A man ran desperately through the burning forest of lamentations.
Wielding a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, he was also covered in incredible, gleaming white and gold armor.
Behind him, his companions were slaughtered one by one.
He glanced back periodically, seeing whoever killed them with a smile on their face.
Another man, in full red armor and white adornments on the sides and tips, wielding a huge gray sword that barely fit in his hand, pierced the abdomen of a young mage who spat blood in the process.
The girl's life bar faded in seconds, her body then faded into thousands of pixels.
"Nice! All that's left is that idiot, Brev!" Said Ryuji Lee, son of a Japanese woman and a Korean man.
"Don't you know who I am? I am Power! And I will make you learn not to try to kill me again!"
Ryuji was lying on the bed, motionless and wearing shorts and a white tank top, hooked up to a Synctech virtual reality helmet.
It was the biggest and best virtual experience possible, costing all his fortune he earned in various jobs at various cafeterias he worked for throughout the year.
When he saw the ad for Blackfield Online, he left everything behind.
His studies and his dedication to school sports were secondary priorities.
Blackfield wasn't an incredibly famous game like others in the same genre, but it was surprisingly better than most.
The sixteen-year-old spent more than fifteen hours a day connected to the immersive virtual world, stopping only to eat instant noodles, drink water and go to the bathroom a few times.
At Blackfield, he could forget about family problems and school problems.
He could forget that he didn't have any friends in real life, that he didn't have any online either, but here, in that game, he was other people's boss.
Ryuji felt superior, a feeling he considered magnificent.
Power, The Warrior of Fahrio.
The strongest player in the entire game.
This was Ryuji's nickname, after having received the blessing of the god Fahrio that allowed him to evolve like no one else had.
He was the only player to have achieved the warrior god's blessing after an arduous mission.
The blond man nicknamed Brev was still running aimlessly through the forest of lamentations.
He and his team had ambushed Power that day earlier, lying about an item swap proposal.
As one of the strongest players on the server, Brev thought he would be the hero to finally end Fahrio's warrior's reign of terror.
Sweet mistake.
Four mages, five paladins, three warriors, two priests, one warrior, one barbarian and one marksman.
Brev was the only warrior on the team, with extremely high vitality and defense, out of all seventeen players on the team, he was the most likely to defeat Power in battle.
In the end, he was the only survivor of the massacre.
All other sixteen players were killed without exception by Power.
Iron spiders were everywhere, with webs sticky like glue around the burning trees.
Brev was surrounded.
He ran with his sword, hitting the hard metal carapace that covered the spiders' bodies, some of them dying.
Right behind was Power, he caught up with him.
Ryuji asked sarcastically. He wielded a huge one-handed sword.
"Ready to die?"
"I'm going to kill you, you bastard!" yelled Brev who ran toward Power.
Brev's sword collided with Power's armor, but it didn't make a scratch, it was still intact.
If it were any other player, direct penetration to the heart would be certain death, but this guy wasn't a player, he was the player.
"Damn it!"
Brev backed up a few feet, instinctively placing the shield in front of his chest.
Power smiled and advanced so quickly that Brev couldn't see exactly when he was hit.
Power's sword went through the shield and then through Brev's armor.
Brev spat blood, his life bar dropping rapidly.
"You bastard!"
It was the last thing Brev said before disappearing between pixels.
Feeling victorious for another winning day, Ryuji left the game.
He took the helmet off his head and went to the first floor of the house to get something to eat.
It was 22:00 at night, he was online a little longer than usual.
Ryuji's parents and sister were already asleep and he decided to do the same right after drinking some milk and eating cereal.
He would go to sleep happy knowing that the next day a new event of the gods would be announced, he had been waiting a lot for that.
Ryuji woke up happy.
He took a hot shower, brushed his teeth, even had breakfast with his parents and sister, which they thought was weird since Ryuji never did that.
He went upstairs and dressed properly, as if he were going to a wedding and, as usual, put on his helmet.
He then opened the game.
[Sorry, this game doesn't exist.]
"What?"
A message saying Blackfield Online did not exist appeared as a pop-up advertisement on the helmet's visor.
He tried to open the game again.
[Sorry, this game doesn't exist.]
He tried again.
[Sorry, this game doesn't exist.]
Ryuji tried a few more times until he finally gave up and went to the computer.
"What is going on?"
He opened the online forum to find that thousands of other players were also completely confused by the situation.
An official notice was released a few minutes later by Synctech.
[Sorry for the inconvenience, Blackfield Online servers have been shut down due to beta cancellation.]
[We hope you understand, thank you so much for playing our game!]
"..."
"What?!"
"My items! My character!"
"How did they not warn me?!"
The era of Power has come to an end.