I never thought it would be like this. I was paralyzed and was defenseless, my sword lying uselessly in my left hand. I looked down to see Jorge standing over me, sword in hand, ready to strike. "Why, do you keep challenging me?" His eyes were full of hatred. "You should know, I, and I alone rule this world." He stabbed me in the stomach, canceling out my Battle-Regen skill. "You thought you can beat my world? You thought you can beat ME?" He pulled his sword out and stabbed me repeatedly, over and over. My HP drained with every hit. My armour doing nothing with his sword. My vision went into the red zone. I watched in horror as my HP slowly hit zero, and i felt myself shatter.

"C'mon guys, this is our last chance to beat this guy." I said into the headset. "Heck yeah, cause we are giving up on these old games!" Somebody said. "A.R.K. For the win!" Someone else yelled, hurting my ears. "Can you yell any louder, Zack?" I told him and he sighed. "What's the point of being hype for this stuff if we can't yell, Cam?" I pressed a button on the keyboard and moved forward in-game. "Come on, dudes. We gotta do this." And i started running. I put my eyes into the eyes of my avatar, and pretended i was actually there. I was running toward a tunnel that leads underground, a DLC dungeon. Apparently a new boss was added and he was tough to other players. As i stood on the rim of the cavern, players with weakling armour ran out. The text below asked for help, and it was from them. I simply dropped some health packs and walked forward. They must've stumbled onto this thing, not knowing. "Hey, Cam! Wait up!" This was Ren, my child hood friend. She picked up a love for games as soon as she picked up the first controller. I looked behind me. "Well, hurry up." She ran up, her avatar not even fazed by the long running. "Well, we weren't lucky enough to get Lightning boots from some market, so we have no choice!" I waved her statement out of the way. "Whatever, ready for this thing?" Zack caught up with us. "Do we even know what this thing is?" I looked in my inventory and found a DLC guide i bought from a game-breaker, players who record info on everything, like Bosses, Items, or even simple updates in the market. I read it. "He is called PumpkinHead, and apparently he spreads a contagious disease that slowly drains Health and Mana, so don't get too close." I looked up. "He mostly uses a few destruction magic spells, so he can't be that bad." I turned toward the big door. It was made of some sort of Iron and Wood, both blacker than my armour, the NightinGale. I ran into the door and passed through it, like it was water. I was on the other side, and blue flames showed up around me. Wow, i thought, this guys doesn't waste time. And the flames exploded. I jumped into the air and vaulted myself at him. He was about 5 times taller than me, and he was all halloween themed, Pumpkin for a head, Bat-necklace around his neck. I took the first strike in the chest, but didn't stop. My weight sent me flying at him. I attacked him, over and over. I saw my health slowly drain, but somehow pop back up. I took the time in between strikes to see Ren with her hand out, healing magic flying at me in bolts. Zack on the other hand was blasting fire as the thing was trying to grab it's buckler, a small shield that can block most projectiles. I kicked it away from his grasping hand, and i cut into it. I pulled my sword out and cut into it more. It howled in pain as fire and my blade bombarded it. Finally, it slowed and fell on the ground. And i was back in my place at the computer. "Heck yeah! We did it dude!" Zack hollored. And i heard slight stomping of his ridiculous victory dance he does. I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "And now, we officially upgrade. You guys ready?" I heard a squeak of zack sitting down in his chair. "Yep, three years worth of work, get ready guys, this is big." I opened the pause menu and exited the game. On the character selection screen, a red button hovered over it. The deletion button. "Here we go, everyone ready?" I pressed it and a prompt popped up. Are you sure you want to delete? And i put my cursor over the button yes. "God, this is it guys." I heard ren speak. "Yeah, but think of it as a… prestige reset." I told her. "Three, Two… One…" And we all pressed yes. And they were gone. "There. Done." I said, and then backed off the computer. I checked my clock on my dresser. 3:48. Almost time. "12 minutes 'till it starts. Crash gear on." I told them. I looked to my dresser and saw a sleek black helmet that covered the head and face, and beside it was a small game cartridge with a cable link. I put the game in and connected the wire to the Crash gear. I spoke into the headset one more time. "See you on the other side.'' And two voices spoke back at the same time. "And on the other side, we will see you!" And the connection was cut. I put on the helmet and turned it on. Here we go. I thought to myself. I pressed a small button on the side of my helmet and i blacked out with a flash of color.

