Lucifer Morningstar
At 6:30 in the evening, Jasper Otto was standing in front of his wardrobe trying to decide whether he wanted to look respectable for once in his life.
He stared at the clothes hanging in front of him for several seconds.
There were expensive shirts.
Expensive jackets.
Expensive shoes.
There were even a few outfits that had been personally selected by people whose entire careers revolved around making rich idiots look fashionable.
Jasper ignored all of them.
His hand eventually settled on a blue T-shirt with a giant can of beans printed across the chest.
BEANS WILL SOLVE ALL YOUR FUCKING PROBLEMS.
He nodded.
"Perfect."
He pulled it on, grabbed a pair of equally ridiculous bean-themed shorts, and then reached for the hat.
The hat was shaped like a kidney bean.
Jasper placed it on his head and looked at himself in the mirror.
His dark hair stuck out in several directions around it.
He tried flattening it.
It immediately became worse.
"Good enough."
At twenty-three, Jasper Otto had already accumulated enough money to dress himself properly for the rest of his life.
He simply chose not to.
His parents had been wealthy long before he ever made his first dollar, so money had never been something he desperately needed. They had built their fortune through investments and businesses over decades, and Jasper had grown up comfortably enough that he had never experienced the kind of financial anxiety most people associated with adulthood.
His own fortune, however, had come from something far less respectable.
Gaming.
More specifically, one game.
Amber Lands.
The game was twelve years old.
Jasper had been playing it for six.
And somehow, against every expectation of the people who had predicted its decline, it was still alive.
Actually, it was doing better than alive.
Much of that was his fault.
Jasper had begun streaming Amber Lands when its popularity had already started declining. He had been one of the players who refused to leave, partly because he genuinely loved the game and partly because he enjoyed the freedom it gave him to do stupid things.
Then people started watching.
Then more people started watching.
Then companies started paying him to keep playing.
Eventually, the game that everyone had expected to fade into obscurity experienced an unexpected resurgence.
New players arrived.
Old players returned.
The developers suddenly had reasons to produce more content.
And Jasper somehow became one of the most recognizable faces associated with a twelve-year-old virtual world.
His average livestream attracted roughly six million viewers.
Some nights, considerably more.
He had sponsorships, merchandise, advertising deals, tournament appearances, and enough money sitting in various accounts and investments that he could probably disappear from the internet tomorrow and remain wealthy for the rest of his life.
He had no intention of doing that.
He liked streaming.
He liked playing Amber Lands.
And, most importantly, he liked making millions of people watch him make an absolute fool of himself.
Jasper left his bedroom and entered the streaming room.
The enormous windows behind him overlooked the city, but he barely noticed the view anymore. His penthouse was high enough that the streets below looked almost artificial, tiny streams of light moving between towers beneath the evening sky.
His attention went to the equipment.
He checked the cameras.
Then the lighting.
Then the microphones.
Then the neural interface.
Everything was ready.
His main setup looked deceptively simple: a reclining chair surrounded by a sophisticated array of equipment designed to connect directly with his neural system.
The technology was far beyond the old concept of virtual reality.
There were no clumsy headsets or controllers.
Once connected, Jasper's consciousness would be synchronized with the cloud-hosted virtual environment. His brain would receive the sensory information required to perceive the virtual world as naturally as it perceived the physical one.
He could see.
Hear.
Feel.
Move.
Speak.
As far as his brain was concerned, he would actually be there.
Jasper sat down and glanced at the time.
6:47.
He still had a few minutes.
His streaming dashboard was already showing activity.
People were waiting.
He smiled.
"Poor bastards."
He pressed the button.
The stream went live.
The viewer counter immediately began climbing.
Jasper watched it rise.
Three million.
Four.
Five.
Then six.
He leaned toward the camera.
"Good evening, unemployed people."
The chat exploded.
Jasper laughed.
There were already thousands of messages moving across his screen every second.
Some were from people who had been waiting for him.
Others were immediately attacking his clothing.
[WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WEARING]
[BIGBEANS GOT HIM AGAIN]
[BRO IS DRESSED LIKE A CANNED FOOD MASCOT]
[12 YEARS OF AMBER LANDS AND THIS IS WHAT WE GET]
[SOMEONE BUY THIS MAN A MIRROR]
Jasper looked down at his shirt.
"Jealousy is an ugly emotion."
[THAT SHIRT IS AN UGLY EMOTION]
[THE BEAN HAT 😭]
[WHY IS IT ACTUALLY A BEAN]
[HE COULD BUY GUCCI AND CHOSE THIS]
Jasper leaned closer to the camera.
