A year before the isekai situation, a guild consisting of only twelve players discovered a hidden gem, an unfinished zone that had three main points of interest, number one; it was underwater.
Number two; it had a raid.
Number three; the fps averaged out at around thirty on minimal settings.
"Arascone: this is it! Throne of Poseidon!" he exclaimed.
"Arascone: The rumoured level 150 zone for the next expansion that never came!"
As they entered the swirling vortex they were met with a two-minute loading screen with the picture of a question mark and the text "How'd you get here, cowboy?" written in comic sans in rainbow colours.
After appearing they saw the massive stone tunnel leading into the distance, it was filled with water, the performance skyrocketed the moment they entered the instanced-off zone.
Around every corner were level one-hundred and fifty monsters with the elite status, meaning they would be impossible to take one-on-one for any normal players.
The eleven (Rarara was still disconnected) charged in, slaying ever oversized sea-prince, hydra and sentient sea sponge.
They cleared their way through every boss, obtaining gear they couldn't even equip and copious amounts of gold.
Pets and mounts as well as too many toy items to count.
Eventually, they made it to the final boss.
It was a giant humanoid NPC made from coral and water, swirling like a tornado.
"Osclo: LOOK AT IT'S HEALTH!"
"Suildly: I am not afraid of it, no matter how much health it has!"
"Osclo: It has over ten billion health!"
"Suildly: ...f*#k..."
"Arascone: Don't worry! That probably means minions will appear to help us, or we'll have to rush to some button to trigger a piece of the roof to explode and crush him for like a billion health or something."
"Osclo: Yeah, you're right!"
They all breathed a sigh of relief.
Four hours into the fight they were still doing little to no damage.
Arascone glanced down to the DPS meters.
Collectively they dealt "896,942,069 damage"
"Osclo: THIS IS TORTURE!"
Suddenly, the boss produced a might roar as the walls around it shattered and (in an already underwater raid) water poured in.
"Suildly: It's leaking water underwater!"
"Osclo: WHAT IS THIS, THE SPO*GEBOB CROSSOVER?!"
Moments later to roof collapsed revealing a massive vortex around the group.
A spell animation appeared around them as they transformed.
Arascone glanced to his status effect bar.
"Curse of the defiant sea king..."
"As you and your party struggle to defeat the boss, you find yourselves overcome with the strength from Poseidon, you are transformed into powerful ancestors of the Tide-kin (fish people)."
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Arascone: I knew there'd be a damage boost mechanic!"
Each class received a slightly different looking model for their fish-version.
On top of that, they all received four over-powered spells to use.
The group proceeded to defeat the boss in twenty minutes.
"Arascone: YEAH!"
"Osclo: Finally"
"Suildly: AHA! WE ARE VICTORIOUS!"
"GreiSceil: Noice"
"ToasterKun: *toaster noises*"
"ItsYaBoi: k"
"Token_female_character___sike_im_a_dude: We did it <3 !"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA: NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!"
"Sphagettard: U3U finally... you said this would be a quick one..."
"CrunchyWaterMage: Nice!"
"asdasdasdsdaasdBrokenKeaboardHelpasddassdaasdAAAAadsdasHELPasddsasad: :D"
That's was when they realised, everyone was still stuck as fish people.
They looked around for some item to fix them, they left and entered and re-entered the raid but nothing worked.
They were permanently stuck as fish-people.
No matter how many restarts, reinstalls and even pc reboots were done, nothing changed.
"Osclo: What the hell!? We're stuck?"
"Suildly: I would have never expected an incomplete raid to glitch out like this..."
"GreiSceil: Not noice"
"ItsYaBoi: ..."
"ToasterKun: *stressed-out toaster noises*"
"Arascone: ...I guess we should call a GM?"
"Osclo: Good idea!"
"Suildly: Wait, what if they ban us for going into the unfinished zone?!"
"Arascone: ...I just say we got here by accident!"
"Token_female_character___sike_im_a_dude: Guys... I'm getting scared ~^~, what if we lose our character!?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA: FUUUUUUUU*************#K"
"Sphagettard: WE'RE DOOMED!"
"CrunchyWaterMage: ..."
