"Almost there!" Lance exclaimed as he approached his house. He had just run something short of a mile back to his house after buying the newest VR headset, 'The Specter 3'. The Specter system is the latest console by Oddnet, allowing players to immerse themselves in the game. The closest to reality experience gives true to the user's senses of self.

  Lance raced up his stairs. "I'm back!" he announced to let his mother and sister know he was home. Even without speaking, the quick succession of his footsteps up the staircase was all too familiar to them, they'd have known.

  "Annnd freedom!" Lance exclaimed as he let loose a symphony of wet noises into his toilet bowl. "Never drinking coffee on an empty stomach again," he murmured as his bowels continued to empty with sputtered splashes into the toilet. Lance sighed in relief and opened the bag holding his new console, he stared at it in wonder.

  "Ah man, I'm so excited! I can't wait. The Specter 2 only had visuals, but it now has simulated senses! If I can find one of those adu.."

  "Lance!! Don't you dare play with your new toy before your chores! Get down here and get them done now!" his mother exclaimed.

  Lance let out a grumpy sigh and walked downstairs after finishing up in the restroom. His sister was sitting on the couch watching T.V. She hardly gave him any recognition beyond a simple "Yo" before returning to be aloof as ever.

  Walking in the kitchen, his mom was making sandwiches on the counter. Having done some dishes, she left the water running in the sink. He went over and turned off the faucet, then came up to his mother and gave her a gentle side hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Ooo, cucumber sandwiches? Do I get one?" he asked expectantly.

  His mother, now actively focusing on the sandwich making, turned to look at him with a scrunched brow. "Do I look like I'm making extra? This is for your sister. You are nineteen. Now make your own." She gave him a quick shoo away motion to move him from the cupboard he was standing in front of to grab a plate. "Get your chores done. And you better stay on top of your grades. If that console becomes an issue I'll get my money back, one way or another," she warned.

  "Okay, okay. Jeez mom, what's the deal? I'll get them done. If I do the rest of the dishes, can you make me a sandwich too? Please? Yours always taste better," he pleaded, grabbing the trash and going out the backdoor.

  After picking up the dog poop and then doing the rest of the dishes, he was happily met with a sandwich left on the counter for him. Beside it was a note his mother left. "Take a shower. You stink. Also, I took your sister to soccer practice. We will be home at 5. If you're not started on homework then I will give your game thing to your cousin. Thanks for the chores hun, here's a sandwich and there's another in the fridge if you're still hungry. XO Mom."

  He smirked. Lance laughed before he took his sandwich up stairs. After a quick shower he went to his room. Sitting at his computer desk and unboxing his Specter 3. He read through the inner contents while munching on his sandwich. "Pretty straight forward. Plug it into a monitor or TV, set up the wifi, create a profile, and done. Too bad they don't have backwards compatible play, why do they never have that? Whatever." He grabbed out his helmet and set it on the desk.

  The helmet was rather bland, it was practically a motorcycle helmet if only for its visor was a dark sheet of black glass, sight was completely blocked while wearing it. It was rather aerodynamic in shape, on one side a stumpy antenna that was formed into the helmet's overall shape protruded just an inch off the top. The sides where the earholes would be were where the power button, and phase screen buttons were. They allowed for the ears to slide up into the helmet so you could hear anything happening while playing, but they ruined immersion so Lance immediately disregarded them. A mouth hole big enough for a straw was a wonderful addition to its last iteration; he had already thought he wouldn't be using it though. " What if I get it wet inside?" It's solid white matte paint was a classy touch, the embossed logo of Specter 3 on the brow was the only real flare of branding.

  Lance plugged it into a charging station and then his computer monitor. After a few clicks it had access to his home internet. He linked his accounts and debit card in anticipation.

  " Mmf, damn.. cream cheese, mixed with black pepper, onion powder, lemon juice, and a dash of paprika, thinly sliced cucumber and whole wheat...." Lance stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth. He heard a light chime that his helmet was done charging and grabbed it to put on.

  He pressed the power button and fell limp in his chair. Then over onto the floor with a loud thud. In the Specter, Lance was met with a large white void that seemed endless.

