1 Prologue

"98% drops in the first week," the small text appeared on the computer screen before his eyes. "I think that it is time we review our contract with your company."

The chat ended before he could reply. When the window collapsed on the computer screen, he sighed and dropped back against his seat in resignation. He ruffled his glossy and unruly hair afterwards, and soon, his head dropped against the desk while his eyes stared unblinkingly at the row of computers to his side.

No one occupied those computers. Everyone had gone home for the day, and they likely will not come to work tomorrow, not after seeing the fruit of their hard labors.

Too many promises were made and broken. Far too many.

"This suck… fucking suck," he muttered, feeling the powerful urge to cry. He tried not to since he was a grown man, but it was hard to not tear up. He had such a great vision but not the financial means to make his vision a reality.

When what little funding that he had saved up finally ran out, he was forced to release an unfinished MMORPG to the public. That or the child he had spent most of his life crafting would never be able to see the day of light.

The backlash by the online community was enormous. Insane, actually. It resulted in his inbox flooded to the brim with death threats. The people were not sympathetic to his plight, and no amount of sorry and assurance were able to quench their angers.

And with almost 100% players dropping out of the game after the first couple of days, demanding for refunds, the game was as good as dead.

First impression was everything. He knew this, but there was little he could do to avoid it. It was either release an unfinish product or bury his vision forever. He thought that some people would understand, but apparently not. He did not think it could become like so.

Slowly, he pulled his heavy head off the table, sitting up straight and staring at the computer screen.

The beautiful scenery beyond stared back at him. It was a highly detailed landscape, as breath-taking as any in the real world. No. Perhaps no such fantastical place could exist in the real world.

He had spent many years crafting the engine, simulating the realistic environment, but apparently, he had spent far too much time on it.

As beautiful as the graphic was, the gameplay was lacking severely. Aside from collecting resources all over the world and erecting basic shelters and tools, there was no real objective to the game.

Players quickly grew bored after the first few hours. Some people made their own objectives, but the server crashes were too frequent for their liking, not to mention the constant synching problems.

Thus, in the end, there were better games out there. Far better games.

The market was flooded with games, milking gamers for all their worth. He hated those kinds of game, but honestly, he could say that they were probably in the same situation as him and had to make the hard choice.

They succeeded where he failed.

Developing a game cost money. Money to pay for artists, composers, programmers, designers, and so many more. Money to actually live on. Money, money and more money.

It was just how society works, and no one but himself would work on his dream for free. That was the cold hard fact. One that he stubbornly refused to accept. Reality was too harsh.

"I should fix the network glitch," he told himself before checking over the console. There were a couple of thousands player still in the server, and they deserved to see what his vision could have been.

It was a desperate attempt on his part, but there was nothing else he could do.

Thus, he did not stop working on the server until morning came when the number of players dropped to just a few dozens.

The office was still emptied. As he had expected, no one came to work. He checked his phone and saw more than a few notifications. They were all from his employees, stating pretty much the same thing.

He sighed and returned his attention to the computer screen and continued what he was doing before.

By the time that he had a look around the room again, it was late in the afternoon, but unlike earlier, he was no longer alone. A smile made itself known upon his lips as he came face to face with someone who had always has his back.

"Hey man," he greeted his best friend.

"Hey," his friend responded. Linus was his name, which pronounced like Linux. "I just thought that you might need a hand, but I didn't want to interrupt you when you are on fire, Michael."

Michael chuckled and exercised his strained neck. "I didn't realize you had entered the room."

"Yeah. I'm a super ninja. Thought you knew that," Linus replied and looked up from his computer. "So, Michaelsoft, we are screwed, aren't we?"

"Yea… sorry about that," Michael apologized. "I'm not even sure that I can pay you for this."

"What!? No pay!? Fuck this then! I am not working for free!" Linus called out before glaring at Michael and then snickering. "It's okay. I'm going to help you until someone big decides to give me a shot. And besides, the network here is the best for streaming porn. Plus, I could always tell the missus that I was out looking for work."

