Prologue (re-written)

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Ugh, can't this noise stop? It's so annoying.

Rolling over, an arm aimlessly swung in the direction of the noise. It took a few attempts, but eventually the noise stopped and the man in the bed returned to his slumber.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

An arm once again swung to silence the alarm, but this time it ended up falling on the floor continuing to beep.

Hmm…

The man finally got out of bed, and when he picked up the clock he slowly read the time.

[10:34 AM]

"..."

The man's groggy mind took a few seconds to process what the time meant, and when he realized, his eyes grew wide.

"The event..."

He quickly rolled across his bed and grabbed his phone to check, and sure enough, it was real. He also had multiple texts asking where he was. In a half-awake state, he messaged the group saying that he'd be on in a second and apologized. The man ran downstairs to grab some breakfast bars, and some water. With how haphazardly he was going through everything, someone would think it was a life-or-death emergency. Once he got what he needed, he made his way back to his room and started booting up the VR equipment. After all that running around he wasn't groggy anymore. He put on trackers, gloves, haptic suit, and finally the headset itself before finally logging into Arcadia Online.

*****

Arcadia Online... It's the first major VRMMORPG in the world. The game puts you in the virtual world of Arcadia, a land of fantasy and unbelievable lands; It was honestly like participating and playing a dream.

You don't start with much, but over time the game gives you the opportunity to do nearly whatever you want (within the T rating)! The amount of freedom they offer is completely unprecedented, and most likely the reason most people have stuck with it rather than playing something else.

There's an entire story you can play through, they have constant events, and your actions can cause villages, towns, or even nations to take notice of you. You could probably write a book just listing the different things you could do.

*****

Once I logged on, I selected my character, a knight in silver looking armor. I made his face look as close to mine as possible, but I did give him white hair rather than the dark brown color I actually have.

I opened my menu before teleporting to the guild base where we were supposed to meet. Our guild looked very sleek and beautiful, but I may be a bit biased. The floor was made of polished marble, and if I dare say, it looks better than the kingdoms throne room.

Once I arrived, everyone just silently stared at me.

Including myself, there were seven of us in the guild's lobby, and almost everyone was wearing a helmet. Despite their faces being covered, I could feel their gazes; maybe they were looking at something really cool behind me. Yeah, let's go with that.

A paladin fully clad in white holy armor approached me.

"Tonic…"

"H- hey… Mike…"

"Dude, we said 10:30 the latest. We've all been ready since like 10:15."

"I know, I just, I got caught up with something."

"I always love gossip. Why dontcha tell me?"

"…"

"Please?"

"I-"

"..."

"I overslept… sorry."

"…"

"That's not very exciting. Anyway, you ready to go?"

"You're not mad?"

"No, I don't really care. I was messing with you. I thought after all this time you could tell. Sorry."

He then turned around and faced everyone else.

"Everyone ready? Good, let's do this!"

Mike opened a portal off to the side, and with that everyone stood up, prepared for a fight.

-Later-

"YOU WILL ALL BURN!"

A giant demon lay before us; he had to have been about 20 to 25ft tall, his skin was a dark red color. He also had two large curly black horns on the top of his head, and sharp claws. There were also what looked to be runes on his body. Whenever his runes changed colors, that meant the element he was using changed too, so thanks to that we just had to use items and weapons that countered whatever he switched to, so if the runes went red for example, then he was using fire and we had to use water attacks to counter him.

Once he got within attacking range, he breathed in heavily and the runes changed to green. His next attack would definitely be a wind attack with a large area of effect, and if we didn't either defeat him now or properly defend ourselves we would be blown away and become disorganized, which increases our chances of losing this fight by a lot.

"How's the spell coming along!?"

"It's not done! I need more time!"

Our mage was preparing a large attack that should finish what's left of the monster's health, and it should have been ready by now, but I guess something happened; I don't know, I'm not a mage. Anyway, that means we'll need to defend against his attack before doing anything.

Mike leisurely walked up to me and started talking casually.

"Hey Tonic, check this out, next the demon's gonna say, [YOUR PUNY ATTACKS C-]"

"YOUR PUNY ATTACKS CANT HARM ME!"

Mike then started nudging me with his elbow while saying, "See, see."

"BONE WALL"

Our necromancer stepped up and cast [Bone Wall] after which a wall of bones erupted from the ground between us and the demon.

The demon began his attack, and the bone wall started to crack. It was gonna break before the spell was ready.

Our tank James charged in front of the mage and planted his large shield into the ground. Soon after a light blue, almost transparent barrier formed in front of him.

The bone wall broke, and anyone that didn't have a high strength stat started to be pushed back, with the exception of the mage.

