Game On

My entire life I felt like I lived in the shadows. I was irrelevant to everyone's lives. I was tossed aside when I was done being used, I was ignored by everyone, and I felt no purpose of living in this world. Any memory I grasped onto from my past felt fake. I got used to living in the shadows, but I desperately searched for a way to enter the sunlight. Generally, most people have an escape from reality. Whether it's being bullied in school or living a lonely life at home, people try to find a hobby or just, anything, to take away the pain even if it's temporary. But for me, I don't feel that pain. I have no parents to come home to every day and I have no friends waiting for me at school. Yet that's okay with me. I've learned to hate and loath everyone around me whether I know them or not. I depend on nobody because that just gives me more weaknesses. I prefer to be alone. I prefer to not be thrown aside and feel the ache of losing someone I love again. Being distant was my salvation.  But I did have something I was passionate about to pass time. I loved video games more than anything else in this world. Living in year 2050 is so much better to the past for games. Growing up, I always enjoyed reading books and trying out the old games people enjoyed throughout the early 2000s. It was mind blowing honestly. Most people my age still can't grasp their minds around it. There was no virtual reality games. I questioned how people could even enjoy themselves playing games without having their actual body involved. In the world now, there are only virtual reality games. We hang out with our friends through these games so we can hide our true appearances and we can't get interrupted by our parents. I loved it, but I didn't play the games to just socialize or anything. I haven't ever spoken to anyone in any virtual reality game I was involved in.  Today was the grand release of the newest virtual reality game, Fly High. They've been in production of this game for years, and many people were extremely hyped for this. That's why I'm so excited, for once, to come home from hell. Wait, sorry, I meant school. Even though I know it will be the same routine every day, where I rush through the front door and nobody is there to ask me how my day went or even welcome home. My life was solitary. I live with my aunt, who works the whole day and then gets wasted every night. She doesn't even end up coming home since she's off banging some old geezer at a club. I was kind of okay with that though. I can't complain with less interactions for me. I don't live with my parents either. I was kicked out 4 years ago when I was 13. I don't think I ever did anything wrong to make them hate me. I was just unwanted. That's what I've always been though. Unwanted. I've already done a lot of research about Fly High. It's an RPG, or a role-playing game. Everyone is given their own character and have to build any specific class. The objective is to train against monsters and complete missions given by NPCs, and clear each floor. You start on floor 0, and the goal is to complete all 101 floors. Each floor has different themes such as desert, or forest for example. To fully complete a floor there is a boss at the end. This floor boss is exponentially tougher than any other monster you'll encounter on the floor. You'll be able to travel to any floor you've completed through a teleporter that resides on each floor. The most important thing for any gamer getting into an RPG is learning how to build each class properly. There are five classes: Paladin, Lancer, Archer, Mage, and Cleric.  There are two builds for paladins. The first is a very strong defensive build where they defend their teammates from enemy attacks. The second build is a high offensive build where they wield a sword and do a large amount of physical damage to enemies. Lancers have strictly one build. They're very fast and have an insanely high attack stat. They're weak defensively, but the point is to dodge all the monster attacks and then deal multiple attacks. Archers also have two builds. As an archer, you can either build on your offensive completely, this results in a high damage output with both physical and magical attack. On the other hand, you can make your archer set completely on buffing your teammates. Archers have the best buffs in the game. Mages are long distance fighters that specialize in using magical attacks of certain elements. Similar to lancers, they have weak defenses, but the damage output is very high. Lastly, clerics are the class that are only used for healing. They're very strong defensively and magic defensively and have a large amount of HP (health points).  I played the beta version of this game. It only had the first 10 floors and only 100 people were able to get into beta testing this game. There were rankings of who could complete the ten floors in record time. It pissed me off, but I got second place. I never met the person who ranked first. I never saw them once. All I know was that their in game name was Tempest. Since I did beta test the game, I do feel like I'll have an advantage when the game starts today. I'm going to solo this entire game and rank first. I won't let this Tempest person beat me this time.  