chapter 1: dawn of the crafter

A tree sat on top of an idyllic hill, overlooking a serene and peaceful little hamlet. Under the tree a figure lounged lazily. The figure was most certainly not human; he had green scaly skin, a tail slapping the ground in a dazed manner, and serrated claws glinting in the sunlight.

The figure was wearing rather simplistic leather armour with a metal vambrace and shoulder pad, with intricate patterning of an army of angles, on their right arm.

The person suddenly pulled out a rapier from their hip. the figure played with the sword for a while, swishing it back and forth in the air, before stabbing a falling leaf. The leaf convulsed for a brief moment before rapidly expanding into countless 2 dimensional polygons, which spread out over the hamlet and beyond in the blink of an eye.

The lizard like figure lazily swiped the air, causing a translucent screen to materialize into being. The screen was filled with messages of pure rage.

"Who the **** used the bloom glitch"

"I still haven't fully recovered from that day"

"who hurt you"

The lizard like figure gave out a low hearty laugh, he wiped a single tear from his eye before standing up.

"Welp, should probably get going before they find me" the figure had a deep masculine voice, that was pleasant to the ears.

The lizard man strolled down the hill at a casual pace toward the hamlet.

As he entered the town he began to look around with a slightly pained gaze, this was the town he had started in, his first hub and the base of operations he used so often.

He continued his walk, letting the nostalgia and memories hit him like a wave, he saw the NPC he had first completed a quest for, the shop he had sold his first loot and brought his first items and the café he always visited to plan for raids.

He found an empty table and sat down, his gaze swept over the hamlet, which felt so very empty. The streets once crowded with new players and veterans alike was now devoid of life, the once unbearable shout of excited players was now nothing more than the chirping of the birds, the once cheery and vibrant atmosphere had been replaced with what could only be described as the feeling one got when entering a ghost town or graveyard, a remnant of a brighter past.

While he was contemplating the good days, a waitress had appeared behind him, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Hello Jack Aubrey, what can I get you today?" the waitress asked in a sweet voice.

"Thanks Jaqueline, I'll have the tea of the day with the chefs special sandwich"

"Right away sir"

Jack sat at the table and swiped the air again, once more the translucent screen appeared. Jack flipped to the ranking tab and clicked on the world tab.

He smiled as he looked at the screen, the name Jack Aubrey was sitting nicely at rank 1. He had spent so long trying to get to the rank, but now that he was finally here he felt... empty, wrong. It was meant to be a great moment for him was now nothing more than a hollow victory.

while contemplating, Jaqueline returned with a teapot and a plate with a double layered sandwich.

"Your order sir"

Jaqueline placed the teapot and plate on the table. Jack watched as she walked away in a stiff robotic manner, as if on rails. It was only now that he was realising how stiff the AI was in this game, when he had first entered this world he felt like he was speaking to humans. But as time went on he found more and more flaws in them, and as a result they felt less human.

He began to eat the sandwich, the taste was exquisite yet it felt like he was chewing cardboard.

Once he had finished the sandwich he moved onto the tea. It was too perfect a temperature, no matter how much he blew the tea would not change temperature.

The realism was the problem, exquisite in some areas, lacklustre in others.

He mulled over his thoughts quietly as he began to prepare for his final adventure in the game.

With a quick look around, he noticed one npc, and a wide smile cracked across his face.

Kyle, a basic level quest giver, ranked number three in the npc leader boards... For most hated npc.

An odd ritual began, as jack moved in a small circle, placing down weapons of all shapes and sizes on the ground, each made with exquisite craftsmanship and thrumming with a unearthly power.

Once he had no more weapons to place, he flicked his tea cup up in the air.

The small cup tumbled gracefully through the air, in a slow, lazy arc.

"Harden" Jack whispered softly, watching a strange blue shimmer appear around the cup.

Jack readied himself, and looked directly at Kyle.

"Hey Kyle" Jack called.

"Yes traveller" Kyle responded in a friendly tone.

"Slavery is for nerds" Jack hollered at the top of his lungs, feeling good as he finally called out the slave trading piece of shit.

