Setting: INSIDE THE VIRTUAL GAME

Date: February 14th, 2026. (1 Hour Until Launch)

     Patrick had been logged into the game for an hour since waking up and having his breakfast. He never liked to log into the game on an empty stomach and made sure he was always full and totally hydrated before entering the game. He remembered reading about the die hard players in Asia that would insert IVs or feeding tubes so they could stay logged in for days, but that wasn't something that appealed to Patrick. He wasn't fond of needles and preferred to consume his food the old fashioned way. He could tell that people were excited about the launch as he strolled through the city. There was many more people logged in than usual, which was pretty normal for launch day. People are always excited when new material was released and that always caused the realm to swell up with new and old players.

     "Dameos!" A player called out as he ran over.

     Patrick stopped walking because that was his player handle, the man was speaking to him. "Miritar, nice to see you renewed for the expansion."

     "Wouldn't miss this for the world!" Miritar replied, "I hear there are some special surprises set for us. I can't wait to see them!"

     "Don't believe the hype too much," Patrick replied, "I am sure they'll be nice but don't expect the world."

     "Paths of Glory has given us a world," Miritar remained him, "And I am excited to see what new features will be added to it. Are you going to hang out for the unveiling at the big clock?"

     The big clock was a tower in the middle of the human city. At the time of launch, the drape new flags and set off fireworks to signal the new expansion.

     "Probably not," Patrick answered honestly, "Usually GMs log out just before and come back in just after to reset our settings. It's a drag, but we're never her for the exact moment of launch."

     "Oh," Miritar said, "I had no idea."

     "Don't worry about it," Patrick said, "Besides those two seconds, I'm going to be wandering around this city all day, answer questions and cataloguing missed bugs. I'll be at the tavern if you need anything."

     "Sounds good," Miritar said, as he called forth one of his mounts. "I'll see you around then!"

     Patrick watched as the player galloped off and continued to walk around the city, answering questions and just chatting with players as they all farted around, waiting for the big moment to arrive. Yet as Patrick was doing his rounds, he got a message from a player.

Message: Help! I'm stuck in a tight space and I can't move or port out!

     Patrick messaged back and got the player to describe what part of the city that he was located in. It was a common place for players to get stuck, and if he had already used his home stone to teleport back to the city... that would mean he was stuck there for an hour until the stone reset. Since he had nothing else to do, Patrick set forth to find the player and help him out of this pickle. Chances are he ported back to the city to watch the ceremony so it would be a shame for him to miss it over a small glitch in the system. It took him a while to find the guy as his instructions were rather piss poor, but he managed to get there and he indeed was stuck.

     "Just relax," Patrick said, "We'll try to get you out without having to reset."

     Patrick knew the server was likely full, and people were likely waiting to log in, so the last thing he wanted to do was make the player wait in cue and miss everything. While he was helping to player out, there was a beep that meant he was getting a new message but he ignored it. He was busy helping someone out, and would deal with that after it was resolved.

     "There we go," Patrick said, as the player was finally jarred loose. "Now you can head for the square and enjoy the launch."

     "Thanks," the player said, "But it's too late. The launch started five minutes ago."

     "It did?" Patrick said as he checked the time, and he was right. The launch should have happened already. But there was no fireworks, which was why he was unaware of the passage of time. Something was off. It was at this point when Patrick checked the message he ignored while helping the player out of his bind. He sighed deeply when he realized what it was.

Message: All GMs log out for expansion launch.

     "Son of a bitch," Patrick said, as he realized what had happened. He was supposed to log out with the rest of the GMs but had forgotten about it as he was helping the player out. Patrick decided that it was better to be late then never doing something. He checked to see if there were any other messages from headquarters, but there wasn't. No get your ass out of there last minutes calls. Nothing. Worse than that, there were no message from anyone. No reports of bugs, no congrats, or anything else for that matter. For a GM, that was very strange. With no fireworks going off as well, something wasn't sitting well with Patrick as he started to walk back to the city square to see what was going on. As he was walking back, he bumped into Miritar who was walking around.

     "Hey, there you are!" Miritar called out, "I thought you were never going to log back in!"

     "I never logged out," Patrick corrected, "I was helping a stuck player when the launch occurred. What's going on?"

     "There was no flags, no fireworks." Miritar reported.

     "That's odd," Patrick said, "Why didn't you message that to me?"

     "That's another thing," Miritar continued, "I tried to message you, but we haven't been able to send or receive direct messages since the launch. The mailbox still works, but we can chat directly."

     "That isn't good," Patrick said, as he assumed that the launch was suffering from some very massive bugs. This was going to be a very long day for him and the other GMs. "I'm going to log out and reset. You stay here and keep calm. While I'm out, I'll contact my boss and let him know what's going on."

     "Alright," Miritar said, "That sounds like a plan."

     Patrick loaded up his menu and then made another startling discovery. He searched through many panels and looked around, but it wasn't there. He stood there for a few minutes fiddling with his panel.

     "Mother puss bucket," Patrick said, finally turning to Mitirar. "Do me a favor."

     "Anything," Miritar said, eager to help.

     "Log out, right now." Patrick ordered.

     He waited as Miritar started to look through his own panel and seconds later he closed it out, and looked back at Patrick with a horrific look on his face.

     "I can't," Miritar said, "The logout button is missing from the interface."

     "I can't log out either," Patrick added, "We're locked in."