Gabriel got out of his Dive pod. After getting dressed and doing some stretches to limber up. He went to his computer and checked out the forums on D.O. They were blowing up, with more people joining every day. There were thousands of posts online, with people giving real information and some utter bullsh*t about different things.

 

There were already some posts about guilds, trying to entice new members with the ones already backed by companies offering monthly wages. Gabriel kept scrolling until he froze on a post by – Braxen Co. They were announcing their new guild called “Overlord”. The offered wages were one of the highest out there at the moment. Gabriel clenched his hand at the thought of them.

 

“Just you wait...” Gabriel muttered to himself.

 

After taking a couple of breaths to relax. He moved on to a couple of ads by streaming companies requesting video footage for commission. Gabriel scrolled past a couple of the bigger companies posts and found the one he was looking for. In comparison this add was from a tiny company called Krypto’s Video. It didn’t offer any money up front but gave a very generous offer of 50% ad revenue if any videos were successfully monetized.

 

Gabriel used this company in the past and was run by two Russian-born American brothers. They were young video editors and used D.O.'s popularity to get into the streaming and gaming video footage business. In Gabriel’s past he went through these brothers before and out of all the people he dealt with they were the only company who stuck by him when Leonard Braxen decided to put the squeeze on him.

 

At the time Gabriel's videos started to get views, They weren't the most popular of videos. However, he did at least have up to 2,000 loyal fans who watched his videos every week, especially during the times he was hired to participate in a war. As he would always fight on the front line and against the elite pro players.

 

Gabriel used his Deliverance Online I.D to download his recent footage. He edited out certain parts, like when he got his class and profession. Leaving in the fight scenes, including the trick to using the novice village sword. He knew this trick hadn't been announced yet, so it should increase his views. He then sent a few snippets to Krypto’s email address. With his I.D tag [Osiris] and one word “Interested?”

 

Gabriel knew that it was a risk to announce himself too early. He had kept himself as low profile as possible in his last life and in fear kept himself isolated from many but he still ended up being captured, tortured and forced to watch his family murdered before his very eyes.

 

This time around he had made plans upon plans but two things he needed was a certain amount of fame and power. He needed fame so people couldn’t just make him disappear without the public kicking up a storm and money for security, counter-espionage and company politics. That way Gabriel could force the larger powers to be unable to touch him here in the real world and have to come at him in D.O, where he was 99% confident to be able to destroy any opposition.

 

Gabriel checked his phone and saw a couple of text message updates from Tom. His current update put him at Level 9 and close to leaving the novice village. Gabriel replied to Tom, telling him to go to Roma and message him in game when he is there, with his I.D tag [Osiris].

 

Gabriel also noticed a message from a random number that read.

 

‘Hi Gabriel, this is Lucy from College, Melissa’s friend. I was just wondering if you could answer a couple of questions of mine when you have some free time. If you have time I would like to buy you a coffee’.

 

Gabriel thought it was odd, he didn’t really talk to Lucy much in this timeline or in the past. He always just remembered her as Melissa’s silent friend and verbal punching bag. She was a nice girl, just very meek and lacking a backbone. Gabriel actually vaguely remembered when he attended Tom’s funeral in the past, a couple of ex-classmates that were there had mentioned she went missing. Apparently her parents had been looking for her for a while and the last people Lucy was seen with was Melissa and her then scumbag boyfriend Todd Van-Kempton.

 

Gabriel didn’t really know much else but with Todd Van-Kempton involved something sinister was probably afoot. Gabriel decided to settle his curiosity and replied that he will be free in two days' time on the Saturday. As Gabriel had some time sensitive things to do in game first after the Auction.

 

“Gabriel are you out of your space pod?” Ariel called to Gabriel from outside his bedroom door.

 

Gabriel’s mother had opened the door checking to see if her son was out of game. Seeing him at his computer, she squealed like a little girl and ran over to hug him.

 

“My little boy, it feels like I haven't seen you in ages! I was worried looking at your face in that space tube thingo.” Ariel cooed.

 

“Mum it's only been a day and please don’t stare at me when I am in the Dive capsule, it’s creepy” Gabriel pleaded.

 

“It’s not creepy for your mother to want to check in on her stun, it is like when you were a child and I’d watch you sleep. Now come and have dinner. We are having dinner early as I have picked up an extra shift at the supermarket tonight.” Ariel said.

 

“Okay Mum. I don’t like you working nights there by yourself though.” Gabriel said with a worried frown.

 

“Ohhhh, don’t be such a worry wart son.” Ariel playfully scolded.

 

Gabriel looked at his mother's tired eyes and promised himself he will get her out of that job soon enough.

