I got out of the shower and stared at my calendar on the wall.

It was the beginning of a New Year and a new decade: January 1, 2040. The day hadn’t started like any other day, because never in my life had I played a video game while I slept.

Sure there were times when I hadn’t slept because I was staying up all night playing video games, but never had I been able to do both at the same time. I read on the news this morning that the gaming community had publicly proclaimed Dreamscape the crowning achievement of all of mankind’s endeavors.

I would have probably been one of those people to agree, had I not had such a crappy start. Just to give a brief recap of my “adventures”, so far I have managed to cast one spell, kill a single boar, die twice, read four books, and start a war that forcefully drafted 2000 of my neighbors.

I browsed the Dreamscape homepage this morning and discovered some interesting facts. The highest-level player is lvl 8, the average player is level 5, and the average player in New Hope Village is only level 4.

On another note, overnight I’ve become Internet famous. Well more like infamous if I’m being technical. I shook myself out of my thoughts and realized I need to get to work. Out of everything that happened, at least I feel rested.

I trotted over to my job. I was a grounds keeper for the university. By working for the university I got free room and board, which made college somewhat affordable. I was completely on my own paying for college, and I don’t plan on spending the rest of my life paying student loans back.

The university was on a four-week break thanks to the Christmas/New Year holidays, so that made my job easier.

The day passed quite slowly. If one of my coworkers were to describe my mood today, it would be pensive. I just couldn’t get last night off my mind. From all the speculation on the forums, New Hope Village was about to get obliterated.

Not only would my village be destroyed, but I would then proceed to be the most hated individual in Dreamscape, if I wasn’t already. Legends of my stupidity would probably pass down from generation to generation. Well maybe not that dramatic, but players would probably make fun of me whenever they saw me.

Before I knew it, it was 11:45 am. In all of my emotional turmoil, I had forgotten to text my buddies and my brother and see how their experience had been. I quickly texted my brother Luke.

(I was trying to make this part like a text message, but its going to read from top to bottom not bottom to top like a normal text message would)

Luke

Hey how was Dreamcape?

What class/race did you end up getting?

It’s pretty awesome! Fae Druid FTW! (for the win)

What about you? End up being a warrior like you thought?

I wish… Something much worse…

Like what? A spellcasting orc?

Much worse…

What’s worse than a spellcasting orc lol.

An Undead Sorcerer.

What…

WTF

How is that even possible.

Story of my life.

Oh hey you know that guy that’s getting

his village blown up by kobolds?

Ya I saw the world announcement, why?

Ya, that’s me.

Oh sh*t, what happened!

I then proceeded to tell my brother the highlights from last night and before I knew it, it was 12 and I had to get back to work.

It felt nice to talk to someone without them criticizing me, and I was glad that it was working out well for him. From past experiences, he tended to play the roll of healer well.

As I raked up some of the leaves by the Eastern Cafeteria, I couldn’t help but let my mind drift back to Dreamscape. The more I thought about it, the more that I began to seethe.

“2,500 dollars down the drain,” I said to myself, “What a load of crap!”

“What’s a load of crap?” a voice said beside me. I quickly turned and saw that Gary was standing beside me.

Gary was a 48-year-old African American with more white in his beard than black. He had been working for the university for over 20 years, and worked his way up until he was in charge of the 55 some odd employees.

He rarely did much of the physical labor anymore, but he liked to check up on everyone at least once a week. Although I would probably never tell Gary this, but he was kind of like a father to me. Not that I didn’t have a father, but my father was a distant workaholic.

“Hey Gary!” I said quickly, “How’s your afternoon going?”

“Hahaha, nice try kid. If you’re trying to cover it up something must actually be wrong.” I paused, trying to decided if I wanted to tell him. Gary was one of those people that made you feel comforted yet unnerved at the same time because he could read you well. You know as if just by looking at you, they really see you holistically. Yeah, that makes me feel vulnerable and I don’t like feeling vulnerable.

“Oh nothing, I just had a fight with my brother earlier.” I lied. Gary looked at me inquisitively for a moment.

“Well if you ever want to talk about it, my door is always open.” Gary responded with a warm smile that made me feel guilty for lying to him.

“Thanks Gary,” I said and smiled for the first time that day.

After Gary left, the rest of the day was uneventful. I got off at 5 and went to the cafeteria. Only one of the four cafeterias was open this early in the year specifically for the staff, so it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it normally is when the school year starts.

