"I did it! I'M HIM!" Lucius knuckles went straight into the keyboard and the keys flew everywhere as he continued hitting it while staring at the monitor.
"Oh, you actually did it?" Another more boring voice came from behind his back.
"Yeah!" He turned around. "I beat this bitch ass game for the third time in a row!" He shouted once again, but his voice was filled with rage rather than the happiness of actually doing it for the third time. "I'm number one on the global server, and this fucker ProBob thought he could beat me? You are my dog!" He shouted into his mic, though the match was already disconnected.
"But you only won because he slipped off the edge and you used your—"
"A win is a win!" He interrupted him, looking straight into his eyes. "And who the fuck would slip in a game? It's just a feature and he fucked up!
"Okay…" Brian smiled, though he knew very much it was an accident… or more like a bug and that was why Lucius once again became the global top ranked. "And what do you get for not sleeping for days and living on energy drinks?" He asked, his voice filled with disappointment.
Twenty one years old and doing nothing but playing the game all day, without even seeing the sun.
"Five thousand dollars wired to my bank account and the 'Last Conqueror' title."
"Last Conqueror?" Brian asked back. "Oh, the server is shutting down, huh?"
"Yeah." Now Lucius's rage and anger all disappeared into something deeper… the sadness of it.
The game wasn't bringing in money… not enough to keep up the servers, but he conquered it for the last time.
"How good is that? 'Last Conqueror' sounds badass, doesn't it?" He looked at Brian.
"It is, but having friends and socializing sounds better. I mean, that five grand is good, but you could have easily gotten more with a job."
It was more than true. He spent eight months being the number one, grinding the PvP, beating everybody, and even completing the main quests and all the hidden ones. He topped it all for five grand and a title in a game that was shutting down forever.
Not just that, but he wasn't even in a clan. He didn't even have a squad. He played it all alone without an in-game friend, just playing the game without stopping, without even caring about the community itself.
He just wanted to be the number one… it's lonely at the top, that's for sure.
"Well, I don't care. I have my title, the money, and a game that caused so many memories, so I'm going to wait for the end."
"What? So you're not coming to the meeting?" Brian asked, and now he was the one who got angry.
"No, I've got to await the final moments, and I want to display my title at the farewell in the safe zone." He smiled. "But as soon as they send the money, I'm going. I'm going to pay for everything." He showed a thumbs up, but Brian was already shaking his head as he opened the door.
"Yeah… well, then call me when you come." Judging by his voice, he knew exactly that Lucius wasn't going to come, and to be truthful, he wasn't really angry about that part.
He could understand it. Spending this much time on a game is something else, to be the number one, even getting money for it, and now it is ending, but on the other hand, he was angry because the meeting was a reunion with their high school friends, the friends that Lucius was popular with back then.
"Then I'm going, Lucius, and make sure you're coming." He looked at him, really looked at him.
"My hand on my heart, I'm going, man." He said with a smile but Brian knew that smile was fake, but that is what it was… he left him.
And the moment he did, Lucius immediately started talking bullshit to none other than ProBob on the chat, sending voice mail to the other player who hit the level 1000 mark, the only player that was comparable to him.
"How does it feel to be fucked, you bitch!" He shouted so much into the microphone. "I am the LAST CONQUEROR! I am the man with five grand, not you, motherfucker!"
He was bullying, but it felt so good to do so, especially after ProBob beat some bosses before him. It was his revenge time, but he went a little overboard and after the second voicemail, he got voice banned. Though it didn't matter, as not long after that, he got force-teleported to the starting spawn where thousands of players were all gathered for one and only one thing.
To say their farewell to the game that gave so much to them. They made friends and made memories playing it, a game that was not so popular but gave so much that it was the greatest among all MMORPGs, at least to them, with its unique themes, monsters, classes, and the soul system.
Though Lucius was about something else…
"Look at my title!" he shouted once again, but it was more to himself as the screen just lit up with the voice ban notice. "I am the last conqueror of this shit!"
Though it didn't really work. He was shouting the shit out of himself, but at the last minute, all titles disappeared from the players so they could see the last event better. His bright red and gold glowing title disappeared in an instant; yeah, the Last Conqueror disappeared, and the show that followed was just on a whole other level.
My god… It was truly beautiful. Even he was surprised, stunned by what he was seeing.
From the safe zone, all players were teleported up into the sky, and then it suddenly turned to night with the moon shining over everything. And then they appeared: all the bosses, all the monsters, the giants, the dragons, sea monsters, legendary leopards, mythic cyclopes, and forgotten gods. Even the NPCs were in front of the players, standing in silence.
Hundreds of them just looked toward the players without a word, without the intent to cause chaos or kill.
They just stood there under the moonshine in the final moment of the game server, and then… they simply turned around and walked toward the moon while around them the stars started to sparkle and dance, forming the last message from the developers: "A journey that never ends."
How funny because that was the end… just like that the servers shut down.
"The end, huh…" It was kind of unbelievable to experience it, that it actually ended, and that was all. In that moment, nothing mattered, not the money, the title, or the prestige. It was just the fact that it had actually ended.
How sad, something you dedicated so much to, and it is over, but then came the notification… the five thousand dollars transferred to his account.
"Ahh, I should really go out…" He stretched his arms and his whole body as he leaned back in his chair, still looking at that black screen and the log-off notice. "Yeah… it is over, fuck me—"
Another notification and as he looked down at his phone, it was an email from the Eldoria support and as he opened it the adrenaline immediately pumped him up.
"Invitation for an in-game event? But the game shut down." He whispered to himself, but the email was real, not just that, his real name was in there, as well as his character ID. "Maybe because I became the top one…" He said as he read through it once again, but nothing more was in there, only that it was an in-game event and they would like him to join in for a last round.
"Last round?" He smiled. "I'm going to fight the developers or what?" He giggled because it sounded fun and it was clear that he was going in, so he pulled out his other keyboard, connected it and clicked on the link and as he did it was over.
There wasn't any sign, no sharp pain, nothing, his body just fell to the ground in total darkness and then, when he opened his eyes, he was there.