Hello readers, and welcome to my novelization of The BOSS.

For those of you who don't know what The BOSS is, it's a fan game created by an incredible group of people for one of the most renowned people on YouTube, Jacksepticeye. Now I don't normally play fan games for YouTubers, but at the time Jack was playing it, he'd been prepping for one of his tours and as such, he was only able to finish it after he got back. So while I waited for that day, I decided to download it myself and play it through to the end, and I loved the game! It was well-written and planned, and kudos to the developers for hooking us in.

Please note that I am not doing this to promote Jack's channel; he doesn't know who I am. I'm writing this because I wanted to show my appreciation for this game and to put a little spin that wasn't implemented in the game.

DISCLAIMER: The rights to The BOSS belong to the developers, Sarcastic Pasta.

WARNING: This story will contain spoilers to the game, so please either play it yourself or watch it on Jack's channel before reading any further.

Prologue: A Normal Day?

"…But for now…" Jacksepticeye took in a breath to begin his trademark bombastic outro. "Thank you guys so much for watching this video! If you liked it…" Here, he lifted his fist and swung it towards his camera. "PUNCH that like button in the face..." He then lifted both arms up and brought them down in a victory pose. "LIKE A BOSS! And…" He leaned closer to his microphone to murmur, "High-fives all round." He then delivered two air high-fives while going "Wa-pish" for effect. "But thank you guys and I will see all you dudes…" He pointed at the camera with both hands then raised them up and finished in a loud, high-pitched voice, "IN THE NEXT VIDEO!"

He then lowered his arms and sheepishly glanced at his equipment. "I punched my mic. Oops… Ah, well, that'll make a good bonus clip." Stretching his arms, he paused the game and looked at his computer. "Okay, hope the recording went well. Time for a break…"

After switching off his camera, Jack stood up and ran a hand through his somewhat faded green hair. It had been another typically busy day for him. So far, he had finished Part 2 of Sally Face, played a few rounds of Overwatch to try out Doomfist, and had just played another session of Crash Bandicoot Warped. The footage he had recorded had been saved on his computer, ready to get sent off to Robin later on. At the moment, his subscriber count was closing in on the 16 million mark, so he had planned to prepare his milestone video beforehand. After that, well, maybe he could look up some Flash games to play or perhaps do some VR games on his Vive.

Before he left his computer, Jack checked his Steam account. Right now, he was downloading the newest DLC to Little Nightmares and it was currently at 40%, as it had been when he last checked about an hour ago. He frowned; somehow his internet had been running a bit slower than usual. He had only been at Brighton for a few months now, so he was still getting used to the new area, but still… "Ah, fuck it, it'll be done soon," he decided, before slipping on his blue hoodie and heading out the door.

As he left his recording room, he suddenly noticed a green woolly object about the size of a softball on the floor. Picking it up, Jack quickly took in the blue pupil and black iris marked with two white shapes. "Oh, hey, Sam!" he beamed, recognizing his plush mascot. "What are you doing down here, you little goober?"

For a moment, he found it odd that his prototype plushie, made for him by a fan about two years ago, wasn't on his shelf of game memorabilia. But his mind was then flooded with the image of Sam appearing as an Easter egg in Sally Face, and the earlier thought was forgotten. "Come on, buddy, let's go grab some food," he said, tucking Sam under his hood.

Upon entering the kitchen, Jack switched on his coffee machine. "Gotta get me some of that dirty bean water." While he waited, he searched around for some snacks. But his fridge was practically empty, considering he hadn't been shopping for a while. There was a delicious cake on the counter, but he was saving that for when guests come to visit.

Finally, in one of the cupboards, he lucked out. "Cookies!" he cheered, pulling out a box of chocolate bourbons. "The perfect TV snack!" With that in mind, he shook some cookies out onto a plate, deciding to chill out in front of his TV.

By now, his coffee was complete, and Jack wasted no time pouring some into a mug. After he took a sip, he could feel its warmth surging through his body, the caffeine jumpstarting his components like fresh oil in a sports car. "Mmmm, nectar of the gods!" he shouted.

