To Kill Gods or Die Trying

♌Chapter 44-Leo♌

October 7th, 2304

"I'm ready to get out of this place," I sigh.

Alo chuckles. "And go back to our lives of competitive gaming."

"No," I say seriously.

"Wha-wait, are you serious?" Alo asks with concern.

I scoff. "After this, I'm done." It's been a wild ride, and our adventure is almost over, yet, with quite a ways to go. But it's been too much.

"We get paid quadruple for VR games though," Alo states. It's true. There were plenty of competitive multiplayer shooters, fantasy-adventure, and racing games on VR headsets that we played after RealVision was released for beta testing. When it came to the shooters, my team's FPS division versus Alo's team's FPS division brought the eyes of thousands, giving us considerable bonuses from our employers. We would bring our teams millions of views a week off the RealVision I gameplay.

With the RealVision, we would be live streaming for three hours, three days a week, as we fought with the group and killed bosses—all in first-person for our viewers. We weren't the only ones though. There were other solo content creators promoting themselves on mass video-viewing platforms, with thousands to millions of fans and subscribers of their own. Every stream brought me $50,000 so since the start of me streaming to the cyber terrorist attack, I've made roughly $25 million. 300 years ago, gaming, in general, was a joke. 200 years ago, gaming as a job was a joke, with gaming, in general, being accepted. 100 years ago gaming as a job was accepted but never respected. Now, look at us. It took 300 years for us to convince society that you can get paid for having fun and entertaining people. I've done a lot of both, and I might as well quit while I'm at my best.

"I can't go into another world—even a console game, without thinking about all this," I say.

"I mean, is it really that bad here? Aside from not seeing your family, the risk of death every time you fight, our bodies slowly decaying as doctors keep us alive, and coming back to a changed world," Alo jokes morbidly.

"Yeah, aside from all that, it's not that bad," I agree. I curl my fingers into a fist and strike him softly in the head. "It's just too real."

Alo grins then begins snickering. "So you think we're getting paid for this?"

I laugh. "We better be. It's the least they can do."

"Imagine if they are streaming every moment of this," Alo suggests.

Holy crap! "We better watch what we say then. Our employers could be watching," I chuckle.

"Screw that! RealVision and GameStream, if you're watching, we better be getting paid for this! Our suffering ain't free entertainment. And if this is being streamed live, we're making it out! Take a look at our glorious leader!" Alo faces fowards so if he was streaming, the camera would pan to me. I grin and begin flexing and posing.

"Also, if you're watching, Allysse, I love you and miss you. And kids, daddy loves you and I'm waiting to meet you," I add.

We both sigh and lean back against the rail. "So you're gonna retire?" Alo asks.

I sigh. "I mean... I have enough money to support me and Allysse and the kids. This makes me just want to spend all of my time with them." I don't fear death, but I fear the grief of my friends and family losing me. It really eats me up inside, making it the only thing I can think about when I fight: don't die. "The paranoia is something I wanna leave behind," I say grimly. But I don't want to forget about the memories we've made here.