"Bromy? Where are thou?!" Bonifacius called out, he felt Curstl weigh down on him from behind but decided to ignore her.

He stood in what looked like an endless hallway for of centipedes.

"What happened?" he thought looking around.

Suddenly the ground below him was replaced with a wooden floor, the static of an old television could be heard as he looked around and found himself in his old home back on earth.

The weight seemingly disappeared from his back.

The hallway was still pitch black.

"I remember this place..."

He looked down and fair enough, he still had the hands of his in-game self.

"What could this be?" he thought looking around.

He walked into the living room and saw the familiar red couch from his childhood, one the table an ashtray filled to the brim and a dozen cans of beer strewn across the room.

In front of the TV lay a bearded man, a fat version of Bonifacius, wearing a white tank top stained with countless layers of BBQ sauce and ketchup.

He was sound asleep as the clock on the wall displayed the time a four in the morning.

"I guess this must be an illusion... perhaps the boss learned some new tricks..." Bonifacius remarked.

"Well... jokes on the boss, I don't have any lingering spite for my family, in fact, I'm quite grateful for being able to explore my old house!" Bonifacius said out-loud.

Bonifacius walked up to the kitchen and saw the iconic half-table from his childhood, it was like like a park bench fused to a wooden table, you could lift the seats for extra storage below them.

Bonifacius opened the fridge and saw, amongst a disturbing amount of BBQ sauce bottles and booze, some apple pie, it wasn't often his mother baken, but when she did, her cakes were amazing.

Bonifacius reached for the slice and sniffed it.

"Are thou trying to defeat me with nostalgia?" asked Bonifacius before taking a bite of the cake.

For a second he expected it to turn sour or become a cluster of warms or razor blades, but no - it was just pie.

He happily ate it before heading upstairs.

He saw his old room, the iconic wallpaper was filled with images of little cartoony knights fighting dragons.

Bonifacius sat down on his bed and took a deep breath.

"Perhaps I should thank the boss for this!" he laughed.

That was when he heard it, a loud thud.

Bonifacius stood up, reaching for his weapon only to find it missing, in fact he was back to being the size of his eight-year-old self.

"I let my guard down!" he exclaimed as he slowly made his way out of his room.

He saw that it was just his father, he was laying on the ground, he must have tried to go up the stairs only to fall down again.

Bonifacius felt sorry for his father before remembering this was just an illusion.

He walked up to his father and grabbed him off the ground, leading him back to his room, it was located opposite his mother's room.

A flow of slurred speech and insults were thrown Bonifacius' way but he just delivered his father back to his room with a smile.

Bonifacius walked back down ready to leave this dream-like illusion.

"Perhaps the others are still struggling with their visions, I should leave as soon as possible."

One again, Bonifacius hears a loud slam, cautiously he goes downstairs and sees that its the door to the basement that was swinging open.

Bonifacius walked up to them.

"Ah, the basement, they used to say that if I didn't behave they'd lock me in the basement with the "corner creep" or whatever his name was!" Bonifacius laughed.

He walked into the basement was placed his hand along the wall for the light switch, it wasn't there.

"Strange, I swear this is where it was..." Bonifacius thought as he continued walking along the wall trying to feel for the light switch.

Bonifacius felt a shiver run down his spine as the door shut behind him.

"Blast it! Now I can't see anything!" he exclaimed before finally coming across the switch, he clicked it only to be met with his basement, barely lit, the light flickering as he looked upon the big, oversized and disproportional humanoid sitting hunched in the corner of the room, its back curved forward, its head with massive white eyes with no pupils.

The creature's teeth stood like bricks, neither a smile nor a from upon its face.

Meanwhile...

JohnWillStab stood and saw the centipedes disappear as all his party members lay on the ground, alive but not responsive.

JohnWillStab walked up to each one of them, placing them along the wall of the hallway as he tried to figure out what was going on.

"Everyone except me is passed out..."

"Alex and Jordan are the same level as me so it's not a level thing..."

"Olivionion is a dagger class... so it's not a dagger thing..."

"I didn't activate the tenecirus class... so that's not it..."

"The only remaining factor is the fact I'm undead... which would suggest they were poisoned..."

JohnWillStab got down on his knees and sniffed the ground only to feel a strong smell of mould and sulphur.

"Yeah, poison gas..." he remarked.

He looked over to Curstl, "she was meant to be immune to that kind gas because of the choker, right?"

"Maybe the poison got absorbed through the skin, that's why -" John was cut off by his own realisation.

"The insects, they were just there to distract everyone while they get the poison in them!" he realised.

"They must have been some sort of illusion!" he added.

John turned to Thal, the go-to party member when it came to illusions.

