Liam Barette:
The girl smiles as we stroll out of Honeywood and into the forest, following the quest arrow as it turns and twists.
"By the way," the girl says, tapping her staff against the dirt as she walks. "I'm SkyGlimmer."
"EpicFailGamer94," I reply proudly. However, after saying it out loud and comparing my username to SkyGlimmer, I can't help but think it sounds ridiculous and long. "I mean---uhh, yeah. That's my username."
"Awesome," SkyGlimmer says, shooting me a thumb-up.
Hearing this, I inhale and puff up my chest.
"Yes," I think. "Someone who didn't laugh at my name."
Basking in the moment, thankful that I didn't use another name, I jump when SkyGlimmer casually taps her left shoulder, and a whole transparent menu flickers open.
"Oh, come on," I yell. "I told myself I wouldn't scream everything that happened anymore."
Shaking my head, SkyGlimmer's menu starts glowing, and I can't help but read it.
"Your class is mage. You have an arcane knowledge as a passive buff. You're a level 3! Wait, wait, wait! How are you already a level 3! I've only been here five minutes, and I have nothing but itchy leather armor and a soup can sword!"
SkyGlimmer smiles and laughs when she hears what I just said. She replies with a grin and then presses a glowing button on her menu.
Hearing a buzzing noise, a tiny flying ball then appears out of thin air.
"Oh, son of a-- What the heck is that!"
My hand reaches for my sword, but SkyGlimmer stops me.
"Hey, hey, hey," she shouts, slapping my hand.
"Ouch," I think, looking at my health bar and seeing -1.
"Don't freak out, EpicFail. That's just the camera feature."
"The camera feature?"
Looking again, I now see that the tiny flying ball is actually a drone with a propeller attached to its head. Watching as the drone flies around SkyGlimmer and me, its camera lens blinks red, most likely signaling that it's recording now. As I follow the drone around, turning and turning and almost tripping, SkyGlimmer jumps in, her voice growing brighter and more professional.
"What's up, everyone," SkyGlimmer starts, waving at her drone. "SkyGlimmer here, heading into the forest with a new party member to clear out some goblins! Yay!"
I can't be sure, but I think I feel my jaw dropping and hanging.
"...Are you streaming right now?"
"Not streaming," SkyGlimmer says with a wink. "Recording. We can record our runs and upload them if we want to."
I don't know what happened. I think I blacked out temporarily because for a brief second, everything went black, and I couldn't hear or see anything. While in that creepy black void, I see my whole YouTube career flash through my eyes. All of the walkthroughs and playthroughs I did only got a few views. All the streams I did for hours and barely got one viewer. All the years of YouTubing, and even on my luckier days, barely reached 10 views.
"Ahhh!"
I scream and blink, and see myself back in the forest with SkyGlimmer staring at me. Shaking my head, I regain my bearings.
"We can record this? Like...actual footing? Of our quests!"
"....Yes." SkyGlimmer slowly answers while nodding. "Did you read the tutorial? It's right there. It even mentioned the new Gaming Cube app."
Immediately, I punch my own shoulder, bringing up my menu. Ignoring the painful level 1, I dig through the menu until I find and slam a button with a drone picture. Hearing the same buzzing sound, a second drone pops into the air beside me. My drone's lens blinks, whirs, and then focuses on me.
"Oh my god," I cry. "This is it. This is how I blow up my channel. Forget Let's Play. Forget streaming. This is it! This is..."
I pull out my sword and aim the blade at the tree.
"This is the start of my playthrough, and it begins with SkyGlimmer and me slaying goblins!"
I smile as I see the drone hover in front of me, recording everything. Then, out of nowhere, the drone disappears.
"What the--What happened to my--"
"It turns invisible," SkyGlimmer answers. "Drones do that. I guess it's so they won't ruin the immersion. I mean, I don't know why. I did this in front of NPCs, and they don't seem to care. Or notice. Don't worry. It'll still record everything. Anyway, can we go now!"
"Yeah, let's go."
I sheathe my sword and follow SkyGlimmer.
"Kill golbins first, then get subscribers second."
