Ep. 0 Prologue

"You really love games don'cha son, you're growing up to be just like your pops. Practice on Maplestory, then you'll move up to the big boy's league."

"ok~ay!"

A certain father-son duo was currently in the middle of a heart-warming reunion held in the backdrop of a deep dark, and foreboding graveyard. Despite the intermittent screaming and sounds of ripped flesh echoing in the not-too-distant background, the two stood upright and unafraid. The father of child laughed heartily, taking confident steps into the graveyard. The child, imitating his father, laughed out loud before following the back of his heroic father. As soon as they both entered, moans began to emerge from the earth as decomposed fingers penetrated the soft dirt of the graveyard.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

Three bright flowers lit up the graveyard, each blooming one after the other so quickly it appeared as if the three flowers bloomed at the same time. A hazy, gray smoke sizzled out of the heated muzzle that suddenly appeared from the slight opening of the father's cloak. Before the beings could show their face they were shot down.

The child's face showed that he was neither scared, nor was he amazed. The child had supreme confidence in his father—who, despite having a child early in his life, stood at the apex of his career. Instead, the child was focused. His eyes so clear and so eager to learn that they seemed to be lit aflame.

"Whoops, that was a little too instinctive—let me show you again how shoot a pistol. Remember that accomplished gunners should be able to shoot bullets accurately. Only when all the bullets are completely under your control does it really shine, the timing and speed of the consecutive shots can come later."

The father lectured the boy as he continued to fire at the ground. His gun was now displayed in the cold moonlight that peaked through the trees. The weapon had nearly no ornaments, it had a longer barrel then most pistols and it was nearly all black, save for a silver owl engraved on the handle. The pistol exuded simplicity and elegance. It was a weapon specifically made for the hands that held it and the engraving was the symbol of the man it belong to.

The muzzle continued to roar, as if proclaiming that not a single being should ever hope to leave the ground while that gun was in these hands. The beings of the graveyard were here to become learning material, in return they were graced with His bullet.

"The wraiths will begin to appear here now— you must remember to use the correct tools for any situation."

Screams were heard from the morgue up ahead, the doors bursted open and dozens of ghosts flooded out. The child gulped. His eyes were practically glowing at this point.

"And, admittedly this is one of my weaker points. But this is how you manage recoil on automatics. It's all about rhythm~"

The black gun in his hands was replaced by the rifle hanging off his back. The pace of the battle was completely dictated by a single man. With a small smirk on his face, the trigger was pulled.

DDU-DDU-DDU-DDU!

Empty shells littered the floor around the man, such a large amount of expensive bullets would've brought tears to the average person; still, it's effectiveness was proved by the aftermath of the initial volley. Each shot pierced through multiple heads—before long, there were more wraiths dying than shells lying on the damp floor. In the hands of a professional, each bullet seemed to be alive. Bloodthirsty and driven with intent. Within a couple of seconds, there were more and more etherial corpses piling up on the floor, the boy's eyes were darting back and forth, trying their best to absorb everything in their sight.

Although most of it was happening too fast for a child to keep up, experience was playing its part. Unbeknownst to his father, every so often the child would 'see' a faint spot that would appear on a monster's head. Moments later, a hole appeared on in the head of the monster where ever that spot was. A sense of accomplishment would arise every time he could see this, it was one of the only times he would be able to see into the world of his hero's. As days became weeks and weeks became months, the eyes of this child were slowly trained to peer into this fast-paced world. Spots began to get tighter as his prediction's accuracy increased; however, before the child could mature a darkness swallowed up the ground.

Shadows darted all around the graveyard, reaching all the way to the father, who was still firing away at the wraiths. Suddenly, the father that was within his arm's reach seemed miles away as everything began plunge in an infinite black, taking his father out of almost out of eyesight. The shadows cackled as their tendrils wrapped around his father.

"MMMMM MMMMMM"

The child tried screaming, but the darkness blocked his mouth. Before everything was swallowed up by the endless black, his father's confident thumb stuck upward.

Don't worry...

I'll see you soon...

*******

A slight humming and occasional tapping accompanied a small child with black hair in the middle of a hot, summer night. The eyes on the young teen were the same as the little child's, but it was missing the fire that burned in his eyes. Rather, it was cold, tired, and now shaken. The screen of the computer displayed Maplestory circa early 2000's, a game over a hundred years old.

A rhythmic tapping preceded long lines of numbers, each the same as the line above and below it. The small pixelated character wrecked havoc on a small platform surrounded by equally pixelated monsters. The programmed damage cap and pixelated graphics were reminiscent of an era that was rarely talked about in this day and age. Trembling hands peaked out of the sides of the blanket that hung over his scrawny shoulders, reaching towards a glass of water on the desk. As the hands touched the cool glass, it paused. Instead of drinking the water, the boy shivered and looked back at the screen.

The information on the screen indicated the dedication the skinny boy had put into this outdated game.

[JaeFresh lv. 200]

Like most of his characters, Jae used his real name as part of his character's name. Though, it didn't really matter since the game itself had stopped its service nearly a decade ago, and Jae was the sole person on the server. Unsurprising, considering the emergence of VR gaming and other higher-spec PC games; although most of VR wasn't the perfect experience everyone imagined in the past, it was more than enough—the E-Sports and live streaming viewers grew larger each year. Unfortunately, the last time Jae tried playing VR, he had a severe panic attack and threw up in the capsule.

