Setting: INSIDE THE VIRTUAL GAME

Date: February 15th, 2026. (20 Hours Since The Launch)

Patrick spent the better part of the day scouting the new zone, and taking care of whatever creatures that attacked him. While he had no trouble dispatching any undead creatures that attacked him, he specifically stayed away from soldiers that were guarding the castle and any of the crossroad posts. He had a feeling those 'soldiers' were also undead and he had no idea of attacking any would trigger an alarm that might notify others to join in and gang up on him. Despite his elevated level, Patrick wasn't willing to take that chance and lose a level. There was no guarantee he'd be able to get it back either, so he had to be super careful when exploring Greg's brutal new zone.

After working with the man for over a decade, Patrick knew how the man thought and used that Intel to guess what was before him. There were traps, ambushes and even elite creatures that were harder to kill. So even when the other players reached max level, these elite creatures were still going to be tough bastards to kill. That wasn't even the worst part, which was the atmosphere of the zone itself. When Patrick left the zone, he didn't know it was morning until he walked back into the lower level zone. The light almost blinded him as he exited the new zone, meaning that it would always be dark in there, no matter what time of day it was. Another gift from Greg, who always wanted to do a zone that was always dark, but the corporate overlords would never let him. It was clear to Patrick that Gregory was tired of playing by the rules, and even about being employed for that reason. He had finally gone off the deep end and cracked.

Patrick rode back to the small town where he asked the others to meet him at after then spend a few hours in the safer zone, leveling up. The other players hadn't returned yet, which Patrick was alright with it because that meant they were taking their leveling very seriously and were dedicated to the plan. He went into a pub and took a table, just to take a moment to relax and collect himself. It had been a really long day, and he needed to think about what was going on. Everything had been such a whirlwind since the expansion launched that he just needed a little peace and quiet. An NPC (Non-Player Character) walked up to him at his table, a barmaid of the pub. He smiled at her as she walked over. It wasn't her fault that she was disturbing him, she was just programed that way.

"What can I get for you?" she asked him.

"Well, my stats are doing alright," Patrick said as he thought about it, "But I'll have a mead just to appease the owner."

"Coming right up," The barmaid said as she took off.

Patrick sat there and waited patiently while his drink was delivered. Once it was there he looked at it for a moment and took a hearty sip. He couldn't taste anything, but he checked his stats and those were going up so he had to remain fresh. Roaming around the new zone took up a lot of energy, so Patrick needed to recharge.

"Did you need anything else?" The barmaid asked.

"I'm fine, thank you." Patrick said, as he went to his menu and paid the tab. That function as still the same, as were many others. The basic features didn't change that much when the new expansion kicked in, but Patrick realized he was a GM. There's a chance features changed for the regular players, but not him. The fact that he wasn't effected by the level squish was another reason why Greg wanted them all to log out, so the GMs couldn't be there to assist regular players through that new maze. Patrick didn't know what Greg might do if he realized one GM was still online, so it was important to remain on the down low for the time being.

It was at this time when Miritar and Smoogel came into the bar and walked over to his table, sitting down to take a break themselves. Patrick scanned their profiles to learn that they had jumped up a level since they last spoke.

"Good job on leveling up," Patrick started.

"How about you?" Miritar asked, "Did you get a good look out there."

"I did," Patrick said, sipping his tasteless brew, "It's nasty out there. It's going to take hundreds of us, it not thousands, just to make it to the front door. And you all have to be top level to even stand a chance."

"And if we die," Smoogel added, "We drop a level and have to get back up again before rejoining the fight. That addition to the expansion was a total dick move."

"He's right," Miritar agreed, "We never lost levels like that before. That will make taking that damn tower even harder."

"I was thinking about that," Patrick said, as it was really something he was strategizing about before they arrived. "We might have to do these dungeons in waves. Like three different waves, so when people die they can level up and get back in line. If we do that, we can also give people time to rest between attacks. Get one group to do a part of the dungeon and then take a break when the clear a floor or die, whichever comes first. We can't get one group to do them all, that would be too much and just outright exhausting."

"You've thought about this a lot," Smoogel said, rather impressed.

"I'm already top level," Patrick reminded him, "There also appears to be no world quests or other things to help me pass the time around here. It's rather boring for me right about now."

"I suppose," Miritar conceded, "You could come and help us level."

"I shouldn't," Patrick countered, "Greg could be watching and he didn't want GMs down here. If I'm caught he might try to unplug me. I'm laying low right now, so keep my presence here on a need to know basis. Understood?"

"Alright," Smoogel said, "Need to know only."

"I suppose," Miritar agreed, rather hesitantly.

"It has to be that way, or I can't help you guys out." Patrick explained.

Patrick was about to go into detail about his plan to prepare for the first campaign, but there was a commotion at the other end of the bar. One of the other players started to scream and thrash about wildly. All three of them stood up to get a better view of what was going on, and the man had his sword taken out and he was swinging it around, as if he was fighting an invisible enemy.

"This isn't fair!" he called out, "I'm not finished!"

"What the hell is going on?" Miritar asked.

"Let's find out," Patrick said as he walked closer to scan the player.

As he got closer something else happened, the player started to phase out. He even started to go transparent as people could see right through him as it here were ghost before coming back to solid form. This appeared to be a painful process as the man was screaming as if someone was torturing him the whole time. Before Patrick could get close enough to help, the man gave out one last scream, and this was louder and more painful than any other he gave before. Seconds later, the man dusted up and was gone, screaming as he vanished before everyone's eyes.

"Holy crap!" one of the other patrons called out.

"What the hell happened to him?" Smoogel called out.

"He suffered a hard exit," Patrick said, as he only saw it a few times when the game first came out. "He was pulled out of the game without logging out."

"Well, how do we do that?" Someone called out.

"We can't do that," Patrick answered, "And you don't want to."

"Why not?" Miritar asked.

"Cause this kind of exit isn't allowed for a reason," Patrick explained, "Did you hear him scream as he left the game? I've only heard that one time before, and I never forgot that sound of the player screaming then as well."

"What happened to that player?" Smoogel asked.

Patrick turned to face the player. "He died."