The brilliant, assaulting light of a new Vegas morning filtered through the suite's floor-to-ceiling windows, but it was nothing compared to the throbbing, jackhammering agony in the heads of three of the four men. Kaz, Vance, and Zaki groaned in unison, a low, guttural symphony of hangovers. The night had been a blur of flashing lights, free-flowing drinks, and the dizzying, intoxicating rhythm of winning and losing. Now, the early dawn was their collective nemesis.
"Turn it off, Randy," Kaz mumbled into his pillow, his voice a low, strangled rasp. "The blue light is going to melt my brain."
"Yeah, Randy, lay off the lights," Vance grunted, pulling a pillow over his face.
Zaki just groaned, a sound that conveyed a deep and profound pain.
Randy, however, was wide awake, bouncing on his own bed with a boundless, almost offensive energy. His hair was slightly mussed, his white tuxedo miraculously unwrinkled, but he was otherwise completely fine. "I'm trying, I swear I'm trying!" he replied, his voice annoyingly cheerful. "But it won't go away! I've been trying to swat at it for the past two hours! It just keeps… *being* there!"
The three groaning men slowly, painfully, lifted their heads, their eyes squinting against the blinding, ethereal glow. The source of the light wasn't a lamp, or even the sunrise. It was a massive, translucent blue screen, a hologram that hovered in the middle of their suite, its edges shimmering like heat waves on asphalt. A banner of white text scrolled across the top, the words flowing with a chilling elegance that belied their terrifying message.
"What the hell is that?" Vance muttered, his military training taking over his hangover for a brief, terrifying moment.
"It looks like... an alert," Zaki said, his engineer's mind trying to make sense of the nonsensical. "It's not from our phones."
As the last of their hangovers receded in a rush of cold, adrenaline-fueled shock, the banner on the screen paused, and a new message appeared, the words flowing like liquid silver.
**Dear citizens of the Planet Earth,**
**Congratulations! Your planet has been chosen for my, and other deities', entertainment. This process, known as 'Terraforming,' usually takes a standard Earth year, but with your planet's unique geological structure, we've expedited the process.**
**Once your world has been fully Terraformed, dungeons will appear all over the planet, along with a massive 1000-floor tower. Clear the dungeons for gear, riches, and what-not. Conquer the tower to set your Earth back to its original state and gain a single, powerful wish.**
**We have decided against granting everyone an inventory skill, sub-space, or pocket dimensions. If everyone had such an ability, you would all be reckless, and that would defeat the purpose of this game. Instead, only a select few mortals will be granted this skill. However, worry not, for you may acquire items that mimic such abilities in the future. The rules are simple. Adapt or perish.**
**An extreme winter is coming. For the next 12 days, you are to prepare yourselves for the year-long freeze. The blizzard will not kill you if you are safely indoors, nor will it damage your light or energy for the first few months. However, it will be impossible for a normal human to travel outside without proper gear or abilities. You are tools for my amusement, nothing more, nothing less.**
**Each of you has been granted a single, random ability. How you master it, use it, or fail to use it is up to you. We are only mere observers, after all.**
**Everyone has a status window, a guide to your new reality. It shows your stash, your level, and an icon with a gift symbol that says: 'Ability. You got an ability in 12 days, 2 hours, and 2 minutes.'**
**I hope you do not disappoint or fail me like the other worlds I have used and ultimately destroyed. Your entertainment is my pleasure. Ciao.**
The screen, with a final, elegant shimmer, displayed their status windows.
Kaz, his mind still trying to process the sheer absurdity of the message, saw his own window appear.
**Status Window: Kaz**
**Level:** 3
**Stats:** (A list of numbers)
**Mission:** Survival!
**Party:** (An empty slot)
**Stash:** (An empty slot)
**Ability:** (A gift icon with a countdown: 12 days, 2 hours, 2 minutes)
Vance's status window was similar, but his level was higher.
