A Monster All the Time

Little did anyone know that the day the game was born, it would set in motion a chain of events that would spell death for the world.

[2007, Redmond Hills]

Three young boys in a small, backwater town along the border slowly walked down a dirt path.

It crunched under their feet, and the smell of freshly turned soil wafted from the farmland. Cicadas buzzed in the distance, and the hot sun shined down on the backs of their heads.

They were no older than six, and if you were to ask them how they were doing at this very moment… They would tell you that today was the worst day of their lives!

"Ugh! I can't believe we got caught!" Lukas, the leader of their little group, said as he kicked a rock into the tall grass.

"We? We?! It was you who got caught!" Randall, who somehow was always fighting, shouted as he hit Lukas on the shoulder.

"What's done is done, guys; there's no need to argue." the third boy, Alex, who had long since resigned to his fate, muttered, "It's over."

Randall ignored Alex's words and continued to berate Lukas. Lukas knew he didn't mean anything by it, though.

It was already halfway through spring, and the three boys—as punishment from their parents—weren't allowed to use their phones until the end of the summer.

"What are we supposed to do all summer?" Alex softly asked, his glasses slipping down while looking at the clouds with slumped shoulders.

Randall looked at his friends and spoke.

"I mean, they didn't take away the television. But they'll probably take away our consoles, so that's out. My parents don't even want to pay for cable, let alone internet. They only pay for our phone bills. Like hell I'm only watching the local TV stations! It's only news nowadays…"

"Oooh! You said a bad word! You can't say that!" Alex exclaimed as he put a hand over his mouth.

"What? Ah! I didn't mean-!" Randall exclaimed just as Lukas cut him off.

Lukas ran forward a bit before turning towards his two friends with an excited face.

"I know! We'll make a game!"

Alex and Randall looked at each other and blinked in confusion before looking back at Lukas.

"We always play tag and stuff at recess, right?" Lukas got a bit closer, excited. "We'll make our own game! I bet our parents made tag, hide-and-seek, and dodgeball, so let's make our own!"

Lukas continued, "They barely had anything to do growing up besides watching boring things on TV and reading books, so they played outside all the time!"

"We play outside all the time too, though…" Randall said while frowning.

"Yeah, but they played outside *more* than us!" Lukas said matter-of-factly.

The two other boys eventually warmed up to the idea, and later that day, the three of them began to make a game that would change their lives.

Of course, not nobody in the town would have assumed what would happen so many years later, considering it was a simple game among children.

But when they finally discovered the truth – it was far too late.

"What are you making?" A lanky boy named James asked with a strained smile. He looked towards the boys as he hung upside down from a tree branch.

"A game! It's like a mix of capture the flag and freeze tag! There'll be two sides: the good guys and the bad guys! The good guys have to raid the Dungeons!" Alex said excitedly.

Since growing up, Dungeons, portals filled with monsters invading their world, had become rarer. But videos of those who raided the dungeons and got rid of them, people called Wardens, were more popular than ever.

It was obvious the boys would make them the good guys.

"Yeah, since we won't get to watch any more Warden videos, they'll be on the good guys' side! But for the other side…" Lukas muttered, pressing his finger against his chin while thinking.

James looked at the three of them, still hanging upside down, when he interrupted Lukas' thoughts.

"You need a hero, though… Yeah, Wardens stop dungeons, but heroes save the world."

"Just like that webcomic about that guy who levels up that system ability by completing Dungeons!" One of the boys mentioned.

"Lonely Leveling? I like the show more…"

'Heroes save the world.' Lukas kept thinking back to what James said.

[2027, Vermilion – Capitol of Aska]

Lukas slumped against the steering wheel of his work van, exhaustion weighing him down. He flicked some cigarette ash out the window before putting it against his lips again.

He scoffed as he finished it and tossed it into the parking lot.

He exited his car, revealing the same boy from all those years ago, all grown up. Lukas had his black hair swept back, and his body wasn't getting as much rest as it should have been.

His arms were thin, and his bones creaked and popped as he stretched.

"Heroes save the world. What a load…"

He looked up at the building he was standing outside of—the Aska Association building. Prestigious and grand were the only words to describe it. It was the home of those responsible for regulating Dungeons, including finding, rating, and distributing them for various guilds.

In other words, they were cogs in a machine, doing the work nobody sees.

In fact, Lukas was a Gate Technician whose primary job was the first of those two—finding and rating the Dungeons.

