Alexander sat strapped into his seat within the space shuttle, feeling nervous and excited about soon traveling through space.
In the year 2100, humanity had made a lot of progress towards space travel technology being available to the public.
In fact, space travel within the solar system had been democratized, allowing many corporations and governments to send shuttles throughout the system at much lower costs and risks than in earlier history.
This quickly led to the colonization of the Moon, then Mars. However, this "democratization" ended up mostly benefitting the richest in the world. Those rich enough to control all space-faring interests had already taken advantage of space travel for a long time, having gained the nickname of the "Celestials."
In the year 2079, more than twenty years before the democratization of space travel, climate change had reached a point of no return. It became clear that remaining on Earth was a lost cause, and so the richest 1% left Planet Earth to settle in the first man-made livable biomes on the Moon and Mars, long before this was viable for most others.
This led to the merging of Earth's remaining political superpowers in pursuit of even better lives for the rich in space, causing all the old governmental entities to join into a united world government…
…While the poorest populations of the Earth had to live in huge urban domes where the unforgiving sun was obscured by polar clouds.
The abandonment of the common people was considered one of the worst injustices of the 21st century, and many riots broke out in response that threatened to seize control of the nations which had forsaken their people in service to the rich.
However, these riots were quickly suppressed by the new world government, which cut off food supplies to the helpless urban domes and flooded the streets with the perfect, lab-created drug called "Neo-Crack."
Of course, some of the major metropolises kept resisting, and so nuclear weapons were simply deployed to wipe these unruly targets off the face of the planet.
This policy of terror bore fruit in less than a year. By that time, all large-scale disturbances had died out, the new world government solidified itself in the public eye. A new rule of law and the modern "credit" currency was imposed across the entire world, and everyone who was still alive simply had to deal with it.
From then on, the Celestials, who were living happily on other celestial bodies, quietly enjoyed their billions of credits amassed by the exploitation and degradation of their abandoned home planet. They cared nothing for the ecological and social consequences of their actions, blaming the misery of the common people on rampant crime and the stupidity of those suffering.
The Celestials founded a real upper caste on the Moon, a social class which only came down to Earth to spend their excess money, to manage the property which still earned them passive income that they truly didn't need, or simply to fuck the women of the lower castes.
Their arrogance was such that they called the remaining inhabitants of Earth "Worms." Like their namesakes, most of these people were bound to the Earth with no hope of escaping it. They simply couldn't afford to settle on the Moon, let alone to continue living there year after year.
Even a ticket for the Earth-Moon shuttle was impossibly steep, over 100,000 credits at most times! Given these prices, lunar tourists were quite rare.
Alexander thought about all this wretched history as he waited for the shuttle to lift off. He knew that he was going to a place filled with people who'd consider him a nobody. Even though he had money now, it would be a repeat of his first attempts to hire a butler. If one did not belong to the upper crust of society, there was no way to fake it.
And there was one additional factor: Though he was trying to keep his identity a secret, it was entirely possible that someone at this party of "Horus" elites would recognize him.
Many videos had circulated on the internet showing Apophis fighting in various circumstances. Though his appearance as a Fallen Zetark was so corrupted that it bore little resemblance to his IRL appearance, many of his facial features remained the same.
And if he were discovered… would Alexander ever make it back to Earth alive?
***
Alexander knew some of the history of space travel, and that the first space shuttles destined for the Moon had moved not much faster than 40,000 kilometers per hour.
In addition, the circumstances for a successful launch had to be carefully calculated so that the moon was at precisely the right location when the shuttle eventually arrived.
These factors had been greatly mitigated during the rise of the Celestials and now made space travel as convenient as taking a cab.
Alexander's shuttle moved over 240,000 kilometers per hour, allowing the trip to take only about sixty-seven minutes, and was able to deviate from its initial trajectory to meet the Lunar Space Station with ease.
The LSS was particularly grandiose compared to the bare and sterile space stations which had been common in the past. It had been designed with a noble and ancient-styled architecture.
The buildings themselves were built from white Earth marble, which had been absurdly expensive to transport when the place had been built! But everyone who looked at the structures believed the cost was worth it, for the gleaming marble was a lovely contrast compared to the gray lunar ground.
The interior of the space station was even more incredible. Despite being a vast area filled with travelers and cars, the floor was so spotless that one could undoubtedly eat off of it, and there was not a single speck of dust or hint of a cobweb on the well-lit walls. The
Once inside and acclimated to the slightly different air pressure compared to the shuttle, Alexander noticed a man in the hall holding a sign with "Alexander" written on it.
