A large modern apartment's lights were still lit on the quiet avenue of Morningstar Road. It was already 2 AM, but yet the occupant was still awake past normal hours. That occupant's name was Adam Rytner, a high school teacher at Rogers Arkansas Highschool. He sat in a small home office, finishing up grading test papers for his classes. He looked to be in his late twenties in age, caucasian, sharp nose, a strong build with well-developed muscles, brown hair, and a steady demeanor. If he stood up, he would stand taller than most other men by a few inches. He was a well-rounded and confident man who was in the prime of his life.
As Adam finished grading test papers, he set aside his work and switched his computer over to play a game before he slept. It was routine for him to play a game or two of chess against someone online, or a deck builder game like Slay the Spire that could let him relax and unwind after a long day. Today, he decided he would opt for a card game in his game library that he hadn't tried before. His actions moved with purpose through the library of games he had available until his attention stopped over one.
'Meritorious'
He attempted to recall when he had downloaded this game because he didn't recognize it among the others. Its icon had an image of a deck of cards with different patterns on the back. It had no description or any links on the download store that he usually visited for games. This made him curious, so he clicked on the game icon of the deck and waited for the game to load.
The game loaded almost immediately and it didn't have any loading screens or menus. It directly switched to a screen of a floating deck of cards. Above the deck, a prompt stated for him to click to 'Start the game and draw a card'. Adam glanced around the interface of the game to see if he could find a help menu before playing. He was always one to read the rules and instructions of games first before playing. But he couldn't find any other option than to draw a card on the prompt to start the game.
He clicked on the deck to draw a card and a game animation played while the deck of cards shuffled. Then a short line of text appeared and faded out describing how to win the game during the shuffling. 'Match 1 Card type of each set to complete the Game.' the text described. It still wasn't clear what this meant, but it would be clear eventually. Adam watched the shuffle animation come to an end and one more prompt of text asked him to confirm his choice.
'Are you sure you want to draw a card?'
There were two options below it saying 'Yes' and 'No'. Adam selected 'Yes' and waited.
['1' card has been drawn. ]
[A card has been revealed.]
Two lines of text appeared and disappeared like an MMO chat at the bottom left of the screen, logging the progression of events. The card then flipped over in a slow animation, revealing itself.
{
[A Bright Light In Darkness]
(1) Bright Scenario Card
In a land of chaos magic, lawless rules, and kingdoms have long since collapsed in the apocalypse, but for one: Baemon. With the planet overrun with chaos-spawned horrors, hope is dim in this world. But fate has not ended here, the world-will reaches out across universes in search of a soul that can save what is left. You are that chosen soul.
Card Effects:
Fated Soul (Bright card effect) -> Drastically increased luck while in this scenario.
Ongoing -> No scenario cards may be drawn until this one is completed.
Limit -> 3 Card draw limit is imposed while within the scenario.
Bright -> Your next card has a higher chance of being Dim.
}
The card had beautiful art drawn below the title 'A Bright Light In Darkness' of a man holding a blue lantern at the edge of a foggy cliff. The lantern swayed slightly in the picture on the screen, making the entire art look even more realistic from the slight movement. Adam read the card slowly, but he still felt confused about the card's effects. The card floated up to the top left of the screen and seemed to be set aside to show that he was 'within' a scenario. He moved his attention back to the deck of cards and attempted to click on it to draw another card. But he could not and a timer prompt displayed above it showed that he could not draw another card for 719 hours and 58 mins, which was a month's time.
"Is this one of those waiting and time-based games? No, thank you." Adam shook his head and yawned.
He closed the game 'Meritorious' and got himself ready for sleep. It was already past 2 AM and he didn't want to ruin his sleep schedule any more than he already had. He climbed into bed and slept off after his bedtime routine. His last thoughts before Dreamland were trying to remember where he had downloaded the game. These were also his last thoughts while on earth as he didn't seem to notice a fog coming from under his bedroom door and a blue lantern light flickering from under the door.