What He Found

Named "Jack" by the Vult parents in the year 1998, Jack Vult has grown up playing video games. When he first went to school, he easily got first in class the class, but he was glued to those darned video games, playing them non-stop. In middle school, his rank was lower than before, but still ranking in the top 20.

Now, Jack is in high school. His rank has dropped to the low thirties. He has played video games all his life, and his parents refuse to buy him anymore, being thoroughly disappointed in his grades throughout middle school and which were still dropping. Nothing but the best for their baby, they said cheekily, so they wanted to make sure he stopped playing video games in high school.

"Hey, Jack, you wanna come over tonight?", asked Jack's best friend since middle school, Randy.

"Nah, I gotta go home. My parents want me studying for the finals.", replied Jack.

Disappointed, Randy left. It was almost the end of their first year of high school, and Jack had been studying all year. The only time he had gone over to Randy's house was on Saturday's, the only time Jack had any free time.

Thus, Jack went home, bored and ready to be done with studying. Ever since his parents had gotten rid of his video games and hadn't boughten him new ones, he had been getting better and better grades, rising from the lower thirties to the lower teens.

This made his parents remember when he was younger and when he was the talk of the family friends. Wanting to relieve the "glory days", they forced him to study, the amount increasing every day. In the end of the second trimester, they made Jack take pop quizes at home just to make sure that he was studying. In short, they were obsessive and were doing this for their pride.

As Jack dreaded going home and the endless nights of studying, he spotted something shiny out of the corner of his eye. Naturally being attracted to it, he walked over to it. It was a handheld console! In the middle of the sidewalk?!

But wait... What handheld is this? And what company is this? Jack had never heard of this despite still hearing about everything that was going on in the video game world from his friends at school.

But, being rather bored with his situation, Jack picked it up. The screen was scratched, but it was still good enough to reflect his dark brown hair and green eyes. He pressed the power button, and it turned on. The battery was somehow at 100%.

Still working and even having a game inside, Jack stuffed it in his backpack and ran home, just to make up for lost time. He got to his house, but it would look fishy if he were panting when he entered his home. He never ran home, just walked.

After five minutes of rest, Jack walked into his home. His parents were there to greet him.

"So how did your Math test go, sweetie?", asked his mom, inching closer with every word.

"And what about your vocabulary quiz for Spanish? We musn't be slacking in the languages!", said his father, also getting closer to Jack.

He was being smothered. Jack took off his shoes and said, "I-I'm not hungry, I'm going straight upstairs to study!"

He ran up the stairs, escaping the menace to his well-being known as his parents. However, Jack had told a little lie to them. He wasn't going upstairs to study, but to play video games.

He did the math whilst running home. He had no quizes or tests coming up tomorrow, and the pop-quiz forecast chart showed that there was a 0% chance of a pop-quiz in any subject tomorrow.

So, Jack locked his door and hopped into bed. He rolled over to the edge of the bed and reached into his backpack which was resting against that same bed. Pulling out the handheld, he turned it back on. It started up. There was no loading screen telling what the company or name of the handheld was, but it booted up the game that was inside, "Real Life RPG".

This intrigued Jack. He had wanted to play a realistic RPG for quite a while now. He selected his name, "Deus", and propped his head against the pillow so he could relax his neck.

Wow. Was that a horrible game! The entire game was just filling out questions, and when he did get to the game, it was just a clarification of his playstyle, which was the damage dealer. Mortified that he just wasted ten hours and it was now four a.m., he put the handheld in the trash and went to sleep.

"Hello, Deus. Welcome to the Real Life RPG! This is the real game! We just wanted to ask you your playstyle and personal specs to make the game run smoother. Now that you're ready, make the world your oyster! Anything can be done! With enough skill points, that is. Go forth and Play the Game!"

A female voice sounded through the dream, saying, "The presentation is now over. Commencing tutorial... Tutorial files corrupted, cannot commence. Returning to sleep state...", and Jack heard and saw nothing else until he woke up.

When he did wake up, he screamed. The whole house heared him. His parents ran down the hall and his three sisters ran up the stairs. The star of the house was in danger. The first to enter the room was his father, carrying a shotgun. His father was walking around the room, checking to see if there was an intruder, and his sisters and mother pestered him, asking if he was ok and if anything bad happened.

The weird part was, they all had name tags and health bars.