming?”

“They introduced a two-day delay to counter metagaming. I have a whole squad ready to edit your footage to keep anything you want to be hidden from the stream, but remember, you have to make it interesting! We’ll make millions on the hype, but if you spend next weeks farming potatoes, we’ll miss THE opportunity of a lifetime!”

“I know, I know, you’ll get your material,” Peter said as they approached the security desk. A quick signature later, he was given an ID card to access the interior. He said his goodbyes to Dimitri and followed a young tech inside the building.

The building itself didn’t surprise Horn too much. Every inch was covered with posters, statues, gadgets, and TV screens showing DoN commercials. They quickly went through a security checkpoint and a few minutes later arrived at a large auditorium where already a few hundred people were sitting. On the stage, a massive screen had a countdown on it, with almost thirty minutes remaining. Looking around, Peter recognized some fellow gamers. Either he met them in tournaments or watched them play online. They all had to be winners of one or another contest and got the invite.

He pondered on approaching a few and talking to them for a moment, but they were competition, and truth to be told, he didn’t like people too much. Instead, he sat at one of the back row seats and waited. Five minutes till the end of the countdown, the light dimmed, like in a cinema, and the crowd began dispersing and sitting down. Then with the final seconds, the light turned off completely.

The screen flicked, and words in golden letters appeared

Gaia Entertainment presents

Dawn of Nexus

The screen switched to a view of a planet in the distance, and the camera began closing in. It looked earthlike from space, but the continents were entirely off as the picture got closer. On top of that, at least three moons orbited it. The music, until now peaceful, began increasing in tempo. They went through the atmosphere, and the landscape started flying below them, forests, plains, mountains, deserts, swamps, anything imaginable. It looked real, like a documentary movie, but the view stopped at a vast cavern entrance. For a second complete silence fell, disrupted by a THUMP, THUMP, a shadow appeared at the cave mouth, and a deafening roar erupted from the shadow of a ginormous creature inside.

The screen jumped to another location, flying over an ocean, with a massive tentacle breaking the surface. Then another cadre, a mound of treasure piling within some forgotten city, another one with a gigantic – skyscraper tall – tree towering over an old forest, another and another. A series of inspiring views flashed, faster and faster. It became so rapid that almost unrecognizable, and then with a final drum beat, it stopped, and the screen became black. A second passed, and a feminine voice spoke, and golden letters appeared on display.

Welcome to the Nexus, traveler. It was destroyed in a cataclysm hundred thousand years ago, but you’ve led yourself many of its inhabitants through Soul wells to safety. They slept in there awaiting today - a chance to live again! The time has come to rebuild, to rediscover, to reinvent this world.

Now it’s up to you to lead these people to greatness. Will you be the hero they want? A tyrant they’re afraid of? A ruler they deserve? Or just yourself?

Are you ready to rebuild a new world?

Do you have what it takes?

Your destiny lies in your hands!

Your legend begins today!

The last sentences just exploded from the screen, each bigger than the last one. With the final one, a roar of excitement rose from the audience. Peter found himself standing and clapping. The trailer was inspiring. It took a few minutes for the crowd to calm. As the noise began to subside, the screen turned on once again. The face of GE CEO Adrianna Tyche appeared.

She was a well-known celebrity in the gaming community, raised from the ranks of fellow gamers. She made their first appearance over a decade ago with a launch of the Twilight. Since then, she has been a guest of many interviews and always present at the award ceremony at global. Peter met her a few months ago while receiving a trophy. Despite being well in her fifties, she had this youthful energy, now dressed in a DoN t-shirt and jeans. She spoke to the gathering,

“Good day to you! It’s such a pleasure to speak to all our champions all over the world. I’d love to be there with you diving into our new game, but there’s so much to do. Nevertheless, you’re the best of the best, the ones that have what it takes to win. Each of you won a major or a global event throughout the world in the past years. Now comes the time to reap your real reward. In a few hours, you’ll be in our state-of-the-art deep immersion capsules entering the world of the Nexus. You’ll be the pioneers on a virgin world, each commanding your own tribe. I envy you, and I cannot wait to see your progress! You are the ones that will shape this new world!” Pausing to let the words sink in, she smiled and continued,

“I know you have thousands of questions, but I cannot give you answers. The part of the journey is discovery. The lights will turn on in a moment, and our techs will call you out to lead you to your capsule. After connecting, each of you will have seven days in-game in a tutorial environment to prepare for your adventure. Take this time to learn your basics. At the end of your learning period, everything and everyone with you will be teleported to the game world. As soon as you’re transported to the Nexus, all bets are off. Survive and prosper, or wither and lose. You’ll have another seven in-game days to claim your Soul wells. If you die before doing so, you’ll lose your tribe and respawn as an adventurer. You are the best, so the challenge must be equal. We here in Gaia Entertainment cannot wait to see you conquering the challenges ahead! Good luck, and have fun!”

The stream ended, and the lights indeed came on. Horn’s fellow gamers were up, and Peter himself felt the excitement boiling. It was finally starting. The hype was real! It took a moment for the crowd to sort itself out, with names being called out by the staff coming in. Peter was assigned to the same tech that led him inside.

“Big day, isn’t it?” Peter asked, “I’m Horn, but you already know this, and you?”

“Charles, and yes, five years of preparation for today. I wish I could hop into the game.” The tech replied with a desire in his voice.

“Don’t you get to play as an employee?” Peter inquired.

“We do, but like the rest of other players only in three months, and having a day job blocks most of us from playing in deep immersion,” Charles explained.

Nodding understandingly, Peter said, “Shame, I cannot wait to see it. I hope you’ll find time to hop in soon. Any tips for me?”

“Heh, cannot say anything, but if I were you, I’d carefully think about what exactly Miss Tyche just said,” Charles replied.

What did she say? Peter focused on recalling her speech. There weren’t any hints besides a tutorial area, just a testing ground for a week to learn the basics. Wait… a testing ground that would pull everything in it to the game world. Maybe it will be helpful. “Thanks, I’ll remember that!”

“You’re welcome. Here we are,” Charles said as he swiped his card at one of the doors. It didn’t look any different from the other parts of the complex. The room inside was quite small, maybe ten by ten feet. More like a broom closet, but it was full of machinery. A medical slab extended from the wall in the middle of the opposite wall, while the wall itself was crammed full of monitors, cables, and other electronics Peter couldn’t even name. Stepping inside, the tech approached one of the consoles and just said, “Come on, in the corner, you’ll find a locker. Please strip up to the underwear and put all your belongings inside, then lay on the table. I’ll attach the electrodes, and we’ll get you online.”

Peter began the following instruction while asking, “So how does this work? I just lie here while I play?”

“Not at all. After establishing a connection, I’ll attach the remaining, hmm, piping, and then the slab will withdraw into the pod. It’s concealed in the wall. There you’ll be spending most of your time. The pod will take care of all physiological needs and even stimulate your muscles to avoid atrophy. We’ll retrieve you in a few days, and you’ll have to spend a day out of the game. While going through a routine medical check-up.” Charles explained.

Peter's mind focused on a single word, “Err, piping?”

“Believe me. I’m not happy bout that either.” The tech replied.

The uncomfortable silence continued while Peter undressed. He hopped on the bed while Charles took a bunch of wiring and attached electrodes to his head. As he finished, Charles approached one of the consoles and said, “Good luck, man, I hope it’ll be all and even more than you imagined.” His hand hit a button, and for Peter, the world turned black.