I found myself floating in a world of pink that, reflecting on the last couple of centuries. It had been a long time since I could relax, even if it did take me dying. I let out a chuckle, at the absurdity "Now. What should I do?"

I drifted, trying to come up with something, and I came up short. I no longer cared about my so-called duties. They didn't matter it was just a reality show, and I don't even remember why it was so important. It's been so long and I've just been doing the same thing time and time again. All for simple entertainment.

I let out a long sigh of realization, "I've stagnated, and I'm just tired."

"Hello, Cane." My brain shook, that voice I know it. I looked up to see a ghost from a thousand years ago. There he stood his salt and pepper hair immaculate, his five o'clock shadow styled exactly how he liked it. His enviro-suit immaculate and still shining. Those suits were long destroyed or in a museum. I had even forgotten what they really looked like.

"I had a feeling I'd see you again Amaryllis. Does this mean I'm dead for sure?" I stared up at Amaryllis, my commander, my ghost, from before...before I forgot. I only had vague memories of him since then, and I figured I'd see him now.

"No. Well, yes you did die, but this is not permanent." Amaryllis let out a chuckle, "I just had an interesting chat with someone."

"Ha." I couldn't help but laugh. Amaryllis was long dead and gone. This had to be some kind of delusion, "A dead man had a chat. With who?"

"A new keeper named Aster."

I rolled my eyes, "Sure. My old commander suddenly shows up, and he had a conversation with aster. Who just killed me."

Amaryllis's eyes widened, "I did not know that."

"Perfect. So is this where I make the choice to come back or not, right?" I had heard rumors someone would ask, but didn't think it would be someone I knew.

"You could, but that would be a waste." The ghost said sadly.

"Why I've been nothing but a waste for centuries," I asked mockingly.

"I have a new choice for your cane, this so the first time I've been myself enough to ask it."

My eyebrows rose, "Oh?"

Amaryllis reached out his hand, "Would you like to remember?"

"But I remember everything," I said knowing the lie it was.

Amaryllis smiled softly shaking his head, "No, you chose to forget a long time ago."

"I did? I don't remember that." I lied again fighting to inch away from Amaryllis's hand.

"Cane I don't have time for this," Amaryllis said shortly, seeing my obvious lie. "You need to choose."

I stared at his hand my eyes unable to look away, "What will I learn?"

"A lot."

I was afraid but knew this was a chance to feel whole again, "Why not. I'm still not ready to die." I was surprised by my own words, adding softly, "No matter how tired I am."

My mind began to race, as I remembered.

There was a hiss as my pods top opened, to see the young face of a man with a clipboard. "Welcome to the real world or the newly terraformed planet."

"Thanks?" I was still trying to understand him when it finally hit me. 'Real-world.' I had been in the game for so long, and training to work on a new world that I had almost forgotten about it. I was in the middle of building a house when everything went blank. 'Guess it was my turn.'

The man helped me out of the pod that kept my body healthy for years, "So now that you're awake." The man smiled letting go of my hand, "We have a little ceremony for everyone we just woke up. Once you do this you will become fully initialized." The man stepped to the side to reveal a small city that looked to have been pulled right out of a fantasy book. Cobblestone roads, and a style of the house more at home in medieval Europe.

"Ceremony?" I asked, pulling away from the man.

"I'll let your mom explain." The clipboard man stepped aside revealing my mother?

"Mom?" I asked confused, it had to have been at least a decade since I last saw her. I guess she woke up then.

"Hi hun, I've been awake for a while why don't you come with me." My mom started to walk towards what looked to be the center of the city.

"Ok," I said following.

She stopped to turn and hand me a small seed, "Here eat this."

I took the seed and swallowed it without thinking as I looked at the town, "So this is the world?" I wasn't sure what else to say so I just said, "It's nice."

My mom shook her head and irately answered, "No it's not. It's hell. Apparently, we created real monsters."

That shook me, "What?"

"Things aren't going well, and we think we've found a way to fight back."

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I was still a little groggy, now I was trying to understand what she was saying, "Mom, I've just woken up and I haven't seen you for years. What is going on?"

She ignores my question as we reached a central square surrounded by cobblestone buildings that kinda reminded can of the ones we had in the game, and all around the square were people who looked to be around my age. "Mom, what's going on?" I asked again this time more tentative.

She hands me a black marker again ignoring me, "Just draw a circle on your chest with a line through it at the top."

"Why?" nothing we were doing was making sense.

She tried to smile at me but failed, "It will let you fight back."

"Ok." Maybe I'll get a better explanation after. As I crudely draw a circle with a line through it.

"Now press your finger in the middle and repeat after me." She waits for me to put my finger in the middle before continuing, "Today begins my next big adventure."

My mind remembered the betrayal of what happened next. I even ran away but I eventually found my own path.

My mind raced forward again.

"What is this?" I held up what looked to be a metal stamp with a hawk design on the end.

"We are calling it a class stamp." My friend and fellow researcher Chris answered.

"What does it do?"

"It gives you a class," Chris answered with a big smile

"What? But how?" I began to analyze the stamp a little closer. "To get one, you have to meditate and train your nanites to use power in a specific way. Even rewriting most of your cells."

"Well, this does it automatically."

"How?" I asked completely lost.

Chris took on a lecturing tone, "It's a program that imprints the class if certain conditions are met."

I raised my eyebrow, "Conditions?"

Chris held up two fingers, "They don't have a class already, and are considered a trainee."

