Cole rushed over to the Princess, holding the arm that she weakly held out. Her jewel-encrusted tiara was over by the left wall, most likely having rolled away by the impact. She was rolled onto her back, and had an unnaturally pale face, whispering incoherently. She was covered in a velvety green robe, with leaves pinned to the edges, and the ends of sleeves.

Tug and Melissa had caught up with Cole, with Obi and Emily joining soon after. No-one spoke a word, understanding the severity of a world-changing event. Together, all 5 looked at the Princess as Cole activated the dialogue.

Princess: The world is coming to a new expanse, and a new dawn will arise upon you, if action is not taken. They have come for me, and they will go with me. It has begun.

Cole was presented with a choice dialogue, and all the others could see. He had the options to:

Ask about the incident

2. Ask who did it

3. Cancel

Together, they chose the first, and dialogue began again.

Cole: My Princess, what is this you talk about? What has begun?

Princess: I am not the right person to tell you, strong one. When he arrives, tell him that they came, and I shall go in peace.

Cole: My Princess!

And with those final few words, the life faded from her deep-green eyes, and she stopped breathing. The tree all around them let out a rumbling groan, and the group could visibly see the color seep out from the tree and into the fallen body of the Princess. A massive branch came tumbling towards them, the very structure of the Shedee tree crumbling apart.

“The tree is connected to the Princess! If she goes down, the tree goes down with her! RUN!”

Obi screamed the order in Voice Chat, momentarily stunning them all, until Emily made the move towards the exit. They turned tail and fled out of the cavernous tree, all while more branches crashed down where they had previously been gathered around.

They all made it through unscathed, and watched from a distance as the now-gray tree trunk feel in on itself, collapsing and burying the royal Princess in her habitat. Plumes of dust and splinters covered the sky, and the noise slowly faded down as the tree came to a rest.

A server announcement pooped up on Obi’s HUD, and he could hear dings from the other 4.

[Announcement]: Guild [The Fifth Table] [TFT] has started the server event - Rise of the Fallen Kingdom. All members of this guild will retain a stat boost throughout the duration of the event, and will receive loot based on class.

Everyone looked at each other in wonder, until Melissa broke the silence.

“Ain’t that our guild?”

Obi slowly nodded, and looked into global chat. It was being spammed about the event, and some people were asking about the mystery guild. Suddenly people began to shift towards talking about Obi and Cole when someone searched up the guild. He closed world chat and turned his attention back to his teammates.

Suddenly, a golden light enveloped everyone’s figures, creating silhouettes of light where they were stood before. In an instant, the glow was gone and gear appeared in front of all of them.

Dancer’s shoes for Melissa, two new guns for Tug, a small inscribed dagger and tome for Emily, 3 potions and a new waist-belt for Cole, and finally, a new helmet and 2 Gems for Obi. As they all checked out their gear, Obi put all his exhilaration behind him for the moment, and picked up the loot. Aside from all the gear, stacks of coins were neatly placed in the center, and so was a small runestone.

Obi studied the helmet, pulling up his HUD to check the stats. The helmet he had on him at the moment was one he had found in Sticky Sands, near the Pyroussir city. It was only level 30 gear. He ran his hands over the new helmet, feeling the shiny, scratchless surface, and saw that it was level 80 gear. Immediately, he switched out helmets, knowing the new one would be miles better than the old.

The new HUD flickered in, and provided much more information than the old one. The experience was almost like switching from 1080p to 4k.

Obi went over to pick up the coins and the runestone. When he examined it, he realized that the group was in for more than they had bargained for. For now, he didn’t want to ruin the mood, so he kept it to himself, and spoke in Voice Chat.

“Alright, that was an eventful day. I’d be happy to do this with you guys! Now do what you want, I’m going to have to head back up. I’ll post a time in Guild chat.”

Everyone sounded off, and Obi headed back to the forest spawn. He knew it was time to get back, and so he ended the Dive, going through the routine, and lifting off the headset. As he rolled over to the kitchen, his trails of thought wandered. He refreshed himself, before mindlessly turning on the radio and heading off to take a bath. Slipping out of his wheelchair and into his bathing chair, he was moved forward into the bathroom.

Announcer: And once again, it’s time for a bit of history. Clear your ears and relax, for we have the channel’s most soothing voice, Barrie!

Barrie: Oh Ned, cut the praise. We all know it’s the story that interests the folks!

Announcer: You do you, Barrie!

Barrie: This time, it’s all about the world’s greatest invention that took the New World by storm, and you all know it by the popular term users have created, the ‘Dive-Set’. It’s now kept in every household in the entirety of the New World, becoming one of the necessities of life, rivalling food and water.

The community welcomed it with open arms, and began developing on it. Soon, it became a very popular medium, with apps like Workbench, EtA, and CDE Engine.

The mechanics behind this amazing machine is complex and ingenious. On the first time of access, neural connections are formed with the headset, creating a neuro-electronic connection between headset and your brain. With this, the headset is able to communicate motion, feel, movement and more to your brain without you doing anything in the physical world. Connection is made through the Dive Cloud, where signal is boosted to connectors across tower floors, and then broadcasted through massive transmitters at the very top of the towers.

Going deeper would require a technical analysis, and that just wouldn’t be interesting at all! Back to you, Ned!

Obi had finished bathing and had come out halfway through the radio special. Seeing Dern passed out on the living room couch, he grabbed a blanket and covered Dern. The afternoon sunlight peeked in through the half-open blinds, casting long shadows over the adjacent walls. Though it had been a long time in-game, only 3 hours had passed in the real world.

He rolled up to the front door and checked the holo-mail. Only a few coupons from the traders in the shopping floor, and an assignment update from Sara’s school. With nothing else left to do, He moved to Sara’s room. The walls were painted a sky-blue, with clouds near the top. Unlike Obi’s, her room was immaculately kept, with nothing out of place. Seeing a small book lying on the desk, he moved to pick it up. It was titled “The Saunters of Slippery Jack”. Smiling, Obi turned around to leave when he heard a little squeak from the far corner of the room. Rolling over to where he heard the little squeak, he found Winston inside his cage.

Winston was Sara’s cuddly little gerbil. He was very fluffy, and Sara had always wanted a pet to look after. On her 6th birthday, that was exactly what Obi got her as a present! A cute little gerbil named Winston. He’d grown out of his original cage quite quickly, and Obi had to get a larger cage almost immediately, not that he didn’t like Winston. Honestly, Winston loved them all, and despised any other stranger, even nearly biting off a visitor’s finger when they came to pet him. Reaching out to the treats box, he pet the fuzzball and fed him a few balls of treats.

Wondering about the runestone, and the massive implications it made, he decided to sleep all the tension off. Just like Dern, Obi didn’t even get time to get to his bed before he passed out in his wheelchair due to sheer mental exhaustion.