I woke up standing. A black room with oranges streaks is what i saw. A keypad appeared and a female voice spoke over an intercom. "Please input your new username." I walked up to the keypad and put in cameron. I hit the right arrow and the voice spoke again. "Please input your character looks." And an avatar shown in front of me. It was 5 foot tall and had dark hair. A generic face with blue eyes. "Whatever." And i just selected that. "Thank you. The official release will be in T minus seven minutes, please wait in the plaza." And a blue flash surrounded me. I exited the warp 3 feet in the air, and i fell face first. I tried standing up, but felt dizzy. A menu appeared in front of me. It read: If you are new to the full-dive headset, you may experience nausea or dizziness. This will wear off over time. I swiped it away. I looked around for my friends. And saw no sign of them. I took this opportunity to look around and meet others. I looked at the top left of my vision, where i saw a green bar. The name Cameron was over it. This must be my HP. I saw 2048/2048. Yep, HP. A light blue bar shown underneath it. That must be my stamina points, seeing is how there is no magic in the game, only melee weapons like swords or maces. I ran a few feet to test it and sure enough, the blue bar drained slowly. Ok, got that down. Another menu opened up in front of me. Swipe down with your right hand to open the menu. I already knew this. I did it anyway to see my parameters. 3 small dots came down to me. The top was a character customization menu, like armours or weapons to equip. The second was my inventory and skill menu. The last one was a gear. The settings of course. I checked my armour. Beginners armour, 15 def. Eh, whatever, i am just starting after all. "Hey, Cam!" I turned around and saw somebody who looked like a hobo. Messy blue hair that stuck out like some anime character. He was slightly taller than me, but was more skinny. "Is that you zack?" I asked him, and he nodded. "Yeah, what do you think of my look?" He asked, waving his hand over his chest. I don't really know what to tell him. "It looks pretty good i guess." I said. "Hah! You don't have much room to speak, you just went for the first options didn't you?" He accused. I nodded as i looked around for ren. "Well, aren't you impatient?" He said. A flash of blue shown in front of us and a girl wearing a light blue cloak fell out. "Gah!" She yelled and tripped as she tried to regain her balance. She failed and i caught her. "Woah, you okay there?" She stood up, but still looked unbalanced. "Yeah, i'm fine." I saw a green cursor over her avatar, which symbolizes players. If you harm a player, you will go orange, which will warn players. If you kill them, you turn red. "Hey, are you cam?" She asked slowly, like she was afraid of being wrong. "Yes, and you are Ren? Nice avatar." Ren started looking more confident, being near people she knew. "Wow" She said, taking a turn. "This is amazing, i never thought that i would see this…" She immediately ran. "Come on guys! We have to snatch the good equipment before they are sold out!" She yelled back, and me and zack ran for her. She definitely had her head in the right place, i completely forgot about that. We got to the end of the courtyard, dodging other players getting the hang of moving and swinging their various weapons. Maces, daggers, rapiers, and of course swords. When we got to the market, we met a player that handed out a booklet. "Free instructional books! Given by the beta testers! Get them while they are abundant!" He yelled. I took one from him and read it. "Hey, cameron… You're that dude who helped us out in the beta field." The player said. I looked at him and wondered. Are there not any more camerons? "Yeah, but how did you know i was the same one?" He quickly replied "The way you run on the tip of your shoes in that weird way. And the way you stand in general, you look laid back and super relaxed." He told me. He patted my shoulder. "You were a good help to me man, I hope you get powerful." And he went back to his job. I caught up with zack and ren. "Look at this cool knife i got." Ren said, holding it out to me. It looked like something straight from a demon movie, short, about a foot long, and had spines on the sides. It was crimson red, and the sharp blade was silver. I sheathed it on a strap almost completely hidden behind her back. I pulled out my own sword. I went to the vendor and opened the buy menu. All players already start with 2500 Deks, which is the currency. I saw a sword that caught my attention, a blade about three feet long, and was a greenish blue. It was better than my beginners sword, so i went ahead and bought it. After doing so, i equipped it through the menu and the sword in the sheathe on my back was replaced with a slightly heavier sword. While we were walking, an overhead voice spoke. "The official launch of A.R.K. has begun, you will now be teleported to the plaza." And a wash of blue fell over every player. When we landed, i looked around for the podium the Game Maker is supposed to stand on. But instead, we got a simple message in front of us. Check your settings menu. I swiped down and selected settings, and my hand shook slightly. The logout button wasn't there. It just wasn't! I frantically swiped around and tried searching every menu there, but couldn't find it. I heard a whimper beside me, ren. "Is this a mistake? Are we really stuck?" She asked. My mind was frantic. This was just a game right? This has to be a mistake. A new voice spoke on the air. It was a male voice, and was stern. "You noticed that the logout button has been erased, right? Well, i assure you, we are not stupid. This is how the game is supposed to be, and with a little twist." He laughed. "If you were paying attention, you have an HP bar, but have you ever died yet? If you have, well… you aren't here. I programmed the game to where if your HP reaches 0, you will be deleted from the game, and you will be killed in real life, by cutting off the nervous system to all of your body, and you will slowly die." He gave another laugh as people became hysterical. People screaming, yelling, and running crazy. Zack out his hands on his head. "Come on man! I just spent $1400 for a death game? You gotta be kidding me!" He grabbed frantically at his head. "Get this thing off of me!" I can't believe it. This can't be real. It's just a computer simulated… reality. This is not a game anymore. This is a serious thing, with actual life or death consequences. "And i would also like to warn you that if someone on the outside were to take off the helmet, you will be killed by it, in the same way." And he laughed maniacly again. I grabbed zack and ren's arms and ran out of the plaza as the sky lightened to an unreal blue. A text appeared in the sky. It read.