"Thal? What's going on?" John asked, but he didn't get a reply.

"Thal?"

Meanwhile...

Alex found himself in a large mansion, around him framed scribbles.

A race car bed and a massive wardrobe with suits, costumes and even expensive sweatpants.

"Where am I?" asked Alex.

"This is some sort of illusion..." Thal replied.

"Thal! Thank god you're here!" Alex exclaimed.

"Right..." Thal remarked.

"Thought... I have no idea what this is supposed to be..." he added.

"It looks like my room, back when I was a little kid," Alex replied.

"Are you saying this is where you lived?" Thal asked.

"Yeah..." Alex replied.

He looked around at the familiar images.

"What's with the scribbles?" asked Thal.

"Those? They're just pictures I drew... my parents were all about encouraging me for just about everything..." Alex replied awkwardly.

He pointed to one of the scribbles, it looked like the world laziest sun with a smile.

"My father insisted that was quote "basically the scream by Van Gogh"," he realised Thal wouldn't know who Van Gogh was.

"It's... ugly as hell..." Alex replied.

"I know right!?" he exclaimed.

"Still, they seemed detached from reality..." Alex sighed.

He walked out of his room and was greeted by the familiar frame of his father, a slim man wearing a tan suit and yellow tie, he had curly brown hair.

"Oh, Alex! Is that a sword?" asked the rich-looking man.

"Show me some of your moves!" he added.

He performed an exaggerated karate move to get Alex pumped up.

Alex lifted Thal into the air just a little.

"Oh my! I'm no expert, but I can tell from your posture you're a pro at this, bud! I'm sure you could win the sword-Olympics! Is that a thing? I'll make it a thing!"

"I... see what you mean..." Thal said.

His father's eyes darted over to the sword.

"Oh my goodness, Alex did you do that! You're a master ventriloquist too! I knew there was nothing you couldn't do!" he exclaimed.

Alex put Thal away and wandered out, leaving his cheering father behind.

"What the hell was that about?!" Thal demanded.

"Like I said... very... supportive..." Alex replied.

"More like fanatical!" Thal exclaimed.

They walked past the massive open area, the mansion had four floors, outside was a pool and a massive hedge maze.

"Though... I guess you could say they weren't perfect..." Alex replied.

As he walked he peeked into a room on the same floor, it looked plain, inside, nothing except a bed and a table.

At the table sat a brown-haired man, he looked about fifteen.

He was busy writing something.

"Who's that?" asked Thal.

"That's one of my siblings... he wanted to be a musician, but my parent's encouragement was exclusively spent on me," Alex replied.

"Wanted?" asked Thal.

"He's... not around anymore," Alex replied closing the door, as he did, the door creaked causing his brother's face to snap towards Alex, for a second, through a crack in the door he could swear he was his brother with a rope around his neck.

Alex dismissed it as a side effect of the illusion before continuing.

"Do you have any more siblings?" asked Thal.

"In total, I had two brothers and a sister, like I said, I'm one brother short now," Alex replied.

"I see..." Thal said awkwardly.

"Oh, I don't want to make this out like a sob-story, I lived in a mansion! Besides, it's not like I really knew them!" he laughed.

"It's just a bit strange to be praised for everything... it absolutely killed any ambitions I could have had, what's the point of studying if I'm "so perfect" y'know?" Alex asked as he continued walking through the house and down to the bottom floor.

"That was when I discovered MMOs," he explained.

Thal didn't comment.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know what an MMO is, right?" Alex laughed before taking a turn to the left, he walked into a computer room filled with fancy, high-tech computers, he sat down and booted up a generic MMO.

"See, you can play a game with people for all around the world!" he explained.

"I guess the illusion came in handy for something." he laughed.

Alex continued playing the MMO while he spoke.

"So anyway, the somewhat spoiled me couldn't deal with the idea of not being the best, obviously, as we established I don't actually have any talents, so I sucked at the game."

"I decided to make my own game atop the one... we're in now? You know what I mean... Again, I lacked the skills to make a game."

"And John and his friends kicked my ass back down to reality, an alcohol-fueled quarter-life crisis later I came out mostly stable!" he explained.

"That's pretty sad, man..." Thal noted.

"Nah, you're imagining things! It's a tale of personal growth and the importance of encouragement in moderation!" he explained with a smug smile.

"So I decided that I would give myself a goal! I would have fun! I didn't have to be number one! I didn't have to make anything worthwhile, hell I had enough money for my next ten generation to live like nobility without putting any work in!" he laughed.

"All that mattered was having fun, and so far, I can't complain about where my pursuit lead me!"

That was when the lights cut out.