Novina was one of the largest MMO games to ever hit the gaming scene, and it did so out of nowhere. Seemingly created and managed by a team of which so little is known it's debated whether it's just one person, or a collection of people going under a single alias. Despite its scale eclipsing the MMO scene, it only had one Administrator named ‘Drava’ managing all of it. Many have grown to assume ‘Drava’ is simply the name used by a team of administrators, considering Drava is seemingly active almost 24/7. The game itself was known for its sheer scale and the freedom it gave to players. The depth of the lore and the story even down to the slightest detail left players immersed in it completely, and playing it felt like stepping into a new reality altogether. Even the top MMOs of the past failed to reach its level of player immersion.

 

The game had few issues, no bugs, exploits, or any major oversights from what seemed to be a fairly small development team. The game rarely got updates in the means of adding new races or new areas, however the game had so much to offer that it was ultimately unnecessary. Classes weren’t particularly strict, in fact they hardly existed at all, though over time general playstyles were classed into classes unofficially by the playerbase. The races were just about the only thing you were fully bound to, though even then there were means to advance one’s race or advance your character into another one. Items and spells were not limited either as the game had such an in-depth magical system that people are still trying to fully understand and optimize it. Any attempts to dig it out of the code seem to have failed, and in some areas finding the code is simply impossible, and things like hacking or exploiting the game’s code proved impossible as well.

 

There was never a need for new content because players could create it, albeit oftentimes with much difficulty. If you wanted a certain type of spell you could spend your time inventing it, if you wanted a specialized piece of gear you could gather material to craft it, or you could commission one from someone who specialized in it. In particular my character used entirely player-made equipment, aside from certain magical artifacts which players had yet to match completely, if such was even possible. 

 

Many races provided bonuses and debuffs which often encouraged a certain playstyle, my race was one of the Dragonkin, a class focused on the might of the dragon, a build adept in both magic and physical strength, usually utilized for a balance between the two. Dragonkin can be organized in two ways, the first being their ‘Racial Advancement’ meaning their closeness to the dragons, and their elemental power. In terms of the first category there three possibilities; base dragonkin which is the only variant of dragonkin you could start as, High dragonkin which could be obtained through being stronger and making a pact with a dragon, and Elder dragonkin which could only be obtained for being a high level and making a pact with a dragon. Becoming a Dragonkin was possible by most races since it stemmed from making a pact with a dragon, though in the lore it's stated that Dragonkin can also be born from other dragonkin through reproduction.

 

The second area of dragonkin organization is their element. Dragons each fall under a specific element such as fire, earth, air, etc. When you make a pact with a dragon, or start out the game as a dragonkin, you gain the element of said dragon, or in the case of starting the game, you just pick one. Of all dragonkin, however, my character stood out as an Elder Pure Dragonkin. Pure dragonkin are dragonkin which made a pact with an ancient dragon, with ancient dragons having far more power than modern dragons and not being bound by a specific element. Finding one is hard enough, and having enough power to even make a basic pact is difficult, let alone a pact that allows you to become an Elder. There were only ever 4 players which obtained this height, and only 24 Pure Dragonkin total. It overall goes to show you how much of a top player I was, and how much time I spent on this game.

 

I had always been anti-social, so spending much of my free time on video games was an easy solution. I’m not sure where my strange interest in video games developed, though if I had to guess it came from having numerous brothers without a single sister. Though as time went on my interests made it hard to fit in with the other girls who were more interested in the schoolhouse drama than anything I cared about. Not wanting to involve myself with the boys, or rather not even thinking of it as an option, I accepted my fate and dove deeper into my games.

 

Eventually this obsession grew satisfying as countless hours grinding would leave me as a top player in many games I put active effort into focusing. Eventually though, in almost every case, being a top level player got boring. I found enjoyment in crushing weaker players, however there comes a point where even that loses its charm and it goes from messing around to just straight up bullying. Novina changed that substantially, I luckily caught onto the game early into its initial growth, having been in a phase of boredom I often went through after getting tired of a game. As such when I invested time into the game, I quickly rose above most players, and as time moved on and I proved myself consistently active with the game, I soon rose above those who once surpassed me. In hindsight I probably spent too long on the game, considering my constant investment into it was the final nail in the coffin for any real social life during my late teenage years.

 

I, of course, did not care, and to an extent, I still don’t. If it weren’t for me sacking my social life, Novina would never have known true fear from my character; The Arcane Empress, the Queen of the Dragonkin, Athena Eris! Surprisingly I only gave myself the former of those titles, the latter was given to me by the Dragonkin playerbase who I basically acted as a leader for, having led the Dragonkin into one of the largest large-scale conflicts the game ever saw. There were no clear winners in the end considering just how many factions were fighting, but there certainly were losers, of which the Dragonkin were not one.

