I walked around the Town of Beginnings and saw how many of the people here had begun to form actual lives in this death game, I saw couples holding hands and kissing, I saw others with wedding rings on living in a house together.

"I wonder if they think that we'll never get out of this game" I said.

I could only wish that we would get out but, deep down I knew that I probably wouldn't make it to the end and that I would probably be killed for making a mistake.

"Hey you!" Someone yelled.

I turned around.

"Hello I'm talking to you."

I saw a girl standing in front of me who had red hair and wasn't very well outfitted armor wise the name above her head was Shadow.

"Me?" I said.

"Uh duh who else" she said.

She had brown eyes and looked very familiar but, I couldn't remember where I had seen her before.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to know your level because you're wearing some pretty good armor and a nice sword" she said.

"Oh I'm level sixteen" I said. "I came here from floor two."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I wanted to help out some of the people that are having a hard time leveling up" I said.

She laughed "You're wasting your time everyone still here has no intention on trying to clear the game they have all started to have normal lives here."

"Oh then I guess I should probably get going" I said.

I started to walk away but, she grabbed my arm.

"Who are you?" she asked.

I turned back to face her "Well it says it right above my head, I'm Guardian."

"You look familiar" she said.

I shrugged "You might have seen me during the announcement in the very beginning of the this death game."

She shook her head "No I think I've seen you before that."

I raised an eyebrow "That would mean that you've seen me in real life."

"Do you recognize me?" she asked.

"Well you do look a little familiar" I said.

She was silent for a few moments and I guessed that she was thinking.

"Wait whats your real name?" she asked.

"It's Damion" I said.

She suddenly looked stunned.

"Umm are you ok?" I asked.

"My god" she said softly.

"What?"

"I finally found you" she said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

She kicked me in the shin.

"Ow! what the hell was that for?"

"Thats for not staying down here long enough for me to find you!" she said.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You don't know me?" she said.

I thought about it and she looked really familiar but, having being in the game and fighting for my life for so long I had started to forget about the people I had met in the real world.

"No like I said you look familiar but, I don't know exactly who you are."

She looked sad and tears began to well up in her eyes.

"What?"

She threw her arms around me and started to cry while I stood there wondering what the hell was going on and why she was hugging me.

"Its me" she said. "Its me Chloe."

As soon as that name left her lips I was instantly stunned and couldn't move or even say anything, she stopped hugging me and looked at me with tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Chloe?" I said.

She nodded.

"It's really you?" I asked.

She smiled and wiped away her tears and then nodded again this time I hugged her and she seemed surprised but, I quickly ended the embrace.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm here because I wanted to play the game" she said.

"I told you about it and you said that it seemed stupid" I said.

Then I recalled the day before I had bought the game.

"It's going to be the best game that has ever been made" I said.

"Whatever" Chloe said.

"Oh come on why don't you just give it a try and you'll see that it's awesome" I said.

We walked down the halls leaving school to the buses.

"Whats so good about virtual reality anyways?" She asked.

"Lets see….everything!"

She shook her head "Why live in a virtual world when you have a real one?"

I laughed "We don't live in the virtual world we just play the game but, it is like we are living in a real world why don't you try it?"

She shrugged "It just seems stupid to me."

"Do you even own a Nerve Gear?" I asked.

She nodded "I do but, I don't use it."

"Why do you have one if you don't use it?" I asked.

"Because I got it thinking that I would use it but, I don't."

"You should its amazing" I said.

She sighed and we continued our way to the buss in silence and then when we got on and sat down.

Chloe decided that she would tell me about why she was here in a tavern so we could eat and so we walked through the streets as the sun started to sink into the ground.

"So what have you been doing?" I asked.

"I tried to start leveling up but, its just to hard to do so I decided to give up and just wait for the game to be beaten so I could go home" she said.

"I'm trying to beat the game" I said.

She hesitated before answering.

"Thats gotta be dangerous" she said.

I shrugged "A little."

"Well you should be careful" she said. "You aren't allowed to die because I'm supposed to beat you first."

"Why are you so abusive?" I asked.

"If I wasn't then you would still be the scrawny weakling that you were in seventh grade when we met."

"I wasn't that bad" I said.

She looked back and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You were really bad" she said.

"Whatever."

Then we walked inside the tavern and I was really eager to hear why she had decided to buy the game after all, we sat down at a table.

"Alright now why did you change your mind?" I asked.

She sighed.

"Well I wanted to see why you liked these things so much and so I got the game and started playing before it was a death game it was really fun" she said.

"Well I told you it was" I said. "In here I'm what I've always wanted to be a warrior that fights monsters and saves villages."

"Well I see why you like them but, then that guy made the announcement about this game and I freaked out….I'm think that I almost went insane wondering where you were and if you were safe" She said. "Then I wondered how we were going to get out of here and back to reality but, my main priority was finding you and see if you were ok."

I smiled "For someone so abusive I never would have thought that you actually cared about what happened to me."

"I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't lose my punching bag in the real world" she said.

"Whatever" I said. "I met up with Corey and David shortly after logging on and we formed a party during the boss fight."

"So where are they?"

"The party was disbanded so we could do our own thing for awhile then we are going to meet up and regroup" I said.

"How long until you guys are meeting back up?" she asked.

"In a week or two."

Chloe was silent.

"So Shadow how bout tomorrow I help you level up a bit?" I said.

