"Everyone, be careful! It's down to half-health, prepare for a raid wipe attack!"
A man with distinct silver hair and eyes, a sword covered with runes in each hand, and majestic silver armour marked with patterns of a phoenix spitting fire on each shoulder barked orders at the thousand members of the guild "Phoenix Rebirth," a tense look on his face.
[Ysgird, the True Immortal King] (Eternal Being, Level 500)
599,987,452/1,200,000,000
'It's been around half an hour now... hmn, we should be able to get it done this time. 1,000 members out of 1,200 still alive... good. We can do this. We may never have gotten this far, but we can do this.' The man thought to himself. Above his head floated a namecard, reading
The boss' aura suddenly rose up, an oppresing feeling falling onto the entire raid party. It shouted,
"Mere false immortal scum! You will pay, pay for this trespass, this vile attack upon my land, my race! Face the move which I, Ysgird, personally created! One not gifted to me by the gods!"
It pushed its hand down onto the blade it wielded, taking a stance that radiated enough power that mana itself, a gaseous substance, condensed into solid cubes and swirled around it. It burst out into laughter.
"Hahahaha! Strongest member of the group who has come to face me, prepare to face your demise!"
The oppresive aura emanating from the boss focused itself on Silver. His face contorted as he shouted,
"Quickly, layer defensive spells and immunity spells on me! It's a single-target attack, against the one ranked highest on the damage rating leaderboards!"
But it was too late.
His shout was interrupted by the roar of the boss, the scream of:
"Let the immortal beings become mortal once more!"
A de-buff showed up on every player's screen:
[Debuff afflicted: Mortality.]
Double death penalty, double loot drop and log-in prevention upon death (14 Days) have been applied.
As Silver went to cast his immunity skill, the solid mana cubes coverged into the boss' blade, jets of orange and blue flame bursting out from it. Then, it was as if time itself had stopped. The players could still see, think, communicate. Yet they couldn't move or use skills. Turning into a blur, the boss disappeared from sight as the players regained access to movement. Ysgird, the boss, was stood in the same stance, now behind the raid party. However, all Silver saw was darkness. He didn't wake up in his bed at home. He didn't see the "You died!" screen. There was simply... nothing.
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The raid party all turned around, facing the boss again, as it spoke,
"My very own skill proved a success. I dub this, Immortal Bane. The one known as Silver has died. Not one of your false Immortals fake deaths. A true death."
Its hideous face twisted into a sadistic smile.
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Outside of the game, it only took a little while for the truth to be discovered.
"Man known as Silver killed in his bed while-"
"Caused by the hit game Chronos? Questi-"
"Death of Silver, guild leader of Phoenix Rebirth, sparks the question - Is Chronos as safe as made out to be? Mor-"
The family of Alexander Silver all looked at the TV in horror and sorrow. Christine Silver, Alexander's mother, burst out into tears immediately. Sean Silver, Alexander's father, just barely managed to keep his composure.
Alexander's roomate, Taylor, was the first to find him dead. The scene of death was horrific to say the least, the headset stained in blood, his corpse mangled, walls partially painted red. It was very unlike the death he had suffered ingame. Taylor only barely managed to keep her composure while calling the ambulance, before she simply burst into tears on the phone.
The response from the developers was swift, and the game shut down nearly instantly. They hastily apologised on the news, and said they would do their best to compensate this loss with whatever they could.
The public was shocked, especially considering Chronos had become part of their daily lives, many finding jobs ingame that could earn them more money. At first there was outrage, but then only dejection. Internet trolls, of course, mocked Silver's death, but the response they recieved for this was so calamitous that they found it in themselves to reflect on their past actions, regret their words and make an apology that outshone the developer's in the public eye.
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Meanwhile, in a gap between worlds:
[Powerful entity detected. As such, entity will be given chance to reincarnate. Opti-]
The voice was cut off by an immediate shout of "Dungeon Master!"
Silver formed out of the misty darkness that was the gap between worlds. Finally, it seemed he could achieve his wish of controlling his own dungeon. While he had owned his own city within Chronos, he didn't feel like it would be the same as having the apocalyptic power of a Dungeon Master, despite all his previous power. He seemed surprisingly composed for someone who had recently died, but in reality, he had forgotten most events of his life. Even his personality that was full of heroics was largely wiped, his only memories being of how to fight and his wishes. The voice sounded out again:
[Very well. You have chosen "Dungeon Master." You will now be placed at an appropriate location. Please remember, you can change the location of your Dungeon when you can maintain human form and move to a suffice location. Note the following commands, as they will be essential to your new life: "Shop." "Build." "Stats." "Minions." "Guardians." "Summon." "Form Body." These commands will be engrained in the back of your mind so you may never forget them. You may go now.]
Silver nodded at no-one, and turned into particulates of light. He did not control this process, and he had no idea what happened, but all he knew was that he, finally, had reincarnated to become a Dungeon Master!