Lucas wasted a lot of time immersing himself in Skill Shards Online. Like so much that he was close to flunking his final year of high school. That was a real-life problem, though. He was content to ignore it and spend every possible waking second logged into the game. So when the GM threatened to hold Lucas and the rest of the insane, addicted player base hostage, he could only listen on in shock.

"Clear all ten floors, or I'll wipe your character's progress."

The choice was simple in the face of such a laughable threat. Momentarily panic before starting up the grind for equipment and levels. After all, he'd already sunk almost five years into the game. How bad could another few months be? Too bad an orphaned NPC, a cursed healer, a random slime, and his mismatched set of skills were hellbent on ensuring his life was nothing but insanity.