VR adventures

[Poprockz]

She raised an eyebrow at him and chuckled in disbelief. "Yeah sure, Mr. Administrative privileges. I'm sure I'll get a super-cool rare skill like that real soon." She bumped him with her hips playfully and continued on into the cave. As far as weapons went, she figured you got new ones every now and then to replace the ones that were out-leveled.

When the bears came into her line of sight, she began to creep forward quietly. She positioned herself on the opposite side of the cave as her companion, so that no matter which one of them was the target, the other could be support.

She aimed for the bear's head, wanting to inflict as much damage as possible before the big animal came after them. Her arms extended, she stood there for a minute, waiting for the perfect time to shoot. It came and she squeezed the triggers. It was a direct hit to the head and neck, scoring her a decent amount of HP. She continued to fire, unloading her pistols as quickly as she could manage.

 

[JadeKnight]

He grinned at her hip check, watching her head on ahead of him. True he had some priviliges as as far as programming items went, but he was no true admin.

He was going to suggest that she take care of the cubs first, but she seemed more interested in going after mother bear. After scoring the hit on the mother, mother bear let out a loud roar and charged towards Twinkletoes. Mother was pissed.

The mother's roar scared the cubs, causing them to run in the opposite direction. That meant towards him. It took a few swings to dispatch the cubs, giving mother bear time to swipe at her a couple of times.

Deciding not to wait on a charge attack, he ran to mother bear and sliced along her side. Her life went down by a third and got the attention on him.

 

[Poprockz]

Twinkletoes seemed rather pleased with herself until she realized that mother bear was barreling toward her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that her companion was occupied, so she stood her ground until the bear was somewhat close. She then dodged, fluttering her wings to give herself more airtime. The bear missed her in the first lunge, but promptly pounced on her to punish with a few slashes.

The pistols were knocked out of Twinkletoes' hands, leaving her to shield herself with her arms as the mother continued to swipe. By this time, her armor was torn up a bit, and she had lost -10 HP.

As she looked to the side, she saw the last cub fall and Nightblade quickly raking the bear's side with a powerful swipe. Now that she wasn't being accosted, she scrambled to pick up her pistols and started to shoot at the mother bear once more, hoping that her shots landed.

 

[JadeKnight]

He jumped back a bit to avoid a claw swipe from the mother, evading one. However, the bear roared after the miss, charging at him. Twinkletoe's hits landed, chipping away at the mother bear's health. He oophed as he was hit by the charge, flying back a few feet.

Nightblade got to his feet once more, just as the mother bear began to charge once more. He dodged to the side, rolling to his feet. All it took was one final strike and the mother bear was dead.

As the bear was struck down, there was the briefest of shimmering of the world around them. It was so quick, maybe one or two in the system would have noticed it.

He smiled as he pulled out another health potion as there was a ding and a star appeared above her head for a moment before disappearing.

"Congradulations. It looks like you gained a level."

 

[Poprockz]

She looked a little worse for wear with the shredding that her dress had been subjected to. Although, neither her nipples, nor her underwear was showing, so she considered that a victory in of itself. The mango-flavored health potion once again was consumed, much to her satisfaction. It occurred to her that she could even feel the lukewarm liquid going down her throat.

"YES! We did it!" She jumped and buzzed up and down and her arms flinched a little bit upwards as if she wanted to hug him, but she restrained herself and settled down, putting her arms behind her back. "That felt great! I can't believe I leveled up. Thank you for helping me with this quest, I'm not sure I could have done it by myself. At least not without re-spawning several times." She gave him a whole-hearted smile, a little blood-splatter on her cheek.

 

[JadeKnight]

He smiled for a moment as he looked over her shredded dress, thinking of how well it was designed. He lifted his eyes up as she finished up the potion.

"It was my pleasure. I am quite happy you let me join you as well. It helped to relieve the boredom of earlier."

He resheathed his sword and nodded towards the basket.

"Go ahead and grab your basket so we can turn it in. If you need any gold to repair your dress, just let me know.'