  "Hello!" He heard himself echo deep into the pure white. After a brief moment he felt a light tap on his shoulder and twirled around with a girlish scream.

  " Hello MindYoBidness, I am the specter three avatar assistant, follow me as we finish the setup of your device." Lance looked onward at a beautiful but plainly clothed woman in front of him. She wore a white robe that flowed to the floor masking her form.

  " Holy sh.. this is wildly realistic. I'm like, here. Oh uhm.. just call me Lance."

  " Okay 'Lance'. Where you are is the Specter Zone. This is a place created between the fabric of your mind and body, allowing you to feel the sensations you have normally. This area however is fully customizable. This is a blank canvas for you to embellish for any visitors. With a simple thought you can bring up the Menu." As she spoke she brought up various screens and tabs and quickly went through them. " The first screen here is your profile, MindYoBidness age 19, weight 206 pounds, Height 6 ft 3, College student, Is that correct?"

  " Yes.."

  " Good, the next page over is the store screen, here you can browse official games published by various distributors. There is even a Head crafted section where you can browse games created through the Specter system by its users. You can also browse and sell in game items here through accessing your save and dragging them to the respective game name. As our promise to our customers, no in game currency is available for trade, or purchase. And every game is only allowed One downloadable content package to release after launch. If we monitor that you are unsatisfied with your purchase after 5 hours of gameplay you may process a refund with your catalog of game experience. Please be mindful of your purchases. The next tab is the Specter zone. Here you will find any and all things to flesh out the space here in your image. None of these items are for purchase and are specifically only available through unlocking them through games. No two items will ever be the same as they are created by you. Your experiences in the games of your choosing will help me facilitate and nurture a perfectly unique atmosphere to show your personality with friends and family."

  " Dang. Cool. So that's it then huh? Anything else? Kinda seems like there's more ya know. Haha just kidding." The avatar didn't do anything. After a brief moment a quick smile appeared on her face, it gave Lance a quick chill.

  " I'm reading that you were happy and then scared. Is everything alright?"

  " Oh no no I'm fine. So what can I call you, wouldn't it be easier to give you a nickname or something? Specter 3 is a bit long. How about... Spex?"

  " Okay I will now respond to Spex. I will now take my leave. Please enjoy your time. You have a total of 18 minutes of gameplay remaining today."

  "What?? 18 minutes whoa whoa.. Why?"

  " Did you read the user manual? The Specter system compiles 10 hours of gaming into 20 minutes. We have been configuring and an entire two minutes were used for the set up process before you entered this space. If you would like to download a game while offline you're more than welcome to."

  " That's amazing, but why only 20 minutes I guess is the real question? or should I say ten hours?"

  " Your nervous system is filtered during play. Primary functions in the subconscious play an active role but any longer than twenty minutes per day may hinder growth or harm an individual. It's also to not overload your brain with excess heat. The console taps into the processing power of your brain to function smoothly. You must wait an entire day once the console shuts off to have access to relog in."

  "Interesting. Well thank you Spex. I guess I will begin browsing while I still have time, I will call for you when I need you."

  After that Spex simply fell through the floor as if it wasn't there. Lance pulled up the menu and moved over to the store page. He then motioned to the top rated games. There weren't many games released yet and he wasn't too fond of shooters. So he quickly went through that list until he came to a game that was ranked 28th on the list.

  " Wish Legacy " - A roguelike adventure. Begin as a random class and traverse through the legacy of an ancient being, power through each level with your party and get to the 200th level! Hundreds of unlockable classes and each floor is procedurally generated. Thousands of variable monsters, bosses, traps and more! Reach safe floors and revel in the glory of what you've made of yourself! Enjoy randomly generated gear and unlock abilities through the creativity of your talents! - On sale now 25% off - 45$

  " Hmm, sounds interesting. If I don't enjoy it for ten hours then I guess I can always return it. " Lance pressed buy. He had saved just over a hundred bucks to splurge on the console when he got one.

  Lance began his download of the game. Briefly he felt as if he didn't know how to log off the console but after thinking about logging out a screen appeared in front of him allowing for the prompt. He came to in an awkward position on the floor of his room. He sat up and checked his watch and truly only a couple minutes had passed. He was surprised, the Specter 2 was one for one with time.