After about 5 seconds the attack ended, and the mage raised his staff with a triumphant look on his face before shouting...

"Celestial Shard!"

Magic circles appeared on the top of the staff, and a beam of white holy light released into the sky.

The wind around us blew harder, and the light the flew into the sky fell down on the demon.

Upon hitting the ground, a loud thud could be heard as the entire arena began to shake.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

Red ember-like particles began to come off of the demon before he fully vanished.

"we will… meet again…"

The embers were gone by this point, and all that was left was a pile of loot.

"Did he drop it?"

"I'm looking, I'm looking."

"…"

"Well?"

"..."

"He didn't drop it."

Everyone went quiet for a second; this was the 4th time we'd beaten him today and our 6th attempt. By this point, everyone was getting tired. Each playthrough would take at least 30 minutes. First, we go to the Wailing Woods to meet the quest giver, then we fight the army of the undead, solve some puzzles, clear a dungeon, then fight Hogarth The Horrible at the end.

We were doing this because he was an event boss and there was an 8% chance that he would drop a (one time use) consumable which would give us +4 stats to a random category, plus we all got some event cosmetics for beating it for the first time.

+4 to stats may not seem like a lot, and that's because it's not, but consumables that permanently increase your stats are rare and hard to come by, plus, every little advantage helps.

There's a limit to what consumables will do, so certain foods and drinks can boost your stats for the first time, but won't do so a second or third time, so a brand-new stat-boosting consumable is pretty great, it's just that the drop rate isn't.

I was the first one to speak up and break the silence.

"So does anyone wanna give it another go?"

A few of our guildmates audibly groaned, but before they could respond, something could be heard from mage.

"WHAT ARE YOU YELLING ABOUT!?"

"I- I- I'm just playing a game with my friends…"

"WELL WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AND SHOUTING!? SOMETHING SHARD THIS, SOMETHING SPEAR THAT. IT'S 3PM AND IM TRYING TO WORK!"

"I- I- I…"

Some of the guildmates could be heard giggling and laughing at his expense. He heard them through the headset and snapped back…

"Shut Up Gu-"

*Ghasp*

"I can't believe you would speak to me that way…"

"No, Mom, that wasn't to you, I swea-"

Some shuffling and screaming could be heard through the headset.

"WAIT! MOM, NO!"

[2Kewl4Skewl – Has Logged Off]

The remaining guildmates were laughing at how that went. It's funny when it happens to a stranger, but It's far funnier when it happens to someone you know. Well, sometimes.

Now that we're down our Mage we probably can't finish the quest again in a reasonable time. It might take over an hour now.

"You guys want to call it a day?"

"Yeah"

"Yes"

"Maybe we can do it again tomorrow"

"I'll message you later Tonic"

"See you later"

[BrandznGL – Has Logged Out]

[MikeFight – Has Logged Out]

[RPG123 – Has Logged Out]

[James#6074 – Has Logged Out]

[Bony Jokester – Has Logged Out]

 Well that's enough for now.

I took off my VR headset, removed my haptic gloves, then closed the game on my computer. I then sat down to unstrap the trackers from my arms and legs. Once I got everything off, I wiped the sweat from my face with my shirt.

I grabbed my phone and it stated the time was 4:33. Oh, mom should be home soon; let's go relax downstairs for now.

Instead of putting the headset and everything away properly I just threw it on the bed. Maybe i'll play again later.

As I was walking down the stairs, I heard someone unlock the front door. That's got to be her, or rather it would be worrying if anyone else besides my mother opened the door.

The door opened and before I even saw her, she started speaking…

"JOSH! IM HO- oh, you're right there."

"Hey Mom, how's it going?"

She started hanging up her bag and putting her keys away.

"eh… it was alright"

We started walking to the kitchen while talking.

"Alright as in kinda good, or kinda bad"

She opened the fridge, grabbed a pitcher juice, and started pouring herself a glass.

"I don't know. It was alright.."

She didn't really seem to be in the mood to talk and started drinking her drink.

"That's... cool."

"Yup"

She took a plate out of the fridge, heated it up, and walked to her bedroom.

"Goodnight Josh"

"Goodnight Mom"

I heard the door close.

"…"

Must've been a rough day.

She's a single mother and works as a nurse. Long hours and harsh days are expected. I have a father, and he's a great guy; he didn't leave to get milk or anything and never came back, its just that things didn't work out.

The empty sound of the house was depressing.

I headed over to the couch to lie down, then took my phone out of my pocket and started mindlessly browsing different apps.

About an hour passed until I got a text message.

[Mike – Hey Josh, do you mind helping me with something?]