From “10 Great Moments in Gaming History vol. 2” published on March 13th, 2037

  Light flickered on revealing a simple room environment with riveted steel walls. Standing at the center was a simple mannequin avatar with a twisted smiling face painted on its ovoid head. The head cocked to the side and the mannequin templed its hands before it as a flat emotionless voice said, “Welcome to our series of Sett streams about great events in gaming history. I am your host, Ryse.”

  The walls around the figure flickered and changed to a view flying over a landscape of forests and plains as Ryse spread their arms open, “Today we are going to be discussing a controversial figure in VR gaming history. No one can deny, however, that he was one of the greatest players to play the game.”

  The mannequin gestured toward its feet and skin started to manifest up its legs revealing white and gold robes with intricate runes, a twisted staff adorned with a magical orb, and the features of a roguishly handsome middle aged man with silver hair and dark eyes. Ryse offered the camera a thumbs up and said, “My modeler did a hell of a job, don’t you think? Today’s topic is Archmagus Voss, formerly of Eternal Online, and played by legend and pariah VossHallVox.”

  Ryse continued, their voice still flat and emotionless, as they raised a hand, “I would ask Rysons in the chat to keep negative comments about The Vox to a minimum. All of his faults aside, let's show some respect for one of the greatest.”

  The facsimile of Voss put a hand to its heart and then continued with a smile, “You know the process. We take the capture from one of our subject’s sessions and we put our avatar into the simulation. The audience gets to experience what it was like in The Vox’s rig on that fateful day, and we may do some pausing to get a real sense of the events.”

  “A lot of you are going to recognize this situation immediately but this was all captured on August 3rd, 2032, during the Eternal Endless Event. Players were tasked with taking down a Celestial Dragon Server Boss in a zone flagged for player versus player combat. At this point in the capture Voss’ teammates have all been wiped out by a rival guild and they have chosen to focus down the dragon rather than hunt him down. Let’s roll,” they raised their hands and snapped their fingers, changing the viewpoint to one hovering over what appeared to be the blasted surface of an asteroid.

  A star in the distance cast off blue light.

  A planet much like Earth floated in the distance nearer to the battered rock.

  The drifting avatar raised his arm and checked his statistics. Both health and mana seemed to be about half and his potion timer was at five minutes. After a moment the avatar cast a pair of spells to refresh his spells of flight and air breathing. He flicked his way through his remaining buffs and, seeming to accept their current levels, summoned his staff before hurtling off over the landscape of the asteroid.

  Spotting a figure rising above the horizon of the asteroid the avatar made a casual gesture and thrust out its staff in the their direction. A magic spell manifested around the distant figure, so deeply black that it stood out against the empty space behind it. It sharply snapped in around the distant figure and burst. The target tried to raise a defensive spell in response but the edges of the void swept in and tore their form apart in seconds.

  The avatar flew through the tattered remains of his foe and burst over the side of the asteroid to look down at the kilometer long dragon and the tiny mosquito-like dots representing other players drifting around it. Flashes of energy burst against the massive serpent in all types of vivid shapes and colors.

  The avatar studied the situation for a few moments and then turned to look back at the asteroid. Vox’s voice could be heard in the feed saying, “I have an insane idea. No idea if EO would even program this in. Wish me luck Syd.”

  The response was not audible. The avatar flew upward and back above the asteroid. He seemed to study the distant combat and the dragon for a long moment and then adjusted his location just past the floating rock. Checking his aim with an outstretched arm, the avatar flew over the edge of the giant planetoid, whipping a slender hand back and forth into the rock sending cascades of green light through the stone like a hot knife through butter.

  As the avatar reached the far side it became completely clear what he had done. Voss flew back over the now dislodged one hundred meter long stone that used to be the edge of the asteroid, now drifting away from the bulk and into empty space.

  The avatar took one more glance at the track of the giant dragon and those still attacking it and then flew down between the ‘ammunition-to-be’ and its parent asteroid. With a flourish he cast a spell that sent radiations of energy flying off his body. Just the casting of the spell pushed the giant rock further away. With a roar of anger the avatar flew into the massive stone directing it from memory toward the massive melee.

