"That was a good game." I said with absolute certainty.

  Fresh off my character's glorious death, I mean full last stand style. Truly giving the enemy the business before going out like a boss. Sure, I am saddened that it ended and could as easily resurrect my character, but where is the fun in that?

  The rules exist for a reason. I know I made most of them and followed them to the letter. At least so far, not sure in all my infinite lifespan I will ever break one. Guess I will have to see from game to game.

  Leaning back in my ergonomic office chair — one insisted by Andrea was the perfect seat in the multiverse. I couldn't help but agree; damn, this thing was like sitting on a cloud. And I should know; I have done that a few times.

  "Well, now that my Imperium playthrough is done, perhaps I should switch to another part of the universe."

  Tapping a few keys on the keyboard, my retro-style computer from the earth nineties came to life. Yeah, I haven't updated in centuries. I like the old style and won't change. The loud racket of the computer booting up was familiar and welcome.

  Navigating to the system interface, the little icon of a smiley face on the bottom left. I clicked on it, and suddenly a new window popped up. Like a typical browser, it had many tabs and features. I could check in on the state of my fellow gods and their current playthroughs or start my own.

  Checking the status in the right corner, I sadly saw that none of my fellow gods were currently playing. A situation I had expected but still hurt a bit.

  "I mean, what was all this for? To create an entire universe filled with worlds and races. To build a system that governed entire sectors of galaxies. Offering many unique game-like elements to real freaking life. Only to prioritise what? Bureaucracy and management?" I cursed and ranted to no one but myself.

  The utter truth soon soothed the churning emotions that boiled in my chest. I was partially to blame for the situation. In the beginning, it was manageable, a few worlds and a single system. But the moment I found new inspiration. I just couldn't stop.

  With renewed vigour, I kept creating until we ended up with an entire universe that my friends had to step in and manage. I really should feel guilty, but they seemed to enjoy it.

  Perhaps it made them feel like a true pantheon. True gods ruling over a universe of our design. But as the eras passed, it became less about the game and more about the mortals.

  Sure, the company helped; the home office was a great managerial system that kept all of this running. Hey, I even worked on the new System AI project that should be ready to launch soon.

  Alas, I had been feeling stuck lately, in a slump of sorts. Playing games was one thing, but playing without your friends, who were too busy. Well, that just kind of sucked.

  I was wallowing, wasn't I? Yeah, unbecoming of a god, I know, but infinity means anything is possible, even sulking gods in a situation of their own making.

  In this state, I started doom scrolling through the current system events, play through options, new classes, and our employees' posts on social media. Looking for anything of note.

  As I was scrolling, a notification distracted me. It was an email tagged as important and needing to be read now. The sender was one of the regional managers for the Grimgard sector. From memory, that was a grimdark world where we went overboard with all the races.

  Curious, I opened the message and read the contents. Every sentence made my eyes widen further, and the sheer novelty of the situation explained it. But to summarise, we had a rogue employee.

  One of the notification clerks named Joey Brask from the attached employee file apparently made a lot of unsanctioned notifications. Someone meticulously recorded everything he had done, and after reading a few. Well, I couldn't help but chuckle at some changes he made to class names.

  What followed his meddling was his eventual escape through a defunct portal, leaving the home office and vanishing from the face of the universe. Well, he could be somewhere, but alas, without a system, no one could track him. We really needed a god among our ranks with omniscience, but those types were top tier and pretty busy.

  The email was just an update, and others would try to locate him. Surely, with enough time, they would track him down. Except something told me they would have trouble doing so. It was just a feeling, something that was not exactly considered a divine skill, merely intuition.

  Preparing to close the email and let others deal with the rogue, he stopped just before closing. He again forgot to scroll down, a habit he was trying to break. It was something he cultivated over his many years of gaming. Avoiding getting the complete picture so as not to spoil the game. Congratulating himself for finally remembering, he scrolled to the bottom and read the rest of the email.

