Soon the little group of Beth's of which I was a member now changed and only the 2 of us remained. We now reached level 20 and everyone was doing the Last stand dungeon and trying the raid that came afterward, it was a race to be the very first that would beat it and raise the level cap but until now everyone only failed.. It was then that we met the group that would soon found the Paragon guild. Daisy and Jennifer Ledger, Gabriela Boranina and Roman Schmidt and many more people that would later be legends among players.

And of course Gregor Bljadskij, my "best" friend.

"Ben! The fuck are you at?" Beth was searching for me since I went to get some drinks for us. Yes, thirst does not exist here but does not mean one can't enjoy a nice drink. If at all, probably 95% of all players income goes into casual luxury articles such as rich food and drinks or just about anything that can make your dopamine rush in your brain or just levitate you above all else trough prestige. Even people that actually played the game payed more attention to their skins, the outer appearance of their amor and weapons that could be transformed trough special means if it was not crafted to your liking to begin with.

"Sorry, coming!" I was running up to her with two cups in my hands and trying my hardest not to spill them. Since she sounded mad at me, I even forgot to put them into inventory since it was easily possible and would spare me from having to pay attention to such nuisances.

I reached her and gave her one of the cups. Beth looked madly annoyed at me and took a sip but only spit it back right into my face. “You fucking moron, how often do I have to tell you that I drink my extra latte with 3 spoons of golden sugar, this shit got at least 4 in it!” She threw the cup in my face. The porcelain landed on my nose and broke into many tiny pieces with one larger now sticking out of my eye.

Let me tell you a little secret... Not all humans are immune to pain or have lost their sanity as to simply shrug it off and as such I was now on the ground and whining in pain, debating whether it would be less painful to just pull the piece out of my eye or to let it in there for ever. Oh, yes, I almost forgot I could heal from all the pain...

“Quit crying you little bitch.” Beth told me annoyed and I finally managed to get up. My face was still covered in virtual blood and snot that despite being “not real” felt very real to me.

I have always been quite sheltered and avoided games with pain simulation and despite this pain here feeling not like the real thing, it is not like I have been out in the real world for much. When I was little it was the war and I lost my parents. Then it was an orphanage and the whole world went into a deep depression. The few fanatics still tried to end the “complete digitization” and quite a lot terrorists have blown themselves up, but at this point the whole world just said: fuck that and did not bend to them at all, they were all absolutely obliterated... Well, the point is, the pain feels like electroshock and a command in my brain that tells me how I am supposed to feel, meaning if a person has great control over his mind, he might look past the simulation and just ignore it, but not me...

Anyhow, I stood up and watched as the people around us, that we now traveled together all witnessed this scene and all laughed.

“Haha, good old Ben and Beth, I swear this never gets old.” A man shook his head with an amused expression and continued to laugh and others joined him. This was a daily occurrence and something like a running gag here.

I stood up and laughed weakly. “ha ha yeah...”

“Calmed down now, you pussy?” Beth asked me while going behind my back and started to whisper in my ear. “You were gone for quite some time... You also smell like whore..” She told me with a threatening voice.

I started to sweat bullets, she could get very violent if I did not explain myself. “No, the Que was pretty long, that's all, I swear.” Fidgeting with my fingers I then added very quietly. “I would never approach any other woman...” I told her despite our relationship being by far not at such a stage.

It was quite weird actually, I confessed to her many times now and she did not answer me positively even once, but she did like to have me around and did not allow me to talk to any other women. 'I guess there is still a chance for me after all...' I thought happily.

She gave me a quick pecker on my cheek and added. “Good boy.” While patting my head she smirked and I blushed furiously.

She then gave me a punch to my shoulder and told me something that I did not expect. “Maybe it is time for you to grow some balls and ask for my hand? I am a woman of my god and not a whore naturally and maybe I will even agree if it is you.” She blushed slightly and glared at me, expecting an immediate answer.

Immediately I proposed to her and we made it official, even in the real world. It was weird as we were living quite afar from each other but we still married. She even accepted my name which surprised me greatly.

It started to look pretty good for the both of us. Beth even warmed up to me greatly but it all changed soon.

….....................................................

We sat with the 9 of us around Artjem as he was playing a video of him in a small virtual screen in front of us.

“There it is.” He looked excited just like a child and was constantly adding his comments.

We watched his fight with a gold tier boss that he pretty much forced us to watch as it was “Balls deep amazingly awesome” or whatever that was supposed to mean.

Calvin grunted as Artjem could not shut up and tried to just watch the video as it was originally the plan.

“Watch! Here it comes!” Artjem looked back to us and pointed a finger at the screen that we obviously were already watching. He constantly kept on gazing backwards to see our expressions and to compare if they were within his expectations or in other words: if we were amazed by that as he wanted us to.

“God fucking dammit. Would you please shut the fuck up already?” Calvin finally lost it and started to freak out as it was often the case when the both of them had to do with each other.