  He got up and docked his helmet and began to look for " Wish Legacy " online. All he found was an official website, there weren't any videos up on any platform he searched. After looking at the official website he became excited, he would be playing in the coming minutes. A short intro video played on the main page of the website. In it he learned that this was a release by none other than Warlock's of the Grove and Snowstorm. Two super popular branding companies linked together with a few smaller studios to produce this game. The pre-order numbers were in the millions. " How have I not heard of this game until I logged in?" Lance began to scour the internet a bit more and read on a thread that WL had become a hit sensation 4 years ago after a teaser trailer was shown at a few expos. Since then the game had zero publicity yet the rumors of those who saw the trailer permeated throughout the circles of the fans who witnessed it.

  "I guess I really need more friends. I might have heard of this awhile ago. Then again 4 years of waiting would have surely put me off."

  He began to wonder how many of the preorder numbers reflected those who still kept interest. The games was downloading right now. " Hmm it was on sale though. Maybe they're not performing as it would seem on the outside." He began to check the forums on the official site and he found his answer. " Server load at capacity. Please bare with us as we are experiencing technical difficulties. Maintenance underway estimate wait time of 24 hours. Procurement of additional servers in process. The game will not shut down for individuals in que, however the game is not accepting additional logins. To reduce active server queries if you are not logged in, please do not attempt so at this time."

  " Psh. Sounds about right. Bunch of nerds inadvertently DDOS attacked the servers by all trying to play. Either that or some ragers are miffed because it was released on a new console they own and so they're getting revenge. Snowstorm literally never learns. This happens to every game they release. Buy more servers and have a better infrastructure.. Damnit. Now I have to wait a whole day to play." Lance's excitement grew as his patience waned. " Wait someone has to be streaming this.. Let me check Twinge." Lance began to see a list of individuals who began streaming themselves inside their blank Specter 3 Home Zones. So many titles eluded to the issues at hand.

  "24 hour - Wish Legacy waiting room"

  "Que time's endless WL Waiting"

  "Let me iiiiinn!! - WL"

  "Snowstorm get it together. Sadge"

  All of the new games and view-farming were prevalent, many of the folks were just blatantly watching other videos and making guesswork about the gameplay. Lance clicked on a few of the pages that represented factual information about the game. The teaser trailer on the official site just showed a series of photos captured in the game. Everyone seemed to be making conclusions based on what they saw. Some well known steamers had thousands of people in chat and were being bombarded by tips from people with text to speech on so they could throw out their ideas to the chat. " Idiots. Apparently no one knows anything. Those who do are probably tight lipped. The lucky ones who got in are all probably having a laugh."

  Lance began his usual routine of checking on a few streamers who were playing other things. Even though quite a few people had been streaming waiting screens, today being the Specter 3's release date, many other new titles had come out as well. Popular series like the Honor and Duty series released its umpteenth new version that seemed nice in the aspect of actual immersive feel. The only issue is it was yet another re-skin of the same game, a minimum amount of effort was put into the new release. Yet people still flocked to these shooters and household names like flies on shit. He began to click on a variety of games that were streaming from the Specter series. Many individuals had already gotten better at aiming from the consoles previous versions but a trending topic he began to see in chats were the actual feel of recoil made a majority of people really bad. The level of immersion had taken quite a leap now that it wasn't just optic and sound VR. You were there, on the front lines. The concussive feel of explosions and firing a weapon had put people who usually ran free of concern around corners into the fray into the noob seat once again. “ Everyone is camping or ratting, boring." he laughed

  Lance clicked on a few more titles and watched people fumble around in their new games before getting a notification that one of his favorite streamers went live. He quickly clicked over to his page.

  He was a small-time streamer named Klaw. Usually he only had an audience under ten. However Lance found his attitude and comedy quite fun and had been around for the past year. " Holy shit he's playing Wish Legacy!"