To. This. Day. He was called Stewy. Short for Vomit Stew. Short for never-going-to-have-a-social-life.

Of course, if it ended at that it wouldn't have been a problem. The problem was Jae was also a mute. It was the perfect recipe to become a social outcast. Even bullies avoided him because Jae couldn't give them the response they wanted.

Socially exiled, Jae numbly played a dead game instead, until late at night. It was mild and laid back—focusing on grind and farming. Nearly without friends, the boy played on his own private server, built by his parents years ago for fun. Over the years, he had finally reached lvl.200 on every character class.

After 5 years of dedicated grinding, late last night, Jae finally accomplished his goal: level 200 on every class. Even more surprising, a private message arrived as soon as he hit level 200. The sender was a character registered on the server, but should've never been in use.

[From: Artes]

It was the username of his father. Jae nearly had a panic attack and avoided the game altogether for an entire day. He had logged on a few minutes ago to make sure he was hallucinating.

Sure enough, the message was still there. Gulping loudly, Jae clicked on the message, opening up onto the center of his screen.

[My Baby J,

Or should I be calling you Jae now? Congratulations on the truly miraculous feat, as expected of my son! I should have sent you a package, and it'll arrive the next day, depending on where you were when you beat the game.

I would've sent it to you regardless when you were 18, but if you've gotten to 200 on every character… I'm worried you're spending too much time alone… so I sent you the package early. You should be around 16 or 17 right?

Then…]

Jae read the entire letter once, then just stared at his screen. The letter was more or less instructions, no explanation nor closure. It was all too cryptic for Jae. No matter how many times Jae read the letter, it was no use. At first he was angry, believing it was a prank; however, the letter was absurdly detailed and it was evident that a lot of care and effort went into the letter. It was that ridiculous. Given what it wanted Jae to do, Jae was convinced the entire fiasco was ripped right out of a conspiracy book.

Jae looked at his desk, on the far corner was a package that arrived earlier that morning. It had stamps from all over the world, and the box itself was basically held together by the numerous stamps. Again, the effort was too much to simply be called a prank at this point.

Especially for someone like him. Jae was now an orphan, living as a ward of the state following his father's disappearance. He lived in a home full of children like him, the Forgotten Children.

Jae turned his head and opened tore open the package. Underneath was a black box, metallic, and expensive. There was a small thumbprint scanner near the handle. Shrugging, Jae cautiously put his thumb into the scanner.

click.

The box opened reveal a single thing, carefully placed at the center. It was a smaller, glossier black box with an owl engraved in silver, and below that an edgy icon of a meteor. It was even more noticeable than the owl despite being cheaply printed onto the case. The meteor was the logo of "Starfell"—a relatively new game that took the world by storm when a company that no one has heard of suddenly released a VR platform. Many, including various counties, tried investigating the origins of this mysterious company. It only led to published articles that supported the existence of the company for many long years; it was just perfectly under the radar before "suddenly" discovering the key to The Perfect Dive, the term programmers and scientists used to describe a VR experience that fully connected every sense to a realistic degree inside a virtual world.

Up until that point companies had only pieces of the whole puzzle. The developers of "Starfell", Empyr, broke all previous sales records as nearly half the earth at least tried the game. Jae looked back at his screen, the detailed information written in the letter all pertained to Starfell. Though it all assumed it he finished his goal when he was 16 at the earliest. In reality, Jae was only 13.

'No way… right?'

Jae looked at the simple clock hanging off his closet door. '5:00AM' was displayed in a dull, red LED. It was too late to go back to sleep, but it was too early to do anything else. He quietly got up from his bed to wash his teeth.

As he slowly brushed his teeth, Jae stared at the calendar just opposite from him. Today was career day and it was the last day to choose what highschool he wanted to go to; if he chose to dorm, this would be last time he would come back to this place. Of course, the board had to agree first before he could actually go. Jae looked over at his bed. It was actually a bunk bed, and the top bunk was occupied by another kid about the same age as Jae. He was the only one who could sleep in the room with Jae since he was constantly waking up from nightmares gasping. Here, the boy on the top bunk was called the "Sleeping Beauty" because once he fell asleep it was nearly impossible to wake him up, but Jae secretly labeled him Stank because he could smell him from the bottom bunk.

Jae inwardly prayed that Stank wouldn't wake up and he grabbed a piggy bank from under his bed, hidden in a bunch of towels. It was all the allowance he saved from the checks he received from the government. Without unwrapping the bank he grabbed the small hammer he left next to the piggy and swiftly brought it down in a smooth motion. He unravelled the towel to reveal the savings he accumulated doing odd jobs throughout the years. Jae peered over the top bunk after shoving the money in his pocket.

A dark shadow looked over the bed right in front of his eyes, growling as he loomed over Jae. Shocked, Jae nearly tumbled backwards. He caught himself with the best post, but nearly fell onto his ass after realizing that Stank was just snoring.

Jae snorted as he grabbed the jacket that was hanging off the chair and tucked both the letter and the black case into his jacket. He screen-shotted the letter on the screen and moved it onto a portable drive. Without looking back, Jae quickly left the room and exited the building. Right as he stepped out, he was greeted by the crack of dawn and the embers deep in his eyes, once more, began to light.