Gabriel walked down the city street alongside a long line of people wearing dresses and dress shirts, chatting to each other or on their phones. He ignored them, heading down the sidewalk right to the front of the line. He stopped in front of a large white bald man wearing all black.

“Yo shit, What happened to you Gabe?” The bouncer said as he eyed Gabriel up and down to see his bruises and cuts on his face.

“Tai inside?” Gabriel asked, ignoring his question.

“Don’t know, didn’t see him come in.” The bouncer replied nervously, breaking eye contact.

“I’ll ask again. Tai inside?” Gabriel said angrily, glaring at the bouncer.

“Look man I don’t want any trouble in the club, I owe you and all but I can’t have you going in and stirring shit up, I’ll lose my job man.” The bouncer replied reluctant.

“You heard what happened?” Gabriel asked him.

“Y-yeah.” he said hesitantly.

“You going to stop me from going in?” He asked, clenching his fists now. The bouncer thought about it for a few seconds then slowly moved to the side.

“Shit man.” He said as he did, regretting it before Gabriel had even walked past him. Gabriel stepped around the bouncer and entered the night club, loud base filling his ears as he got further inside, until he walked through a doorway that opened into a large dance floor filled with people dancing, a DJ on a stage at the far side of the club under spinning lights. Gabriel wasn’t interested in any of it, he immediately started scanning the room for Tai and his gang. After a few moments of glancing around he spotted Tai sitting at a table on a balcony floor overlooking the dance floor, surrounded by 5 girls fawning over him.

“One at a time ladies.” He mouthed as they rubbed their hands over him. Gabriel couldn’t hear him, but he saw his mouth movements. He then started pushing himself through the dance floor towards the stairs leading up to him. When he got to the top floor, he walked straight towards Tai who was facing the opposite direction. Once he was close enough, he didn’t hold back. He pulled his fist back and thrust it forward with all his might into the back of Tai’s head, startling several people around them as some girls let out tiny screams of shock. Tai however didn’t move at all. Despite the force of Gabriel’s punch, it wasn’t enough to even push Tai’s head forward. He let out an annoyed sigh then stood up and turned to look at Gabriel.

“You came after me again? Why?” Tai said calmly.

“I’m going to kill you.” He shouted angrily, pulling a knife out of his pocket and quickly driving it into the side of Tai’s head. This caused everyone around to scream in panic, the girls clearing away.

“You’re chasing away the girls man.” Tai replied, still calm despite Gabriel holding a knife in the side of his head.

“The fuck?” Gabriel said with wide eyes.

“You still don’t get it!” Tai finally punched forward, his fist moved so fast Gabriel couldn’t see it. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards off his feet across the top floor of the club until he slammed into the far wall. Tai then pulled the knife out of his head and dropped it to the ground, not a spot of blood on it.

“The hell is going on!” Gabriel shouted, filled with rage and confusion as he struggled back to his feet. The pain in his chest was immense, he could feel bones broken, and he looked down to see burn marks in his shirt where he had gotten hit.

“Your strength doesn’t matter anymore! No one’s does!” Tai chanted, strutting forward across the floor towards Gabriel.

“The police, the army, guns, bombs, knifes. Not even muscles. The only real strength lies in my stats. My skills. My gear. The world is now fair, it is equalized.” He preached, loving the sound of his own voice. “And in this new world, it’s people like me who stand on top.” He finally said, stopping in front of Gabriel.

He wanted to punch this punk, but he could barely stand, it took everything he had to stay up right. He could only look up and glare angrily at this kid, this punk, who was doing things outside of Gabriel’s comprehension.

“Let me show you what true power is.” Tai smiled, and from a flash of light in his right hand, a long tachi appeared that emitted tiny sparks of electricity. Gabriel could only stare at it, feeling more confused, angry, frustrated. At himself, at the situation, at his brothers death. He didn’t know what was going on, he only knew that he couldn’t do anything to stop Tai. In an instant Tai lifted his sword and swung it down at Gabriel, but instead of getting cut he heard a clash of metal, as a sudden man appeared in front of him from nowhere wearing a sand-covered cloak with black hair.

“Lowbie killing’s one thing, but NPC’s? That’s a whole new level of sad.” Jacob said, holding back Tai’s sword with his own.

“Oh, another player?” Tai said surprised, taking a few steps back. “And who might you be?”

“A knight of justice.” Jacob replied.

“What the... Heck is going on...” Gabriel asked the stranger in front of him, desperate for answers.

“His level’s showing up as question marks. He’s way above us!” Another man called from the floor below, Ryan staring up from the dance floor as many of the dancers started clearing away screaming in panic.