  When the giant rock was already moving away at increasing speed another spell was cast. The sonic spell exploded into the rock and sent it rocketing away toward the distant targets.

  The avatar took off after the massive projectile, staying hidden behind the impromptu one hundred meter wide shield. After a few long moments screams of surprise filled the void as experience markers started to burst into the upper left of the avatar’s view. Voss crested the hurtling meteorite toward the dragon, the avatar spun and fired high powered ray spells toward the confused enemies around him.

  The stunned enemies recovered quickly and threw up shields of various magical hues and manifested spells toward the Archmage. The avatar weaved amidst the magical attacks his shields could not handle. A ray of green light from his palm reduced an enemy to ash, another burned through a lower level player’s stomach and left him lifeless and floating in the dark.

  Two warriors with heavy swords and a rogue with a pair of curved daggers swept in to engage in melee. Voss activated a once per day power. A nova of arcane energy burst outward and blasted several of the attackers apart leaving only two of the heavily wounded warriors to try and right themselves.

  At that moment the massive stone collided with the dragon and burst apart. The health bar representing its current status plummeted from thirty two to seven percent. Voss chose to ignore the incoming attackers, only casually tossing off a ray or explosive spell to slow down or remove an annoying low-level group.

  An arrow burned through one of the avatar’s shields and impacted his shoulder causing the health bar in the upper right to plummet.

  The recording paused as the avatar looked in the direction the arrow had come from. A distant speck that was only barely visible was highlighted as Ryse said, “That’s a famous Sett streamer named Lymon. He and the Vox were actually pretty good friends. Lymon headed the second largest guild in the game before the Cameron Lake era began in the game. Well known as a crazy good archer, and a nice guy to boot.”

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  The stream began again and Voss spun through the void with a curse before flying directly into a fast approaching group of low level players. Arrows trailed him, several exploding into clouds of green writhing liquid that drifted after the fleeing avatar.

  As the Archmage flew into the group of players he took several hits, but little damage. The avatar activated a freezing nova and instantly froze the entire group of low level players. Most were undamaged but Voss left them as a guard against Lymon’s arrows as he flew down toward the dragon.

  The avatar pulled a small black stick covered with runes from his inventory and snapped it in half. A massive beam of green light burst from his hands downward into the long serpent, leaving a bright blue scar across its body as it seared through another chunk of health.

  Several spell projectiles hammered into the shield around Voss, sending blue cracks through it as he flew downward toward the dragon watching his health and mana start to bottom out. He slammed his mana potion with a curse, “Health is for fucking losers,” as he manifested a massive mana intensive spell, a ball of blinding white light built between his hands into a sphere.

  His health plummeted as he was rocked by several heavy strikes in a row.

  Before his health could bottom out he leveled his cupped hands toward the distant shape of the celestial dragon. The point of the blast lanced into the scales of the monster with seemingly no effect.

  He grimaced as his health dropped into the double digits.

  With a deafening crack the dragon below them started to fall apart. Windows started to fill the screen with gem level ups and loot drops for the event. With the end of the event all effects and health loss was suspended and Voss drifted backward and closed his eyes darkening the stream until a voice spoke up next to him, “My next arrow was going to blow your head off.”

  He looked over at the green cloaked archer and spoke softly, “If I wouldn’t have dropped an asteroid on everything you guys would have had it.”

  Lymon smirked and gestured over his shoulder into the void, “Are we invited to the celebration?”

  Voss chuckled and gave the archer a fistbump as he said, “Brother, was there ever any question? That was a good showing out there. Tell your people that I am telling them to give your people priority for grouping for the next month.”

  The Archer chuckled and added, “See you at the party bud.”

  The avatar nodded as the void around them emptied of players and the dragon exploded and drifted apart below them.

  When he was finally alone Voss said, “These are the moments. Nothing is worth it without moments like this.”

  The stream paused with the avatar overlooking the massive void with the distant blue star and the planet below. The dragon was in the midst of falling apart and drifting into the dark.

  Ryse turned and offered a sad smile to the audience as he said, “A bit sad knowing what would come later for Malcolm Voss aka “VossHallVox”, but a lesson about the dangers of reaching the top.”

  Ryse looked out over the virtual starfield and said, “It’s a long way down.”