At this point, the cup reached eye level, and the cups path changed drastically, as Jack brought round his tail, a massive spiked steel ball attached to the end, and smashed into the cup with all of his force.

Instead of shattering into a thousand pieces and scattering to the four corners of the earth, the cup was launched at mind bending speeds.

Kyle barely had time to clock what had happened, before the cup impacted his skull, and splattered his brains against the wall he had been sitting in front of.

The cup kept going however, smashing right through the wall, Jack gave a whistle of satisfaction as he saw the town walls, around five hundred metres away, fragment slightly.

"Stop, criminal scum" A voice came from behind Jack, a heavily armoured man called as he ran over, spear in hand, "you are violat-"

The guard never finished his command, as Jack quickly made him past tense with frightening efficiency, flattening him into an iron pancake with a massive two handed great hammer.

[You have angered the enforcer

Prepare for judgment]

The ground ruptured as something horrendous forced its way through the earth.

Mechanical wings folded around a gapping maw, a maw filled with rows of jagged and gnarled teeth. The maw opened wide, until it began to open so wide the jaw moved backwards, revealing a singular bloodshot eye.

Once the eye was revealed, the iris began to expand, revealing rows of jagged and gnarled teeth, and so the cycle repeated, in an almost hypnotic way.

"Come on you biblically accurate dipshit" Jack yelled at the massive beast in defiance.

The enforcer turned to him, and let out an ear piercing shriek of rage, before unleashing a powerful blast of energy from its eye.

Jack was launched high into the sky, along with his small armoury.

Grabbing a bow and arrow out of the air, Jack notched the arrow with his free hand, but used his tail to draw back on the string, using his extra hand to grab a pre-loaded crossbow.

With a steady aim, he lined up the two weapons at two different joints for the wings of the enforcer.

"Fallbright" He whispered, and as he released the arrow and shot the bolt, they transformed into shining pillars of white light, slicing cleanly through the joints.

The enforcer howled in pain, as Alex grabbed a particularly ridiculous seven foot eight great sword.

"Meteor drop" He yelled as his whole body was enveloped in scarlet flames, and he dropped like a stone, cleaving off the last two wings.

As the massive eye, mouth, thing fell to the ground, Jack slipped on a pair of menacing gauntlets.

"Overlord strike" He said calmly, as he took a lunging step forward, and swung his fist hard at the still airborne enforcer.

Nothing happened for a second, then a large shockwave erupted from Jack's fist, and the enforcer was pierced right through.

When the corpse of the enforcer dropped to the ground, it began to crack, before being ripped to shreds.

From the tattered remains, a titanic figure emerged, majestic wings held loftily above it.

"Come on then" Jack yelled, "ain't no way in hell your feathered ass is getting in between me and world first"

...

Jack stood in the ruined remains of the city, about twenty shattered corpses around him, bloody and bruised, but triumphant.

Ten hours well spent.

[Congratulations player Jack Aubrey for gaining world's first clear of the enforcer

A game wide announcement will be made]

With a satisfied smile, Jack opened the menu, and logged off for the last time.

Jack felt as if he was being squeezed through a pipe, it was unpleasant and uncomfortable. After Experiencing it so many times he had simply become numb to it.

In a dimly lit room stood a metallic capsule, It had an ebony white exterior with many grooves running along the sides and back, the front of the capsule was covered in tinted glass which obscured whatever lay inside, and behind the capsule a slew of messy and uncoordinated wires ran to one of the walls.

Suddenly a subtle click came from the pod and the tinted glass began to rise.

Out of the pod, a hand shot out and grasped the edge of the pod.

A slender 6 foot man stepped out of the pod. His messy brown hair reached his shoulder and almost covered his eyes, his chin and the areas around his mouth where covered in short cut stubble, and hazel brown eyes that gazed around the room lazily.

The man stumbled out of the pod and stretched his back and let the satisfying feeling engulf him. He rolled his his neck and heard a satisfactory crick-crick-crick.

He stumbled toward the closed curtains and flung them open with gusto. Once the harsh rays of the cruel sun hit the man, he cringed back as if trying to return to his refuge in the shadows.