 

In the end, I have no regrets spending years of my life wasting away at that game, and in the end it’s quite fitting how the calamity of the dragonkin meets her end in a literal inferno. If I wasn’t such a heavy sleeper I probably would’ve noticed the fire alarms way before, however unfortunately for me it would take more than even an obnoxious fire alarm to wake me up and now it's too late to leave. Fire’s already taken over my room and the smoke of it all is already killing me. I would’ve hoped for something less… painful, but I suppose there's no use in arguing over that now.

 

To say I’m satisfied with my life wouldn’t entirely be true, but I certainly don’t have many regrets either, nor am I leaving much behind. At the very least, if I’m going down I want to go down with my computer, the closest thing I’ve had to a physical friend all these years. In truth it's the only area of my apartment not already caught in an inferno, and if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go with it. Though in the end, I hardly got a choice, before I could make a last stand fanning away the flames from my PC, I collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

---

As I woke up I looked around to see a strange void of sorts. It was white in appearance, though I stood on a platform, shimmering as blue as the sky and as transparent as glass, seemingly fading off into nothingness a few feet away from me. As I moved, so too did the edges of the platform, always fading away within a circle a few feet wide.

 

In terms of appearance I seemed perfectly healthy, my clothes weren’t burnt, torn, or stained charcoal black from the smog, and similarly neither was my hair, everything about me looked as if the fire had never even happened. I even felt healthier, any physical problems I had seemingly vanished as well. Looking around I tried to see if there was anything more than this sheer void, and to my surprise, there was.

 

Turning around it became evident I was not alone in this endless abyss of white, looking down on me was a towering jet-black dragon. In many ways it looked like those in Novina, though none of those could match this Dragon’s aura of dominance and power. Its crimson horns stretched beyond its head, jagged and sharp as they pointed backwards. Similarly colored spikes lined its back and tail, and after a few more moments the dragon’s head leaned forwards.

 

Despite its intimidating presence, its masculine voice spoke quite softly that, while loud and commanding, had a much gentler tone than one would expect. “It is a pleasure to meet you face to face Amanda, I’m glad to see I managed to snatch you up just in time.”

 

I took a step back, still confused at what was happening, it was fairly easy to assume I had died, and considering the nature of where I was, this was probably heaven or some sort of limbo. If that's the case, does that mean that God is actually a Dragon? That’s certainly not a twist I expected, at least not in this way. “I’m not sure what you mean…uh…Sir..?”

 

The dragon shook his head and lifted it back up slightly, waving his hand before lowering it down too, “There is no need for the formalities, please call me by my name, Drava.”

 

My confusion turned to shock as I was left paralyzed in place, only able to mutter out “D-Drava?! A-As in…?”

 

Drava let out a warm hearty chuckle before leaning down again, nodding his head, “Yes the sole administrator of Novina! I bet you assumed I was multiple people?”

 

I loosened my stiffness forcefully and scratched the back of my head with a nervousness-induced intensity, “W-Well it's hard to imagine the administrator being y-y’know…”

 

“A dragon?” Drava chuckled again before continuing, “Yes, yes, I understand the disbelief. To tell you the truth it was quite a lot of work to manage it all on my own, but as a God it's not too difficult when you get down to it.”

 

I slowly began to relax as ‘Drava’ seemed fairly casual about the whole situation, especially with how casually he said he’s a god. “So you are a God then? I suppose that means I’m dead, though I’m not sure what God is doing managing an MMO.”

 

Drava simply laughed again, “I’m not quite a God in the way you think. For one, I’m one of many Gods, and secondly I’m not the God of your world, that Goddess died a long time ago so that the humans of your world may have the ability to go to the afterlife after death. Speaking of which, you aren’t quite dead to tell you the truth. I brought you out of there just in time it seems.”

 

Now my confusion only grew again, now introducing the idea of another world, numerous Gods, and the confirmation that Earth is a place without a God. The latter isn’t too much of a surprise if you go deep enough onto the internet. “So you saved me then? Why did you do that?”

 

“Because I owed it to you. You, above anyone else, have spent the most time playing my game. I give you much respect for that. I’m both glad that you enjoyed it so much and grateful that you played it so much. I also do feel a bit guilty and I would like to apologize as it would seem my game led you onto a path of… isolation so to speak.”

 

He’s really just saying I have no friends…

 

I waved my hands in front of myself, “N-No no! There’s no need to feel that way, I was already like that, your game simply gave me a means to not get bored with a game once every other month for once.”

 

“I see… Well that does make me feel better. Though it does not change my decision.”

 

“Decision on what?”

 

“I have decided I would allow you a second chance! It is the least I could do to make up for the untimely end to my game’s top players.”

 

I looked up at Drava in shock yet again, “Wait really?! You can do that?”

 

Drava nodded, “To an extent, yes. Gods aren’t quite like you’d imagine, our ability to interfere with the world isn’t universal. The magic in the world I come from prevents any Gods without a physical form to manifest in the physical world from interfering too much. And since you cannot remake a physical form after it is killed, I have long been left with a limited ability to interfere with my old world. Though since your world lacks magic, I have no problems with it.”

