Damien woke up that morning like any other.
He got out of bed, walked into the bathroom, and looked at his brown, unshaven face. He ran his hand over his short, unkempt hair in the water-stained mirror. After brushing his teeth, he rinsed with mouthwash.
Damien stood just an inch under six feet tall and was in his early thirties—but with another stubborn gray hair sprouting up, he sighed. The stress from his past had a way of creeping into the present. In this case, it showed up as gray hairs and the beginnings of worry lines on his forehead.
"Damn, that stressful programming job," Damien thought to himself.
He was behind on a work deadline, and his boss wouldn't stop breathing down his neck. Due to a highly contagious flu-like virus, people had been confined to their homes for months, which only made things worse. Damien hated it. His military years didn't help with stress either, but back then, at least his body had been in peak shape. Now, at thirty, he was slowly drifting into the early stages of a dad bod. He chuckled at the thought.
He had joined the Army at twenty-six. Things were going well—until a freak accident crushed his left leg under a few hundred pounds of a tub full of metal wiring materials. The injury abruptly ended his military career. Oddly enough, that might've been a blessing. His unit was deployed to a combat zone just a month later, and he lost quite a few friends in that time. It was hard to think about. He wished he could have been there—for them, with them.
Since then, he hadn't made many new friends. In fact, outside of his daughter, he mostly kept to himself.
Now here he was in the kitchen, awake and aching from that old injury that never let him sleep through the night. It was 4 A.M. Damien turned on the coffee maker and heavily caffeinated himself in a weak attempt to feel rested.
He walked into his six-year-old daughter Tasha's room, stepped quietly to her sleeping form, and bent down to kiss her on the forehead. She was his most precious treasure in the entire universe, and he made sure she knew that every single day. Damien had joined the Army shortly after her birth so that she'd one day be proud of him. But during those early years, he had to raise her mostly over video chat through the Voogle Hangouts app. Watching her first steps and hearing her first words through a screen had been some of the hardest moments of his life. It brought him to tears. Still, he pushed through.
Tasha's mother and Damien weren't together, but they had worked out a parenting plan that ensured Tasha saw both parents often. Despite their differences, they were always cordial around their daughter, and her happiness remained their top priority.
Damien walked out of Tasha's room and into his office, which also doubled as his gaming room. It was time to log onto EverTale, the VRMMORPG that had become his second love. In a life that often felt out of control, EverTale was his sanctuary.
He played as a powerful Level 50 Elemental Archmage. In EverTale's kingdom builder, he had created a sprawling empire with his own virtual hands—raising 100-foot trees, summoning streams, building walls, and calling down storms of lightning and fire. He held the title of top Archmage in the entire game, and he wore that badge with pride.
That morning, he'd received a PM from his only real friend, Gillion—who, in-game, went by Guillotine, a Level 49 Grand Holy Paladin. Damien didn't know it, but Gillion was actually the Great God Klepto, in disguise. Still, Gillion had been his one consistent friendship over the years. Damien wasn't great with dealing with people in real life, and his track record with relationships was even worse. He admitted it: he just wasn't consistent enough. So instead, he poured his focus into the one place he could be consistent in EverTale. His city needed him.
Guillotine hadn't been online the night before, which was strange. The guy never missed a day. Damien hoped that he was okay. Being one of his only friends in existence, he was getting pretty worried. Currently, the world is stuck indoors due to the virus thats plagueing the planet.
Meanwhile, Klepto was more than okay.
The god was ecstatic to begin his newest project he thought up....well on the spot. The moment he saw Damien log on, he rushed to message him on his PC. Klepto had already finished preparing the planet hours earlier and had even triggered Damien's leg pain to wake him up early.
"Damn what's this guy's deal he sleeps like death!" Klepto thought.
Guillotine: "Hey! Bro! What's up? You ready to log on? I'm ready to get this started already!!"
DevilStorm: "Definitely, but um... get what started, man?"
Guillotine: "Oh! Uh... I meant that kingdom we're building, remember? We just conquered part of the Dark Elven Kingdom, and now we need to set up a foothold on the new border before their army responds. We've got to fortify the area and prepare. I need revenge for what they did to the Light Elves. They were bridging peace between elves and humans, and those dark bastards struck when their backs were turned. If we don't stop them, they'll annihilate the Light Elves—and without them, the world doesn't stand a chance. After that, humans are next. Then it's game over."
> DevilStorm: "Sure, but you know that's not gonna be easy. Our kingdom's the most heavily fortified in the entire realm. They'd lose a ton of troops just throwing bodies at our walls. The Western Kingdom is practically impregnable."
> Guillotine: "Good Gods, man! Just log in already!!"
> DevilStorm: "Hahaha. There's only one God, bro. You always mention the God and God's, definitely weird bruh, but chill out man, I had to check on my kid. Logging in now."
> Guillotine: "Hehehehe... If you only knew..."
> Damien: "Wait, wha—"
He was already pressing the Login button when he said it, but something was off. There was no lag or the normal signs that a PC is malfunctioning or lagging. So what was going on?
A blinding, brilliant light shot down from the ceiling. A jolt of energy pulsed from his finger through his entire body, intensifying in both power and pain. Damien screamed.
"What the—AHHHHH!!!"
Then everything went black.