My eyes periodically wavered towards the lower right corner of the screen in front of me, checking the time, 19:58... 19:59... 20:00. The moment the internal clock hit eight o'clock, dozens of seats around me suddenly became empty, my fellow coworkers instantly disappearing by logging off. No one could blame them, today was a big day after all, at least for anyone that liked gaming. And with so few alternatives for entertainment, almost everyone loved gaming these days.

As for me? Still had to finish that damned report I was fighting with for the last half hour. Grumbling to myself I returned to the touchscreen in front of me and continued on.

By the time I finally finished it and switched the VR gear off, returning me in the privacy of my home, the internal clock was reading 22:17. Just a bit higher than a twelve-hour shift... again. But at an age that you had to compete with machines for work, it was still in the acceptable range of work hours.

I removed the VR helmet, unplugged my neural connection, and stood up from my chair. Rubbing my eyes to dispel the tiredness, I stood up and stretched. Even with an ergonomic chair worth hundreds of dollars, sitting still for such periods of time still took a toll on my 100% un-exercised body.

Checking my clock, even after a thorough visit to the bathroom and a relaxing bath, there was still a bit of time left. Looking at the leftovers from the lunch break, I decided against takeout for dinner as well. The doctor had, either way, advised for some light daily exercise, and there was ample time left to enjoy a real meal.

By the old standards, it should have been night time already, but the sheer number of huge screens in the air playing advertisements managed to keep the city lit bright as it was the middle of the day, their flickerings colors reflecting on the myriad mirror-like walls of the buildings around the trading center of the city. The walk to the nearest restaurant was just a bit less than half an hour from my apartment, and this gave me just enough time to breathe the cool winter air and regain my vigor. Obviously, even if I wasn't interested already, almost every single advertisement, every single gigantic screen, was heralding the advent of the next generation of gaming, reminding people that in just a few hours, the next biggest online game would officially open its doors.

It wasn't something new, games that promised to break the mold, to bring the next gen, to overtake the old, were a dozen a dime. Every few months, another one would pop, and flocks of people would rush there, play, and abandon ship when the next one would launch. The biggest difference now was the scope of things.

By all accounts, RealWorldII was one of the best immersive VRMMO that was ever launched, and it was the only one that always managed to stay on top. It was what every game strived to become, what every game tried to takedown, and in the last ten years since it launched, no one had ever managed to reach it. It had launched itself, using the previous biggest game in existence, a real pioneer in gaming and one of the three first real VRMMO ever launched, RealWorld, as a foothold, and never let go.

And now, its servers closed, a week ago, to fuel all those players to the next gen, RealWorldIII. Promising to bring “imagination back to gaming” as its motto. The systems revealed through the beta actually pointing that they may as well be true to their word.

By the time I got back to my home there was just half an hour left till the game's doors actually opened. A good time to actually hop into the system and go through the character creation.

If this was the past me, even a minute would be enough to do so, since I would have been 100% sure of what and how to build, I would have playtested the hell out of the game, and I would have formed a plan in my head already. But, as with the last dozens of games I've played, this time I was only going in with a half-assed browsing of the forums as information. And the developers have pointed out that to fuel their dream of “imagination back into gaming” there would be a great deal more options to choose in the actual release compared to the beta testing.

I put on the VR set, plugged in the neuron connection on the slot on my wrist, and instantly I was transported into the white space that was my “computer”. I extended my arm, willing the correct icon to come forth, and activated my account for RealWorldIII client.

The next second, everything went black.

***

In the distance, I could see a tiny dot of light fast approaching towards me. As the light grew, I found myself looking towards a huge world. The feeling wasn't like falling towards there, but it was more like I was a third party, an observer, gravitating towards the continent, watching the scene of carnage unfolding underneath my feet.

The forests were on fire, the oceans raging, huge tsunamis rising and drowning the port cities. And in the center, a sea of people battling it out with gigantic creatures. Dragons as huge as a city were flying above, a single breath burning thousands of people, golems as big as skyscrapers trampling upon the horde of people, fantastical beings filling my field of view as far as I could look.