  Klaw seemed to only have a couple more chatters currently and his title was set to a simple " :p ". Lance knew this was one of his shortcomings had he only set it to something more attention grabbing people would eventually show up even if he was on the bottom of the list.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Klaw was in a dark cave. He was accompanied by three other individuals, a female and two more males. They all had simple clothing on and a single weapon in their hands. Klaw had a dagger and was leading the way by the light of a torch into a cavern adorned by large stalactites and stalagmites. The sounds of distant drips and skitters echoed through the cave as they crept through it. Everyone was seeing him play in first person. He was looking at his teammates and it was obvious they had not known each other or their capabilities. One of the men there wielded a longsword but was quite frail looking and could barely keep the sword up. The other had a large wooden shield and a small hand-axe. The female had a small wand. As they navigated the cave they began to see a light off in the distance. They all slowed down, Klaw turned and whispered to them. " Okay there's something up there, why don't I put this torch out and I'll creep up and take a look. You guys stay back and wait here for me. Protect her she's our healer. If I die you guys may still get to the next level."

  The timid looking man spoke up. " Look man, let me go, I don't think this class suits me well. I wanted to get a mage class but I got this stupid knight class instead. If I die I'll get a re-roll."

  Klaw spoke up. " No. I don't care if you think the game gave you a bad class. At least you're brave enough to walk towards death. You may be weak but get it together. I'm a rogue. I was meant to do the scouting. And if anything I have the ability Vanish. Hold here and wait for me."

  The shielded man stepped in front of the woman and nodded to Klaw. Klaw put out his torch and stepped closer to the light some 40 yards away. As he neared it he began to hear some sounds of chatter. He slowed to a snail's pace and hunched over. The light in front of him was confirmed to be a fire. Behind the spires of stone Klaw noticed the shadows on the cave wall beyond to be that of some large looking humanoids. They seemed to be eating something. He decided to get a closer look. He inched even closer, barely lifting his feet. The cave grew eerily silent as he stepped forward. Someone in his chat kept spamming a scared emoji. He got just up to the small camp and hid behind some stones for a peek. " Shit " he whispered. There were 4 goblins sitting around a fire eating huge bats. Just then one of them perked up in his direction and he ducked back down. Klaw began to hear footsteps coming towards him and his heart began beating rapidly. The stones in front of him were tall but thin. He got so low he was on his hands and knees. After a few second the footsteps stopped just on the other side of the rocks in front of him. A few sniffs were heard. Then Klaw heard a stream of piss begin to hit the dirt next to him. He let go a quick shallow sigh of relief. After a short while the goblin walked back to his fire and Klaw began to creep back to his party.

  Once he returned he let out a few whispers and couldn't find his party.

  " Hello? Guys? " he was in pure darkness and the torchlight was nowhere to be seen. He began to walk further back towards the cave entrance and then tripped over something. Klaw felt the cold nip at him as he fell into a large puddle. Over the next few seconds as he felt back to what he tripped on he came to the realization he tripped over his teammate.

  " Huurrggggh! DIE!" From the side Klaw heard none other that the timid Knight jump from the rocks above him. Klaw barely noticed his figure as his eyes had just begun to acclimate. He quickly rolled out of the way.

  " What the hell man, it's me! What happened!?" Klaw yelled out.

  " Oh ho ho, Mr Party leader. You idiot. You thought I was just going to sit here and take this shitty class and run with it! F that! Die or kill me! I don't care!"

  " You fuckin idiot!" Klaw stepped back and out of the way as the timid knight swung out again. His sword clanged the ground as he swung. By this time Klaw could see a bit better the soft dim light in the cave gave just enough visage to his traitorous teammate. Klaw's chat was buzzing wildly as he had been raided by another streamer who was giving up on waiting to see some gameplay. Even as dark as his view was they could tell it was in the game. People were ranting 'Kill him' 'Treason!'. Lance sat back in awe. He had been here the whole time and it was nice to see his favorite streamer get a little recognition.

  The two of them danced around each other for a few exchanges, it began to become apparent that the timid knight was becoming out of breath. Klaw once again tried to talk to him. " Look, this is getting us nowhere! There's goblins up ahead why didn't you just wait? Stop this madness!" He held his dagger out at him with a wavering hand.

