In a dark room somewhere in the world, a young man yawned and rubbed his eyes. A bright blue glow from his PC screen illuminated his tired face and drooping eyes.

On the screen in front of him was a game called Hierarchy Online. He had stayed up the past 2 nights after its launch, playing nonstop.

The reason he was so relentless was because he wanted to reach the top 10 leaderboard. He had thought it would be easy since he waited for it to release and was one of the first players to get to the 3rd area, but there were too many skilled rankers.

His rank seemed to always hover between rank 50 and rank 20. He was incredibly frustrated by the fact that 20 other players had somehow figured out a better way to grind and stay ahead of him.

He just had no clue what they were doing differently, since he had been playing with no breaks, besides eating and using the restroom.

‘Damn, no lifers!’

He muttered to himself, he had also been only playing this game for 2 days and doing nothing else. But the irony fell short on him as he was incredibly exhausted.

He stared at his character on the screen with a blank, hopeless expression. In the games he usually played, he always made his characters buff, attractive, and heroic in appearance. Very much unlike his actual appearance. But everyone did it, so he didn’t feel bad.

As he looked at the character, he felt jealousy. In real life, he was just scrawny, pale, and looked like a shriveled grape. He had no social skills whatsoever and had never talked to a girl in his life, besides his mom and little sister. What made it even sadder is he was 18 now. He couldn’t just wallow in self-pity, he needed to work, so he could eat, and not die.

He had always gotten B’s in high school, so that was at least something he could be proud of. But he hated how, even in the one thing he excelled in, he still wasn’t the best.

‘Couldn't I have at least tried harder in school? Maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation if I did.’

He tried to focus on the game, but it was just too much. It wasn’t worth the effort trying to get into the top 10, since there were so many tryhards in this game. He hit Alt+F4 and shut down the game. It was much more satisfying to do it that way, instead of just pressing quit.

He sighed, trying to push any negative thoughts he had to the side. He had to get up early for work so he at least wanted to enjoy something before sleeping.

He glanced at a birthday card that was on his desk. It read:

“Happy Birthday Matt! We hope you are doing well, we miss you! We included $50 for you, in case you need it. Love you!”

As he stared at it, he just felt awful. He regretted the way he left home, but he had a long and complicated relationship with his family. Their acting so nice just made him feel like a shitty person.

He closed the card so that he couldn’t see the message anymore. His eyes were drooping more and he felt like shit. He really wanted to sleep, but he was so unsatisfied by his last experience, he needed to at least have some fun first. Or else he’d have nightmares or fever dreams.

He wanted to find a game that could at least bring him a bit of joy, so he started searching online to see if he could find anything. Even a puzzle game, he didn’t care. He just needed dopamine right now. He chugged some soda and started his quest for a new game.

As he scrolled through the search results, Matt couldn’t find anything that looked fun and was free. He couldn’t afford to burn more money on a game right now. And he especially didn’t want to do that for a game that might be trash.

To him, it seemed like all the games that had come out in the last year were all bad. Sure, some may have been fun for a bit, but it really felt like the quality was going down. In the past, he had a few heated arguments about this exact subject on Geddit.

He mindlessly scrolled through page after page, but couldn’t see anything that caught his attention. But just as he was about to turn off his PC and just go to sleep, he saw something. It seemed like clickbait, but it really spoke to him in the moment.

“Can’t find a good game? Looking for some fun? After playing this, you will never want to try another game again.”

It sounded like one of those sketchy ads you see on the side of a website, but it was one of the search results that had shown up when he searched “Best games of the year”. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it, but he was weirdly drawn to it for reasons he couldn’t explain.

His internet street smarts usually kept him from clicking on sus links. But he was really starved for entertainment tonight and really needed something, anything. That’s how he rationalized it at least. But he did want to be safe, so he first made sure his anti-virus software was running.

When he was ready, he clicked on it. He was interested in seeing what the site looked like. But after it finished loading, it was just a blank page with a big “Error: 404” on the screen and a little animation of a blue fairy.

‘A dead link…’

He was disappointed. It was just nothing. He had kinda hoped it was meant to be, and that he would find his new favorite game. But it was just a broken URL.

He was about to close the browser when something strange happened. Text began appearing on the screen, like it was being typed. It surprised him, and he instantly thought it could be a system admin for the site, but that didn’t really make sense.

‘That would be creepy if they could just type to random users.’

But then he read what was being typed, and got scared.

"Beta System initializing... Welcome, player Matt."

He froze in shock before quickly closing the page. Had a hacker somehow accessed his location and obtained his name? He didn’t know what to do but then remembered they could’ve gained access to his network.

Fight or flight kicked in and he jumped out of his chair. He ran out of his room and into his foyer where the WIFI modem was. He didn’t want to waste any time so he straight up unplugged it from the wall, cutting off its power.

Exhausted from the adrenaline rush, Matt lazily returned to his room and collapsed into his chair, staring at the screen. He took a deep breath and chugged some more soda to calm his nerves. He realized now, that it would’ve probably been faster to have turned his PC off first, but it didn’t matter now that the WIFI was disabled.

He sat there trying to figure out how the hacker could have obtained his name, considering all the precautions he had taken to prevent that from happening, even going as far as running his own custom DNS server. He had had close calls with hackers before, but this was by far the worst. They had never managed to get his name before.

As he sat in thought, text once again began appearing on his computer screen as if it were being typed in real-time. He stared at the words with wide eyes.

