Ugh, my head's hurting so much. Feels like it's gonna split

A young brown-haired slim man in his mid twenties was sitting alone at what seemed like his local bar as the depressing aura around him repelled even the bartender from striking conversation. 

He lifted his head up from the wall of whiskey bottles built in the past hour or two spent in the bar. It's clearly not smart to spend hundreds on alcohol after losing your job but some people needed a way to relax from a shitty day or a shitty week.

His head rose from the pile of bottles and drinks, the features once hidden had now become visible. Youthful eyes and raised cheekbones. He looked to be in his early twenties, messy brown hair with dull grey eyes placed him as not the best looking man, but average. that with his slightly muscular build he sported, he was bound to be at least someone's crush at least that's what he thought.

Not long after lifting himself up, the door of the bar slammed open creating a loud slam, only to be quickly drowned out by the music playing. A group of three people strolled in, two males and a female. They looked around before they spot the man buried in whiskey bottles, "Hey Alex!" one of the males shouted from the entrance, waving his hand.

‘Alex’ turned from the counter leaving it at his back along with the whiskey wall, as he faced towards his three friends. Nodding his head, he spoke up in quite the bland tone while slightly slurring his words.

"Oh. Hi.. Mark"

Out of the two identical males, the one that responded seemed to be taller not by much but it was noticeable. They all made their way over as Mark sat on Alex's right and his brother, James sat on the left.

The female walking in between them ran up to Alex and gave him a tight hug. a slight blush covered his face as he said  "Hey Sasha, how are you?"

Sasha was too occupied being buried into his chest and wasn’t able to respond. Eventually she had finally let go after what felt like too long of a moment for just friends. "How am I doing? Great, but it should be how are you. You never drink since you got that day job.".

Her caramel hair shone in the light also revealing a small frame that carried around a tomboyish nature. "I'm doing fine, no longer got that job anymore so I thought I'd drink." He slurs out avoiding eye contact.

Sasha raised her voice in a slightly annoyed tone after scoffing. "No, you're not fine. What happened." she pouted her lips making the mood lighter as the group laughed lightly followed by a long deep sigh.

They all know once Sasha wanted something she would never give up. Alex gave in before any more pressuring, to save himself a headache really as he was already under the influence. They began talking for the next few hours, Mark and James ordered drinks while Alex was intercepted and put in his place every time by Sasha whenever he attempted to order.

A few hours passed and the stories came to an end. Alex had already started to sober up slightly while James and Mark were in awe and amazement to learn that one of their best friends was a celebrity. Sasha got visibly angry on Alex's behalf after hearing what happened to him.

She raised her voice abruptly after Alex finished speaking. "What absolute assholes. Not only did they team up to beat you, they threatened your guild members to betray you?! This asshole… If I ever get my hands on this guy, i-i'll shove my fist so far up his ass that people will think somethings trying to burst out of his stomach!"

Alex blinked several times as he wasn’t sure whether it was the alcohol talking to him instead of Sasha. He sighed loudly before standing up and deciding to leave, afterall, he had been sat there drinking for hours.

As he was leaving, he heard the annoyed voice of Sasha almost screaming out. "You're not going to let him trample over you like that are you!"

A sigh escaped his lips once again as he murmurs under his breath. "What else can I do..."

He found his way home after a long bus ride and a little walk before opening the door to his apartment. A neat place with two bedrooms, a master bedroom and a spare; a large bathroom that has a shower and a bathtub. A kitchen and a room specifically made for laundry and cleaning. For a twenty year old, he is living in a largely expensive complex to say the least. Moving into the living room he turns on the T.V, switching the channel before he reached a channel he urgently stopped on.

The T.V depicted a war scene from the VRMMORPG game Conquest!. The notorious guild leader of Hell's Gate, Hydra. stood in a corpse-ridden battlefield, alone. The once silver armour now in shambles, broken apart and covered in cuts and wounds. Dark crimson liquid seeped through the cracks of his armour onto the ground. He stood panting, his eyes darting around as the moon rises in the sky.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Player Hydra Level: 100 sub-Level: ??? Class: Magi-Knight sub-Class ??? Guild Master of Hell's Gate

A tall figure reveals itself from the darkness, the moonlight shone over him revealing the blonde locks and the bright red armour he donned, in his hand was a longbow; quiver by his side as he whistled a cheery tune unfitting for the dank atmosphere.

Player Red Star Level: 100 sub-Level: ??? Class: Plated Archer sub-Class: ??? Guild Master of The Red Night

Blood coughed out as he sputtered "You finally showed up after sending waves of players after us, Red Star...."

"Haha, why should we give up the number advantage Hydra?" RedStar chuckled, ending the sharp and playful whistling tune.

A deadlock had spawned by two of the greatest players staring straight into each other's eyes; only broken by the sounds of blades clashing in the distance, followed by a set of gazes darting over in the direction of the sounds. Hydra raised his blade towards the sky, his right hand gripped tightly on the handle of a tower shield by his side.

The stained silver greaves dashed forward. Gripping the short sword, Hydra raised it as he ducked, dodging an arrow that spiralled past his right ear. Grunting, he powered forward splattering blood on his path as he readied his blade, a sharp whistle resonated through the air as another arrow flew towards Hydra. Soon to be a loud scrape as the shortsword clashed against the arrow, deflecting it to the side.

Arrows began to scatter to his side leaving an abundance of iron and wood behind Hydra as he charged forward. His shield rose up slamming an arrow straight off of its course. A look of rage filled his face as he arrived before the man in red armour.

"INTERCEPT!" echoed from the dark as a feminine figure appeared from the bushes. A bright red light flashed forward as Hydra’s arm felt a jolt and began to spasm, ultimately disarming him and robbing him of his shortsword.

Hydra eyed up the new arrival. "Finally showed up huh."

The woman in green smiled lightly as the bright blue screen reveals her identity.

Player Sparrow in the Wind Level: 100 sub-Level: ??? Class: Knight Paladin sub-Class: ??? Guild Master of Green Mellow's

 The T.V cut the video feed there as it turned to two people sitting in a well-lit studio, the room was very neatly set up. Standing in front of the camera was a woman wearing a sexy red one-piece dress.

Her voice rang out "That's all we are showing for the clip today as it's a still up on the forums. It's quite sad one of the highest ranking players and the highest ranked guild had to face three of the top five guilds..."

In Conquest, when a player was killed, they received the penalty of losing a level and also have a chance to drop their equipment. The guild members of Hell's Gate would have been spawn camped all the way down to level 1 unless they agreed to leave the guild and betray Hydra, the guild master who was previously known as "War General Hydra" because he had never lost a guild war.

"One by one his guild members left and were forced to join new guilds leaving hydra and only a few people to defend the guild which made it harder to fight back. Only his most loyal members stayed and were punished along with hydra all the way down to Lvl 1 in the starting town."

"Well enough of that... I happen to have news, we're doing a special countdown till the year anniversary of Conquest. But not only that! I have some hidden news.... they are planning on releasing a new server when it hits midnight!"

Alex paused his T.V screen in shock and rewinded it back, it started to play again as he confirms that it wasn't in his head. This was incredible! A new chance had arrived for him to become the greatest once again! Alex got up and rushes towards his virtual pod or VP as most people call them and got in.

The TV carried on playing in the background as the woman began the countdown to midnight. The crowd started to shout as many other players also did in their homes, this was amazing news and would bring in a whole new bunch of players who could now start from the bottom along with everyone else.

"FIVE!"

"FOUR!"

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

The virtual pod starts up as a soft female voice responds to Alex who's inside.

Welcome back Hydra

Scanning account.

Level One character found would you like to server transfer.