Lucas was your average college student—or so he liked to believe. Balancing his engineering classes with late-night gaming sessions had become second nature over the years. At 21, Lucas had it all mapped out: graduate with honors, land a solid engineering gig, and maybe—just maybe—turn his curiosity for futuristic tech into something groundbreaking. After all, Interstellar Battlefront, his favorite MMORPG, had inspired his entire career path.
The game wasn't just a pastime; it was a world he'd lived in for the past decade. From mastering intricate ship mechanics to designing weapons systems that pushed his character to the brink of perfection, Lucas had devoted countless hours to his bounty hunter persona. The irony, of course, was that he'd accidentally made the character too good-looking. Every time he looked at the impossibly handsome face in his profile—sharp jawline, piercing eyes, tousled hair that seemed to defy gravity—he cringed.
"Seriously, why did I think this was a good idea?" Lucas muttered one night, staring at his character's profile in the ship's cockpit. He had considered deleting the character once or twice, but after grinding for ten years and earning a coveted spot in the top 100 on the Universal Wild Release Leaderboards, it was hard to let go.
His friends often teased him during their gaming sessions.
"Yo, Lucas, your character's a thirst trap," one of them joked in their squad's chat.
"I don't know, man. I think he looks better than you IRL," another chimed in, earning a groan from Lucas.
But behind the jokes and late-night raids, Lucas loved the game for what it was: an endless galaxy of possibilities. He'd explored uncharted planets, taken down space pirates, and fine-tuned his ship, The Valkyrie, to near perfection. Even so, after a decade of updates, reboots, and expansions, the game was starting to lose its spark.
That night, after finishing a particularly grueling bounty mission with his crew, Lucas leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"Alright, I'm logging off," he said, rubbing his tired eyes. "Got a project due tomorrow anyway."
But before he powered down his rig, a thought struck him. He pulled out his unfinished homework and stared at the blueprint for a propulsion system he'd been working on for weeks. It was due in a few hours, and while most students would've rushed through it, Lucas relished the challenge.
"Just a few tweaks," he whispered to himself, letting the ideas flow. His mind wandered as he worked, merging the concepts from his studies with the intricate systems he knew so well from Interstellar Battlefront. The lines between fiction and reality blurred.
Somewhere around 3 a.m., his head finally hit the desk. His laptop screen dimmed, his game still running in the background, and his project half-finished.
Lucas drifted off into an uneasy sleep, his dreams filled with swirling stars and the faint hum of ship engines. The world around him felt like it was spinning.
...
When he woke up, everything felt…different.
He stretched, expecting the familiar discomfort of his dorm room bed. Instead, his muscles felt refreshed, his body energized like never before. Groggily, he opened his eyes, a yawn escaping his lips.
But as he turned toward the window, his yawn caught in his throat.
The view wasn't the cluttered college campus he was used to.
Instead, there was a blinding sun—floating in the vastness of space.
"…What the fuck?"