CHAPTER 2

Drake was very familiar with the disjointed sensation of his mind leaving his body to enter the virtual world. While it was true that this was his first time entering a virtual game, it wasn’t his first virtual world. As long as Drake could remember, his dad trained him in the ways of combat in a private virtual space. Besides obstacle courses and an all inclusive weapons training program, he frequently sparred with his dad, though that mostly ended up with him getting beaten to death.

Thankfully his dad wasn’t that sadistic. Sam set Drake’s pain setting to five percent in the beginning, only raising it as he grew older. When he was twelve, it was set to a whopping three hundred percent setting, way past what was legally and ethically allowed. Drake’s tolerance for pain was at an absurd level.

Even at three hundred percent, he was able to get stabbed, burned, and shocked without batting an eye. Drake was allowed to give up at any point, and at many times he did. Only when he saw the care and affection his father had for him did he grit his teeth and continue to bear with the pain. The reason was simple. He wanted to make his old man proud! And that he did.

In the end, perhaps as a coping mechanism to the immense pain, Drake developed masochistic tendencies. For example, one day, he was curious how long he could starve before he died. It was twenty-two days.

Drake’s mind was now in the console room, an offline space that had a variety of features. Want to vacation anywhere on earth? Just open the Geoearth app! Want to try exotic foods? Sex? There was an app for anything, as long as you paid enough. Unfortunately for Drake, he wasn’t allowed to use any sex related apps until he was eighteen. A year ago he tried to hack his virtual helmet to circumvent the age requirement, but he ended up getting a virus and ruining the thing. Security was airtight these days, so hacking was practically impossible. Still, a young man had to try.

The capsule was brand new, so the usual clutter of apps was nowhere to be seen. Only a single, flashing hologram of a wide world floated in front of him. There was two words at the top of the hologram.

Solomon’s Realm

Drake’s figure smashed the hologram as soon as he saw it. In response, the picture grew larger and larger until it encompassed the entire room. The transition is so smooth! Drake gasped as he found himself standing amongst the clouds, overlooking a vast world filled with colors. He saw movement in the corner of his eye. Honing in on the object, he spotted an ancient tome. It flashed past him, disappearing amongst the clouds. Drake clenched his hands in excitement. The Lesser Key of Solomon!

In the next moment, a deep voice filled with exhaustion echoed throughout the world. “Traveler from afar, forgive me. I have summoned you to this realm full of perils in order to satisfy my own selfishness.”

Drake gasped. Is that Solomon’s voice? He sounds like he’s on the verge of death. How could this happen!? Drake worshipped all heroes, and Solomon was definitely among the best.

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Solomon continued. “What is your name, traveler?”

Drake giggled gleefully at the thought of interacting with a legendary hero. He proudly stated. “Zeradune!”

He had spent countless nights coming up with a name for his avatar. There was a lot of pressure, because he was certain that when he became a celebrity, there would definitely be critics. It had to be cool and badass.

“Zeradune,” Solomon spoke out, anxiety in his voice, “we must hurry, my strength fades with every passing moment.”

“Don’t die, Solomon. The world needs a hero like you!” Drake clenched his hands as he shouted. In the weeks leading up to the game’s release, Drake researched about Solomon too. He was one hundred percent in agreement with Solomon’s desire to create a utopia so all species could co-exist together.

Solomon chuckled weakly. “I sense a kindred spirit in you. Forgive me, for I ask a great task of you.”

Drake stepped forward heroically. “Anything!”

“My realm, it is on the verge of war.”

“I will unify it!” Drake said heroically.

“No,” Solomon sighed. “It is useless to try to unify the realm.”

“What? Why?” Drake was aghast. Did the betrayal of the council change him?

“It is an impossible task.” Solomon's voice was filled with helplessness.

“Impossible?” Drake felt depressed. He spent thousands of hours watching celebrities defeat all sorts of villainous monsters and players. Their actions directly shaped how he viewed what was right or wrong in the world.

Solomon fell silent when he looked at Drake. For some reason, when he saw the boy before him, thoughts of unifying the realm took root in his mind once more. Alas, he was on the verge of death. It was too late for him.

“Zeradune, I cannot speak much longer. I ask not that you unify the realm, but at least try to bring peace to it,” Solomon’s voice grew weaker with every passing moment. “Your soul is without a husk. Tell me, which form do you desire?”

Drake glanced around at the multiple humanoid figures that appeared in front of him. Most of them bore the same appearance as him, though with some differences. For example, his elf body looked like a playboy, while the orc body looked like his dad except with green skin and large bulky teeth.

Drake was unable to make a decision. Unfortunately, no information about the species characteristics appeared when he inspected them. Thankfully he did his research on the various high fantasy creatures so he could somewhat guess what was what. In the end, he threw his hands up into the air and said. “I can’t decide, so I’ll just random!”

As per his command, the various species disappeared one after the other. Drakes’ heart pumped with excitement as he wondered what he would become. A halfling? A dwarf? After a few moments, only one form was left. Drake’s eyebrows twitched. “Really? After all that I got the boring old human?”

He already regretted picking random. If he knew he would be a human, he would have picked something more exhilarating and exotic.

Solomon’s voice rang out again, but this time it was barely a whisper. “Lands suitable for humans are many. Which will you choose?”

Down below the clouds, various pillars of light rose from the surface. There had to be over a thousand of them. Shrugging his shoulders, Drake made the same decision as before. “Random!”

All of the pillars disappeared except for one. Before Drake could react, the pillar of light warped and turned. It flew towards him, encompassing him in a bright warm light. As he was transported through space, Solomon’s voice entered his mind. “Zeradune, I wish you… the...best…”