Games That Are Like Destiny Novels & Stories

he said, and suddenly the air felt strange. Everyone around me started whispering, turning to each other with wide eyes and open mouths. I froze. The Mate Games. I’ve heard stories, like everyone else. Old tales. Fables meant for children. Girls pulled from villages to compete for the hand of a royal heir. Magic and power and fate all tangled into one big, unbelievable mess. But that’s all they were. Stories. Until now. “They say the heir has the rarest kind of wolf,” a woman beside me whispered to her friend. “Unbound. Untouched by bond. Free.”

While most people were busy freaking out, two stepped forward—chill and confident. They said they were mages. Seasoned pro in the game. They gave us the rundown: We were stuck in a horror game. Everyone here? Already dead IRL. The castle had thirty floors. Each floor had its own monster—or monsters. The higher you climbed, the scarier they got. Clear all thirty floors, hit the legendary 9,999 points, and you get a second shot at life. Bonus? A cash prize so massive, you'd never have to work again.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself inside a game world. The title "Family of Four" screamed wholesome parenting sim to me. I quietly looked around at the other players who had entered with me. A lot of them were terrified of this new environment, and several men were cursing loudly. Among the crowd, a veteran player named Mike Bates started explaining the situation. "This is an infinite horror game. The only way to clear it and revive is by getting an SSS rating. Otherwise, you will be killed by the boss." "How do you even get that kind of rating?" a college girl asked.

The border of the Moonlight Howl territory was a place where the trees seemed to lean away from the oppressive energy of my former home. Instead of just approaching, I surrendered to the earth. I submerged myself in a bank of cold, stagnant mud, coating my skin and hair until my own scent was buried under the pungent reek of rot and wet soil. It was an indignity, but in this game, masking myself was the difference between a successful strike and a shallow grave.

I'd play a game or two before I went back in there. My go-to games were the latest versions of Fall Out and Call of Duty. I chose Fall Out because I really needed a team to play better on Call of Duty. My discord group wouldn't be on this early in the day to coordinate with and besides, it wasn't about playing the game right now. It was about distracting myself from jumping Analiese's bones in the next two minutes.