**Status Window: Vance**
**Level:** 6
**Stats:** (A list of numbers)
**Mission:** Survival!
**Party:** (An empty slot)
**Stash:** (An empty slot)
**Ability:** (A gift icon with a countdown: 12 days, 2 hours, 2 minutes)
Zaki's was also higher, a testament to his diligent training.
**Status Window: Zaki**
**Level:** 5
**Stats:** (A list of numbers)
**Mission:** Survival!
**Party:** (An empty slot)
**Stash:** (An empty slot)
**Ability:** (A gift icon with a countdown: 12 days, 2 hours, 2 minutes)
They all stared at their screens, a profound, disorienting silence falling over the room. The world, their reality, had just been fundamentally altered, and all they had to show for it was a status window and a countdown to a year-long freeze.
Randy, however, had a different experience. He looked at his own status window, and his eyes, which had been so full of childish wonder just moments before, now held a strange, sober clarity.
**Status Window: Randall B. Styles**
**Level:** 42
**Stats:** (A list of numbers, all in the hundreds and thousands)
**Mission:** Survival!
**Party:** (An empty slot)
**Stash:** (An empty slot)
**Ability:** (A swirling, golden symbol that read **Telekinesis**)
Randy's level was obscenely high, a fact he didn't even register as strange. He knew he was a walking paradox, a force of nature that defied all logic, and a high level was just another part of the equation. What really caught his attention was his power. He had telekinesis. He knew he had a power today, as he always did, but the exact nature of it was always a mystery until he discovered it. Telekinesis. He looked down at the street below, at the ant-like people running and screaming, fighting and clawing for resources. He saw a car, a big, imposing limousine, that had just been T-boned by a semi-truck. A thought, a simple, powerful thought, and the limousine, a several-ton vehicle, lifted off the ground and hovered in the air for a brief, silent moment before he let it drop back down. He smiled to himself. It was a good power. A very, very good power.
A new mission popped up on their screens, a final, chilling message from the deity.
**- Current Mission: Survival! You'll be judged on your resources gathered, your base location, and how entertaining you are after 12 days… EXP will be based on your performance. S-rank items for the best-performing people or groups. Ciao -**
The screens vanished with a final *pop*, leaving the room in a stunned, disbelieving silence. The four men looked at each other, their faces a mixture of confusion, shock, and a dawning sense of terror. They were in a video game, a real-life, life-or-death video game, and the rules had just been set.
Kaz, however, was the first to move. He looked down at the street below, at the chaos that was unfolding in real-time. The quiet, calculating smirk that was so familiar to his friends was now on his face. He looked at Vance, then at Zaki, then at Randy.
"So," he said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "Are we going to stand here, with our dicks in our hands, or what? You saw the message. We need food, we need water, we need medicine, we need gear. We've got 12 days to prepare for a year-long freeze. Let's go."
Kaz walked to his room, his footsteps a loud, decisive sound in the now-silent suite. He returned a few minutes later, no longer in his sharp red suit, but in his normal clothes: a black graphic t-shirt, his spiked leather jacket, and his black leather pants. He had also strapped a brass knuckle to his hand, a blade tucked into his waistband, and a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He looked like a man who had been preparing for this day his entire life.
Vance, Zaki, and Randy stared at him, a look of profound shock on their faces.
"You're… way too ready for an event like this," Zaki said, his voice filled with a stunned disbelief.
Kaz just shrugged, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "You get used to it," he said, a dark sense of humor in his voice. "Now, are we going or not? This place has a few vending machines, but the real loot is out there. And it's going to be a bloodbath. We might as well join in before all the good stuff is gone."
The three of them looked at each other, a silent agreement passing between them. They were in a new world now, a world of survival, of dungeons, of monsters, and of magic. The old world was gone, and the new one was here. And they were going to have to adapt, or perish.
They all began to move, their bodies, once heavy with hangovers, now humming with a new, dangerous energy. They tore apart their suite, looking for anything they could use as a weapon, a tool, or a piece of gear. The lamp became a club, the coffee pot a makeshift grenade, the table legs, a spear. They were no longer tourists in a Vegas hotel. They were survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. And the game had just begun.