In a small room, a guy is clearing his bed, turning on his computer, and putting in a discs labeled "Super Universe" inside of a VR helmet, and connects the helmet to the computer. He then gets on his bed and puts on the helmet.
Activate: Super Universe. Codename: El Tigre.
Super Universe. A VMMORPG that is popular all over the world. It's a game that lets you create your own superpowered avatar and it's your job to build yourself up as a superhero or a supervillain. There are a total of 125 different cities in this game and 14,453 different missions; some of the missions have not all been unlocked yet.
My avatar's name is El Tigre. My powers come from a mystical item that I got for being one of the beta testers of the game before its release. Unlike most players, I haven't committed to being a superhero or a supervillain full time since I like both aspects and commiting to one would take away from all the fun of playing this game. My friends keep pushing me to decide but I just ignore them.
Miracle City. A server that is mostly villain dominated; more specifically, 89 percent of players are villains and 11 percent are heroes. I hang out in this server the most because it reminds me of my home town and most of my friend in real life are here.
In one of the safe zones in Miracle City, El Tigre is laying down on top of a hill while looking at his stats and updates to all the missions. Just then, a villain player, Black Cuervo, appeared in front of him.
"Hi El Tigre. I was wondering when you were going to log in." She gets up close to him with a big smile on her face
El Tigre responded "Hey Black Cuervo."
Black Cuervo. A supervillain player. Her real name is Zoe Aves. I've known her since we were little. She works at the Beauty Salon in the real world and uses this game as an outlet for dealing with her very tough and overbearing boss. While we used to date, we broke up after going to seperate colleges. But we started hanging out again after graduation since we live in the same town. I think about starting things up again with her and I'm sure she thinks the same thing but I don't do anything about it because of how busy I am. She's a villain player and always pushes me to be a villain player too and to join the guild she's in but I turn down the guild offer due to guild master being someone I don't like
Black Cuervo said as she laid down with him "You know you can call me Zoe when we're alone. So, what are you planning to do today?"
El Tigre said "Going Mystical Item hunting again." He then pulled up a map and showed it to Black Cuervo "Heard a rumor on the message board that this one can downgrade a players level."
Black Cuervo"I see. You didn't hear this from me, but I heard that Django and the Sartana Guild are searching for that item the Zombie Catacombs. The reason being a zombie monster has been stealing levels from players. But you didn't hear that from me."
"If you say so."
Another voice from afar yelled "Hey El Tigre, I've got a bounty that I need your help with." It is Calamity Suarez, another friend of El Tigre.
"Calamity Suarez; a gun themed musician player. Her real name is Frida Suarez. She's another childhood friend of mine. Unlike Zoe, she doesn't live in the same town as we do. She travels around with her band, the Atomic Sombreros, in the hopes of getting discovered by a big music producer. Her parents, more specifically her father, is against this but it's not like she listened to them about anything and she didn't want to go into law like the rest of her family. Like me, she's a neutral player but she acts as a bounty hunter to earn real world money, which is possible in this game but you need a special license, have a high level, and are really good a video games. We also dated in High School but that didn't last long."
El Tigre looked at the bounty poster that Calamity Suarez and said "The Golden Eagle Twins. You barely see any heroes get bounties by the administration. What did these guys do?"
Calamity Suarez said "Scamming people out of their items, trolling supervillains, and stole from an admin kid. Admins have been trying to shut down their accounts but it's not showing up on the servers."
El Tigre said as he gave back the bounty poster "Thanks but no thanks. I've got other plans."
"More mystical item hunting?" Calamity Suarez had a very disappointed look on her face.
El Tigre got up and said "Yep."
Black Cuervo then grabbed El Tigre by the arm and said "Plus, he's taking me out to dinner afterwards."
Calamity Suarez said "No he's not, Aves. Why don't you just leave him alone? Your not even dating anymore."
Black Cuervo said "Neither are you." She then sent a duel invitation to Calamity Suarez and the two of them got ready for a fight.
Before El Tigre could say anything, the two of them began to duel each other. Seeing as he knew he couldn't stop them when they're like this, he sneaked away and headed for one of the transporters in the areas."
In ruined city filled with chemicals, El Tigre is fighting off against some poison creatures that are spawning in the area in order to get some EXP and to get to an rare item that is said to be here somewhere. He used his Tigre darts and shockwave attacks to take down all the creatures before continuing his journey. He checked his status to see if he got poisoned or not, and pushed forward. Before he could, he got an email alert from his father. It said:
"Hola Manny. Cleo and I was wondering when you are coming home for the Dia de los Muertos Festival next month. We want to start making plans for it. From Rodolfo, your father." Manny simply responded with "Too busy. Can't make it."
