Jimmy fucked up. He’d gotten his entire party wiped.

That wouldn’t have been so bad, except Valrere Online was his life-blood. He’d given up so much to raise his character. In fact, his Dark Knight, Xenos Princely Warrior felt more real than his real self. Tallying it up, he’d probably spent years grinding, strategizing, questing, and conquering his way through that online world.

And Xenos Princely Warrior just died.

Losing two levels was the worst part. Fortunately, after checking with the group, no one had dropped more than a few potions, but the levels…the levels…

He eased back in his gaming chair. The water-cooled monstrosity of a computer hummed at his feet, processing the outdated graphics at lightning speed while the cut-scene played.

  ‘Valrere Online Tomb’s Quest! Pre-order today!’

He shook his head. It was a fate he couldn’t escape; the bane of every commercial guild: a sequel.

The Valrere saga had been around forever, near literally. Computer games, board games, RPG tabletops, books, comics, hell-it even appeared on archaeological tablets. Seemed even the Pharaohs needed a break from whipping slaves.

Every iteration took place in the same fictional universe. Whether it be simply tradition or cost cutting, Jimmy couldn’t say. The current iteration, Valrere Online: Slayer’s Quest, had been on the market for over ten years. It wasn’t the most popular game; there were better ones, but it was his game. And what that game represented was irreplaceable.

Jimmy looked to his little brother, sitting a few rows away, gnawing on a strip of rawhide just like a puppy dog.

His brother, Timmy, had friends now.

…okay ‘friends’ might be pushing it, but at least the weird little guy had normal people he was comfortable around. He even went so far as to sit next to someone.

…okay fine! Normal people might not be true either. Timmy’s seatmate, Donny, was a strange dude. When Donny first put in his application for their guild, Jimmy was positive that wiry guy enjoyed murdering stray cats in his spare time. Between Donny’s dead eyes and succinct verbal skills, he was…well, creepy.

Turned out, it wasn’t that Timmy didn’t like people, Timmy just liked creepy people.

His little brother gnashed the remainder of his rawhide. Noticing this, Donny, without taking his eyes off the monitor, fumbled around a value-sized plastic bag and fished out a brand new strip of rawhide. He stuck it right in front of Timmy’s mouth and Timmy clamped down, happily gnashing away at the new strip.

That interaction was the extent of their friendship.

You see, Donny was a creepy dude, that was for sure, but the longer he’d spent with him, Jimmy became positive his employee wasn’t a complete psychopath. Perhaps, he didn’t murder stray cats in his free time. Might be he only set their tails on fire.

Even then, Jimmy would look the other way. The interaction between his reclusive brother and his ‘friend’ was worth all the bullshit.

Starting a sequel from scratch? Bah! The hell with Tomb’s Quest! Jimmy would conquer the world for his little brother.

For that little interaction, he’d embrace all the bullshit in the world just to see it again.

Last year, when he founded their guild, Soaring Heavens, it didn’t start out as a money-making proposition. He’d just wanted to find common ground with his brother. The little guy had became such a hollow shell since the incident…

Their parents were patient with Timmy’s change, fully empathizing with what the little guy had gone through.

Until they weren’t.

Maybe learning about the incident destroyed his parents just as much as it did Timmy, but, before long, their patience turned to anger. They’d begun snapping at Timmy, frazzled beyond belief that all their previous efforts were in vain.

Counselors, Ketamine, even shock therapy…all of it useless.

It came to a head one night. Jimmy returned home slightly drunk and more than a little stoned. Typically after high-school parties, he’d make a b-line upstairs, to the safety of his room before Mom and Dad could see him red-eyed and reeking of booze.

Except, that night banshees were screaming. Late as it was, the living room lights were still on for some reason. He covered his ears, more than a little annoyed and walked into a scene he’d never forget.

Mom and Dad were screaming. All their rage, insecurities, and uselessness directed at a little boy sitting on the couch. Timmy sat like a statue, his head hung low and his hands squeezed between his knees for comfort. And his parents screamed at the helpless child.

That wasn’t Jimmy’s trigger.

Jimmy’s trigger was the waterworks. His brother was…he was crying, completely stoic with tears gushing down his face. That was when Jimmy realized that he knew—that Timmy knew—just how fucked up he was and couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

The cops showed up that night.

Fortunately, his parents still retained some levels of humanity and Jimmy wasn’t charged, but a statement was made, and he’d be put on watch, just in case he ever snapped again, likely just his parents’ lingering remorse for their behavior. Those pricks knew they fucked up, too.

From then on, they were scared of Jimmy. And really nice to Timmy, walking on eggshells around the two of them.

Not that he was ever a huge partier, but Jimmy cut off all social interactions at school, coming straight home each day for his brother’s sake, and the two found common ground in Valrere Online.

Now, having flunked out of school, having invested all his time in the fantasy world, Jimmy relied on his commercial guild to make a living.

They rented an old Chinese restaurant. The lower level was the gaming studio, cardboarded windows and red lighting that gave their little den a sensual atmosphere, not that it helped Jimmy’s sex drive.

He winced at his girlfriend shoving another Fun-Yun into her mouth. Yeah, Rhonda was fat.

Next to her, a bony woman with a hawk nose chewed her hair. Claire used to be the ugly one of the pair. He figured Rhonda kept her around just so Rhonda could feel better about herself, that she was leagues above her bony, hawk nosed best friend. And that ploy worked…until Rhonda got fat.

Nowadays, Jimmy did her from behind, pretending the love handles didn’t exist and painting Claire’s face on the back of Rhonda’s head.

At least she was loyal. Well, loyal and she did kegles. That last part didn’t hurt.

