Chapter 1

"Get the fuck up you useless lump of shit!"

Cold chilling water roused Ryan from his only respite from the pain and suffering that was life. The same thing happened each day, Clive came to his cell, screamed at him and threw ice cold water all over Ryan's frail and malnourished body.

"I'm up Clive don't worry, back in the pod I go" Ryan groggily responded. His stomach rumbled with hunger as he began to stand up.

He didn't have to move very far to reach the pod as his cell was tiny. It barely fit him, if he was lying down that is. The people he was in crippling debt with didn't care about the conditions he was living in, he barely made enough gold to keep himself alive and keep up with the interest payments let alone pay for more expensive items like a mattress. In fact, his pod was more comfortable than where he slept, but he was never allowed to sleep in his pod at night. They said it was because it was a technical issue with the pod but everyone knew that they just didn't want anyone playing during the night and making more money to earn their freedom. If people got out too early then these horrible people couldn't milk them of their money entirely and get the maximum amount possible with their insane interest rates.

His breakfast was lying on the floor, it was an extremely sloppy porridge that was lumpy and in some places rock hard. Clive, being the utter dick he was, had thrown it all over the floor before him covering the floor and making Ryan bend down to eat it off the floor. Without the arrival of mass healing pills such as 'Quick Heal' which were made with the basic healing spell and were dirt cheap, Ryan would have contracted a ton of diseases from eating his food from the floor.

After having licked all the food off the floor, he stood up and walked about two steps to his pod, his body still dripping from his wake up call. Clive had left by now and Ryan was once again alone in his cell. The walls around him began to glow a pale green, this let him know that he couldn't use his abilities or pull out his soul weapon while the walls were this colour. In fact a quick glance at his status screen would let him know that every skill, attribute and title had a lock over it.

While Horizon had done amazing things for numerous people, it helped the worst people in society become even more evil. Horizon actually appeared out of no where one day, other games were able to be played but everyone felt a calling to Horizon. What made it so attractive was because any gear could use it and it was completely free which was a brand new concept. The company that was listed as creating it didn't exist and the game was extremely mysterious; this became apparent when a year after being released a new update was released and suddenly everyone was able to use the skills they had gained in the game in real life, though to a lesser degree.

Guilds from the game eventually took over countries, the world was thrown into upheaval as guns became a weapon of the past, millions died fighting for extremely rare items that began appearing in real life and monsters became real. Due to Horizon, the world entered a new era of existence and mana became the main source of everything.

This was great, for example, a lot of healers were able to mass cure the world and create pills like "Quick Heal" to help people, also global warming was effectively stopped because oil became obsolete and people either flew around or had mechanised mana vehicles impossible to recreate in the game. But the appearance of abilities in real life meant that people such as Ryan's debtors not only had the law behind them, but also overwhelming strength and power. So that wasn't great. Millions of people became enslaved and the majority of them died from overwork or being outright killed by their slave masters. The world changed, those with money believe it is for the better, those without knew the truth.

But right now Ryan didn't care about what was happening in the world, in fact he hadn't even seen the sky in seven years. Right now Ryan only cared about getting into the game and earning money to get himself out of this place. He was almost free of his debt and was only a day's amount of money away from leaving this cursed cell.

He stepped into his pod, the water that clung to his body draining away down a hole in the side of the capsule. The inside of the pod was a pitch black that helped to nullify the senses and reduce the feeling of claustrophobia until the player logged in. Luckily for Ryan, the game was still able to be played after the 'apocalypse' occurred so Ryan was still able to gain money that way and pay off his debts through the game.

Ryan started up the game mentally and began to enter the game. The world of darkness around him exploded with light and he found himself in a busy city surrounded by people and animals alike. This would be an amazing sight if Ryan wasn't a debt slave and didn't have to quickly leave the city in order to make some gold.

Once he left, he returned to his normal spot where he slaughtered any creature he could find and steadily grew his wealth of pelts and hides. Ryan was a skilled player but he was no where near the best, while Ryan was still only level 147 he had a plethora of skills and different weapon masteries that allowed him to compete with those of much higher levels. At this time the average player level was around 600, but Ryan had a reason to be so far behind. When he entered into his work contract with his debtors, he didn't read the terms properly because he was in a rush and missed out the part where he was unable to level up. Once the contract was made, the system enforced the deal and a lock was placed over his XP bar.

Today he decided that he would kill the Giant Hippophant as his last kill of the day, this was the beast to bring in the big bucks. It was a mix of a hippopotamus, an elephant and an eagle, with the size and body of a massive elephant, the head of a hippo and the tiny normal sized wings of an eagle. The thing could barely jump let alone fly with the tiny wings attached to its sides. During battle, the little appendages flapped up and down attempting to get even a little bit of lift, but the massive body of the beast denied it.

