<~(London, England - Earth 2022)~>

Unaware of what was happening across the Multiverse, young Silver had just finished acquiring the last experience point needed to fully max out his account on RuneScape 3. Unsurprisingly, the last experience point went into the latest skill Archaeology in the Orthus digsite and he breathed an immense sigh of relief. Most of his clanmates from the game were already maxed out and had the fabled trimmed completionist cape which was easy to get if you put in the time and effort into obtaining it, but Silver didn’t truly consider trimmed completionist as a lofty goal. He himself was a veteran of the game for over a decade and played even when the infamous event known as the Falador Massacre occurred despite not participating in it at the time.

Over the years of playing the game, he finished every quest and miniquest ever released thus far-including some of the now defunct and removed ones-just to learn more about the rich history behind this fantastic world he essentially grew up with. He enjoyed playing as the World Guardian blessed by Guthix himself before his death to save the beautiful world of Gielinor from the threats of Saradomin and Zamorak up until the very end-even considering himself to be a devoted Guthixian in game-but after the company released a new storyline a few months back, Silver hopped onto the game and completed those quickly. That could have been considered as him playing on “Easy Mode” considering it didn’t take him too long to finish them, but with that last experience point in the last skill he needed to truly max out his account, there was nothing more he could do until the next game update.

It was a boring waiting period for the company to update the game, but Silver did pass the time by reading novels involving game-like Systems and powerful protagonists who wield them.

Returning back to the monumental achievement, Silver sighed in relief as he essentially had his true “completionist” moment and started to move his character into the Elven city of Prifddinas (pronounced “prive-THEE-nuss”) through using the fast travel system known as the Lodestone Network. He watched behind his monitor as his character began the teleportation animation and the game cut to the loading screen, but as soon as the game returned to show the beautiful center tower where the lodestone was kept, something strange happened.

As the game finished loading to reveal his destination, a cutscene appeared in front of his eyes. This quickly made Silver tab out of the game-pausing the game-to pause his Spotify which was playing the new League of Legends anthem by Lil Nas X titled "STAR WALKIN'."

(A/N: I recommend you to give it a listen as it is a really good track! Anyways, it is better if you listen to this track after this part! This is what Silver hears as soon as the cutscene plays. Hint: "An Echo throughout Time" by Julian Surma)

Silver reopened the game and the cutscene played out-the music immediately coming through his earpods. It felt strange to hear it since the last time he heard it was during the "Desperate Measures" questline which he had finished a while back and it is what kickstarted the Elder God War story arc. It was Silver's favorite questline, but he was highly displeased with Zamorak's actions when the whole world of Gielinor was in peril-but the end to that questline felt a tad somber. He didn't mind Seren nor her brother, but he was a devout Guthixian.

He even customized his character with garments using the color palette of Guthix!

Anyways, going back to the game, the cutscene displayed a three-dimensional view of Silver's own character appearing atop of a Lodestone, but the surroundings were very different compared to what Silver (and his character) expected it to be. As per usual, his character did not have a voice to hear through his earpods, but had readable text appearing slowly. It was like he was utterly confused about what was going on.

(From this point, the dialogue is MEANT to be portrayed like this. Do not worry as it will only happen during this scene and all dialogue will be formatted normally.)

TierSi1v: "What? Where am I?"

The surrounding environment was nothing what either of them was expecting. Silver had expected to arrive in Prifddinas where players normally appear at when using the Lodestone Network, but this cutscene displayed a world on fire. No life existed for miles around and the only sight that greeted them both was a blackened sky and ground stained in blood and ash. Even the Lodestone which he came from was merely no longer usable as if it used what little reserves were left to respond to his teleportation spell. This scene shocked Silver as he had no idea of what was going on-much like his character-but there was audible sounds of crunched ash and soft squelching sounds from the soft bloodstained ground beneath his character's feet.

???: "You are where you wanted to go, World Guardian."

A gruff male voice spoke-the voice audible with varying emotional undertones-to Silver's character which made him look around for the source of the voice. Oddly enough, Silver somehow thought the voice was talking to him instead, but that made him shake his head. 'No, there's no way an NPC in a game could break the fourth wall. Not like in the Gower quest.'

???: "However, it is not when you wanted to go."

It was then both the character avatar and Silver himself saw the source of the voice manifest in front of him a few paces away. He was dressed entirely in black robes which gave him a mysterious presence, but the only other color he had was his emerald green eyes which shined brighter than emerald gems in the sunshine. Neither of them knew this character as there was no mention of him in the Wiki, but this interested Silver. 'This seems to be a new character in the game. Maybe a hidden secret?'

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

TierSi1v: "What do you mean? When am I?"

???: "The world has been altered. Events that should have happened in the right order have been rewritten, but fortunately, there is time to mend what has been broken."

'So, is this a secret new questline I happened to unlock?' Silver thought to himself, intrigued. Sadly, there was no option to skip the cutscene or press the spacebar and neither did Silver want to do that! He was a true Lorehound-first and foremost.

TierSi1v: "What do you mean that the world has been altered? Who changed the world?"

The mysterious figure did not speak and the scene was quiet for now, but again, it was strange to Silver. His lorehound instincts were screaming at him that something felt wrong here. He didn't know what was going on, but like his avatar, he was desperate to know what he meant.

