Earth, USA.
"Finally, off work," the young man sighed as he walked into his apartment. "Man, that brother and sister today… that was rough."
Mike was, by all accounts, an ordinary man. Twenty-four years old, average height, average looks. His defining characteristics were a prodigious appetite and a deep love for sleep.
By day, Mike was a doctor. Just today, he had treated a young girl whose legs were paralyzed. The blood vessels were completely necrotic, and the recommended course of action was amputation. Her brother, a young man named Ben, had wept with a heart-wrenching agony. They were a tragic pair.
Mike's greatest wish each day was to not have to go to work.
And just as he had a public-facing identity, he also had a hidden one. The moment he got home and sat down in front of his computer, he underwent a transformation. He became one of the most well-known game reviewers on YouTube. For Mike, gaming was an essential part of his life.
In the current era, AI and network technology had reached a new zenith. Everyone used full-immersion game pods. Mike had only heard about the "antique" games of yesteryear from his grandfather. Today's games, built on virtual reality technology, were the pinnacle of entertainment. Every developer chased realism and open worlds, but humanity's "Second World" was still little more than an expensive dream.
Mike had never given up on that dream. He tried every new game that came out, but the so-called masterpieces always ended in disappointment. He hoped that, within his lifetime, he would find a game that delivered a truly authentic, immersive experience, not just over-the-top marketing.
As a doctor, Mike was meticulous in everything he did, a trait that carried over to his game reviews. He was famous for his integrity and his refusal to "sell out" with sponsored content, a reputation which had earned him a legion of loyal fans. Thousands of games were released every day, and the task of unearthing the hidden gems fell to his hundreds of thousands of followers.
He sat down at his terminal. His intelligent robot butler glided over with a cup of coffee. He opened YouTube.
"Whoa, that's a lot of DMs."
Mike's eyes lit up. This probably meant a lot of good games had been released recently. The very first message made his eye twitch.
"Mike, it's been three days, bro. No updates—are you dead or just playing hard to get? I'm a dude too, but damn… I think I'm falling for you."
Mike rolled his eyes, quickly deleting the useless messages until only the actual game recommendations remained.
Alright, let's see what we've got. A new fantasy MMO... 'Eighty unique classes, over a thousand skills, cinematic special effects...' Yeah, right. Looks like another flashy, pay-to-win Korean grinder. Garbage!
A horror-puzzle game? Oh, hell no. Don't they know I hate jump scares? Not touching that. Next…
'My Neighbor's Heart: An NTR Story.' Ooh, this looks good. Heh heh heh... bookmarked for... later 'research'.
He was a young man in his prime, after all. It was my duty to… save the girls in these games! After placating his conscience with this noble justification, his eyes continued down the list.
"Huh? What's this?" A pop-up ad, garish in color and shoddy in design, appeared on his screen.
"A second world jointly created by ten nations, with the super-AI Queen as its computational core?"
"Continent of Destiny creates the most realistic gaming experience?"
Has to be fake. Mike knew about the Queen super-AI, but a ten-nation collaboration? It sounded completely bogus. If a project that massive were real, it would be all over the news.
The description sounded sketchy as hell, but he had to admit, a claim that ballsy piqued his curiosity. He was going to find out just how "epic" this so-called "international blockbuster" really was. And if it turned out to be a bait-and-switch, they shouldn't blame him for evolving into his final form: the Level 99 Keyboard Warlord.
Mike clicked the link. The landing page featured a slightly more refined game poster depicting a massive map table, surrounded by an orc, a human, an elf, and a demon.
You've gotta at least slap a couple of hot girls on there, right?
After seeing the cover, Mike had basically given up hope. Still, he patiently clicked on the video link below the poster. It was the game's promotional video and pre-order page. What shocked him was the comment section below, which was scrolling at an incredible speed. He'd only ever seen that kind of activity on flagship titles from major corporations.
Could it be that this game is actually the real deal?
Intrigued, Mike clicked play. His expression shifted from indifference to disbelief, and then to utter, jaw-dropping astonishment—all in less than a minute.
…
…
A player by the handle of DungeonJanitor also clicked on the video link. He didn't watch the video right away, immediately captivated by the kaleidoscope of comments below it.
[Anxious_Waffle] OMG! Did some special effects company get tired of making movies and decide to make a game instead?
[Chris_P_Bacon] The trailer looks amazing, but I just can't get excited for it.
[SnaccDaddy] 5-star trailer, 1-star gameplay?
DungeonJanitor shook his head with a sigh. A comment with a special animated effect popped up, showing a shattered moon re-forming into a crystalline throne:
[Mike_The_Goat] To be fair, anyone who can pull off an effect like that is already a top-tier dev in my book. I'm actually excited to see the gameplay.
[i_pwn_n00bz] LMAO, if this game actually makes it past the beta test, I'll delete my entire Steam account.
[TestosteroneRex] Mark my words. If this game gets popular, I will literally eat a bag of dicks.
[MasterChiefs_Bathwater] ...Damn, dude. We went from deleting digital goods to eating... uh... analog goods. Respect the commitment.
…
Whoa, even Mike says it's promising? Maybe this is worth keeping an eye on...
Then he saw the gloriously unhinged comments right below Mike's. A grin spread across DungeonJanitor's face. He had a special kind of respect for the internet's true madlads. He quickly replied to the two bros.
To the guy betting his Steam account, he just posted a single letter: "F". To the one betting on... the bag, he wrote, "A true King." He liked both comments. Someone had to support the heroes of the internet.
Then, DungeonJanitor continued scrolling.
[CertifiedTrash] "Achieving 100% replication of the five senses through the Queen super-AI." Can any tech-heads weigh in? Is that even possible?
One hundred percent replication of the five senses? What a boast.
DungeonJanitor chuckled. There wasn't a single virtual reality game on the market that dared to claim 100% sensory replication. Achieving even 10% was considered a masterpiece. What kind of company was this brazen?
He scrolled to the very bottom of the page and saw the developer's name.
The 'Ten-Nation Federation?' What the hell is that?
DungeonJanitor drew a blank. He was a veteran of every major gaming platform and knew all the famous developers, but he had never heard of this company. It was as if it had materialized out of thin air.
Was it just founded?
He opened a new tab and typed "Ten-Nation Federation" into the search bar. An information page popped up, but it contained only two spare lines of text.
Established: July 25, 2088
Signature Work: Continent of Destiny