Artjem paused the video and looked annoyed back. “Jeez dude, some people are trying to watch a video here. Could you please contain your volume and be calm for once? Holy...” He shook his head in disapproval and I could honestly not tell if he was aware of his hypocrisy and trolling or of it was unintentional and just the way he was...

Calvin eye twitched and he let out a small laugh but calmed down after just accepting his loss and maybe finally understanding that there was no way to beat someone like Artjem.

The video resumed and we watched him pull of some amazing fatality by decapitating an already badly wounded gold tier boss.

“BOO YEAH! WHAT DID I TELL YOU? WHO IS DA MAN?” He jumped up and looked smugly and with expectations at us while he made some dance moves like the moonwalk or the wave. “WHO IS DA MAN BITCHES?”

Our reaction was silent. The newest additions to our team looked honestly impressed, the boy almost hyperventilating from all the hype. The children looked with sparkling eyes at him while me and the rest just looked with dead eyes at him, telling him silently 'You want a cookie or something?'

As no one answered he calmed down and gave us the finger, disappointed by us not immediately deepthroating him right on the spot.

“I think you should make that public.” I voiced my opinion. “Not only will you find millions of people boosting your ego online, there are also lots of players that think your action in our first dungeon was cheating, so yeah. Maybe that will convince a few people otherwise. But the main point is still about your ego because no way in hell will you ever find it here.”

“You know what? Maybe I should do that.” He thought only a fraction of a second about that idea and seemed on board with that.

“Actually.” Now it was Elena that spoke up. “I also filmed us. Yeah, sorry I did not ask, just a habit of mine since we used to stream a lot in the past.”

They both uploaded it online almost unedited with only some scenes cut out for the whole world to see and who knows, it may blow up or it may not get any attention whatsoever. Something tells me it will be the first one..

All I know is people will think of me as a freak even more. Sigh..

“Oh, by the way, what did you guys get from the dungeon?” Daisy asked curious.

“Gold and some sweet gear.” Told me and Elena.

“A shit load of gold and an amazing dagger.” Told Artjem smugly.

“He died first and got better loot? Friking luck..” I complained and hit him hard in his shoulder as he grinned and flipped me of.

“Actually... I got quite a few items, a full set of plate armor and even a shield.” Calvin told with a shrug.

I looked at him and noticed his dark blue fantasy armor with needless design choices that were quite unpractical but looked sweet and made him look quite bad ass actually.

“Well, soon you will reach the end game, meaning you will be able to enchant your weapon and add special effects and actives.” Daisy spoke cheerfully.

“What's that?” Came the question from mister to lazy to do his own fucking research.

“Everyone on the current last level may have a special feature added onto his weapon, an additional spell. It is supposed to provide further customization and add ways for classes with weaknesses to be competitive, it can just be about anything actually and since you have 2 weapons I believe you can have one primary and one secondary enchantment. I am sure Daisy for example has the zhonyas enchantment on her tome, meaning she can turn untargetable and indestructible for 2.5 seconds, but can also not do anything during that time.” I explained it to him despite my annoyance.

“Zhonyas.. I feel like I have heard that name before..” Artjem scratches his head.

“Nah mate, you must be imagining.”

“Now that we are talking about new gear..” I looked around and saw that mostly everyone already changed the few pieces they had. “Artjem, wanna give me a hand?” I took a massive two hander out of my inventory and while holding the blade in my open hands showed it to him.

It was a slightly bigger sword than usual, even for one that is used with both hands. I think the category it belongs to is called something stupid like “ultra greatsword.” It has greater damage and does not require me to get a new mastery, but it is obviously heavier and harder to control but I am sure that I will be fine. PVP gonna be even harder but I do not really want that either way.

He looked very.. touched as he came towards my direction and slowly began to trace his finger along the blade. “Really?” he asked with a tear in his eye. “For me?” He blushed slightly. “Am I really good enough to be... your chosen?” He put one hand above his mouth and looked shyly away.

The girls were giving him excited shrieks and I could not help myself but have a giant smirk of annoyance of me finding that entertaining. “God dammit, do not feed the trolls!”

Like always he did not get that some might take his act literally and one person in particular already thought of him that way. That person right now was also biting her lip and breathing heavily while looking at the both of us. God damn Yaoi fan girls..

“This might be the second time, but I will still be very careful.” He send me an air kiss and I had to look away as to not laugh out loud and make it even worse.

“Dude, I know that kind of humor and I also know the way to counter it.”

Let me teach you my children you you handle acts such as these here! Whenever your pal acts all gay to annoy you there is one thing that you have keep in mind: NEVER yield! It will only get worse in the future, no... You fight fire with fire!

My left hand softly picked up his chin and my face was only centimeters away from his. My breath hit his face and I cringed inwardly but had to maintain a poker face for me to win. “Get it on.”

Yes, this was the way to win this game. This was how you were to act if your friend tries to annoy you with the homosexual act, you have to act the same as he only expects a negative reaction from you.

However Artjem only had a smirk on his face that was telling me “Who do you think you are playing with boy?” And like that he stabbed the blade trough me with one swift motion and put all weight behind it.

