The glow of a computer monitor lit up the small, messy room. Stacks of empty energy drink cans guarded the corners of the desk like steel towers, and half-eaten snack bags were scattered around as if they had fought and lost a war.
In the middle of this chaos sat Kairos Vale, a twenty-year-old professional at doing the bare minimum.
His shoulder-length black locs brushed against his cheek as he leaned forward, controller in hand. Golden beads glinted faintly in his hair whenever the monitor flashed. His pale skin looked ghostly under the light, and his sharp purple eyes narrowed with the kind of intensity most people reserved for real battles.
Click. Click. Tap.
Another combo landed. Another health bar shattered. Another victory screen.
"Easy. Too easy." He leaned back in his chair, arms stretched lazily over his head. "Developers really don't try anymore, huh? They throw in some flashy animations and hope people forget the game is just button-mashing."
The sarcasm was automatic.
He reached for a can, shook it, and frowned when it rattled empty. Tossing it aside with a sigh, he dug under his desk for a fresh one. This was his life. Wake up late, skip breakfast, game until noon, raid until evening, snack instead of dinner, and play until exhaustion finally knocked him out.
Classes? Jobs? Responsibilities? He had tried them all and dropped them just as fast.
Kairos wasn't lazy because he was weak. He was lazy because nothing in the real world excited him. Nothing gave him the same rush as a fight on-screen, the thrill of figuring out patterns, or the satisfaction of crushing arrogant players who thought they were better than him.
If only life had health bars, he thought, cracking open the fresh can. At least then I'd know when I'm winning.
Friends and Banter
His phone buzzed. A group chat notification.
[NoLifeGuild]
Yo Kairos, you pulling an all-nighter again?
Kairos smirked, thumbs moving fast.
Kairos: "What do you think? Sleep is for people who suck at boss fights."
Another message popped up.
Man, you're twenty and still living like a shut-in. Don't you wanna do… I don't know, anything else?"
Kairos rolled his eyes and typed back.
Kairos: "Yeah, I wanna do something else. But society's boring, jobs are trash, and real life doesn't drop loot."
The chat exploded with laughing emojis.
He tossed the phone onto the bed, satisfied. That was enough social interaction for one night.
The Rumor
Despite his banter, the thought lingered. Twenty years old. No job. No college. No goals beyond the next dungeon raid.
He didn't hate his life—but he didn't love it either. It was… tolerable. A long string of distractions stitched together by glowing screens and caffeine.
Sometimes, late at night, he wondered if this was it. If this was really all life had to offer.
But then he'd laugh, crack open another drink, and log into whatever game was trending. Because what else was there to do?
That night, as he scrolled through forums while waiting for his next queue, he noticed something unusual. A thread exploding with thousands of replies, dozens of new comments every second.
[NEW GLOBAL GAME RELEASE – Realm Online]
"Do you desire power? Do you desire a new world?"
Kairos raised a brow.
"Another overhyped MMO?" he muttered. Still, curiosity nudged him to click.
People weren't just excited—they were obsessed. Entire threads claimed this game wasn't normal. That it felt different. That its trailer didn't even exist, but somehow everyone had seen it.
Kairos scrolled through screenshots. Black screens. A single question.
[Do you desire power… or do you desire a new world?]
His lips curled into a smirk.
"Sounds edgy. Sounds stupid. Sounds perfect."
The Choice
He downloaded it. The install was instant. Too instant.
The screen went black. No logos. No loading screen. Just silence.
Then the words appeared again.
[Do you desire power… or do you desire a new world?]
Kairos chuckled, shaking his head. "What is this, some philosophy student's final project?"
Still, something about it pulled at him. The glow of the text reflected in his purple eyes as he leaned closer, fingers hovering over the options.
"Power sounds boring. Everyone picks power. New world though?" His grin widened. "That sounds like endgame content."
He clicked.
The hum of his computer stopped. The chair beneath him vanished. His soda slipped from his hand, falling into nothing.
Darkness swallowed everything.
And in that silence, a voice whispered—not from speakers, but from the air itself, inside his skull and around it all at once:
"Your choice has been recorded. From this day, you are no longer mortal. Welcome, Chosen Divinity."
Kairos laughed, even as the abyss pulled him in.
"Figures. About time life got interesting."
The last thing he saw before the void consumed him was a serpent's golden eye gleaming in the dark.