This is a story about a man named Vendross. He was 20 years old at the beginning of these events. Vendross was a gamer, weeb, and general home police.

On one cold night of the year 2023, Vendross was alone and bored in his cold home because his family flew off to China to visit his sister.

He had received a link from an unknown person. Without much thought, Vendross tapped on said link. The link brought him to a site and had immediately started downloading a file titled ❝DEMON GTX❞. After the file had completed downloading, Vendross had finally noticed it and tried to delete it over and over but to of no avail. But after calming down, with Vendross's natural curiosity, he decided to open the file and download the game inside.

And as he entered his personal information foolishly into the game, at the moment he finished, a bolt of lightning whizzed out of his phone and had zapped the poor chap unconscious. Little did he know that peril, trials and perhaps even adventure awaited for the young man.

'W-where.... am I? And...what is this place?' Vendross thought groggily when he woke up. Jordan, one of Vendross's best friends saw him wake up and quickly ran out from the room to call the staff of the hospital. Vendross asks the doctor where he was as the nurses started to work on him. "You are in the hospital" replied the doctor ."How long have I been in the hospital?" Vendross questioned . The doctor hesitated for a second before replying "Unfortunately it has been almost 2 years since you have been in a coma" answered the doctor .

" What!? This can't be possible!", Vendross shouted, startling the staff tending to him. "It had felt as if it's only been a day!"

"Well, while it's not common, many people that fall into a coma feel as if its only been a day while years pass" explained the doctor .The staff and doctor continued to check his status and fidget with the many machines beside him. Before the doctor left the room he told Vendross that he could leave the hospital by next week as he had mostly recovered to which Vendross acknowledged.

However , Vendross had seen a glimpse of the doctor's face as he closed the door, and a chill ran up his spine, the eyes that looked at him were filled with sadistic malice. Even if it was for a second, the doctor's eyes gave Vendross a bad feeling, an uncomfortably tight feeling in his chest.

Outside, the doctor's eyes shined in the dark hallway, "Welcome.....new player"

A week went by agonizingly slow, with the most productive thing Vendross had done was using the toilet, he finally left the hospital with Jordan. They quietly sat in the car as Vendross looked out the window into the streets, seeing what had changed in the past 2 years.

"Before I forget ,you need to sign up for school this year seeing as you've not been to school for 2 years."said Jordan. Vendross groaned at the thought of going to school , "Why, do we have to?"

"Of course we do." Jordan glanced at Vendross, "Plus, the last 2 years when you were in a coma a big incident had happened that even forced schools to close so some of us need to go back to high school."

A bead of sweat rolled down Jordan's face as he stopped at a red light, "though.... that means we will have a lot of students of different ages with us"

"God, this will be a nightmare" replied Vendross. "Yeah I know, but rules are rules" Jordan sighed.

"Fine I get it" Vendross surrendered, arriving at his home he bid Jordan goodbye. "Be seeing you tomorrow at school I suppose" teased Jordan. The man could only sigh before waving him off.

The next day, Vendross came to school in his car and signed in to school. The school was almost as he remembered, with its fences now rusty and grass slightly greener.

"Yo Vendross! Long time no see." A Familiar voice greeted Vendross's ears prompting him to turn around, what had met his eyes was the face of an old friend, Allen.

The two exchanged a nostalgic handshake before Vendross answered; "How are you dude, you got buff since the last time I saw you!". Allen answered with a smirk, "It's been great ! Could be better though..", they both took some time and caught up before Vendross asked if Allen had seen Jordan.

"Doesn't seem like he's here yet" Allen shrugged. "Are you here to sign up as well?" asked Vendross. "Nah, I'm just here to see you since I heard that you woke up." said Allen.

Vendross stopped as he processed the words "Do you mean you're not going back to school again?" he asked. "No no, you've got the wrong idea." Allen waved his arms,"I've already signed up last year so i don't need to anymore." he says as he grins.

"Wait, but that would mean... you're my senior!?" Vendross looked upon him with only annoyance in his expression. Allen chuckled smugly "Yes! So from today onwards, you, and Jordan may only refer to me as Lord Allen!"

Vendross's ears perked up at the name of his last friend in their group of four, "By the way.. where is Afel anyway?" He asked Allen with a slight lift in one of his eyebrows. "Jordan didn't tell you anything yet, did he?" Vendross shook his head, "Tell me what?" he asked.

"Well....it's a long story" Allen spoke as he scratched the back of his head "Hey, how about after you sign your school form then I'll tell you what happened" said Allen ."You'd better." Vendross told him, and Allen nodded, promising as he walked with him to the office.

After signing up, Allen brought Vendross to a coffee shop nearby. A tense atmosphere developed as Allen spoke. "Vendross, while you were in that coma for the past 2 years a lot of things have changed. This all happened when a weird link was sent to me, Afel and Jordan's phone.." Allen crossed his arms "We were together when it was sent and.... having being dumb enough to download it just as you had." Allen hesitated and glanced outside before looking back at Vendross.

"Right as we signed in to the game, bolts of lightning struck all of us and knocked us out, but only for like a week. " Allen pulled up his sleeve, the word 'player' tattooed on his forearm "We all had this weird tattoo on us. Mine was on my arm while Jordan has it on his leg, and Afel even had it on his tongue !"

Vendross inspected the tattoo but reeled back when Allen pulled the sleeve back down, "That's not all, the game gave us these..." he looked down at his hands under the table, "These abilities of some kind." He gestured his thumb at himself. "I have a time stopping ability, Jordan got Alchemy while Afel has the mark of the beast, kinda like Doomguy, you know the Doom franchise right?"