Jimmy, Timmy, Donny, Rhonda, and Claire, the entirety of Soaring Heaven’s guild, a group of people completely addicted to an obsolete game, who lived in a Chinese restaurant and had a life Jimmy wouldn’t trade for all the bullshit in the world.

Jimmy finished packing his cigarillo. He never could roll a blunt, packing it with a pen was the best he could do. He lit it, rolled it around, and blew out the excessive flames.

This was a trick he learned to increase morale after a party wipe. Take a deep breath, relax, and reassess the situation from a different angle. He, himself, didn’t smoke anymore, maybe a contact high at best, but the rest could use it. All he did was light it.

Jimmy took a drag and exhaled before the smoke could reach his lungs. As the boss, it was his way of giving implicit permission without partaking himself. He handed it off to Rhonda and walked to the center of the room.

With a quick clearing of his throat, all eyes were on him.

Ehem. “I know Valtur’s a real prick and now we got to waste a couple days griding our levels back, but that’ll just give us time to reflect. This is on me.” He paused for effect. “But victory will be on us.”

Nailed it!

Rhonda gave him a nod and fluttered her plump eyelids.

At least she had a nice personality.

Claire raised her bony arm.

He rolled his eyes. “Claire, for the last time you don’t have to raise your hand. Speak.”

“Ah…um…you see…um…” She stammered before pointing to her screen.

For some reason, a system message appeared.

  'Accept Lord Prometheus into your heart and I will give you a true name, a name with my power.
  Character path: Do you accept Lord Prometheus’ Yes/No?'

Jimmy chuckled. The admins were getting desperate to generate hype for the new release. He’d never seen such a shameless studio.

He walked over and pat Claire’s shoulder, mindful to keep his attentions all business, mostly.

“Check the forums,” he instructed. “Lets see how this played out for others first.”

Hidden character paths weren’t new to the game, but hidden character paths offered over the cut-scene of death, that was a bit different. He was familiar with Lord Prometheus. According to the lore, he was the god who created the world, occasionally offering a bounty to deserving players. How to trigger his rewards was one of the game’s biggest mysteries. Long as he’d been playing, this was a first for him.

Perhaps he’d be more enthused if they weren’t two months away from restarting from scratch. With the release of the sequel, their progress in this game would all be for naught. Still, it might prove to be a windfall for Claire, that is, if she had enough time to complete the questline for a class change.

More than likely, this was a vain attempt by the developers to advertise a new class featured in the sequel. Accepting would probably just lead Claire on a wild goose chase, giving her just enough time to get a taste of this new class before snatching it away when the sequel released. Such a shameless studio…

If his guild was planning to stay in business, it’d have to change with the times and the next Valrere Online was almost out.

All of a sudden, everyone else raised their hands. Jimmy rubbed his temples. “What?”

“I got the same message,” everyone said, or some iteration thereof.

“What’d the forums say?” He asked.

“Nothing.” Donny shook his serial killer mullet; actually, his mullet was pretty sweet.

Thinking for a minute partly on whether Jimmy himself could pull off a mullet and partly on the prompt, he formed the most rational conclusion he could. “We don’t all have time to go on a wild goose chase. Maybe one or two of us, but beating Valtur takes top priority.”

“Um…” A little voice caught his attention.

Timmy was trying to speak up. Jimmy knew what to do. He let go of Claire’s shoulder, the one he’d been shamelessly holding for a touch too long, walked over, and stuck his ear down in front of his brother.

“I don’t want to separate the party,” Timmy whispered.

Jimmy’s heart jumped and he buried that initial reaction, knowing that jumping up and down and whooping for joy would make his shy little brother too uncomfortable to speak his mind again. For moments like that, his decision to start the studio was reaffirmed.

He hid his pride by biting his cheeks and took center stage. “We vote. Everyone who wants to take this class-line, raise their hands.”

Crap…maybe I’m to blame for that habit?

They mulled it over for a minute before all but Donny’s hand went in the air.

Rhonda smiled. “I wanna have some fun before we restart, ya know?”

Clair agreed.

Claire, you can put your hand down…

“It…uh…it would…uh…yes,” she stammered.

“Alright,” Jimmy said. “The majority has spoken. We’ll all try this new class-line and pray to god it’s a secret windfall.”

Donny didn’t even shrug. He stuck another piece of rawhide in Timmy’s mouth and clicked ‘yes’.

As Jimmy returned to his seat and clicked the same, a new prompt appeared.

  ‘Do you truly accept of your own volition? Yes/No’

Yes.

  ‘Have you read the terms and conditions? Yes/No’

Who reads those? Yes.

  ‘Do you accept the terms and conditions? Yes/No’

Ugh. Yes.

  ‘Do you truly accept the terms and conditions? Yes/No’

Fucking, yes.

  ‘Reaffirm: You accept Prometheus as your God in exchange for his power? Yes/No’

“Fucking, yes!”

Perhaps he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Right then, the red lights flickered before going dead. Jimmy scoured the room, expecting Freddy or Jason to pop out. Instead, the lights popped back on to reveal a boy with green hair standing in the center.

Before Jimmy had time to process what was happening, the boy flicked his wrist just like a ninja throwing shurikens. One, two, three, four, five, followed by a dull headache.

Dazed, Jimmy glanced around at his team. They were understandably dazed as well. Protruding from everyone’s forehead, a thin shard of black rock.

Just like a gangster movie, a small line of blood trickled down into everyone’s eyes and they thumped to the floor, dead as a doornail.

That was the last thing Jimmy saw in this world.

Then he found a speck.

All his attention focused on that speck.

It fed off his attentions and began to pulsate.

Each time it pulsated, it grew.

It grew and grew. He gave it more attention.

The speck grew so large, it became the world.

Right then, Jimmy regained his thoughts

…and they didn’t make a damn bit of sense.