The Roleplayer

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Riley! Riley! Time to get up! Don't forget the promise you made to me yesterday!"

Riley grunted in reply as he flipped over to his right. His mum's yelling never failed to wake him up from his beloved sleep.

He opened his eyes slowly and glanced at the alarm clock standing atop the shelf beside his bed. The red led light had the time: 9:47, clearly displayed on it.

Riley groaned. He indeed remembered his promise to his mother, which was to finish his homework before lunch. Riley, because he had just woken up, tried his best to recall exactly what had transpired last night when he had made that promise.

He vaguely remembered his last conversation with his mom last night before sleeping. His mom had barged into his room at 12:45am

"Riley! Don't be busy playing games all the time, finish your homework!"

Riley, who had his headsets on, replied, "Mum, I'm really busy right now! I'll finish it, I promise!"

Riley's eyes were fixed on the computer's screen. It was a Saturday night, and he was in his normal routine; he was having a boss raid together with his guild, "The Alliance".

Riley first discovered the game World of Legends when it first came out 5 years ago, and he immediately fell in love with it. It had everything he'd ever want from a game; a wonderful combat system, a diverse number of jobs and roles such as farming, woodcutting, and fishing, and a vast, ever-expanding world to explore. Best of all, it's fully free-to-play (f2p), and not a pay-to-win (p2w) game.

Riley is obsessed with the game, spending hours at large grinding and exploring this multiplayer world, and mastering his in-game skills to stand above the others. His hardwork has indeed paid off; he's established himself as the top 50 players in the world, besting millions and millions of other players across the globe.

It was common to do boss raids late at night, since his "guildies", as he liked to call them, were from different parts of the world, and the only time in which all of them could play together was a Saturday night. Riley wasn't going to risk missing raid night, which rewards participants lots of Experience Points (EXP), in-game currencies, and also rare loot, and thus he ended up making the promise.

"Are you sure you'll remember?"

"Don't worry! I only need 5 more minutes!" He had made this empty promise, knowing that he would continue sleeping until at least 11 in the morning.

Turning over back to his left side, he saw what looked to be a blue box floating above him, about half a meter from his face. Ignoring it due to his sleepiness, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Half a second later, the gears in his brain started turning.

"Wait, what on earth was that?!"

He rapidly opened his eyes, and before he could turn his head towards the ceiling, he could see it floating right in front of him.

He stared carefully at the floating, 2-dimensional "box" in front of him. He felt a mix of both curiosity and surprise.

He turned away towards his window, and the box followed his gaze. He turned his head to the opposite direction, and once again, the box followed, locking itself to the centre of his view.

Trying to shrug away his astonishment, he mustered all the courage he could get and reached out for the box.

The moment his fingers touched the surface of the box, he realized that it felt similar to water. It wasn't a holographic projection; it was semi-solid and clearly existed. It was cold, and the gelatinous, matte texture of the box rippled with his touch.