What a cute little scaly boy you are! Lucian thought in a tone fluctuating from low to high, a small smile spreading across his lips. He rubbed the head of the armadillo with his fingers, and the little shy pet caved into a ball.

“Scaly, you’ll have to tell me what you want first,” Lucian said in the calmest voice he could, completely understanding why his cute little armadillo was terrified. Not even two meters ahead of them stood a lion rubbing its brown mane against its owner. Genetic engineering made it possible for any animal to be a pet.

“I guess we’ll just have to get regular insects then,” Lucian said and received the reaction he’d expected. Scaly’s head instantly shot out of the ball. Scared, he was, terrified even, but he would rather die than eat regular food. He had class! He rushed, small feet tapping against the metal floor, towards the container carrying the right food, the good food.

Scaly tapped the container with his nose, and quickly fell back into a ball. He heaved, his body slowly rising and falling. In his mind, he had just risked his life. Bravo! What a brave pet!

“Come on Scaly,” Lucian sighed, hand rubbing his forehead, he’d hoped that Scaly would pick something other than the most expensive option today. It was an insect called a pink ant, and it came from another planet entirely. “Pick something else, you know cash is running low for me right now.”

Scaly did not move.

“Fine, you win. I’ll buy it.”

Lucian bent down, grabbed a yellow spoon, and scooped up a handful of pink ants. He poured them into a small plastic bucket, and walked over to the counter, standing in line, two people ahead of him. Scaly drooled as he slowly followed after, completely forgetting about the lion.

“Have you heard about what Just-Saved did last round?” The girl ahead of him asked her friend, looking at her with wide eyes.

“That’s the world's best support right?” She asked, knowing she had heard the name but unsure of who it belonged to. She received a slight nod and continued, “I heard, he healed ten people simultaneously in the final battle.”

“I heard it was twenty!” The girl said with an outraged tone. “Why can’t I be that good?”

It was actually fifty. Lucian wanted to whistle, he always wanted to whistle when people spoke of him, he felt odd staring at them like a pretending statue, so he whistled; and he promptly received glares from the two girls in front of him. Nobody likes loud whistle.

Eventually, he reached the front, and put the pink ant on the counter. He always felt slightly unnerved looking at the person behind the counter. The top half of their face was plugged into some sort of machine hanging off the roof. It looked like the machine was in the middle of taking a bite from their head.

“That will be 0.0066 bitcoin, are you willing to pay?” The slightly intimidating, but mostly robotic, voice asked.

“Yes,” Lucian muttured, thinking about how low his balance must be getting.

"Payment has been taken out of your account. Thank you for your time here at Heart4Pet.”

He grabbed the bucket and heard Scaly whimper. Not now, okay, you know what, you can get one pink ant now, but I’m saving the rest for later. As he walked towards the door leading out, the door sunk into the ground, and when he stepped out, the door rose behind him. He walked over to the railing, and peered over, watching the city was always satisfying to him.

It was a myriad of blue, red and pink flashing up against the cold black buildings. Lines of white lines sped through the streets, and green cars hovered slightly over drifting forward. Dubstep could be heard faintly in the distance. The building in front of him extended all the way up to the clouds, pathways on the side existing for every level, stationary teleporters going up and down.

Suddenly, he felt a rough hand grasp his shoulder. He was pulled. It was a bald man. There was a new portal in front of him. He felt himself being thrown into it. Scaly jumped after him. The man walked into the portal. The portal closed.

“Welcome, Lucian,” the mafia boss sitting on top of a throne roughly three meters up into the air said, “it seems to me that you’ve avoided us.”

Fuck, Lucian’s pupils jerked back and he saw Scaly balled up, fuuuck. He tried pushing himself up, but felt a heel in his back shove him down again. He was stuck on his stomach, cheeks mushing against the ground, staring up with his eyes.

“I’m a lenient man,” the mafia boss said. “When I can break arms, I usually only break one. When I kill a man’s daughters, I usually only kill one. When I torture a man, I only do it for one week.”

“But my leniency has a limit, and you, my dear friend, have passed over it a long time ago. You owe us eleven bitcoins.”

“It was only ten,” he tried saying but received a kick to the jaw, tongue turning loose.

“I have taken liberty to increase the payment as rent. I am sure you understand,” the mafia boss sighed, “but now I want it back. I want you to join the new round of Throne of God and win. It is said that the prize pool will be extra large this time. It will be 1000 bitcoins. There will also be a larger map than usual.”

