The digital glow is the only sun Reika Lorne knows after midnight. Her small apartment room, walls adorned with a mix of indie game posters and concept sketches for her own nascent project, was transformed into a command center. She sat hunched slightly, the vibrant pink of her dyed hair catching the monitor light, revealing tired but sharp amber eyes focused intensely on the screen. A worn hoodie, practical for long hours coding or gaming, was pulled over a simple tee. One monitor, a wide, curved beast, blazed with the chaotic beauty of Aethelgard Online's latest raid instance – a swirling vortex of particle effects, health bars, and monstrous polygons. The second, a standard flat screen, was a mosaic of control: streaming software humming, a chat log scrolling, voice comm overlays, and, tucked in a corner, a terminal window displaying debug code – maybe for Aethelgard, maybe for her own game.
Her fingers danced across the keyboard. On screen, her avatar – 'RuinMage', a lithe figure crackling with unstable violet energy – defied the raid's intended mechanics.
"Ruin, what the hell are you doing? The safe zone is back here!" The voice, belonging to 'TankyMcTankFace' Dave, was tinny through her headset, laced with familiar exasperation.
"Relax, Dave," Reika drawled, executing a pixel-perfect jump onto a piece of collapsing geometry the developers clearly hadn't intended as a platform while simultaneously firing off a spell combo that exploited a momentary animation lock. "The 'safe zone' is where the damage isn't. Basic logic. Bad level design, really."
"Incoming cleave!" Sarah ('HealsPls') warned. "Watch out!"
"Got it!" Reika dodged, her avatar flipping gracefully while her eyes flicked to the chat log scrolling on the second monitor.
Reika smirked, her fingers never pausing. "Keep reporting, AethelGod," she said into the stream mic, her voice smooth even as her avatar sidestepped another attack. "It's not an exploit if it's just creative use of environmental features. Ask the devs to code better. Trust me, I know lazy coding when I see it." She quickly answered a donation question about keybinds, her gaze darting between the game, chat, and the glowing tablet beside her keyboard displaying a page from Aelric the last flame (The Chosen Light).
"Seriously though, Ruin," Sarah piped up as the boss paused, entering a transition phase – still requiring attention for adds and positioning. "Focus up. We almost wiped last night 'cause you zoned out reading... what was it? That 'flaming light' book?"
Dave groaned audibly over comms. "Oh gods, not the book rant again. Just hit the glowing weak spot, Ruin!"
"I am hitting it, Dave, calm down!" Reika retorted, her avatar unleashing a precise sequence of spells on the indicated target. "Oh, that piece of trash?" she scoffed, glancing momentarily at the tablet again between cooldowns. "Yeah, Aelric the last flame. More like 'Aelric the Last Braincell'."
"Someone in chat asked, RaidLeaderPro," Reika lied easily, dodging an AoE circle while still talking. "And yeah, Heals, I zoned out 'cause watching paint dry is more engaging than that narrative." She strafed left, firing another spell. "Look, the premise isn't awful – fantasy world, magic, a 'System' for the MC. Fine."
"What 'System'?" Sarah asked curiously, throwing out heals.
"Some lazy plot device," Reika waved a hand dismissively while her other hand executed a complex keyboard command. "Gives the MC, Aelric, stats and quests like it's a RPG game," she sidestepped again, "but he's still an idiot! He just face-rolls into problems, makes stupid choices, and dies pointlessly at the end! Zero strategy, zero growth! His plot armor's thicker than Dave's-"
"Hey! It's good plate!"
"-until the very last page where, surprise, it wasn't enough and the Pale Lord wins anyway!" Reika unleashed a barrage of arcane missiles. "And the world-building! All these cool magic types mentioned – Arcanists, Spirit-Forgers, Ruinseekers – but who cares? Let's just watch Aelric fail! The side characters? Gods, the NPCs were the only good part! So much potential - the clever tactician, the loyal knight, the conflicted healer - all wasted, just dying tragically to make Aelric look even more pathetic!"
Reika rolled her eyes, her fingers blurring as she managed her rotation and dodged another mechanic. "It's not about 'happy endings', AelricFan01, it's about competent writing and not wasting potential! And FanficWriterGal? Seriously! I've already got half a plot outline for a fanfic just to save those poor NPCs and actually use the interesting world systems. Break the whole damn script." She activated a defensive cooldown. "But how do you even tag a fic when nobody knows who wrote the original? The thing's a ghost."
"Exactly, LoreMaster!" Reika scoffed, hitting a sequence for burst damage. "It's not just unknown, it's gone. Popped up as some weird, sketchy ad on a forum. Clicked it, got the ebook free, boom. Went back an hour later? Ad gone, link dead, browser history wiped clean for just that link. Nobody I've asked has heard of it, nobody can find it online now, evevn uploading into cloud fails. It's like the damn thing doesn't exist outside of this tablet." She slammed a key for a major ability, her eyes fixed on the screen but her mind clearly still on the critique. "Someone just needs to find the glitches in that narrative, you know?"
With a final, coordinated burst from the team, the raid boss shuddered, its massive health bar emptying. Grandiose "VICTORY" text flashed across Reika's main monitor, accompanied by triumphant fanfare music. Loot icons popped up. A collective sigh of relief echoed through the voice comms. "YES! Down! Finally!" Sarah cheered. "Wooo! About time!" Dave added, the earlier exasperation gone, replaced by satisfaction. Reika allowed herself a small, genuine smile, leaning back slightly now that the fight was over. "Nice job, team. See, Dave? Told you my way worked... eventually." Dave just chuckled, "Yeah, yeah, whatever Ruin. Good kill. Now, who gets the shiny axe?" They started chatting about loot distribution, the usual post-raid banter filling the airwaves with a comfortable, relaxed energy.
As they talked, the terminal window on her second monitor flickered wildly, spewing unrecognized symbols. The tablet screen showing the novel flared slightly, the text seeming to waver. A faint static hum started in her headset, barely audible under the relaxed chatter.
"Let's try again."
The voice was clear, calm, and definitely not Dave or Sarah. It cut through the headset chatter, seeming to echo directly inside her skull.
Was that Dave? Reika thought, momentarily fumbling a key. Weird thing to say right n-
The thought didn't finish. The instant the words registered, the tablet didn't just flare – it exploded with pure white light, engulfing the room. The static in her headset shrieked, becoming a physical pressure. The terminal window went black. Her monitors instantly died, plunging the room into impossible brightness radiating from the tablet. It wasn't just light; it felt like raw data, like the universe's source code scrolling past her eyes at infinite speed, pulling her in. The feeling wasn't like being unplugged; it was like being forcibly rewritten. The smell of ozone and something ancient, like dust and forgotten magic, overwhelmed the stale ramen scent. Her fingers spasmed uselessly on the keyboard as the white void consumed everything.