Van twirled out the way of the monstrous golden great sword, flashing a toothy smile as he did so.
At least, it was meant to be charming.
But for some reason, it only made the midget paladin growl. Poor thing probably never had anyone smile at him.
Poor thing probably hasn't ever had someone smile at him.
The paladin was an impish little gremlin, with short straw hair, tanned skin and dark eyes that were just a little too far apart. His face reminded Van of a cartoon sloth he used to watch as a child.
What was the name of that movie again?
"Damn you!" the Paladin screamed, chins quivering as he spoke.
Van smiled, adopting a gentle, almost fatherly voice. "It's okay. You must be angry at the Devs for making you so ugly. Don't worry, I understand."
"W-what" the Paladin spluttered. "I chose to look like this!"
Poor thing was in denial.
"Sure, sure, I believe you."
"I did! It's part of my Roleplay!"
Roleplay? Van froze. Charming expression sliding off his face immediately.
"Don't tell me you're one of those Role players? Surely not you midget paladin?"
Pivoting his next attack, he rested one palm on the flat of the blade.
MOD 73 - BAN WEAPON
Immediately, the blade shattered into a thousand molten shards. The paladin collapsed to his knees, trying to gather the evaporating shards back together.
"NOOOOOO….you! I'll get you for thi-"
"Sure, sure."
Placing his hand against the Paladin's shoulder, Van scanned through the list of hundreds of other mods in his repertoire.
Which one would be apt for a role player? Perhaps death by turning into a slime? Or by debilitating disease?
No, that just wasn't good enough. For something as disgusting as a role player, he needed something special.
Something with a little imagination. MOD 122 - CHICKEN TRANSMUTE
Perfect.
It truly had been a stroke of genius when he'd made this mod. Mods weren't an easy thing to make in a game. It was a nigh legendary feat actually. Only a handful in the world had the capability to do so. But the rewards were more than worth it.
"Yes. I think this mod is the perfect choice."
A searing heat shot up Van's arm.
Distracted, he looked down to see that the little troll was glowing like an ugly lamplight. Blinding white light radiating from his skin, growing more intense each second.
"HAHAHAH, this is my final skill. Holy Sacrifice!"
"You really are an ugly thing."
Clicking his fingers Van activated MOD 5 - MAGIC BAN.
Instantly the glow winked out, along with that insufferable grin.
"Enjoy the rest of your gaming career as a chicken."
Sighing heavily, Van inspected the handiwork. He'd turned into quite a small bony looking chicken.
"Even ugly as a chicken, how sad."
Well, he considered it a fitting punishment for a role player. His accounts avatar would be irreversibly a chicken. Unless he applied and waited for the devs to fix the issue. But that meant at least 6 months of chicken time.
A fair sentence.
"Well little chicken, I'll be seeing you."
"Log out."
...
Opening his eyes, Van stepped out of the VR Pod.
It was 4pm. That meant he'd only done a modest ten hours.
Rookie numbers really.
Despite that, his head still felt as though it had been abused by a drunken drummer. The manual only advised four hours of continuous play.
Being a reasonable human being, he ignored it.
VR's game were always too real. Sometimes it felt like I'd only blinked and ten hours had gone by. Not that it was a problem for Van. Becoming a millionaire and retiring at sixteen meant one thing.
Everything had become cheap, even time.
The days before VR's release had been horrible. Too much time, with too little to do, it had almost killed him.
A genius needed things to do.
Then the next generation of gaming had been unleashed, and the entire world had been taken by storm.
Virtual Reality so seamless that there was no point even putting the world Virtual before it. AI NPC's so advanced he had more friendships there than he ever had here.
For a time, it had just been amazing, delving into a new world to conquer.
But time wasn't enough.
He quickly fell behind the other gamers. Absolute diehards who discovered the hidden trials. And believed in the 'spirit' behind the games. They found all the secret missions and unlocked powerful legendary classes.
Those people became known as Role players.
And Van felt himself, for the first time in his life, left in the dust. Consumed by something worse than failure...mediocrity.
It was when he'd died to some unranked gremlin that Van had finally decided, enough was enough. Roleplayers had their advantage, so why not use his own?
It had taken months, months of absolute torture. Deciphering a level of coding that made everything else he'd seen look like Lego blocks.
But eventually Van had succeeded. Of course he had.
Van had successfully hacked VR.
And with that, all diehards would pay. A truly powerful and righteous motivation. A real beggar to billionaire story.
Stretching, he descended the three flights of stairs to the kitchen. It was time for some silent coffee and more time spent with himself.
BUZZZ
Glancing at his phone, he saw -
'One notification : Birth Giver'
Later Van decided.
She was probably messaging to check up, like the rest of his family. Van rarely replied to them, and even when he did, it was never more than a simple 'ok.'
He didn't hate them.
His life wasn't a tortured genius turned megastar. It had began average, with a nice family.
And that's all they were. Nice. Plain. Like bland potato chips.
Placing the mug in the slot, the soft whirr of the coffee machine was almost like an auditory massage as the beautiful frothy nectar filled up his cup.
Hands trembling, Van brought the cup to his lips.
"Ahh…Divine."
Cup in one hand, phone in the other, he made his way to the balcony where Van could enjoy it all.
Like any respectable man, he scrolled on his phone mindlessly, watching knock off repeats of something he'd seen a month ago.
A cold feminine voice spoke from the silence, sounding as if it was coming from everywhere at once. [Announcement : Heirs of this world, a portion of your population will be translocated to another world as heroes….]
"Huh?" Turning, Van looked for the source of the noise. He was sure that he hadn't left the TV on.
[Announcement : Using the Virtua Regnum Corporation, a portion of the population will be chosen….]
"Virtua Regnum" he mouthed.
That was Latin wasn't it? Van had been forced to study Latin at school. Didn't that just mean….virtual kingdom?
"Virtual Kingdom? What's that? Virtual Kingdom, Virtual Kingdom, Virtual Kingdom….VR."
His coffee cup crashed to the floor.
"Shit."
That's when the third announcement came. And unlike the others, this one didn't sound as if it came from everywhere.
No this one came as a whisper, like something was right behind him. [Announcement : PLAYER TAG : VAN HELSING, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN….]
Instantly his legs went weak. Falling to the floor, a sharp pain dug into his body. Like a hook tearing its way into his soul.
For a moment Van just lay there. Stunned.
Then the inevitable tug came, and all went dark.