The official launch of A.R.K. is now complete.

Good luck

We ran down the abandoned roads, except for a few NPC trying to sell some necklaces. "Where are we going?" Zack yelled. Ren was trying to look dignified, but you could see it, she was deathly scared. "I can't believe this is happening…" You can hear her mumble. "We are heading for the next town, across the forest." I said as i turned a corner that left this town. Soon, we were in an open field. I was teaching ren and zack how to unleash an attack with a skill. "First, get ready for it, get into an attack position." I put my sword in my right hand and extended my hand to where the sword was out from my body. I yelled and swung forward. The blade glowed a light blue and i felt pressure building. When i let it go, a sword skill erupted and i thrust my sword and myself forward, the skill Rage Spike. I looked back to see them doing the same. Ren was Holding her dagger in front of her with both hands. She then shifted her weight and spun in a circle, her dagger leaving a green trail behind. Zack was doing the same as me, and was doing it perfectly. First a swing, then a skill thrust. His trail was a deep purple. "That felt so good!" Zack yelled as he turned to me. "When can we kill stuff?" He asked eagerly. He obviously doesn't get the risk of going out of our way to fight. We may get stuck and… I remember the death animation. First you explode into shards, then they pack together into a diamond, then shot into the sky. It would be spectacular, if it wasn't so horrifying. On the other hand, we could get some levels, and reduce the risk of death. I looked out into the field and saw some slimes and oversize reptiles. I pointed towards them. "Let's go let out some steam, eh?" Zack cheered and ren nodded. I noticed that she stood a little bit more taller in this world then i have ever seen her. Her eyes shown nothing but pure determination and was set on staying alive. I smiled slightly. "Let's go then." We walked slowly at first, but then, something pushed us to run. Even now i can't understand it, but it was like something was in control of us, and it wanted us to get stronger. We obeyed. We cut down monsters left and right. Working with and against each other. Our blades weren't swords, but a pure arc of war. Anger and pain went into the massacre, and it felt good to let that go. I screamed as i cut the last one down, and my vision flashed red. The word warning flashed in front of me. Either i was about to get hit by a really strong attack, or a mini boss was here. I looked at my level. Level 6. Not powerful enough. "Guys, We gotta get out of here!" I yelled to my companions. They looked tired, which was amazing, seeing is how in real life, they are just laying down in a bed or a hospital. I nodded to a shadow that was growing near us, and they got the message. Run. We took off down a path that was made of stone. I quickly pulled up the map as i ran. Swipe down, settings, map menu, floor one… This path should go to the forest, which would lead to a dungeon. If we get there ahead of everyone else, we have a chance of getting higher respect. Though, we don't know what kind of dungeon this was… I was scared of two things. The whatever-it-was behind us, and the thought of a dungeon with higher level monsters. My rule for every MMORPG is that if they are anything over 3 to 5 levels over me, don't take the bait. I swiped away the map when we came to a large tree with a doorway. I looked behind me to see that a while back ren and zack ran out of stamina, and was walking slowly. The game had a sensor where it could tell your physical status, like strength or stamina in this case. I ran on track for a while before video games took the gold, but i have always had the ability to stay running. When they finally caught up, we saw what was chasing us. It was a huge boulder, but it had a face etched in it's front. Two large stone hands were floating beside it, and it's eyes glowed blue. It smashed through the trees and tried grabbing us, but we jumped out of the way. The thing's hands smashed into the ground and it tossed up a lot of dust. I looked at the tree. "That's the only way away from this thing!" I yelled and started running to it. I wasn't paying attention and i felt a giant fist connect with me back. I was tossed into the air, a cold feeling on my back. I felt little pain, but the cold was scary. I looked at m HP, to make sure i wasn't too bad off, and i wish i hadn't. I was in the yellow, near the red zone. I crashed into a tree near me and my HP slowly fell into red. This is it, isn't it? It's over. I weakly raised my sword, feeling cold everywhere, and my arms suddenly very hard to lift. I put my sword into a guard position, a last stand to not die. I saw the thing walking up to me. I looked around for my friends, but couldn't find anything. That's when i noticed the things shooting up to the sky. Two streaks shot from near me and into the air, out of view. No… it can't be… Anger flaired in my arms. No! I refuse to believe it! I stood up and kicked off the tree, and climbed on top of the things hands, which were trying to grab me. I stabbed my sword into it's hand and jumped to it's head, and cut into it's eye. It screamed in pain and used it's good hand to try and swipe me off. I pulled my sword out and tried jumping before his hand landed, but when i went ariborne, It grabbed me. It used it's bad hand to hold me as it's good hand closed into a fist. It pulled back, having no shoulder or arms made it pull back at a strange distance. I closed my eyes and waited for the blow. Ren is dead, Zack is dead, I am… dead. I waited for what seemed like forever when i heard the sound of metal against rock. I opened my eyes to see another player. Hope flaired in me, mabye it was my friends. I couldn't see the player, though i could see a redish cloak and a red trail flowing from a small dagger, almost too small to see. The figure jumped to supernatural heights and spun around, spinning the dagger, and hitting the monster. I saw yellow HP bar near the monster fall to red. I saw my own, and it was red. The monster roared, oblivious to my escaping his closed hands. It turned to the newcomer and just dropped me. I hit the ground rather hard, and i saw my HP drain just that much. I grabbed my sword that was lying near me, but the figure, in between strikes, Shook it's head and held out it's hand, palm first. Wait. It got into position and pulled a dagger skill i didn't know. Two strikes to the botton, one strike up, and a thrust forward. I think it was Fading Edge. I heard a female voice yell "Switch!" As she jumped back. I saw a red crystal in her hand and it was aimed at me. As i ran i felt a warmth flow through me. She used a healing crystal. My HP got out of the red, through the yellow, and into the green. Not all the way, but enough. I jumped into the air, dodged the monsters hands and used the vertical arc skill. One strike downward, spin and swing around in a circle. I used the last of my stamina to pull of one more skill. Rage spike. I hit the ground and jumped again, this time kicking off it's hand and thrusting my sword forward. The sword went into it's mouth hilt deep, my hand somewhat in it's mouth. I heard a beep and the monster shatted, the shards packing, and shooting into the air. I landed on the ground.

