The Gamer

In a forest at the dark of night, silence permeated the air, and the moonlight shone down majestically on the ancient trees, illuminating them with a rich, silver glow. This forest was beautiful, too beautiful to be kept on earth; it was heaven sent and it would stand for time immemorial.

But this forest of frozen beauty was disrupted by figures running through the silver leaves and grass. There were four figures ruining the silence of the forest with their arduous breaths and thumping of feet on the ground. “Just a bit further, we’re nearly there!” said one of the figures. They sped up their pace, and they always looked over their shoulders with fear in their eyes. They ran for ten straight minutes until they pushed through the foliage and found what they were looking for.

In the middle of the clearing laid a massive pillar of black stone that seemed to suck all light from around it, with glowing white inscriptions strewn all over it. They stopped to admire it, all past fears forgotten, until a massive roar that seemed to shake the world echoed throughout the entire forest, stirring the four out of their daze. “It’s coming,” one said. One figure looked to the next. “Guild master, we’ll block him, you destroy the pillar,” and with that, three drew their swords and bows, and got ready for the monster that was coming for them.

The one figure left by himself nodded his head. “I’ll leave it to you guys,” he said. Then he turned around and approached the pillar, muttering to himself words of power, and streams of power lifted up from him like steam, coming together to form a pillar of multicoloured light. Space trembled wherever he walked, and a pressure emanated from him, making everything be weighed down. Sounds of fighting echoed behind him. He turned to see a massive shadow that blocked the moon, and saw the three figures jumping about with different coloured streams flashing about. He turned back round, and focused.

He pulled out his sword, and everywhere it sliced, space would split apart, readying it in an overhead slash. All the power converged on the sword, entering it until the metal glowed with a devouring light. He breathed in and shouted with all his might “God’s Judgement!” and he sliced.

Everything was quiet again, a brief visage of the forest as it was before, but it was gone when for miles, space trembled and ruptured, becoming chaotic space. And in front of the pillar, a vertical line of darkness appeared, and it became more and more prominent, until it became such a deep black colour that no one could tell if it was the cold abyss. Lights appeared within this void, dots of multi-coloured light illuminated the darkness until it was revealed; space, fathomless and beautiful beyond compare. But all of a sudden, a roar unlike anything ever heard before, drowned everything in noise; it was terrifying, it put the roar of the monster to shame. And then, this vertical line of space moved.

It was too fast, faster than the speed of light, more powerful than a thousand atomic bombs, it cut through the pillar and the world behind it like butter. The Guild master’s sword glowed before faintly disappearing, like glitter. The Guild master looked at the disappearing sword with a sad smile, before it drifted away in the wind, his vision dimming. He saw the pillar disappear in flash of light that illuminated the entire world, showing everyone that it has been destroyed.

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His vision became black. He spent his life force to use that ability, and he enjoyed watching that pillar being destroyed, so he didn’t regret it. He laid there in the darkness, waiting for something. Then a message appeared in front of him:

You have destroyed the source of all evil and ended the game!

You will now be exited from the game!

I sat up from the monitor, looking at that flashing blue screen, dazed. Then I stood straight up and shouted in happiness “We did it!” I sat back down heavily, grinning stupidly to myself, thinking, all those years and we finally did it; we’ve ended the game! I looked towards the screen to see hundreds of messages saying congrats and well done. Although there were negative comments, they didn’t matter.

I found this game four years ago. It said that if someone beat the game they would be rewarded. Instantly I was hooked. Real life rewards? Count me in. And what a game it was, for you could only have one character and if you died that’s it - game over. Forever. You could never create another character. The amount of people that entered the game neared the millions. I found countless friends along the way to get me here, and now that it’s done, I feel melancholy, as I enjoyed it so much.

'I wonder what the reward is,' I thought to myself. I looked towards the game and my character was floating in the darkness. I clicked on him and saw a message pop up:

As you have won the game, you have been awarded with the ability: The Gamer! The game will now be destroyed. Have a nice day!

The screen turned a horrifying blue, the death signal, before returning to the home screen. I looked for the game download, but it wasn’t there; it was gone, evaporated, ‘blown to smithereens’ as some would say. I sighed in sadness, got up from the chair and looked outside my window. The grey blocks that blocked the sunlight, the smell of diesel permeated the air. 'What a disgusting world,' I sneered. I looked back to my computer and thought of that serene forest that was the last place I would remember.

If only we were in touch with nature more like the elves, we would never have destroyed the world. I was turning around to go to my fridge, when I noticed a peculiar thing in the corner of my sight. When I focused in on it, I could see an icon for a message. 'What the hell?' I thought to myself. I willed it to come to me, and it did, in dead centre of my vision, flashing its innocent envelope to me. What is this? I didn’t get those new contact lenses with computer capabilities; hell, I can’t even get normal contact lenses. I wondered how it’s here, in front of me. I wanted to see what it was, curiosity over taking me.

It opened and I saw the same blue styled notification that was in the game. I jumped back in fright. Seeing something so surreal in front of me scared me witless. I calmed myself down, and looked at it.

'Congrats! You have been awarded the ability of The Gamer! We are giving you a starting bundle for your new life. Hope you enjoy it!'