The woman raises an eyebrow, “How about we Introduce ourselves first?”

  Gem nods, “Ah, gotcha, same thing? Anyway, you can call me Gem! I’m the They/Them causing May/Hem!”

  The woman bridles, “I didn’t get here by accident! It was just that there were too many people and I ah, yeah, here I am.”

  Gem, “And your name is?”

  The woman fake coughs, “Ah, right, you can call me June and uh, She/Her? I’ve never really introduced myself that way, but it only seems fair.”

  Gem shrugs, “Meh, I get it out of the way so I can sort out the pricks from the mistaken. Does a wonderful job! Anyway, I was running for a simir reason, though not quite. I went random and it gave me an alignment locked species. You’re looking at a ChaosKin!”

  June sighs, “Yeah, I can tell. Not many beings with color changing fur. Most times it is chromatophores in scale or skin changing color.”

  Gem makes a sideways peace sign in front of their eyes and fshes a jaunty smile, “Well it isn’t an illusion, I only know wind magic right now.”

  June squints at them, “What are you doing?”

  Gem shrugs, “Having fun?”

  June, “Ooh-kay...

  “So, uh, want to work together to get out of this?”

  Gem tilts their head to the side, “I thought that was a given? I was more expecting you to offer to be my friend and then stammer out an excuse about meaning you wanted to add me to your friends list.”

  June stammers and turns red.

  Gem nods as June tries to get her tongue untwisted. “I’ll take that as a yes and Yes, I will be your friend!

  “Hey system, invite June to be my friend!”

  *Ding*, and a screen pops up in front of June.

  {

  Gem Paroxysm has invited you to be their friend. Do you accept? [Yes/No]

  }

  “I um. I was uh. I wasn’t expecting. The offer was to uh. For this situation? Though if you want? Yes, yes, I would like to, uh, be friends with you?” June barely manages to stammer that out. In fact, the system doesn’t recognize her as having accepted the friend request.

  Gem smiles extra wide, “Wonderful! Now that we’re friends you should accept that request so we can keep in touch better! I’m so gd I can finally start a game with someone!”

  June manages to press the correct option at this point.

  *Ding*, and it is Gem’s turn to get a blue screen.

  {

  June has accepted your friend request.

  }

  Gem frowns, “Wait a second!”

  June looks worried, but Gem bulls through, “You can have a single name? I thought you would need the cssic first name, st name combo. I so would have just gone with Gem if I had known that!”

  June can’t help but giggle, “I guess that hasn’t spread to the Internet yet. The SAI that designed this game, so I’ve heard, took one look at the mess that is names and made it a single entry. Want a first and st name? A middle name? Surname first or just a given name? You want it, you get it.”

  Gem shakes their head, “Once that gets out we’re going to start seeing some stupidly long names.”

  June shrugs, “And once they tire of it, they’ll just go by a nickname or get their name changed. Names aren’t unique or anything, after all. Oh, and don’t tell anyone I told you, but it seems the SAI team in charge of the SciFi game are going to implement this as well.”

  Gem sighs, “I wish it was that easy to change a name irl. Nothing against my government name, but really, at this point we’re identified by our id number and not name.”

  June, “So, are you going to change your name to just ‘Gem’, since it is an option?”

  Gem ughs, “Not even five minutes ago I would have done so in a heartbeat! Except, well, now that it is an option? Well, I kind of like my name, so I’m going to stick with it!”

  June smiles, “I’m gd I could help you settle into your name.” Then a frown crosses her face, “Though we should probably focus on the more imminent problem? I don’t know how long the trees will st.”

  Gem’s eyes go wide and their tree shakes from an impact. As it has been doing since they first climbed it. “I had completely filtered that out!”

  June nods, “I’d noticed. Now, do you have a pn? Because I’m not exactly swimming in them myself.”

  Gem’s smile gets uncomfortably wide, “We just need to have a little fun! Though I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you shared what you can do.”

  June doesn’t particurly like their answer, but shares that she wanted to focus on buffs, getting the free spell “Cat’s Paw”. A fun spell that boosts your dexterity and damage. “That’s actually how I got up here. I don’t have some absurd Body stat to do it on my own.”

  Gem nodded, “My Body stat is pretty sweet! Now, how is that buff working?”

