When people talk about near death experiences they speak a lot about bright lights, dark tunnels, and ghostly figures. People also mention your life flashing before your eyes right before you either die or believe you are in danger of dying. I guess that’s all sort of true. I envisioned the quest I had been moments away from finishing.

I should have been thinking about whether or not my mom was okay, how great growing up was, how much I would miss my friends, and other cliche dying crap, but let’s be real. I didn’t have many friends or much else to look forward to anyways. All I could think about in my brief moments as a bird was that damn quest. Well, it was at least until I finally fell from the sky and flew head first into a guardrail, breaking nearly every bone in my body. Then everything was just gone.

There weren’t any doors, bright lights, or reassuring dead grandmothers. Nope. It was just kind of black. At first it felt like I was sitting in a large dark room but then I realized I was the room. I felt infinitely vast, impossibly silent, and completely alone. Where were my damn visions, my god-like experiences? I felt jipped. Hey, at least I had my memories and a seemingly conscious mind.

I thought about Dragonscape Online. Man, how I had loved that game. It’s funny because, well, it was really my only accomplishment. Even though I enjoyed being strong and knowing a lot about the game, it wasn’t what first drew me to the game. For the most part, I just loved being someone different. It didn’t matter if I just sat in Landalof castle, or wasted time talking to players who were actually leveling up their character, I loved playing.

Something about the game made me feel content in a way that a life as a depressed Philosophy major at a crappy college couldn’t. I had no idea what I was doing with my real life, but in the game I knew my place. I used to have a lot of friends, we even all played DSO together at one point, but eventually they grew up and I, well, I didn’t I guess.

But anyways, darkness, silence, solitary, you get the point. I sat there and I thought about how important the game was to me and how I really just wanted to wake up and finish the quest. Maybe the game wasn’t as good as life was supposed to be, but for me it was as close as I felt I would ever get. The thought of playing again helped me hold on.

Time really slowed down after a while. At first it felt like hours, and then days, weeks, months, and eventually years. The whole time I kind of just existed in the darkness. The only thing that managed to fill it up were my constant thoughts about DSO. First, I thought about my house, or rather my dominion. I had the best house anyone could ask for. I often thought about how much better it would be if I was there instead of the weird dark place that had become my home.

More thoughts broke in. Was my character okay? Those players were high enough level to kill me; would everything be okay when I got back? Wait, what about the princess? That quest was time sensitive. The thoughts both comforted and tortured me. Was I in hell?

What felt like an eternity passed and then I felt like… Like I was shrinking? It’s hard to explain. It was like the vast darkness was still there but that I was no longer the force behind it. Then legs began to form, naked legs. Following them a torso, arms, and eventually a head. My head.

It was then that I realized I had an actual form to call my own for the first time since my original body was nearly destroyed. I really hadn’t thought about my body much. Kind of weird once I thought about it though. It was then that I realized that something was wrong and I shouldn’t have been sitting in a weird purgatory where my only thoughts centered around my sweet one of a kind house in DSO and the the beautifully sexy princess I had let down.

I looked down at myself and realized my entire body was naked. I wondered what I looked like and a mirror appeared right in front of me. I almost fell backwards in shock. I looked like a fricken Ken doll, well if Ken had no eyes, lips, or other features normal human beings typically possess. I didn’t know how I was able to see, but it was kind of freaking me out.

I thought back to what I looked like as a human and instantly a slightly bulging belly, shaggy brown hair, blue eyes, and other lifelike features appeared in the mirror. I reached up to my face and my hand moved in the mirror.

Okay, it was then clear. I was in some sort of dreamlike state. I thought about having a six pack and hero hair, poof, wham, wow, I had spiky stylish hair and my beer belly, or rather soda and chips belly, disappeared. A smile cracked across my face as I thought, Wow, maybe this weird purgatory won’t be so bad after all.

“Don’t get used to it,” came a voice from right behind me. I jumped, completely unprepared. I promptly turned around to face the invader of my safe place, imagining my large two-handed Gilded Dragon Slayer #6 from DSO and unsurprisingly it appeared in my hands.

“I spent most of my teenage and college years searching for, and then learning to use, this thing so I’m not afraid to slay you where you stand,” I yelled at the intruder. He was a man of average height with short but curly black hair, glasses, khakis, and a blueish polo with the name Steven written on it.

