"What the fuck was all that?" I screamed into the void, 'How could what they said be true?" I tried to think, but my mind wouldn't let me. It felt like my brain was short-circuiting. This was way too much information way too fast, but for a moment I let myself wonder, "Does that really mean we are just in a game?" I let my mind drift through the possibilities when more questions flew through my mind. Why did they have to kill us? That made no sense if we were already part of a game, then why did we need to die?

Wait in games, you don't have to train you magically learn things. Why did we have to train? I mean we did learn it magically, we even have levels, like a game.

Then there was hitting level thirty. Why wait till then? Is it because there was no more leveling up from here. Just living and fighting, if you decide to. Is this why it's all the young people doing all the missions, and the older people just don't feel like it? Or are there so many that we can't possibly keep up? Or is it some system-generated thing creating missions.

I had so many questions and no answers, and as time went on I had more and more. Finally landed on one big question I needed to answer.

"Do I want to remember?"

I struggled with myself for a long time before finally coming to a decision, and as soon as I had the cat appeared as though summoned by my will.

"Have you decided little moonflower?" The cat knew blighted well I did, "Will you tell me your name, or will you forget?"

"Yeah, I have an answer," I said annoyed. "I'm tired. Tired of all this cryptic bullshit, tired of all the secrets, tired of it all, but you know what. I don't care. I will remember, and do with it what I will." I still didn't know what that was, but it was what I would do. "I will not let anyone take this from me. You all have taken and broken me in so many ways I won't let you do it to me here."

The cat radiated a sense of pride from my answer, and I tried to radiate fuck you energy back. I must not have succeeded as the cat spoke normally, "So tell me your name little moonflower?"

"My name is Aster Datura. Now send me home." I spat at the creature.

"It's nice to meet you Aster...oh." The cat began to laugh, "oh! OOHHHH!"

The laugh made me feel like something was wrong, "What what's going on?"

"Oh!" the cat gave his biggest Cheshire grin. "Oh, I can't send you back yet Aster Datura."

"Why the fuck not?" I demanded fearing whatever rot would come next.

The cat began to slowly increase in size its voice growing deeper, "Aster Datura, first keeper in a century to reach this level."

"Wait, what?" How could I have been the first keeper to reach this level in so long? Then it hit me, they pushed the test on the others, and they failed. Assholes!

"You are the first keeper to reach this point in a hundred years." The cat's form began to morph, "As a level thirty keeper, you get to learn the actual truth, not just what is no longer true."

"What is going on?" I just wanted to get out of here. I didn't want to learn anything else.

The creatures form finished growing solidifying into that of an older man with a salt and pepper five o'clock shadow. Short hair cut, and what looked to be wearing ancient armor, that looked to be strangely high tech with lights and screens. The man smiled, "Once more it's nice to meet you Aster, my name is Amaryllis. And I am one of the first keepers."

"The fuck?"

Amaryllis began to laugh, "Here watch this."

The void went dark again as another screen appeared in front of me. On the monitor, I saw a large squad of at least a few thousand soldiers with Amaryllis standing at the forefront addressing me. "If you are watching this you have discovered the keeper protocol we have created in our desperation."

Amaryllis looked tired and dirty, "Please let us explain, as you must be confused."

I was too numb to comment or think as the vision played.

"First the game is no longer fake, the generation ship has already landed. It's been fifteen years since we landed, and things are not good." The man panned out to show a massive tower off in the distance that could have been a ship. The camera turned back to Amaryllis, "The terraforming programming started out fine, quickly converting the atmosphere to breathable for us humans. The crystals we seeded the world with work better than we could have ever dreamed, even finding primordial proteins on the surface, the nanites used them to create a living ecosystem."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Amaryllis's voice became heavy, "For ten years we prepared inside the game watching the world become livable. Everything was moving exactly as we had expected." Amaryllis paused struggling, "Then we landed, and for a short time everything was good. A few people had refused to believe the world was real, and not still the game. Little did we know that would doom us. One day someone used magic outside on this world, opening the floodgates. So many people began to believe." Amaryllis laughed sardonically, "You see the nanites used in the crystals to terraform the world, had saturated the world completely. We integrated with them when we woke up, and our belief gave us the ability to manipulate them creating magic. Our scientists were completely stunned."

