Prologue

*Ding* *Dong*

"Hmm? What's that?" I get out of bed, and walk to the front of my apartment. Opening the door, I see a package with my name on it. Looking at the package, I notice the logo on it. "It's here" I bring the package inside and start opening it.

After opening the package I see it. Grabbing the letter that came in the packaging it reads "Thank you Ray for your purchase of the VRMMORPG Alt-Line gaming capsule. This letter will also inform all instructions on how to set up the Alt-Line capsule and recommends to be in the capsule before launch."

Reading the instructions Ray sets up the capsule and looks at his phone. [December 31 6:34 pm] 'Okay, I've got a few hours to get the game launches.' Leaving his apartment Ray heads to the nearest department store thinking about the events that led him to getting the capsule.

It has been almost two years since Ray's elder sister Nia died. Ray and Nia grew up in a abusive household with an alcoholic father and a drug addict of a mother. Nia was four years older than Ray and took care of their injuries when they were beat by their parents.

When Nia turned 18, she was able to turn their parents into the police for child abuse and substance exploitation and become Ray's guardian. Afterwards she was able to get a job at a game company. Nia was able to make the next few years of their life happy away from the misery that was their parents, and Ray looked up to her as a role model.

On Ray's 19th Birthday he found a stash of different drugs that Nia was addicted to and hidden from him, so Ray confronted her. After minutes of heated arguing of Ray trying to get her to get clean and throw away everything that he found, she slapped him across the face. Nia's face paled, realizing what she had done to the boy she had promised to protect and watched him run away. Nia quickly chased after him.

Ray being emotionally distraught about what had just happened ran without paying attention to where he was ended up in the middle of a crosswalk. *HONK* Ray is paralyzed in fear seeing that a truck is headed right for him. As the truck is coming, Ray feels a push from behind and turns to see the moment the truck hits the person that saved him.

"NO NIAA!!!!"

Tears running down his pale face, he runs to where she landed, he sees the broken body that that belongs to his sister. Falling to his knees.

"N-no p-please be okay Nia, I-I'm s-sorry I-"

"I-It's okay Ray. You're okay, y-you're fine. That's all that m-matters." *COUGH*

"I-I'll call an ambulance, they'll get here and you'll be okay."

"They won't make it in time Ray, I can feel it I don't have much time left."

"Don't say that you're going to be okay. You have to be okay!"

"Look at me." Ray looks at her and see's her sickly pale face as he's filled with guilt about what's happened. she looks at him with a lifeless gaze and smiles.

"If there is a next life, I'll find you and we'll be together again. Ray I love you." Nia says with a possessive tone as her life comes to an end.

At that moment Ray feels like something inside of him breaks. The person who cared for him with warmth and healed him when he was hurt. The person that brought light to the darkness that was his life. His role model a person he strove be like. The role model was broken, light snuffed out, the warmth gone. Nia was dead. Ray's heart froze and died then and there.

After the funeral Ray started to see a psychologist and for the past two years little to no progress was made. Others see Ray as a charming and calm person on the outside, but on the inside he cared very little about everything. The psychologist had finally recommended and convinced Ray about Alt-Line in hopes that the realism of the soon to come out game would help distract him from his life.

Coming back from the department store in a daze he snaps out of it, and starts cooking. After eating and taking a nap, Ray checks the time and it's 11:57 pm. Getting into the capsule and booting it on takes a minute. Upon starting the game Ray sees a screen appear in front of him.

[Thank you for your purchase of Alt-Line.]

Ray calmly stares at the countdown.

[3...2...1]

*Bzzzt* *BZZZZZZZT*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!*

All across the world all every Alt-Line game capsules explodes. Whether is was a cheap, expensive, or portable version of the game, it all ended in explosions that a certain rogue ninja would describe as art.