"How did it come to this..." I said as I gripped my abdomen to try to stop the blood from gushing out. I crawled from where I laid leaving a trail of blood trying to get to where she was, hoping she wasn't already dead. " Maribeth!!! " I yelled at the top of my voice hoping she could hear me. I believe the best way to start a story, is from the beginning

" beep...beep" I could hear the annoying sound of the alarm clock reminding me to get up and live my life , but I don't even know why I'd set an alarm to wake me up if I never even slept. " Finally...this is it " I said as I approached the final boss in the game I stayed up playing for 10 hours straight. " c'mon Ryder... don't fail me now" I said as I defeated the weak minions, I was actually gonna set a new record, at least I would've if the boss didn't end me the moment i saw him. " what the fvck...this shit is rigged" I said out of frustration. " I probably shouldn't have spent all that time playing games though " I said as I looked at the pig pen I called my room, then again its never been clean ever since I moved in. My name is Jacob myres and I live alone in my crummy apartment. My dad died when I was twelve and my mom's been in rehab ever since, that was five years ago though. My uncle's been sending me some cash ever since but I normally use it to buy games and forget about my shitty life. I'm actually a prodigy in school but I avoid socializing, the only friend I've ever known, is my smartphone.

" ughh " I sighed as I crashed into my bed. I scrolled my little phone to search for any new updates on any game, but to my luck, I've cleared every fucking one of them. " ugh, I've just realized how boring this world is, am I really gonna have to read a book to keep me busy " I said as I nearly had a mental breakdown, I've never gone a day without a game to play before, I felt like I'd just had an idea of how hell would feel like. " hmm, what's this " I said as a notification popped up on my screen. " skarr...what the fuck is that" I clicked it to see the most relatable advertisement ever.

