Jake was having a good time with the upgrades via a Dark Glider server that Nigel provided. I love this power, now the game doesn’t suck so much, Jake thought. Donnie, Jake’s best and only friend was playing with him remotely.

“That twerp, Nigel, doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Jake said.

“I don’t think we should take over random microcosms. The Game Player Managers (or G.P.M.s) will be up our ass for sure. I’m surprised they aren’t already,” Donnie said.

“The G.P.M.s are off for the holiday. Now is the perfect opportunity to reclaim these virtual constructs so we can build our base,” Jake said.

“I dunno, man.”

“Stop being such a wuss and help me. I gave you your powers for a reason. Now, quit your whining and help me make this game our own.”

With the help of Dark Glider, Jake’s character had become an overpowered brute. One of the security measures that Gregor had programmed into the Colossal Machine was an anti-cheat system. Gregor had taken the protection mechanisms offline just before getting burned. The anti-cheat mechanism alerted system admins if a character advanced to a level greater than what was possible in a given time span.

Jake had broken nearly every rule that Gregor had created. Jake took Pretzelverse’s lack of action as a green light to proceed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“How many micro-spaces do we have now, Donnie?” Jake asked.

“I’ve been able to liberate four microcosms.”

“Good. I want enough space to build a castle.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Jake. You cannot combine microcosms into one big city, but you can connect them.”

“Then start connecting them—” Jake was cut off by an explosion. His ears rang from the loud ambient noise from his headphones.

As the smoke from the explosion dissipated, a winged character appeared just in front of Jake. He was carrying a sword that was much larger than Jake’s hammer.

“Donnie, someone just showed up. Is it a G.P.M?”

“Does the character have a hooded, purple robe?”

“No, this guy has a white robe, wings, and a sword.”

“Then he’s just another player. Maybe we took his microcosm?”

“Too bad for him if we did.” Jake started laughing.

The winged figure raised the sword and then uttered some words that Jake couldn’t understand. Jake was catapulted back before falling on his ass. Donnie’s character was cut off from Jake’s, and the internal chat system was offline.

What just happened? Jake thought, before belting out, “Who are you, and what do you want?”

“You don’t belong here!” the winged figured said.

“I’m taking over these micro . . . somethings, so get out of my way.”

The figure instantly teleported to Jake, swung the sword, and penetrated Jake’s armor. Jake’s hit points went from 2,000 to 2 in one hit.

“Do you yield?” the figure asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Jake said as he raised his virtual hands in surrender.

“You shall not play the game in this manner. You are ruining the spirit of what Pretzelverse has set forth,” the figure said.

“Yeah, man, whatever you say.”

Jake saw the winged figure raise his sword one last time.