1 A Whim

Same room, same bed, just a different day. It seemed as if a melody was on repeat—the night would come, the day would pass. A routine had slowly permeated in Chris' life.

Quite some time had passed since he noticed the current circumstances. However, what could he even do? One can only get used to the pain but never really able to cast it away from their heart.

The shattered memories of the past echoed inside his head—Chris felt helpless. He didn't know how to extricate himself from all the regrets and sadness that filled his heart.

He wanted to blame someone, he wanted to curse the world, and above all, he wanted to... turn back time.

To that time when he could have still fixed things—

To that time he had wasted—

But then again and again…

No matter how much he desired.

No matter how much he wished to create a miracle and change the ultimate outcome.

What's done was more or less done.

'Heh.'

Only a sigh escaped his lips as a new day drew to a close.

He climbed the stairs and went to the balcony.

There, he observed the skies.

It was the beginning of March, a time when it was neither hot nor rainy.

There were clouds in the sky, but they did little to obstruct the glowing stars that shimmered from time to time.

Chris looked back to the past. When he was young, his father used to talk about the stars and the constellations.

He remembered that his father's favorite was the big dipper.

It was a group of seven stars that portrayed a bowl and a handle.

Could he see it today?

After searching for a while, he quickly saw the big dipper—it was the same as when he was young, and perhaps until the last day of his life, it would always remain the same.

Thinking about it, his life right now was just like the big dipper, constantly disappearing and reappearing along the passage of day and night.

'Sigh.'

Another sigh, another day in his life.

He suddenly remembered a myth, a saying of sorts, that every time a person sighed, they would lose a few days of their life. Was it three days for every sigh? He wasn't entirely sure.

These thoughts, he could only push at the back of his head as he wondered how he would be able to... change things.

Buzz, buzz, buzz—

The vibration from his phone woke him up from his reverie, notifying him that he had received a message.

He opened his phone, curious and also a bit expectant about who would message him at this time of the night.

'Perhaps it's…'

No, that couldn't be possible anymore. He sucked in a deep breath, toning down all the expectations inside his head.

'Wake up. Stick with reality.'

His expectations immediately died down the moment he saw the notification.

He could only let out another sigh as he realized it was just a message from one of his group chats.

It was one of the more important group chats, though, as it included two other guys he had met online from way back two years ago and had become close with him.

"Arch, Narr, I'm bored. There are a few new games on mobile, wanna try?" The one who said this was Freios, a shy guy who spoke with an accent from his province. He portrayed an air of mystery, and it was always hard to guess whatever was on his mind.

From time to time, he would disappear like a specter, only appearing a week or two later as if he had never vanished at all. All in all, due to his seemingly kind temperament, he seemed to be the younger brother of the group, but he was, in truth, the oldest among the trio.

"Nah, I'm still playing some old gacha stuff. Too lazy to try a new one." The one who replied was Narr.

Narr was, well… It was honestly incredibly hard to describe him. He was the rich young master of the group, the one who seemed to be living the dream, but also the one who has the most profound thoughts and understanding about life. In simpler terms, he might have a few loose screws in his head.

As for the last guy, Arch, it was, of course, Chris. They had been using these nicknames ever since they met, and it had more or less become their identity. In truth, none of them used their real names even when they met in person a few months back.

Chris looked at Freios' message and thought for a while. The idea of playing a new mobile game wasn't something he really fancied. Just a few months back, he had wasted a lot of money playing an MMORPG, only to end up quitting from the lack of motivation.

It happened so fast, and that fervor with which he played the game died all of a sudden. Long story short, he really thought of simply ignoring Freios' message since he had better things to do... or not.

He was about to close his phone when he felt like... why not?

He had been living such a boorish life.

He had been caged in his own room for far, far too long. Maybe it was time for something new? Well, it was not like he would be leaving his room when playing a new mobile game. But then again, a new world to explore would also be quite fun, no?

In truth, what ran through his mind were all his inhibitions about playing again.

Perhaps he would waste his time again…

Perhaps he would overspend again…

"Ah, f*ck it."

"It doesn't matter, honestly."

He just wanted to escape.

Find something else, find something new.

But first, he had to know what kind of game it was. And so after lurking in the chat for a few minutes, he asked, "What game are you talking about?"

Freios replied, "Empyrean Skies, I remember asking you to pre-register a week ago."

"Oh yeah, that game. It looks quite nice? Let me check if I have pre-registered." Chris checked the Mobile Store right after. After searching it, he saw that it was, indeed, one of the games he had pre-registered in a few weeks back when he had nothing else to do.

He went back to the group chat and typed: "I've already begun downloading it. We can play it in in 2 hours, I guess."

After a few minutes, Freios messaged: "Alright. I've also downloaded it. Narr, go pre-register and download. You can always uninstall if you don't like it."

Soon, Narr replied: "Kayyy. But I won't promise anything"

Chris didn't reply anymore as he simply watched Freios convince Narr to join. After a while, the group chat went silent again and he moved his attention to the other apps in his phone.

Recently, he had been playing a gacha game called Knights Cross. He could consider it as the most forgiving gacha which had a really high drop rate. Overtime, however, the repetitive nature of the game made him a little bit sick of it.

As such, he had been quarreling with himself whether he should uninstall the game or not. And now that he was about to try a new game, his reluctance was somewhat reduced. He tapped on the game icon and, after a few minutes of hesitation, finally uninstalled it.

