My name is Odysseus, and well, I am kind of in a bad spot, it was supposed to be all kinds of fun and great times with my friends. But it wasn't. Now I am trapped here with psychos who wish for nothing more than to kill, and harm those I care for most. But look, let's start from the beginning shall we?

I walked by my two best friends up to the tall building known as VR Stars. I grin to myself at the stupid name and simply shake my head. Steven looks over at me and raises an eyebrow.

"What's with the look?" he asks as I grin and look at him.

"Nothing…just thinking about how bad everyone in here's asses are gonna be kicked." I sort of had a very competitive part to myself, I played games, and I played to win.

Steven's girlfriend beside him scoffed at my words "Why do you have to act like that? It's just a game!" I rolled my eyes at Connie's judgement.

"You wouldn't understand Connie, there are 5000 big ones up for grabs here, and I just plan on taking every bit of it for myself heh" I continue to walk ahead as I saw our other friends at the door.

"Yo! What the hell took you guys so long?!" screamed at us our friend Amethyst as Garnet and Pearl both chuckled.

I grin at her anger and shook my head "Chill, we are here now aren't we? Besides….where are the two love birds?" I asked as Pearl's face went a light shade of blue.

"They uh…said they would catch after they were done…" my eyes widened and I sighed loud "Those two are gonna be the death of me…" I said as Peridot and Lapis ran up from behind, a noticeable blush on their faces.

"Hey guys! Sorry we are late…" Lapis said as she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. I shook my head and we all headed inside to sign up for the VR selection preliminaries.

As I walked up to the sign up area I looked around to the competition, it was your average bunch of gamers, I couldn't help but laugh that some couldn't even be of age to own some of the games that we going to be played…but some of these guys looked like they meant business.

They must have known I was the same because I caught a lot of glares from them, I wasn't worried, and just I had a reason to be cautious now.

"Hey Odd?" I frowned at the nickname and look over at Lapis "Yea what's up?" I answer distracted.

She look at the rest of the group "Which of the games are we going for first?" I pondered her question before smiling.

"It's a new demo one they have, I didn't catch the name but it's the one that is offering up the 5000$" I smiled at them and we approached the room.

And boy did it look awesome.

The room itself was massive, there were at least 50 VR stations set up here, plus all the others over the world, and it was only here though that you could get the money. We grabbed our seats and waited for everyone else to show up, to my, not-so-surprise many of those serious looking gamers had showed up to.

I eyed them for a moment until a voice brought me back "Hello everybody!" I turned to the stage to see a man holding a microphone "Today, 50 lucky people will be put into these VR machines to get a chance of 5000$!"

I could feel the smiles of my 6 friends and I couldn't help but join them, these type of games were our territory, any fighting style games really. Garnet loves hand to hand combat, it's always been her specialty, Pearl uses a variety of swords, Steven uses a shield as a weapon and a form of defense, Peridot has smarts, she has a way of using her brain against her enemy, Lapis uses kicks and various objects around her as weapons, Amethyst uses a three headed whip with flails on the end. Then there is me, I use dual wielding axes, and it's all I need.

Word is as well you can make your own custom weapons to your choosing, and god help me if I wasn't excited about that.

"Alright everyone, the ones that have their tickets please walk up to the stage and sit down in the VR machines please!" I saw many stand and walk up and I smile to myself, its finally happening. We all sat in a VR machine and a large part of it lowered over our head and we saw a large bright light. We were in the game.

I grunted as my avatar fell to the ground suddenly and I shook away the nausea and stood up. I reached to my side and noticed I already had my axes with me, then I remembered that we sent our weapon 'blueprints' in before the game.

I quickly stood and observed my immediate surroundings, I was in a type of forest that was thick and lush with all kinds of plant life. It was a beautiful sight, until I noticed the arrow flying by my head. I went into attack mode and cut another one of the arrows out of the air and hide behind a tree.

"Come on is that all it takes to scare you?" I heard the unknown attacker laugh and I rolled out from behind it and ran the opposite direction knowing I couldn't win a distance fight. I felt intense pain in my shoulder and yelled out.

I broke off the arrow and continued my retreat until I ran into Lapis "Duck!" she had a bow in her hands as well and drew back and fired an arrow as I fell to the ground.

I turned to see the arrow found its mark in the man's neck, blood pouring out. I sighed and stood up "Thanks, you find any of the others yet?" She nodded

"I found Garnet, Steven and Peridot" I nodded and as the three of the others stood up behind a large log, we ran back to the other three, them raising their weapons at first sight of me. "Just me guys" they breathed a sigh of relief and I sat on the ground. I grinned and looked at everyone "So first things first, find the others?" they all nodded in agreement and I leaned back and looked up.