"The fucked up thing was because so many people began to believe the world was a game, mounters suddenly started to appear." Amaryllis let a long-suffering sigh, "At first it wasn't a problem. Then we let the creature sit for too long letting them grow stronger, and multiply. When they grew strong enough they began to flood over our settlements, us struggling to fight back." The camera zoomed back into the ship near the entrance showing more men in uniforms, "People were, and are still waking up, and we didn't have enough people strong enough to fight back against the tide."

I saw someone I recognized and couldn't believe he was there, "Is that cane?"

"We came up with a desperate plan we were going to set up a barrier to keep the people safe, using the crystals that terraformed the world itself. There would still be monsters inside the barrier but they would be much more manageable, and they wouldn't have the space to multiply as they did before. This will give the people time to grow strong, learning how to level again, and have enough strength to protect themselves against a larger tide." The image of a bunch of city crystals appeared on the screen, but much smaller, "We will be hiding the fact that the people are no longer in the game by feeding into their's beliefs, to empower the nanites to make more of the rules in the game real, such as levels. Right now we can only fight using old technology, and weak magic." Amaryllis turned the camera to a squad training with magic, but only small sparks and tiny wisps of fire would appear, "Once someone wakes up they will think they just went to the next level of the game, this will create a feedback loop, cementing the people's belief in the game and fully empowering them, giving them a chance."

The camera focused back in on Amaryllis "By watching this it means you have reached the pinnacle of humanity. As a keeper, it will be up to you to decide when people are strong enough. We believe when the average level of humans is around twenty, the people should be strong enough to keep back any number of monsters beyond the barrier. Once the barrier is down we have a beacon already set up to reach back home."

Amaryllis bowed "We hope you understand, it was our only way to save the people. A nice side effect is you are essentially immortal thanks to the terraforming crystals adapting to human nanites.

The world turned pink once more.

"The fucking fuck?" I screamed, "The fucking fuck? the Fuck?"

"What!?" My mind was screaming.

"Fuck Fuck fuck fuck fuck."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

I couldn't stop yelling, and cursing at all the information that was just dumped on me. "What the fuck is this?" I turned to the form of Amaryllis looking exactly the same as he did in the video. "So you are an original keeper? One who put a barrier around our world, and made us all forget?" I asked numbly.

"Yes. I understand this is a lot." Amaryllis said trying to be comforting.

"A lot. A lot!" My voice rose as I let out everything, "I have only been part of this world for two fucking years! And I only remember one and a half of it."

"Oh." Amaryllis looked me up and down taking me in for the first time, I could see that he just realized how young I was. "You. You should not be burdened with this."

"No fucking duh."

"I'm sorry, but it was what we had to do to protect humanity." Amaryllis tried to explain.

"I don't care." I yelled, "I just want to be ok. I want to adventure with my friends. I want to be normal." My voice faded with the last admission, but I continued, "But apparently, I can't fucking have any of that. I am singled out, isolated because I've been chosen to be a keeper." I thought back to all the shit I went through, "Then I'm fucking put through the wringer again, just to join the organization they specifically isolated me for." I laugh continuing my rant, "Somehow I get in, and they give me an impossible task because I pissed off one crotchety old man. Somehow, I fucking do it!" I leaned forward poking Amaryllis in the chest. "And now I learn, this is a fucking prison."

"No, more of a sanctuary." Amaryllis tried to correct me.

I glared at him, "It's a prison now. Everyone is at least level twenty-five now, and according to your video we should have brought the barrier down years if not decades ago."

Amaryllis looked on in horror at my words, "Hahahaha, you didn't know. I bet you all just drift, your consciousness barely there as you help us all."

Amaryllis spoke listlessly, "Kinda, we are the entities who help with leveling, but only when a keeper reached this point, are we able to be ourselves again."

My energy felt drained, and I could hardly think straight, "So all of you are our original protectors?

"Yes."

I looked him up and down trying to understand why I would be told this, "Do you want me to bring down the barrier?"

"I would be lieing if I said no." He admitted to me.

I narrowed my eyes, "Should I?

"I don't know."

"You know what, I bet they all knew we were ready. I bet they just don't want to give up whatever power they have. I bet they don't want Earth to interfere. I bet the secret can't be maintained with the barrier gone." My anger led my reasoning.

Amaryllis nodded at the last one.

"You know what fuck it! How do I bring it down?" I would end their power or at least fuck them over.

Amaryllis smiled, "Well first you have to get someone to finish the quest, then work with you."

"Oh..." I let out a big belly laugh and sat listening to Amaryllis explain how to take the barrier down and get back in touch with Earth.