“Hey man, good catching up with you two!” I land a solid hi-five with each of my friends, strolling through the lobby fresh out of updating our characters.

[Combo] just keeps ramping up and up. Damage multiplied by 2.1x every single hit within three seconds of each other. That’s just… I’m gonna have to take a shower, because that’s just DISGUSTING! I get I’m #27 on the leaderboard now, but at a certain point it’s gotta stop for the sake of the game itself, right?

Speaking of things that need to stop though, kind of ran out of players to slaughter about ten minutes in between the three of us, which is understandable. Nobody just wants to sacc their experience for nothing. I got about twenty thousand total experience today though, so that’s pretty damn nice.

“Same, it’s been awhile. You done with Ragnarok?”

“Mhm. Finally 100%ed it.” I nod to Rither in affirmation. “Got my eyes set on a new game, so I’ll probably be skipping out on the next season while I’m playing that. Well, mostly anyways. I’ll hop on from time to time.”

“Oh yeah? What game?” Cassy elbowed me in the arm with a smirk. “Probably just another old PC port, yeah?”

“No, actually.” I daintily dust off my armor, despite it not being scuffed because you literally can’t physically interact with other players in the lobby. “Omniscient, heard of it?”

“Oh, I think I have, actually.” And then something seemed to click for her. “Wait, whaha-huhabahdauh? You-you, Koth, are going to play a NEW game? Like, properly new? Not just something you haven’t played before?”

“...Is that so surprising?”

“Yeah kind of.” She shrugged, dropping the exasperated tone instantly. “You usually don’t.”

“I’d be inclined to agree.” Rither nodded. “You’re a very static gamer, my friend.”

“Hey, I’m an old school, gamer, thank you very much. Well, you guys gonna be heading out?”

“Yeah, I just got on cause I saw you two were on. It’s not like we’re gonna get any leaderboard player fights, unless you wanna server hop and hunt them down or something.” Rither suggested after a moment's thought.

“Nah, it’s basically impossible to catch somebody actively dodging a fight, not worth the effort.” I shrugged with a grin. Omniscient was coming out soon anyways, and I still had to talk to the doofus about whatever he’d been wanting to talk about.

“Well, I’m gonna go get on an actual hang out game.” Cassy yawned as she opened up her menu. “See you guys around next season, I guess. Unless you wanna get together and try and organize a blow out fight for the end of the season? You know, leaderboard players vs leaderboard players? I’m sure we could get a pretty sizable chunk of the rankers to play along.”

“Mmm, maybe.” I nodded slightly. Basically giving her a “nah”. “Welp, I’ve gotta talk to somebody, see you guys around.”

“See ya man!” Rither waved, as did Cassy, and a moment later, both vanished in a pale blue light, one after the other.

“RRrrrrrrrrrrright.”

Well, no more putting it off. I had to stop trolling, eeeeeeeeeeeeventually.

—

“So what exactly have you been tailing me around the map for?”

“Oh so now you see fit to ask?”

“Okay, my bad maybe I left you hanging for a little longer than I intended to.” I sagged a bit as I collapsed into a chair. I was a little mentally drained after all that fighting, so maybe I’d take it easy for release day.

“Yeah, yeah.” Onesy rolled his eyes as he sat in the chair adjacent to me.

“So, where’s your guild? Weren’t you guys going around together?”

“Oh, they’re checking out the lobby. Some of them actually like the game. It’s not bad by the way, but not really my taste.”

“Eh, fair enough.” I shrugged casually.

It was a punishing game, not everybody liked that kind of thing. I couldn’t well fault him for it.

Working my way back up into an upright position, I leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. “Now, seriously, what’d you want to say to me?”

“Oh no, I feel as if I’m suddenly forgetting.”

“Oh no, I feel as if my hand is gravitating to the menu.” I quip right back.

“Yeesh, my bad!” He raised his hands in surrender. “I wanted to talk to you about Omniscient.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“You don’t say.” I stare at him with my best, “dawg.” face.

“Specifically, about what you’re planning to do on release.”

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” I lean against the table, catching my head in the palm of my hand as I regale my goals. “I’m going to grind, get ahead of the competition, pick up pvp and try to complete most of the game, like I normally would. Same kind of build I used in Ragnarok, the usual.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he raised a singular eyebrow as he asked an odd question. “Any room for joining a guild in that busy schedule?”

“...What?”

“Do you, want, to join, our guild?”

I raise an eyebrow right back, given that’s a rather silly question. Even if we were close friends or something, individually I was pretty well over the level of skill of anybody in this guy’s guild…

“Uh, not really? I play with a small party sometimes, but solo play is more my thing.”

“Mmm… I’m gonna speak my mind for a moment here.”

“Go for it.” I sit back up and wave for him to carry on.

“You’re an achievement hunter, right?”

Well, I didn’t explicitly tell him, but it’s not like it’s all that difficult to figure out. I mean, what kind of loon would spend months in pursuit of a single goal just to immediately quit once they fulfilled it? Not even bothering to properly use it? This kind of loon, that’s who. An achievement hunter loon.

Seeing no reason to deny him, I shrug. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Doesn’t it get kind of boring to do the same thing over and over? You said you’re Koth in every game, do you do this same thing in every game? Glass cannon, completionist?”

“...What’re you getting at here?” I narrow my eyes as he carries on, wondering how he’s going to end this tangent without ticking me off.

“I’m saying, why not try something new? I mean, this game advertises something different from what you’d usually play, right? Older mechanics, more simplistic, achievement systems, stuff like that?”

Continuing to give him a neutral look, I agree with him at least partially. “It does. But I don’t see why I can’t just do what I’d normally do. What exactly is stopping me?”

“Well nothing’s stopping you, obviously.” He scoffed before continuing. “But I’m just saying, really, why not try something new?”

“...Are you just trying to get me to join your guild?”

“I mean, kind of.” He admitted pretty freely. “You seem like you’re good at these kinds of games. Really good, so of course I WANT you to join my guild, but I mean what I say too.”

Well… I was pretty exhausted today. I hadn’t exactly been expecting to deal with such a huge swarm of grunts today… Maybe I could give it a try just for tonight, do a bit of exploring instead of farming… or at least just doing quests instead of straight up farming.

“...Mmm, still a pretty big no to joining the guild.”

“Damn.” He exasperatedly shrugged in defeat.

“But, you’re not wrong about me always doing the same thing in every game. I guess it couldn’t hurt to take it a little slower for the first few days. This is a different kind of game, right?”

Leaning back and staring up at the sky, Onesie sighed and fell forward in his chair, facing me once again. “...Yeah. It is. Anyways, even if you don’t wanna join our guild, would you at least be open to cooperating on some raids or whatever?”

I mean… that one can’t really hurt me, so… “Eh, yeah, sure, why not? I don’t know any friends who are gonna play, so if I happen to need some allies for something in game, I’ll let you know.”

“Alright!” He instantly sat up beaming, holding out an arm for a handshake.

…Was that the only thing he was after this entire time?

“I suppose it’s a deal.” I sighed and smiled, taking Onesy’s hand. Just the other day I was whooping this guy's entire guild, but I guess he’s not the type to hold a grudge. Suppose I can respect that.

“Well, I’ll be pre-ordering the game now. See you around, and I’ll be in server sixty four. Hopefully.” I grinned nervously. There was a pretty solid chance everything past the first few hundred servers would flood instantly given how many people would be in the game on day one.

“Hm, see you around then, Koth.”

“Likewise Onesy.”

Log out.