Half past two in the morning... I floated in the virtual world, too tired to sleep. My mother would have called it idiot syndrome, but when you're spending half of your life making money to pay for the debts of the other half, sleep becomes a nonexistent sliver of time. And when I can’t sleep, I play. One of the joys of the modern technoculture: anyone with a mid-level rig could dive in and play anything for free. Put in a bit of effort and a few more hours of dedication, and games would even pay you a token amount. I was no pro-gamer, but I held a top hundred leaderboard position in a few games, earning me a grand total of fifty-four bucks per week. I also had given permission for my full biometrics to be used in-game for another twenty. As always, attractive natural female avatars were in high demand.

As I explored the latest must-see virtual world, a notification popped up in front of me.

Priority Vesperia Announcement!

High level accounts gain x3 character experience until 06:00

Vesperia was one of the first games I had joined. It was so old that my parents still had accounts. By the time I had reached middle school, I had pretty much dropped it, returning every other week to pick up my freebies and pass some vanilla quest. Five years ago, the company hosting Vesperia had gone under new management and gone through a restructuring phase, bringing in a series of sweeping changes. New maps, environments, and monsters were introduced along with a massive marketing campaign aimed at bringing new life into the ancient game. I could only imagine how much money had been poured in. It had an effect, launching the game into the top three virtual game spots. Legions of new players joined, old veterans returned, and they quickly found that the game was just as boring as before.

“Hello, Sarah.” A goofy kitten avatar popped up next to the message. “With your gear, you’ll be able to reach level ninety nine in the next three hours!” it said, happily floating around.

“I know, Twinkle.” I sighed. Twinkle was my AI-companion, given to me when my father actually made some money. Back then, the AI was considered top of the line, available only to the extremely well-off. Now I couldn't afford the tax to sell it.

“So why the frown?” Twinkle's avatar brushed against mine. In the virtual world, he almost felt like a genuine cat. “Triple experience doesn't come every week. If you max out your character, maybe you'll get a sponsorship offer!”

Yeah, right. Sponsorship offers weren't that easy to come by anymore. At most, I could get food discount codes.

“Come on.” Twinkle persisted. “Don't you want to max out at least one of your characters? It's not like you'll go back to sleep.”

“Sure.” I tapped on the Vesperia notification window. At this point, it didn't matter what game I was playing. I just wanted to waste some hours until it was time for work. “Find me the optimal path.” I yawned. “Dungeons, PvE, solo play.”

The virtual space around me warped, shifting from the standard purple to the bright colours of Vesperia. Lush green fields, dark forests, and endless reaches of blue sky extended as far as the eye could see. I could tell they had upped the graphics since my last login, no doubt in preparation for some new global event. Without waiting, I opened my stats window. In this world I was a Rogue-Acrobat—by far not the best choice, though not the worst either. With my current equipment, I could destroy most NPC mobs, possibly a mid-level boss or two, but in PvP I'd be crushed like a chick in a protein factory.

“Twinkle, do I have enough money for a class shift?” I asked my AI-companion.

“Not unless you want to be in debt for the next three weeks.” The cat-like creature appeared in front of me. “You can upgrade some of your gear, if you want.”

“Nah.” There was no point wasting money on something I'd never use. The moment I maxed out my character, I was going to sell it on the web. With luck, that would cover rent and food expenses for the next few months. Maxed-out characters were always in demand, even if not optimally built. With enough money, a person could change everything. The only thing they couldn't do was level up a character past level seventy.

“You have two options,” Twinkle purred as he twirled his tail. “Angels’ Canyon or Weeping Fields? Angel’s Canyon would be faster, but there's a greater risk of character death.”

“Weeping Fields is fine.” No point in wasting revive potions.

“You also have eighteen messages in your mailbox. Five are possible spam, seven are from Jeremy, two are reminders that your biomech class assignments are due in one week, and the rest are gamecode promotions. Want me to open them for you?”

“Ignore everything.” I took the dance-blades from my inventory. “Move me to the Weeping Fields zone.”

In the blink of an eye, I was in the middle of a dark field, tall grass all around. For the larger part, the Fields were a grinding zone with low powered creatures that appeared on a regular basis. They didn't drop any valuable loot, so were ignored by farmers, making them available for characters that wanted to level up. Normally, I wouldn't bother, but Twinkie has calculated that I'd be able to level up here in the next few hours, so there was that.

