Caden Hale woke with a start, his breath catching as he looked around his dimly lit apartment. The silence was deafening. His heartbeat was steady, but his mind raced, a whirlwind of confusion and uncertainty. What had happened last night? The events of the raid were a blur, a series of fragmented images—glitching lights, frozen moments, a strange voice, and then... nothing.
He sat up, running his hand through his disheveled hair, trying to piece together what he could remember. His body felt sore, a dull ache pulsing through his muscles, like he'd been through a marathon. But the headache was the worst—pounding behind his eyes, as if his mind had been stretched too thin, too fast.
Caden grabbed his phone from the bedside table and scrolled through the notifications. Messages, calls, and notifications from his team—all of them asking what happened, but there was no answer he could give them. No real answer.
---
His hand hovered over the game icon, but a nagging feeling held him back. Something wasn't right. His fingers hovered for a moment longer before he finally opened Eternal Dominion. The familiar login screen greeted him, but today, it felt... different. Almost foreign.
Caden closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. Focus. He'd never been one to run from problems. But this—this was bigger than anything he'd ever encountered. A power, a role he didn't understand, the blurring lines between the game and the real world... He didn't know where to begin.
---
The screen flickered as Caden logged into the game, his in-game character—Haldor the Bold—appearing in the familiar green hills of the starting zone. He flexed his fingers, testing the controller. He'd been in this game for months, but today, nothing felt normal. Every movement felt... too precise, too controlled. Like he was being watched.
Caden tried to shake off the feeling. He didn't want to be paranoid, but the voice that had spoken to him during the raid—the voice of the Gamekeeper—still echoed in his mind.
"You are the Gamekeeper. Protect the world, and in return, it will protect you."
He scrolled through his system interface, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling building in his chest. Everything looked normal. The stats, the items, the usual raid schedule for the day—nothing had changed. But he knew better than to trust appearances.
---
His inbox was flooded with messages from his team. Astra was the first to message him. Her words were sharp, demanding answers.
Astra: "Caden, what the hell happened in the raid last night? You froze time. You... changed everything. We need an explanation."
Lara's message was more concerned, though still inquisitive. She was always the level-headed one.
Lara: "Are you okay? You did something during the raid that... shouldn't have been possible. Are you hurt?"
Then came Kai, ever the joker, but the sarcasm was absent this time.
Kai: "Bro, you pulled some freaky stuff in the raid. What was that? It's like you had some god powers."
And finally, Selene. She was the most direct, and it was clear she wasn't buying whatever Caden was going to say.
Selene: "Stop messing around, Caden. What did you do? This isn't like you. We need to talk."
Caden stared at the messages, his heart sinking. There was no easy way to explain. How could he tell them that he wasn't sure of what had happened himself?
---
He hesitated before responding. He didn't know where to start. The truth—or some version of it—would only make things worse. They'd think he was losing it.
Instead, he sent a simple message to all of them:
Caden: "I don't know. But I'll figure it out. Just give me some time."
---
That was when it hit him. He had to understand what happened during that raid. He had to understand what he was now. Gamekeeper. It wasn't just some title—it was a responsibility, and that was something he couldn't ignore. Not anymore.
---
Later that night, back in-game, Caden stood in the middle of the ruins of an old temple. His fingers hovered over the interface as he took a deep breath. The world around him shimmered, as if waiting for him to do something. To unlock something.
Time manipulation. He focused, trying to remember what happened. In the raid, he had paused time. The world had frozen, and for a moment, he was the only one moving. He felt the power surge through him, like the entire game world bent to his will.
Okay, he thought, let's try it.
He pressed the button to pause time. For a moment, nothing happened. Caden frowned, then pressed it again. This time, everything around him froze. NPCs in the marketplace, animals running across the field—everything stopped, suspended in mid-motion.
Incredible. But it didn't feel like he was controlling it. It was more like... he was simply allowed to do it. Like the game itself was bending to his will.
Caden took a few hesitant steps forward, examining the frozen world around him. He raised his hand and touched the frozen forms of the NPCs. Their faces were frozen in place, their bodies locked in time. It was like being in a dream where nothing was real, but everything felt... too real.
---
Suddenly, a notification flashed on his screen.
"Power Usage: Critical."
Caden winced. The warning was clear—using his powers came at a cost. His vision blurred for a moment, and a sharp pain pulsed through his head.
Okay, not again, he thought. He deactivated the power, and the world resumed its usual pace.
But the feeling of being watched lingered. The voice, the glitching—whatever was happening, it was getting worse. Caden could feel it deep in his bones. Something was changing, and he didn't know how to control it.
---
The next morning, as Caden logged in, his inbox was filled again. The messages from the team had only grown more frantic.
Astra: "Caden, this has gone too far. We need answers. We can't keep covering for you."
Kai: "Dude, something's wrong. You're freaking me out. Are you in danger?"
Lara: "We need to fix this. Can you turn it off? Please, just tell us what's going on."
And then there was Selene.
Selene: "If you don't tell us what's really happening, I'll make you regret it. Don't push us away, Caden."
---
Caden didn't know how to answer them. His abilities were starting to feel less like a gift and more like a curse. The more he used them, the more it felt like he was losing control, like something bigger than him was at play.
Is it even me anymore? He wondered. Or am I just a puppet to this power I don't understand?
---
Later, during a raid, the consequences of his powers became clear. As they fought a new enemy, one Caden hadn't even seen in the raid's design, he realized that his abilities were starting to affect the game more than he intended. The environment shifted violently—terrain raised in unexpected ways, enemies appeared out of nowhere, and the system began glitching uncontrollably.
Astra shouted over the voice chat.
"Caden, what the hell is going on?! You did this, didn't you?!" Her voice was filled with panic.
The enemy towered over them—an enormous, glitching monstrosity that didn't belong in the raid. It was massive, its form flickering like a broken image, and it was strong—too strong for them to handle. The raid had already gone wrong, and now it was even worse.
Caden tried to stop it. He focused all his energy, but the pain was unbearable. His vision swam, his body trembling from the strain. He needed to act fast, or the team would be wiped out.
But the more he pushed, the more the world around him seemed to twist and fracture, like the fabric of the game was coming apart.