In a dark, slightly cramped bedroom, a solitary figure sat at a desk. His face illuminated by the only source of light in the room, a monitor. The only sounds you could hear were the oft occurring clicks of a mouse and clacking of keys from a keyboard, as well as the monotonous whirring of an oscillating fan. The room was not clean by any means, but not messy either. There were clothes strewn about the floor and the bed was unkempt, several empty water bottles lay resting at different spots. It didn't smell though nor did anything look particularly crusty. The room was small so the bed and desk took up a majority of the available space, but that didn't bother its occupant. 

Maximillian Sharpe, known affectionately as 'Max' by his friends and family, was doing what he loved most. Playing video games. More specifically RPGs, also known as role-playing games as you're probably aware. For Max, nothing compared to the feeling of taking a character and living his story through a fantastical adventure! Not just as a spectator either. No, if that were the case Max could very well be a movie addict instead. What Max reveled in the most was the sense of accomplishment he felt piloting these characters through their triumphs and tribulations. He felt their joy when they finally got through that frustratingly difficult area, or when they reunited with a companion after a tense separation. He felt their relief when they made it in time to save that family member or special someone from a disastrous situation, or after beating a formidable boss. And he felt their sadness when a trusted companion betrayed them or they lost someone close to them; because he was there helping them.

Max loved feeling like a part of the game, even if he technically wasn't.

Now Max was devoting himself to a game more than he ever had before, and for two reasons. The first was that this was, in Max's opinion, one of the best games he had ever played and had surged up the ranks of his personal favorites of all time. The second was the fact that an extremely contagious and potentially deadly virus had recently been causing havoc across the Planet. The virus was first thought of as just another flu coming out of a very populated area of the world, which was nothing new. What people didn't expect was for it to spread so rapidly, and more worryingly, stealthily to other parts of the globe. Before anyone knew governments were issuing "Stay at Home" orders and shutting down any businesses not considered essential.

Max worked as your average grunt at your typical warehouse, moving parts, boxes, pallets, and other various tasks required in a warehouse environment. It wasn't a flashy job but it earned him enough to pay his bills and buy new games he wanted when they were available. He had even saved up enough over the years to even buy a new computer recently with some higher-end specs that could really bring to life the Fantasy settings in the games he liked to play. He got to make full use of that computer much sooner than he anticipated.

Max was largely unaffected by the initial shutdowns, his warehouse kept on rolling as usual and outside of some safer hygiene practices and "social distancing" things were pretty much routine. That was until the virus started having more than just a physical impact on the world and started flexing its economic impact as well. With so many people sheltering at home and businesses having to close indefinitely money inevitably became tighter and stopped flowing through the market. This lead to businesses going into the red, harder than they had in years, which in turn sadly but understandably leads to these businesses laying off workers to counter these deficits. Max was one of these pitiable victims of this economic crisis.

Max had worked there for a few years and was by all accounts a good worker, but this ironically ended up not playing in his favor when it came time to choose who to lay off. Max earned a modest amount more than several of his newer co-workers and his shallow-minded superiors saw this as a good chance to cut him out while he was still just a grunt. They were worried for their positions knowing that Max was a capable and thorough worker, so using the extra money saved as reasoning they laid off Max. 

When Max received the news he was surprised for a moment that he ended up being among the first batch to be cut. He thought he was well-liked by his boss and couldn't think of anything he'd done in particular to cause anyone's animosity. Well, except that time he accidentally opened the bathroom door on one of the pretty office ladies... but that wasn't his fault! she forgot to lock the door! Or so he argued in his mind, but either way, she was in no position to select layoffs so she shouldn't be responsible. 

After thinking it over a bit more Max decided to look at it in a more positive light. Didn't this mean he now had an excuse to play games ALL DAY!? YESSSSS! And on the plus side, his risk of coming into contact with the virus would diminish significantly. 

So Max stopped worrying about the layoff. He went home, filed for unemployment, and then immersed himself whole-heartedly into the new game he had just purchased. 

[Era of Legends: Tales of Unity] was the title of this new game. Not the catchiest title but within it, Max could feel the adventurous spirit it brought about, and as he expected he quickly became enrapt. 

The game got full marks from him in most categories, including setting, plot, characters, and gameplay. Outside of being objectively an excellent game, three factors really tipped the scales for Max. First was the game had an extremely detailed character creation menu that allowed you to really make the character exactly how you desire them. In games with character customization there are usually two methods to building the character, one consisting of making the character a projection of yourself. Making them what you idealize yourself to be in a fantasy setting. The other method consists of making them a separate entity and admiring the character as something cool to look at. Max belongs to the latter category. He loved making characters look really freakin cool! He also liked making and playing attractive female characters so he could admire their beauty as he played but would never admit to it. 

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The second factor that brought about his love for the game was the dialogue selection. A common element of RPGs is the ability to choose between a few dialogue options that can or cannot have effects on the story. Max was a big fan of this element in games and [Era of Legends: Tales of Unity] took this to a whole 'nother level. Most games would usually give you 2-4 options to choose from, whereas EL:TU would give the player 8 different dialogue options to choose from! There is always the option to say nothing as well, you could even do a whole playthrough without saying a single line if you wanted to be a "silent protagonist". Many of these choices could and would impact the route of the game as well. And because there were so many options Max could almost always find a suitable choice for the character he was controlling and rarely came upon that uncomfortable scenario where there isn't a single good dialogue option that you pictured for your character. 