Taking his coffee and cookies, he left the kitchen, switched on the TV, and settled down to watch. A news program was playing at the moment, detailing news of Donald Trump's latest actions. Jack scoffed slightly as he grabbed the remote and a cookie. Politics were never one of his biggest concerns, especially American politics. But before he could change the channel, the report was cut off by some breaking news.

"We interrupt this story with this news flash," the newswoman announced. "At this hour, millions of people all over the world have been found unconscious in their own homes. Paramedics have linked the state of their patients with the use of social media. We now go live to the scene of the hospital with our field reporter, Steve Segue. Steve?"

At a normal time, Jack would be laughing at the name of the reporter, comparing it to Segway Steve from Happy Wheels. But the news had him completely hooked, so much so that he didn't notice his half-eaten cookie falling out of his hand. The program changed to show Steve Segue standing outside a hospital just as an ambulance pulled into the parking lot. A very worried doctor was standing next to him.

"Thank you, Betty," Steve reported. "I'm now standing outside St. Aloysius Hospital, and as you can see, another ambulance has just arrived, the 5th one to arrive as we've been waiting. With me now is Doctor Henry Stein. Doctor Stein, what can you tell us about these patients?"

"Well, uh, so far, none of the patients have regained consciousness," the doctor replied. "Fortunately, despite their state, all of them are still showing relatively healthy vital signs. Each of the patients is somewhere between the age of 13 and 30, but there are some that are just outside that bracket."

"What do you believe is the cause of these strange occurrences?"

"Well, one of our most recent cases had been found on their bed with their Twitter account open on their phone, and just now, we're taking in a couple who'd been watching YouTube."

"So you believe that something on social media is affecting these people?"

"I don't know, Steve. But my colleagues have been getting other cases linked to Tumblr and Instagram, so who's to say?"

"Thank you, Doctor Stein. At the moment, these mysterious happenings are secluded to English-speaking countries, but whether the epidemic will spread to other countries still remains to be seen."

As Steve Segue ended his report and the newswoman came back on, Jack slumped back in his couch, fear etched on his face. "Mother of God," he breathed. "Millions of people… What's happened to them?" Then a horrible thought struck him. "Wait… Mark, Felix, Robin, all my friends; they're all on social media too. What if they've been affected too? I gotta go check on them, and if possible, warn them about this!"

Thoughts of cookies forgotten, he leaped out of his chair and was about to run to his recording room when another thought hit him. "Hold on a tick, I need to warn Signe too!" He knew that she was currently visiting friends in Brighton so she wouldn't be back for a while. Grabbing his phone, he quickly sent a message to her, warning her not to go onto social media for a while.

He then ran down the hall and barged into his recording room, not noticing Sam falling out of his hoodie and bouncing on the floor. Jack sat down at his computer and accessed his emails. Immediately, he saw literally hundreds of messages from various social media sites, all bearing the same message in that terrifying zalgo font he used during his Anti phase:

Ṡ̪͙̗̹͊ͨͨ̾ͣͤ͌ͅả̜̯̠̫͇̞̲̳͒̍ͣv̺̙̥ͬ͊̄̈̂e̠͕͕̲͇͙̒̈̂ͦͥ̀͆ ͙̞̉̐̋u͖̐͒́̊̊̔s̜̆̾̋

Jack's heart began to race, and his breath came out in short gasps. What was happening? How were people sending him these strange messages? Was he somehow related to the incidents occuring around the world?

Just as he was about to have a panic attack, a new message appeared in his inbox under the name "SCYOBI", and the subject simply read "Save them".

Hands trembling, Jack moved his mouse over the email, clicked to open it…

And the last thing he saw was his screen flashing out at him…

And the game has officially begun!

Things that are different from the game:

The main one is the appearance of the prototype SepticEye Sam plush. I've decided that Sam will have a more prominent role in the story than simply being a save point in the game. In the next chapter, you'll see why.