“Can’t just let other players go around killing people though.” Jacob replied.

“Hah, you noobs make me laugh. If you leave now I’ll forgive you.” Tai replied to them.

“Aww hell naw, you aint callin’ me a noobie.” Jacob shouted, dashing forward and slashing at Tai, but Tai simply dashed to the side out of the way and then swung his sword down at Jacob from behind, moving way faster than him. The sword would have hit if not for the sudden appearance of a skeleton soldier to block it, thanks to Ryan from below. At the sight of this, anyone who hadn’t been running away out of the club screaming definitely started to now.

“Oh, nice, a summoner?” Tai said impressed, then with another quick swing of his sword he cut the skeleton in half and killed it, while Ryan created two more behind him to try and sneak a strike in. It was futile though. Tai spun in a circle so fast to cut the skeletons, Ryan didn’t even see him move.

“Sun strike!” Jacob shouted, his sword glowing yellow as he thrust it forward at Tai, but Tai deflected the attack into the 2nd floor railing, causing his sword to cut clean through the metal.

“You gotta be kidding me, you’re still using voice commands for your skills? Sun strike’s a starter skill too. You guys can’t be more than a week old.” Tai laughed at them mockingly.

“Jacob, let’s get out of here, this isn’t our fight! We came to celebrate!” Ryan shouted at him.

“Yeah we’ve only been playing a bit, but we still know better than to attack NPC’s.” Jacob shouted angrily, then swung his sword at Tai again, but this time Tai blocked it with his sword, and the clash resulted in Tai’s sword cutting through Jacob’s, breaking it in half.

“You should’ve listened to your friend.” Tai said as Jacob looked him in the eyes in shock, watching in slow motion as the end of his sword fell to the ground. The same time the broken blade landed on the floor, Tai drove his sword through Jacob. His health bar instantly rolled down to zero.

“NOOO!” Ryan shouted angrily, gritting his teeth in anger as he summoned another skeleton to swing furiously at Tai. This time Tai didn’t react, he let the skeleton hit him over and over again. It was hardly doing any damage to Tai. He pulled his sword out of Jacob and Jacob collapsed to the ground, his game character appearance vanished as his items appeared on the ground around Tai’s feet. In its place appeared the tall boy with greasy black hair. Moments later Jacob vanished as well, leaving behind only a broken cell phone.

“Hah, some nerdy kid trying to be a hero.” Tai said as he leaned down and picked up Jacob’s ring. “This doesn’t look bad though.” He said as he put it on.

“I’ll kill you!” Ryan shouted out, summoning a second skeleton as his mana permitted, and both struck Tai continuously, though he acted as though they weren’t there.

“Do you even know what level I am?” Tai called down to Ryan, then vanished suddenly and re-appeared behind him, his Tachi to the back of Ryan’s neck, causing him to freeze in fear.

“92.” He said with a smirk, preparing to thrust his sword forward, but was interrupted by a bullet hitting him from across the room. He looked over to see Gabriel holding a handgun, firing at Tai multiple times giving Ryan time to run away, using dash and sprint to get out of the club as fast as possible.

“Aw, don’t run, I want to see if you have any nice items like your pal!” Tai said coldly, vanishing from the dance floor leaving Gabriel by himself.

“Shit.” Gabriel shouted angrily, stumbling into a run towards the exit as well, clutching the gun tightly. As he got out of the club through the front door, he only saw the scared Ryan grabbing his knees gasping for air, and several men in black suits standing around.

“Ci-city guards.” Ryan said to himself with a sigh of relief.

“Where’d he go?” Gabriel yelled at Ryan. Ryan turned and glared at Gabriel, tears swelled up in his eyes.

“Gone.” He replied as he stood up right and clenched his fists angrily.

“What the hell was all that, what the heck is going on!” Gabriel shouted at Ryan, desperate for answers. Ryan said nothing at first, just stood up and started walking down the street away from the men in black suits, all of them wearing sunglasses and not saying a word.

“Don’t go after that guy, you’ll only die. He’s mine now.” Ryan replied to Gabriel as he walked away faster. Gabriel wanted to follow him, get answers, but the pain in his chest was becoming too much and there was a faint sound of approaching sirens in the distance. He turned to look down the road and saw the flashing lights coming from behind groups of on-lookers.

“Tch.” Gabriel sucked his teeth, stumbling and wobbling forward into an alleyway across the street to get out of sight. He couldn’t make sense of it, and the more he thought about the situation, the more his mind filled with anger. He burned the image of Ryan’s character and both of Jacob’s appearances into his mind, with every intention to track them down for answers.