Lastly but equally important for Max was the fact that the game had insane replayability! Not to mention the exponential array of gameplay differences from dialogue selection alone, there were 4 different story arcs in EL:TU with each being a fully fleshed out playthrough that could take 60 to 100 hours! There were 4 major factions in the world of EL:TU and each playthrough followed the perspective of one of the factions. There was even a rumored 5th story arc in the perspective of the main antagonist faction but this was never confirmed by the producer, and with the game having only been in circulation for a short period of time no one had reached that point yet. 

Max was a little over two weeks into unemployment and simultaneously a little over two weeks into [Era of Legends: Tales of Unity]. He was averaging nearly 18 hours of gameplay a day, stopping only to eat, bathe, or sleep. He was just that in love with the game. He was on his 4th playthrough and last of the 4 story arcs. His sleep schedule had fallen disastrously off of what it was while he was working as it was currently 3 AM.

"Come on Slade we have to get your level higher if we want to have a chance against the lesser wyverns," Max whispered to his playable character on the screen in front of him.

Slade Vorplex was the name of his character and the whole inspiration behind the name was because Max thought it sounded really cool!

He was having his character slay some mob monsters to level him up before facing a tough mid-boss he knew was in the area because of past playthroughs. While each playthrough contained its own unique areas they also had some shared areas that could be explored, and Max was taking advantage of that for some good equipment and materials. 

After finishing the last of the mobs he got the familiar level up notice for Slade stating that he'd hit lv 50 along with some stat increments, but more importantly he read the notification that Slade now had access to his Ultimate skill [Piercing Phantom]. Max's heart swelled with contentment at the fact he had reached this point with Slade before facing the approaching mid-boss.

Slade was grossly over-leveled at this point in the story but Max felt it necessary considering he was playing on the hardest difficulty. The game had four difficulties consisting of Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare, and with each successful play though Max raised the difficulty a step landing him at Nightmare for his fourth run of the game. Monsters had more HP, higher attack and defense, and higher crit rates, while bosses nearly tripled their stats and got new moves. The name Nightmare was truly fitting.

Max found the challenge fulfilling though and it helped him form a bond with his character Slade. Thus why he found himself often speaking to him subconsciously. 

What Max didn't expect though was the next notification.

[Qualifications have been met]

[Player title aquired]

[Transfering]

...

"Transfer? Is Slade getting teleported somewhere...? I haven't seen the [Player] title before." Max thought to himself in a bit of a stupor. He had yet to be randomly teleported anywhere before and nothing like this had happened when reaching level 50 with his other characters. 

Before he could open the menu to check Slade's status a blinding light erupted from his monitor screen. Max let out a yelp and started to fall back from the sudden eruption of brightness. Before he collided with the ground he felt his body become completely weightless and a sense of freefall enveloped him. His anxiety increased further when he realized he could see nothing but white in combination with the feeling of falling at rapid speeds. The only thoughts running through his head were bracing for some kind of impact and hoping this crazy sensation would end soon! 

Everything abruptly came to a stop.

He opened his eyes. He couldn't stop the Gasp from escaping his mouth. The sight before him was just that awe-striking!

Before him was a spreading expanse of nature as far as his eyes could see. A sea of trees covered the land below him and extended for miles. A mountain range standing border along the right side of the forest. It looked just like the pictures of the Rockies Max had seen on the internet with its snow-capped peaks. A stream snaked its way down a section of the mountain only to disappear into the forest. 

In the few moments he took all this in he realized he was standing on a path winding on that very mountain range when a voice suddenly growled from behind him, it's tone aggressive.

"Don't move human."

The voice reverberated with a low bass pitch.

Max hastily turned around while taking a step back instinctually. What he saw nearly caused him to faint. In front of him was a towering humanoid, well over 2 meters tall! It would look even taller if not for the fact it was slightly crouched in a stance. It was wearing Gleaming black plate armor with white inscriptions running along the shoulders and down the sides of his torso, it's language unreadable to Max. Sturdy black boots on its feet, and in its hands a Spear as long as itself if not longer. The Shaft was also black and appeared solid, appointed at its top a long and sharp spearhead accompanied by two smaller blades jutting out perpendicular to the main blade. Max couldn't help noticing it was pointed in his direction. While all of this was more than enough to shock Max what shocked him the most was this creature was not human. The skin on his face was blue! His face in contrast to his large body looked more refined being smooth and could almost be called gentle if not for the scowl adorning it. Hair as white as snow hung long and straight down to its midback. The hair contrasted strongly with the two black horns that sprouted out of the corners of its forehead, which extended several inches vertically with a single twist in the middle.

Max couldn't believe his eyes.

"Slade..." 

The name slipped out of his mouth subconsciously as a feeling of weakness and fatigue enveloped him. 

The last thing he remembered seeing was the look of confusion added to the vigilance on the Demon's face before he actually fainted.