 

Sitting down at the dining table, he caught up with Max and Jane. Kristof was also there, sitting with a smile.

 

“Gab can you have a look at the shower head, it seems to be broken. I would do it but you know...can’t reach” Kristof asked.

 

Kristoff still had a smile on his face but there was a slight twitch to his eye that gave away the pain of not being able to use his legs.

 

“No problem old man. It is probably just old. Everything in the place is old... even some of the people” Gabriel joked.

 

“Who are you calling old Gabriel...obviously you must be talking about your mothe...cough” Kristof said before cutting himself off.

 

Ariel sent Kristoff a glance with a raised eyebrow, taunting him to finish that sentence. Causing Kristof to cough again and focus on his dinner like he wasn’t saying anything before. All three kids laughed at their father’s pain, even before the accident he was a real simp when it came to Ariel. Gabriel found the slight tenseness in his shoulders he didn’t realize he had, slightly relax when talking and laughing with his family.

 

He had been acting quite care free but he had a lot of plans that couldn’t afford many mistakes at the moment, leading to some hidden stress to build.

 

“Gabriel, remember we have a session booked at the training centre tomorrow at 4pm. You will have to catch the train in as I will already be there with a couple of classes to lead.” Kristof reminded Gabriel.

 

“Okay, that’s easy. Will Wayne be there tomorrow?” Gabriel asked.

 

“Yeah, I think so. That guy doesn’t really do much since he retired so he has already told me he will train anytime you want. Honestly there is no one I know that is better at close contact fighting than Wayne.” Kristof answered.

 

After finishing dinner Gabriel checked out the shower head and noticed it was rusted right through. He unattached it and planned to go buy one tomorrow. Gabriel decided to head to bed first as he needed to get up early.

 

While Gabriel slept. In a small office in the outskirts of New Jersey, was two identical looking men. They were of average build, had slicked back black hair and Goatees. They were both in clothes that looked a couple days worn and were on computers looking through videos and emails. Their names were Garry and Jake.

 

“Hey brother! Look at this, another prick saying he is that player [Osiris].” Jake said pointing to his monitor.

 

“Yeah, if they don’t attach their certified Deliverance Online ID tag, then just skip it.” Gabriel replied without looking back.

 

“Ah hold on.... this one does have the ID tag [Osiris]!!” Jake said as his voice reached higher in pitch near the end.

 

“Really give me a look... seems to be the right one. Open the sample he sent let's have a look” Garry said while leaning over Jake's shoulder, reading the email.

 

The two brothers watched a small clip of Gabriel fighting the Goblin encampment alongside his Imperium squad members and then climaxing at the reveal of the Goblin Chief. With the camera in a 3rd person view. In the background there was huts half on fire, goblin bodies littering the floor and dark smoke filling the air. With [Osiris] confidently striding alone towards the massive beast in silent challenge. With his cape and long braided hair blowing in the wind. It made for one dramatic video. With the video ending just before Gabriel and the Goblin Chief making contact.

 

The two brothers almost punched the screen with the cliff hanger leaving them wanting more. They looked at each other with shining eyes.

 

“Quickly email him back you twat and ask for his footage! Offer him an exclusive contract. If all his videos are as half as epic of that, we have finally got a winner!” Garry exclaimed.

 

The brothers emailed Gabriel back and sat there staring at the screen while clicking refresh on their inbox every couple of seconds.

 

Gabriel woke up at the crack of dawn, doing some light push-ups and sit-ups while eating a banana. He checked his emails and saw a reply from Krypto video. Gabriel checked over the contract and saw it was the same in the past with NDA attached he e-signed it and sent them the rest of the videos, leaving it to them to edit. They were the professionals after all.

 

Gabriel checked his phone and saw he still had 4 hours (GT) before the auction. He decided to take Max to school himself and grab a new shower head from Home Depo. In the little time Gabriel was away from home, the two Brothers from Krypto Video got to editing his first fight at the Draugr cemetery battle and his crypt battle with the party [Wolfpack]. They posted it on their streaming site with the tag line ‘Osiris and the war on Draugr’.

 

Within an hour the video was viewed up to a million times and the link shared across multiple social media sites. The two brothers were breaking out into dance at the views and comments on their website. Their email started to fill up with companies offering to put their ads on site and before the videos of [Osiris]. The brothers didn't release the videos all at once and chopped them up. With an announcement that the next video would be out at 6pm EST. With the tag line ‘Osiris breaks out of the Novice village’.

 

Gabriel got home and installed the new shower head. He had another snack and jumped into his Dive capsule. Waking up at the Inn he got up with a hop in his step.

 

“Time to make some moolah!” Gabriel declared.

 

He yelled as he skipped down the stairs of the Inn and out the door.