I purposefully avoided going back to my room so that I wouldn’t have to deal with my roommate and just meandered around the empty campus. After 30 minutes of wandering I saw the rec center. The rec center is a combination of different courts such as basketball, tennis, racquetball etc.. along with a weight lifting gym.

I didn’t care much for lifting weights, because I don’t want to look buff, just fit. I headed inside and walked up to the front desk.

Although not optimal, I could definitely do some light cardio in my work clothes.

I scanned my Staff ID and was granted access immediately. I walked over to one of the treadmills and proceeded to do some light jogging. While I think lifting weights is a waste of time, cardio is actually good for your heart, so I’m all for it.

After 25 minutes it was getting hard to breathe, so I stopped. I began to walk towards the exit when two figures dressed completely in white caught my attention with bright yellow belts.

It took me a moment to process, but then I realized that they were martial artists wearing their gis.

They walked towards the corner of the gym and opened a door. I had been going to this gym off and on for the last year, but I didn’t know there was a room large enough for a dojo.

I slowly crept towards the back of the gym. After reaching the door, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a window that I could peer through. As non-creepily as I could, I looked through window.

There was approximately 20 people inside a 40x40ft room. They were taking their time chit-chatting and stretching. After a few minutes, someone said something inaudible and the rest of the group lined up.

As in normal sports fashion, they took their time doing stretches and warm ups. This included jogging around the dojo for a few minutes and some pushups.

A few more commands were given and a flurry of people went into the closet to grab something. The first person emerged with a large red square obviously used for hitting.

I ascertained over the next 10 minutes of watching that this was the taekwondo club. The leader of the club was a young twenty something year old woman woman whose nationality was probably Korean. She had 3 gold stripes on her black belt which probably symbolized something important.

Martial Arts were interesting, but I didn’t feel like they were super necessary in today’s society, especially with the new android cops that were roaming the streets. The statistics had showed that since the android police force had started, crime had dropped by 93%.

I checked my watch and it was 7. Connor would probably be out at dinner, so I decided it was safe to head back.

The rest of the night was uneventful. After showering I decided to look up some more information on the Dreamscape forum. Before I knew it time had flown by and it was 10.

I did my normal routine and got ready for bed. After which I put my Dreamscape helmet on and set the timer so that it would start at midnight. Soon after I did this my roommate got home, but I pretended to be asleep so that he wouldn’t talk to me.

I was restless and worried and wasn’t able to fall asleep. But at midnight, the helmet activated and put me to sleep and my digital dream began.

I materialized in the library. I checked my debuff, I still had 30 minutes left of sitting in the prison. At 12:01 the world announcement appeared.

World Announcement: The Kobold Invasion has begun, members of New Hope Village prepare yourself.

So, I sat there in silence waiting to be freed. Nothing happened at first which made me question whether or not it had started yet. But 15 minutes later dozens of bright lights began appearing all around me.

They were all players that had been killed back to lvl 1. Like popcorn, players began materializing left and right. Before I knew it there had to at least be 100 people in the room with me.

I was desperate to find out more information, but I was afraid of making my presence know. I presumed they would form a mob and verbally berate me for the remainder of my prison sentence, so I sat in a corner.

“It’s a complete slaughter!” an elf girl cried.

“How the hell are we suppose to fight that!” A man retorted.

Complaint after complaint arose like fireworks to the heavens. Finally, my debuff disappeared and I sprinted out of the room.

I turned the hall as quickly as I could and ran outside.

“What in the hell,” I whispered.

All the complaining about the decimation and unfairness were all perfectly accurate.

Lines of sorcerers bombarded approaching Kobolds with arcane missiles. But just like waves crashing upon the shores, the kobold horde was endless.

Whenever a kobold would fall, 3 more would appear in its place. The kobolds used their level advantage to boldly stab any nearby sorcerer. Although most of the [mana shields] could withstand a direct attack. After being stabbed by two or three kobolds, a sorcerer would die.

The players were eager to protect their village and would quickly run back after dying and revive. But the deficit between the two armies would only grow.

“What do I do” I said out loud.

“The only thing you can do.” A soft voice from behind me said. I turned and saw Pepper Flame standing with 38 of her comrades.

“You fight!” Pepper exclaimed while a passion burned in her eyes.