Adjusting the settings, the projections became life-size; it was as if the people in the show were right there at the foot of my bed. It was the show hosted on the dedicated channel of JYE Corp. for their game.

The option to watch it projected in front of me like the television of olden days was there. But I’m not that uncivilized.

“And here we have the leaders of the two tops guilds of Nornyr Online,” the host said She pointed to her right. “De Gamma of the guild, Victores Sors. And also, currently, the user of the highest leveled character in the game.” Turning to her left she said, “We also have Rhysand from the Syndicate Guild.”

“So they still have guilds? How nostalgic,” I said. 

The host continued, “I hope our viewers would learn a lot from our guests today about Nornyr where not even five percent of the game has been explored, according to the makers of the game”

“I bet I could take on these little shits,” I said, although they weren’t kids, “when I used to play computer games.” One was an Asian in his late teens, or maybe twenties, not really sure with age when it came to Asians. The other one looked European and was probably in his early thirties. “Eh, but that wasn’t virtual reality anyway. I wonder how much things have changed.”

Rhysand stood up from his seat to offer his hand to De Gamma, all smiles. De Gamma who had a serious look on his face seemed taken aback by the gesture but he responded with as firm a grip as he could muster given Rhysand’s large hands enveloped his.  

“The guilds Victores Sors and Syndicate fought for the King of the Hill Guild Fortress Event a few days ago,” the host said.

So this was the event that they released to celebrate company’s victory in the arbitration case a couple of weeks ago? I smiled as I recalled the day the arbitral award was handed down. All the legal battles of the company weren’t publicized so these people wouldn’t know how close their game was suspended, or worse, permanently shut down.

“These people should also be grateful to my awesomeness,” I said. "Maybe I should ask Mr. Armand if they could build a temple in my name in the game so that I will be worshipped properly."

The host said, “De Gamma, could you tell us about your character in the game?”

“I run a fallen forest elf sniper,” he replied with a slight smirk.

“That is not one of the starting races,” the host said with an obviously fake surprised expression. “Perhaps you can enlighten the viewers how you came about playing this race.”

“Actually, I chose a forest elf when I started but then I discovered a hidden quest that caused my character to be “fallen” or cursed.”

I raised my brow as a life-sized model of what I assumed to be De Gamma’s character showed up beside him. It looked real in the sense that if I didn’t know that it was a game I would say that it was a real person with exceedingly well-made special effects make-up and prosthetics rather than a virtual reality generated image. Very impressive.

De Gamma said, “As you can see, I sort of look like a mottled sickly green elf. With lots of decaying…uh…roots and leaves. My character’s different from the dark elves. I don’t think many people have discovered how to make a fallen forest elf. And I believe that other races can actually be afflicted permanently with this curse.”

“Interesting,” the host said. “So you intended on making this character when you started out?”

His serious face lit up. “No. I didn’t know about this at all. I went for the elf because I wanted to became an archer. A forest elf has many classes to choose from, going magic route…you can also wield a sword. But we all know that elves are most famous for being archers.  Mostly because of the classic Lord of the Rings movies. 

“When I became a fallen forest elf, all the…let’s just say spiritual connection of the elf is gone. Normal forest elves wouldn’t even let me back in their village. The in-game lore is a bit complicated to explain. So no magic and all of those forest connected skills. But new skills became available for physical attacks and ranged attacks.”

“So that is why your preferred weapon is a large crossbow-gun?” the host asked.

“Had to farm hard for that one. And going back to my character, I don’t think most players realize just how deep the game is. There are lots of hidden possibilities,” De Gamma said, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “One of the members of my alliance has a human character who accidentally got turned into a zombie. We didn’t even know it was possible—”

I closed my eyes and zoned out for a bit as De Gamma droned out about his discoveries in the game.

Role playing games, huh? Twenty years since I last played an RPG. Turning off the volume, I laid back down on my bed. It’s been twenty years. “I’ve done pretty much everything that I have planned,” I said with a satisfied smile on my face. Still in my late-thirties yet I already have enough money to retire several times over. “I’m so awesome. I should build a statue in my honor. Only me can honor me. Or is that a bit too much?”

Staring around the hospital room, I remembered that when my family stayed in the hospital while my father was dying. We were in a ward then, along with several other patients. Now, I’m in an obscenely expensive hospital room. Alone.

Sighing, I gazed at the ceiling. Twenty years, huh?

If my father could see me now…Heh…I could hear his voice lecturing me. He always got angry with me because I was playing computer games all the time instead of studying, although, he knew that I didn’t need to study at all. I always got a lecture about not trying hard enough. Even when I went away to college, he kept on giving me speeches over the phone on why I should study and do this and that.

He would always end his speech with saying something about knowing how much potential I had and that I was wasting it.

