The rain finally broke, and the thick clouds along with it. The ring of mountains were exposed to the sunlight, the craggy peaks sparkling in the distance with fresh snowfall. The camera zoomed out, allowing me to fully appreciate the scene at hand. There must have been thousands of warriors on the march, the chewed up earth giving evidence to thier passage. The column was condensing and reforming into battle formation, responding to the shouts of commanders evenly spaced throughout thier ranks. Shield-bearers to the front lines, paired with pikemen a row behind. Sword and axe wielding brutes made up the middle of the formation, while the archers formed orderly lines behind all of that. The camera rushed off the the south, flanking the main force. Here there was cavalry, an impressive 400 armoured steeds, riders attached of course, the entire group led by a 9 and a half foot tall centaur. A large shadow fell across him, passing quickly, followed by a few dozen others. Ahhh, the gryphons have arrived! Of course the army of the Bronze King would have mobile naval forces, but I digress. Worthy of mention as well were the company of mages, roughly a hundred in number. Thier bright red robes did not flutter in the wind. They must already have thier barriers up. The powerful users of magic could provide defensive barriers to allies and strong elemental attacks against thier foes. Leading the army like a true hero was the Bronze King himself, surrounded by his honor guard. These 99 were trained from birth for war, and the king was individually the most powerful member of the assembled forces. Quite impressive, if I may say so. The forced cutscene finishes playing, and my vision is returned to my body. I am crouched at the foot of the mountains, the army only about a half-mile away from my location and closing in quickly. They seem to be pretty upset about something. Or someone. I can't be bothered for it now, as I am finishing my final preparations. A horn sounds, no less than a quarter mile from my position now. The ground trembles with the passing of so many feet, the air full of the sounds of armour on the move. The cavalry thunders into view, horses frothing and being driven at a full charge. The air sizzles with the buildup of mana nearby, chain lightening and fireballs being conjured and readied. A piercing call comes from the lead gryphon, and they soar high overhead, preparing the falling attacks that were so dangerous. A force like this could conquer a continent. It would be able to gain Legendary status, have bards singing about them for all the ages... I finally am bothered to stand up. I guess it is time. It's all going to end like this, you see. Mere seconds before horses run me down, a blinding light flashes in the sky overhead. The explosion that follows levels the landscape, instantly turning the skyline into a flat, burning nightmare. I guess I was right, this is the end. I expect that I only have a few seconds left to pull up the combat log, so I do just that. It had been minimized after all. 

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

*You cast Annihilation - All life within a 5 mile radius extenguished (Caster exempt)

A bell tolls, and my combat log is automatically removed from view. A melodius voice interrupts. 'CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE BRONZE KING!' Credits begin to speed by, announcing the development team and lead "AI" that was supposedly running the engine for this game. I pull up my player interface as soon as I possibly can and smash the logout button. The custom interface fills my senses again, my own personalized hub of sorts within my pod. I lean back onto a soft leather virtual recliner as I blow out a sigh. I can't believe how lame that was. I had been waiting on this game for the past two years, really the entire gaming world had. This was supposed to be the peak of human technology, a MMOVRPG that was so immersive you couldn't distinguish it from real life. Those type of features were really nice, I had to admit, but the actual gameplay itself simply left me bored. I was quite the walking contradiction it seemed, and as much as I loved gaming, I absolutely hated all of the available games. This one was supposed to be different, they said. There was even an optional Full Moon difficulty rating you could start the game with, which I did as a matter of principle. This super hard mode forced your starting race as an orc, and the entire storyline was different. As oppposed to saving the kingdom, your goals were to destroy it. The developers boasted that the AI in control of the gameworld was running on a quantum server, and was unhackable. But alas, it was lame like the rest of them. I saved up thousands of dollars to purchase my spot on the waiting list, wanting to be one of the first to explore this brave new land. It only took me two weeks to beat the game. In the end, it was just like the hundreds of other titles organized neatly into the storage files of my pod, a game world with exploits, shortcuts, and no real level of true difficulty. Play as an orc? Big deal. What's the difference between a racing game where you can build yourself a faster car than your opponents and fantasy world that lets an orc learn such an OP spell? Not much, not much at all. I need a break from this. I selected the body functions programming and entered into rest mode. The pod would destress my mind automatically and I would end up with the best 6 hour sleep of my life, and I will wake up in the morning ready to shower and face the problems that await me back in reality.