Chapter 1: First Achievement

[Congratulations! You have earned a unique achievement: First Death]

You have been the first person to die in the game.

[Congratulations! You have earned a unique achievement: First Achievement]

You are the first character to earn an achievement in the game.

“What the hell!” Those two messages suddenly appear and flash non-stop. Is the game mocking me? I should have listened to his advice and met with him before going on my own. But oh man, I was so entranced with this world.

I had never experienced any of the worlds in the dreams. Since a decade ago, there has been a huge technological advance. Those old VR headsets have evolved to the point you can experience an adventure in your dreams. Truth be told… I felt too old and outdated to even attempt it. I am now in my thirties, with no wife, no kids, and, as of recently, only the occasional remote job.

Just today, I was working for a client, nothing new, the usual, old, tedious, and exhausting database backup, when I saw the advertisement. And I genuinely mean it, THE advertisement. My adblocker has been acting lately, and today it ultimately failed me. A. Fucking. Advertisement. You know, you are an adBLOCKER! The worst of it, the livestream, an interview with my favorite programmer of all times, kept going on. Of course, I could not hear a single word of it.

And, do you know what’s even funnier? After that fucking advertisement, I had to watch 3 non-skippable more of them! 5 fucking minutes lost! “-eah, so we spent 2 years and a half developing this game, Pawns of God, and today we are launching it for the DreamZ 4.” Fate? Destiny? Irony? I don’t know, but precisely the first advert, the very one that turned my rage mode on, was of Pawns of God.

So guess what! I started writing an email of complaint to the adblock company and… Who am I kidding? I fucking bought the DreamZ 4, had it delivered to my house within the hour, and purchased the goddamed game. I am weak… But they’ve been talking so well about the experience… All my online friends, ehem, all my friends, are using it. They’ve been progressively leaving the old platforms, so I’ve been feeling kind of lonely.

And let’s not forget, playing while you sleep certainly has an edge to it. Those tedious 8 to 10 hours are no longer wasted! I might usually go to sleep late, but I either sleep my hours, or I’m not a person the next morning.

Said and done, I plug the helmet-like artifact, smell the industrial-grade plastic, lick my finger and scrub a scratch in an attempt to erase it. And to the bed! The first time is weird. Not that I have tried it any more times, but still… I usually drift into my sleep, progressively lose track of my own body, but today I just saw black. Black followed by a female voice.

“Hello and welcome to DreamZ 4. Please hold on for a minute while we configure a few things for you.” Was I sleeping already? Who knows, certainly not me. A spinning, multicolored ball kept me company while waiting.

“Thank you for your patience! Retinal scan complete, accessing your virtual library.”

[Information]

Name: Mark

Age: 31

Games: Pawns of God

“Would you like to open Pawns of God? The game is scheduled to launch in 1 hour, but you might enter before and create your character.”

Sure! Let’s roll with it. I’ve arranged to meet my friends once inside, somewhere called Irisgarth. Well, I’ll figure that one later!

One more loading screen. The words Pawns of God fade in, written in prominent, upper-case, and medieval-like characters. Flaming from both sides but frozen in the middle, they give an ominous feeling. Undoubtedly impressive, I know it’s not real, yet I feel like I could touch the flames and get severely burned.

“Welcome to Pawns of God, your adventure starts here! Your character will take after your appearance, but you have some margin to tweak it. For instance, you can change your proportions, gender, hair, etc. Experiment and decide!”

“Oh wow! Fuck! Is that me?” My image, reflected on some kind of mirror, was staring back at me. “For God’s sake! It just looks exactly like me! How did they do it? A clone, every detail is there. Every… detail?” I looked down and pulled my pants a bit… “Ah yeah! Every!”

You know, I am kind of attached to my figure. I am no model, not even beautiful by most standards. But hey, 1.79 and 75kg, not fit but neither fat. I guess I am okay. “Hey, you! Machine! I am done here!”

“Please, human, address me properly.” The female voice that had been accompanying me from the start turned into a deep, clearly angry voice. “You shall call me God.”

“God? How is that possible?”

“Poor soul, how do you think you will come to life? Who do you think will give you the ability to walk the earth below? Where do you expect your powers to come from? I! The great God! The creator! The Overseer!”

“Ah… that must be a game’s mechanics, of cou-” Whispered so low that it was hard to hear even for me.

“This is no game, you fool! Do not tempt my temper, tease me anymore and I sha-”

“PAUSE!” I screamed as hard as I could. What do you mean this is not a game? I am inside a game, right!? A confirmation appeared just a moment after.

[CONTINUE]

[QUIT]

Oh, fuck! I just panicked there… A few breaths and good to go! “Continue!”

“-ll erase your very existence from this universe.”

“I beg your pardon, God, this has been so sudden that I barely had the time to process it all.”

“Good. Then, what is it that you seek in this world? Power? Magic? Strength? A strong body? Or maybe is it money and fame?”

“Mmmh… I want the power to protect others. I don’t want to see my friends die.”

“Most interesting… Then that shall be it, you are, from this moment, a Priest of Jonas.”

“Priest? What exactly does a priest do aside from praying? And who is Jonas?”

“My priests yield powerful restorative magic, they heal the weak and punish the evil. And, but of course, Jonas is me”.

“Wait wh-”

“Then, begone my priest. Wander the earth and preach my name!”

My view went white, but all I could think of was… A fucking priest? Of all the things, a priest? I don’t believe in God, even less in the God of a fucking GAME! Hey! Hey, delete this, undo! Control Z!

“This game is a unique experience; once started, you can not reset to a previous state.” The feminine voice, very attentively, crushed my last hopes. “You have 37 minutes left. You can check your information by thinking ‘Status’.”

[Status]

Name: Mark

Class: Priest of Jonas

Should I change my name? Maybe use a nickname or something? Well, whatever, I’ll keep my real one for now.

“Where would you like to start your adventure? If you don’t know, I will choose a random place for you.”

“Ah… Irisgarth.” I reply absently minded. I really am his priest. Like, forever? Oh God. Let me just do as if this never happened. Maybe it will change later on in the game. Yes, it will. For sure. “Do I have to stare at nothing, white, for the remaining thirty-something minutes?”

“Would it be more comfortable if I turned it black?”

“Hell no! Can’t you add something? A forest, a sun, houses, people, animals, I don’t know, whatever!”

“I am afraid I do not have such capabilities. The cerulean color is believed to have soothing effects. Changing to cerulean. Change done!.”

“Oh whatever… It is as if this whole game is making fun of me…”

And so went the next 35 minutes. Me, alone, staring into a wonderful cerulean-colored nothingness. Amazing. 10/10 would play again. Is it my fault for coming over so early?

But oh man, was it worth the wait! The light blue faded just to give way to a fantastic view of a hill. Surrounded by trees at each side, a ground path leading up ahead, the sun caressing my face… it’s heat real and warming; is this truly a game?

“I guess the path is there to be followed?” I took a quick look around me; no life signs anywhere. I decided to track the origin of the road. And, not saying it’s anyone’s fault, but have you ever been so absorbed in your thoughts that you don’t even stop to think about what you are doing?

The trees on my left were huge, its root resurfacing at points, its trunk wider than two of myself side by side. The vegetation grew wild all around, flourishing and nurturing from the radiant sun. Its yellowish color was brighter than I ever recall seeing in real life. The mountains at the distant horizon…. And just like that, I did find the origin of the road. A huge ravine. Massive, enormously large, albeit not that wide. Nothing an average person couldn’t have just jumped. And trust me, I’m a verified source, scaringly deep.

And here we are, present time, dead.