This was his driver Elizabeth had hired. Alexander showed the man his Holo Watch's ID card, then got into the driver's beautiful white limousine. In moments, they had departed along a huge highway that went around the Moon.
Through the vehicle's window, Alexander saw numerous private biomes passing by. They were filled with magnificent manors, along with cultivated fields of several hectares (100 square meters). It was as though entire slices of the most beautiful countrysides on Earth had been directly transplanted here and then preserved in crystal.
The journey along the lunar highway took about another hour, which was an odd comparison to the same amount of time it had taken to bridge the distance between Earth and the Moon!
But eventually, the limousine entered an immense biome of 100 hectares. Upon this land, there was an immense and magnificent palace with a flourishing ornamental garden surrounding it. It had clearly been built in the style of a historic French Château-style manor.
The limousine dropped Alexander off at the entrance, where Elizabeth was waiting with another man.
After Alexander got out of the car, he approached Elizabeth and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
"Finally!" she said, hardly reacting to the gesture. "We've been waiting quite a while. I present to you the guild leader of Hyrule, Charle de Montcalm, alias Link. My brother, as it happens."
Alexander wasn't surprised. MMORPG guilds—and SuperGuilds in particular—were considered to be real businesses. As with many businesses, leadership tended to run within families.
Alexander shook Charle's hand. "Pleased to meet you, Sir. My name is Alexander."
Charle answered, "And pleased to meet you, Alexander. So, I heard you met my sister in an Earth restaurant this morning?"
Alexander nodded. "That's right. Once we realized we're both Horus players, she invited me to this party."
Charle's polite smile became as cold as ice. "Not bad for a worm."
Alexander said nothing to this insult, but Elizabeth's face twisted in disgust.
"That's enough, Charle!" she said. "Alexander is here as my guest!"
Charle glanced contemptuously in her direction as he dropped Alexander's hand. "Sorry, Sis, but for some time I have been questioning your company. Your humiliation on Cronos I certainly hasn't given me reason to reconsider."
Elizabeth blushed with shame, but said nothing.
Alexander spoke up, irritation in his voice. "I think you're being a bit unfair to your sister! Everyone knows the Battle of Cronos I was extremely hard on every side, and Apophis is an unfathomably powerful player!
"By the way… I don't seem to recall seeing a player named Link on the battlefield. It is possible that you were too busy to help your own guild in battle, despite being their leader?"
Charle's pride flared up at this worthless wretch's insult! "Oh, a worm who thinks anybody wants to hear his opinion. How cute! Tell me, future lover of my sister, what civilized human gave you permission to talk to me in this way? In fact, who even 'are' you? You forgot to tell me your in-game name when I asked for it!
Alexander smirked. "What, you don't recognize me? I'm DungEater, of course!"
DungEater was an extremely mysterious player. Though ranked 6th on the bounty table, no one had managed to record him as they had Apophis.
This was almost inconceivable in a game where anyone could start recording a video in a few moments, and so many people in the real world claimed to be DungEater for the publicity. It was, of course, difficult to disprove.
Alexander's answer was therefore not intended or received as a real answer, but as an insult, one that implied Charle was stupid enough to believe such a common lie.
Charle glared at Alexander, then turned and stormed away.
Elizabeth bursts out laughing. "Haha, good work shutting that pretentious mouth of his! Come on, I have some friends I wish to introduce you to."
Alexander followed Elizabeth inside the mansion, quickly coming upon over a thousand people standing, lounging, and chatting. He recognized many of these people as MMORPG personalities who had pivoted their careers to "Horus," as he expected.
There were the executives of Hyrule, Lord Of War, Renovatio Imperii, and Toxic… and he even saw Leonidas Manolis, the player who went by "Zeus" while gaming. He even hid a thin smile upon seeing Enzo Romano, Ceasar's player.
But the one person who Alexander realized could cause even more of a problem than Elizabeth was William Woke…
Alias Lucifer.
At all costs, Alexander had to avoid the players he'd fought with multiple times and for extended periods. They posed the greatest risks for exposing his anonymity.
***
After some time spent introducing Alexander to people of no consequence, Elizabeth led Alexander to a private room in the mansion where they were alone.
Elizabeth carefully locked the door behind her, then turned to face Alexander with a coy look in her eye. "Well," she said, "I guess we're all alone here..."
