Game Over

In a room at 4 am we see a man on the computer typing at a pretty slow speed, he looks like he's been doing this for a long time. He has his eyeglasses and dark hair with a cigarette on his mouth as well.

The man was Harlow a person who writes guides about how to beat certain dungeons and best ways to win in the virtual-reality game called "Galic-Ventur" It was a game that took part in planets.

Each planet had a different atmosphere and obstacles, players would start at the first world and would exit the world at level 100 and leave that planet to become level 1 on the next planet and would keep their stats and techniques.

"No no no we aren't taking this strat to send in three tanks and flank it, this is because if they do the special move of the monster will kill them immediately, first we bait the ability first with our tanks and attack with the DPS, we also need the one support giving buffs to the DPS and another healing the tanks."

Harlow made a speech toward his team that he was managing over and he was reading theirs and criticizing them of their strategy in how to beat the new boss that came out with the new planet that just came out called Yule.

Yule was an all-water planet with barely any land to have, usually, the people made their own land out of floats, and that's how the first town was made.

Ships were made and people were like pirates or adventurers.

The pirates would raid other ships and rob them of their currency which was gold.

Gold could buy almost everything but not levels that needed to be grinded.

No one could be boosted by other players as the game made players need to use their ID's and DNA to play the game.

The way people leveled up was from quests, jobs, and kills.

People could kill each other for EXP and there were safe zones for the PVE players to be at and could benefit through jobs, they could be a Tailor, Smith, Chef, or Merchant.

When people first joined the game they would take in most from what their latest appearance would be in real life.

Race and towns were randomized and some would get bad or good races. It became prevalent that Demon was the best race for the endgame sort of content while it was probably the worst at release.

So people would be able to choose between three types of classes, Tanks, DPS, Supports.

It would then branch out what sort of tank they would want to be or DPS anyway, The DPS could be a gunslinger or sword-bearer as well. Supports could be Healing or Enchanters.

There were some rare classes being played but they were only usable for people who didn't want to work together with other people.

Working together with other people was mostly the best strat as monsters or mobs were hard to go against by yourself. It was also useful for when RKERS would come and try and kill you for EXP and gold.

We are then brought back to Harlows monologue.

'Ugh, why do I keep doing this every day I'm not happy and I don't have a good life, I thought I was gonna retire by 30 with this job but it has been about 10 years and I haven't been able to do anything worthwhile'

Harlow was a normal teen who did well in his studies and was also an avid gamer, as a follower of Virtual Reality he got into the closed beta of Galic-Ventur It was the usual MMORPG sort of thing, but in Virtual Reality?

It was a miracle in how the device worked, the systems and numbers still needed some fixing as it was still the close beta.

He first picked DPS as his role and managed to be one of the top players of the closed beta and even got 2nd and 1st in one of the tournaments that were held.

He was a sword and shield user with the wind as his magic. All players got randomized magic, the first magic they got was always randomized but then after level 30 they could pick a 2nd magic, and then after level 50, they could merge the magics to make one.

After the closed beta something happened though, his drunken father came home one day in a frenzy. His mother and father were fighting in the same room and then an accident happened.

His father was about to hit his mother with a glass bottle he tried to get in the way but managed to get hit on the head.

It resulted in a fracture that hurt his brain and he couldn't really do sports or any sort of taxing activity on his body.

After recovery, he tried getting back into Galic-Ventur but everything was changed, the "meta" they called it.

His build was no longer a good one and was labeled as trash, he didn't really know what to do after he tested his build which turned out to be trash, he then decided to become support after that.

After a while, he still managed to join an esports team which was a low-end one who always lost.

Age caught up with him as his 4-year journey as a pro was destroyed, they said he was a pretty crafty person who had sneaky tactics which did influence the strategists that exist today.

After that, he decided to just post guides on how to fight and dungeon guides, though after making it bloom into one of the biggest ones he still got shackled through contracts of his superiors.

They would make him work unreasonable hours and it was hell, he barely got to play the game even all he did was watch streams and videos to get the info he needed for the guide.

Many of his pro friends called him "The Guidebook" As he knew almost everything about this game.

'Ugh, I'm tired I should sleep, just after a little bit of editing.'

He found lots of mistakes and fixed them and then after reading it again he decided to redo some paragraphs and then after he was done he decided to get some melatonin to help him sleep.

'I guess 25 mg should work for tonight.'

That was until he took 30 instead 25 which then would be his downfall.

He got to his bed and collapsed on it, it was a soft fall with only comfort waiting for him rather than impact.

The colorful reds of flowers and such appeared on it.

He looked at the ceiling as he had his back laid on the bed behind him.

'I wish I could go back, maybe stop the accident from happening as that fucked up my handsomeness though it wasn't much of a difference.'

Harlow laid his glasses to the top of his dresser and looked back more into his past.

In a room with a computer, a man was in front of his PC and had a boy sitting on his lap also playing with him.

"Listen Harlow in games you should have fun, I had my fun playing with my friends during the club days and you know interacting with them as a team."

"Sometimes roadblocks happen and you just have to blow past them like how you solve problems in a test."

"Yes pa"

Harlow was with his father when his father used to play this ancient game called League of something he doesn't really remember it anymore.

"See that stupid little rat over there, that's teemo you wanna know how to deal with little rats like this?"

"Yes!"

"Look, I'll give the little rat a taste of his own poison" he then commanded a snake lady to stun them and destroy him with endless poison Qs.

"Haha gottem!"

"Wow, dad your the best!"

"Thanks, son, though I just made the whole team lose with that what matters is that I am happy with it."

It then ended there as Harlow then got ready to set up his alarm for tomorrow morning he was already feeling the sleepiness of the pills that was about to overtake him at any moment now.

His eyes then fell together and then he drifted onto his sleep. This dream was a different one now, it's like he himself is chasing his own past.

Though he started falling more and more and he felt the speed get faster and faster as he was falling.

Almost like freefalling he just felt the wind on his skin and just embraced it, it felt like a drug he couldn't contain, though he smoked most of the time as a way to handle the stress of the job.

It was then after he knew there was no next morning after this night, there was only the past he had to change.