A young boy of dark complexion rushed through the front door of his home, taking shelter from the icy blizzard flurrying outside.

“Mom, Dad! You’ll never guess what happened!” Renault shouted excitedly through the house as he shook off his backpack, snow boots, and big heavy snow coat, before throwing his hat off of his short black hair onto the nearby coat rack.

“What is it?” His mother replied from the living room out of his sight. “It’s Cameron, his parents finally upgraded his Simbox, now all of my friends can play!” He shouted back as he made for the stairs leading to the basement of his home.

“Ah-ah, what did we say about using the Simbox before homework?” His father replied sternly.

“But I don’t have any homework today, I swear!” Renault replied in earnest.

“You sure?” He squinted inquisitively at Renault.

“Y-yeah Dad.” Renault groaned insistently.

“Alright, but I want you up for dinner.” His father replied, Renault was already running down the stairs before he’d even finished this sentence. Tucked into the corner of the open floor basement, opposite a Wash-dryer, sat a Large Round-edged Simbox. Renault ran up to it, but before entering he tapped his wrist implant to open his phone contacts and sent a message to Cameron.

“Don’t forget, Puagas Island to start!” Renault sent, but didn’t wait for a reply and hopped into the Simbox.

Once inside he found himself in a small village of log houses, built in the thick of a pine tree forest. The pine trees were gigantic and towered above the unevenly constructed town. The village around him was multi-leveled as the ground jutted up in various spots, with log bridges connecting different levels of the village and crudely paved stone steps and ramps leading from the lower areas to the upper ledges, but in all it wasn’t a very big starting town. Nonetheless, it was packed with players of all races, primarily elves and humans.

“Yo Renault, is he coming?” A tall male elf asked, as Renault turned his character's avatar to look at him. Renault himself was a short, pale skinned gnome with spiky brown hair equipped with a large staff on his back. [Gambit - Level 3] sat above the elf’s head, while above his own was [Renault - Level 3]. Beside Gambit stood [Hajax - Level 3] and [Zuon - Level 3], both human players with beginner equipment.

“Yeah I told him where to start, he should be here any second.” Renault said with anticipation as the others also looked around excitedly. They stood together in the town square of the small village watching as several new players popped into existence for the first time, until finally a player named [Seraxus - Level 1] appeared.

“Yo! Seraxus! That’s a sick name!” Hajax cheered as they all ran to him.

“I know right? Check it out! Orc’s look pretty badass huh?” Seraxus showed off his form to cheers from the four friends.

“Looks a lot better than Renault.” Zuon joked and they all chuckled.

“Hey man, gnomes have the best intelligence stat for being a Wizard.” Renault defended himself.

“Yeah but at least change your name bro.” Hajax replied.

“So what do we do first?” Seraxus asked them.

“You gotta decide what class you’re gonna be.”

“I want to swing a weapon. What’s the best weapon in this game?” Seraxus asked.

“No one knows yet yo, games only been out like a week.”

“Sick, then we gotta try 'em all out and find out for ourselves, right?” Seraxus grinned.

“Haha, yeah, let’s do it.” Hajax replied.

“Finally our best player got here.” Zuon cheered to Seraxus.

“Yeah now we can start doing the hardest dungeons and stuff.” Renault spoke enthusiastically.

“Hell yeah, you know it, we always goin’ for the top.” Seraxus shouted encouragingly at the others as they all followed behind him, leading him to the nearest weapon shop.

2 Weeks Later

Seraxus led the charge for the party as they delved into the depths of a Jungle Temple infested with snakelike creatures. Renault, Hajax and Zuon held the back line with Renault playing as a Wizard focusing on cold magic, Hajax was a Priest who healed the party, and Zuon was an Archer weaving magic into his attacks.

The frontline consisted of Seraxus the orc, using fighter skills to swap between various weapons depending on the opponent, and Gambit using his fists as a monk. With Seraxus giving orders they were able to take out the Serpentine beasts despite the level disparity, Renault’s party now a level of 26, the elite enemies averaging levels of 30 to 35.

They’d just finished dispatching a group of 7 monsters when Gambit fell back to lean against a tan colored wall covered in vines, lit by the torches the party carried with them. As their stamina recovered, their heavy breathing mixed in with the everpresent hissing sounds echoing off the narrow halls around them.

“Can we take a break and head to town yet? I’m starting to get tired.” Gambit yawned through his elven avatar.

“We’ll fall behind, yo. Didn’t you see that new streamer, that Makaroth guy? I wanna keep up with him. We’re only a couple levels behind, ‘n he was only grindin’ level 30 enemies.” Seraxus urged them on.

“Yeah but none of us even stream, that guy does that shit for a living.” Zuon groaned.

“Renault said he’s gotta go anyway.” Gambit added.

“Yeah but we can keep goin’ without him. I’m thinkin I might start streamin’ this game anyway.” Seraxus shrugged.

“It ain't like the shooters we usually play though, you gotta be entertaining, not just good.” Hajax replied to Seraxus.

“That’d be cool if you became a big streamer, I heard those high level streamers are making tons of money.” Renault smiled at him.