He searched the bodies of the cubs and mother bear for items. He came up with a total of ten silver, split between them, five bear meat chunks, some miscallaneous trash, and couple of health potions. He tossed these to Twinkletoes before standing up.

"Ready to go when you are. Turn in the quest first or to Bellsprout?"

 

[Poprockz]

She nodded and scurried over to the basket, putting it into her inventory. "Well I'm happy that you find my company better than being bored," she joked.

"You know, I actually read something cool in my inventory earlier. Apparently this armor set has two unique properties called "Roses are Red" and "Like Weeds!" If I add other items, it will dye the items either red or green or a combination. But more importantly, if I shut off the game for 6 hours, or have my character rest for that amount of real time, the armor repairs itself. Eventually I will out-level the armor, though, which is sad." She shrugged and pocketed the health potions.

Her eyes dropped to the cave floor. If they went straight to BellSprout, it was possible that he wouldn't have any more reason to travel with her, having completed her request to get her back to this area, especially since the bugs seemed mostly to do with the trains. Since that was his job, he would probably have to go back to the city at that time. She enjoyed having him in her party, so she figured that postponing his departure a little wouldn't be such a reach. "Let's turn in the quest, first!" she piped up, turning towards the entrance and walking in that direction thoughtfully.

 

[JadeKnight]

He hmmed thoughtfully for a moment as she told him about the armor she wore, but didn't say anything in response. It was an interesting concept that had been made with it, something he would have to look at later. It was probably bending the rules a little if he was going to do any editing of it, but corrections could always be made later. That's what patches were for.

"Quest turn in it is."

He gave a smile as he stood up, watching her walk towards the cave enternce first. He couldn't help but study her shapely form from behind for a moment before moving to catch up with her.

It was a short walk back to the quest giver, clearing of a few wolves along the way. It was just enough experince to get her halfway to another level. They had nearly reached the NPC when a small window appeared in front of each of them. A small window popped up in front of all the other players as well. The game's logo appeared for a moment before a few words scrolled across the window.

A system wide meeting has been scheduled to be held in one hour. All players are required to attend. The meeting will take place in the capital city of Ragnarok.

The message scrolled through twice before the window disappeared. He raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"Ok, that was interesting. I guess that's going to be the way for announcements from now on. I guess we shouldn't miss this meeting."

 

[Poprockz]

"I guess you're stuck with me for a bit longer, eh?" she grinned. It was almost like divine intervention she thought to herself happily.

"Here you go, little guy." She removed the basket from her inventory and gave it to the little fairy.

She trudged over to the train station with him and waited until a train pulled up. The two of them, and a some other players who happened to be nearby boarded and headed for the city. She chose to sit next to him again in all her tattered glory. When the train went through its bumpy phase, she was able to stay in her seat this time.

"Have you heard of any big announcements they were planning to make?" she asked curiously. "Maybe it's like a welcome announcement, or they're going to boot us all out of the game for a while to do maintenance."

 

[JadeKnight]

He was a bit surprised she had decided not to get her armor repaired, but decided not to comment. When she decided to go ahead and leave, he went along with her. It was probably best to go early so they wouldn't get crowded together.

As she sat beside him, he thought about being a bit bold. True, they had only just met. He laughed and shook his head for a moment at her question before he lifted his arm up and placed it gently around her shoulders.

"No, that would be unthinkable for them. Booted us in such a short notice probably wouldn't be a great way to keep things going. I did read that they were going to use that global window system for anything that needed to be passed along to players for important announcements. It probably is just a welcome gathering or the like."

They soon arrived at the station again, the doors opening up for everyoone to get off. He smiled down at her for a moment as he got up.

"There is an armorer nearby, so we can get you fixed up. "

 

[Poprockz]

She felt him lean over and casually rest his arm around her shoulders. She stiffened a little and her face flushed a bit, her eyes darting to him and looking away quickly. His arm was warm and had a comforting weight to it. She didn't mind it at all, but was a bit flustered since she was uncertain of how to react to it.