After a rapid bout of blinking he finally was able to get a decent look outside. Below his window, rolling fields spilled out over the land, seemingly endlessly, allowing a quaint village to rest upon it. The serene countryside was only marred by the gargantuan skyscrapers rising proudly up from the distance, like grotesque fingers rising from the earth, clawing at the heavens, trying desperately to bring them down.

"Why do they even build them that big?", the man mused to himself in a slightly disgruntled manner "they're ruining my view"

His gaze was dragged down and he once more gazed upon the quaint village. The town held a mixture of houses from all era's, if you looked hard enough you could find a house from all architecture styles, there was also a small cave a little ways from town that he was sure a homeless man had began to occupy, so you could even say there was a cave-man style house.

The mishmash of styles gave the village an ancient feel, as though it had stood since the dawn of time, but more than that, as if it had been lived in for all those years. As though it had never been abandoned, and the residents had simply kept on improving the town, never letting it go.

At this thought, the man felt a sense of pride. He didn't know why, he just did.

The man made to Leave the barren room, save for the metallic pod. When he did he was greeted by an immaculately organized house. All the books where sorted by alphabetical order on their respective bookshelf, Decorations and useful items, such as flowerpots and lamps, were arranged neatly on counters, the floor was covered in an immaculate and well hoovered carpet.

Every part of the house was put together with care and precision, and cleaned spotless.

The man walked down the flight of stairs with gusto and flung open the front door.

He continued to walk out the house when something caught his attention.

"Morning Ernie". the man called in a bright and cheerful tone.

"Morning Alex" Ernie replied in an equally friendly tone "finally emerged from the cave"

"Hey" Alex replied in a disgruntled tone "I may stay in that pod for at least 10 hours a day and only leave my house when it is a necessity, but that doesn't make me antisocial".

" I believe that is the exact definition of antisocial" Ernie replied with a bemused look "if we did not have these conversations every month you could have passed off as a rather fine hermit".

"Honestly, the audacity" Alex retorted with mock indignation "I did not leave my house for the first time in a week to be criticised on my life style, but enough about me, how's the farm going".

"Its doing well", Ernie replied in a slightly bored tone "same as its ever been, the cows are grazing without much going on up there, that one sheep constantly tries to intimidate my tractor, and the pigs are rolling around on the ground in their brain dead sort of way. Oh and that reminds me".

From his backpack, Ernie produced to glass bottles "your weekly milk delivery, full fat, just the way you like it"

Alex took the bottles gladly and began to turn when he paused.

"Hey Ernie" Alex asked in an inquisitive tone "you got and good quality meat left over?"

"Your in luck" Ernie replied with a slight glint in his eyes "we just butchered a few cows and the meat is yet to be shipped out, if you want I can set aside some fillet if you want".

"I can pick it up now if you want, just let me put this milk away first"

"Sure, ill give the farm a call now and tell the to set aside a cut"

After returning from the farm, Alex began to organize his kitchen and began laying out ingredients.

Firstly He chopped a slice of haggis and began to cook it, while it was cooking he began to chop up some mushrooms and sprinkled pepper on the steak while lightly applying pressure.

Once the haggis was cooked he placed it carefully in the center of a plate and began to cook the steak, it sizzled in a satisfying manner. When it was done he carefully removed the stake and placed it upon the haggis.

Once the steak was placed he dumped the mushrooms in the same pan he had cooked the steak and added some double cream and let it cook.

While he waited for the mushrooms to cook, he opened a bag of salad and placed it in a ring around the steak.

When the mushrooms where finally done cooking, Alex drizzled the resulting sauce over the plate and starred proudly at his creation. It was a meal his dad used to make when they still lived together, it had always been saved for special occasions.

Alex took the plate holding the sumptuous creation and moved toward the dining room.

While in the dining room, Alex began to setup a place at the table. He opened up the fridge with a gusto, and pulled out a bottle of bear, a cold one always felt good after a raid.

He couldn't get the stupid grin off his face as he tucked into his meal, his satisfaction was immeasurable.

World's first, the first time he had achieved such a thing, and it felt good.

After finishing the meal, Alex slunk back up to the room housing the metallic pod.

He sat down inside the pod and let the comfy, synthetic chair and shuffled about before getting comfy.

