I can suddenly see through to the alley behind the guild. A stray dog walks through where the latrine used to be. He looks confused. So do I. “Now deleting: Gravity on the second floor.” A crash. Our only F-rank adventurer, a man named Grunt who is somehow dumber than a sack of hammers, falls up through the ceiling. He floats past me, eating a hard-boiled egg.
We are ranked 947th out of 947 registered guilds in the kingdom. Our “War Room” is a leaky broom closet. Our “Treasury” is a coffee tin with exactly 12 copper coins and a dead moth.
The front door melts. Outside, the city looks wrong. The sky is a swirling Windows Blue Screen of Death. Rain falls sideways. A notification appears on my forearm: [Quest Generated: Defeat the Demon Lord. Reward: One sincere apology from the System. Time Limit: Yesterday.] I turn to Grunt, who is now stuck to the ceiling like a sleepy moth.
The guild core detonates with the sound of a dial-up modem screaming. The floor gives way. We fall—not down, but sideways —into a loading screen that reads: “Respawning at Bottom Tier Guild… Estimated wait time: ∞.” And somewhere, in the void, I hear a cheerful chime: “Thank you for your FREE DOWNLOAD! Please rate your apocalypse 5 stars!”
“Everything.”
And today? The ancient, cobwebbed Request Board finally gave up.
“We’re done,” I say.
A blinking red rune appeared above my desk: