“I believe that people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy.”

-Jack Canfield

My name is Nathan. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and white teeth. My ears are normal sized, and I don’t think I have a huge nose. I’m about 5’9” with an average build. I wouldn’t say I’m a really handsome guy, but I don’t think I’m ugly. I read books and write self-help books for publishers. On weekends, I hang out with my friends playing old role playing games like D&D or video games. My friends are where my true strengths lie; we’re a close-knit bunch that would do anything for each other. Gabriel plays soccer and is probably the best at every video game we’ve ever played. He is strong physically but has a bit of an aloof personality. He is my height and has grayish-black hair. Aaron is the most active of us all as he plays lacrosse. He has long brown hair that looks pretty flamboyant in my opinion, but he is a bit taller than me and stronger too. He is definitely the most inspiring of the group, and whenever we play D&D he is the guild leader. Tom was the de facto leader of any combat teams we create, as he is an expert at researching and developing strategies for any team based game. He is also my height, has curly red hair, and is a little heavier than me. Tom is also very intelligent like me. Drew is tall and skinny with reddish-brown hair. Drew runs cross-country and is probably the least-nerdy out of all of us. He has the most friends and does the most normal stuff. Quietest of us all is Rich. Rich is the support character in every game, but he’s tall and strong in real life. He has fairly unkempt brown hair and dark brown eyes. He did martial arts for awhile, but stopped after a few years. He’s always had a connection with nature, and it’s usually pretty creepy that he can catch a snake no matter where he is. Last but not least is Greg. Greg is humorous, and always plays the archer character in games we play. Together, we had a plan to get into Mythos Online.

In preparation for launch, Microsoft’s most popular MMORPG, Leviathan Tome, was hosting a guild championship. The winning guilds would all be offered entry into Mythos Online. There were three tournaments going on simultaneously: siege, Arena, and PvE. The siege was a tournament in which NPC forces would lay siege to all guildhalls signed up. The guild that lasted the longest would win. The Arena was much simpler; the guilds signed up would all enter into one large arena, and the guild with the last surviving member would win. The PvE [player vs. environment] tournament was more of a monster hunt; the guild that brought down the largest or most difficult creature would win the tournament.

Our guild, The Company of the Roaring Dragon, was one of the top ranked guilds in the game, but that still wasn’t enough to guarantee our victory in the tournament. What did guarantee our victory in the tournament was a legendary-class item that we’d been saving for some kind of world boss:

Name: Control Sphere

Rarity: Legendary

Type: Consumable

Durability: 1/1

Function: Smash this against a creature to temporarily take control of it.

We had a potentially game-breaking plan, but we were confident that it would work. The control spheres were offered as the reward for a one-week event quest geared towards max-level players like my friends and I. Most other players’ had already been used for the novelty of it, but Tom had recognized the value in such an object and demanded we save it. Obviously, we acquiesced. Now it was time to secure our spot in the virtual world Bill Gates had created.

Together, we equipped our best gear and marched out of our guild hall. We’d already registered for the PvE hunt, “Exotic Game,” and were now on our way to our quarry: a Titan Beast named Maldrogar. The colossal bear was going to die in about twenty seconds or less, and we were going to enter Mythos Online.

“Alright, everyone gather around,” I said over the mic and signalled a location in front of me. I clicked my [advanced skills] list and scrolled down to [teleportation circle], then clicked the location I wanted. A purple mist surrounded us, then our characters found themselves in front of a massive forest. A few minutes later and we were in front of a huge cave. I clicked [v] and a fire blast rocketed into the mouth of the cave, eliciting a ferocious roar from its inhabitant. As it thundered out, Aaron tossed our Control Orb into it, his own body vanishing as he took control of our quarry. Rich cast his ultimate spell, [Nature’s Might], and Aaron tripled in size! Finally, Gabriel, the Warlock, cast a normally useless spell, [Willing Sacrifice], that killed a friendly party member and added 10% of their total health to his own. Aaron died, and his huge corpse slumped to the ground, utterly defeated. We gave a cheer that only grew as a notification popped up:

Congratulations!

You have slain an Elder Beast as part of the Exotic Hunt!

Your quarry’s base rank: Legendary (Respawning)

Size ranking: #4

Unique Bonus: +300

Final Ranking: #1

Final results available in 10:23:59

I couldn’t see my friends, but the cheers over the microphones said they’d all received the same notification. As long as we were #1 in ten hours, we’d be in the clear, and all 56 members of our guild would be offered free entry into Mythos Online! There were congratulations all around, and then we warped back to the Guild Hall. I slowly moved my character around the screen, looking around my real-life bedroom and the window that contained the virtual world I’d spent countless hours in. It seemed amazing that in a few days, I’d hopefully be looking around a similar world all the time.

I wasn’t too upset about the life I was leaving. Sure I was in college getting a decent degree, but I’d probably be doing something I didn’t really care about just to make money. Or I’d spend years doing something I loved, but I wouldn’t have hardly any free time or disposable income. Either way, living out my medieval fantasies with my closest friends seemed like a far better option. Not to mention the fact that I had the opportunity to do something I’d always wanted to do: be the villain. Usually, my guild played the heroes of the realm, but only because the penalty for being a villain was massive. There was also the unfortunate coincidence that we’d never had time to log the hours required at launch to get a suitable power lead over the other players. Now, however, we were going to be entering the game full-time just like everyone else. What better time to start being evil than the beginning of eternity?

I sent a text message to the rest of my friends to meet at a bar nearby. Twenty minutes later, we were gathered around a high table toasting each other, in particular Tom. I had my phone sitting on the table with a timer set up to display when the rankings would finalize. When there were six minutes left, we toasted again, knowing there was no way the rankings could change this late in the game. Of course, we were wrong. When there were just four minutes left, I gave a shout of dismay. Someone had slain an [Elder Demonic Dragon], bumping us out of first and into second.

I quickly relayed the information to my guildmates, several thumping the table in frustration.

“Well, crap,” Rich said, understating the devastation we all felt. Greg pulled an emotionless face and proclaimed that he didn’t really feel like dying anyways. I set my phone down right as the timer ran out, and I quickly tapped the button to turn it off. Suddenly, all seven of our phones began to ring, and we looked at each other in confusion. One by one, we answered the phone to receive the same message: “Hello, member of the Company of the Roaring Dragon, your accomplishments have been recognized by the God of Travel, Mogat, and have therefore been invited to enter the world of Mythos Online! In an effort to populate this new world, the top 10 guilds were invited instead of just first place. Please report to your local microsoft store on Monday, September 9th to begin your new life.” The message clicked off, and we stared at each other in stunned silence. We gave a cheer of glee, and ordered a round for everyone in the bar. There was cheering all around, and besides, who needed money where we were going?