"asdasdasdsdaasdBrokenKeaboardHelpasddassdaasdAAAAadsdasHELPasddsasad: D:"
"Arascone: I'll send a support ticket..."
But no matter how long they waited, no reply came.
At first, it was hours... then a day... than multiple days.
At some point, they realised this was a permanent problem.
And so they decided to make the most of it and "fuck with the normies until the GMs do their job and un-fish them..."
Back in present times, day 13 of 0BI (before isekai)
JohnWillStab appeared on the beach and noticed that Jerry was already gone, August and Caesar were also nowhere to be seen.
"I guess the four hours are up... eh?" John thought before coughing up, even more, saltwater and a very terrified fish.
He rushed to the dungeon where Bonifacius and the rest of the party stood around.
"Hey! Are you guys done already?" asked John.
"JohnWillStab! Thou are alright!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
"Yeah, some weird guys appeared, told me to kill Foxly, but then I found out I just had to go to Kearudown and removed his dick from some pillar and you know how it goes..." John explained.
Bonifacius nodded whilst understanding none of what John was saying.
"We didn't actually finish the dungeon, Bony was worried about you so he dragged us all out..." Bromy sighed.
JohnWillStab looked at the party, Curstl was inching towards Bonifacius one step at a time.
Bromy was smoking, Bonifacius discretely inched away from Curstl.
Olivionion played with a newly acquired pair of daggers.
Alex was displaying his fancy golden ring.
Jordan was also smoking.
Beside Bromy stood the vampire, her face looking like a shrivelled up plum because of how hard she tried squinting to avoid the sun getting in her eyes.
"So, I guess this is the second time a group I was in failed to reach the end of a dungeon..." John laughed awkwardly.
"This is our chance! I'll invite them into the jGuardians! I'm sure they'd be grateful for all the help I offered!" Curstl thought as a smile spread across her face.
Seeing this, Bromy spoke up.
"Hey Bonifacius, shouldn't you invite John and his two buddies into the guild?"
"That's right!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
Curstl's expression shifted in an instant.
"Fuck, he saw through me again!" she thought.
"Yeah, I'm in!" John exclaimed.
"I'd like to join, but it's not like I'm a solo-team y'know..." Alexander replied awkwardly.
"Aww..." Revenberry aww'd internally.
"Me and Thal are a team! We can't be in separate guilds!"
Everyone looked at Alex in awe.
"Alex, the girl! Say something about her or she will stab you!" Thal told Alex internally.
"Huh, oh! OH SHIT!"
"Oh, and Revenberry of course!" he exclaimed.
"Than's buddy!"
"Yeah..." Thal replied.
"I don't mind, Revenberry and Thal are free to join!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
Revenberry looked to Alex and let out a sigh.
"Fine... but don't even think of sending me off alone to some dangerous mission!" she relented.
"I don't think I need to say this, but I'm joining if -" in a split second Thal said "my buddy" "AHEM! - Alex, is joining."
"What about thou, Jordan?" asked Bonifacius.
"Well, I'm going to be leaving to earth soon enough with any luck, so it's not like I'd stay in your guild for long," he laughed awkwardly.
"Tis no problem! Thou may remain as long as thou likes!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
Jordan scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Ehmm.. alright, I guess! Thanks!"
"Olivionion?"
"..." he stood there and scratched his chin.
"I think I'll pass... don't take it personally, but I'm not a fan of the Curstl."
"I AM TAKING THAT VERY PERSONALLY!" Curstl exclaimed.
Olivionion shrugged.
"You and I both, regardless, I respect your decision!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
"And that concludes out guild-expansion!" Bromy exclaimed.
"What about thou?" asked Bonifacius.
"Guess I can join!" Bromy replied.
"No thou! I am referring to the vampire!" Bonifacius said dismissively.
"Naturally, I must be present where my blood doner goes!" she exclaimed.
Bromy grabbed Bonifacius by the collar.
"What the hell, man!? Bros before hoes, Bromies before homies, remember! Why would you do me like that?! What the hell!? Do our years of friendship mean nothing to you?!"
That exact moment, Pedecree's group made it to the shore of Arlepia.