“No! That’s total BS! What is this!?”
After the content of the mail had properly sunk in, hot tears of despair started rolling down Sam’s face.
TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Hacked Account
Dear Guest270793,
Unfortunately, there are no ways to retrieve information tied to your account.
If, however, you decide to sign up with us here at Earth, Parchment & Swords, we can offer you an early access code for our newest, soon to be fully released experience: Flames of Watra! It’s an MMO set in the world of Watra.
We apologize for any inconveniences caused.
Only the finest of regards,
Bootlicker3000 from Earth, Parchment & Swords
May the Flames of Watra Bless your Venture!
He couldn’t believe what he was reading and yet, there was no denying it. Since the game came out a couple of years ago, he had spent an ungodly amount of money on in-game purchases every month to always stay ahead of all the noobs and losers who were playing it for free… AND NOW HIS ACCOUNT GOT DEGRADED TO A GUEST ACCOUNT!?
After some online research, he found out that this was typical if his account was hacked by a group that made a business out of stealing gear and selling it online somewhere on the dark web. Their favorite targets among the populace? Whales, of course, since they had items other players couldn’t obtain playing solely free-to-play (or were really time consuming to obtain that way). Plus, in their mind they had it coming anyway since the general gaming community’s opinion of whales is pretty low. After the deed was done, to cover their tracks, they would then delete the accounts, so that when you logged in the next time, your mail address is tied to a guest account.
Thing is, our friend Sam was a major whale, throwing hundreds of dollars down whatever game company’s throat every single month. Not only that, but he also didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. Tutorials and grinding were for losers in his eyes. Why should he grind when he can buy the best gear, skip the boring part and get to the good parts of the game instantly, right?
Well, it was all gone now. Taken from him by some hackers who enriched themselves on his behalf. The thought sickened him, angered him and ultimately, left him with an empty feeling deep inside.
That was only the first of a one-two punch combo life had in store for him that week. That one he felt in his gut; the next one would crush his heart.
The girl he met in-game, that he was playing with for over a year and was planning on meeting IRL in a week, sent him an email that could be best described as a friendship termination notice. Quite the cold one, too, which was uncharacteristic of her, but Sam didn’t question it at that time. According to the mail, she felt like they were drifting apart since he hadn’t been online for a while. A little more than a week had passed since he had found out that his account was gone.
He didn’t know whether to start crying or punch a hole in the wall. He decided to do both.
After that explosion of energy came an imploding slump. He made his way over to his bed, crawled under the sheets and curled up. There is a certain effect on body and mind when you lay down like that. The depressed fetal, would be a fitting name for it. It almost has a meditative effect. In this case, however, a destructive one, rather than a healing one. The content of her mail went through his head over and over.
“Please, don’t contact me anymore,” is how she ended the mail. He felt like an idiot, thinking their friendship went beyond the game. And all those hours talking on Accord, an online platform for meeting people with similar interests, didn’t mean anything, it seems. Like his heart got punched in its gut, if it had one. That’s how that felt.
He thought, if only I could live in that world… I’d have a much better life.
“Screw the real world,” he said to himself and slowly faded into slumber.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
This went on for another week, until he finally decided that enough was enough. He got up, walked over to his computer and started writing a mail to that “ex-friend” in which he expressed his feelings about what she did and how hurt he was. He stopped himself midtrack, though. The phrase from the end of the mail popped into his head again: Please, don’t contact me anymore.
Damn this! Letter by letter he deleted the mail he was writing. Then another idea popped into his head. He deleted her mail address from the recipient bar and entered another one: [email protected]. He decided it would be better to drown his frustrations by diving into a new world, with a new account. (This time with two step authorization.)
TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Hacked Account
Please, take into consideration that this is a beta test and that more races and classes will be added to the game on release at the end of this summer.
Have fun!
Got to wait for it to download… Done! Let’s go.
Welcome, to the continent of Watra!
Character creation:
Race: [Human], [Elven], [Orc], [Lizard], [Demon]
“Hm, same race selection as their last game,” he said to himself.
Maybe it was the mood he was in lately that made him make the most boring choice possible, but yes, he did pick [Human]. As if to put an emphasis on how drab life was for him, and how down he felt, he also made the character look real generic as well. Whatever, he thought. To be fair, he did think he would be able to make a bunch of alternate characters later on.
Classes: [Warrior], [Rogue], [Spellcaster], [Machinist], [Druid]
The class he picked perfectly reflected the darker mood that he was in: He went [Rogue]. Maybe it was the stormy night, the thunderbolts and the lightning that nudged him there. The kind of weather an assassin would probably consider perfect for his trade.
Statistics:
[Strength]: 1
[Vitality]: 1
[Agility]: 1
[Perception]: 1
[Wisdom]: 1
[Charisma]: 1
6 stat points available
“I’ll save the stat points for later on,” he said, thinking it was generally better to play it safe, in case there was no chance of reskilling the character. And, since the beta was about to end in a little more than a month that wouldn’t matter anyway. The servers were going to be reset at the end of the beta, after all.
Outside, the storm was getting worse. He had just picked the most populated server and had just clicked [Play!], when, after a particularly heavy thunder, the power in the entire place went off. The thunder was so close, that Sam could feel the ground shake. It rattled the entire pool house (where he usually spent his summers ever since he stopped vacationing with his parents).
The thunder left him rattled for a bit as well, to be honest. But, after he got a grip on himself, he knew he had to go check the breaker box.
Summer storms like this one were rare, but they could happen once or twice a year. This was a particularly nasty one, though. When Sam had decided to venture out and equipped his [raincoat], he opened the front door of the pool house, which was immediately slammed shut by the wind.
Ok, he thought, this is going to suck. He also noticed that it was darker than he thought it was (he had his curtains closed 24/7 and almost always headphones on), so in addition to the [raincoat] he also equipped himself with a [flashlight].
Being fully equipped, he braced himself for a moment, grabbed the door handle and used the skill [take a deep breath], which increased his [focus]. He turned the [flashlight] on, counted to three and out into the storm he ran.
Main Quest:
Reach the circuit breaker in the basement and bring the power back!
* Don’t get hit by flying objects
* Avoid getting struck by lightning
The wind wasn’t kind. Sam had a hard time going against it. It pushed him left and right whenever it felt like, it seemed. Plus, Sam was on the lighter side, body wise, and his [Strength] was on the lower side of the spectrum.
With the rain flying into his face, it was hard for him to keep his eyes open, but with a good knowledge of the surroundings, it was enough if he kept his eyes on the ground (which was quite necessary in fact, since the storm had done quite the rearrangement on the backyard). The deckchairs got scattered everywhere, some of the trees in the backyard were uprooted and now lay in the way. Luckily, his [Perception] was enough to get him safely over those trees and eventually he arrived at his target location: The basement.
Slowly down the stairs he went. He did not want to slip on those wet stairs, after all. Step by step took them on and eventually found himself inside the basement. He made his way over to the breaker box aaaaand... BINGO! The [main breaker] had tripped. He pulled on it once. Nothing.
Cautiously he switched it off and on again… nothing. Dammit!
Third time’s the charm, he thought and this time he did it with gusto. That’s where the weird stuff started to happen. It was as if he had turned on the sun right in front of his eyes. His entire vision went completely white.
Sam didn’t know what was happening to him. It felt like the storm had broken through the ground and was sucking him in. What the hell is happening here!?
Then, for a split second everything went quiet. No storm, there was nothing, until his vision went completely dark, and his consciousness was gone.
In these final moments Sam thought that this was him dying. Little did he know that this was quite the opposite. This wasn’t death at all. This was his rebirth.