The neon hum of the Tokyo skyline bled through the blinds of Javier Gantz's apartment, but he didn't notice the city. His world was confined to the thirty-two-inch glow of his monitor and the rhythmic, haptic vibrations of his custom gaming controller. On-screen, the grand arena of AeonQuest was a digital coliseum packed with sixty thousand virtual spectators, their cheers rendered in high-fidelity audio that shook his headset.
This was the Global Apex Invitational. The stakes weren't just the ten-million-credit prize pool; it was the final validation of a philosophy Javier had spent ten thousand hours perfecting.
"And here he is, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer's voice boomed. "The 'Commoner King,' the 'Basic Sage' himself—Rank Nineteen, Javier Gantz! Facing off against the highest-rated shadow in the game, Rank Thirteen, the Assassin God, Vex!"
Javier's avatar, a mage dressed not in the glowing, legendary regalia of his peers but in the starting-level linen robes of an apprentice, stepped onto the stone tiles. Opposite him, Vex was a blur of obsidian armor and smoke-trailed daggers.
The countdown hit zero.
Vex moved like a fever dream. A high-tier assassin's Blink ability allowed them to teleport three times in rapid succession, closing a fifty-meter gap in less than a second. Most mages would have panicked, burning their cooldowns on a high-tier Frost Nova or a Mana Shield that would drain half their bar.
Javier didn't blink. He didn't use a shield.
Cast: Grease.
Cast: Spark.
In the span of half a second, the stone floor beneath Vex's feet became a slick hazard, and a tiny ember ignited the oil. It wasn't a massive firestorm, but the momentary stagger was all Javier needed.
"Look at that micro-management!" the commentator screamed. "Javier is using Drip to moisten the air and Static Charge to create a localized stun! He's not using a single spell over Level 5!"
The "pros" laughed at Javier. They called his style a gimmick. They boasted of Meteor Swarms that could level a city block and Abyssal Chains that locked an opponent in place for ten seconds. But those spells had thirty-second casting times and mana costs that left a player vulnerable. Javier's spells were instantaneous. They cost next to nothing. To the observers, it looked like he had infinite mana because he never reached the bottom of the blue bar. He was a machine gun of fundamental logic, weaving basic physics into a web of death.
Vex lunged, his daggers glowing with a Level 9 Soul Rend. If it hit, Javier was dead.
Javier leaned forward, his fingers dancing.
Cast: Gust.
Cast: Pebble.
The small puff of wind accelerated the tiny stone, hitting Vex right in the larynx—a classic interrupt. The assassin's legendary skill was canceled. Vex stumbled, his health bar chipping away, one percent at a time, under the relentless barrage of Javier's basic Mana Bolts.
"He's got him!" Javier whispered to himself, his heart hammering against his ribs. "One more combo. Wet into Freeze into Impact..."
Vex had five percent health left. Javier was at ninety. The crowd was roaring. The biggest upset in AeonQuest history was seconds away. Javier pressed the button to execute the final Ice Shard—a spell every player learned at Level 2.
Then, the world froze.
Not the character. Not the game. The connection.
In the top right corner of his screen, the green signal icon turned a mocking, blood-red. A small spinning circle appeared in the center of the arena.
"No," Javier breathed, his grip tightening on the controller. "No, no, no! Not now!"
He mashed the buttons, but his avatar stood still, a vacant expression on its digital face. On the server side, however, the game continued. He watched in agonizing, stuttering frames as Vex regained his footing. The assassin looked confused for a split second, then realized his opponent had disconnected. With a cruel flourish of his daggers, Vex walked up to the stationary Javier and executed a basic throat-slit.
DEFEAT.
The word filled the screen in jagged, golden letters. The connection snapped back just in time for Javier to see his character's corpse dissolve into pixels.
"GOD DAMN IT!" The roar that ripped from Javier's throat was primal. He stood up so fast his chair flipped backward, crashing into his bookshelf. He looked at the controller in his hand—the tool that had failed him because of a faulty router—and hurled it against the wall. It shattered into plastic shrapnel.
He stayed there for a long time, chest heaving, staring at the screen where the global rankings were already updating. He had dropped to Rank 25. The forums would be a nightmare. 'The Basic Sage chokes again,' they'd say. 'Proof that basic spells can't win the big ones.'
Exhausted by the adrenaline crash and the sheer weight of the frustration, Javier didn't even bother to turn off his PC. He stumbled to his bed and collapsed, falling into a heavy, dark sleep fueled by resentment.
