With the last bit of strength, I reach the logoff button. What will Selena think about becoming a crybaby in front of her desk? She pushed me so far, helping with hidden little exploits, or organizing the contracts, a real MVP of the game.

This must be sad, but no human ever did so much for me, at least not without some hidden reason. Even if she's only an NPC, she doesn't deserve to look at that sore sight of me falling apart. Besides, at this point, not even she could salvage the situation.

The quests dried up. And who's to blame for it?

The pulsing headache and the ringing ears signal that the headset is off. What did the Girl say, how long until you get used to this shit? It shouldn't matter anymore, once the timer runs out, the cops will take back the controller. Ten hours left, and all the progress is gone.

I hated this thing so much only days ago, why does it feel so sad and angering to think about it? Well, there is one little thing, of course. Knowing that Old Fox will jump on the opportunity and ruin my life might have something to do with it.

"Fuck! Why?!" It might not be the best to scare the neighbors with a scream past midnight, but who cares anymore? "I was this close! This fucking close. Are you kidding? For what? They didn't even loot the fucking body. God damn it, this idiot shitty stupid game."

It didn't make anything better, now my throat is sore too.

At least even if they heard it, nobody should see me cry here. The benefits of this weird and dangerous penthouse. It might be the right moment to say goodbye to the big red too. What kind of food do they have in prison? How large are the cells?

Knowing the crime situation since the economic collapse, they must be full to the brim. And the Old Fox won't even feel bad about sending someone there. If he thinks this is the way to better the world, or protect the Girl, he'll even get a hard-on from this.

Shit, I still owe her an apology.

This must be karma. After all those stupid mistakes and near-death experiences, it has come to this. Life's fragile both in the real world and way more in the game. The developers knew what they were doing. By giving the sense of loss, players would value their lives more.

Or if not their lives, their gear, hoarded wealth, and of course, their progress. Who'd risk dying before a milestone level, when they could lose everything, and have to start over? Especially this close to the first one; the tenth level, with a clear mission pushing you to reach it.

It's no wonder that even the initial encounter with the zombies pumped me full of adrenaline. Apart from making the world look and feel real, including the pain, the pressure is real too. One must consider whether they'd play it safe and slow, or run head-first into danger.

As long as they have this choice in their own hands of course.

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

Even the boring odd jobs felt exciting when they pushed toward a goal or threatened with great peril. And then, there were those challenges that felt so rewarding to overcome. When you know your chances, and still take them, heart pounding and all, that's what CineMraft is about.

Sure, lots of them were unnecessary, the character almost died a few times and wasted a lot more pondering. No, well, the last part was me, not the avatar. I can't blame everything on the system being a mess like this.

And those risks were at least partly calculated.

They made sense, they pushed the character's limits toward the goal. And in the end, none of those plans, calculations, or all the grind mattered. A random player killed me for fun, a mere staircase away from victory.

Sure, the heart was pumping because of that chase in the middle of it, but this whole massacre came out of the blue. That's not true either. It was an accident that an article about their previous strike against the Taji Market popped up, but it did.

I should have known they could and will show up elsewhere too. Gankers weren't even a new sight in Origin. There were signs, and ignoring them led to this. It was one thing to keep everything valuable, - not that there was any, - out of sight.

Another mistake was to think that this could only happen with someone else. Even while chasing that random dude with tunnel vision the screams were there. The minimap's counter shows everything in real-time.

A glance was enough to reveal how the numbers spiked and kept dropping. The flashing in the sky was a clear indicator too. And what did I do? Stare at it how pretty and strange it looks and keep running. How many signs I ignored for being too focused on finishing it fast?

What if that dick stole one quest or both?

A thousand experience points lost, so what? It would have taken an extra hour to get it from somewhere, or two if playing it very safe. Trying to cut corners, and leave no wiggle room led to losing everything when it was too late to start over.

Boring or not, the infestation quests could have been an easy way to reach the goal. Wasting the first two days in the game came back to haunt me. Finishing the main quest would be a breeze if that bandit event didn't come up, and Origin was still full of rats.

And why did I have to be the one to kick that off? At least let me blame it on someone else, damn it. Okay, it wouldn't be a breeze without it either. Still, it would have been doable even as a free user, with the ten hours remaining.

Find three Plague Rat variants and grind them each for nine hours, and it's done. Wait, no, they'd escalate into Death Rats after the sixth hour. That's even better on paper, they give twice the Exp each, and the homes have three times as many mobs to farm.

Never mind that it's risky and the first twelve almost killed me.

The game is way past the point of worrying about risks when there is nothing to lose. Grinding for so long seems ridiculous and it would still be cutting it close, but that option is gone too. It would have been better than having no mathematical chance to finish anymore.

What other plans did I make? Do they even matter anymore?

It's over, well and completely. The stars aligned to cut off every chance of recovery, because some players decided to go on a murder spree. This is what hurts the most. After all the stupid mistakes I made, and solved, and pushed through.

The decision was in someone else's hands with no say in it.

So what else is here to do at this point? Going to sleep? The headache might prevent that, regardless of how tired it feels. Run? How long until they'd send someone and find me after the phone is off? They wouldn't fuck around, surrender is the only real option here.

Of course, I don't want to die in real life, but in-game, I can still go off in a blaze of glory.