"Heh. Alright bro. You can have all the porn you want while it lasted," Michael responded with a cheer.

It was good to have someone else in the office. Working alone here made the whole setting incredibly moody.

"I certainly will," Linus said and helped Michael debugged the network.

The both of them worked tirelessly on the game for the rest of the month without any net income. In spite of that and their optimism, the player base continued to plummet until there was only a handful of people left.

"We should call it quit, Michael," Linus advised. "There's really no point of keeping the server running for this many people. It is costing a lot of money. Money that I know you don't have."

"I know," Michael said and looked at the screen, holding onto what remains of the dream of creating the perfect virtual world with unlimited potential.

Even when Linus had left the room, Michael continued to look at the computer screen, watching the amount of player finally reached 1. He was waiting for it to reach 0 before finally calling it. It was better that way for his conscience.

It was also rude to shut down the server when someone was still in game.

Strangely enough, the number of players did not drop further than that despite how long Michael had waited.

Michael eventually sends a message to the last player of his vision, apologizing to him or her that the game server would be permanently shut down tomorrow in the evening. He could no longer afford to keep the server running.

After that, Michael packed up his belongings, readying to leave the office. When he was about to head out of the door, the only player left in the game replied. Not with a text message, but with an audio.

It came through the speaker, which should not be possible. Unless the server was hacked.

"Hey! Can you fix the water physic before you go? I want to go swimming," the player said, and judging from his voice over the speaker, he was definitely male.

"You want to go swimming?" Michael questioned. The feature was promised during marketing, but it was never implemented into the game because several key systems needed to be tested first. Because of that, all the players could do in game was walk into the water and drown.

They could still use vehicle like rafts or boat to navigate any form of liquid body, however. It was really a patch job, more or less.

"Yes. It's really hot in here," the player replied, "it would really be nice if you can turn it down."

"It is?" Michael questioned and checked the weather system. He adjusted it so that it was cooler within the game. "How about that."

"That's better. Much better," the player said as if he could feel the heat itself within in game. "I really like this place. It is unique, and full of life. I am kind of amazed that you can create something like this with what was available."

"I didn't think I could either," Michael responded modestly while accessing the network statistic. There was nothing out of the ordinary except for the amount of data packets being sent and received.

It was far too little, not enough even for an idle world instance let alone someone within that instance.

Michael checked the network clients and found there was no active connection to the server. Thus, it was impossible unless –

"By the way, how are you able to hack into my audio system? It is closed off from the main server."

Michael was sure that this was a hacker of some sort. A incredibly good hacker since he could not find any trace of being hacked.

"Hmmm… if you want to know, come in here and I will tell you," the player answered Michael. "Have a little faith and put your hand on the monitor."

"Okay. Now you are just trolling me," Michael snorted and got off the seat. He started at the computer screen for a moment, checking his boyish avatar and shaking his head.

A hacker had somehow taken control of the game server. His security needed some serious upgrade, but then again, it did not really matter anymore. There were no other players on the server. The server was going to be shut off soon.

"Anyway, have fun because by tomorrow, you will have to find another game to mess around with."

When Michael went to switch off his computer to conserve power, a sharp pain shot through his body via his contract finger. A buzzing noise was heard before he was electrocuted.

Michael immediately screamed out and pulled his hand back, clenching it tightly to numb to pain.

"Goddamn it! That strings!"

"But I really like this place," someone behind him said.

Michael turned around to see who had said that, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when seeing the young boy sitting on a tall tree. It was the same tree that was displayed on his computer.

"It is a beautiful world. A truly magnificent world. I was hoping that you can keep it running," the boy continued.

Michael was utterly speechless. He could not fathom how it was possible. How was it possible for him to be standing here, inside his own creation?

"W-what? H-how?"

The boy smiled. "Maybe we should introduce. Hi, my name is Deus. What is yours?"