So there I was staring at the death icon again. This was the 10th wipe for the night, I was getting seriously tired of full party wipes. Whoever designed the boss mechanics in this “game” was a sadist. Over our team speak. I could hear multiple guild mates arguing over who’s fault it was. “Damn tanks can’t hold agro." Tanks are the warriors designed to run in, piss off the boss. Than keep a monster focused on them, rather than running amok among the group. “I can’t tank with you damn mages blowing up his face, without letting me getting at least 1 hit in first!!” “Ppfftt learn to agro bro, at least you got heals. I took so much damage, I only got 1 heal!!" It was the same argument in every mmorpg, massively multi-player online role playing game. Everyone has heard some version of the debate between tanks/damage dealers/healers. If everyone worked together to do their job, we would win every fight. But that is not human nature.

As for me my role was a healer, a holy priest to be exact. My characters, name is Obgyn. But most of my friends called me Oby. I know the name is a bit odd. But the way I saw it, it wasn’t against community standards. Because if you knew what it meant you were old enough, if not…i didnt explain.

I had always played a long range damage dealer, in most online games. I played a mage, or warlock. But my current guild had a lack of healers to advance towards end game raids. So I had sacrificed my warlock, to start a priest. The great thing about being a healer is they are always in demand. No dungeon, or raid could even be considered without them. The bad news, they did shit for damage. So leveling up solo is damn near impossible. With a bit of help from my friends, I had power leveled to max level in just a couple weeks.

I was still learning how to heal a large group. Especially those that thought they were immortal while wearing cloth…standing in fire. They just couldn't seam to understand the basic concept that fire = bad. Before I could try settling the argument down into something more manageable. Our main tank Donaven yelled “Screw you guys” suddenly logging out of the game. “Umm Oby what do we do now? He was our only tank?” With him gone the raid was done. So I called it, “Ok guys, and gals. Looks like the raid is done for the night. Let’s try to learn from this fight. What works, what doesn't, and fire bad.” Chuckeling could be heard in the back ground. “This raid resets on Wednesday so let’s try to get as much grinding done until than, to improve your gear as much as possible. Please have all consumables ready for next week." We all started teleporting to safe city’s around the world logging off.

I removed my VR connect headgear being very careful of the synapse plug in the rear. “I don’t need a new scratch that gets infected. The last time it removed me from the game for a week." I lifted up the pod cover, with the small in rushing of air, I caught a whiff of myself. It caused me to blanch. I know the stereotype of a gamer is a heavy set loser, who smells bad. Which in some cases is not true, unfortunately this was one of the times it was.

I padded softly over to the fresher station while removing the haptic skin suit. Little nanites scuddeled all over me, 5 seconds later I was clean. Not as comforting as a long hot bath, but with the cost of water rising so high lately. Only the rich could afford real water showers, let alone a bath.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The introduction of vr games was slow at first, all the graphic's were blocky. Not at all realistic. Than a medical breakthrough emerged, of a synaptic chip inserted into the brain. For paraplegic patients to experience walking, it was a miracle. Within 5 months it was introduced for vr games, that was the end of leaving your home for anything. You could go to virtual schools, or get paid to advertise your gaming exploits. Me..I was just making ends meet by the few fans I had. I know I needed to get some sleep, but first food.

As I was shuffling towards the kitchen to reheat some leftover pizza… I did still have pizza yes?… grumbling along I wasn’t paying attention. I stubbed my foot on the self driving vacuum my mother had forced upon me. The pain was immediate and sharp, I screamed out loud, and hard. I looked down to see the nail on my biggest toe was strange. As I looked closer, my brain did the mental math to decode during the pain. I noticed the nail was at a 45 degree angle of my toe. Somehow once I realized how bad the injury was, the pain ratcheted up a couple more notches.

I stumble hopped over to my recliner, grabbing my ankle to pull my foot closer to truly inspect the damage. Yes I know don't touch it! But im a guy we are stupid like that. Something ingrained into our DNA says “touch it” As my hand got closer, a faint glow appeared around it. The pain disappeared… wait what? Had I healed myself? With… magic? But that’s impossible my character was a healer not me. Magic wasn’t real… was it?

Truly dumbstruck for the first time in my life. I couldn’t process what had just happened. Had my hands really glowed? Was I even injured? Am I going crazy? A plethora of cascading and confusing thoughts ran through my head. Each more crazy than the next, but there in front of me, was a perfect toe. The toenail was normal.

What did this mean? Did I have superpowers? …or more likely I just stubbed my toe, and a shadow confused me. That seamed allot more likely, than a game giving me powers. But a small part of me wished it was true. Just something to say “Hey I exist, im special!!” Convinced I had imagined it, I continued to the kitchen. This time glaring at the puke green paint of the automatic vacuum. Gifts are nice, I loved my mother but puke green!! Why did she have to get it in that color? The oblivious machine beeped, rolling away.

Now somewhat mollified at putting the homicidal, genocidal robot in its place. I opened my fridge to see what wonders awaited me. Sighing I saw a whole lot of nothing. A half bottle of ketchup.. was ketchup supposed to be brown? I wasn’t sure, but was not going to touch it. I didnt want to find out if it had developed sentience. After doing the obligatory fifteen second back, and forth scan to prove to myself that. No, I had not missed the invisible food. I closed the door, sighing again.

Five minutes later I discovered my cupboards were bare as well. “Wow I am really proving how pathetic a bachelor I am” I groaned. Sitting back down on my recliner, I started trying to think about which would be worse. Going out to buy food, at a store five miles walking distance. Or ordering pizza. Ya that was not a hard choice. I reached over to grab my only landline telephone. It was an antique, also a gift from my mother. Never one for joining the future, my mother believed in solid old school technology. Things that still worked, but barely. I wouldn’t be surprised if she still had a box of 8 tracks somewhere in storage, just waiting for it to be the new ‘it’ thing again.

I hit the on button and hit the speed dial. While I ordered my usual sausage with black olives. My mind kept going back to the glow. Was it a figment of my imagination? Did I have any way to prove it happened one way, or another… nope. So I could either obsess over a fuzzy memory brought about by a stubbed toe, or try to get on with my life. Granted my life of luxurious bachelorhood was depressing if I thought too hard on it. So I just tried tucking it away in the past file of my brain, hoping I could convince myself not to obsess about something new.