She smiled "Ok Guardian."

I stood up and walked over to the NPC so that I could buy a room for the night and after I did I went upstairs leaving Shadow behind and going into the room I closed the door and then stretched. I went over to the window and looked out at the starry sky that was now present with the moon high in the sky as well.

"It's beautiful" I said. "Why does it have to be fake?"

I then unequipped my weapon and laid down on the bed looking toward the ceiling slowly drifting into sleep.

I swung my sword and chopped down a boar that was nothing compared to me and Shadow was beside me watching my back she was fighting mostly wolves because for some reason they wanted to attack her more then me.

"You doing ok?" I asked.

"Yeah" she said.

I turned to give her a hand and help kill the wolves and then something began to form out of the ground I stood in awe as the ground formed into a giant stone monster that swung it's fists at me and Shadow. I tackled her to the side to move her out of the way and then I looked up at the monster the wolves now gone scared away by this new threat that had appeared before us.

"What the hell is this thing?" I said.

Shadow shook her head "Beats me."

Then the monster attacked again and swatted us to the side and my health bar went into the yellow I looked down at Shadow whose level wasn't as high as mine so here's went into the red and I began to panic.

"Stay here" I said.

But, then another one appeared behind us and we were surrounded by monsters I knew that I could easily survive fending off the lower level monsters and just run from the bigger ones but, Shadow was to weak. She wouldn't be able to survive I decided against leaving her because I wouldn't let her die not while we were in this world so I attacked the big monster that had just appeared.

"Shadow stay behind me!"

Then I heard her scream and I spun around seeing the other monster pick her up in his hands.

"No!" I yelled "Put her down now!"

I ran toward the monster and I swung my sword at it and as it made contact with the monsters calf it crushed the remaining life out of Shadow and she shattered.

"No!"

I sat up straight breathing heavily and I looked out the window the digital sun slowly appearing through the coded glass window to shine on the fake wooden floor.

"I can't do that to her" I said.

I got out of bed and equipped all of my equipment ready to leave I didn't want to leave her here alone but, I had no choice if I wanted to keep her safe from death so I went to the door leaving the room. Outside waiting for me was Shadow which I hadn't expected she was leaning against the wall.

"Hey there sleepy head" she said.

"Morning" I said.

We went outside and into the village.

"So what should we do?" she asked.

"Well maybe we should stay down here for a little while" I said.

She looked at me a little quizzical.

"What?"

"Why can't we go to the second floor?" she asked.

"Because I think that maybe we should stay here for a while."

"Well I'm going to the second floor and you're going to help me level up so I can get revenge on the asshole who trapped me here" she said.

Then she grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the warp platform and we teleported to the second floor and in the starting town.

"Alright so lets form a party and you can lead the way to a dungeon" she said.

"Fine" I said.

I opened the menu and then sent her a party request she accepted and I led the way out of the town and to the first dungeon I had gone to on this floor, we walked down the dirt path that I had memorized after had being to that dungeon a few times. We didn't run into any trouble on the way there luckily so we made it to the dungeon and walked down the stairs to the three way fork.

"Where now?" she asked.

"This way" I said pointing to the left.

We walked down the hall and to the door that opened into a trap.

"Alright once we get in there the door is going to shut behind us then the walls will open releasing monsters so stay right by me and I'll keep the majority of them focused on me so you don't get overwhelmed."

Shadow nodded and I opened the door and walked to the center of the room then I drew my sword, I looked behind me and saw her follow drawing her sword as well. When she was in the room the door slammed shut and trapped us in, then like the first time the walls opened up and the monsters filled the room. I was able to kill most of them with one hit because of my level and so I went around the room killing them left and right which drew their attention toward me and left Shadow with just a few of them. I looked over to see how she was doing and saw as the miner landed its pickaxe in her shoulder, she fell to the ground and her health bar went into the red, I was instantly terrified.

"Shadow!" I yelled.

I made my way toward her and the miner raised his weapon for the finishing blow.

"No!"

I threw my sword at the miner and it hit the monster in the head it staggered to the side and died shattering and my sword clattered to the ground in front of Shadow. I was hit in the back by one of the monsters behind me and fell to the ground I rolled to the side to avoid taking another blow. I stood and ran to my sword, I grabbed it and stood in front of Shadow defending her from the waves of monsters.

"Guardian" she said.

"Don't worry" I said "Just stay behind me and you'll be safe."

I cut down the monsters as they surrounded us and I didn't remember there being this many but, then again I had been fighting with two other players every other time. I stabbed the final one and let out a sigh of relief as I collapsed to the floor exhausted from fighting everyone of the monsters. I looked at my health bar and it was just barely in the yellow so I smiled glad that I had been able to protect Shadow without taking too much damage. I looked in the center of the room and the decoy chest appeared so I stood up and helped Shadow to her feet she looked at me and I smiled.

"See I told you that I'd keep you safe" I said.

She hugged me and I was surprised as she started to cry also.

"Whats wrong?" I asked.

"I thought that I was going to die right there and then you came and rescued me" she sobbed.

"I won't let you die" I said "I promise."

She pulled away and I went to the chest.

"Aren't you going to open it?" she asked wiping away her tears.

"Nope this is a decoy if I open it more monsters will spawn."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"This."

I picked up the chest to reveal the one under it.

"See this is the real chest" I said.Shadow smiled and I opened it up gaining the rewards.