'Stagnant Water'

A slang which refers to gamers who play the game for so long that they are unable to move on from it, therefore becoming stagnant.

Every single player who actually spends their time playing Tisixa Online knows very well that they are granted this title. But there is someone who is even more aware of this fact and is even more 'stagnant' than others, the rank #1 player in this slowly dying game.

"ROARRRRRR"

A huge bellow erupted from the giant Tortoise, with a body no smaller than a castle, protected by a seemingly unbreakable shell, it was quite the opponent. However, today it had met its match. Despite having decimated countless players in the past, it was forced to go on the defensive when facing a single player.

The player in question was currently slashing the majestic black scales of the tortoise, and seemed unbothered by all the noise it made.

'It's possible'

Lennon was currently holding a humongous greatsword, inscribed with runic patterns and shining with glory. His black hair drifted in the wind, he looked like the average Asian, albeit a bit handsome and muscular. The greatsword, having slain thousands upon thousands of monsters in the past, seemed to have little effect on the tortoise other than putting it in excruciating pain.

Once again, Lennon glanced at the health bar, it was steadily rising back up again, yet Lennon's eyes were full of confidence.

Suddenly, Lennon's body began to shine with radiance, almost as if he had just been blessed by an angel.

A huge blade composed of a mysterious yellow light headed right for the tortoise. The tortoise didn't even get any time to react as it was split in half. The slash had continued for a couple miles, vaporising everything in its path.

'Nice'

Lennon celebrated as he saw the strike hit the tortoise. It was his ultimate attack with a low chance of success, but since he had applied a buff which granted him copious amounts of luck for two seconds, those chances drastically increased.

[You've completed the quest, 'On the Brink of Extinction']

[You've defeated 'Yu, the One who slowly munches away at the World']

[You've ended the calamity which has terrorised the world since the beginning of time! The world acknowledges your feat!]

'The world acknowledges your feat!', it was a message that only showed itself when the scenario of the game was changed purely based on an individual's actions. Though Lennon has seen that sentence a number of times, he was still proud and happy that it once again appeared in front of him.

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Lennon, a name both feared and admired throughout Tisixa Online. The rank #1 player, the one above all, the untouchable, there were numerous nicknames which players call him. However, these nicknames were slowly becoming lost as the number of active players dwindled.

The game allowed players to make their own choices and freely control the scenarios in the game if they had enough power, everything from the game mechanics to the sound effects were perfect. But there was a good reason which kept new players from joining and continuously urged veteran players to quit.

'Fucking shitty ass graphics'

Lennon cursed as he looked down upon the world of Tisixa, at first glance everything was fine, but as you look further away, everything becomes buggy, as if the world starts to distort itself. Sometimes it would be really pixelated, other times it wouldn't even load.

However, there was also another reason. The time of release was truly unfortunate, at the time, several other games that were super anticipated were getting released. Afterall, business was booming for VRMMORPGs in the twenty fifth century, Earth was completely revolutionised by its appearance. The developers of Tisixa were pressured by this competition and released the game too early, which resulted in the terrible graphics.

Lennon got out of his black VR capsule, it was the best model available. The surface was smoother than anything you could possibly imagine, the interior was fitted with pillows to help the user relax while gaming.

Lennon went to browse on the Tisixa forums as he did everyday, and there was a new message in the 'Announcements' section.

'WHAT?!'

Rage engulfed Lennon, who wouldn't be angry in his situation? The game he had dedicated almost a decade of his life to is going to be wiped off the face of this planet. But then he saw the following announcement.

'Tisit Online?'

There was a video link attached to the forum page, and a trailer popped up after Lennon clicked on it. The video only lasted fifteen minutes, but it was enough time to imprint a look of awe on Lennon's face. The graphics were perfect, no, they were indescribable.

The trailer had also explicitly advertised it to be 100% immersive, meaning you could feel all five senses without any delay. Suddenly, all his rage disappeared.

Maybe it's because Lennon had experienced Tisixa Online's terrible graphics for nearly a decade now, but he was flabbergasted at how good the graphics were. Above all, the game itself looked like an exact copy of Tisixa, as he saw many scenes in the trailer which he had experienced first-hand in Tisixa Online.

Lennon pre ordered without hesitation, he couldn't hide his excitement as thoughts raced through his head.

'Over one hundred million players in a game? And the game is similar to, if not the same as Tisixa?'

No one in the world knew that a college student was currently acting like a child, jumping up and down in his room due to excitement and squealing in anticipation.

'Ah, it seems the launch date is confirmed to be July 3rd, around a fortnight from now,'

Plans were already formulating in Lennon's mind, unlike Tisixa, there would be millions of players, and definitely a lot of good players among them. He couldn't play laid back and carefree like he did in Tisixa, he would have to get competitive. Nearly a decade's worth of memories suddenly flooded his head, the locations of key items, NPCs with important questions and hidden monsters.

Lennon knows most of them off by heart, that was how much he had played the game. However, he still had to double check to make sure and immediately made a fresh document to sort out his notes, which quickly became filled with information.

After a week, he had finished his document and named it 'The Masterplan', a name that wasn't generic at all. Lennon then went on the forums to see his fellow players' reactions, and was immediately surprised to see that there were over six thousand users online in the Tisixa forums. The forums usually average about twenty players online every hour, so this occurrence was definitely unusual.

Of course, it soon became apparent that a Tisixa player had posted on the Tisit forums, explaining the similarities of the game, which attracted the attention of thousands of users.

'Well, they have a week at most to try out Tisixa, but you can only do so much in a week. They'll also probably realise why Tisixa is so unpopular and most will stop since the graphics are just that unbearable.

The forums were very laggy, as they weren't developed to handle this much traffic. A new message was being posted every couple seconds, most were just users trying to squeeze out any bits of information about Tisixa from the actual Tisixa players in hopes of getting a good head start.

For the next week, Lennon double checked everything, making sure nothing was missed out. For the last time, he looked down upon the world of Tisixa. The graphics were terrible as usual, but there was this feeling inside him which was hard to explain. Of course, anyone who's dedicated ten years of their life to a game would feel this when they finally leave the game. The sense of pride for what you've accomplished and the feeling of sorrow from being forced to leave everything behind. Of course, in this case, Lennon wasn't going to quit gaming, but it still hit him hard.

'Time to treasure the old memories and make better ones'

The thought appeared in Lennon's mind as a sad smile flashed across his face along with a message, he shook his head and chuckled as he read it before clicking the logout button for the last time.

'We thank you for enjoying our game'