“But Lucian, suppose you do not win. I will not be happy, and you must understand that punishment will be handed out. I will…” the mafia boss thought for a second. Usually he’d threaten with murder but Lucian was too valuable for that, “I will kill your pet.”

“You basta-” Lucian received another kick to the jaw.

“Take this scum away from me,” the mafia boss said,” and take him to a game console.”

Two men grabbed Lucian and lifted him up. He saw another man grab Scaly. Scaly whimpered in his ball. Lucian kicked and jerked, his entire body burning up, if you hurt Scaly I will fucking slaughter you.

The men pulled Lucian into another room, one filled with many rows of game consoles, most of them occupied by goons. The room was so hot that the air bent like waves, he felt his body sweat, making his shirt stick against his back and chest. Shoved into a chair, a large black helmet was put on his head. His consciousness tugged backwards, away from his eyes, into his brain, and up the helmet. The room fades away.

He’s in a room with white walls extending as far as the eye can see. In front of him there’s black text on the wall. Welcome back Just-Saved. Scratching his head, and sitting down, he pondered over what happened.

Okay calm down focus, his feelings were sucked to the side, that’s what being a pro meant. Focus had to be accessible within a blink of an eye because usually, that’s all the time he had. I have to win, or they kill Scaly. I have to win. I should never have gotten asociated with those scummy fucking criminals. Stop, fuck, focus. Can I win as a support? I can’t win but I’ll get the standard support cut, but that’s not enough.

I have to win. Should I change and play mage? No, if what Lorenzo is saying is true, then I’ll be up against the best and there’s no way I can compete against the best in any other role than support. Hmm. I have some way to deal damage. There are some variants that can do that but its not enough… Wait a second, there was this build I saw a few mo… I think it could work… Anything else doesn’t compete.

The text on the wall in front of him changed. Do you want to keep the same kit?

“No.”

New Kit creation will begin now.

Please pick two perks from the list.

A list of millions of different perks appeared in front of him. You could pick any two from this list. There was a list to the side of the most popular perks, to make it easier. There was the usual two you’d pick if you wanted to play support, and there were many odd combinations people played.

Lots of people theory crafted different perks on the net. Lucian would usually spend a lot of time simply sifting through a lot of the ideas posted on forums. The vast majority of ideas were usually trash, but sometimes he’d spot a gem. His mind focused on one perk list he’d found one night, one that could revolutionize the support role entirely. He’d tossed it away then, opting for more meta builds, but now it was his only chance. This was his only shot, and it was a gamble.

The first perk he picked was a standard support perk that was called Iron heart, and it allowed every healing spell to be twice as effective. The second perk took a long time to find, but eventually he spotted it, the perk wasn’t popular in any sense. It was called Double edged sword and allowed him to cast healing spells and buffs on enemy mobs. There was very, very, few moments when this was advantageous, and even fewer it was more advantageous than casting them on teammates.

There was the obvious idea:what if I use the spell mind dominate on a creature and then boost it. There are two reasons that wasn't practical. Mind dominate took a very long time, and was very mana expensive. It is almost always more practical to use buffs on teammates, mainly because, many creatures can’t utilize the buffs in the same way teammates can.

But this build found a caveat to that.

He selected the two perks. Please pick your starting spell. Nine different support spells were shown. He picked the standard heal spell, which most people found boring, and nowadays it was more meta to pick the shield spell, but he couldn’t care less about the meta. He was the best support in the world. The meta followed him, not the other way around.

Please pick your starting location. The map was huge, much, much, larger than before. In the very middle there was a mountain, fittingly named Olympus. He’d have to climb to the top of it, and sit on the throne to be crowned victor. He’d climbed it many times before, but he’d never been the one to sit on the throne.

You couldn’t specify where you’d start. That would give teams and clans way too big of an advantage, and this game prowled of them. Luckily for Lucian, Throne of Gods, was a game where skill trumped quality every, single, time.

He had four options on where to start: east, west, north or south. He picked east as he’d always done. It was covered in lush forest, a biome filled with all types of monsters. It was also a biome where tactical positioning played a huge role, which Lucian liked seeing that it was his strongest side.

This will be my largest challenge. I’m up against the world, against all my enemies, and all my friends. But I am one of the world's best and I will prove that. I will be the one that sits on the throne of gods. Scaly I promise you that.

The game began.