Allen looked deeply into Vendross's eyes with a look of concentration with a hint of fear all while whispering, "And ever since that god-awful day, we have all been attacked and challenged by other players."

"Once, a group of top level players forced us into a match." Allen continued on, Vendross tentatively listening to him, "When the match had began, they transformed into these creatures like I had never seen before, they toyed with us and told us to transform so that we could make the fight interesting even though we didn't know how."

Now that Vendross looked closely, he could see faint scars and burns, small and almost unnoticeable but many. "After that they tried to recruit us, said that they would teach us ways to use our powers. We had no choice but the join or we'd be killed off ." Allen shrugged ,"We joined and learned a lot in the three months we were with them."

Allen perked up a bit, "They even taught us how to use our monster forms. But things got worse as time went on, they had started to pick off the weaker ones in the team, with me and Jordan having witnessed it."

"We had discussed about leaving with Afel, but he was adamant on staying because he thought that we were just being weak." his face tightened "we fought, and it had ended with me and Jordan escaping those bastards with Afel still in their ranks."

"Damn..." Vendross tried to process everything, then proceeded to ask "what's the game's name?" With Allen feeling uncomfortable and refusing to answer for fear of someone hearing.

Vendross knocked Allen's head, "come on man, it's not like we are being spyed on."

" Oh fine! The name is DEMON GTX." Vendross being confused asked, "The what demon?!"

"I said Demon GTX is the name, why? Have you heard of it?" Vendross shocked, "Did you mean this game?" Vendross said, showing his phone to Allen. The game sitting brightly in the middle of Vendross's screen.

Allen stood up and quickly walked over to his side "When did you download that game?! Oh god, did you sign in to that game?" Allen asked with a face of disbelief. Vendross nodded "Yeah, I downloaded it right before i went into that coma."

"Did you sign in? Please tell me you didn't." Allen questioned "I'm pretty sure i did." Said Vendross. "Did lightning strike you?" he asked. "Yes and that's why I was in that coma for the last 2 years" said Vendross. "Oh, Shit..." said Allen while he kept checking Vendross like he was looking for something. Then he stopped when he found something. "Look Vendross!" Allen said as he pointed at Vendross's neck and said "you are ...!

"You're a player!"

"What the ****! My mom will kill me if she sees this!" Vendross groaned as he tried to cover up the tattoo. "Agh why a tattoo and why on my neck of all places" He grumbled. 

"What is your ability then?" asked Allen and he shrugged "I have no idea". "When you woke up from your coma did you feel anything weird?" Allen tried to grasp the right word "like as if you were very energized or feel stronger than you remember?" asked Allen. Vendross shook his head, "Nope, but i do feel something alright". 

"And what's that?" Allen asked curiously. "I feel like going home" answered Vendross with a dumb grin. "What the **** dude could you be serious about this?" said Allen. "Hah! If i was ever serious, I wouldn't be me anymore." Vendross said with a playful tone. 

"Whatever, hand me your phone." said Allen. He started to check Vendross's information in the game. "What in hell's blazes, why is your ability not listed here on your profile?" he muttered to himself, "Does that mean you are a low ranker? But no, that should be impossible, with your physique you should have the same rank as me and Jordan." said Allen. "Uh, I'm not sure I follow, could you run that by me again?" replied Vendross. Allen clicked his tongue, "Aren't you supposed to be a gamer? Fine, i'll explain."

"You see, this game has 10 ranks, the best rank is the god rank or known as rank 1,the second highest would be the demon rank or rank 2, the third highest would be dragon rank, which would be rank 3. You with me so far?" Vendross nodded, and prompted for Allen to continue.  "As we go on, we will reach the fifth rank, which is where me and Jordan are." A bead of sweat rolled down Allen's face. "This is where it gets bad, from the sixth rank down, people like those are considered extremely weak." 

He pointed at Vendross , "You seem to be at the tenth rank, the lowest of the low. Which would mean that you are essentially free points at the moment." Allen exaggerated.

"That sounds like some serious bullshit." replied Vendross. "Yes it is bullshit since you can't possibly be a tenth ranker from the start." said Jordan as he entered the coffee shop. "What? How do you know?" said Vendross. "Yeah man how do you know ?" said Allen. 

Jordan sighed as he shook his head "Did you forget, Allen? what our senior Alex said, if the player passes out for a day they are automatically a low ranker while a player that passes out for a week or more is guaranteed to be a rank 5 or higher." Jordan raised a finger "Vendross passed out for two whole years, and he's high on the bounty list too." 

"Bounty list?" Vendross questioned. "God, do I have to explain everything to you?" Jordan groaned.

"Have you even opened the app yet?" he pointed to a button in the app, titled "Bounty list'. "In the app there is a list that ranks you by how much you are worth, and at the moment you are worth enough for anyone who kills you to get a boost to at least rank 8."

Jordan pointed his finger at Vendross as he spoke "And there are thousands of players looking for a quick way to the top, even him."  Said Jordan.

"Who's him?" Vendross asked. Jordan groaned and looked at Allen as if asking 'did you even explain anything?'. "Afel, who else?" scoffed Jordan. Vendross shook his head "Now you are seriously getting on my nerves, why would he do that?"

"He's no longer the friend you knew, he is now a power-hungry beast who will stop at nothing to rise to the top." Jordan said with pure disgust painted across his face.