Assuming that he was just trying to be friendly, she decided to act natural. "Y-yeah, that makes sense. I think they probably thought to wait about a week so that as many players could gather as possible while the game was still fresh and new."

She smiled back and met his gaze, standing up as well. "It repairs itself when I leave the game, so doing that normally would be a waste of money in my opinion. But since we're going to an event, we probably should patch it up this time." She gently lifted one of the pieces of fabric dangling from her torso and let it fall back down.

"Lead the way Nightblade, slayer of bears." She made a flourishing gesture to the streets as she bowed a little, a joking smile on her lips.

 

[JadeKnight]

He gave a laugh at her nickname for him.

"Perhaps I should ask the devs if they can add that as a title for the players to wear. I think that is supposed to be something implamented in a later patch."

He let the other players get off first before stepping off the train himself. He paused for a moment to make sure she was following before walking on. He took a momoment to consult the map of the capital, focusing on they section they were in. He gave a nod before clsing the map.

"We just have to head over to the market area, which isn't far. Hopefully it won't be too crowded. After that, we can find a place to sit and wait till the announcement."

He held his hand out towards her a moment, wondering if she would take it. He soon began to walk with her towards the market area, the crowd of players slowly increasing as they walked.

 

[Poprockz]

"Perhaps you should request it as a tattoo," she quipped, hopping off the train and looking around while following for a while. She couldn't get over how cool the city was designed and how real the buildings looked.

Her eyes scanned the map as he spoke, looking up when he finished. "Sounds good to me. We don't have too much time to linger in the shop, though, so if the repair can't be done quickly, we should probably split."

He had stretched out his hand to her, offering it for her to take. She hesitated for a moment, taking a second to realize that he wanted to hold her hand in the first place. She took it, and thought to herself how it was still as warm as the first time she had met him. She allowed him to lead her through the crowd. Every now and then someone would bump her, but he kept a firm grip on her hand so that she didn't get separated.

Eventually they were able to squeeze into the armory. It was remarkably empty in the shop, as many people were finding good spots to sit or congregate.

 

[JadeKnight]

The armoury shop was nice and warm inside, an open fire in the middle of the room keeping the forge heated. Two young humans boy were going through the motions of getting a pair of swords made, talking and shouting over the banging. Nightblade was enjoing how much work they had put into the game to make it so lifelike that he could almost swear he was going to sweat from the heat. After all, this game was touted as being state of the edge in gameplay, while at the same time restricting the playerbase to adults only.

"Go ahead and get things taken care of. I'll wait over there."

He released her hand from his before pointing over to a bench beneath one of the large windows that dominated the front of the store on either side of the door. Behind the counter stood a stout old man, dressed in heavy overalls. His wares were mostly just basic weapons under level 15, crafting items that players could use, and repair services. He gave a smile at the pair before speaking.

"Welcome to the Rusty Anvil. How can I help you miss?"

 

[Poprockz]

It was suffocatingly warm in the shop, and Twinkletoes was astounded that she wasn't melting in the heat as she usually did. She wasn't sweating, but it did make her feel a little physically weak. "Okay, I'll see you soon" She approached the man in overalls and smiled.

"Hello! My name is Twinkletoes. As you can see..." She did a little twirl for him, showing him all of the rips and tears in her dress. "My armor got pretty shredded during my last battle. It technically self-repairs after a while since it has the "Like Weeds!" feature, but I wanted it to be repaired before the big announcement took place. Is that something we could work out?" She leaned against the counter cheerfully and waited for his reply.

 

[JadeKnight]

As she asked about services, a window popped open in front of her above the counter. All of his items for sell were on display as well as the price for them. Down at the button of the window was two red buttons, one marked "Sell" and the other marked "Repair". Displayed beside the repair button was 1 gold 35silver 3copper for the price of repairing all of her equipment at once. The man smiled as he waited for her to make her selection.