For a few seconds my mind was assaulted with all of my body screaming in pain but unlike what I expected and heard from others, I did not get a notification of me dealing with to much pain or anything and I was not given an option to somehow log of or ease it.

I did not know if it was normal for people that practically lived inside here or maybe something else, but it was still weird.

It was a small detail that I would have and probably did overlook till now, but.. recently I started to notice that I was not exactly normal... Or at least my “gaming experience” was far from normal.

There were small things like that, my overpowered class that I did not hear of anyone ever having and.. the voice that I hear rarely.. A beautiful masculine but melodic voice that appears in my weak moments and laughs. I have one suspicion what it might be about, but I have far to little information about it to tell whether it is the truth.

The only question that remains is whether I should accept...

Artjem smirked at me with his hands on the weapon that pierced my heart. He then brought his face extremely close to mine and gave me a smacker on my cheek. His hand was now on my shoulder as he with a completely serious face uttered the words I wanted to hear the most right now.

“No homo.”

We looked at each other and I had to hold my laughter back. His face then came even closer and he gave me a little pecker on my right cheek and winked at me shyly.

Now me loosing my shit, I lost myself in laughter and forgot about the sword sticking out of my chest and started a coughing fit as blood filled my lungs.

I then put my hand on his shoulder and´while still laughing and with some tears in my eyes told him. “Thanks man, really needed that.”

He looked weirdly at me, taken aback by that but just shrugged it off.

This whole time we were watched by others with different expressions. Some were excited, some weirded out and others were also laughing. Still the little Hannah watched us with a curiosity I often saw on her young face and she asked us loudly, startling Artjem. “Is this the gay thing you told me about?” Her question was directed at the culprit of this situation.

Artjem turned around and with a wry smile told her. “No.. come on, this was just me fucking around, ain't nothing gay about two dudes kissing each other, just... What, am I a fuckign faggot?”

“No.” Calvin joined. “You are a “fucking” homophobe.” His face showed disgust but I knew he simply enjoyed getting back at Artjem.

He looked extremely offended at that and started to justify his usage of gay and faggot and told us it has nothing to do with actual homosexuals, but it was already to late and most of us at least acted as if it really concerned them.

“Man, you guys can go to hell... Never doing those jokes again. Happy now?”

“Yes!” Most of us screamed. “NO!” Elena desperately shouted and pulled on her hair, but not even Calvin tried to help her cause.

He then walked to Hannah and took her in his hands. “They are so mean to me” he pretended to cry and rubbed his cheek on hers. “But you won't treat me as badly, right?” He looked hopefully at her and she in turn blushed and hugged him back very happy about that development. “Yes, right. You are the best after all.”

The others then started to argue with each other and kind of forgot that I still needed to have a blade taken out of me.

“Hehe, you guys are certainly lots of fun.” Isabelle, the woman that kind of used me in a vulnerable state came from behind and watched them argue cheerfully, not that I minded. “Need a hand?”

I nodded and she pulled the blade out of my heart. Blood sprayed everywhere and she shrieked as it hit her “Ewww!” She wiped it out of her face and came closer to me to whisper in my ear. “How about we go somewhere of for some alone time?” She smirked at me and bit her lip.

Before I could reply however, the little girl steered up a conversation that I wanted to listen to.

“Uncle Artjem.” She told him while still in his hands. “Can you start training me sooner please?”

“Don't want to..” He answered immediately to which he earned a kick from Daisy and an angry stare.

“Please.” She continued. “I.. I am sick of being weak. They came again and they took aunty Elizabeth from us.. I am sick of this. They, the uroboru, they need to pay for that. First my family and then me, and even then they've not had enough, they will keep on taking until someone puts an end to that. Please! Train me!” She plead with some tears in her eyes.

I listened to her speaking and remembered the name. I almost laughed out loud, so it as only because I cleared that low level wanna be dungeon haha?

'Uroboru...'

My face had a very ugly smile as I thought that I now had a name, something that pointed me in the right direction.

Fore revenge? No, nothing noble like that. This will just be a mean for me to go on a rampage to let my build up anger out. And what a fun one at that.

And how much better it will feel if I am justified in my murder spree...

AN relevant to the story: Up till now the "generic evil organization" is just that and nothing more, but if I manage to pull it off, then withing the next 2 arcs they will be much more.

Not relevant to the story:

HOLY FUCK! I missed the release of Monster fucking hunter generations X! Just bought it and playing the fuck out of it, gonna be some really fun hundreds of hours right there.

Any fellow Dualblade users here? I just love how it is possible to unleash deadly combo after combo with it while also having the ability to evade everything, not talking only about the demon dance of course (evade is a must) And so having an astonishing high dps while not really in danger if you are familiar with the monster.

I remember how I farmed azure rathalos in G rank in mh3u and started with my time being something like 25 minutes solo but as I grew familiar with him and managed to pull it off where I would evade anything and would constantly deal out damage, it shrunk down to ca, 5 min. (Please mind had shitty gear back than and farmed the armor from him) Never felt so proud of myself in my life.

Really missed that T.T

Monster Hunter For the madafakin win!