Friday, October 3rd 2137. A blonde blue eyed boy, about 15 years old, with messy long hair is making his way home. His foot lands in a puddle formed by the rain settling down on the sidewalk, now being separated and sent in different directions as he flies down the the street. Rounding the corner, he heads into and through a lobby of an apartment complex.

“Where’s the fire Kipson?” a voice behind a desk questions as he was running to the elevators, causing Kipson to stop.

“Er,” Kipson responds turning around to the complex owner, “sorry Mr. Gon.”

“No running in the lobby,” Mr. Gon tells, “I know this isn’t the Hamptons but I’d like to keep my complex clean and safe. You’re lucky to be living in one of the nicer complexes in the area so let’s try to keep it nice ok?”

“Right.” Kipson says, backing into the elevator and heading up to his family's apartment. Out of the glass window in the elevator, he sees the old city he lives in. According to his mother, the city was built in the 1900s in the Glasgow style. It’s an older city, it isn’t the prettiest, but it’s the best his family could afford. The elevator bings and the doors open to his floor. He heads down the hall and unlocks the door to the apartment. “Everyone must be at work,” Kipson thinks, shutting the door behind him, separating him from the outdoor world and leaving him with the empty apartment, “oh well.” He looks at the clock and grins, “The servers will be online any minute now, I’ll talk to mom after I play for a bit.” He heads to his room and sits down on his bed, picking up a helmet. “Well,” he tells himself, sliding the black helmet onto his head and clicking a button as the headset comes to life, “here we go.” He closes his eyes. Soon enough, he’s met with flashings of system checks and then is presented with a login screen. Upon entering some information, there is a flash of light. The light is blinding, his shuts his eyes tight to shield them from the harsh sight. The ground is pulled out from underneath him, not making him fall but rather float. The light is still making itself known to him, despite his eyes being closed. The light makes it hot, like he’s centimeters away from a flame. Then, just as quick as it came, it disappears, he feels a gentle breeze on his skin and his feet land on the ground. The sound of birds chirping fills his ears, accompanied by chatter and footsteps all around him. His eyes flutter open, the gentle breezy playing with his hair slightly. He’s been fully transported into a virtual world. “This...feels so real,” he thinks to himself in awe as he looks around at the town plaza with a large clocktower towering over him, “I knew technology was good but I didn’t realized it was THIS good!” A screen pops up, seemingly starting the tutorial to the game. Excitedly, he clicks accept on the screen to start. Then, he takes off into the fantasy town to explore and learn the game’s mechanics. Hours pass as Kipson, or as his character is called Kip, is watching the sunset over the town on a hill by himself, sitting on the grassy slope just taking it all in. Then, the clock back in town chimes. Simultaneously, everyone is teleported back to town. The sky changes from the golden orange colors of the evening sky to a hostile maroon color. Amongst the confusion of the players, a giant hooded figure appears from nowhere, seemingly popping into existence out of thin air.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a female voice booms from the figure, “I would like to welcome you to my world. This is the developer’s carefully crafted world for your enjoyment, or at least so it was intended for the enjoyment of the players. His world, or I should now say my world, is now under my control. There’s been a change of plans. This is no longer a simple video game, this is a game of life and death.” The crowd goes silent, not wanting to believe what is being told. “From now on, if your health hits zero and you die in here, you will perish from existence in the real world as well. You can’t log out, and no one can remove your headsets without it killing you. It’ll tear your nerves apart in your brain, leaving you brain dead before it fries your brain. There is one way to escape however, beat the game or die trying. At the moment, this event is being reported all over the media and you all are currently being transported to hospitals to have your vitals and bodily functions taken care of. As for me, I am Aura, ruler of this world you are trapped in. Welcome to Aura’s Kingdom Online. I’ll be waiting to face you at the top in my palace. I’m sure some of you will make it, take caution as you progress. It’d be a shame if all of died on the way up. Good luck, and try to keep your cool as you go.” Then, there is a flash of light in the crowd and Aura is gone.

“Wait, what happened to my avatar?!” A frantic player screams out.