The battle lasted for almost a quarter of an hour, till there was only a handful of people still left alive, and my viewpoint shifted even closer to them, to the point that I could hear their shouts over the rumble of the battle going on.

They were concentrating their attacks on the biggest, baddest, dragon flying above them, a handful of them erecting barriers to keep the rest of the creatures away from their core, and another squadron of them focusing on the threats that managed to cross the barrier.

“Avron, a golem to the left passed over!” A blue skinned water nymph shouted towards a giant dressed in gold plate and carrying a sword that was even taller than him.

The next second, with an inhuman speed the giant leaped and brought his sword down, forming a beautiful arc in the sky almost like tearing the world itself. Pure white ripples of energy expanded from the arc, hitting the golem straight in the torso, engraving a deep gash right in the middle.

Simultaneously, violet and black chains made of energy shot up from the ground, grabbing both arms and legs of the golem, and making it kneel to the ground, making the earth itself ripple like an earthquake had hit the area.

A shadow leaped on the kneeling golem, running upwards towards its head, throwing somethings inside the open gash as it run alongside it. When it reached the top of the head it stopped, the silhouette of a humanoid shadow holding a dagger clearly visible. With its free hand, it made a victory sign as a youthful, female voice left its lips.

“Blow up you ugly!”

Almost like a signal, a series of chain explosions running the length of the scar, where the shadow had planted its bombs, rose up tearing the golem in half.

It took another five minutes of fighting till the group of mages finished their spell, sending a lance of blue energy right on the underbelly of the dragon. It roared and let yet another breath engulf the area in flames, but the fires couldn't pass through the water shield made by the nymph. Almost like a harpoon, the lance was sticking to the dragon, chaining him to the mages as it was tearing him from the inside.

One, two, mages collapsed, their life energy spent to fuel the spell. The dark warlock wasn't far off as he was holding off two lizard-like huge beasts by himself with his violet-black chains, and the giant swordsman was battling yet another golem, solo this time and having switched to a one handed sword since his left arm was missing. But in the end, the Dragon let his final death cry.

The next second, the body of the dragon disappeared, replaced by a bright, searing energy, that exploded. Where the fires touched only ashes remained, and soon his flames covered the entire continent. By the time the flames stopped raging, there was nothing left. No beasts, no heroes, no forests, just ash.

In the far corners of the charred lands, amidst the stone and the charcoal, the ghostly images of the heroes appeared, several times bigger this time and fully incorporeal. And with a wave of their hand, nature bloomed once more underneath the broken land.

From ruins all across the continent, a few survivors emerged, almost like called to those places, they moved. Time was now moving in fast forwards, as the survivors made caravans of people, and guided by the ghostly heroes made their way to places where life was starting to bloom again, and slowly but surely, small villages started reappearing, and small animals started emerging from the forests.

The intro cinematic ended as the first goblin appeared from a forest and hungrily looked towards a small village settlement.

***

“So... like RealWorld ending huh?”

I remembered when RealWorld ended, in a huge cataclysm, as the energy of the world kept feeding into the earth, it would keep spawning harder and harder creatures. By the end of the game, the last week before the servers closed, such an event had happened as well. The goal was to kill one creature big enough to start the mana explosion to purge the land before it was completely overrun. The reward for the event completion was that, depending on contribution, the avatars of our characters would stay as Gods for RealWorldII, their names, and deeds engraved into the very history of the next game. My character back then, twenty years ago, was like those heroes I had just watched, and true to their word, he stayed on, known as “GVAlex, God of Community and Patron of Guilds”

That was back when I was fifteen, and the last time I had time to play any game seriously. But knowing that “Avon, God of War”, one of my best friends, and second in command back then, managed to continue on and make a living out of playing games, and continued the legacy of my guild and even managed to become a God, as “Avron” now, two times in a row, brought a smile on my face.

I sighed just a bit depressed, knowing that those things were far away from me now. That now I was just a “filthy casual”.

With the end of the cinematic, the whole area around me became a blinding white room. Twenty minutes had already passed, something that I completely forgot to account for when I logged in. Now there were just a few minutes before the game launched, and ultimately, not enough time to make a proper character.

“I guess I have to half ass it again” I sighted...