A loud car horn shook me from my thoughts. I knew the noise wasn't intended for me, it never is. I look up and realized I had spaced out right at my front door. I probably looked crazy standing here staring at a door for several minutes. I quickly pulled out my key and unlocked the door. I rush in and sigh softly. I'm home, is what I wanted to say, but there was nobody here anyway. I drop my backpack beside the door and run up the stairs to my bedroom. My whole gaming setup was in here, and I wanted to be one of the first people to enter Fly High.  When I entered my room, my eyes fixated on the helmet resting on my desk. That helmet was going to send me into a new world, on a new adventure. Usually when I get home I just rush into the game, but something felt strange in my stomach. Why am I hesitating? I looked forward to this for years. My eyes reach the clock that was hanging on the wall. 2:25 pm. Barely anyone would be online since school was still happening, I just ditched my last class to be here early. I only intended to stay online for a few hours too so I could get back to finish up my homework in time. I felt someone staring at me. I immediately looked out the window and saw someone on the street looking at me. He had black hair and clothes on. Like a black cloak maybe. I blinked, and he was gone. I must be going crazy.  I ignored that weird interaction and shut my curtains to ensure nothing creepy would happen while I'm online. When you enter a virtual reality, your real body falls asleep but your conscious is awake in game. I sit down on my gamer chair and grab the helmet. Just before I put it on, I look back at my bed and notice my small pink teddy bear sitting there as it always does.  "I'll be home soon, I promise." I said softly before putting the helmet on my head. I blinked, and I was somewhere else. When I appeared, I was in a large plaza. I remember this place well. Floor 0, the easiest floor obviously. But it also specializes in stores. There were item and weapon shops throughout the market area. It's a very peaceful area to be in. I already created my avatar ahead of time so I wouldn't have to go through it today. My character had silver hair that went down to about my mid back. I also had grey eyes. The class that I play is lancer. It's a good class for solo play as I don't really have to depend on anyone healing me or taking hits for me either. There was 750 people online at the moment. There was about 1.2 million people who bought this game so it's really empty at the moment. Just as I was about to go to the weapon shop, I felt someone grab my arm. I immediately shook them off and glared in their direction. I hated it when anyone touched me. I notice a guy in front of me and I felt deja vu or something. I recognized him. But from where? He looked at me slowly, there was a little smile on his face. "You're Juniper, right? You got 2nd place on the beta version." He said to me still with that stupid smile on his face. I didn't say anything for a few seconds.  "How do you know that? Creep." I replied back still glaring at him. My in game name was Juniper, which had almost nothing to do with my real name. I just thought the name was a nice one. I looked at his appearance. He had brown hair and these brown eyes that were actually kind of attractive.  "Well, a lot of people know you but you never talk to anyone. I wanted to talk to you so bad during the beta version but you were constantly focused on beating the game." He chuckled before reaching his hand out to me. "It's nice to meet you though, Juniper." I ignored his hand and he put it down after a few seconds. So he played the beta version. I decided to walk away since I had no intention in making friends. "Hey, wait! I'll see you around?" He called me back, sounding kind of desperate. I looked back with the same passive look I like having on my face when talking to anyone.  "Probably not." I said back and continued to walk away. In a flash, he was somehow in front of me. I step back in surprise. How did he get here so quickly? Who is this guy? "Listen to me Juniper. You'll struggle if you do this alone, at least think about teaming up with me at some point. Even if you're not comfortable having others around, it can be just us. I don't want you to do this alone again." He said to me causing me to be confused. Why would this guy even care about me? We don't even know each other. I looked up at him and glared at him once again. I hate talking to people and this guy just won't leave me alone. "I don't need help." I replied and I notice his face fall a little. Stupid guy. He had a bow on the back of this cloak he was wearing. So he's an archer. Suddenly, the sky started to grow darker and darker. It almost turned dark purple. That's weird. There's usually never anything this bad or scary on floor 0. Especially this soon. There were 1000 people online exactly. I could hear people around me