Neo Cosmos. Even someone like Quinton, who didn’t play games much growing up, knew the name of the most influential DMMO-RPGs of all time. Quinton knew the game had been revolutionary when it came out ten years ago. Neo Cosmos was one of the early pioneers when it came to full dive technology and it had set a high bar for any and all competition that came after it. Now that he was here, Quinton could certainly see why.

 

The clear air was crisp as he took a deep lungful and exhaled it back out again. The heat from the digital sun mixed pleasantly with the soft breeze to create the perfect temperature in the thin forest around him. If Quinton didn’t have a bloodied sword in his hand, he could almost pretend that he was in a real forest out in the world.

 

“Did you get the quest completion notification?” A male voice asked behind him.

 

Quinton turned to find his friend Rydel standing over the corpses of a few dozen goblins. Though Rydel’s avatar looked relatively plain; human, black hair, simple leather armor, tan shirt, and dark pants, Quinton knew that his friend had done nothing but play Neo Cosmos for the past ten years straight. Rydel had a job. He wasn’t so far gone as to be a complete drain on society. Quinton rode the same train with Rydel on their way to work each day.

 

Though they had attended different high schools and worked different jobs, the fact that they sat right next to each other every morning eventually led to a small friendship. Quinton was extremely grateful to have someone to talk to. It especially made the morning commute more bearable each day. On their commute Rydel would recount epic quests, raids, boss fights, player on player battles, and tales of his guildmates. While Quinton wasn’t a gamer himself, he still had fun listening to someone so passionate talk about something they love.

 

“You’ll want this.” Rydel swiped up with his right hand and a small ornate skull appeared in his left.

 

Rydel tossed it over and Quinton shakily caught it.

 

“What’s this supposed to be?” Quinton swiped his sword hand to the side to bring up his quest menu. “I don’t see anything about needing a skull.”

 

Rydel grinned. “Nope. It’s a hidden objective to bring it back to the town chief. You’ll find out it’s his grandfather's skull, get some bonus XP, and a nice pair of gauntlets that are good to level fifteen. It’s actually kind of bad quest design since there are no clues given to this skull being important at all until much later in the quest line. But once you find out, it's impossible to come back and get the skull so tough luck if you missed it the first time.”

 

He shrugged. “Honestly the later quests are so cool that I can kinda forgive this one.”

 

Quinton nodded silently as he eyed his friend’s equipment.

 

“You sure won’t be needing the gauntlets? Do we get two?”

 

“No, I'm fine. Honest. I know it doesn’t look like it, but this is actually some high level gear.” Rydel patted himself on the chest proudly. “Not the best I own, but the closest visually to what you’ll be getting at this level.”

 

“Oh.” Quinton blinked. “I guess I assumed you had created a new character.”

 

“No... I mean I thought about it, but I wanted to be playing my main account… for… well you know.”

 

Rydel’s voice lost much of its enthusiasm as the imminent destruction of the world around them was brought to the foreground of their minds.

 

“How much time do we have?” Quinton asked as he checked the time in the corner of his menu.

 

Eleven forty two. Quinton groaned internally. I’m really going to regret staying up this late tomorrow.

 

It was only tuesday. Quinton knew that both he and Rydel had to wake up around five in the morning to make it to work on time. Rydel seemed like he was used to this kind of schedule, but Quinton was already feeling energy drain away from his body as the night wore on.

 

It’s only eighteen minutes. I can stick around till the end though. Quinton assured himself as he glanced at his troubled friend nearby.

 

Quinton could still remember how shattered Rydel had been when Neo Cosmos’ shut down had been announced. The only thing that Quinton had thought of to help alleviate some of his friend’s disappointment was to request an introduction to the world on the last day of its existence.

 

True, he probably could have experienced more if he had started last week, but Quinton’s girlfriend took up most of his time outside of work and this was the only day he could set aside any meaningful amount of time to play with Rydel. The sadness in Rydels eyes only grew worse when he glanced around. Though they were the only two people in Hazelwood forest, Quinton knew who he was looking for.

 

“Did any of them respond to your email?”

 

Rydel coughed and shook his head. His eyes remained down as he looked everywhere except at Quinton.

 

“Well I did. Brandon said he was on a business trip and wouldn’t be here. Wished me the best. Wasn’t a very long response.” Rydel cleared his throat to try and keep his voice casual. “Didn’t really hear from any of the others… It’s a busy time of year so I get it.”

 

Quinton frowned and didn’t inquire further. Rydel spoke about the five other people in his guild so often that Quinton had assumed they were all just as active as he was in the game. It came as quite a shock to learn that Rydel was the only one still playing after all of this time.

 

“I guess… I thought… you know since it was the last day.” Rydel trailed off.

 

“Well.” Quinton’s friend sniffed and turned away with a brisk pivot. “I’ve been soloing the title of the ‘Duodecim’ guild for a while now. What’s a few more minutes?”

 

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Rydel didn’t want to see Quinton’s face right now. He was mad that he had to go and spoil their fun by getting all wishy-washy when thinking about his guildmates. They hadn’t been online in years and Rydel felt stupid for even holding out hope that they would get on. Rydel checked the time again.

 

Eleven forty four. I wasted two minutes feeling sorry for myself. Rydel thought bitterly. That’s enough of that.

 

He turned back to face Quinton with a newfound smile.

 

“Okay so turning in the quest will put you to level five. That’s when you’ll pick your class and get some unique skills and abilities. We should get a move on back to town.”

