THE MOMENT
Joseph woke up that morning with the same kind of dread that accompanied every dawn. He wasn't looking forward to another day of pretending to be normal. He'd built a quiet life for himself. He was successful in business and a single homeowner with no familial attachments. And it was all a lie to hide who he truly was.
“Welcome to the AlterNet.” A soft, feminine voice filled the air as a glassy slate took shape in front of him. It hovered mid-air over the black silk sheets, with the text displayed in gold letters. Below it was a summary paragraph explaining what was happening.
“Your reality has been updated. The world now functions similarly to MMO titles in various ways. Please create your character to begin the Tutorial,” he read it and eyed the ‘continue’ button.
“If this is real… I probably don't need to go into work…,” he thought about it for a moment, then pressed the button.
Two hours later, Joseph felt more alive than ever before. He was now a certified ‘Berserker’ searching for a good first test of his skills. The tutorial was more comprehensive than he imagined, and now wandering downtown, he could see how much things had changed.
Small skirmishes seemed to be happening everywhere. Knights fought mages, and more unusual classes he wasn't familiar with battled each other as he passed.
He'd found it difficult to believe as he went through the process. It felt like a dream come true. Violence was not only accepted, it was actively encouraged. Joseph designed his life in a very specific way to avoid complications. He was making an effort to make it easy to disappear should he ever need to. He'd never actually committed a violent crime, but only because he was patient. He'd been waiting for the perfect opportunity to embrace his bloodlust, and it came in the most unexpected way possible. He was free to kill anyone he wanted now.
Joseph wasn't going to waste his first kill with random deadliness. He wanted it to be deliberate, and he wanted it to be special. Then, he saw her.
A young woman with a purple fauxhawk wearing a black leather duster moved between the ongoing chaos. She stood out because she wasn't fighting anyone, but she still seemed interested in passing by every group intent on murdering each other. Then, he noticed she was touching the combatants. He watched her as she moved from battle to battle and he realized what was happening.
"She's a thief!" He said it loudly, but there was so much yelling and clanging of metal along with the crackling of spells that there was no one to notice. Still, he wasn't trying to attract attention to her, he was making up his own mind. The world was different now, and there would be no room for thieves like her going forward. He made his way toward her as she continued to pickpocket everyone in reach.
Maybe it was all the noise, or maybe she was a bad thief. Whatever the case, Jospeh wasn't going to waste an opportunity. He somehow managed to sneak up behind her while she was moving between marks, and he did not hesitate to let his axe fly, straight at her neck.
"Yeah?" The axe bounced off her neck like he'd struck a tree with a rubber mallet, and she turned to look up at Joseph.
"Why.. what?" He was too confused. Was it a thief skill? He used his deadliest skill and swung with enough force to remove her head entirely. She smiled and shook her head.
"Skimmed through the rules a bit too fast, huh?" she winked. "If you want to fight someone, you have to challenge them, like this," she said. As she proposed the question, a notification appeared in Joseph's view.
[J.J. has challenged you to a duel.]
[Accept?]
"Thanks for the tip," Joseph was already swinging his axe again, and he accepted the duel at the last second. The axe cleaved her in half, exactly as he intended, except he let go of the handle instantly. There was no blood, a black swarm rushed out as the rest of her body changed into a mass of skittering spiders that climbed onto him from the axe and the floor. They were in his armor, and he could feel thousands of tiny needles poking him all over. He flailed, screamed, and panicked, but there were too many.
"I didn't even get to kill anyone...," the pain was overcome by numbness, and his vision started going black. He knew he'd lost. He was about to die without ever having accomplished his dream. It was a depressing end, but he tried to make peace with it at the end as his vision finally went completely black. He lost all sensation of his body.
[Respawn in 3...]
"Respawn?" a confusing feeling took shape.
[Respawn in 2...]
"Ohhh.... it's just like a game...," he realized what that meant.
[Respawn in 1...]
It wasn't the new world he wanted at all. If it was like a game, he couldn't kill just anyone. He needed to engage them in PvP. And that wasn't even the worst part.
[Respawning.]
There was sudden light again, and Joseph was in his bed. "Stupid RPG mechanics...," he grumbled. His Slate hovered in front of him, but he dismissed it with a casual wave and rolled over to go back to sleep as an existential depression took over.
"What fun is it killing someone if they won't stay dead?"