I was in a new room, on the far wall was a large map. It was disorienting to have been surrounded by so many people and then none. Shrugging I walked toward the map, it was very different from any depiction of earth and from what I assumed it was the game world. Marked on it were sections, it was like the regions of the world had borders like countries and written on them was a name and a small description.

And after several moments of reading, I came to these broad conclusions.

First were the northern regions, the three of which being Himdra, Lamastch and Vanhirm words which strained my English speaking mind to pronounce. From what I could gather from the broad, poetic strokes of the map Himdra appeared to be more tribal than the other two populated by a variety of nations and tribal federations that fought over the seasonal migration of a great, undisclosed beast. Lamastch, it looked to be a form of tyrannical dictatorship as the entire region was ruled over by a single kingdom and a king of a different culture, from what I assumed the people of the land didn't take kindly to that. Last of the northern regions was Vanhirm. The map gave a brief history of this region it seemed as if an empire had been born here, one that would go on to hold both this and the Lamastch region and parts of the Himdra region. The only remnants of this empire are the kingdom in Lamastch whereas the people of Vanhirm are fractured and left in a political vacuum devoid of laws.

In regards to the central regions they were many and similar, they were somewhat of a clone of the basic, broad strokes of early medieval ages Europe, similar in the fact that they were broken into a vast array of kingdoms. It was the Eastern regions which really caught my eye however. They were separated from the others by an ocean being on a different continent and all. The closest of the eastern regions was a vast desert, and the further eastern ones seemed to be a head nod to the weeb community, basically a clone of feudal Japan. It was the desert region that I found myself drawn to though, it seemed very Arabian nights and Prince of Persia. Also, the idea of being a djinn in the game was quite appealing to me.

Those were the thoughts that went through my mind as a pushed my hand against the map of the desert region, I was surprised when my hand went straight through, pulling me along with it. When I was through the map I found myself in a vast area of desert, empty on all sides the most noticeable change, however, was the return to disembodiment something which was still as uncomfortable as ever.

It was then that an opaque screen pooped up before me, it was probably the explanation as to why I had no status, just an indicator of my username and an options menu that both resided in the top left-hand corner of the room. That and the number zero. It read:

Greetings being of the world heart and welcome to the mortal plane. This is a message from the elder gods, (a name I assumed was the cannon alias of the developers.) The reason you have both no status or physical form is due to the number on the top left of your screens, as of right now it should read zero and will increase as you gain worshippers, prayers, sacrifices and other forms of worship. As this number increases you will gain the ability to take a physical form and do other, more advanced forms of divine intervention. As of this moment, your character can do very little more than speaking and will only expand in capability as you gain worship. Good luck players. Sincerely the elder gods.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

You're kidding me right, they expect me to bullshit my way into prayers before I can even play the game? Also why the fuck did I spawn in the middle of a desert?!

So there I was a disembodied god-wannabe travelling the vast emptiness of a desert whose name I didn't know. Fun, I felt as if at any moment I would break down and begin drinking my own pee out of pure boredom, but as the man himself said, improvise, adapt, overcome. This wasn't my first rodeo either, and having played MMO's before knew just how grindy they could be. So I kept wandering the desert aimlessly with the vague hope that I would find a village or something.

And it was only moments later, as I screamed the concept of welcoming players to a helpless scorpion I had found that my wishes were granted. I heard another human voice.

"Is someone there? Please help me." The voice screeched out hoarsely. And I fucking jumped for joy. Not because of the clear weakness of the voice, well not fully but mostly because the game was about to start and a weak body means a weak mind and a weak mind is easily influenced. So I flew, I flew as I had never before in the direction of the voice, I went so fast that I very nearly missed the small figure sprawled on there back against the sand.

She looked so pitiful, what I assumed was once luscious black hair was ratty and dry with dehydration, much like the rest of her now skeletal frame. She was so realistic that I had to remind myself it was just a game. Well Bart, time to sell false hope to a dying woman.

"Please, please, please don't leave me. Don't leave you bastard I heard you, I know you're there." She begged pitifully, her eyes leaking out the last ounces of water she had left and I was once mesmerised at the realness of this game. How here eyes burned with a determination found only on the brink of death. It almost made me feel bad about the fact I was about to lie to her. Almost.

So, squashing the Australian accent in my voice and adopting my best imitation of an authoritative tone I spoke my first ever words as a god.

"Do not despair mortal, for divine help lies within your grasp. You need only grasp for it." I thought I sounded good, very grandiose, so I was understandably a little pissed when I was dismissed outright with the statement.

"Fuck, I've finally gone mad." It was then she started to cry in earnest. This was going to be more difficult than I thought.