Bright sunlight warming his face wakes Afira up. He rolls over groggily trying to escape. A few minutes later his alarm goes off.
"Ugggh I'm not ready for the morning. Go away."
He turns off his alarm and tries to doze off again. A car alarm and a dog barking outside keep him from sleeping.
"Fine, I'm up! Damn noisy world." Scrubbing his face with his hand he sits on the edge of the bed in a daze, eventually heading to the bathroom hoping a shower will get him going.
Standing under the hot water, his thoughts begin to drift remembering his confusion and melancholy last night.
Today I'll try extra hard in the game to meet and keep a friend that isn't an NPC. He decided if he could just meet one real person to connect with it'll balance out the NPC friends.
Afira didn't feel like bothering to eat breakfast. He willed himself to greet Rinai with a cheerful face and logged in.
Tilly wasn't around yet, so they decided to talk to her after training.
The guys tested out a few different types of weapons, armors and strategies. Switching between faster or more damage. Extra defense armor, higher speed or attack buffs. Eventually, Afira decided to use a battle hammer with Slow effect and increased damage. Using an attack formation where Afira would attack first damaging the mob for half its hit points and inflict the status effect Slow. Rinai would then finish it off as Afira moved to the next target.
They also spent time training one on one against the wolves and practiced fighting several at once. After all this, they were both satisfied with their strategies. They started playing around and showing off to each other. Laughing and trying to one-up each other.
While they were busy having fun, a player asks Afira how he got an NPC in his party. "I have a high reputation with NPCs and he invited me," Afira explains simply.
"There is a rep stat with NPCs? How do you get that?" the guy asks curiously.
"If you do quests for them and treat them well it builds up," Afira explained hoping to make a friend for himself and spread to other players how to act around NPCs.
"Add me to your party and see if it gives me some with him," he says with a pretty demanding attitude.
Afira feels uncomfortable with the guy's pushy attitude but he thinks maybe this is his chance to get to know a regular player. "I think we could try it out since we aren't as busy now. Is it ok with you Rinai?"
Rinai didn't like the guy's attitude at all. He was being pushy to Afira, giving Rinai hella sleazy looks and had a negative rep toward NPCs. Rinai was about to tell Afira not to add the guy but he didn't get a chance to.
The guy bursts out laughing before Rinai can even answer. "The hell are you asking the NPC for. Dude, you're weird. Just add me already. I want to see what happens. Make me lead too. I want to tell him to do some stuff."
Afira is getting annoyed now." No, I don't think I want to add you at all. Let's go Rinai."
"What the hell dude. Just add me for a minute. You can't just keep the NPC, it's not yours. Let me play with it. At least tell me where you got him from so I can go pick one up myself. It's really sexy looking, I want one." He was leering at Rinai looking him up and down greedily. "Can you make him strip?"
"That's disrespectful, could you stop?" Afira says with some attitude, getting irritated.
Rinai was getting really fed up too." I'm not a thing to be picked up. Besides with your low rep, no NPC would follow you anywhere."
The guy was stunned for a second then went right back to his harassment. "You can even make them talk like that? That's cool, I want one to tell people off for me that's hilarious! Tell me where to get one and how to do that." The guy seemed to be oblivious that he was being a douche. Or he couldn't care less.
"I don't make him do anything. The NPCs are AI remember. They can choose for themselves." Afira had enough of this jerk now and just wanted to get away from him. He started walking away with Rinai.
"Hey, you didn't answer my questions!" He follows, grabbing Rinai's ass, "Hey NPC, since you can decide for yourself, you should ditch him and come play with me," he says suggestively.
Afira snaps, shoving the player away and standing in front of Rinai. "What the hell is wrong with you!? You can't just grab someone like that. Can't you tell he isn't interested? Are you not aware of how rude you're being? What makes you think we want to answer you or be around you at all?"
"Wrong with me? The hell is wrong with you? It's just a game weirdo. Lighten up. I'm out of here." With that, the guy takes off as if nothing happened.
"Let's leave too ok?" Rinai asks.
Afira nods then takes Rinai's hand and leads him away from the training area quickly. Pulling him all the way to Tilly's stall into her break room. He finally stops but is still shaking with anger.
Rinai steps closer to Afira. "Thank you Afira."