“How many do I need to kill?” I looked around. No sign of mobs. It probably took the game a while to start spawning them.

“Five hundred and seven.” Twinkle’s voice rang in my ears. I felt dizzy all of a sudden. “Or you can try fighting Angels.”

Both choices seemed equally boring. On the positive side, once I was done with this, I could redirect my focus to something else.

“Five hundred and seven,” I sighed.

Even with lures that would take a lot. I opened my options menu and started the second album of Rosensphere, then tossed my first lure. A second later, three goblins popped out and glared at me. It was amusing that despite the advance in technology, Vesperia still used old school spawning. Most other games had an NPC spawn sequence striving for the experience to be as believable as possible. Here, a creature, any creature, appeared out of thin air with a literal pop.

“Exchange all loot for lures,” I ordered Twinkle, as I spun around, extending my dance-blades. The sharp edges sliced through the goblin’s bodies with ease. At this level difference, I could hardly feel the feedback.

Within seconds, the creatures disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a loot drop on the ground. Normally a player would have to manually collect them, but my AI-companion had a few inbuilt apps that allowed him to do that for me. The kitten appeared, then quickly leapt to gather the bone and gem pieces while I rushed to my next target. I had also tweaked his settings so that he could trade on the game market while I was playing.

“You sure you don't want me to scout for equipment?” Twinkle asked. “There are some good sales.”

“Just lures,” I said as I sliced up another monster. Three goblins killed, five hundred and four to go. I gritted my teeth, maxed out my music volume, and continued with the slaughter.

One by one, the lures disappeared from my inventory. The dozen I had started with quickly vanished, and the ones Twinkle managed to procure came at the “staggering” speed of one per minute.. and that didn't include the time I had to pause to restore my character’s stamina. Two hours after the start of my grind, I had barely managed to kill four hundred and fifty-seven creatures. That left fifty till my level up.

“How much time before the bonus XP ends?” I asked, looking at my character’s stat window.

“Twenty seven minutes.” Twinkle floated in front of me with his smug expression. “There's no way you'll make it on time. You could still manage to level up today, if you skip work.”

“Sell all my secondary equipment for lures,” I said. Many would call this a desperate move, but it wasn't like I was going to play with any of my other characters, and I definitely wasn't going to miss work over something as stupid as this. “I don't care how much I lose, just get me to max my character.”

“Whatever you say, Sarah,” his voice echoed in my ears.

Ten seconds later and a series of soft beeps resonated around me. I checked my inventory—ten new lures stood there, ready for use. I still had a few stamina potions I was keeping for emergencies. Since they weren’t equipment, Twinkle hadn’t sold them off. Typical for his limited intelligence, though in this case it was for the better. I could always use a speed boost.

Goblin after goblin popped out of the field and charged at me, each bringing me closer to my goal. Nine hundred experience left… seven hundred and eighty… six-twenty…

I kept throwing lures left and right, no longer bothering with my gain-loss ratio. The only thing I wanted was to get it over.

Two hundred and seventy till level ninety nine… one fifty… seventy… twenty…

As I sliced my last goblin, a golden glow surrounded me, along with the obligatory sound of bells and Gregorian chanting. Finally, I had completed my futile task of the night. It wasn't enjoyable in the least, but at least I might get a few dozen bucks posting my achievement on the gamer sites.

“Twinkle, record,” I ordered as golden particles rose from me to the air above. “Wide range camera, medium distance.”

“Do you want me to stream?” my AI-companion asked with a purr.

“Sure.” Not that I thought anyone would bother watching a nobody max level. “See if you can find any good advertisements to—“

Before I could finish, a bolt of red lightning fell from the sky, striking the ground ten feet away. My gamer instincts kicked in. Without a second thought, I leapt back, pulling out my main weapon, and triggered all my buffs and protections. A sudden wave of fire swept through me. Had I been an instant slower, my character would have been fried.

“Twinkle!” I shouted. “What's going on? Is this a new event?”

“Sorry, Sarah, I don’t understand your question,” the AI-companion replied. “You've reached the level cap of the game. Once the level up sequence is over, there's nothing much left. You can log off and go to work.”

“Are you kidding me?” The ground shook, almost knocking me down. An enormous golden dragon head emerged from the spot lightning had struck. Its ruby eyes glared at me, flames dancing within. I pointed at the monster. “What do you call that then?”

“Sorry, Sarah,” Twinkle repeated. “According to the game, that's part of the level up sequence.”