He had always wanted to be a hero, but even as a child, his friends forced him to play the bad guy. Now, he was just a talentless guy working nine to five while the real heroes gave him paperwork to fill out and dungeons to find.

He went to his boss's room on one of the skyscraper's innumerable floors and lightly rapped the door.

"Ah! Lukas, my boy!" His boss opened the door to reveal his figure, that of a large, balding man. "You finished what I gave you, I take it?"

"Of course, sir!" Lukas put on a convincing fake smile.

Not only had he just finished his aforementioned nine-to-five, but his boss had also required him to go to another part of the city and finish someone else's shift.

It was something about an emergency; Lukas hadn't paid much attention to the reason. As such, it wouldn't be wrong to say he hadn't slept in over 24 hours.

"As expected of my *number one* supervisor! Keep it up, and you'll be going places," his boss leaned forward with a whisper, "and soon at that…"

His boss quickly stepped back with a laugh.

"Ah! Don't tell anyone I said that, haha."

Lukas stared at his boss while keeping his smile plastered on his face. He might have believed the man if he hadn't been saying that for around a year.

Just as Lukas was about to leave, his boss stopped him.

"I do, however, have one last thing for you to do for me." He raised his hand to prevent any possible protest.

It wasn't that Lukas hadn't been thinking of protesting it; of course, he was thinking about it. However, he wouldn't do it since he loved his job.

Deep down, it still made him feel like a Warden helping everyone out.

The large man reached his hand into his coat and rustled around wildly before pulling out an envelope. Lukas looked at it but couldn't find any details.

It was just blank, without even an address.

"This is for Team 432's boss—a man who goes by Connor. Connor has already left by now, but your friend Manuel should still be in the office. Give it to him and tell him to get it to Connor first thing tomorrow." His boss passed Lukas the envelope.

Lukas frowned as he flipped the envelope over, revealing a simple wax seal on the back.

"Why can't we just leave it on Connor's desk?" Lukas asked as he inspected it.

"I don't know, and I get the stupid letters sent here all the time. I keep telling the delivery department they aren't for me, but they still put them here. But Connor always gets upset at me if they're left unattended. As I don't want to get a call by that work fiend at the break of dawn, give it to that friend of yours."

"I see…"

Lukas sighed, but his day was almost over.

He left the office and made his way to the hallway. He pulled out his phone and hovered over the name Manuel. He was the only friend Lukas still talked to out of all his childhood friends.

The funny part was that they weren't even friends growing up, only passing acquaintances. They coincidentally met up again many years later and became friends.

"That was how long ago now…" Lukas pondered. He was 26 now, a lot older, for sure.

Lukas hit the call button, causing his phone to ring momentarily.

*Click!*

It didn't take long for the phone to be picked up.

"Yo, it's Mr. Bigshot-Hero-Who-Wants-To-Save-The-World! What's up?" Manuel said jokingly. Lukas might've gotten too drunk the last time they hung out.

"Yeah, hardy-har-har, you're so funny," Lukas said without a hint of amusement.

"I got a dumb letter to give you, but if I don't leave this place in the next fifteen minutes, I might implode and take everyone out with me."

"A letter?" Manuel sounded confused.

"Yeah, for your boss or something. Look, I'm heading to the lobby, and I'm starving. Do you want to get some dinner and hang out?" Lukas asked.

"Sure, let me finish here, and I'll meet you in a minute."

Just as they were about to hang up, Lukas had a question pop into his head. There wasn't much reason to ask it, and he wasn't sure why he asked it in the first place. He had simply been thinking about his childhood while in his car earlier.

"Okay, I know we didn't hang out as kids. But I have a question. Weren't you the one who named that game the others and I made?"

Lukas asked as he made his way to the elevator.

"Haha, I remember that. Yeah, I randomly played it once with you guys. I proposed a small rule change, and then since the name you guys picked sucked, I made a better name that went along with it."

"The name I picked didn't suck!" Lukas sounded mildly offended.

"Uh-huh. To be fair, looking back on it, The Devil's Deal isn't that good of a name. But I guess you guys liked it enough to stick." Manuel laughed.

Lukas, however, paused in the middle of the busy hallway.

'The Devil's Deal.' He thought.

He frowned as his brows knitted together. He didn't know why, but his hand instinctively grabbed onto the blank letter.

For some reason, he felt like he needed to protect the letter. It was as if it had an answer to a question he had long forgotten.