Enact Deluxe Hardcore Mode

A hardcore mode eh? You'd heard of them before but had never tried any. You were never very keen on the idea. Basically if your character died that was it. No reviving somewhere else with lost XP, gear, or whatever the punishment for **** happened to be for the game. You pondered the idea. It wasn't like you were seriously invested in this character yet, and since you were cheating it seemed like an appropriate level of challenge to counteract the cheating a bit. Sure why not you think and click on the enact button. Another message pops up.

"Are you sure you wish to enact this option. If you die in the game world be warned that this would be the end for you."

Kind of a weird way to word that your character's **** was a permanent thing, but you'd made up your mind. You clicked on the enact button again. The screen faded to black and a cutscene started laying out the story of the game. It explained with Wendel the Grim's **** the world sunk into chaos. Allies abandoned each other in order to fill in his shoes and grab as much territory as they could. The result was the destruction of all major cities as new alliances formed to take them down, only to then turn on each other. Now minor warlords are aplenty and no one seems to be able to advance their cause without attracting the jealousy of the other warlords. This is where you enter. The camera pans around your character staring over the crest of a hill somewhere in the plains. A town isn't far and you can see dinosaurs roaming around as well as small parties of people hunting or raiding.

The camera pans around and finally settles behind your character and shoots forward to see the world through your character's eyes in first person. The narrator explains it is now your time to rise or fall in these volatile times.

"Prepare yourself John Doe, may the Gods favor you."

With that you take control of your character, and you move your character around. Standard controls of WSAD and mouse, all very familiar to you. Suddenly your screens go blank and your computer turns off.

"Fuck" you yell out. If you just lost this character because your computer quit you were going to be pissed, that took forever to set up your skills like you wanted. Scenarios of what happened flashed through your head. Did you not set up the cooling system properly? Did a piece of hardware arrive defective? What was going on here. You settled yourself down and took another swig of beer resolving yourself to find out what the problem was. You reached down to set your beer down and found that you couldn't move anymore. You were stuck sitting in your chair unable to move a muscle. The only thing you could do was move your eyes around in a panic.

A purple glow emanated from below you. It seemed to be surrounding you entirely and soon you were bathed in the purple glow. You were starting to feel very sleepy and you started to struggle focusing your eyes on anything. You aren't sure when but at some point you lost consciousness and you awaken again laying down. You're groggy, but you feel relieved to be able to move again.

"Ughhhh, what the heck was that" you say out loud moving your arms to help lift yourself up. You notice something weird. With your hands you can feel grass and dirt. You shake your head a little to try and focus your blurry vision. As you regain your vision fully you look around and you are shocked to see that you are surrounded by plains. Where the hell is your apartment? What's going on? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize this has something to do with the game. You sit yourself up and take in your surroundings. Hilly plains are everywhere and you can see the same town in the distance that your character was looking at. Wait...your character. Was John here next to you? You look around and you are by yourself. So if you're here and your character isn't here, does that mean...

You quickly look at your hands. They are younger and bigger than what you know your hands should look like. You quickly rub up and down your arms, chest, and face. Exploring yourself you quickly realize that you are no longer you, well you are mentally at least, but your body isn't yours.

"I must be my character" you say out loud and notice your voice is definitely not what you are used to. You remember what you'd done when you created your character and reach down into your pants to grab your cock. It's definitely bigger than what you were used to as well.

"This has got to be a dream" you say out loud to yourself.

"You'd be wrong there my boy" you hear someone say behind you. You whirl around and standing behind when no one was there before is an old man holding a staff. You tumble backwards in complete surprise and try to stand up on shaky legs, falling down several times in the process.

"Calm yourself young one, I mean you no harm" the man says holding his arms up to show you he's not a threat.

"I'm just a messenger of sorts, take your time to get your bearings". He crosses his arms and waits for you to get your feet under you. You slowly stand up and take a couple steps back still unsure if you believe he means you no harm.

"Where did you come from" you ask him.

"I was conjured here to explain some things to you" he replies. "Are you ready to hear what I have to say" he asks.