  –

  I sat up in the twin bed in my old room with a start. Faint light was shining through the slatted window shade. I rubbed my face with a yawn trying to remember how much I had to drink the night before.

  Staring up at the ceiling, I rasped out a question, “Lydia, what time is it?”

  “It’s 5:30 am sugar.”

  Groaning, I swung my feet out of the bed and put my hands on my knees. A platinum ring glinted on my right ring finger. Raising an eyebrow, I muttered, “Where did…”

  “Is something wrong Darlin?”

  When I looked away from the ring, it vanished from the surface of my thoughts and I dismissed Lydia’s question and shook my head as I groaned, “No, nothing.”

  Snatching a bottle of water from the bedside table, I took a swig and asked, “What time is Mr. Speers supposed to be here today Lyd?”

  “I believe he mentioned that he would be here at 8 am.”

  Taking a deep breath I steadied myself and climbed out of bed to make my way to the restroom across the hall. Making my way to the sink, I wet my hands to wash my face and studied my haggard features. My thick reddish brown hair was tousled and unkempt. My slate gray eyes were framed by dark circles reflecting the exhausting struggles of the last few weeks. My olive complexion was starting to pale from the hours I’d spent inside my family’s old home preparing it to be sold in the coming weeks. I splashed a second handful of water onto my face and muttered through my fingers with a groan, “Why did I agree to such an early meeting?”

  My ever present AI was as saccharine as ever, “Not sure sweetie!”

  “You also have a meeting with that young woman that Mrs. Moore hired to clean the house twice a week,” she reminded me as I headed to the kitchen to take out the trash.

  My voice was a raspy growl as I waved a dismissive hand at the ceiling, “Stop trying to make me responsible.”

  –

  Doctor Waters gave me a wry smile from the giant monitor on the wall above and shook her head slowly, “I think we need to talk about Sydney, Malcolm.”

  Sniffing, I kept my eyes down. The three drinks I had that morning had done nothing to kill the edge and I worked my jaw before answering, “You know Doc, I did want to talk to you about something.”

  I idly spun something on my ring finger and rolled my shoulders.

  The Doc spoke, “Malcolm I don’t…”

  I cut her off, “I’ve been angry.”

  “Malcolm, we all get angry…”

  Shaking my head, I barely restrained a growl in my voice as I kept my eyes down and continued, “It just started. I’ve had my issues since the tournament but it was never anger. A few days ago I woke up and I was just furious. Do you know what’s the weirdest thing about it?”

  Looking up I locked eyes with her, she had an extremely concerned look on her face as I continued, “I don’t know why. It’s not about the tournament. It’s not about Sydney. It’s not about Cameron Lake. I swear it’s not even about the hate mail and death threats.”

  “Where do you think the anger comes from?”

  I grimaced, grinding my teeth so hard that they ached as I hissed and wrung my hands, “I. don’t. know.”

  Taking a steadying breath and clasping my hands in a white knuckled grip I said, “I know you want me to call her. I know that I’m being unfair but… I don’t want her to hear me like this. I’m afraid of what’s happening to me.”

  –

  Jaime Speers smiled at me with that too wide mouth and sipped my gram’s tea blend as he said, “It’s a dark horror single player VR game.”

  Looking at the man again I averted my eyes. Being non confrontational was not like me but ever since he had walked up the front walk to my front door something about the Catacomb manager had raised my ire. Looking at his smile and slightly vacant eyes incited all the anger I had been struggling with over the last few weeks. Despite that anger, I needed this job and it was not like there had not been other people to instantly goad me like this with their simple presence.

  Cameron Lake existed after all.

  Spinning the ring on my finger, I subconsciously enjoyed the reminder that it was there and manifested my best business smile as I chuckled, “Well, I’m best with VRMMO’s but I can’t say I haven’t played my fair share of single player games. Back in the day I did some pretty popular playthroughs of souls-likes.”

  Speers gestured to me with his cup, “We’ve seen some of them. A lot of the guys at the office are excited to see what you can do with what we’ve developed so far.”

  “I’m just glad to be getting paid to do something I love.”

  One of the towering technicians made their way upstairs and said, “We’ve finished up Mr. Speers.”