Congratulations.

You got the final hit kill!

20% more EXP gain.

You leveled up to level 8!

It read off items i won, mostly just gems when i realized how tired i was. I hit the button to dismiss the menu, and i fell on the ground and blacked out.

When i woke up again, i was under a tree. Huh, this isn't my… oh. I remembered where i was. I also remembered. I heard memories of zack and ren speaking. I teared up. I didn't even hear them scream. I didn't know they even died… "I'm very sorry i couldn't get there sooner." A player stepped around the tree. "Those were your friends? Siblings?" She had her hood off, and her skin looked fake, like wood. She must have chosen the elf, which not many people do. Elves only ability is speed and higher tame rate.

"My name is Haylee. Nice to meet you." She held her hand out. I took it, adn she pulled me up. I was surprised at her strength. She cocked her head to the side, and her face was in a confused look. "Why do you look, familiar?" I was surprised at this. "You do know that this isn't my real face, right?" I told her. She opened her menu and selected mirror. She held it up to my face and what i saw scared me. It was my face, the real me. The same lightning blue eyes, dark hair, and stern look i always had. I realized the tears were visible in my eyes and i wiped them away quickly. How was this possible, how was ANY of this possible? She studied my face. Her race made it hard to remember, but somewhere, she was familiar to me too. She sighed and straightened. She de-equipped the mirror and re-equipped her dagger. "Whatever, what's your name?" She asked. "Uh, my name is cam. Or cameron, whatever." I looked around. Where am i? "Are you mad at me?" Haylee said, looking guilty. I knew what she was talking about. My friends. "It's not your fault." I saw the forest i was in earlier, if i start now, i could get there by dusk. She saw the direction i was looking in. "You want to go back?" I nodded. "Well, you'll need these." She opened up the trade players menu. She gave me five crystals and 4000 Deks. I nodded. "Guess i'll be seeing you." I said and i took off.