That was when the figure pointed at Silver's avatar-more specifically at his hands and feet-which was strangely being disintegrated quickly. For Silver's avatar, they looked frightened as if afflicted with something-making them appear pale. Unfortunately for Silver himself, the GUI (or HUD) was unavailable during cutscenes, so he didn't know what was going on. The scene was giving Silver a deep profound sense of dread as if death was right behind him breathing down his neck, but his mind was attempting to find a logical reason as to what was going on.

Fortunately, the figure spoke-breaking him out of his downward spiral into madness.

???: "The world burned to death years ago after Guthix passed away without giving anyone the strength needed to guard this planet from the gods. You, World Guardian, are an anomaly in this moment of time. The forces that govern this world's Timeline have noticed you and are correcting the anomaly to which means you cannot do what must be done to save this world."

Those words shocked Silver and his avatar who was still disintegrating slowly as if extending the duration just enough to show what was going on. This was a BIG change in what Silver had expected the developers to do after the events of the Elder God War storyline in terms of retconning the entire story arc, but still, that looming dreadful feeling was still there at the back of Silver's mind as he quietly listened to what was going on.

TierSi1v: "I-i'm an anomaly?! But I remember..."

Then Silver noticed his own avatar look like his eyes were glossing over like a corpse forever looking in fear. He was still alive of course since he still looked quite alive albeit barely.

???: "You are an Echo. A lingering memory of the truth of this world, but that is all you are now. Your real self was already unmade for years-even before you set foot out of Ashdale. The only reason you still linger for now is because of your experience travelling through time before. Even an Echo will vanish once the correction is completed, but do not despair. I've already made preparations to restore the balance."

Then Silver's avatar no longer drew breath-forever unable to learn what happened to him as his body fully disappeared into nothing. Normally, this was when the cutscene ended as Silver understood it, but contrary to his expectations, the cutscene did not end.

Instead, the game closed itself on his computer. Silver was stunned by that, so he intended to go towards the shortcut to re-open the game. Fortunately for him, the game did relaunch as one normally expects and he was greeted with the login screen for RuneScape 3. His email was automatically saved, so all he needed to do was enter in his password and it should let him back in, right?

(A/N: Past this point, the track isn't needed that much anymore.)

Unfortunately, the reality was much harsher than he expected once he hit "Log in."

No loading screen.

No establishing assets.

No "Attempting to Connect" prompt in the top lefthand corner.

Nothing save for a black system prompt with white RuneScape font text in the middle of the screen with only a single blue button in the bottom middle part of the screen UI.

<===+===>

RuneScape Notice

Due to a few errors occurring, we have temporarily disabled the lobby in order to attempt patching the servers. we apologize for any inconveniences occurred during this period.

-Jagex

[OK]

<===+===>

Then something odd happened to Silver. Even though he wasn't in the game yet nor did he hit the [OK] button on the prompt, he could still hear that gruff voice from the cutscene in his ears quite clearly as if he was right next to him.

Well, the truth was something silver's mind was trying to deny hard despite the words he heard.

???: "It is no use, Silver Tyr. You won't be able to log back into the game."

'HOW DOES THE GAME KNOW MY NAME?!' Silver thought to himself as he was freaking out from the shock. That was enough to freak him out to the point of clicking on the [OK] button-shutting down the game.

He pulled out his earpods and placed them back in their charging travel case-the last bit of their charge expended after a few hours of gameplay. Just as he was getting up and turned around to go to the bathroom to just a moment to digest what the heck just happened, he froze on the spot.

"Things are not quite as they seemed, huh?" that SAME mysterious figure was right in front of him down to the eyes and voice. To the left of him, a familiar naragi male stood. It was Guthix-or maybe an avatar of him-standing in front of him in the flesh.

'Oh f**k,' Silver thought to himself as he saw these two figures in his room.

Guthix looked at Silver with a look of slight interest as he himself had been in the room since the start-hidden from sight. He saw through that magical device the figure described as a "laptop" which allowed people like Silver to play a game connected to his world-at least a version of it. The god of balance felt his happiness and joy upon completing his final task and saw his golem-like avatar teleport away using a similar technique to his War Druids, but that was when he shed his invisibility. He made no effort to announce his presence as he watched Silver display his curiosity and intrigue at the mystery of what happened.

Then when the figure arrived next to him after closing the game, he waited for Silver to see with his own eyes what was happening.

"You are right," Guthix nodded as he could sense his soul's strength. It was far more powerful than the natives of Gielinor and able to withstand the integration of the planetary array which prevented godly power from being used on him. "He is capable of doing it."

Silver was confused for a moment before he quickly realized something. He looked at Guthix-who seemed tired but not dying-and went to give him a hug. The action surprised the god of balance, but his confusion was soon cleared up.

"I want you to know that even if it was a story in a game, I appreciated what you did for so long, sir," Silver said in a genuine tone of appreciation. "You singlehandedly saved the world of Gielinor during the God Wars and prevented so many deaths, but that slippery snake Sliske killed you without mercy."

With that one hug made under genuine appreciation for the sacrifices Guthix made to protect his beloved world given freely by a mortal he barely knew, the timeline of Gielinor had been drastically altered. Not even Silver, Guthix, or anyone from Gielinor knew just how impactful things would become now that the world was going to have its Guardian.

It all starts here where everything began to change...