"I'll go with you" I look back up to see Garnet standing "How do you know what everyone is thinking half the time?" she grinned at me, she might have winked but her shades hid it well. So we set out to try and find Pearl and Amethyst.

We walked side by side our eyes and ears scanning all around us trying to find a sound or sight that didn't fit in. I noticed a bush in the distance move for a brief moment. Garnet must have noticed it as well because she nodded at me, as me walked past it a player with a massive hammer erupted from the bush. Followed in from his allies from the woods, 5 other players came at us.

I almost chuckled at it all, six against two, the odds were against us, or they should have been. I watched Garnet jump into the air and grabbed the hammer from the one closest to us, she spun him around and sent him flying into a tree.

Two of the others charged me, I easily dodged their blades and took an axe in each hand, and their heads hit the ground before their bodies. Garnet quickly knocked out the other two, not liking to kill enemies herself, and the last one was scared and just stood there shaking before running off.

I lifted my axe aiming for the back of his head but Garnet stopped me. I sighed and I heard more rustling behind us, I raised my axes eager to fight but was both disappointed and happy when I saw both Pearl and Amethyst emerging from the bushes. "About time you two!" I yelled smiling at them.

Pearl rolled her eyes as Amethyst punched my arm jokingly "Yes, yes so sorry about keeping you from your bloodlust Odd" Pearl said smugly seeing the disgusted look on my face "I don't know why you all insist of calling me that…." I sighed and we made our way back to the group had already set up a small campsite

6 players down, 44 counting ourselves to go. I sat in silence looking up at the setting sun and frowned knowing that one of the players would be a challenge. But that would happen at another point. "Hey how many people are in this server besides the 50 we have to worry about?" Peridot asked as she sharpened a stick.

"At least four thousand others are allowed on this sever, adds a bit more of a challenge don't you think?" Steven said smiling at us all. I had to agree, I did like a challenge.

I did notice something weird though when killing those other two players, their bodies didn't disappear like I thought they would, they just stayed there, lifeless. This worried me for some reason, it set me on edge. A light tap on my shoulder jolted me back to reality, so to speak, I looked up and saw Steven sit down next to me

"I know that look, that's your 'I hope things don't go bad look'"

I smiled and sighed "Just something on my mind, we will find out if it is a problem sooner or later I guess" he nodded slowly and the sun had fully set "Alright every, let's try to get some sleep, tomorrow we will all be busy" Pearl smiled at us all awkwardly and we nodded and I decided to keep watch first.

I stood leaning against a tree scanning the nearby trees and then I heard a noise to my left, I went to raise my axe but a blade was already to my neck, its steel against my skin "You are getting sloppy bro" said an all too familiar voice.

I growled "Brother…." He smiled at me and shook his head "Is that how you treat your family? With disrespect and attitude?" I pushed him away and raised my weapons.

"Leave…now…." He grins and disappeared without another word. I frowned, why did he do that, was it just to scare me…doesn't matter, it's almost morning.

Moring arrived without any more surprises and I was still a little shaken up, but I refused to let it show. We packed up what little we had and moved on taking in the game lay out. We left the forest and saw up ahead a massive apocalyptic like city, it was all broken and destroyed.

"Wow hey look at that guys" I heard Lapis say awestruck and I nodded. We moved into the city and I saw all kinds of movement around us, I looked at Peridot and Pearl who were noticing it as well, I saw Peridot working it through her head on what to do. She didn't have time as I hear Garnet yelp in pain.

I turned and saw someone behind her and blood rushing out of her side, she spin kicked her attacker and he fell to the ground unconscious. I saw at least eight more players rush out at us, three of them coming my way.

I blocked the first attack with my axe kicking the first one away, then I swung my axe taking off the hand of the next one and then slashed my second axe across his throat. The third one jumped and tried to kick me, I rolled away and brought my axe down on his neck.

The others had downed their attackers as well, then I saw a warning screen pop up in front of everyone before seeing it myself. I raised an eyebrow and read out loud "Warning: a server wide hack has been distributed to all players, players are to refrain from killing other players until further notice, doing so will mean the end of the player in both worlds, stay safe and please wait until further instructions" I read and the color draining from my face.

I heard muffled sobs and gasps from everyone and turned to see Lapis and Pearl both crying, Garnet and Steven both angrier then I've ever seen, and Peridot lost for words.

I didn't need to say it, we all already knew, this was no longer a game.

I looked at the three bodies in front of me and I threw up and coughed hard, people died in this world, and I just became a murderer.