Hours later, the chirping of his phone dragged him toward consciousness. He groaned, swatting at his nightstand until he found the device. It was Kaito, his guild leader.
"Javier? Man, are you alive?" Kaito's voice was thick with pity.
"Go away, Kaito," Javier muttered, rubbing his crusty eyes.
"Look, I saw the stream. That was brutal, man. You had him. Everyone knows you had him. The stats showed you had a 98% win probability before the lag hit. Why did you just stop? Did the router fry?"
"The network," Javier growled, sitting up and leaning his back against the cold wall. "Everything was perfect. The combos were landing. And then the world just... stopped. I hate this game, Kaito. I'm done. I'm selling my account."
"You say that every time you lose a rank," Kaito sighed. "Take a breath. Rest. Check your messages later; the devs might give you a rollback if you provide the logs. Talk soon."
The call ended. Javier stared at the ceiling for a moment, the silence of his apartment feeling heavier than usual. He stood up, his joints popping, and walked back to his desk to finally shut the machine down.
The monitor was dim, but a single notification window was pinned to the center of the screen. It wasn't a standard Windows alert. It wasn't even a standard AeonQuest UI element.
The border of the window was made of shifting, iridescent mana-vapors that seemed to spill out of the screen and onto his desk.
[USER: JAVIER GANTZ
STATUS: OPTIMIZED FOR FUNDAMENTALS.
NOTIFICATION: THE THRONE OF THE ARCANE IS VACANT. THE DEMON GOD ASCENDS. WILL YOU ACCEPT THE CONTRACT?]
Javier frowned, leaning closer. "A contract? Is this some kind of promotional event for the new expansion?"
He reached for his mouse. He should have been suspicious. The way the light from the notification didn't reflect off the glass, but seemed to originate from within the room, should have been a warning. But Javier was tired, bitter, and looking for anything to distract him from the loss.
He clicked [ACCEPT].
The moment the cursor made contact, the clicking sound didn't come from the mouse. It came from the air itself—a sharp, tectonic crack like a mountain splitting in half.
The notification window expanded, but it didn't just fill the screen. It tore through it. A vacuum of pure white light erupted from the monitor, catching Javier's hand and pulling. He tried to scream, but the air was sucked out of his lungs. His desk, his shattered controller, his posters—everything was being pulled into a singularity.
"What the—!" His vision whited out. The sensation of his body was replaced by a terrifying weightlessness, followed by a crushing pressure that felt like being shoved through a needle's eye.
Birds.
That was the first thing Javier heard. Not the digital chirping of an alarm or the hum of a PC fan, but the chaotic, melodic trill of actual birds.
He opened his eyes and immediately squinted. The sun was blindingly bright, and the air smelled of damp earth and blooming jasmine—scents far too complex for any VR haptic suit. He was lying on his back on a bed of thick, vibrant green grass.
He sat up, his head spinning. This wasn't his apartment. He was in a clearing surrounded by trees that looked like oaks but were the size of skyscrapers, their leaves shimmering with a faint, translucent blue tint.
"Where..." He looked down at his hands. He wasn't wearing his pajamas. He was wearing the same linen apprentice robes his avatar wore in AeonQuest.
A translucent blue screen flickered into existence in his field of vision. It was his character sheet, but it looked different.
[NAME: JAVIER GANTZ]
[CLASS: ARCHMAGE (BASIC)]
[LEVEL: ???]
[MANA: ∞ / ∞]
[AVAILABLE SPELLS: MANA BOLT (LV 1), IGNITE (LV 1), GUST (LV 1), DRIP (LV 1)...]
Javier stared at the mana bar. The infinity symbol pulsed with a steady, terrifying light. He looked at the spell list. He scrolled down, expecting to see the high-level nukes, the Time Stops, the Reality Warps.
There was nothing. Just the basics.
"You've got to be kidding me," Javier whispered, his voice echoing in the vast, strange forest. "Infinite mana... and I'm stuck with Level 1 garbage?"
He looked at a nearby boulder. Instinctively, he flicked his wrist and muttered the command for Mana Bolt.
In the game, a Mana Bolt was a blue marble of energy that did ten damage.
From Javier's palm, a beam of concentrated sapphire light erupted with the roar of a jet engine. It didn't just hit the boulder; it vaporized it, punching a hole through three trees behind it before exploding in the distance.
Javier stared at his hand, his eyes wide.
"Okay," he breathed, a slow, dangerous smirk forming on his face. "Maybe the basics are enough."