Together, SkyGlimmer and I walk until we enter a small clearing in the forest. As we enter it, the quest arrow above our heads starts spinning wildly, turning and twisting. Recognizing the crazy movement, I also begin to hear laughter and chuckles.
Popping out of the bushes and underbrush, the snarling goblins pull out their stone daggers and surround us.
"Here we go!"
I pull out my sword and spin it around. Angling myself best for the drone, I start commentating.
"Hello, hello, lads and ladeoo! My name is EpicFailGamer94, and I am here to bring you live goblin chaos! Please hit that like button before these little bastards hit me."
Charging forward, I swing my sword, but this time, with better precision. As a goblin lunges for me, I hit the goblin in mid-air, knocking the wooden club out of his hand and throwing him into a tree.
"Damn," I say, looking at the goblin as its health bar drops to zero. "I've gotten better."
Hearing laughing, I turn around and see another goblin jumping toward me with a stone dagger.
"That won't work on me again," I yell, jumping and rolling, dodging the goblin. Turning around, I swing my sword and kill the goblin.
"Notice the form, chat--uh viewers---uh, future subscribers. That is how you take down a goblin with style!"
Hacking and slashing a few more goblins, I stop when I start smelling smoke.
"Oh no."
Turning around, I freeze.
SkyGlimmer is in her element. Her staff flares with a white-blue light as firebolts shoot out the top. Hitting one goblin after another, they're all engulfed in puffs of smoke before being set ablaze.
Another goblin climbs a tree and jumps off it. The goblin tries to attack SkyGlimmer from above, raising its wooden club. However, before it can attack her or I can warn her, SkyGlimmer turns around. She spins her staff like the hero from a kung-fu movie, drawing a full circle before firing a white-blue beam! The beam hits the goblin in mid-air and freezes it. Ice covers the goblin's whole body. It drops like a sack of rocks a few feet away from SkyGlimmer.
"Okay," I say, "What the heck? What, have you been training with Gandalf or something?"
SkyGlimmer shrugs and smiles.
"What can I say? I really like this game."
Together, we cut through the goblin pack like we're seasoned adventurers. I hack and slash through a dozen more while SkyGlimmer either sets them on fire or freezes them. When the dust settles, the clearing is littered with goblin bodies and precious loot.
Crouching down, SkyGlimmer begins looting the corpses. She taps the goblin's dead body, and their whole inventory appears.
"Let me see. A couple of gold coins, some rusty daggers. Ew, gross. What is that? A spider's egg sack? Eww. Oh, I found it!"
Grabbing something in the inventory, SkyGlimmer pulls back, and the item materializes in her hand. She opens her hand and shows me a small silver ring, the ring reflecting the sunlight.
I hear a ping sound, and a new screen appears between SkyGlimmer and me.
"Quest item acquired," the message on the screen says.
"We got it," SkyGlimmer yells, throwing her arms into the air. "The ring! We got it! Thank you, EpicFail. You were awesome."
I smile, laugh, and then wave my hand.
"Ehh, don't mention it. Hey, you weren't too bad yourself. I guess teamwork does make the dream work, right?"
Still laughing, cheering, and celebrating, SkyGlimmer then stops, as if a switch was just flicked. Her smile is replaced with a big frown, and she lowers her staff.
"Figures," she says. "My time is up."
"Time?"
SkyGlimmer taps her shoulder again, and a new screen appears, showing a countdown.
"00:09. 00:08. 00:07."
"That quarter system is brutal. Still, I had fun. Thanks for helping me."
SkyGlimmer waves at me as her body shimmers with blue light. Her drone appears again before disappearing into the same blue light.
"No, no, no," I shout, waving my hands. "You can't leave! You still have the ring. I need the ring."
SkyGlimmer only smiles and waves before bursting into pixels and disappearing. SkyGlimmer is gone now.
The forest is quiet again, except for my groans echoing throughout the trees. My HUD then dings softly.
"+75 EXP. Level up!"
My experience bar fills up. It explodes before resetting, and I see the level 1 above change into level 2.
"Well," I say with a small laugh. "At least I leveled up. Yay. EpicFailGamer 94, slowly but steadily climbing the rank one rage quit moment at a time."
The drone flashes before me, silently capturing everything before disappearing again.
"From now on, I'm holding the quest item."