MotivatedSloth

"Hello, sir. Are you cashing out or leveling up?"

Dungeons Online was the first game that cracked the system. Let nerds earn by nerding, and they will nerd forever. And Dungeons Online did just that. 

Noobs turned into middle-class workers. Pro-players turned into celebrities and multi-millionaires. 

And there was Tom. Likely, the only top ranker that lived off the scraps and cat-food. A courtesy of his father that went and disappeared, leaving Tom with just enough money to survive until his graduation. Until the day where the option of cashing out would appear.

Dungeons Online. A game where developers never shared a single bit of information. A game where the death of one's avatar is permanent. A game that can turn a beggar into a lord just as quickly as turning a celebrity into nobody. 

But where does all this money comes from? How is it connected to the unnatural disaster that all governments across the world buried any information off? And how is this all connected to Tom's missing father?

Dungeons Online

"I'm ready," Claudia said, shaking her hands to warm them up for a fight.

"Don't be so hasty," Tom countered, shaking his head. "We still have yet to see the boss," he added, smashing the blunt end of his spear into the head of the last monster that stood in their way. "Depending on what it is, we will still take our time to figure out how to fight with it," Tom warned the girl, putting a hand on her shoulders just to make sure he would go in the corridor first.

"Sure, sure, there is never too much caution in the dungeon," Claudia replied with an amused smile.

'She is really treating this place too lightly,' Tom thought with worry, heading towards the gate beyond which the boss room would start. Even though this was the floor that he only rarely visited, he was more than aware of the exact layout of it.

Unexpected encounter