 

“But you’re still able to give me another life? Wait if you don't have anything stopping you from messing with my world, what's stopping the other Gods from doing so?”

 

“I’m the one stopping them. There are very few among Mankind’s Gods that I respect. The Goddess that would eventually become the Goddess of your world was one of them. I swore to protect your world from the influence of others, and that is a promise I have kept even today. Unfortunately I cannot reincarnate you in your own world since your world lacks magic. Instead I must reinstate you in the other world where I come from.”

 

I finally seem to be getting a grasp on what was going on, though I had one more question, “If you don’t mind me asking, what's a God like you doing making a MMO?”

 

Drava thought for a moment before looking back at me, “I simply felt like it.”

 

“T-Thats it?”

 

“Pretty much. I decided I would watch your world for a bit out of curiosity and I became fascinated with your technology and means of entertainment. Eventually I got inspired to make my own video game, and I eventually decided on making an MMO. The MMO you played is actually based heavily on my world.”

 

No wonder it had so much lore, he probably copied and pasted it all from his world. “Wait, does this mean the world you’re sending me to is the world of Novina?!” Now this was exciting, if I was truly able to be reborn in that world of all places, that would make dying even a thousand deaths worth it!

 

“Yes! Precisely! Though to be completely honest with you it is much different than the world you players forged. I gave you so much freedom that Novina was practically as much of a sandbox game as it was an MMO, so some things may be a bit different between them.”

 

That makes sense, since us players could make spells as we wished, there’s a chance we created spells which didn't exist in the world then. I’ve invented some spells of my own, primarily since there weren’t many spells fitting the Draconic Magic that really only Pure Dragonkin could use, let alone to the scale an Elder Dragonkin could use it, the chances of someone making the exact same spell is unlikely. “I think I can see what you mean, there are cases in which we had entire wars which completely shifted the political landscape of both player factions and the NPC nations… There’s no telling how different the game is from your world.”

 

Drava nodded, proving my intuition right as he again spoke, “Precisely, that’s not to mention the fact I had to upscale some aspects of that world due to how much you players were gaining strength. Normally in the world I come from, there are very few that reach the power which players reach in the hundreds to thousands.”

 

“So you’re saying this world will be weaker than in the game?”

 

“Yes, but don’t worry I should be able to send you as a replication of your avatar with an exact replica of your gear. Though in doing so, I’m not able to send you with much additional levels beyond your racial base level, though I’m sure you’ll find it’s quite high.”

 

Now this was even better! My player avatar had some fairly overpowered gear, the sword was easily the best sword in the game because of the powerful God Stone it utilized, not to mention my armor utilized the strongest and best materials in the game. Though, he said he would send my gear, not necessarily that it’d be at the same quality. “By sending my gear… Do you also mean that it will be of the same quality as in the game?”

 

It seemed Drava sat by and watched while I had an internal nerding out over my own gear and its materials and power source, only finally speaking after I asked him a question, “Of course, replicating the materials your equipment uses isn’t too hard. Though… I apologize I cannot recreate the God Stone.”

 

Damnit! Without the God Stone in my sword, it goes from easily the strongest weapon in the entire game to just basically an average top-tier weapon. In the end I suppose that's still pretty strong considering he could’ve just given me nothing. If I ever find an opportunity to snatch a God Stone though I’m taking it!

 

Drava waited patiently for a few minutes, allowing me to think before speaking, “Now then, is there anything else? I’ve already made the preparations for the spell. As I mentioned I’m limited in how I can interfere with this world, it is the very magic that exists in this world that both limits my ability to do this as well as makes this possible. I cannot reincarnate you on earth as there is no magic for this spell to work, however in reincarnating you here I will likely be cut off from even viewing the world for quite some time, though otherwise I will be fine.”

 

“So doing this just about uses up all your intervention in the world, doesn’t it?”

 

Drava nodded again as a magical circle appeared below me. It was similar in some ways to Novina’s magical circles, but far more extravagant and utilizing symbols which I didn’t recognize, “Yes, I won’t be able to interfere until I can regain a grasp on that world, though do not worry about me, I’ve been spending most of my time looking into your world anyways. Managing an entire MMO is hard work after all! Now then, are you ready?”

 

I sighed and did a light stretch, there was no stalling anymore. I may have ended my former life without doing much of anything at all, but this time… Well this time… Eh I’ll figure something out. “Yes! I’m ready!”

 

The magical circle suddenly expanded with numerous magical circles appearing above my head of various sizes, all grand and extravagant in detail, smaller circles almost perpendicular to the ground rotating around and above me as well, though smaller than most of the other circles. The circles all shimmered in numerous colors, though the colors of blue, pink, and purple shimmered the brightest like a neon light show. Drava spoke once more, his mostly calm and casual voice now boomed majestically with a power one would expect from a god amongst the strongest “From now on your true name shall be Athena Eris! A proud descendent of the Ancient Dragons that came before! Make your God proud!”

 

With that the magical circles glowed a blinding light, encompassing myself in a sea of neon before quickly fading away, ending one life and starting another.