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 wonder how far I should go,' Tom thought, kicking away the nearest group of goblins as if they were some maquettes. Just a few hours ago, they still posed a serious threat to his health, yet now, they were nothing more but cannon fodder. 'It wouldn't be good if we were to appear too strong,' Tom thought, taking the future into account as he made his way through the swarm of monsters.

"URA!" Claudia shouted as soon as she joined Tom's side. Then, with no regard to her image, she started fisting away any enemy that was unlucky enough to get into her range. "What's holding you up?" she asked, turning her head around after grabbing one of the goblins and throwing it at the ogres at the front.

"Women..." Tom said, rolling his eyes. 'There goes my wish to keep a relatively low profile,' he thought, raising the speed at which he was mowing down the monsters.

"Just a little bit longer!" One of the people behind the monsters shouted.

Grim reminder