panicking. The mystery guy with me grabs my hand and pulls me along with him. I was going to fight it but I was genuinely curious to see what he was up to. He stopped in front of a group of people and asked why they're freaking out and crying. A small blonde girl looks at us. "We can't log out. Nobody can, we're stuck in this game!" She exclaimed in tears. My eyes grew wide and I immediately tried to log off myself. Error, cannot logout until completion. Until completion? What did that even mean? I could tell the mystery guy also attempted to logout. His face was full of confusion. Thunder struck and an extremely bright lightning came down. It blinded me for a second. When I could see again there was a man in the middle of the plaza. I gasp in recognition. It was the guy outside of my house only a little while ago. Something bad was happening. It couldn't just be a coincidence. "1000 gamers! 1000 lives at stake! Welcome to Fly High. You must've realized you can't sign out of the game. You're probably scared that you won't return home. And do know, that you're most likely right. Nobody else will be signing in, it's just the 1000 of you." The man started off and then laughed like a maniac. We can't go home? What is going on? Cannot logout until completion... did that actually mean.. "You're probably wondering what's going on! Allow me to explain! My name is Drayko, I'm the main developer of this game. I decided to create a game to experiment if humans really are worth anything. You can't sign out, and you can't force your way out either. The only way to go home, is to beat all 101 floors." There were loud complaints and arguments at that statement. I couldn't even react. God know how long it would take to beat this game. It took a month to finish 10 floors and those were the easiest ones!  "You can use anything to beat each floor boss. I don't care what it is. Let me explain the rules. Choose your class, team up, I don't care what it takes. Play this game the way it was meant to be played, but know this. If you die in game, if you lose all your HP, you will die in real life." I completely froze, That was impossible. We couldn't actually.. die.. from a game. It was the first time in my life I actually was scared. I felt as if I stood in front of deaths door. This man. Drayko. He had full control of our lives now. He could end us in a second. I was scared. I didn't want to die. I had nobody at home for me, and I knew that but, I always dreamed of living in the light instead of the shadows.  I looked up and notice everyone was trying to attack Drayko but nothing was effective. It was as if there was a barrier around him and everything was useless against him. He turned his head and locked eyes with me. Just like earlier today, I stared back but this time I was in fear. He starts to walk in my direction and I almost ran away in fear, but my legs were so weak that I couldn't even move. He stopped about 3 feet away from me and smirked. "The cute girl I saw just before the game begun, how interesting." I couldn't get any words out in response. He was about to take another step forward, but mystery guy stepped between us. I was terrified. Was he trying to die? "Drayko, back off before I make you." He said it so venomously, it made me wonder if he was the same person from before. Drayko let out a loud laugh at this. "How so very interesting. Better keep her safe, I like this one a lot." And then with that, he vanished. The dark skies cleared up to the bright blue it was before. People once again tried to sign out and failed.  The information began to sink in. It's an endless adventure. One mess up and I'll be dead. I'll never be able to return home and try to live a different life than I had wanted. "Juniper." I heard mystery guy say my name. There was concern in his eyes. I realized this guy was stronger than I am. He didn't look even remotely frightened. He stood up and protected me when I was scared out of my mind. "You said.. I could be partners with you?" I asked kinda shyly at this point. Being stuck with someone. The thought made me question that strong individual I was at home. But being stuck with this guy? Maybe it'd be kind of fun.  A smile appeared on his face and he nodded all excited. "Of course! We're gonna get out of here Juniper, I promise. Both of us will." Somehow, I actually believed his words this time. I smile back softly and add him to my friend list. It was weird. He could take my fears away so easily.  "Juniper. Don't freak out okay?" He said a little nervous now. I looked at him weirdly and nodded slightly anyway. "My uh, my in game name is Tempest." Silence. I was silent for a few seconds as I let it sink in. In front of me, was the guy who ranked 1st. This klutz ranked.. first? "You don't have to look so surprised! I look mighty tough, I know!" I smacked his head and laughed at that. Me and Tempest were starting our adventure. Our eternal adventure. Floor 0. I'm still going to be rank 1. I'm just going to have some help along the way. Drayko won't beat us. He won't win this game. I never lose. Drayko. Game on.