The Supreme Sage - Chapter 1

“Sigh”

Luke let out a long and exaggerated sigh. It was finally the day. The dreaded day of the apocalypse. The day everything ended. It was the day that would go down in history when ‘Ultimatum’, the very first fully-immersive VRMMORPG would go offline.

‘Ultimatum’ was originally created in 2063, and was ironically named such by the developers because of its highly complicated, and interactive questlines.[1]

“It’s been 23 years, and Ultimatum is finally going to shut down.” Continued Luke.

“Yup. I’ve basically spent my entire childhood playing this game” replied Karl, in a white robe adorned with countless golden fragments

“Hehe, you little brat. Why are you even wearing that. It has absolutely no status effects other than boosting charm?” retorted Luke calmly

“Hmph! Old man. Your fashion sense died out back in 2050!”

“Sigh. I have become almost become 40 now, BUT NOW YET! You brat! Calling me old!? Continued Luke, wearing his favourite Black Death magical robe that gave him incredible stats in long distance combat.

“Whatever you ancient relic! Just dig up your grave and give me some peace!!!!!!!!!!!!” Kyle yelled mockingly

“Hey!!! Stop putting so many exclamation marks while in conversation. I’m going to log off now!” interrupted a middle aged man donned in glistening silver armour.

Just as he said that, his figure began crumbling into glowing blue pixels which collapsed to the ground.

“Sigh. Another one bites the dust.”

“Tch, old man. Now you are quoting memes from an age even before your father’s! It’s not even funny!” retorted Kyle hurriedly, worried he would be expelled from the centre of attention

“Nevermind. Anyways Kyle, I always wanted to ask you one thing. Why did you name yourself ‘SwordMenace212’? You aren’t even from the warrior pathway, let alone specialising in swordsman.” Luke expertly changed the topic.

“Kekeke. Old man, did you go senile or something? My Assassin specialisation from the Hunter pathway is the bane of all swordsmen.”

“Hmm. But that specialisation class is something you got from a one-time only hidden quest right? It is not possible for you to know your future class while in character creation right?”

“This” Kyle was at a loss for words. This was one his biggest secrets in Ultimatum, one that he intended to take down to the grave of Ultimatum itself.

“Hehe, isn’t it obvious old man? He wanted to be a swordsman, but ended up selected the wrong pathway, and thus the contradiction in his name and class specialisation.” Said a melodic voice from across the table. It was a female elf clad in incredibly heavy mechanical armour made from material of unknown origins. This was ‘Gunda__mOnline45’, one of the founding members of the Ares guild, a relatively large guild, but not famous enough to be well known even amongst players of the same server.

“You-” just as ‘SwordMenace212’ Kyle was going to retort with a flushed face, ‘Gunda__mOnline45’s figure collapsed into bright blue pixels.

“Sigh, I should log out as well” said Luke as he let out an intentional dry cough.

“Call me if you find a new game. But remember, it better be as good as ‘Ultimatum’ Or else I will block your contact” continued Luke

“Uh, alright. Bye”

With this, both Kyle and Luke aimed their fingers at the floating status screen’s ‘Log Out’ button and pressed down.

However, instead of the normal blurring of images, and saturation of colours experienced by players around the world for almost 23 years, Luke felt an unimaginably terrifying pain in his mind. A pain so severe, that it caused him to instantly lose consciousness.

When he woke up, he saw nothing. Nothing but darkness stretching for eons in every direction.

[1] An ultimatum is a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations. (According to google. Don’t take my words for it. Look it up yourself.) Therefore, the game was named after the logic within quests themselves.