A kids voice said "Why did you lie to your dad like that?"
"AH! Who the hell are you?" El Tigre asked in surprise-anger.
The kid said "I'm the Albino Burrito."
El Tigre said "That's a stupid name. Anyway, don't look at someone else's email messages like that. Not only is it rude but people will assume you're a hacker."
Albino Burrito shacked his head and said "But I'm not a hacker. Actually, I'm lost. Can you help me, El Tigre?"
"I'm busy. Use the help icon or just logout." El Tigre started walking away from him
Albino Burrito said "But I can't log out, Manny."
El Tigre pops his claws at Albino Burrito "How do you know my real name? Who the hell are you?"
Before El Tigre could do anything, a giant dragon like worm appeared from the ground. El Tigre had never seen a creature like that roaming around here and figured that it was part of some patch update or someone in the area summoned it to attack him. However, he noticed no one on the map near him and the creature strangely had no level whatsoever. He fired his Tigre darts and shockwave attacks at it but it did nothing. Not wanting to waste time with an enemy he couldn't defeat, he decided to run away from it. However, he noticed Albino Burrito just standing there. He told himself "That idiot. Why isn't he running away. Oh well, not my problem that he's a noobie." But before he could run away, an image of him when he was a kid appeared before him. It involved someone who was standing in the road, Manny watching this kid get run over by a car. Not understanding why he saw that image, he ran toward the worm, used his special move, Ancient Tiger Spirit, it managed to damage if not distract the worm, and El Tigre grabbed Albino Burrito so the two could run away. As soon as they were far away enough from the worm, El Tigre logged them out of the area.
The two of them arrived in a Beginner Town called Sidekick Town. As the name suggest, it is a town where you can apply to be a sidekick with experienced players in order to level up, go on adventures in certain places, etc.
El Tigre said "Use this place to get help leveling up from someone. Bye."
Albino Burrito asked "Wait. Can I apply to be your sidekick?"
El Tigre said "No. I'm a solo player and I don't babysit newbies. But I'll say this much, don't join The League of Alliance Society; those guys are jerks in game and real life. I'll forget that you looked at my email but if you ever bring it up again I'll PK you for the rest of your life in this game and find you in real life where you will die a horrible death." He then logged out of the game immediately.
Albino Burrito said with a sad voice "You've changed a lot, Manny. What happened to you?"
In the real world, Manny is in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. As he is brushing his teeth, he hears his phone ring and walks over to see who it is. The caller idea on his phone said "Maria the coward" and he simply ignored it. The phone continued to ring until it went to voicemail:
Manny, I know you're there. You don't work at this time. Listen, I want to talk to you. It's important and…...Damn it Manny, I want to see you and talk to you. Your my son and I love you. I don't know how many times I have to say that to you or how to prove that to you. Please my son, call me back. I'll commission an art from you if that helps. Please. I love you.
The tone dial for the answering machine went off after that. Without any hesitation, Manny deleted the message. "Go to hell, Maria." He turned off the light and went to bed.
The next morning, Manny started finishing up some commissioned artwork that he had to do. Afterwards, he went to his landlord to pay off this month's rent, ate out at the nearby burrito place, and went to the park to skip some stones into the lake. As he was grabbing another stone, he noticed a family of three walking by; the mother and the father holding the hands of the little boy. For some reason, he started to have a flashback of himself and his mother and father doing the same thing.
Manny thought "Why am I thinking about that?"
A voice said "Why are you thinking about what?"
Manny grabbed his phone, since that's where the voice is coming from. He then noticed that it was Albino Burrito on it "Ahhh. You. I knew you were a hacker. I'm going to the police."
Albino Burrito said "Wait. I'm not a hacker. I'm an A.I.; my real name is D.A.V.I.. Please, I need your help finding my creator before they catch me. You're the only one that can help me, El Tigre."
In a tall building that has the words Underworld Games, an elderly woman is playing the guitar while looking out the window. Then an employee came into her office.
The elderly woman stopped playing her guitar and asked "What is it?"
The employee said "We've managed to track D.A.V.I.'s location."
The elderly woman asked "Which game did he get into now?"
The employee said "Super Universe. He was last seen with this player, El Tigre. His real name is Manny Rivera. How would you like us to proceed?
The elderly woman responded "Keep track of his log in history and inform me as soon as he logs in. I'll deal with this myself."
"Yes, Boss Sartana."
Boss Sartana then grabbed VR goggles with a sombrero on it, put it on, and said "Activate: Super Universe. Codename: Sartana of the Dead.