My father was wrong. Not about that study part. Kids should study. He was wrong about knowing my potential.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He did not know just how much potential I had when I put my mind into it. But then again, he was right about the wasting my potential part. I realized that when he was gone.

Sitting straight back up, I looked at the forest elf guy talking with no sound. Would that have been me? If my father didn’t die then perhaps I would have continued playing games rather than becoming a part-time working student, never having free time to play because I need my grades to be high because several scholarships supported me. Since I was so awesome, I would have become a professional gamer. However, circumstances led me down another path.

I had no choice but to quit playing games. It’s not that easy to earn money off games. It’s not like I was living in some LitRPG where the protagonists played games for a living and scamming people in the virtual world with acts that if done in the real world, they would be certainly put in jail. Too bad. I really wanted to become the top tank in the game. It was fun remembering old times like this and seeing how far I have come.

I turned the volume back on.

“…I have the longest range in the game,” De Gamma said.

“We will show our viewers a clip of the final battle later,” the host said. De Gamma’s eyelid subtly twitched. “So that they can see both characters of our guest in action. Now, Rhysand, tell us a bit about yourself.”

Remembering my character’s name, I broke into a stupid grin. “I wonder what happened to those guys,” I said, referring to my buddies I used to play with. I lost contact with them as I became busy with work and business. Taking a deep breath and pushing back the memories, I listened to the interview again.

“My character is a giant,” Rhysand said with a thick accent. Was that a Russian accent? And a giant? What the hell?

“A giant?” the host said. She turned to face the camera and said, “I understand that giants are one of the harder races to play in the game. Did you know this when you started out?”

“Yes, of course. I specifically chose a giant with guild wars in mind.” He spoke surprisingly good English compared to the Russians I have come across in my work. “I needed a lot of help from my guildmates to build up my character and I take this opportunity to thank them.”

An ugly ass bloated, misshapen humanoid appeared beside him. Was this supposed to be his character? It was more akin to a troll. “Not many people will pick that abomination, I reckon,” I said, wrinkling my nose.

“Now, this giant,” the host said, “is a giant of the Ghrazgal tribe. Could you tell us why you chose this specific variant of giant?”

“Ghrazgal giants are, in my opinion, the hardest to play out of four giant species currently available,” Rhysand said. “But that didn’t deter me and my teammates in our quest for finding the best race for a tank.”

I involuntarily let out a snort at the mention of Tank.

Rhysand said, “While there are numerous hidden stats in the game and game mechanics that we are just beginning to discover, the NPC at the start of the game do provide some help in choosing characters, categorizing the dozens of choices by hitpoints, for example.

“Ghrazgal giants have the highest health points, or HP, growth rate and life regeneration out of all the currently available choices. With that fact in addition to our knowledge that giants are indeed very large in the game, our guild planned to make a mobile siege tower character. You could say that it takes a guild to raise a giant.”

“Why do you say that this race is the hardest to play?” the host said.

“Numerous factors. Giants have a hard time navigating the map. Most cities are normal sized and can’t accommodate giants, not to mention those who specifically prohibit interaction with giants. One would think that my race could travel to giant cities since there are three other giant types, but other giants hate the Ghrazgal tribe. I can’t trot around giant cities as well” Rhysand turned to look at the holo-projection beside him. “Ghrazgals aren’t exactly good looking fellows.”

“Okay, two observations,” I said to them although they obviously couldn’t hear me. “That Russian accent with perfect English sounds awesome. Maybe I should learn a foreign language just to pick up their accent. Second, what the hell is up with the mechanics of that game? And that’s not even one percent of all that shit?”

A beeping sound interrupted my rants. “Good morning,” I said as I answered the call. Someone was outside my door. A small square projection pop upped in front of my face showing the face of the person outside. It was Eclairs, my secretary. Yes, her name was the same as eclair the food. I said to her, “I would like to order a couple of burgers, one burger with no patty, the other burger with no buns.”

She let out a sigh of exasperation. “So one burger? Do you want me to buy a burger for you? I could go down now and buy one. What else do you want?”

"Two burgers. Then combine them. Not one burger! It’s supposed to be two then just combine it. I would know if you made just one burger. The wrath of a thousand lawsuits will visit your establishment and I wouldn’t eat here ever again!”

“So do you want me to buy a burger? Mr. Armand accompanied by Mr. Clyde will be arriving here soon. I'll go and buy a burger then so you could eat it before they arrive?”

“Nah, I’ll just have one sent to my room. And I don’t want to eat burgers now.”

After pausing for a few seconds, she rolled her eyes and said, “Are you going to let me in?”

“Oh, so you want to come in! You should have said so,” I replied, putting on my fake apologetic face that she was familiar with.

She closed her eyes and chanted to herself, “I’m getting paid a lot to put up with his shit. I’m getting paid a lot to put up with his shit.”