 

“That’s cool and all, and I’m not opposed to doing that.” Quinton said carefully. “But this is it man. Are you sure there’s nowhere… you know you want to go before it's over? I’ve had a great time man, honestly, I just don’t want you to feel like you’re missing anything because of me.”
Rydel felt his smile falter once again. He was about to brush off Quinton’s offer, but there was one location that popped into his head, and a group of people he had wanted to be there with.

 

“You don’t mind?” He asked Quinton seriously.

 

Rydel knew his friend wasn’t really that interested in gaming and it had meant a lot to even have him there. Quinton had ensured that Rydel didn’t have to face this day alone and that was something only a real friend could do.

 

Quinton smiled wide. “Nah man. Wherever you want. I’m still level four though so I’ll try not to die if it’s somewhere crazy.”

 

Rydel chuckled at that. “It won’t be that crazy.”

 

With practiced expertise, Ryel moved his right hand rapidly through a series of gestures as he navigated through his menus at lightning speed. In a flash a scroll of teleportation appeared in his hand and he gestured for Quinton to approach.

 

“Grab onto me, I’m going to transport us right where I want to go.” Rydel explained.

 

Quinton sheathed his sword and clapped his hand onto Rydel’s shoulder. With a nod, Rydel activated the scroll and mentally targeted a cliffside far from the Hazelwood forest. The green trees disappeared and were immediately replaced by a flat plain of rolling grasslands behind them and a two hundred foot cliff dropping out in front of them.

 

In the distance, a few miles away from the base of the cliff, a vast ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see. Though it was supposed to be mid-day in the game, the devs had purposefully tweaked the sun’s speed to set exactly when the servers were scheduled to shut down. A red orange sunset filled the cloudless sky as nature itself was giving Neo Cosmos one final goodbye.

 

“Now that’s something.” Quinton whistled in appreciation.

 

Rydel nodded. “I’ve always liked this place. The view is tough to beat plus-”

 

He thumbed over his shoulder at the empty plain behind them. “Nine years ago they had the wagon wars event. You had to team up with at least five other people to participate.”

 

Quinton understood right away. 

 

“That’s where you met your guild.”

 

Rydel smiled. “Bunch of no life solo players who wanted in on the loot being offered. We worked really well together and decided to keep a good thing going even after the event.”

 

“That sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sorry they couldn’t be here.”

 

“Yeah…” 

 

The sad mood threatened to dampen Rydel’s spirits once again, but he was struck with a sudden thought.

 

“Oh right.” Rydel slapped his forehead. “I almost forgot to summon them.”

 

“Who?”

 

Rather than respond, Rydel simply pressed a few buttons on his guild leader command tab and six figures immediately warped in behind them.

 

“I was wondering if I’d see them tonight.” Quinton smirked.

 

Though Neo Cosmos was mostly known for being one of the pioneers of full dive gaming, there was one other aspect of the game that drew in far more gamers. When a character hit level ten they were able to design an AI companion to travel and quest with. The player’s customizations of their companion were purely cosmetic as the AI would level themselves.

 

Rydel had been just as skeptical as everyone else had been when he found out that he couldn’t choose what his companion would turn into, but time had truly proven the system to be effective. Whatever learning algorithms or neural nets that Neo Cosmos had working behind the scenes was next level genius.

 

Companions learned how a player liked to fight and would adapt themselves perfectly to compliment them. If you were a frontline fighter your companion could turn into a ranged damage character or a healer or a support specialist. If you wanted to be a back line mage? Your companion could become the ultimate tank or stealth specialist to keep you hidden between spells. The system was so clever that players rapidly ceased to complain and embraced their AI companions with open arms. Literally in a lot of cases. People grew very attached to these digital partners which led to the other name Neo Cosmos was known by.

 

“Waifu generator.” Quinton chuckled as he said the name Rydel was thinking. “You know, you made a big deal about this aspect when you first tried to get me into this game.”

 

Rydel shrugged sheepishly. “It’s why a lot of people play. I guess I should have known you already had a girlfriend.”

 

The companions had dynamic facial expressions, meaning they would actually look at you, smile, frown, ignore you, or whatever other emotion the AI decided to express in the moment. Even though they never spoke, many people theorized that the AI’s were actually sentient. Rydel had been around them long enough to know that it was just clever programming and nothing more.

 

“None of them are human?” Quinton noted as he inspected the line of exceptionally beautiful NPCs.

 

“Humans are pretty boring.”

 

Quinton shot Rydel an incredulous look. “Pot calling the kettle black? I mean I’m human too but I was in a hurry in character creation.”

 

That got a laugh out of Rydel. With brown hair and a generic face, his friend’s avatar was just as plain as his own.

 

“This is my main account. I do a lot of PvP stuff, or at least I used to, and this gave me a mental advantage over my opponents.”

 

Quinton cocked his head. “Mental advantage?”

 

A loud beep interrupted their conversation. Rydel’s head snapped towards the setting sun and his heart skipped a beat when he saw how little was above the horizon.

 

“One minute to go.” He announced with a heavy voice.

 

Silence fell over the group as the time ticked away. Rydel stepped forward until his toes dangled over the steep edge of the cliff beneath him. He took a deep breath and let all of the memories of the past ten years fly around him in a rush.

 

I’m not ready for this to end. 

 

Though Rydel had been growing weary of his recent hours of Neo Cosmos, his time with Quinton today had stirred something deep inside of him. A sense of adventure and excitement that had long been absent from his gaming sessions. It was the feeling that his guild used to give him every day and one that he hadn’t known he was missing until now.

 

Maybe if we had more time…

 

The last rays from the sun disappeared over the horizon and the clock struck midnight. Rydel expected to be logged out and to find himself at the login menu. Instead, the world shifted underneath his feet and the scenery around him changed in an instant.