Finally he pressed a button on an arm and the door slowly closed, sealing the metallic pod.

Once the tinted glass finally closed, the tinted glass glowed and a screen showing multiple icons flashed up. After looking for a bit, Alex concentrated on one icon with an image of a waving man with the caption 'chatter' under it.

Suddenly the world warped around him and a familiar feeling of being squeezed through a tube.

After the feeling passed he opened his eyes, what stood out before was a bustling city, filled with bright and colourful avatars.

After taking in the sights for a moment Alex moved through the town and stopped after noticing his reflection in a mirror. His avatar had short blond hair, a slender build and blond hair that reached his collar, he wore a British Napoleonic naval captain uniform with multiple fake medals on his chest.

Alex looked at his reflection before adjusting his collar and jacket. After he was done making himself look presentable, Alex made his way to a building some what similar to an airport but had no runways around the back.

He entered through the automatic doors and was greeted by a woman with metallic skin and blue lines running over the skin, she wore a air hostess uniform.

"Welcome sir, where would you like to go?" The woman asked in a sweet voice.

A screen with a keyboard bellow appeared in front of the woman. Alex punched in a few characters and hit enter.

Once Alex did a tube rose from the floor and began to hum with blue lightning.

"Please enter the warp tube and you will be transported to your destination".

after giving the woman a quick nod and stepped into the tube. A pleasant sensation washed over him and he closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes he was in a well furbished office foyer. At the back stood a desk, with a bored, middle aged woman sitting behind it, upon noticing Alex the woman looked up and put on a forced smile.

"Welcome to Grand Story private server, do you have an appointment"

"Yeah" Alex said in a slightly disinterested tone.

"Name please"

"Real or avatar?"

"Avatar is fine"

"Jack Aubrey"

The woman scrolled through a screen before closing it quickly.

"You where meant to be here 10 minutes ago"

"I had some business to attend to"

"I don't care, go up" the woman cut in annoyedly.

After throwing the woman a dirty look, Alex moved to an elevator and stepped in, the doors closed automatically.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened up to reveal a a sparsely decorated office. On a swivel chair a man with red skin, short horns, and crimson hair. He wore a two piece suit and a forked tail that flicked playfully around.

"Ah Jack, glad you made it, and in a reasonable time frame as well, I hope Barbra wasn't too hard on you" The man in the chair said in a cheerful tone.

"She was... reasonable" Alex spoke once more in a disinterested tone "listen I'm just here to hand over the account, get my money, and leave"

"No need to be so curt" The man said in a slightly down trodden tone "well since you have better places to be let's make this quick"

The man held his hand out and Alex pressed a few buttons on a screen before throwing a USB stick to the man and began to leave. The man caught the USB and looked at it.

"Did you at least enjoy the game?" The man asked quizzically.

"Best £40 I ever spent" Alex said, turning around to reveal a massive smile.

As Alex turned once more to leave the man called out to him.

"Think fast"

Alex turned just in time to catch a USB that had been tossed his way.

"Does this mean I'm not being payed?"

"Oh no, we're keeping your account, just think of this an an added bonus, for your hard work"

Alex stared at the USB in his hand, "why do you even need my account?"

"We want to shoot a movie showing all the secrets people missed in our game"

"Couldn't you just use an admin account?"

"Well it's is just a personal rule but I've banned the use of admin access to make cheat accounts, and this way you get a bit of bonus cash"

Alex shrugged his shoulders and left the room. As he exited the room he took the USB out and plugged it into his head.

A sensation similar to having an egg cracked on your head washed over Alex.

And with that he left the app.

After once again feeling like he had just been squeezed through a straw Alex woke up in the pod.

"Wonder what that bonus was" he mused to himself.

Swiping through the icons on the tinted glass, Alex found a new icon he had never seen.

It showed two figures upon a mountain watching the sun set, the caption 'Adventure Awaits' was sitting comfortably below it

Alex perked up a bit after reading the caption, this was Grand Story's latest game that had taken the world by storm. It was quite a pricy, and Alex still had things to do in horizon, so he had not bought it yet.

With a smile on his face he focused on the icon and once more experienced the unpleasant feeling of being forced through a straw.