"I'm not enjoying it anymore. Games are meant to be fun, not feel like a chore." He consoled himself as he debated whether it was really right to just uninstall it. After all, a lot of time and effort had already been put inside that game.

Sighing, he went back to the Game Store and checked whether there were other games he had pre-registered in. He realized there was quite a lot, and among these games were a few MMORPG like Empyrean Skies.

After looking through all of them, he realized none of them really took his interest. Most were similar to the old MMORPG he played, the same one he spent a lot on and quit soon after. As for Empyrean Skies, it was neither a game he fancied nor a game he disliked. It was just like an MMORPG, but the art style was kind of different, focusing more on cutesy over badass graphics.

It just seemed more of a casual MMORPG, which focused on the interaction of its players.

Empyrean Skies—

[Romantic RPG where you can meet new friends, perhaps even the love of your life! Action-packed open-world game where you're tasked to save the kingdom of Laplace!]

He checked the information of the game, looked through all the images, and finally watched the trailer. It was… fine? It didn't strike him as something innovative or interesting. Its description was even a little bit cliched. "Whatever."

After checking everything and seeing that the game was just about to be released, he suddenly thought back to a few memories he had while playing similar games. A smile crept up on his face as he thought to myself, 'Maybe it's possible?'

As soon as this thought entered his mind, he immediately opened the group chat and typed: "Hey Freios, let's make a guild. Narr, you little sh*t, join us."

Narr, of course, declined, immersed in his very own world. The only thing he typed was: "Nope, nada. Too busy."

Freios, on the other hand, seemed to be excited at the thought as he replied, "That sounds fun. We have played many games before, but we have never been in the same guild. Should we make a chill guild or a competitive guild?"

He already had an answer to that question, but he didn't want to put the cart before the horse. He didn't want to choke all of a sudden after saying the words inside his head. "Let's first check the game out. A chill guild would be nice, but if we can be competitive, why not?"

"Indeed. Should we go for an international guild or a local guild?" Freios asked, concerned about what type of guild they should run.

Chris thought for a moment before answering, "I think a local guild would be nice. Easier communication and similar time zone."

It was then when Narr butted in: "An international guild might lure some cuties overseas, though."

"The heck?" Chris said, thinking about how absurd that statement was. After all, something like meeting "girls" in games was something he wasn't really fond of. Who could say if the girl he met online might actually have a longer "weapon" than him?

In any case, such a thought didn't really occur to him. At this point in time, his heart still felt extremely empty, and… He shouldn't have thought of that. Now, the gloominess washed over all the excitement he had over playing a new game.

Freios, after being AFK for a few minutes, finally replied, "Narr is right, though. But didn't you just say no promises? Kek. It would be easier to manage a local guild, but don't you think an international guild has more potential? Maybe we can pull in a few 'whales' from other countries to join us."

There was a "eureka" inside Chris' head when he read that. He felt too narrow-minded. "I didn't think of that. Let's try that out. There's still some time before the game gets released. Let's rest first. After all, my net is absolute crap."

Freios: "I've already downloaded it, and now I'm looking at the server list. Should we just select the recommended server, or do you have any preference?"

"Just pick the recommended server. I'll join once the game officially launches."

From the introduction in the Game Store, Empyrean Skies has 4 main classes to choose from: Warrior, Mage, Priest, and Assassin. Quite traditional, not going beyond the norm of inventing new classes just to show that "it's a different game" from all the others. The only catch was that the 4 main classes branched into multiple advanced classes, and the leveling system was quite unique. Well, it was something to discover once he started playing.

A specific advanced class caught Chris' eyes as he muttered, "Interesting."

His phone buzzed as Freios sent another message: "I chose Server 15 (S15).."

Chris replied: "Gotcha."

Soon, his phone buzzed multiple times as Freios sent screenshots of the 4 different classes in-game. After a while, he said, "I'll play assassin this time. The other classes don't really appeal to me."

Chris sent a "like" emoticon, looked through the images he sent, and closed his phone. He had to do something else while waiting for the game to download. He looked up at the sky again and once again found himself staring at the big dipper.

'Will there come a time when one of the stars in the big dipper explodes and turns into a black hole?'

This thought crossed his mind, which led him to let out a chuckle. What a strange thought. But thinking about it, wasn't it something inevitable?

One day, each of the countless stars in the sky would explode. He would probably never witness such events in his lifetime, but the thought that the constant existence of the big dipper would eventually come to an end gave rise to another thought—

'Nothing is ever constant.'

As this thought crossed his mind, the gloominess hovering around him vanished all of a sudden. Ironically, such a seemingly negative thought gave rise to a positive reaction.

He laughed like an idiot before his stomach grumbled all of a sudden, urging him to get some snacks to satiate it. He checked his phone, saw that the game would require another 25 minutes to download, and finally went downstairs.

Soon, he would be entering a brand new world—at least, metaphorically. Excited and hungry, He grabbed some biscuits and gnawed on them while waiting for time to pass.

A few hours passed by in silence. After scrolling through some forums about random stuff, the game eventually got downloaded. As its icon appeared on his phone, he immediately tapped on it and finally opened the game that created waves upon waves in his life.

The most chaotic adventure of his life had thus begun—one that he would never forget until the last of his days.