The beast could be found in the high mountains to the north of the Elfiem valley, only one would spawn every few months so many vied for the rare materials that this beast brought. By selling the materials dropped upon the death of the Hippophant, Ryan would get enough gold to finally pay off the remainder of his debt and be free. By quickly taking the portal located just outside of the city, Ryan teleported to outside of the mountain range.

Giant mountains filled his vision, they reached up to the sky and pierced through the gorgeous white clouds as if they were attempting to grasp the sun. After another hour of travel through the grey landscape that hid large beasts behind every corner, Ryan found himself right next to the area that the Hippophant would spawn.

"Rumble rumble"

The ground began to shake as rocks flew from the edges of the mountain, the air began to twist and dust was whisked up into the sky creating a cloud of opaque dust that removed Ryan's ability to see the creature being spawned.

[Raid Boss Spawned! Area Locked! Raid Squad: Ryan Spencer]

[Raid Boss: Giant Light Hippophant Lv600]

Without warning a roar erupted from within the tornado of dust shaking Ryan onto his knees and causing boulders to roll down from the top of the surrounding mountains. Within moments, the Hippophant was charging towards Ryan, its maw open with an insatiable hunger in its eyes as it lusted for the flesh that clung to Ryan's skinny body.

After raising his body from the ground, Ryan drew his axe from his inventory. The darkness dripped off of it and congealed on the floor creating an area of power. Where the darkness could permeate, Ryan would be there.

Almost as soon as the Hippophant reached the edge of Ryan's darkness, the beast barely lifted itself off the ground and slammed its weight on the light stone beneath it. The skill had stopped Ryan's aura of darkness from spreading and caused crippling damage to him.

-100,821 HP

"You're a fat fucker aren't ya!" Ryan mumbled under his breath.

Ryan didn't take the damage and do nothing about it, he wasn't the person to always forgive and forget. Bloodlust burned in his eyes as he once more picked up his axe in preparation for his kill. Ryan sprinted towards the monster with his axe to the side, the weapon sliced through the air as he moved, it awaited the blood of the beast, it ousted for it.

With one quick swing the creature's leg was gone, devoured by Ryan's weapon and never to be seen again. Gracefully, Ryan seemed to fly around the giant white Hippophant. Every time his body moved more and more gashes appeared on the beast, each wound seemed to fester and grow with every second.

Blood poured out of the many wounds that the Hippophant wore, every droplet rushed towards Ryan and seemed to impower him further. His pace increased as the butchery went on, the Hippophant couldn't fight against Ryan's small figure while being constantly assaulted by not only deadly corroding attacks, but also perfectly timed interrupt skills. Ryan had perfected the art of killing the Hippophant and now it couldn't even damage him any longer.

Even though his stats stayed the same, his skills continued to grow and evolve as he slew animals.

After a few hours of chopping and slicing the beast it finally died and after collecting the things he needed from its corpse, he returned to the city and to sell his spoils. He walked up to one of the merchants he usually sold his materials to and started a conversation.

"So, Ritchie, today is THE day. The day when I can get free in my world and finally live away from my debtors. By the way, how's your family? I haven't seen your wife near the stall in a while." Ryan said to the man with a smile on his face.

Unlike other players, Ryan always hesitated to call the people of Horizon NPCs because they were way too real to be made by someone or something. Each one of them had a story, loved ones and emotions just like real people. Some of them when they became powerful enough actually were able to create portals to Earth, but Ryan had only heard about that in stories.

"That's fantastic Ryan! The time has finally come and I'm proud of you, how much do you need for the goods, I'll double it. That way you can actually start over and begin a new life in your world."

Their conversation lasted for a while until Ryan realised he had to leave. After taking his gold to the banks and with a quick transfer, he was free of the shackles that came with his debt, it was now time for him to leave and never look back. He quickly logged off and as he was returning to the real world he heard a deep voice.

"Did you really think we would let you leave? Thanks for the money."

Suddenly a burning sensation erupted from within his mind and slowly he began to shake and eventually his body gave up. Despite his heart stopping and his brain having melted, Ryan could still see and hear.

"Get rid of his body" the man with the deep voice ordered. It was Steven Mao, his high school bully and prodigal son of the infamous Mao family, it was fitting he was the one to kill Ryan. He had ripped off the nervous connector from Ryan's brain to the game and effectively short circuited his brain.

Suddenly the air around Ryan became thicker and it seemed that mana seemed to condense around him, droplets of the potent magic formed on his now cold skin. Ryan's soul felt a pull and was quickly ripped from reality and into the darkness of sleep.