Ray took a look at the new guild interface.

Guild Member

Level

Contribution Points

Rank

Status

xDarkOverlordx

15

5000

Leader

Alive

RayD

10

1000

Mate

Alive

ExpressionZ

6

0

Mate

Alive

MutosKid

4

0

Mate

Alive

TMTMTMTM

4

500

Mate

Alive

Move to guild hall?

This was interesting. It seemed like he was the second-highest contributor, whatever that meant. There was also a second page and third page to the guild interface but Ray didn’t bother to check. He had only one goal here.

He tapped on xDarkOverlordx’s name to bring up another interface.

Guild Leader: xDarkOverlordx

Add Ally?

Add ally? What the fuck is that? Ray was taken aback. He couldn’t just talk to the guy?

He only joined the guild to talk to the guy. Wasn’t there some way of communicating like a guild chat or something? Ray reopened the guild windows, navigating through the various interfaces.

There wasn’t an option.

Ray ended up leaving a message to D.O’s account. He didn’t know if he would receive an answer.

Should I just enter the guild hall? Ray considered. It was about three in the morning at this point, and he didn’t know what to expect. I guess I’ll think about it in the morning. Maybe this xDarkOverlordx guy will reply to me.

Having already showered and gotten ready, Ray headed to his bed. He turned off the lights, then pulled back the covers and tried to ease his thoughts. Despite all that had happened that night, Ray felt calm and serene.

Maybe he would feel PTSD in the morning. But for now, his body was well and stronger than ever. His mind was clear and uncluttered as he didn’t feel any anxiety or pressure in his mind. Ray was able to lay in bed unmoving and unthinking as he tried to fall asleep.

Until he realized he was still conscious. The pull of sleep didn’t happen to him like it normally would’ve. Ray took out his phone to check the time.

It read 4:23 am. Had he been trying to sleep for an hour now?

Something wasn’t right.

Ever since I leveled up . . . Ray opened his eyes, feeling the same as he had for the past few hours. He widened his eyes in realization. There was a reason for this.

Wait . . . Limitless Vigor? Is that why I’m not able to fall asleep? Ray took a deep breath and got up from bed to boot his computer back up. He had to find out more about this.

There had been no reliable information online about his new condition. Ray had tried every keyword he could think of in his search history. He couldn’t find anything at all about the new perks and the decisions in the system.

Ray was surprised that nobody was talking about the weird questions asked at level five and ten. He went on the forums to check to refresh the page once more. Perhaps someone posted something about the system questions.

Amid his frantic searching, he heard a beep from his desktop. It was a Discord notification. Ray opened it up to find Arnold trying to reach him.

[hey, u there?]

[yeah] Ray texted back.

[i got an account for you to use, wanna duo?] Arnold shot back.

Ray saw this and paused. It was an enticing offer, one that he normally would have immediately taken. But with all that happened that night, it didn’t seem appropriate. Though, it would help him blow off some steam and take his mind off things.

Ray grinned. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do while he wasn’t sleeping. Searching online hadn’t brought him any answers thus far. Maybe it was time for a change of pace.

[yea dude lets go] Ray decided he’d take his mind off things for a little bit. [btw where did you go last night?]

[just family problems] Arnold typed back. Then, his friend sent him the account information. It was a botted account to replace Ray’s old one. [call?]

Ray got on the new account and queued up with Arnold, selecting the fill position as usual. The match took the usual few minutes to match them up with a “fair” game. In their usual ELO, games were hardly fair. Matchmaking had a way of messing with him.

“Let’s get it, my dude,” Ray spoke up. He’d joined the call. “Who’re you playing?”

“My favorite hero, Mr. Wolfie,” Arnold’s voice came through. He sounded a bit different, but Ray didn’t mind it. His friend was probably high. Gaming into the middle of the night wasn’t a rare occurrence for them as well.

“Alright, it looks like I'm the support,” Ray commented casually. He didn’t mind and selected his usual healer hero.

The game started up. Ray found himself slipping into familiar mind space, completely focusing on the match at hand. This was his first provisional game, so the skill level of the game would be around the average rating.

Arnold was also on his smurf, a lower-rated account. The game would be a casual stroll through the park. There was nothing new.

“Go in!” Arnold called. His friend was jungling, ganking for him like usual. “I got fear.”

“Stunned, focus Leon,” Ray followed up. He was feeling it. The game was trending optimistically since their team had picked up a bunch of kills off Arnold’s gank. They were ahead in gold and experience due to the difference Arnold was making. “The other guy now!”

“Got him, nice dude.”

The rest of the game flowed well, the duo had no trouble in demolishing the enemy team. This wasn’t very surprising, though. The first game back on a fresh account was never challenging for Ray. The duo only really had problems when on long win streaks.

“Great stuff, man,” Arnold told him. Then he followed up with a weird statement, said in a way Ray hadn’t heard before. “Well, I think I have to go for a while.”

“What do you mean?” Ray was confused. He knew that Arnold had some family issues, but he never specified what they were. His friend would always mute himself when they were playing, even going so far as to leave the game when it got rough.

“Yeah . . .” Arnold paused. Ray could tell he was in careful deliberation.

There was a long silence, longer than Ray was comfortable with.

“So--” Ray began. He was beginning to feel a little suspicious about Arnold’s behavior, ever since last night. Maybe something had happened to Arnold, the way it had happened to himself?

“So like, I think I can tell you this,” Arnold was in deep thought, cutting Ray off. “I think that . . .”

“What?” Ray probed.

“The world is ending,” came the final reply. “You need to be careful out there, Ray.”