  "Woah, he stole company property — a phone with a massive hard drive, enough to house a system AI." I couldn't help but say out loud.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Why would he steal such a device unless he had something to put on it? With an idea popping into my head, I accessed the remote desktop and connected to his former computer. Sifting through the mundane logs, I found several that were interesting. He had covered his tracks well, but couldn't hide all traces.

  "You created a system construct, a custom one at that."

  Buried in the logs were echoes of some rather impressive pieces of code. While the programming language of the system wasn't exactly secret, very few could grasp it. Not that it was a matter of skill or intellect, but a mindset. The code was just a way for non-divines to perceive and interact, but it would be hollow without true understanding.

  And yet, this Joey Brask did it. He not only understood what I, what we have created. But created something of his own, holey unique. I had to respect that, to respect the gaming spirit of a new creator.

  "I'll advise to go easy on him once they catch him." I decided since the kid had spunk.

  This assumed they could actually find him. The grin that crossed my lips was genuine. I sincerely doubted they could track him down if he stayed low-key. And with his skills, he could probably hide well. My grin widened as a giddy feeling welled in my chest.

  "But he can't hide from me." I declared before leaning back and closing my eyes.

  It had been a long time since I had gone analogue, and I must admit; it felt good. Reaching out with my sight, I found my senses leave my realm and travel the void. Saying hello to a few void gods in passing, I exited this loopy realm and entered our universe. My power saturated the entire place, mixed with traces of my friends' contributions.

  Pausing for a moment, I filtered out all the noise and narrowed my senses down to something unique. Something of me but not of my design. Which was easy since nothing was like that, except for a single pinprick of light amongst the bright lights.

  The origin of the tether surprised me when I followed it. The sneaky little clerk was hiding on Grimgard, practically in plain sight. I couldn't help but respect the absolute balls on this guy.

  Sending my mind to his location, I shifted from staring down at the blue planet to a creepy-looking room. Very gothic in architecture, and reminded me of my vampire playthrough. Dismembered corpses of gargoyles lie around the room, bloodied and cold.

  It looked like a decent fight, and from the state of the guy, he did not escape unscathed. He was just as bloody, but alive and kicking. Next to him was a weird-looking cat, but who was I to judge on pets?

  Was that really a cat? It looked very strange; the aura doesn't seem right. But it was undoubtedly a feline, with four legs, fur, whiskers and a sense of entitlement only cats could achieve.

  Shrugging, I turned back to little Jo, giving him a once-over, trying to get a better lock on him. He was a typical humanoid clerk I made ages ago. I know I am such a generic god, so I went for the typical human design.

  But what was of greater interest was his aura. He was not system less, not even close. That was a decent integration, a bit crude, and I could foresee a few bugs down the line. But quite solid, it impressed me.

  Also, I did sense another presence, a system construct localised entirely in the man's suit pocket. That must be the stolen tech with a system AI he jammed inside. And the construct did not disappoint.

  It was crude, like his integration, but beautifully elegant. Far looser and uncontrolled, but that just gave her some charm. For some reason, I got a feminine vibe, which was weird. I hadn't considered programming genders into any of the constructs; perhaps she developed it on her own.

  Giving the place another once-over, I left and returned to my body. Waking up in the world of my office, I wondered what to do next.

  "I could snitch on you, Jo," I suggested to myself, but immediately dismissed it.

  A better idea came to mind. Chuckling like a schoolgirl, I went to town on the keyboard. I pulled up new windows, all relating to the world of Grimgard. I set the spawn point near good old Jo, creating a new playthrough.

  Character creation was all that remained. It was my favorite part of the entire process. To painstakingly construct a truly unique and interesting character with a rich backstory.

  Tapping my lips, I tried to come up with something. Shrugging after a solid five minutes of nothing, I hit random. I had used a random character generator a few times. Sometimes I get a weird character type, and other times I get some solid builds. Cracking my neck, I waited for the generator to finish and display the option.

  Neatly written in bold were the race and class, along with a digital image of the character. I tried, I really tried, to stifle a laugh. But I failed because I didn't try that hard. This is going to be a fun playthrough, no doubt about it.

  "See you soon, Joey, and let's have a good game."

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