“Mine’s different too! It...It looks just like me!! What’s going on?!” Another voice cries out, chaos ensues. Panic erupts in the town square. Amongst the chaos, Kip runs away from the crowd.

“If I go alone,” Kip tells himself as he dashes through the streets, dipping out of the way of NPCs as he goes, “I stand a better chance of surviving.” He reaches the walls of the town after minutes of running, then pauses, turning around to check if anyone is following him. The street behind him is empty. After seeing that, he turns on his heel and sprints out into the open world alone, following a path away from town. Further down the path, there’s a fork in the road. One path leads into more fields. The other goes towards a forest. Reaching the split, Kip heads for the forest. A goblin stands further down the path, standing in his way. The goblin picks up on his presence, turning towards Kip as it draws a club from it’s back then charges at the blonde to attack. In response, Kip takes the sword and shield off his back. Once he’s within striking range, the goblin swings the club at Kip. As it approaches his torso, Kip raises his shield to block. It hits with a thump, then a light appears. With a swift thrust of an arm, a blue blade lunges forward towards the goblin, piercing it’s heart. It’s health bar drops quickly, soon turning to dust as the sword turns back into the steel color it was originally. Kip, not missing a beat, sheaths the sword and shield on his back then continues charging down the path on his journey.

About two months pass, yet the first area has not been cleared. A hooded figure is fighting a horde of monsters and despite having both magic and a sword to use is failing to beat them. Kip, who was on his way out of the cave dungeon, sees this and just watches, not wanting to get involved unless he has to. The monsters would be no problem for him, considering he’s spent these last two months leveling up a considerate amount, not quite spending his stat points yet but still increasing his power. Eventually, the figure’s health dips into the red and falls to the dungeon floor, suffering from an in game effect. Kip, reluctantly, takes the brass longsword and copper shield off of his back and bashes one of the monsters to allow him access into the circle the creatures have formed around the figure. Standing overtop of the unconscious player, Kip’s sword emits a green glow as he holds it to his side, powering up a sword skill. Unleashing the collected energy, he spins in a circle, killing several of the monsters. After that, he proceeds to execute the remaining monsters and removes the player from the dungeon and to a safe spot in the forest outside the labyrinth. Kip sets up a temporary camp for the moment, star’ting a fire with some logs to boost the healing process. Thirty or so minutes later, the figure’s health bar rises up to a safe level and the player awakens.

“Who are you and where did you take me.” A female voice demands as a sword held up to Kip’s throat.

“Take it easy,” Kip tells, trying to deescalate the situation, “I just saved you from those monsters. If it wasn’t for me you’d be dead.” The girl removes her hood, revealing a girl no older than 16 with purple fiery eyes, shoulder length auburn hair and pale white skin. “Anyhow,” he tells, moving the blade away from his jugular only to have it put back into position by the girl, “I’m Kip. And I’m not your enemy.” She stares at him for a minute, before sheathing the sword in the holster on her hip.

“Ayria.” She says, keeping an eye on Kip as she takes a seat underneath a tree. They sit there in silence for a bit before her health is all the way back up.

“You all good?” Kip asks, breaking the silence.

“We’re stuck in a death game,” she answers, “of course I’m not good.”

“I meant health wise.” He explains.

“Oh,” she responds, “well yeah.”

“So then,” Kip starts, getting up and heading for the fire, “we won’t be needing this anymore.” He extinguishes the fire and smothers the embers. “C’mon,” he continues, “let’s get you back to town.” She stares at him, getting up.

“I know you helped me out in that dungeon,” Ayria tells, “but I’m not some damsel in distress. I can handle myself Kip, and that includes getting back to town. I don’t need an escort.”

“Well,” Kip states, “I’m heading back anyhow. Besides, the forest is dangerous at night. I know you aren’t some damsel, and I never claimed to be some hero but it is risky to go back alone. Strength in numbers you know?” Then, the two reluctantly head back to’ town together. On the way back, Kip signals for the two to stop as he hears movement in the forest near them. A pack of wolves emerge from the forest, surrounding them. “There’s about nine of them, how many can you take alone?” Kip questions, evaluating the situation.