  His chat flew with streams of hearts. People began to see his inaction as a sense of sympathy. Klaw easily dodged each attack at him and even tried to stop the fight. Lance was pissed off at the words of those who bombarded his chat.

  Aww look he's so friendly!

  What a nice guy!

  Your teammates! He's just scared!

  Lance looked on as the chat blew up. He read the situation completely different. " He's a fuckin traitor, he killed your teammates and your trying to give him quarter? Your... Oh.. you're scared..." Lance realized that Klaws hands were trembling. He didn't want to kill. Perhaps the game is so immersive that the whole situation is giving him real qualms about this. " It's too late the coward knight has already taken it too far." Lance decided to drop a donation to Klaw to hope he would see his words in the long line of chanters. Some folks were even beginning to say the same things Lance was thinking but the chat was scrolling so fast he knew no one would be able to read it effectively in this situation.

  MindYoBidness donated 100 coins -

  " Klaw I know it's hard but you gotta nut up and end him! He's just going to backstab you. Afterwards grab your teammates gear and LIVE!"

  Klaw heard the donation. He and the timid knight had been circling each other for some time now. It became obvious to Klaw he had to do it.

  " Alright. Look, I'll kill you. Isn't that what you want?"

  The timid knight perked up. " Yeah that's all I.... I just want a re-roll." He began to tremble on his words.

  " Okay but you gotta do it on my terms. You're getting me out of this level before you're dead you got it!? Be my sacrifice. We handled the slimes perfectly fine before this point but you gave up on us! Now you gotta pay back that broken trust. Do you think they complained about their classes?" Klaw pointed to his companions' dead corpses. He sighed internally at how he accomplished this yet didn't just fall on his sword.

  At this point the timid knight began to sob and dropped his sword. " This game.. It's too real. I'm a murderer....I want a refund."

  Klaw went over and picked up the shield and the wand off the dead teammates. He then went over to his sobbing knight.

  " Here. Take the wand. I’ll take your sword. Up ahead there's some goblins, you charge in and sling that magic. I'm sneaking past and getting out of here." He knew the wand wouldn't work but gave him false hope. The sobbing knight nodded. They began to make their way forward.

  Lance began to wonder why Klaw even tried. " He's a better person than I am. I'd have sent that guy back to the main menu." Lance then realized something. Why hasn't he just logged out? Why did he need to be killed? " No way.. What does he mean?"

  Rules

  Lance saw a strange line in the conversation that not one other person in Klaw's chat mentioned. " He has to be killed. For some reason or another he won't just close the game. Even as disheartened as he is, he won't just leave. Why ?? This doesn't make sense. What if his game time runs out?" Lance heard a beep and realized his console had finished downloading the game.

  He grew so curious as to why the timid fellow wouldn't give up he wanted to hop in the game immediately. " Damnit.. a whole day of waiting? I gotta ask." He wanted to ask Klaw but the chat was still a stream of emojis and it only worsened because another streamer was showcasing Klaws channel on their own essentially hosting it, it caused an influx of viewers from another channel but the other streamer was still live making a reaction video out of it.

  Lance knew he was on to something but before long the duo had crept up to the goblins and the stream took his interest.

  Klaw and the timid knight were just before the goblin camp. Before they got any further Klaw pulled the arm of the timid fellow and whispered to him. For some reason Klaw seemed to mute his stream at that moment and afterwards the only thing the chat could see was an agreeable nod from the backstabber. The timid knight pressed on and Klaw hung back a bit. After a moment of silence the timid knight looked back and charged into the small camp.

  " Ahhhhhhhhh" he screamed as he ran in. The preteen sized goblins hopped up and armed themselves with their small weapons made of sticks and bone. They seemed to be caught off guard, but after an arrow shot out from the darkness. It was obviously just a trap. Klaw crept to the side of the camp just on its outskirts and snuck passed as three goblins took quick jabs and cornered the timid knight against a cave wall. Another goblin dropped from the roof and held up a shoddy crossbow and aimed it at the poor fellow and shot him. Neither of the arrows hit anything vital; the first was in his shoulder and the second in his arm. The goblins had been shanking him in the thighs and stomach and the young man quickly fell to the ground after the second arrow pierced him. He wailed and cried as the goblins began to stomp him into submission eventually things fell silent but by that time Klaw had long passed the small camp and his worries were left behind as well. He proceeded down a narrow passage way deeper into the cave until at one point the area opened up into a large cave mouth where a dark corridor stood ominously in its back half with blue flame torches. As he approached next to the corridor they lit up red from blue and gave the room brighter light. At that point Klaw stopped moving and he finally addressed the chat.

