1 Meeting With God

"WHAT!?"

"I already told you, you died."

"Good god, how the hell did this happen? Was it the alcohol?

"No, child, it was not the alcohol."

"Oh, I see, it was the smoking, then."

"No, it wasn't the smoking either."

"Damn, don't tell me it was the drugs. That dude said There were less than 0.01% of impurities in that. He lied, didn't he? That bastard. I swear to god, if I ever see him again I'm gonna…"

"No, god no. It was not drugs either. Seriously, don't you remember?"

"How the hell could I remember!? The last thing I recall was pouring myself another cup of coffee and… Wait, I think I get it now. It was that stupid hepatitis A, right?

"Hep… *sigh* No, it wasn't Hep. A."

"Then… Was it Hep B?"

"Nope."

"Hep C? Hep D? Hep E? COME ON! I am running out of letters here! What the hell killed me?"

"The coffee."

"…"

"Child?"

"Seriously? Coffee? FUCK YOU, COFFEE. HOW CAN COFFEE KILL ME? I've been drinking it for the last 20 years!"

"Well, you know, usually when a person drinks 45 cups of espresso in the span of a single night they tend to die. Honestly, I'm surprised you lasted that long."

"Fucking espresso, fucking coffee, fucking Italian bastards. I always knew they would be my ending. I mean, what can you expect of people who eat snails?

"…"

"What? Do YOU eat snails?

"Well, no. But neither the Italians. The French do, though."

"FUCK THE FRENCH, THEN. FUCK THE ENTIRE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES!"

"Seriously, kid, you have to calm down. I still haven't told you what I brought you here for."

"Calm down? Yeah, sure, I can do that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. You see? I'm calmed now. How could I not be? I mean, I ONLY FUCKING DIED!"

"Oh dear god…"

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Simon Herrera was always considered a one in a millennium genius. He learned to speak when he was only 5 months old. He was writing when he was 3 and could do complicated math by the time he was 4. At the age of 9 he graduated high school and got accepted into the London Institute of Computer Science, the most prestigious university for coders in the world. He graduated one year later, at ten. He then studied most of the complementary courses and got his PhD at fifteen.

Simon came from a very wealthy family. His father was in the fourth place of worldwide billionaires. What did he do for a living? He owned a tech company. "Linked Worlds" was it's name.

It was founded in 2096 as a small software studio. They developed small videogames, mostly. Eventually, they managed to be one of the best software developers in the eastern hemisphere. Although it was a corporate monster, it did not have much impact in the world. But, of course, all of that changed in 2111. That year, Linked Worlds bought the third largest hardware producer in the world, "Vision". After that, both companies merged, and that is how "Linked Vision" came to be.

Of course, at that time, nobody dared take them seriously. A company that just buys in bulk doesn't deserve much attention from the top in the industry, so they just threw the issue to the back of their minds. That was their biggest mistake.

Of course, a visionary such as Simon's father would not do something he did not feel comfortable with. The reason why they bought Vision was for a project they were developing. It was said it would change the world, and maybe create another. The project was codenamed "Project Morpheus".

After the Merger, project Morpheus was retaken, and it was completed three years later.

It was 2115, the year of the change. Linked Vision Incorporated decided to have a press conference with the top news outlet of each and every single country. It was then that project Morpheus was revealed to the public. Of course, the finished product had another name, V-ware. It was at that moment that the dream humanity had been dreaming for over a century finally became true; virtual reality.

The V-ware tapped into the brainwaves of every user and moved his or her conscience into a program, later known as the virtual world. This changed everything. From communications, business and science, to sports and entertainment.

Of course, there was an area where the V-ware was predominant; videogames. In the next ten years, tens of thousands of videogames were made for that piece of hardware, making the virtual gaming scene a billion-dollar business. That is the main reason why Simon decided to study computer science, he wanted to help his dad with the company.

Unfortunately, Days after Simon finished his PhD, his father died in a car accident, so he had to take his spot in Linked Vision. Not many wanted it, but with an IQ of over 200 and the promise that he would not change the executive positions for the next five years, the board agreed, and so Simon Herrera became a 15-year-old worth more than 100 billion dollars.

Simon kept his promise, though. He did not interfere with the company and just recruited a small team. He hired 6 writers, 6 designers and 8 programmers. All of them were under 25 and were remarkable geniuses in their respective fields. This was the origin of the legendary 21 thunders. Simon recruited them with a single purpose, help him create the apex of gaming technology. They worked for 6 years until the end product was finally ready, Zeryann, the game.