  June shrugs, “It’s one of the free spells, don’t expect much. While the numbers are purposefully obfuscated, at low level Cat’s Paw gives a straight additive boost. So the less agile you are and the lower your level, the better it works. Though I’m assuming we’re still both first level or thereabouts, so even if you had max rank in body, the spell is going to provide a significant boost.”

  Gem, “Cool, but I guess I should have been specific. Never been a buffer myself, so I didn’t look it up. How does the attack boost work with my spell?”

  June, “It doesn’t. While the system applies ‘attack boost’ pretty liberally, the name guides the limitation. You have to be in physical contact with what you’re attacking with. No spells, no fils, and no thrown daggers.”

  Gem snaps their fingers, “Snap, crackle, and pop! That’s unfortunate, I guess no fighting the boar. Time for pn B!”

  Akhier

  Dungeon's Path

  So the world ended. Whoopsie? We didn’t even see it coming. Quite literally as it came at us faster than the speed of light. Don’t worry though, it got better. Also, I am not joking about the world ending. Most people say that and mean humans are inconvenienced for some reason. Nope, all matter disintegrated at the atomic scale there for a few moments. Apparently the local universe wasn’t actually stable? Don’t ask me to go into too much detail. It would require both of us to have a few more college degrees than sense, and I at least ck them (both the degrees and the sense). Anyway, the energy/matter/wibbly wobbly strings were at a local minimum and not the universal minimum. Basically, what we took for sea level was actually a nice little mountain ke and when the dam busted so did, well, everything.

  Now here is where things go a bit off track with what normal meant before. You see magic is real, qi is real, gods are real. Not on old Earth mind you but souls pay little attention to time and space so we dreamed of it. In fact, the closer the shift in reality got to Earth, the closer our dreams got to the new reality. This is basically me tip toeing around the fact that it was a ‘System Apocalypse’. Reality became a video game, I became a dungeon, and this is my story.

  Doyle Huxley just wanted a normal life but as the above might clue you in on that just isn’t in the cards. He gets to experience a “Path Based System Apocalypse” and some early paths he takes, both literally and figuratively, lead to him becoming a dungeon.

  The aim is to release chapters once a week on Friday.

  Cursing will be avoided and no naughty adult action will take pce in the story.

  NeoRealm

  Jason has just turned 18 and will be finally be able to py The biggest VR game out there, NeoRealm. Using a bit of knowledge from his past (life) he wants to start his adult life with a bang. Taking the road less traveled will sound quiant compare to where he wants to go.

  ~NeoRealm~ the most realistic VR game to date. A Fantasy world which even after years of exploration is still mostly unknown. Want to experience the mysteries of the Arcane? Become one of the many types of Magic Users and work to improve your ranking till you can move mountains, or just ftten them if you prefer. Do you just desire to wield sheer physical power? Then train your melee skills beyond all others and decimate towns with a single swing. Or maybe you just want to know what its like to be a cat person. We have those too. Come on in and join us at 5x the speed of boring old reality (you heard us right, not your average everyday 4x time compression!). *WARNING - limited to those age 18 and up, we are not responsible for any minor losing their grasp on reality, sanity, or species

  Banished Talent

  There were things hidden in the darkness and they’re about to introduce themselves to the hood of my car. Not that the knowledge will do me much good. Some Talents aren’t too appreciated by the Powers That Be, and with magic? Sometimes the best option is to just Banish the problem.

  I’m Alvin Smithson and let me tell you my story.

  Alvin grew up on Earth, or at least one shockingly simir to what you’re familiar with. Except for the magic. And Alvin? Despite never having experienced magic before, he believed in magic a little too much. So when magic found him, he was past the point of being returned to his boring modern life. Then things got worse when they tested him to see if he had any magic of his own.

  Join me, as we get a front-row seat to Alvin being banished from Earth and as he descend into a painful rebirth. He won’t be leaving the pnet alone, though. Much to his misfortune, a person going along has decided this is all Alin’s fault and is more than willing to make their displeasure known. So now Alvin only has a limited time to learn about his power in a pce actively trying to kill him.

  Can Alvin adapt fast enough? Gain the power needed? Or will he be just another life snuffed out in a realm where no one has ever escaped from?

  This novel has been finished and while you can read it in the entirety here and on my Patreon, there is a more polished version avaible for purchase as an ebook for 3.99 on both Amazon and my Patreon. I will get more of the cut if you buy it on my Patreon shop, but I understand that getting an ebook on kindle can be a hassle so feel free to use Amazon. If anything, it will help boost the story in the algo.

  [colpse]