I scroll down the page, dutifully absorbing each sentence until I finish reading the block of text. Below it sits a graphic of a faceless protagonist. He has a clean cut figure with broad shoulders, decked out in intricately decorated armour from head to toe. In his hand is a gleaming longsword, raised to stoke the spirits of an army invisible the reader.

The text below the graphic reads:

‘From lowly hero to noble king

Annihilate your enemies

Return fortune to your kingdom!

- ASCENDANCE -

Spare nothing on your path to glory’

I stare at the last line. Spare nothing on your path to glory? I like it, though, it’s weird how the earlier text gives off a completely different feeling.

I scroll up the page and read the beginning paragraphs again to satisfy my curiosity. Then, I reread graphic’s tagline. Yeah, they give out completely different vibes. The first feels like a tap on your shoulder while the second is a haymaker to the gut. The tagline must have been written by the game’s original creator or it wouldn’t feel so spirited.

I grab my phone and enter the messaging app I left open. I press the miniature icon of a microphone and say, “Hey Athea, I just looked up your brother’s game. It looks pretty amazing.”

A few other thoughts come to me, but I decide to wait until she replies. I send the voice message and within seconds, Athea’s reply arrives. The app automatically plays the voice recording. Her smug voice barrels out of the tinny speakers.

“I was confident you’d like it, which why I had the foresight to get a copy for our game account.”

I thumb the icon again. “Your account, you mean.”

“With how much you make use it, can you still say it belongs solely to me?” She replies.

“Fineeee, I won’t argue.” I shake my head. Despite my exasperation, I can’t wipe the grin off my face. “Thank you kindly for adding to my ever growing backlog.”

I’m half convinced Athea buys all the games she does because she knows I’ll play them. In the case of Ascendance, she should have gotten it for free since it’s a game both she and her brother are working on.

“Backlog?” Her insulted tone carries perfectly even through a voice message. “I did not pull three consecutive all-nighters before the game’s launch to have it relegated to the bottom of your list.”

“Calm down, it was just a joke.” My other hand controls the mouse, and I navigate it to the gaming software on Athea’s computer. “I’m going to download it right now. The game file should be pretty damn huge and– oh.”

“My foresight leaves no stone unturned. You should be praising me.”

This sly fox already downloaded it. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. As always, Athea is three steps ahead in whatever she does.

“Stop bragging, you nerd.” My finger bounces on the plastic shell of the mouse in excitement. “Since you already downloaded it, I’m going to start playing. Don’t expect me to reply you in the next couple of hours.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I won’t. And don’t worry, I’ve already prepared myself to drive you home tonight, so play till as late as you want.”

I sometimes wonder if everything shitty in my life happened to balance out the good fortune of having such a thoughtful best friend. She lets me stay at her fully furnished, air conditioned apartment under the guise of working at the job I was fired from. She’s lending me money for me and Auntie Bao’s expenses. If I didn’t talk her out of it, she’d even have added on another portion for Jin Ma.

“Hah,” I let out a snort of laughter. “You know me too well. Come back safely, I’ll see you later.”

I really need to find another job. Even if it’s part time, at least I’ll be able to slowly repay my debts. I think I ought to give this apartment a good cleaning later. She did get this game with me in mind, after all.

I set my phone aside and turn back to the monitor. I won’t allow any distractions to sour my experience. I pick up the headphones, slip it onto my head and start the game.

As expected of Athea’s beastly computer set up, it takes seconds for the game to boot up. The screen goes black. Logos of various corporations flash across the screen until finally, the beginning of a music track surges through my headphones.

The words I’d seen on Ascendance’s introductory page shimmer into existence, gussied up in an cursive font to match the majesty of the orchestra playing in the background.

‘An entire century has passed, yet Therth continues to be ravaged by fearsome demons

These harbingers of disaster grow stronger with each phase of the moon

Malicious beasts run rampant and together with creatures of darkness – Nightmares

The people of Helia suffer under this reign of terror, fearful of what the future holds

Rise to challenge, O hero

Defeat the demons

And become the one who reigns’

The music reaches its crescendo and a cutscene begins to play. Two sides clash in a massive battle on an open battlefield. Soldiers charge into the endless sea of monsters.

Demons, the purple skinned figures with twisting horns, surge out of each wave to deal the advancing humans with devastating blows, tearing them apart with beastly rancour. Flesh and viscera is strewn across the earth, dying it deep, bloody red.

Just as all hope is lost, the heroes arrive. The faceless protagonist steps out of his party. The war cries of the human soldiers rise in tandem to his raising sword before the game’s title fades into the foreground in bold, golden lettering.

“Ascendance,” I read out. “Damn, will I really be able to pause this to clean the house later?”

I waste no time in starting a new file and jump into the character creation menu. There’s not much customization offered. Standard fare like gender, body size, eye and hair colour are present, but since I don’t want to waste time fluffing about, I generate a random appearance and proceed to the next step.

“Of course it has character classes.” I put both hands on the back of my head. “Great, now I need to check the wiki. No way am I going to get myself locked into a lousy class.”

I agonize over picking up my phone before my eyes catch a small box of text in the topmost center of the screen. I squint at it.

“’Character skills are not limited to your chosen class,’” I read. “That’s a weird decision. If it’s like this, they might as well not have classes in the first place.” I scratch my chin. “Hm, but I suppose it takes the pressure off the player to pick the correct class. It’ll be interesting to experiment with the different classes, too.”

I pick the class I usually play in games like these. I like melee, and you can’t mess up too badly with a Knight. I go to click the final button to start the game when I realize something.

“Wait a second… can only play as a human?”

To make sure I didn’t miss any options or selections for my character, I return to the previous menu. I read each word and keep an eye out for any special texts.

Nothing. I sit back, groaning a little. Playing as a human is fine and all, but it’s usually more fun to take the race of a fantasy creature or beast. I thought back to the opening cutscene when humans and demons clashed. There also had been plenty of creatures like orcs, goblins, golems. They had looked severely cool, enough that I was tempted to tell Athea to find a way to add monster races.

I sigh and brush off my thoughts. The feedback won’t change anything. Athea’s told me on more than one occasion that her brother will not budge on his vision for the game. If he wanted to make different races playable, it would have already made it in.

“Shame,” I shrug and press play. “Playing as a non-human would have been way cooler.”