“Hi I’m Steve,” The man said, needlessly introducing himself. “You must really be wondering what’s going on huh?” Oh, you think? I thought, feeling anger and annoyance for the first time since before the car crash.

I lowered my sword, still wishing I could slice the dude in half, and got ready to listen to whatever ludicrous story an obvious apparition of my brain was going to come up with.

***

“So, you are telling me I’m in a coma and Dreamtech Industries wants to load my consciousness into the game…” I said, raising my eyebrows skeptically.

“Yeah, that’s about it,” sighed Steve. “Back a few patches ago we changed the game engine to get ready to transfer DSO over to full immersion VR. Your case is slightly different, but we think that we can help you and do some research along the way. It won’t be the same as not being in a coma but it would be better than the alternative.”

“Ah… So, I’m just a cash cow, a means to an end?” I replied, only half joking.

Steve smirked and answered with, “I mean, if that’s the way you want to look at it. But come on man, you are one of our most senior players. You’ve held rank one for years now and almost everyone knows your name. Kyogos the Great, Kyogos the Extreme. Don’t you want that again?”

I nodded knowing he was right. I was obviously devastated by the fact that I was in a coma, but being in the weird black hole like place after a car accident had been a good indicator that something was wrong.

A smirk appeared at the corners of Steve’s lips. “Exactly. That’s why I’m here, to make sure that happens.” His smile faded and his voice became more serious. “Are you even going to ask about your mom?”

I totally forgot to ask about my mom… I was being such an inconsiderate little... “Oh crap, of course. How is she? I got distracted with the weird black hole prison, Ken doll-like appearance, and Dragonslayer #9 getting ready to destroy you. Is she okay?”

Steve seemed to lighten up a little. “Your mom is completely fine. She, unlike you, Mr. Playing-Computer-Games-In-The-Car, was wearing her seatbelt. She is worried sick about you.”

“That’s good then. It’s not like it was my fault that some guy drove into us because he was probably drunk. but I really should have had my seatbelt on. Then again, maybe you guys shouldn’t have such an addictive game.”

“Yes… It’s our fault you were playing our COMPUTER game in the car and forgot to put your seatbelt on.”

“I mean that’s really honest of you to admit that,” I answered. “So, when should I be receiving my one hundred billion dollar settlement?” I couldn’t seem to stop joking around.

“Hey, assuming you cooperate, we will also be footing the majority of your bills so your family doesn’t have to worry. We have deep connections in the technology field. I don’t know the details, but you should be able to come out of this completely healed.”

“Wow… I don’t know what to say. This is a lot to take in,” I replied as I jokingly scratched my chin.

Not getting it, Steve gave me a look of misguided understanding with a hint of pity. “It’s okay. This has never happened to like anyone, so we completely understand if-”

“Now, when can I get back to using this thing and killing some scrubs?” I answered, cutting him off. “It feels like it has been years since I’ve played.”

“You really are something else man. Well… It has been quite a while, but not quite years. It’s been two months since your accident.”

“TWO MONTHS!” I screamed. “I’ve been in a coma this whole time?”

“Yes, it was only twenty-four hours until the board joked that you had been offline for the most time since the year your account was created, but we weren’t worried until a week passed by. Then we went looking and found a car crash that made the news near your registered zip code. Also, It wasn’t until yesterday that your mom’s lawyer signed the contract and we were able to finalize any preparations we had to make. I know it probably seems creepy that we came looking for you, but your sudden disappearance and loss in the rankings were strange.”

“To be honest, I’m actually quite flattered. I always knew I had put a ton of work into the game, but I didn’t think I had that much of an impact. I don’t exactly talk to people very well.”

“Huh, well I mean, numbers don’t lie. Plus, we’ve heard the stories. You tracked down GDS#6, defeating the owner of it with only a basic greatsword. That stuff is what legends are made of kid.”

“You know it,” I answered while doing a few awkward sword flourishes. “Speaking of this beauty, when can I go use it?”

Steve’s face got even more serious than when I forgot to ask about my mom. “About that…” Steve said as he started to fill me in on what happened to my character.

***

“So, I died?”