"I could buy Gucci."
He paused.
"I choose not to."
[BECAUSE GUCCI WOULD REFUSE YOU]
[HE HAS MONEY BUT NO TASTE]
[FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL, SPIRITUALLY BANKRUPT]
Jasper placed a hand over his heart.
"That was beautiful."
A donation appeared.
[Anonymous — $2,000]
Get better clothes.
Jasper stared at it.
Then he looked into the camera.
"Two thousand dollars."
He shook his head.
"You could have invested that."
Another donation appeared almost immediately.
[Anonymous — $5,000]
Worth it.
Jasper laughed.
"Fair."
A new notification appeared.
[BigBeans — $10,000]
BEANS WILL SOLVE ALL YOUR FUCKING PROBLEMS.
Jasper slowly turned toward the camera.
"See?"
He pointed at the donation.
"BigBeans understands me."
The chat immediately turned against him.
[CORPORATE SHILL]
[HE'S BEEN BOUGHT]
[BEAN PROPAGANDA]
[THE BEAN INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX]
[HE'S LITERALLY WEARING THE AD]
Jasper shrugged.
"They pay me more than your parents pay you."
[MY PARENTS DON'T PAY ME]
[EXACTLY]
[THAT'S WHY YOU'RE WATCHING]
"Exactly."
Jasper grinned.
"Now that we've established that I'm financially superior to everyone here, let's get started."
He activated the neural interface.
The room disappeared.
For a brief moment, Jasper experienced nothing.
Then the world returned.
But it wasn't his penthouse anymore.
He stood atop an enormous black fortress beneath a crimson sky.
The Shadow Castle.
His castle.
His character stood exactly where Jasper had left him.
The armor was black, decorated with silver patterns. A long crimson cloak moved behind him. Two enormous horns rose from his head, and an enormous sword rested against his shoulder.
Lucifer Morningstar.
The Demon Lord.
Jasper looked toward the horizon.
An army stretched across it.
Again.
The Righteous Faction had come to attack his castle.
Again.
He stared at them for several seconds.
Then sighed.
"These guys really need hobbies."
The chat exploded.
[THEY'RE BACK]
[LMFAO]
[HOW MANY TIMES HAVE THEY LOST]
[I THINK 57]
[58]
[59 IF YOU COUNT THE CHRISTMAS EVENT]
[THEY'RE NEVER GONNA LEARN]
Jasper looked across the battlefield.
Thousands upon thousands of righteous soldiers stood beneath their banners.
Holy knights.
Paladins.
Mages.
Heroes.
Siege weapons.
Everything.
Jasper smiled.
"Well."
He drew his sword.
Behind him, the gates of the Shadow Castle opened.
His army emerged.
Undead knights marched across the walls.
Demons roared.
Monstrous creatures crawled from the depths of the fortress.
An enormous legion assembled behind their master.
Jasper raised his sword.
The chat began filling with messages.
[OH HE'S DOING THE VOICE]
[HERE WE GO]
[EVERYONE SHUT UP]
[LUCIFER MODE ACTIVATED]
Jasper's expression changed.
The joking smile disappeared.
He became Lucifer.
His voice deepened.
"Once again..."
He looked down upon the army.
"You have come before my throne."
A few people in chat were already typing along.
[NEVER TIRE]
[NEVER FEAR]
Jasper raised his sword.
The undead raised their weapons.
"NEVER TIRE!"
The legion roared.
"NEVER FEAR!"
He pointed his sword toward the approaching army.
"FOR THE UNDEAD LEGION!"
The gates opened.
The undead charged.
Jasper threw his head back.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The battle began.
And for the next several minutes, Jasper Otto was exactly where he wanted to be.
He was laughing.
He was shouting.
He was insulting the enemy commander.
He was insulting his own viewers.
He was making terrible jokes whenever the opportunity presented itself.
At one point, after his character survived an attack that should have killed him, he turned toward the camera and said, completely seriously, "You see? Size does matter."
The chat immediately became unreadable.
[NOOOOO]
[HE DID NOT]
[MODS BAN HIM]
[CLIP IT]
[SOMEONE TAKE HIS INTERNET AWAY]
Jasper laughed so hard that he nearly missed his next attack.
This was his life.
Ridiculous.
Loud.
Pointless.
Comfortable.
And, as far as Jasper knew, perfectly ordinary.
He had no reason to believe that before the night was over, he would never see his penthouse again.