 

[Poprockz]

"Well... if it doesn't take any time, then I'd like to repair it all." She pressed the repair all button. She felt a whoosh and her dress fluttered up as if a breeze had gone by. It was now good as new with no rips. She saw the money being withdrawn from her account and she nodded at the man. "Thank you very much, sir!"

Her companion was standing a little ways away, looking at a display of swords. She came up next to him and tugged on his sleeve. "I'm all good now, see?" He was given a twirl as well to demonstrate her point. "Let's go pick a spot and wait for the announcement."

This time, she offered him her hand, the rainbow-colored ring sparkled in the light of the forge. They exited the shop and looked around. There was a spot open at a cafe table nearby, so they made their way over and sat down. She left him for a second and popped into the cafe and bought two coffees. Hers was half milk and had a teaspoon of sugar in it. She sipped it and sighed happily. "Whoever was in charge of the tastes in this world needs a raise," she said as she licked a bit of foam off her upper lip.

 

[JadeKnight]

He chuckled softly as he sat back in his seat, sipping the coffee for a moment.

"From what I understand about how the software is supposed to work, it's not all about the programming. At lot of it is handled by some translation software between your brain and the software. A whole lot of technical stuff about how it's your brain that handles what you taste and such."

He tapped his head for a moment as he spoke before taking another sip.

"Basically everything tastes like how you want it to taste, no matter what you eat or drink. I really couldn't give you all of the technical details. It's supposed to be a taste for the future of gaming."

He took a couple more sips as he watched more players fill in around them, a few jostling for seats. He was curious exactly how many players had logged into play. He had read some of the specs on the whole server system when things first kicked off. Each server was supposed to be able to hold upwards of 500 players and there were only 10 servers currently up and running. He didn't think there was anyway for this capital to hold every single player, so there were still quite a few scattered around the realm by the time to was time to start the announcement.

 

[Poprockz]

"Hm. I must really like mango, then. That makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure how anyone could actually do it, but it seems logical to use the memories of taste to influence what you eat or drink. Like my brain already thinks this will taste like coffee with cream and sugar that I've had before, so it does. If the barista told me there was cinnamon in it, then I would taste cinnamon too, even if it wasn't added."

She noticed her stamina bar lengthen by just a smidge. 'Must be the caffeine,' she thought to herself.

There were far too many people there for Twinkletoes' liking. She didn't like large crowds and the way they drowned out noise and decent conversation. Soon she would have to yell to say anything to him. For that reason, she quietly sipped on her coffee and settled in, waiting.

A fanfare started playing, and the large crowd that gathered slowly became quiet. It had been mid-day in the game, but the sun set in one fluid motion casting the world into the dim light of the moon. Thousands of stars twinkled above them, one could even catch a couple shooting stars every now and then. The sky was absolutely breathtaking to the fairy, and she gazed up in wonderment, her coffee forgotten.

It was time for the announcement.

 

[JadeKnight]

When the fanfare finished laying, several windows of various sizes opened up at hights which everyone could see. Shown from the waist up was a young man, identifed as John Zeinger, Ceo of Logo Studios on a title bar beneath him. He smiled for a moment before starting to talk.

"Welcome one and all to Starry Night. I am John Zeinger and I am happy to see such a wonderful turn out for this game. Thank you for attending, as I have good news for most, but bad news for others. While the game was created to be cutting edge, it was also creating to be a life-saving tool as many of you understand. The main usage for this system will be to help coma patients keep themselves mentally sharp until they are able to wake themselves. In order to understand and master this course of action, all players will remain in the system for the next year, starting once I sign off. Everything will explained for those new to the system, in the terms of agreement. I am sure pretty much all of you just skipped over and got right into the game."

He paused for a moment to take a sip of water. Nightblade smirked a little, shaking his head at the grumblings that were beginning to start within the crowd.

