1 – Summoning

Alexandra’s alarm went off at 5:58 a.m. Two minutes before reset.

Her eyes snapped open. A dull ache pulsed behind her eyes, but her body was already moving. Chair, mouse, monitor, login screen.

Lone World Online’s familiar music hit her ears before the welcome animation played. Space bar, skip, no time to waste. She knew the sequence so well that she dreamt of it sometimes.

Her character, a max level Warlock, was already in Winterdale. Once, players crawled around the place, so many that clicking the right NPC could be difficult. Not anymore. It had been years since Alexandra had seen more than five people logged in at the same time.

Back then, everyone played Lone World Online. This ritual had outlasted them all. Daily quests. Never missed a single one.

A 3841 day streak.

“Alright,” she muttered, sipping last night’s flat energy drink. “Let’s see what we got today.”

The clock ticked. Another alarm rang. 6:00 a.m.

Not wasting a beat, she pressed the hotkey to open her quest journal. Three new dailies.

• Slay 10 Greater Fiends.

• Gather 5 Fire Lotus Blooms.

• Clear The Infernal Depths.

Her lips twitched.

The first two were easy enough. She didn’t leave her character in Winterdale for no reason. It was the hub for lategame content. The easiest place from which to reach her quests. 10 Greater Fiends? It would take her 10 minutes riding her pet dragon to the Abyssal Fissure. 5 Fire Lotus Bloom would have been a bit more annoying to a newer player, but after ten years, she knew their spawn location like the back of her hand.

The Infernal Depths, though…

It was a raid. How was she supposed to clear a raid alone?

The answer was simple: she couldn’t. Worse, finding people to help her was always near impossible. She’d stayed up until 3 a.m. last night to find a single player to clear a nasty pvp daily quest. Raids needed 8, at minimum.

Alexandra wiped an eye booger away and exhaled. “All good. I’ll just reroll it.”

One reroll a day. That was all players of Lone World Online were given by the developers.

[Are you sure you want to reroll: Clear The Infernal Depth? Yes/No]

Alexandra moved her mouse as carefully as she could, placing the pointer over the yes button. She double checked, triple checked, made sure her internet connection was stable. Then, she pressed the button.

The animation played, a spinning hourglass telling her that the server was processing her request. The seconds stretched as the old game’s infrastructure churned.

She didn’t blink until the new quest appeared.

• Defeat the Giant of Rolling Ice

Her hands started shaking. She closed her quest journal, only to open it again. She hadn’t misread.

“Fuck.” She grabbed her hair, still messy from the night. In a moment of panic, she almost stood up from her chair. “Why? The odds…”

No, she had to stay focused.

She leaned forward on her desk, her eyes locked onto her screen. Her fingers were already moving, opening menus while directing her characters to the gates of the city.

Now, defeating the Giant of Rolling Ice was easier than clearing the Infernal Depths. She only needed three teammates instead of seven.

The thing was: there weren’t three other players on the server.

She was the last person to play the game regularly. All the others, including the few that helped her clear her quests from time to time only came back for the sake of nostalgia.

Still, Alexandra wasn’t going to let it ruin her streak. She’d always known that something like that could happen. Hell, it had happened in the past, and more than once. Every time, she’d come out of it victorious, and today would be no different.

She checked the time: 6:04 a.m. “I’m working the night shift today… Shit!”

Finding other players was always easier in the evening, and this time, she couldn’t afford to pick just anyone. The Rolling Ice Giant wasn’t an easy boss to slay. She needed experienced players.

“Alright, first, let’s clear the other two quests.”

Fifteen minutes later, Alexandra’s character stood in the Elysian Fields of Hell, a dimension added in the final expansion for the game. That was the area where Fire Lotus Blooms were found.

[Daily Quest: Slay 10 Greater Fiends: Completed -> +10 Mythical Crystals]

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[Daily Quest: Gather 5 Fire Lotus Bloom: Completed -> + 10 Mythical Crystals]

She didn’t even need the rewards. She had farmed all there was to farm, bought all the premium items, crafted everything.

Right as Alexandra was about to teleport back to Winterdale, a pop-up blinked on her screen. The add-on she’d developed for herself was like a shining beacon in the night. It was a simple logger that kept track of whoever was online.

[User Logged In: KingMalt]

She wasn’t done typing her message when her screen flashed again.

[User Logged Out: KingMalt]

“Fuck…”

Alexandra returned to Winterdale and waited. She was starting to get hungry. But what if someone logged in while she wasn’t looking?

She couldn’t take the risk.

8:25 a.m.

Alexandra grabbed her phone and started texting. She hadn’t kept up with her old friends from the guild, but maybe they could help her.

Nobody answered.

Lila, Hakim, Arthur, Jenna, Jade, Aaron. No luck. Even Raymond didn’t answer. Not like any of them ever did. Alexandra hadn’t heard from them in ten years.

10:58 a.m.

She had to leave at 4 p.m. if she wanted to make it to her shift at the pizzeria.

Alexandra started calling her exes. Jason didn’t pick up. She tried Nathan. It rang.

“What’s up, Alex?” Nathan’s voice crackled through the speaker. “I’m driving now.”