“Exactly, that’s what I’m sayin’ Renault. So let’s keep grindin’ and find the good stuff in this Temple.” Seraxus smiled at him.

“Come on out, we’re ready to go.” Renault’s father’s voice spoke through the Simbox speaker.

“Ah, I gotta go now. Don’t worry about me. I can cast invisibility when I log back in. Good luck guys.” Renault waved to them.

“Cya man.”

“Later.” The voices of Renault’s friends faded as he exited the Simulation to an early Saturday morning. He saw the back of his dad's Suit jacket as he was climbing the stairs out of the basement, Renault himself was already wearing a dress shirt. He got out of the Simbox and stretched his limbs before rubbing his eyes and heading upstairs. Both he and his parents were dressed up and quickly put on snow jackets over their fancy outfits and slipped into dress shoes and heels respectively, Renault’s mother doing a last minute wardrobe adjustment for him.

“Do I really have to go to the Wedding? Aunt Mindy doesn’t even like me.” Renault protested as the last steps were being taken before leaving the house.

“Of course she likes you.” His dad replied, to which Renault raised his eyebrows at him. His father stared back with a short pause. “Well, your grandfather will be there, you need to at least keep him company.” Renault let out a huff, and the three left the house, snow crunching underneath their feet.

When they arrived at the venue, Renault was quickly abandoned by his parents as they walked around shaking hands, giving hugs and telling jokes to all their relatives, all dressed appropriately for the wedding, none of whom Renault was particularly fond of as most were either much older or younger than him. A beautifully decorated hall filled with evenly spaced rows of chairs covered in white cloth, with an altar and podium at the front prepared for the coming ceremony. Renault shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around until spotting his Grandfather sitting in a row by himself, staring absentmindedly up at a window in the roof of the hall where snow was lightly trickling down on it from the gray February clouds above. He was balding, but still had a decent amount of white hair on the sides and kind looking eyes hidden under his aged dark skin.

“Sup Gramps.” Renault said playfully as he sat in the chair to the right of him. His Grandfather didn’t immediately react, Renault caught him glancing at a reservation name plate set on the chair to his left. Taking a quick look at it himself, Renault saw the name of his Grandmother who’d recently passed.

“Ah, Mindy must have forgotten to tell the staff here, you know, since it wasn’t so long ago…” His grandfather gently patted the chair with the reservation on it.

“You want me to take it away?” Renault asked as politely as he could as he met his Grandfather’s eyes.

“No, no, it’s fine, leave it there.” He seemed to have broken out of a daze. “How’ve you been? You haven’t been coming around much lately.”

“Y-yeah…” Renault said guiltily. “Yeah, well the thing is… there’s this crazy new VR MMORPG, have you heard of it?”

“Is that so? No, tell me about it.” His Grandpa replied energetically. And suddenly a flood of words came out of Renault’s mouth, he’d lost track of his surroundings as he explained to his Grandfather all about the game and his friends and what it felt like to play, and before he knew it, the chairs had filled up and the ceremony was in its last stages of preparation.

“Psst, come on.” His mother motioned him away to their reserved seats on the opposite aisle as wedding music began to slowly ease into the hall.

“Ah, gotta go, I’ll tell you more about it later.” Renault waved to his Grandfather and quickly rushed to sit with his parents.

“I’m sure you will.” His Grandfather chuckled. When Renault took his seat beside his Dad, he turned curiously towards him.

“What were you two chatting away about?” His father asked him.

“Oh, nothing. I was just telling him about The Shattered World, y’know.” Renault shrugged.

“Oh don’t bother him with that nonsense.” His mother huffed.

“It’s not nonsense mom, besides, Grandpa seemed interested.” Renault replied.

“Really? That’s good, the first time I’d seen him talking, since… you know.” His father shrugged.

“He’s not been talking to you guys? I thought you said he was doing okay?” Renault asked. “He was ok last time we talked.” Renault leaned forward on his chair to get a better view of his parents sitting to his left, and caught a glimpse of them staring nervously at each other.

“What aren’t you guys saying?” Renault asked, and he could see his mother and father trying to communicate through their eyes and not speaking, almost in an argument, but it looked like his father had won.

“He’s not been taking his medication, and he’s stopped leaving the house. We’ve tried helping him ourselves, offering to get him a Caredroid, but he keeps refusing all of it… it seems like…” His father stopped himself from talking. “He’ll be okay, don’t worry about it, he’s just having a rough time.” He finished by gently patting Renault’s knee, to which Renault looked across the venue to see his grandfather looking up back at the window in the ceiling again.

The rest of the wedding went by as a boring blurr. His aunt Mindy came down the aisle in her dress, the bride and groom said their vows, exchanged rings and kisses, all that stuff that Renault wasn’t interested in. He was worried about his Grandfather instead, feeling somewhat guilty of having not spent time with him lately. He remembered back on the many times he’d visited his grandparents house, his Grandfather being the only member of his family interested in games beside himself, the two playing a few together.