“Four or five.” Ayria tells, taking out her sword and summoning fire to her left hand. Kip takes his weapons out, and the two start fighting off the wolves. One wolf chomps down on Kip’s arm without the shield, causing his health to start dropping the longer it’s fangs are sunk into his flesh. Another bites onto his sword and starts trying to pull it out of his hand.

“On your left!” Ayria calls out, shooting a flame at the wolf grabbing Kip’s sword, knocking it back.

“Appreciate it!” Kip responds before hitting the wolf attacking his arm with the edge of his shield before defeating the two wolves. While Kip is slashing away at his portion of the wolves, Ayria is firing flames at her opponents while keeping others at bay with her blade. One sneaks up behind Ayria, only to be slaying by Kip. Ayria finishes off the last of the wolves, and the two finally arrive in a small village.

“I guess I should be thanking you now for not letting me die back there,” Ayria tells Kip, “so Thank you kip. Well, I’ll probably see you again sometime.”

“You’re really strong,” Kip praises Ayria, “that magic and sword combo is deadly. Stay alive Ayria, we need strong players like you if we want any chance of beating this game. I know we’re just strangers, but if you ever feel like you could benefit from my company feel free to call out.”

“I’ll think about that,” Ayria says, “don’t die Kip.” After that, the two separate. Kip heads to the main town of the area using the warp gate in the village. Upon entering, the feeling of hopelessness of the players weighs on his shoulders. The players walking around seem like they’ve given up already. Kip goes to a merchant, sells the items he got from the monsters, and buys an olive green jacket that goes under his metal breastplate alongside some leather gauntlets to better protect his forearms. After that, he equips the items. Now dawning some brown toughened leather boots, gray pants, the olive green jacket with a black shirt underneath, brown enhanced leather gauntlets alongside some fingerless gloves, and a silver breastplate to top it all off, he heads back to the village. A week later, and Kip returns to the main town. There’s a boss raid meeting, other players are gathering there as well. A man with brown hair in knight armor is leading the meeting.

“Just to start off,” the brunette speaks, “I want to thank you all for coming. I know the morale has been far too low here lately, in fact it seems a lot of people have unfortunately given up on clearing the game. However, we have found the boss room! We even have information on the boss!” The knight exclaims, everyone in attendance perks up. “In order for this raid to be successful, it’s recommended we form parties or pairs. Now, let’s get into attack patterns of the boss.” After that, they go through a list of attacks the boss can use as well as the tactics to use against it. “You have the rest of the day and until noon tomorrow to prepare yourself for the battle. We will meet back here at noon then head to the dungeon. I’d suggest being at least level twelve, but other than that the meeting is dismissed!” The knight finishes, and everyone starts heading out. Kip is reviewing his stats when there is a tap on his shoulder. He turns around only to find the same maroon hooded girl from a week ago, Ayria.

“I need your help.” She says, Kip gets up.

“What’s up?”

“I want to do some leveling up just to be safe,” she starts, “but I don’t want to go alone. It’s boring to go alone and like you said, strength in numbers. You’re the only person I know that is willing to leave town. Plus it seems like you could benefit from this too based on your stat window.”

“You were peaking at my stats?!” Kip exclaims. She shrugs at the suggestion.

“Well you shouldn’t have left the window up,” she retorts, “anyhow you wanna come along?” Kip sighs as she has a point there and closes the open window.

“Sure,” he answers, “you’re right anyhow.” She grins and the two then head to the teleport gate. On the way there, Kip pulls on her cloak to get her attention.

“Hmm?” She responds, looking towards him. He points to an NPC standing on the corner with a yellow exclamation point over her head. The two then head over to the girl.

“Excuse me,” Kip says, getting her attention, “you look like you could use some help.”

“|Oh! Yeah I could,” the girl tells, “you two wouldn’t be willing to help out would you? I’m making a gift for my mom, but I need some monster drops for it. I can’t find it anywhere in the shops, but I know where the monsters are at. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or skill to get the drops myself. Could you two help me out? I’ll give you something in return, I promise.” Kip looks at Ayria.

“Well,” he speaks, “what do you think?”

