GM grinned contently at the sight of Leon’s laughter. Either this kid was thoroughly broken or a reeeeeaaal good actor. He assumed the former. He listened to Leon’s inquiry and silently debated for a moment whether or not to tell the whole story. In light of Leon’s recent descent into madness, he figured he hadn’t much to lose. 

“Well ya see…” he spoke. “I used to run this game called Data Spell. You wouldn’t have heard of it. Or at least, I’d assume not. Because if you [i]have[/i], well then, I’d have a very different job in mind for you…” he trailed off. “[i]But[/i], we’ll just assume for now that you haven’t. Anyway, this game, Data Spell, I presented it as an MMO, a very [i]special[/i] MMO. See, when players logged on to this game, they would physically enter it – sort of like what I did with you roleplayers here. The difference with Data Spell was that the players’ bodies would all remain in their own world, while their minds entered their in-game avatars. Also, Data Spell had an explicit warning on it: if you die in the game, you die in real life. Play at your own risk. Etc, etc. Thing is, no one took the warning seriously! People played on and killed each other and all assumed that if your in-game character died you’d either be banned or need to get a new avatar or something. Hardly anyone [i]actually[/i] believed in that whole in-game death nonsense, leading many of the most powerful players to become real-life mass murderers! Hahahahaha!!” he laughed maniacally, taking a moment to enjoy the glory days, when his game was perfect and he reigned supreme… 

“But um…” he continued once he stopped laughing. “Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever. Rather complicated story as to why it fell apart, but bottom line is, it did. I lost pretty much the entire in-game environment, not to mention all my players, even the ones that worked under me like you do now, but, after I found this place, I decided to try again, starting from scratch. As you can see, though, I already changed quite a few things from the old formula. Your whole self is here, not just your mind, I didn’t give a bullshit warning that no one would read anyway, and uh… biggest difference is that I really don’t have an in-game world put together yet. Almost everything here is left-over from the realm as I found it. You and the others are basically all beta testers.” He explained, returning to his swivel chair as he curled up with his laptop. “Oh! And, it just occurred to me…” he spoke, ready to rename the file previously known as “rpg004”. “I never did catch your name, kid.”