By the time they’d arrived at the venue for the reception, an idea had taken over Renault’s mind, and he eagerly awaited for the formalities to end so that he could find his Grandfather and talk to him. He finally found his Grandfather already seated at a round table covered in white tablecloth set with beautiful violet flowers in the center. Though he was far from the only one at the table, Renault didn’t pay any mind to the others.

“Grandpa, I got an idea!” Renault shouted excitedly.

“Oh yeah? What would that be?”

“You should play The Shattered World with me!” Renault exclaimed, to which the other people at the table chuckled and looked at Renault like he was ridiculous.

“Oho, I think I’m a bit too old for slaying dragons and what not.” His Grandpa replied dismissively.

“No, you’re not, once you’re calibrated to a Simbox, you can make your character anything you want, like a big muscular orc, or a tiny magical gnome. C’mon it’ll be really fun, there’s a ton of stuff to do too, not just fighting monsters, you can build houses, go fishing, craft equipment.”

“Hmm, that does sound pretty intriguing.” He smiled back at Renault. “I wouldn’t even know where to start with something like that though.” He said apprehensively.

“I can show you, it’s really easy!” Renault insisted.

“Renault, leave your Grandfather alone.” Another relative at the table butted in, but Renault ignored him and tried to make his best pleading expression to him.

One Week Later

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have done it!” Seraxus shouted theatrically, standing over the corpse of a Gigantic Serpent Boss with the livestreaming icon above his head, currently 600 viewers watching them. Around him stood Renault, Hajax, Gambit, and Zuon, their armor covered in dents and slashes as if they’d all just been in a great battle, gasping for their breath. They were still deep within the Jungle temple, but all of them had just hit level 30.

“Not just myself but my entire party are now ready to tackle our intermediate Class quests. I haven’t told you all what they are picking yet, it’ll be a surprise for the next time we meet.” Seraxus spoke to his audience while Gambit walked forward to check the items that the boss dropped.

“He dropped a key to the lower sanctum. Says it's a level 50 Area though.” Gambit said as he checked the item card for the key.

“This dungeon just keeps on going, huh.” Zuon said in disbelief.

“It’s a temple of the God of Hatred, the quest said we need to find and kill the Avatar of hatred.” Renault replied, a side conversation away from Seraxus as he continued speaking to his audience.

“I thought that giant snake was the Avatar.” Hajax replied.

“Nope, just a big snake.” Renault shrugged back.

“It sounds like we’ll have something to test our new intermediate skills on once we get them, eh?” Seraxus joined into their conversation. “So boys, I’ll be seeing you all again once you’ve finished your quests, and don’t tell me what you’re going to pick, I want it to be a surprise.” Seraxus smiled.

“Right. I’ll portal us back to Pelagrove.” Renault smiled, giving an awkward wave towards Seraxus’s audience before beginning an incantation in which his hands gave off a blue glow, out of which began to form floating spectral blue runic symbols that rotated around in a circle in front of him. After about 10 seconds of this, the symbols merged together and formed a magical blue doorway of light in mid air. From the correct angle it was possible to look through the doorway and see beyond it the small Forest village that they’d started out in at level 1.

One by one the party members stepped through the doorway, and the atmosphere around them shifted entirely, appearing in the village with no sign of the doorway or temple dungeon behind them.

“I’ll never get used to those portals.” Gambit commented.

“Good luck on your quests guys.” Seraxus smiled.

“I might be a bit longer but I’ll try to go fast.” Renault replied.

“Oh right, you said your grandpa started playing, right?” Zuon asked.

“Yeah, he oughta be around here. Gonna spend some time showing him the ropes before I do the quest.

“No problem, we’ll be waitin, I’m bettin’ Hajax is gonna take a long ass time to do his intermediate quest anyway.” Gambit smirked.

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” Hajax snapped back, to which Gambit, Zuon and Seraxus chuckled.

“Do what you gotta do boys, and we’ll see you all later. The rest of you,” He motioned to his audience, “y'all are comin with me to see how a true fighter picks his intermediate class.” He winked and began walking off, leaving the four friends to talk off camera.

“Crazy how he got 600 viewers already.” Zuon commented.

“It’s kinda low, ain't it? Considering we’re like top 50 in levels in the world.” Hajax replied.

“‘Cause he just keeps makin’ us grind high level mobs all day man.” Gambit complained as the group began to spread out into the village. “Catch you guys later, good luck with ya’ll quests.” He waved them off, and one by one they parted until Renault was on his own.

He already knew what Intermediate class he wanted, and where to get it, but he was more excited to find his Grandfather who he’d heard would be logging in for the first time today. Making his way to the village square, he wasn’t sure what name or appearance to look for, but when he arrived at the square he spotted him instantly.

A young human male with dark skin was standing idly in the square with a look of bewilderment, not only at the surroundings, but at his own physique - he looked exactly like younger photos of his Grandfather that Renault had seen from time to time. [Beetzart - Level 1].

“Beetzart, Gramps, really? That’s the best you could come up with?” Renault teased as he approached.

“Ah, Renault. Look at this, this is incredible. Do you see this?” Beetzart flexed his muscles in disbelief. “I feel great!” He started laughing while skipping and hopping around. Renault couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Renault smiled.