James was pretty easy-going. All he had wanted was to have fun with his friends. Winning was never a priority, he only wanted to enjoy the game, then he started streaming.

At first, it was just a way to let his friends who couldn’t play interact with the ones who were playing. It was a way to let everyone in on the fun.

Other people saw them having fun, and more people started watching his streams. Soon, he had a decently sized following, and they started pushing him to do better.

James started taking the game more seriously: looking for the best gear instead of the best looking, taking more of a leader role in groups, hanging out with the people his chat liked more than the ones they didn’t.

Everything changed when his channel blew up.

The people his chat didn’t like started getting harassed. James was constantly told he was too good for his non-famous friends and that he should hang out with other streamers.

His friends slowly disappeared. They just, one by one, deleted their accounts and stopped responding to his messages. The one that hurt the most though, was Kieran, who disappeared even before his channel blew up.

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His chat never liked Kieran because he wasn’t very good at the game. He could never cast his spells in time and missed frequently. His chat hadn’t gotten to the point of harassing anyone at the time, but it was obvious they didn’t want him there.

During a quest one day, Kieran just disconnected and never logged back on, taking a key item with him. Kieran never gave any explanation or responded to any messages, and as more people also disappeared, it became known as pulling a Kieran to his chat.

Even a year after his channel got big, the chat still hated Kieran even though they had never seen him, which only hurt James worse. Kilian had been James’ best friend and was the only reason he had started playing this game.

James preferred to play simulation games, rather than virtual reality ones. The key difference between the two being that virtual reality is just a helmet while simulations required a pod.

Virtual reality helmets read and interact with the brain, while pods require actual movement. Most people can’t feel any difference between the two, although they tend to tire faster in the pod. Most prefer using the helmet, since it takes up less room and is easier to use, but James feels uncomfortable using the helmets.

The pods help him more fully immersed in the game, everything just feels more real when you’re actually moving.

Kieran used a helmet, and not many games incorporate both systems, which is why they started playing New World, which does support both systems.

Years later, Kieran’s disappearance still hurts.

Most of the friends James had when he first started the game have quit, and of the ones still playing, only a couple still talk to him.

One day, James received an email that made him look at things a little differently. It explained why Kieran had stopped playing, that he hadn’t just run away.

Kieran had been sick for a long time, and it had only been getting worse. The doctors couldn’t do anything, Kieran was growing weaker and weaker. Eventually he couldn’t even get out of bed and spent most of his day in vr.

One day, his heart just stopped while playing vr.

Devastated by the news, James stopped took a vacation from streaming.

James began wondering what happened to everyone else. Were they doing alright? Did David ever ask Alex out? Did Rob ever open that bar?

James determined to find out.