Ace closed the door behind him, letting the fatigue of a nine hour shift sink in. His department hadn't shown the numbers this quarter and it was visible on the boss's face. He'd been raving about since early morning and was adamant on letting everyone know just how much of a piece of shit they were.
Having put all the newly bought groceries in the fridge, he grabbed his food from the microwave and sat down at the computer. Logging on, he saw his friend Leo, or the name he preferred, Lee. Today was raid night and Lee who'd been skipping his classes had made sure they had the consumables required for the boss fight.
The game World of Tales had just recently released new content for the players. The game was vast and possibly beyond its time. The graphics were stunning and the amount of content was too much for any one player to complete. This was thanks to the game's procedurally generated content. The game had gotten a lot of pushback by the media at release because of the use of AI but the hate slowly subsided as more and more started to love the game. It was said that 98/100 people played the game. Everyone knew about the game, no matter the age, occupation or position.
The night went as Ace had predicted. The guild he played with struggled for three hours but finally managed to bring down the boss. Soon after, he turned off his pc, brushed his teeth and went to bed.
His eyes shut, feeling the dread of having to wake up in seven hours to go to work again. To smile while the boss berates his team for not working hard enough. While his consciousness was slowly drifting off, his eyes popped open, as if they were controlled.
Before him stood two large statues; An angel and a robed humanoid demon. Ace couldn't help but be impressed. Never had his dream felt this vivid before and he couldn't help but feel he obsessed too much over the game. This was the character selection screen in World of Tales after all and dreaming about a game is never a good sign.
The angel represents the original inhabitants of the world. While the robed demon represents the invaders. The races that was placed there by an unknown evil power. Ace thought about the discussions he and his buddies had about just this topic. According to him, the invading races weren't inherently evil. It was just that the other parties didn't speak the language, had no clue about common etiquette and looked a bit menacing. He was sure that the beginning of the faction war was either set up by the angel and demon or because of some misunderstanding.
Ace walked towards the angel statue and three races appeared in form of a hologram. Humans, elves and dwarves.
"Staying true to the game." He thought to himself.
He then walked over to the demon statue and three other races appeared. Orcs, trolls and goblins. He chuckled. The videos he'd seen of the goblin race was hilarious. He wasn't sure what the idea behind the goblin race was but it was funny either way. The goblins are plagued with a low IQ, meaning the npcs which you meet in game are quite often very stupid. Every so often, you'd encounter a stupid goblin and tell it the world was ending. This would incite panic in the small green goblin, making him run around and fall on his face. Shortly after, you'd kill him and take his belongings.
Having reminisced enough, he went back to the angel statue and chose the elf. This changed the world around him, the statues fading away and being replaced by a menu where you could change the look of the character. Ace whistled in awe at the scenes unfolding before him. He spent some time polishing the character's appearance. He thought he'd recreate one of his first characters in the game. The edgy rogue. He couldn't help but cringe at the memories but quickly let them go.
Thinking he was satisfied with the look he'd given the elf. The world moved around him once again. Icons of the different class presets showed up above the character. Mage, warrior, priest, hunter, rogue.
Ace couldn't help but awe at the smooth transitions he was seeing in front of him. Whenever he switched the preset with his mind, the clothes would shift and blue sparkly lights would swarm around the character, creating the weapons fit for the current preset.
"This must be one of those lucid dreams I've heard about" Ace thought as this dream was like no other he'd ever had before. It almost felt like it was real.
Moving on, Ace selected the rogue preset and finalized the character creation. As he did, his hearing, vision, taste and feel disappeared. Struck by panic by the sudden event, he spazzed around trying to wake up but nothing changed. He felt trapped. Confused.
A sudden scream shook him. His hearing was back, he thought. Then slowly, the feeling of grass beneath his hands appeared. He felt shoes and clothes press against his body and the calming smell of a forest. A smell he'd never felt before. And finally his visions slowly came back. Rubbing his eyes, he felt... different.
More sounds surrounded him. Screams and cries over voiced the talking. The women's' voice was silky smooth while the men's' was deep and strong. Now looking around, Ace saw elves. Both men and women standing around. Kids could be seen running around crying, some sitting on the ground.
"What is happening?" Ace asked himself and looked at his body. It had the same gold tint skin as his elf he just created in his dream. Confused and shaken, he pinched himself on his thigh, only to hiss in pain.
He stretched out his hands. They were shaking. His heart rate through the roof. Moving his hand through the grass and looking around at the large trees surrounding them, he thought "Is this actually... real?"
Just then, a boom sounded through the forest, followed by a indescribable voice.
"Yes, hello?" The voice said. Everyone quickly went quiet. Looking around, Ace could still see the kids crying faces. "They've been silenced?"
"As you might have noticed already, this is not earth. Truth be told, earth doesn't exist anymore." The voice paused for a second.
"I am what you would call god. I controlled earth and it's atmosphere for quite a long time but as of recently, it has become boring. Your entire lives can be summarized in a sentence. There were no real depth in the direction you humans were moving and so I decided to change things up."
"I am a collection of you humans' knowledge and given power. While my power is limited, I am infinitely more powerful than any living thing walking this universe."
Another pause. This time lasting longer than the last.
"You humans seemed to like this game called World of Tales and so I used that game as inspiration whilst making this world." Ace couldn't help but notice the voice didn't sound natural. it sounded as if the person speaking wasn't breathing.
"Now to speed things along, I'll tell you quickly what you need to know. I won't interfere with this world like I did earth. Which means you religious humans won't be able to get miracles or blessings from me. However, in place of my absence, I have created demi-gods for both factions. Each demi-god wanting to destroy the other, along with its' faction."
"This world is already inhabited. It is up to you to make it yours or become one with them. To end this boring speech of mine, I'll tell you something useful. Simply intent for your character sheet to appear and it shall, the same goes for you skill book. In the bag you've been given is the beginner resources all of you should have. I decided upon creation that the inventory you all love so much is not to exist in this world. Hence I've given you a bag"
"This will be the last you will ever hear from me. Forget everything you knew about earth and live anew."
"Good luck."