"Arrangements have been made with all of your families and the proper channels to keep your bodies in the very best of care. You won't be permanently locked in, but able to get pulled out in cases of emergencies. Several moderators and admins will be in the game as well to make sure any problems can be speedily taken care of. Good luck and have a wonderful time in-game."

John gave a smile and final wave before the windows went black and closed. Nightblade frowned as he read the restlessness of the gathered crowd and leaned forward towards Twinkletoes.

"I suggest we get back to the fairy newbie area before things get rowdy here and regroup. Ready?"

 

[Poprockz]

Had he been watching her face he would have seen it move from wonder, to curiosity, to confusion, to horror. She now was sitting straight-up in her chair, shocked to the core. She didn't even hear the crowd starting to buzz like a hive of angry bees. She recognized his voice, though, and while she didn't quite fully register what he had said, she nodded and stood up, starting to wander in the direction of the trains.

He could see her shaking a little as she walked. Tears started to fall down her cheeks, but she kept wiping them away swiftly as if she wanted to deny that she was crying. No words passed her lips, but he could hear her sniffle every now and then as they walked. Even her wings seemed to droop lifelessly.

 

[JadeKnight]

He couldn't say he was surprised by the announcement, as he knew the underlying idea behind the whole game. However, he didn't expect the implmintation fo things to go down like this. He did feel sorry for the players who got things sprang on them in this way.

He really wasn't sure what to say to her as he walked beside her, seeing her pain. Deciding to comfort her somehow, he reached out and put his arm around her gently. Drawing her close to his side, he just held her like that as they got on the train and sat down.

"It's ok to cry if you want."

He simple held on her as the train moved along, soon arriving in the Newbie area once more.

 

[Poprockz]

It was such a tender gesture, she couldn't help but feel a little fonder of him in that moment. Twinkletoes was able to hold back until they got on the train. After that, the floodgates opened. She turned to him and sobbed into his shoulder, small whimpers and sniffling sounds accompanying her sobbing. Her tears made his shoulder a little damp as she rubbed her face against him. Her small hands clutched the fabric of his coat at the back.

She stumbled off the train after they had pulled up to the station. The fairy had calmed down a bit, but was still fairly volatile. Her eyelashes were wet and her cheeks were tear-stained. She stopped and leaned against a tree, covering her face with her hands. "I'm scared," she said simply, her body trembling. "Why is this happening? Why? A year of my life... gone."

"Did you know?" Chocolate brown eyes searched his face, hoping that he would tell her that he didn't.

 

[JadeKnight]

He gave a little sigh for a moment at her question, not sure of the best way to answer. He took a moment to collect his thoughts before nodding softly.

"Yes and no. I knew what the main goal behind the game was, but I wasn't expecting things to turn out like this. I understood that a core group was going to be used for the year long testing run, not every single player. I didn't plan on this happening either. I'm stuck the same as you."

He sat down where he was, closing his eyes for a moment. This could be both good and bad for his career, but he didn't like the way it was sprung on them. However, there was nothing he could do about that now. He opened his eyes once more and gave a wry smile.

"Looks like we're stuck together a little longer."

 

[Poprockz]

Her eyes crinkled a little and she couldn't help but let out a little laugh. She was relieved that he didn't know the full extent of the operation and she was glad that he was choosing to stay with her.

With a couple steps, she moved over to him and sat beside him, giving him a soft elbow tap to the ribs. "Have some consideration, I'm trying to be upset here." She returned his smile with a sly smile of her own.

They heard a twig snap, and they both scrambled to their feet. She took out her pistols and scanned the area.

"Oh! Of all the people to come across me, it ends up being adventurers. My luck must be changing." An old man walked toward them and grabbed Twinkletoes' hands in his and looked into her eyes with a pitiful expression. "Please help me... I've been wandering for days trying to find someone who will help. My daughter is being kept as a concubine in the vampire castle nearby. Please save her! Her time is running out before they change her, and then I'll never see her again!" He coughed dramatically. The fairy's eyes watched him with concern. Nightblade could tell that she was totally getting suckered in by the NPC's quest pitch.