I stared at him confused at the conditions when it hit me, "Aha! You want to preserve the strange stuff!"

"Exactly! This will create the base 6 classes, but will still allow for innovation." Chris state excitedly.

"How long does it take to get a class?" If this can increase the speed then our chances will skyrocket.

Chris had a sly smile, "Using this method we believe 24 hours."

My jaw dropped. "My god it takes almost a year now..."

"There is a caveat," Chris said sheepishly.

My mind was already whirling with possibilities, "What?"

"It will hurt."

"How bad?" For him to mention it.

Chris looked chagrined at what he was about to say, "Like a soul-searing pain for 24 hours.

I nearly threw the stamp away, "The fuck!"

"They'll have to be asleep, but their bodies will take weeks to recover." Chris quickly explained.

Looking down at the stamp I shiver, "I don't know if this is better."

"It will provide a base for people to move forward," Chris said softly.

My mind was yanked away processing, the memories, as another surfaced.

In my hand, I was holding what looked to be an ostrich egg, but blue. I turned to Chris, "What is this?"

"It's a quest," Chris said excitedly.

"You figure it out?" I jumped up just as excited, we've been working on this for years and it was vital to get some sort of system.

"Yeah the experience gathering was a bitch, but we figured it out."

I looked over the egg pulling up a screen to analyze the egg, "How?"

Chris grabbed the egg before I could get a look, "It records actions when carried, and when conditions have met the AI onboard determines if it is complete."

An AI, that could handle a lot of the load, when something occurred to me, "What happens to the power when the quest fails?"

Chris laughed, "The power inside transports the items to a central repository. To either reissue the quest or refund it."

I looked at the egg, then at Chris letting out a long sigh, "This is feeling more and more like a game every day. And I do think that's a good thing."

Chris stopped his celebration scratching his head, "Honestly, I don't know either, but we've decided to lean into this. So we might as well make it work.

"Are you really going by Architect now Chris?"

"Hey, it's fun." Architect defended himself.

A thousand years of memories shoot through my mind. So much to remember. So much forgotten. One memory surfaced when I started to question what we were doing.

"Architect why are we doing this? Life isn't a game." I had long given into Chris's insistence in calling him, Architect.

"It became a game thanks to them. We have to embrace it to survive."

"But this," I said holding up what he had dubbed The Quest. "This is cruel."

"How is it cruel? It gives the people something to do." Chris took the egg from me, "Someone to root for."

"But we are giving them a fake quest." There was already a quest set up. It was set up to determine if we were ready to take the barrier down. This was just for entertainment.

"Yeah," Chris sheepishly added, "but we aren't ready for the real one."

"I know but how can we just turn it into a reality show."

"It's not a reality show, it's" I could see the cogs turning in his head he really didn't know, "fuck it is a reality show."

"And you control the narrative," I added staring right in his eyes,

"It's an eighteen-year reality show. How popular can it get?" None of us could have possibly guessed.

My mind shot to another memory.

"It's been five hundred years Architect. We are ready!" I yelled. It was the same argument we've been having for the last decade.

"Not yet. Do you remember what is beyond the barrier?" Architect looked at me seriously.

"I do, but we are ready. Look at your own level. Thirty I remember when leveling was just a dream and classes were still being pioneered. Now we have a whole society with all of them." I argued.

Architect rubs his forehead, "The classes are still too new, and our bodies may be strong but our weapons would just shatter on the beasts hide. They are too strong and too numerous." I hated that he was right but I still believed.

"No, Architect we can do this. Humanity is strong and it is ready "

"Fine. When they complete the fake quest we will reveal the real quest."

"I..." I was dumbfounded he agreed to it even with conditions. I narrowed my eyes as he explained.

"Please this will prove we are ready."

"No one has finished that damn fake quest." I countered why did they have to add that final portion, it was costing lives.

"Exactly! It's been 500 years of someone can then it proves they are ready."

"Fine." I relented, "I will keep overseeing the second mission but, that last condition is pretty rough."

Architect looked down and sighed, "I know."

My mind was whisked away to one final memory, from when I first chose to forget.

"I can't do this anymore Arch," I said tiredly.

"We are old Cane," Arch said understandingly.

I looked up to him to ask, "Is anyone left?"

There was a long silence before he answered, "Some but not many."

"I can't stop. We need people to guide them. If none of us are left they'll be trapped forever." I didn't know if I was trying to convince Arch or myself.

Arch looked to be considering "Maybe they'll figure it out on their own."

"Not since the filters became too strong." I shook my head, "Whose idea was that anyway?"

"Jill's" Arch smiled at her name.

I let out a small laugh, "I bet she put it in just so when we asked questions, and she didn't know the answer she could just blame the filter.

"Yeah."

The silence drifted for a long time before I finally worked up the courage to tell him, "Arch I...I think I figure out how to forget."

Arch looked at me with concern, and curiosity, "How?"

"The filter..."

"Cane I..."

I cut him off I needed to get it out, "I know Arch, but it's just too much. I think I'll still be able to help though."

The memories stopped flooding my mind as I looked at Amaryllis remembering when they left to set up the barrier.

I looked at the man eyes wide knowing this was him, or what was left of him, "Why now?"

"It's time, and the new keeper will need help." He said with a smile.

I scoffed, "They'll just test him to death. Just like the others."

Amaryllis's grin only widened, "He's already passed, and beyond them now."

I smiled.