'What's happening? My wifi is off. They shouldn't be able to connect...'

"Beta System Activation completing in 10 seconds, 9, 8..."

Matt could only stare in horror as it seemed like someone was still accessing his computer, despite it being impossible. He was also puzzled by the words on his screen, but whatever was happening didn't seem good.

Desperate to save his hard drive, he lunged for the power button on his PC. However, for some reason, it refused to budge even when he used all his strength. It felt almost as if it were sealed in place.

As the timer on his screen counted down, all Matt could do was watch. 3... 2... 1...

When the timer hit zero, the monitor turned black and the computer fans went silent. He sat there for a moment, wondering what had happened. Suddenly, a window popped up in front of him, although the screen remained black. It seemed as if the computer had turned back on, but something wasn't quite right.

It was floating in the air in front of his face. A message on it read:

["Thank you for being a beta tester, Matt! For your cooperation, you've been granted an exclusive beta edition of the system. Happy questing!"]

He rolled backward over his bed and fell with a thud on the other side. He looked over his bed at the screen with wide eyes, on the verge of panic. But then he had a realization.

'Even though this feels pretty real, it's probably just a dream, right? Yeah, it's definitely just a dream.'

As he repeated this to himself, Matt took a moment to calm down. He decided to go with the explanation that it was a dream and reread the message before closing the window with a tap of his finger. It reminded him of a typical computer window.

Matt thought to himself, 'Beta? So is it like a game or something?'

After he closed the floating message, a few new boxes suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision.

__________

[New Quests]

Get sufficient sleep [0/8 Hours] [Reward: +8xp]

Eat vegetables for once in your life [0/1 Plate] [Reward: +10xp]

__________

'Oh, so it really is like a game?'

Matt examined the quests and noticed that they all had specific requirements and rewards.

'If it's like a game, would this also work?'

"Stats!"

__________

["Welcome to the status screen! Everything surrounded by {} is [Help] text. It will disappear the next time you open your stats! Happy questing!"]

||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL {Level}: 1 [XP 0/100]

HP {Health} | 10/10

MP {Magic} | 0/0

Status Effects: (Sleep Deprivation) [Minor], (Nutrient Deficient) [Minor]

-

||Attributes||

[Str] {Strength} - 6

[Con] {Constitution} - 8

[Agi] {Agility} - 8

[Dex] {Dexterity} - 11

[Int] {Intelligence} - 12

[Luk] {Luck} - 10

__________

'I, uh, didn't think that would actually work.'

He studied the page that showed up in front of him. He recognized that most of the features were very similar to a game. Though he didn't need the [Help] text because he had played too many RPGs, it was nice to know the stat's full names in case of any differences to the games he knew.

'Strength 6? Is it really that bad? Are you making fun of me?'

Reading that he only had 6 strength was a bit of a blow to his ego but looking at his arm, he knew it wasn't wrong with how much like a stick he was.

Although his stats were relatively low, Matt found himself hoping that this was not just a dream. If he could really improve himself through stats and quests, it would be the change he had always wanted.

However, he knew it was likely too good to be true, so he decided to simply enjoy it while it lasted before waking up.

Reading further, Matt noticed two strange entries in his status effects section as he was scrolling through the page. The first, "Nutrient Deficient," was likely a result of his recent diet consisting mainly of junk food.

It was also clear to him that the other effect, "Sleep Deprivation," was probably caused by his bad sleep schedule.

Looking above that, it seemed to describe his name and age, as well as his current level and XP required to level up. He was all too familiar with this type of menu after playing hundreds of games with similar setups. It even seemed similar to some light novels he had read.

Matt glanced back at the quest menu and read it again.

__________

[New Quests]

Get sufficient sleep [0/8 Hours] [Reward: +8xp]

Eat vegetables for once in your life [0/1 Plate] [Reward: +10xp]

__________

The first one seemed like it would take a while but it was easy to complete since all he needed to do was sleep. With the second one, all he needed to do was eat a plate of veggies and he would get 2 more XP than the first quest without even having to wait hours.

'What's with that passive-aggressive insult? I've eaten vegetables before!'

Annoyed, but curious to try it out, Matt headed to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He spotted a large head of broccoli, which he figured would be enough to complete the quest, and took a bite. It wasn't cooked so it was a bit crunchy but the taste wasn't bad, despite being a bit on the old side.

After a few minutes, he finished eating and a new message popped up just like he expected.

__________

[Quest Complete]

Eat vegetables for once in your life [1/1 Plate]

+10xp [XP 10/100]

__________

It was good that he didn't literally have to eat it on a plate for it to count. That means that it just used "plates" as a measurement. Now with one quest down, there was only one left.

"I'm getting pretty tired so I guess it's time for this dream to end. Wait that doesn't make sense since I should already be sleeping. Oh well."

He stumbled back into his bedroom and collapsed on the bed exhausted, falling asleep almost instantly.

However, as he slept, something began to happen across the world.

...

....

...

{Beta Testers Chosen}

{Phase One Beginning}

-

-

-

-

-

__________

||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL: 1 [XP 10/100] (+10)

HP | 10/10

MP | 0/0

Status Effects: (Sleep Deprivation) [Lesser], (Nutrient Deficient) [Minor]

-

||Attributes||

[Str] - 6

[Con] - 8

[Agi] - 8

[Dex] - 11

[Int] - 12

[Luk] - 10

__________