  " Hey guys thanks for hanging out with me. This game is insane! I was lucky enough to be one of the first purchases and got a 2 hour early access. I know, I know calm down guys, fuck that guy he's dead. I'm currently at a check point.. Ahuh, It's only the first level." Klaw was addressing chats questions as best he could but it would be far and in between which he chose to reply due to the scrolling chat. Lance began to spam a question hoping he would get an answer.

  Not too long after a few questions Klaw gave him a response.

  " Haha yeah he definitely didn't want to close the game. Well I won't answer why but I tell you what, Snowstorm and Warlocks of the grove really gave a good push as to why you shouldn't. When you guys get into it for the first time you'll see why. There's plenty of rules, and they are worth following. Anyways guys my time is up on the console here soon and I doubt I will reach the next checkpoint alone so I should just call it here and que back up tomorrow. What? Oh, the server is down. Huh, well still it's a good point to stop, drop a follow and check me out another time!" At that point he began to thank those who donated or subscribed and thanked the raiders for sticking with him. Many individuals began to leave his chat and eventually Lance got off of Twinge.

  Lance began to ponder. " Hmm, incentives? He was so scared and killed his teammates hoping to get killed, yet threw himself at a pack of goblins to get out? Incentives or not, that's a very peculiar line of actions. What would happen if your internet went out? I don't get how this works."

  Lance went back to the official website and tried to see if there was any news on its page only to find nothing. He eventually turned to the thread page on Bluezit that had a few discussions going. After sifting through he found a couple articles addressing Incentives.

  " Hey guys, who's going for full incentives? I gotta say after my first que I think it's like adding a whole layer of hardcore rules on top of just playing the game. I understand that the prize is totally worth it but after playing there's no way anyone can do it! "

  ____ " I'm totally going for it. My party was great. I added them as Friends and only one of us didn't accept the terms so I think we have a great shot!"

  ________ " Yeah I agree without being a total noob if you get a good party why not go for it."

  ___________ " I didn't have the same experience first off we lost two party members in the first combat because the other guy chickened out in front of some bats! Then we got taken out by a pack of goblins before we even got anywhere even close to a checkpoint!"

  Lance was begging for someone to give up just a piece of information at this point and began scrolling through the pages threads for an answer. When he clicked to the next page of results he saw a new post pop up by the official mod. It was a 'hot topic' indicating it was receiving a lot of interest.

  " Thank you guys for joining this official Blackhead for Wish Legacy, we've given the teams over at Warlocks and Snowstorm access to the page's mod positions. I do have a few things I would like to address that I have received clarification from on their behalf. Firstly any discussion here about the terms in game will have your account flagged, subsequently you will have your profile in game revoked without refund in accordance to their agreement. So don't disclose Specific details, <- those in the know understand this. Secondly this game has just reached into the top ten spots on the new Specter system as such a new tab will be added in game in a coming update where you guys will have a unique menu separate from the Specters system for a Friend's list, Guild tab, and in game Market system! Obviously this is in theme with the game's terms for anyone taking on the challenge. Thirdly and this is the biggest news, Specter is currently working with Snowstorm and Warlocks to set up more servers to stop any DDOS attempts and has a projected time of Midnight for full access to all accounts! We hope to see you guys in W.L

  P.S We are setting up a team to make a base of operations on level 5! Ask around for the O.F.L when you reach that floor. Good Luck! - "AgentDenial"

  Lance sat up in his chair. " Siiick. I'm staying up late tonight. I guess the stuff in the game is akin to an NDA. There must be some serious incentives. I'm so frikken curious now." He got up from his chair at this point and straightened up his room. He was happy that it was a Friday and he didn't have much homework left to do. After tidying his room he then began his homework. After a few hours went by of chores and lazing about his mother and sister came home from soccer practice.

