"Where is that idiot?" A cute girl could be seen pouting at the beginning town, Lockswald.
Lockswald was a simple town. It could be considered generic village B. It is considered generic village B because generic village A was copyrighted. The developers decided it would be more cost effective if they made their own. They were wrong.
Lots of work had to be done building a village from the ground up. NPC roles, building types, placement, behavioral algorithms, and traffic all had to be thoroughly thought out. While easy to work on in normal games, it is a different story when coding within a full-dive game. To put it simply, physical labor. When they finally finished the design, they found it to be too much effort to create custom designs for each village. Fortunately, the copy paste and procedural generator could still work in the game. As such, all the buildings in every village looks similar to their counterpart, hence generic village B.
Basically brick and mortar buildings, wooden cabins and a white church could be found in each village. Surrounding the village were walls and an arch which is the gate.
Currently a spry young lady rants beneath the gates drawing eyes to her two friends.
"Flore, calm down," said a short bespectacled girl. She gives off a clumsy yet adorable vibe as her braids shook about.
"Stick to my game ID! Its Petal Fatale." The ranter was of course Florence. After being ditched by Damo, she got surrounded by monsters and had her first time (killed) taken by bearwolves.
As a low level warrior, such a situation means death. Without the aid of her friend Damo and his heals, she could not last long. What she didn't know was that Damo did not consider fighting with her at all. He was intending to sacrifice her for his escape. Unfortunately for him, karma brought a worse fate for him.
"Perhaps there is another side to this. Damo might have thought of you as dependable and let you handle it. He probably just went out of sight to avoid aggro shifting onto him." Said another girl with a sparkle. She was not challenged in height. The less said about her two assets, the less violent she'll be.
"Shit. I just realized we weren't even in a party. No wonder I didn't get any party buffs." Florence scowled. "Also Rose... You really should change your perspective of Damo. Perhaps you need glasses like Daisy."
"I can see clearly. The system had punished you for hogging Damo. I will forgive your transgressions on the account that you are my best friend." Rose said saintly.
Florence sighed. Rose and Daisy were actually game IDs they all came up with IRL to fit a flower theme and possibly make a guild together. They've been together through thick and thin. Sometimes, you have to put up with your friend's quirks.
Still Damo?! I'll admit he is funny and even slightly good-looking. Yet he's so narcissistic and self-centered that it's unsightly at times. Sure he's not a bad person, but if he dates Rose, one of them will implode.
"Fuck!" A familiar voice sounded out from the spawn point. It was placed near the gate to help avoid spawn-camping, or so the developers say. The truth was that they didn't want to build a platform and were running out of time so they set the spawn location to the gate. The woes of a developer.
Immediately, Florence ran up to Damo and would have strangled him if not for them being in a safe zone. Instead she gave off a chilling smile promising a world of hurt.
Damo froze. He is not stupid and knew that she was upset at him for ditching her. However, he believed he was in the right since they were not in a party and therefore did not have to help each other. If he was, he would have surely thrown a few heals her way. Hearing his reasoning, Rose was satisfied, yet Florence was fuming.
Breath in. Breath out. She was used to this by now. "So how did you die?" she asked.
After hearing his story, they all broke into a fit of laughter, Damo included. An important quality for a superior being was to be able to laugh at himself. This was one of his redeeming qualities and why Florence considers him a friend. He does enjoy making other people laugh, even at his own expense.
"Chased by Bunnybees then killed by a psychopath... My luck isn't that good today." Damo sighs.
"By the way, what's your game ID. We need to add you as a friend. Also, I don't feel its proper to call you by your real name here..." The shy megane, Daisy, spoke up.
"Damo!" The girls deadpanned. Even Rose who idolizes Damo found it troubling to justify his action. Real face + real name + shitty personality = trouble. "So long as I don't put my last name, I should be fine. Besides, I'm more comfortable with this name. Rather, you should change yours, Petal Fatale. I'll just call you Flowie!"
"Don't shorten it however you like! Also, why don't you use Fatale or Petal, I don't want to be named after some demonic flower!"
"In that case, how would you like to be called Pet." He snickered at his own wordplay.
"Hehehe. Looks like you unknowingly backed out of the safe zone. Feel my grappling technique!!!"
"Arrrgggggg!!!" Within the game, players are able to experience pain. The developer claim that it is a necessary feature for immersion and changed the ratings. They had already build all these protections for player rights and safety. At most, they would have a maximum threshold for pain. A high one. As such Damo could feel every bit from the grapple. "Help me Rose, Daisy!"
It was quite a hilarious scene for players passing by and even made it to the forums.
"Why did I kill him? I though I felt anger, but why? The fog. I lost too much." the strange man mumbed. He was confused and the clarity of the environment caused his emotions to rush back in. His breathing escalated. All these sensations were disorienting to him. It was as if he was experiencing them for the first time.
"Calm down. Analyze the situation." He spoke as if it was a mantra. He was somewhat familiar with how games work. Perhaps he was a player that got mind-broken by the system? Yet what was that anger about. When he first saw that priest, he wanted to kill him. Permanently. If it wasn't for his self-control and his belief that he is a moral person, he may have attempted to murder him, even if it wasn't a game.
He will consider the priest a person of interest for now. Games... They have menus right? Can I log off?
"Menu! Pause! Quit! Control Alt Delete!"
"Pffffttttt! Hahahaha!" A voice emitted from the stranger's left pocket. Taking it out, the man found it to be a cube. It seems to have a speaker on it. "Testing. Testing. Can you hear me?" A female voice. To him, it sounded trustworthy despite the silliness they are spouting.
"I can hear you. Who are you?"
"Oh good! I wasn't sure this crazy plan would work. Too many variables and all that. I believe a better question is: Who are you?"
Whoever it was on the other end knows his condition. So many questions need to be answered. My name. The fog. My memories. This game. That priest. Wanting to know all this and more, he responded. "Tell me everything."