Chapter 30: It Started Again

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: It Started Again

...Victor bolted out of the bathroom, sprinting back down the hallway toward his own apartment.

His foot caught something. It was a loose tile, a crack in the floor he’d normal step over. But he was still off balance from his sudden weight loss.

Instantly, he went down hard, palms slapping the concrete. Pain shot up both wrists.

Aarghhh! He groaned, pushing himself up onto his knees.

I really need my glasses.

He froze.

His hand had already gone halfway to his face, reaching for frames that weren’t there.

Victor had never gone anywhere without them.

Those special-order lenses that would’ve turned the world into a smeared kaleidoscope on an ordinary person’s face.

They were prescribed to him after a decade of destroying his eyesight on endless gaming marathons.

To think he made it from his room to the bathroom without them.

He looked around. He could see everything clearly. The cracked tile, the water-stained wall down the hall, all of it was in perfect, sharp focus.

His stomach dropped.

He scrambled the rest of the way up and half-ran, half-stumbled back into his room.

He did not mind his father. He just stormed into his room. Then his eyes fell on the console sitting exactly where he’d left it.

He wanted to grab it. His hand actually reached out toward it on instinct.

Then he stopped himself. He remembered something.

The neighbors. What they were arguing about again?

Yes. It was about the parent company of the Game Dungeon Conquest.

He spun toward the television instead, snatching the remote off a pile of old magazines and jabbing at the power button with a shaking thumb.

The screen flickered to life on a news channel.

A woman in a sharp blazer was mid-report, as the ticker beneath her scrolled fast.

"...and shares in Dungeon Conquest’s parent company continue their unprecedented climb this morning, now up for the fourth consecutive day. Analysts remain divided on what’s driving the surge, with some calling it the most significant market event since the founding of the first Rankers. Retailers report the game itself is now sold out nationwide, with players and speculators alike scrambling to—"

Victor’s breath caught somewhere in his throat.

That’s wrong. That already happened. That was a year ago. I remember this exact report—

His eyes dropped to the corner of the screen, to the small date stamp ticking silently beside the network’s logo.

He read it once.

Then again, certain he’d misread it the first time.

He hadn’t.

...Did the year start over?

Victor sat back hard on his bed, hands going straight to his head, cold sweat running down his forehead and dampening the collar of his shirt.

He couldn’t believe it.

4th of January.

He checked the date on the TV screen again in his mind, running it back, making sure he hadn’t hallucinated it. It was fourth of January. Beginning of the year.

His hands scrambled across the tangled sheets until they found his phone, buried near the pillow, and he thumbed the screen on with fingers that wouldn’t stop shaking

He went straight for the forums.

The Dungeon Conquest boards were more alive than he’d ever seen them.

This used to be a game that many stayed away from. But now, because of the rise in its parent company’s stock, many gamers and even common people were flocking to it.

Thread after thread kept refreshing faster than he could scroll. There was more activity in the last four days than the game had seen in ten years of dead servers.

"Anyone figured out how to clear Floor 3 yet? Keep getting wrecked by the golem room."

"Do you guys know how the Direlion’s can be subdued? I need their unique skill to beat this invasion."

"Yoo, curious question. Is there a difference between the Ranker clans that storm the gates invading our world, and the in-game clans, or is this literally just flavor text lol"

"my brother swears Dungeon Conquest’s dungeons are basically mapped off real Gate layouts, and he is a B–Ranker by the way. anyone got a source on that?"

"Saw on the news a Ranker cleared a B-rank Gate in record time today, is that related to this game blowing up or just coincidence"

Comment sections spiraled into arguments under half of them.

They argued whether the game’s dungeons were inspired by real Gates the Rankers cleared, whether it even mattered, whether this was the start of something bigger than just a trending online game.

Then, buried a few threads down, something caught his eye.

"ok has anyone checked the leaderboard lately??"

"what about it"

"bro’s been #1 for basically a decade and NOBODY knows who he is"

"wait, who are you even talking about"

"Your mother, that’s who... who else dumb ass?"

"Don’t talk about my mother like that. I’ll cry 😭 "

"He is talking about the GOAT."

"MILKSHAKE22???"

"lmaooo milkshake22 milkshake22 who IS this guy"

Victor’s stomach twisted. He tapped through to the leaderboard himself.

There he was. Right at the top. Same as always.

Since he had been spamming plays for ten years, pouring his life into it, he had been unshakable.

In fact, the 2nd place was as far behind him as the 100th person was behind the second place.

Then the notifications started.

A cascade of them, stacking on top of each other.

These were forum DMs, friend requests, people tagging his username in threads he’d never seen, all of it arriving in the same rush he remembered from before, the sudden spotlight he’d once mistaken for finally mattering in this messed up world.

He scrolled. And scrolled.

And then he saw it.

One message, sitting exactly where he knew it would be, from an account with a small verified badge beside the name.

Nadia:hii! would you like to have dinner with me? 😊

Victor’s whole body went still.

He remembered this message. He remembered exactly how it had felt to read it the first time.

He had been in disbelief, and had been giddy, too deep in stupid hope that a celebrity model from his own school had actually noticed he existed.

This was the day he’d met her for the first time.

The Love that shattered him.

Nadia.

His fist tightened around his phone with rage...

(Author’s note: If you are enjoying the book, please leave comments or say so. It really helps. Thank you)