Once Zeryann hit the markets everything went haywire. Out of the 2 million copies released 1.5 million were sold in the first hour, and the stock was completely depleted in the second hour after it's release. Once it is considered that the game was selling for 49.99 dollars and the V-ware was another 2,000 dollars, it was quite an accomplishment.

The following years the player base just got bigger, to the point where there were no less than 500 million players worldwide. The game started making money through ads and conversion of the in-game currency. The tournaments were especially massive, with ads worth more than the super bowl half time announcements. The best part were the expansions, which were programmed and implemented at least a year before the release date.

In the entire game, guilds were very popular, being the representatives of companies that were in the game for promotion. At least, that was usually the case. The first ranked guild was the exception. The Guild 21 Thunders was the highest ranked and most mysterious. It only had 21 players, but each of them was more ridiculously powerful than the last. They had the highest levels, skills, items and equipment. Fortunately for everyone else, they were not in the game to make money, just to dominate. Nobody knew, of course, that 21 Thunders was the guild belonging to the creator and development team of Zeryann.

Simon, even though he played at least 8 hours a day, worked during the other 16. Since he could play and work in the virtual world while he was sleeping, not a single second oh his day was wasted. He finished programming the last DLC for Zeryann in 2146 and died in front of his workstation at the age of 31. The cause of dead, caffeine overdose.

The world mourned the death of the greatest creator of all time, and at the same time he died, the Thunder Tower, which was the headquarters for the 21 thunders guild disappeared. A press release issued by Linked Vision made clear that Simon died just after finishing the last DLC for the game, which was set to release in 2150. Thus, in the capital of Zeryann in the game, there was a statue of Simon erected. Of course, this was not created by Simon, so it was not really a part of the world.

----------

In a white room, there were two people standing in front of each other. One of them was a bearded, skinny old man, while the other was a young man about 30.

The old man had a wrinkled and annoyed face, for he was listening to the endless complains and profanities of the young man who, apparently, just died.

Finally, the old man couldn't take it anymore. "I already told you, you need to calm down! You really need to hear me out!"

"Why the hell would I? I JUST DIED!"

"Well, yeah, but you won't stay dead for too long." Apparently this did the trick, for the loud young man stopped yelling and wearing the minute he heard this.

"So, are you saying I can revive? GREAT! THAT'S AWESOME"

"Well, not really revive, more like transmigrate, you know. It is the biggest reward we gods can give to worldbuilders."

"Huh?" The young man was confused, and rightfully so. There were so many things he did not understand, bur it didn't really matter, because god spoke once again.

"Simon, the world you created was almost perfect, planned and developed to the detail. Not to mention it's popularity. Hence, it became one of the meta-worlds."

"Meta-what now?" Simon, the young man, was still confused. Worldbuilders? Meta-worlds? He didn't understand a thing of it.

"Doesn't matter. The thing is you are going to Zeryann. And, even though it is your reward, you also need to fulfil one purpose while you are in there. You need to stop the meltdown. "

"STOP THE MELTDOWN!? FUCK!" Simon was angered once again when he listened to those words. The plot of Zeryann was, basically, the meltdown. An ancient unknown force went haywire and corrupted some of the gods, bringing chaos into the world. And now, Simon's mission was apparently to stop it. Of course, he would be angry. "How do you want me to do that? The game was designed so it cannot be prevented, just faced and maybe defeated. But that would take the cooperation of over a hundred transcendent players, and you want me to do it alone? FUCK YOU, YOU SADISTIC FUCK OF A GOD!"

"You know, you should be nicer to me. It is I who can make you keep your game progress from before you died, after all."

"Really?" Apparently, this made Simon quite happy again. The thought of starting anew with his level 100 character was, of course, very tempting.

"Yes, I can, but you might not want me to. Anyway, everything will be explained shortly. Just do not do dumb things. I wish you good luck." Said god and immediately after he started moving his hand. Behind Simon, a white energy whirlpool started forming.

"…awesome. Huh? Good Luck? What do you mean?" Suddenly, Simon felt being sucked into something. When he turned his head and saw the whirlpool, it was too late. "Wait! GOD! YOU PRICK! I'M GONNA FU…" Simon disappeared, without having finished his words.

"Hehehe… I hope you can enjoy your twisted and cruel world, Simon." Said God with a seemingly devilish grin in his face.

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Simon appeared in a black room with a white screen and swore to god inside his mind. He was walking around trying to find the exit when, suddenly, a sound came from his surroundings.

[Beep! Initializing Zeryann System. Checking privileges… Level 1 clearing obtained. You have 500 points to spend on character creation. Please select your race.]