' Games, we all love em don't we, the thrill, the action, the suspense, the ladies. But what's the biggest problem with any game, the fact that we're limited to your screen. " have you ever wanted to actually feel the games you play. Here at cortex industries we've developed the future of gaming, the very pinnacle of enjoyment, SKARR...' I stopped the ad before even finishing it. " no good money scammers, those are just VR googles, everyone's tried those" I said as I walked outside to get some fresh air. Normally when people walk outside, they go to meet their friends, family, everyone they call a loved one, but everything I could ever need is sitting in the palm of my hand. I've never really had faith in humanity ever since I was twelve. My dad was mugged and shot on the spot and my mom got into drugs to try to get over the pain of loosing a loved one, as a result she got forced into rehab by my uncle who dosebt even want me to live with him because of the many girls he brings home with him. Being known as the son of a drug addict isn't really an accolade though. I was avoided by every single one of the students in my school, everyone suspected that I also did drugs and would do some horrible things to them like any drug addict would. even the teachers were annoyed when I tried to ask questions in class, they said if I stopped taking those substances then maybe I'd understand better. because of all the discrimination, I decided to teach myself the lessons, I realized I was very good at it, I must have a pretty high IQ. No one was around to give me any life lessons so I learned everything I knew about the world through my phone and games. I learned how to manage money through online monopoly, I learned how to cook through YouTube, and I only made friends through simulators. You may think my life is trash, but I actually like it, people will only let you down, but the only time my phone let's me down is when the battery dies. " okay, this is getting annoying " I said to myself as I saw the amount if notifications telling me to bug skarr. " dumbass marketers" I said as I switched off my phone. I finally reached my destination, skizzers, the game store closest to my apartment, but I like to calk it heaven on earth. " good morning Sam" I greeted the cashier. "oh, hey Jacob, I didn't see you around here yesterday" said Sam the cashier and owner of the store. " yeah, I was just busy studying " I said. " you stayed up all night playing kings of war again didn't you" said Sam. " whatever..." I said as I browsed the collection. " you look like shit when last did you take a nap " Sam asked. " naps are for losers " I said " hey Sam, you got anything new around here" I asked as it seemed like I'd played it all. " actually yeah, I've got those new VR googles everyone's talking about" said Sam. " oh, you mean skarr. ion know what the big fuss is all about, they're just VR googles yunno" I said unimpressed. " actually I beg to differ, they have an inbuilt RPG game in them with its own world, its unlike anything you've ever seen before" said Sam. " huh... and how much is it" I asked. " its actually pretty cheap for VR googles...just 250 bucks" said Sam smiling. " ha...if I had 250 bucks right now I'd call myself a billionaire " I said as I walked out of the store. " why would you come here if you had no money in the first place you asshole... And get some sleep, you look like my sister" Sam yelled as I exited the store. " skarr huh " I looked at the notification in my screen, I was already hooked by the idea of a whole new world of gaming for me to dominate. I opened my contacts and tapped on my uncles number, I watched it ring for a while before ending the call. " no way I'm asking that asshole " I said " the game's probably not that good anyways" I said as I walked back home and crashed on my bed again. I've stayed up without sleep for so long that I'm already used to it. just then I received another notification, but this time it was different, it just said click me, which I naively did and it led me to my email. ' are you so broke that you can't afford skarr' read the message. " huh, is this a promo or something " I thought as I replied yes to the message. ' are you desperate for a new adventure' read the Next message. " wow, whoever did this game must've had me in mind" I said jokingly as I replied yes. ' does your nearest game store sell skarr at a price you can't afford ' read the next one. " okay, this is too accurate" I said as I replied yes. ' are you too proud to ask your uncle for cash ' read the last message. I immediately dropped my phone out of fear, I looked out the window to see if I was being stalked. out if fear I replied yes. just then a form came out for me to fill the blank spaces. I was asked to describe my favourite game and I entered ' kings of war' a bounty hunting game. just then I saw another question that I couldn't answer. ' who's your best friend ', After much thinking I entered ' my smartphone' and submitted and I immediately heard a knock on my door. I hesitated to answer but it just grew louder and louder to the point where my curiosity controlled my body to walk towards the door, I slowly twisted the doorknob and I headed my heart pounding with every passing second. I opened the door and to my surprise, no one was there, just a package was left behind. I took it in and locked the doors behind me. I slowly opened the package to find the skarr VR googles in them. " okay, what the fuck is going on here" I said with shock. I hesitantly put the googles on and pushes the little button by the side. just then a message popped up on the screen, it was the questions I filled with my respective answers. this was all very frightening to me and I reread it and stopped when I reached the question asking ' who's your best friend '. just then I calmed down. " these guys are a little extra, if they wanted to promote the game so bad they could've just made flyers, they probably asked for my best friend to link us up in the game but what're they gonna do when they see that my best friend's my smartphone, dumbasses" I said as I put on the gloves and suit that came with the package and clicked on submit. 'redirecting shortly' was the last message I read before everything turned extraordinarily bright and immediately got dark.

I opened my eyes to stare at the ceiling of my apartment in confusion. " wait...wasn't I just playing a game just now" I said to myself as I got up from my bed. " of course it was just a dream...that's what I get for staying up all night " I said as I reached for my smartphone and nearly got a heart attack when j saw what I was holding. " what the fuck Is this" I said as I looked at the object in my hand, it wasn't even a smartphone, it looked like those 1990's flip phones. I opened it and saw the weirdest message ever. ' welcome player ______' the obvious look of shock was displayed all over my face as I rushed out of my room to realize I wasn't in Minnesota anymore, everything looked more, futuristic. there were floating transparent tubes were a few feet above the road where objects that resembled small cars moved in at enormous speeds. the buildings looked like something out of a SciFi film, some of them had giant screens on them displaying the word SKARR. the sky was purple with no clouds and the roads were white and neat but the people were much weirder. There were men with purple Mohawks, green women, lizard humanoids and people with questionable fashion choices. I turned back to enter my apartment back but couldn't even find it anymore, what was behind me was just a blank wall. Just then I noticed that I looked like one of these weirdos too, for some reason I was wearing a black jacket with spandex trousers, a green shirt and black boots with black handgloves with space for the fingers. I walked around this new world in in shock to the extent that even I began to wonder if I did drugs without even knowing it. " oi " yelled someone from my back. I turned around to see a man in blue jeans and a red jacket with a black Mohawk. " is this you" he said as he showed me a picture of myself from his phone that looked exactly like the one in my pockets. " y-yeah, why'd you ask" I said in fear. just then the man gave the most sadistic smile and his phone began to morph into a handgun which he pointed at me " I've come to collect ya bounty " said the strange man.