“We can help,” Ayria tells the girl, “so what do you need?”

“Oh thank you two so much!” the girl says, her eyes lighting up, “I just need some spider silk, you can get it from some spiders in the forest. They’re in a cave, here I’ll mark it on your map.” She pulls down both of their maps and marks it.

“Alright,” Kip says, “we can do that for you. We were heading that way anyhow.” The girl smiles at them and the icon above her head changes to a question mark, showing the quest is active. The two then head out to the forest, and to the cave. “You ok?” Kip asks his obviously uncomfortable companion.

“I’ll be fine,” she answers, “I just hate and am afraid of spiders. They’re creepy and I just don’t like them. The bigger they are, the worst they are.” The two then head into the cave, lined with spiderwebs. Ayria gets visibly more and more uncomfortable.

“I have an idea,” Kip says, getting her attention as they stand outside a room no doubt filled with spiders, “there is no doubt about it that this room has a ton of spiders in it. One spider queen and a lot of spiderlings. I’ll handle the spider queen, you can take out the spiderlings with your fire. We both get experience, and we get the silk we need without you needing to even get near one of the spiderlings.”

“You sure you can handle the queen by yourself?” Ayria asks, getting a nod from Kip. “Alright, then I’ll keep the spiderlings off of you.” With a plan, the two head into the room and sure enough there is a queen and her minions.

“I’m counting on you to keep these little buggers off of me,” Kip says with a reassuring grin, trying to soothe the scared girl’s nerves, receiving a small grin and a nod from Ayria, “now let’s do this thing!” Kip calls out, taking the sword and shield off his back and charging in. Ayria calls up her fire magic and starts unleashing it on the spiderlings approaching Kip as he fights their queen. Soon enough, the spider queen fades to dust and the spiderlings are taken care of by Ayria. Kip drinks a healing potion to get his health back up as he had taken a few big hits from the queen while fighting and the two exit the cave with the silk in their inventory. They head back to town and hand over the silk to the girl.

“Thank you so much! Oh, right your reward. Here!” She thanks as she hands an amulet over to Kip, “I gotta get started on this gift right away!” The girl then runs off.

“Here,” Kip says, giving the amulet to Ayria, “you could get more use out of this than I would.” Ayria takes a look at the amulet, evaluating the stats. It adds magic points to the wearer’s magic bar.

“Thanks Kip,” Ayria tells, accepting and equipping the amulet, “c’mon we got some more leveling to do.” The two then head back into the field, and soon enough find themself in a battle which the two work together in to defeat the horde of giant wasps.

“New sword?” Kip asks, noticing the bronze blade in her hand where the previous one was silver.

“Oh,” Ayria responds, “yeah it is.” The two then work together for the rest of the day, Kip helps her with leveling and Ayria helps him with distributing his unused stat points to improve his attributes. The day ends, and noon rolls around the next day. The two meet up and pair up as the players move from the town to the dungeon, heading to the boss room. The militia of players stop just outside the boss room.

“Thank you all for coming everyone,” the brunette knight speaks, “as you all know, this will be drastically more difficult and dangerous than any of the monsters in the wild. The boss will hit harder and be more durable. However, I believe in everyone here! Each of you are brave enough to attempt something like this. If we win, no, when we win it’ll bring back the hope every player needs. They’ll see that this game is indeed beatable! This victory will be the start of our path to freedom! Today we fight for the fearful and the hopeless! We will beat this boss and show everyone that this game isn’t anything that can’t be beat and shouldn’t be feared! Now let’s get in there and show this beast who is really the boss here!” The very air around the player feels energized as the speech from the knight motivated and encouraged the makeshift army. The knight then pushes open the door. On the other side is a dark room. The militia charges into the black room. As they move inward flames ignite, lighting the room. At the other end of the massive hall is a throne. On that throne sits a skeleton in golden armor and a crown. Their opponents eyes turn red and the skeletal king rises from his throne, ready to slaughter the makeshift army of players invading his home. Tension fills the air, tension so thick someone could cut it with a knife. It was the king of the army, and the army had no intention of going down easy.