News Anchor: “Welcome to Capitol 1 News, I’m Todd Packeringtonworth. Our top story tonight. The man in the stars. The story continues for the first Astronaut to inhabit the ISS on their own. The launch and docking of the Falcon 12 resupply drone was a huge success, and a world first in autonomous space travel. Today we’ll be the first to broadcast footage from Captain Jim Rey…..
With a buzz and crackle the TV turned off.
A tall slender man glided across the room, avoiding his precisely decorated table whilst flowing his hands through the air. His smile crept in with an eerie calmness. He lent down towards a record player and gently placed Chopin - Nocturn op.9 No.2 onto the turntable. This was his ritual.
With a sway and a glide in his movements, he spun his chair in dance with himself.
CLICK. WOOOSH. BEEP.
The sound of a very overpriced and high end gaming PC booted into life. The RGB lights lit up the dusty corner of the room. Just before he slid on his headset a groan and the clang of leather on metal rattled across the room.
“Quite!!!!!, this is not the time” with a cracked breath his attention turned back to the screen, it was time for his real enjoyment to start, time to conquer the dungeon of all dungeons.
“Don’t worry dear, I’ll be with you in around 6 hours, 5 if everything goes well. Just go back to sleep.”
With a chime of low-fi medieval fantasy music the screen awoke fully.
A crest formed in a soft guided swoosh of calligraphy.
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Welcome player.
Enter…. Kaldoria Beyond?
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The man entered the game, his level 97 demonic knight druid loaded into existence and he spawned in his guild tavern. “The Mucky Duck” was his second home, his second life.
The level 100 mythic ranked dungeon with his guild was in sight. 2 years since the game’s release and not one player had completed the quest. With promises of mythical ranked gear and rumours of secret bonus content this was the be all and end of Kaldoria.
With a group of 15 players, he joined the rest of the misfit gang in the portal chamber.
“Enter if you dare” Boomed the voice of the Ai overlord.
A pop up appeared.
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WARNING: If this dungeon is failed to be cleared you and your party will incur losses of experience equal to:
… Calculating based on party attributes, skills, items and affinity…
74,897 Experience. EACH.
WARNING: Any items destroyed in this Dungeon will be lost forever.
“Enter Dungeon?”
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With a howl of wind the team were pulled into the centre as a crack of thunder roared.
***
As the blur of his respawn screen took over everything in his sight, the man buried his head in his hands.
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If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Notification.
Quest failed.. Your time till re-entry to this dungeon is set to: 60 days.
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8 hours… 8 hours of grinding, battling horde upon horde of goblins and blood-gnomes, traversing the ridiculous amount of platform puzzles and that was it, the mine of murainter had beaten them. Mythic potions lost, his legendary cloak lost, his mount lost, his guild broken to the point of separation and nothing to show for it, not a single gold, a single reward or a single ability enhanced.
“What the fuck!!!! Jackson you fucked us, you fully Leeroy’d the last round of ads and fucked us. You cocky little shit!!!! Why? We planned this for weeks, you fucking asshole!”
In a looming ache of his back the man’s demeanour changed. He un-hunched in his chair with his long dark hair draped down over his face. His dirty, blood stained fingernails digging into the mold ridden desk. “Oooh when I find you, when I find you.. You have no idea! I’m going to…. going to….”
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Guide Chat Message:
Milfhunter9000: Long live the MilfLords.. Peace out suckers! :P
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His eye’s shot to the screen, enraged and unblinking.
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Notification:
You died…
Experience lost: 74,897
Levels lost: 4
Value of gear lost: 42,488 Gold, 1882 Silver, 182 Copper and 12 Nickels.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guild Notification:
Milfhunter9000 removed 1,867,290 Gold from the vault.
Milfhunter9000 removed 26 Legendary Items from the vault.
Milfhunter9000 left your guild.
Milfhunter9000 is now designated “Thief and Deserter”
MilfHunter9000’s reputation with your guild is now “Sworn Enemy (IDST)”
Guild Notification:
Your guild is now in a Blood Feud with the guild MilfLords.
Guild Notification:
Warning… Guild moto changed to “Please, spare your change”
You’ve failed to pay your dues and guild tax, the crown cannot retrieve funds from your vault.
Guild Notification:
Warning… Your Guild assets have been seized by the crown as collateral. Including your town and guild hall. Your respawn point has been reset to “The Newcomers Rest”, Kaldoria.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With a smash of his keyboard the man rose from his desk. The hatred visibly seething from his pores. His hand shaking from the shock he was enduring, he lowered his arms as he flung his chair back across the room with a kick of his boot.
Bloody nails left behind in the desk, the man stood. His silent tearing eyes turned slowly with his head across the room. His physical wounds were incomprehensible to the pain searing through his mind as he calmly dropped his headset onto the floor.
With a splash of blood across the wall he turned, arms now at full width, he let out a roaring wail and with the movement of a ravenous zombie bolted across the room, over to his dining table and the women tied to it.
A metallic CRACK rang out throughout the room as a muted scream resonated with the clang of metal. A harmonic nightmare of a noise to anyone not a serial killing cannibal, but pure ecstasy to him.
He dropped her skull, his eyes enraged as he focused on her… his 19th.. and the only thing in this moment, no in this whole hellish real world that made him feel anything. He needed this.
Before it began a moment of silence blanketed the room, filled with the hiss of a broken computer screen and a wobbling LP of Chopin slowing to a stop. Then the frenzy came. He dug into her brain with his raw fingers and stuffed the meat into his mouth.
As soon as her life left her, the woman's eyes filled with a rumbling purple light. Her body started to vibrate, her skin toughened into a metallic sheet as the light built and built. The Aurora of light from her eyes, mouth, palms… and now brain hole, began to burn the air surrounding the table. As fierce as the light from a supernova, it exploded from her body leaching itself on its new host.
The man, no matter how twisted, how wrong, how inhuman.. Was still a mortal man. This energy was not for the likes of Humans to hold and it engulfed him, boiling the blood in his veins as it washed through and around him.
In those last moments his thoughts turned to the only thing that filled his life with true moments of happiness. Doing this deed month in and month out wasn’t a happy experience, it was a necessity. His mind turned to Kaldoria…
And with a flash, the room, the building, the city was gone and purple energy rose beyond the skyline into the black night.