  The three of them sat and ate dinner and after watching a few shows with them and listening to his sister ramble on about boys on the phone Lance decided he would head to bed early and set an alarm for midnight. Time flew by as he tossed and turned before finally falling asleep at 10 pm.

  Lance's alarm went off at 1158. He popped up from his bed and rushed over to his desk. He grabbed his headset and decided to lay back down before logging in. Lance was met with his blank Home menu once again and decided to call up Spex.

  " Hey Spex!"

  " Hello Lance. What can I help you with?

  " Can you do me a favor? Would you record all gameplay from Wish Legacy?"

  " I can. Do you have an Elgo account with a drive I can upload it to? If so, type it in here."

  Lance typed in his address and pressed enter.

  " Saved. Thank you" Spex responded as she again sank into the floor. Afterwards Lance swiped over to his game library and launched Wish Legacy.

  The blank home tab fell dark and slowly Lance felt himself begin to float as the ground beneath him faded away. As he floated there a few star-like lights began to litter the distance in front of him and he felt a gust as he saw them quickly woosh past him. The view in front of him disappeared and he found himself lying on the ground in a small field of grass as he heard a small symphony of music begin and he looked up from the ground as the names Snowstorm and Warlocks of the grove formed into the clouds overhead. He sat up and saw that he was next to a tree and in the long off distance a large castle stood majestically atop a hill beyond a forest that began at the foot of the small hill he was on. He began to try and locate where the music was coming from. Only to find at the base of the tree a group of mice on their hind feet were playing on musical instruments made of insect parts. " Huh finally a load into a game where your ears aren't exploding in your headset." The mice noticed that he noticed them and quickly ran into a small hole at the base of the tree. Lance looked at the tree and realized there was a placard nailed to it with the word 'Start' in carved bark woodwork.

  Lance reached out and pressed the Start and then a rain of fruits fell from the tree. Apples, oranges, tangerines, lemons, peaches, watermelon, you name it, it was present. Lance, after being pelted by an amount of fruit to fill a cart, looked around him to realize he was up to his waist and couldn't move. The placard in front of him had changed from 'Start' to Choose a class. Lance understood the assignment and looked around at the multitude of fruit. As he looked he began to notice that as conventional a fruit some may look, others seemed to be a mix of a few, even sometimes being outright completely unfamiliar. He began to dig and try to pull up different varieties of fruits. Eventually he found one that caught his interest. He held in his hand a strange fruit in the shape of a pear, with light fuzz like a peach but brown like a kiwi. He turned it in his hand a few times and inspected its softness. " Hmm, I like kiwi and pears. Why not." Then he took a bite.

  As he took a bite he enjoyed its juicy tang. Its interior pulp was tender like the meat of a strawberry but bright yellow. The flavor burst in his mouth like a firework. The fruit leaked juices from its bite and down his chin. He stood there chewing the fruit for what felt like 30 seconds before even opening his eyes. " Mmmf damn. Fuckin Kirawpearry. Bomb" When he opened his eyes, the tree had changed from a tree full of life into a drought-stricken crooked branched shade of its former self. The fruit around him assaulted his nose as he looked around at its rot. The kingdom in the distance was destroyed and a fraction of its former self as it streamed smoke into the now night sky. The entirety of the world around him had fallen from its comforting view into that of a hellscape. He looked back at the placard on the tree. 'Begin' as he read the words he heard the branches above him creaked and whined. As he looked up the placard on the tree fell into the slop of rotten fruit and behind it an evil stare from a face made of the bark of the tree appeared. The branches swung wildly down atop him and a few of them began to coil around his limbs, at which point the tree's mouth began to open to reveal an unrestrained depth of darkness. Lance was then shoved inside its mouth and flew forward into nothingness.

  " Ooouh." Lance let out a loud exhale like whine as the air was knocked from him as he slammed into the floor. After a few moments of catching his breath he sat up and the room around him lit up as torches began to light one by one around the room. He stood up and found himself in a cobblestoned chamber with three doors in front of him. " What the actual.. Okay. So I'm in a room with three doors…"