Eric grumbled under his breath as his six-foot-three linebacker frame got yanked forward by the girl ahead of him. She was nearly a full head shorter, ponytail bouncing, with a grip that had absolutely no business being that strong.
He could've pulled free without much effort, but this was his cousin. She'd grown up beside him and steamrolled through life like she owned every inch of it. He never had a real defense against her, so he went along, half-dragged and half-willing.
The one hauling him was Liora, known online as a moderately popular game streamer under the handle I Will Carry You. Right now her face was lit up like Christmas morning, eyes sharp and bright with barely contained excitement.
"Stop whining! Warhammer 40K just dropped its open beta! Come on!" She didn't bother looking back, pulling him with clear purpose toward a gaming cafe in the commercial district, the kind stocked with top-of-the-line full-immersion pods.
"I need someone who can actually hold their own out there, and that's you!"
"Come on," Eric said, somewhere between laughing and annoyed. "I don't even play VR games. What do you expect from me? I do martial arts, not gaming."
"That's exactly why I want you!" Liora finally stopped, spun around, planted both hands on her hips, and craned her neck back to look up at him.
"This isn't some soft casual game. Word is it's incredibly realistic, a massive war simulation. Bullets flying everywhere, close-quarters combat that actually means something. A big guy like you, president of the school martial arts club, fast reflexes, solid instincts, you'll pick it up way faster than I ever will. I can barely walk in a straight line without getting killed."
She paused, and her expression softened just a fraction. "It's the first day of open beta. The hype is through the roof and my stream is packed with people waiting. Just give it one shot, and if it really isn't working, we walk away, no questions asked. I'm paying. Now come on."
Faced with his cousin's rare moment of sincerity and the look in her eyes, Eric let out a long breath and gave in. "Fine. But don't come crying to me when we lose."
"Yes! Let's go, let's go!" The sincerity vanished instantly, swallowed whole by pure excitement, and she grabbed his arm again.
They reached the cafe not long after. The place was sleek and modern, the equipment clearly brand new. Liora was a regular. She went straight to a private two-person room and booked it without hesitating. Inside sat two of the latest full-immersion gaming pods, side by side.
"There you go, just lie down. It walks you through everything." She patted one of the pods and slid efficiently into the other. "I'm going in first. Stream's already live. Hurry up."
Eric stood in front of the pod, its surface gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, and scratched the back of his head. He usually stuck to light strategy games or fighting games on a handheld. A full-immersion setup like this was something else entirely.
He followed his cousin's lead anyway and climbed in. The hatch eased shut. A soft liquid began to fill the space around him and a faint neural-sync sensation moved through him like a slow current.
Brief darkness. A moment of weightlessness.
Then the world opened up.
What greeted him wasn't some flashy game menu. It was a deep, frigid stretch of cosmic black. Then, one by one, rows of heavy Gothic script appeared, angular and severe, like words chiseled into stone. A low, weathered male voice accompanied them, carrying the weight of countless wars and years:
"Now, amidst eternal strife, a great empire rises across the stars. It is the legacy of a fallen god, forged in blood and battle, seeking hope within the darkness. This is an age of cruelty and shadow. An age in which only war is eternal..."
The words only war is eternal were still echoing in his head when the void shattered into spinning cogs, burning aquilas, roaring chainswords, and bursting bolter fire. A massive, mournful orchestral score crashed in like a wave.
Eric sat with it for a moment, genuinely caught off guard. This wasn't the jump-in-and-start-swinging experience he'd pictured. It felt more like the opening of a vast, dark epic.
The cinematic ended. The main interface loaded. First up was the character creation screen, with battle footage cycling on a loop behind it: grey soldiers advancing in silence, roaring green giants, daemons burning with warp-fire, war machines standing as tall as mountains.
Eric stared at the empty name field and drew a complete blank. He almost never had to come up with usernames and had nothing.
Still half-processing the fact that he'd been dragged here against his will, still half-digesting that heavy opening narration, he reached up and scratched his head without really thinking, and what came out was the phrase he always fell back on whenever something felt ridiculous or completely off the rails:
"What the hell..."
The words had barely left him when something strange happened.
The name field seemed to flicker to life. A flash of green light. The words What the Hell filled the box instantly, rendered in a rough, bold typeface, as if they'd always been there. And before Eric could find a Cancel or Re-enter button, the screen jumped.
The confirmation step was skipped entirely. The interface went straight to faction selection and basic appearance customization.
"Huh?" Eric blinked and leaned closer. There it was, floating above his newly created character in plain text: What the Hell.
"You've got to be kidding me." He couldn't help himself. "Since when do games take voice input for usernames? With auto-confirm? I want to change it!"
He dug through every corner of the character creation screen for a rename option, tried voice commands, tried anything. Nothing worked.
The username What the Hell sat at the top of his character info panel like it had been bolted there, giving off a faint, barely perceptible green glow, as if it found the whole situation funnier than he did.
"Hey! Liora! What is going on with this username? I can't change it!" He tried reaching her through the in-game communication system, but character creation clearly had to be finished first. The channel wasn't open yet.