Player 09 has entered the realms. Initiating startup… 01011… Materializing worlds… Spawning Entities.
It was over. Completely drained. Done. The whole account. He knew it was a bad idea to begin with, he should have known from the beginning. I mean what was the reason? Why couldn’t he have just owned up to it?
Staring at his bank account, Sam hesitated, digging for his keys. “I mean don’t you have any shame?” He thought, wondering if lying to his parents about his “successful career” was worth the sheer dread he now felt. He stared at the door handle to his apartment, the one that he would soon be evicted from. The one that he insisted could be paid for by his own salary. Idiot. He turned the door handle, stepping into the dark, musty room which reeked from a recent mold infestation. His parents hadn’t approved of him dropping out, but he knew school wasn’t meant for him. I mean, why go if he could just make money on his own? Quick and easy. A degree meant nothing in the real world. But he hit a breaking point tonight, a long unlucky string of unfortunate circumstances. Underground grappling rings were never a money plot he thought he would have to resort to. He clicked his tongue, standing in a damp spot on the carpet.
Ding! Sam was jolted awake by a familiar sound emanating from his laptop.
The notification appeared over the dim screen for a moment, reading, “I HAVE WHAT YOU NEED.”
He sat up straight. His cursor hovered over the notification before disappearing.
Another message appeared, this time as large text that ran across the entirety of the screen. “SAMUEL VALDEZ. LISTEN CAREFULLY.”
Sam could feel his heartbeat increasing, beads of sweat appeared on his neck and forehead. He sat in painful anticipation as the familiar whirr of his laptop’s cooling system filled the silence. Ding! Another message, this time with an attachment. Shaking, he nervously guided his mouse over to the file which simply read, “DOWNLOAD”.
Click. Click. Loading. An image, candid and slightly blurry, but him. It was at the ring tonight, he was wearing his lucky beanie.
“500,000. WIRED DIRECTLY. COMPLETE THE EXPERIMENT.”
Ding! “DOWNLOAD_zip.” The text glowed ominously.
At this point his heart was in his throat, and his brain must’ve been as well. Click.
Spinning, falling, pulling, twisting. The tethers and fibers of his body unravel like wool, disassembling and reassembling at a rapid pace. Launching forward at lightspeed, flashes of light fly by him, faster, faster, faster. Black. Then pure white.
“WELCOME TO THE REALMS, PLAYER_09.”
