1 The Game

"Behemoth strike!" A text box appeared above the avatar of a large man clad in crimson armor. His axe was brought down and sliced a small green creature right in two. His partner was a smaller man who wielded two short swords and was clad in leather armor and a large green cloak.

"Y'know you don't have to have a macro that announces what skill you use." The rogue character used a sigh emote and finished off the remaining goblins with a throwing skill.

"But it makes it more heroic!" The warrior exclaimed with a laugh and flex emote.

"Whatever you say, let's turn in the quest and see what else there is to do before the server shuts down." The cloaked man shrugged and began to walk away from the warrior and gravestones that appeared where the green creatures had been. "I hate doing goblin hunt quests. It's too easy at this level."

"It's decent gold and they have materials we need for Claus' smithing skill right?" The warrior followed behind, the name Giel above his avatar.

"Yeah, if Claus didn't need it I would have been doing a last minute raid by now." The roguish man shrugged again, his name being shown as Devi. Both characters left the screen and began loading to the area at the beginning of the forest.

"Rune Union sure has been busy lately don't you think?" Giel noted.

"Yeah, that's probably due to the ragnarok update coming out tonight. Most quests are created by other payers along with major events involving the four kingdoms. But this is supposed to add more NPC's to the game with unique quest lines and even NPC companion systems." Devi found the village they needed to teleport to and began the party warp.

"So like a mercenary system that some other MMO's have?"

"Yeah I believe it's supposed to be something like that." Both characters saw the main hub area of the village of Jules and began to walk over to the NPC tasked with repeatable hunting quests. "Well this should do it, here. Can you send them to Claus using the mail system? I need to log off and get ready for work." Devi opened the trading menu and began to put the goblin teeth and broken clubs into the bar.

"Yeah No problem, working night shift again?" Giel asked and accepted the trade, his character doing an automatic flex gesture after the trade.

"Yeah. Also, the way you have your macros set up is so weird. Do you really have him flex like that after a trade?" The person behind the screen couldn't help but place his hands over his face in embarrassment. How had he gotten such a lame guild leader in this game?

"Yep! I even have him do the same gesture after the dungeon complete comes across the screen!" His character laughs then he leaves the party and begins to walk away towards the center of the town.

A young man sat back in his chair as he looked at the corner of his computer screen. Almost midnight he thought to himself as he shut down the window for Rune Union and set down the headset.

After a shower and throwing on his uniform the young man grabbed the ID badge that read Darien Hughes. He attached it to the uniform and looked in the mirror. Short brown hair was covered by the baseball cap that held the company logo. Brown eyes stared back at him as he gave himself a once over before nodding and grabbing his jacket.

"Luckily the gas station is just a street over." He whispered to himself, putting up his collar against the chill of the night air. "Fall really comes fast."

The night flew by after he clocked in for his shift. Stocking shelves, helping the few customers that came in, making sure the place was generally clean and prepped for the morning. By the time the end of his shift rolled around Darien had been caught up and was daydreaming about Rune Union. What kind of things would they add? How would the kingdoms react to the quests and would they try to lay claim on some of the new areas that were going to open up? Rune Union was a game that brought new things to the gaming community. It was a game almost entirely built by players. From building and expanding kingdoms to running shops and managing in game trade. Politics, wars, events, having NPC's in charge of certain quests, as well as having a massive amount of skills that were still being discovered a year after release. It was a massive game that granted the wish of many people about living in another world.

Darien was one such person. He managed to scrape by in the real world, living minimal as it was just him in a one bedroom apartment. But in the world of Rune Union he was a rouge like character that combined illusion magic with dagger skills, making him one of the top assassin characters in the game. He had worked hard to get to that point and it was no sacrifice to his social life as he didn't really have one. He was what he labelled himself as a true shut in.

"Hey, you planning to stay here for the next shift too?" While lost in thought, two employees came from behind Darien and tapped him on the shoulder. Darien's eyes widened and he shook his head, he didn't even see them walk into the building!

"N-no I'm good." He laughed and ran out back to clock out. It was 6AM, the end of his long shift and time for him to head home.