“Yup… I’m sorry bud. We checked the forums and I guess a bounty hunter group saw you chilling there AFK with the GDS#6 and killed you for it. But you won’t believe it, apparently, you had protection charms woven into your armor or something because you took out a handful of their men before they could kill you.”

“Yeah, you can’t survive for years on hardcore mode without some insurance. That is actually hilarious. Though… That greatsword is one of a kind, opposite to what the name would suggest I guess.”

“Yeah, at least there are at least eight others, right?” Steve asked seriously, glazing over the last part of my comment.

My jaw flopped open and I just sat there and stared. He looked back at me, obviously confused.

“What?”

“What... What? What! The Great Knight Sir Alfred Skycane sought to destroy the nine original dragons. The blacksmiths of Highgale crafted a weapon out of the corpse of a dragon, dipped it in gold and then it was blessed by the god Zarnack to absorb the essence of any dragon it killed. After killing all nine original dragons, the sword became the strongest weapon to ever exist. Wait… how do you not know this?”

“Sorry dude… I’m more of a public relations kind of guy and I really haven’t worked there that long. You really know your stuff. So, I guess that sword meant a lot to you huh?”

“Of course, it did! But there’s always a small chance I dropped it. Even hardcore mode has its perks. Upon death, I get to keep one item and the level of either one combat skill or one profession.”

“That’s the positive outlook you should be having. You could start out with your previous ridiculously high strength or something and a piece of your super good gear. Plus, there’s an eighty percent chance you will come back with a combat skill, which in your case is higher than most players no matter what it is.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, plus it’s actually ninety-nine-point nine percent.”

“What? How?”

“Wow you really don’t know much,” I joked. “Even though anyone can learn any and every profession based skill, you can only declare one true profession. As a fricken builder I wasn’t going to let years of tediously leveling up my combat levels to come back only able to build a stupid chair or something. I mean, my house was great and all, but you can’t really make much money with it or protect the princess with a perfectly handcrafted chair. I paid top gold for that. It was actually one billion coins…”

“That much! That must be why I’ve never heard of it. Who would even do that?”

“Again, when you spend years leveling up a character you don’t want to lose all your progress just because you lagged out or something. I guess I never really planned for getting into a car crash and landing in a coma though.”

“That makes sense, but why didn’t you just play on normal mode?”

I was unsure if I should answer. He already thought I was a psychopath. “Do you… do you really want to know the answer?”

“Yes of course I do. Every legend has to have a reason behind his greatness, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, yes he does. But I wouldn’t call myself a legend. My first account wasn’t hardcore, because, honestly, I was afraid of losing everything. One day I logged on and everything I had worked for was gone.

After freaking out, I had a friend of mine ping the IP address of the hacker. I got his account information, created a hardcore player and then hunted down his character and every character he ever made after that. He sent friends after periodically for a while but eventually they stopped coming because I had killed them all countless times.”

“Wow, I take back any hesitations I had man. You are a psychopath. If anything, I would have just blocked his IP, stole my stuff back, or something like that. You just had to prove a point, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes I did. I was pissed off, but to be honest I didn’t start taking the game seriously until I made my hardcore account and started hunting down that punk. It was during my quest for power that I gradually developed the drive to go after the GDS#6 anyways.”

“Wow… you really are something man. I hope you get some good stats and your sword. You ready to jump back in or do you want to sit around in creepy purgatory some more?”

“I’m ready, of course I’m ready. But two quick questions. How are you even in my head right now and what’s the status of my body.?”

“Good questions, I’m surprised it took you this long. You really are obsessed with DSO. I uploaded both of our consciousnesses onto a hard drive, which was why you suddenly had access to a corporeal form and the ability to make changes. We are running on what was the first version of the new Dreamscape Engine. I mean, if you really wanted you could create your own game here and have total control. The board talked about it and that is an option for you.”

I walked a few steps away from Steve and then turned around as I threw off a few more sword flourishes, unskillfully dancing around Steve. “What would be the fun in that. I’ve got a sword to retrieve.” I stopped, cocked the GDS#6 back and launched it through the air. I watched it soar through the sky and then imagined a giant boulder made of dragon steel. The boulder appeared just in time for the sword to fly right into it, causing it to slide into the boulder down to the hilt.

“I’d have an easier time trying to pull it out of that rock than going after it again if the GDS#6 wasn’t the item that got saved.”