Every girl wanted a secret admirer but Nessa would have killed to murder hers. The guy was a pain and she wasn't even sure if it was a guy or not. She only hoped it was.
As she held the letter in her hand and stared at it she felt nothing but a deep rooted anger. The letter read
"Hi, Nessa again...I'm not even sure you've been getting my letters but heck I'd keep on trying. I just wrote this letter to tell you that I think you're pretty and...yeah, have fun"
There was some sort of signature at the right hand corner of the note. A cross with the word 'an' drawn above it in cursive.
Nessa resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
She wondered why anyone would even act this way? Was he shy? Was he scared of being seen with her? Or was he just messing with her?
Nessa squeezed the note into a ball and threw it towards the dustbin at the other end of the room. She narrowly missed and then she sighed. She needed to clear her head. She dropped the book she was holding and made downstairs towards the living room.
Halfway there she could hear her mother's voice sounding from the living room. "Happy Birthday Luka,hope you like it?"
Luka didn't seem to answer he probably already tore open the game. Nessa walked into the living room and found Luka setting up the game.
"Hey mum," Nessa breathed.
"Nes, how was school?"
Nessa still wondered why her mother called her Nes "It was cool."
"Principal Avery gave you a gift?" Nessa's mum asked.
"How did you..."
"Your father told me. Do me a favor," Now Nessa's mum was whispering "Could you play with Luka please. I know he would love that."
"But mum..."
The look on her face made Nessa want to cry. She couldn't say no to her.
"Fine," Nessa agreed. "Just one game."
Nessa's mum smiled and left the living room.
"Hey Luka," Nessa called "Could you help me setup mine."
Luka scowled. "I thought you didn't like games."
"I'm hoping you could change my mind."
At that Luka smiled. "This is so going to be fun."
Luka set up both his game and Nessa's, while Nessa stared at TV which was magically still on the news channel. Coincidentally, the reporter was talking about the new game that launched today and how thousands had sold in just the hour.
Moments later, Luka was done settling up the game and for some reason it thought that it was weird. He had filled all the information that was required of him, which in his opinion was too much even for an RPG game.
What made it weirder was, there wasn't an option to pick roles, just a start button.
Luka didn't care however. "I'm done. Put the Autopad on your head and lie down.
"What?"
"The stuff that looks like a helmet."
Nessa obeyed without question. When she placed the device over her head, everywhere went dark around her. Suddenly a menu appeared asking if she wanted to start. She tried moving her hands to tap yes but then her brother teased.
"Don't tell me you're trying to tap the start button with your hand. It's voice activated. Say yes."
"Yes,"
Suddenly everything went from dark to colorful. Multiple colors floated in Nessa's mind. It was always how she imagined things would feel if she was being plugged into an online virtual reality game.
Suddenly her feet hit solid ground and the scene that opened before her could only have come out of a fantasy novel. There was a vast stretch of grass behind her and a lake just ahead. The air smelled of Jasmine and the sky looked like it didn't know what it meant to rain.
It was by far the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. If she didn't enjoy playing the game, at least she had seen this. Luka appeared behind her and he was in a different clothes. There was a red cursor glowing above his head.
"You look awesome," Luka complimented.
Nessa walked ahead to the stream and stared at her reflection. She now wore a white silk dress that hugged her body tightly and parted at some point in her left hip with a split. There was also a red cursor glowing abovr her head. She definitely didn't like the look.
"I don't like it." She told Luka.
"I was scared you would say that. You can change your appearance easily in this game only as much as your imagination can take you."
Nessa understood what he meant. She thought and immediately her clothes morphed into something different. Now she was wearing a brown leather Jacket black pants and combat boots. She left her hair to flow behind her shoulders.
"Hurry," Luka called behind her. He was holding a sword in his right hand, "the game begins that way."
"Wait," Nessa called suddenly feeling nervous "I don't even know the basics."
Luka sighed. He was slowly regretting bringing her along. "I know you're smart so this should be easy for you. This game is one of the latest versions of RPG. Take a stance like you want to unsheathe your sword from a scabbard tied around your waist."
Nessa did and then suddenly a Japanese rapier sword and a scabbard appeared around her waist. She couldn't help but smile.
"Ok, that was cool."
"You think," Luka said. "There are various stances to unsheathe your sword but that's not really important. What's really important is learning how to fight?"
Nessa swallowed. "Fight?"
"Chill, if you die you will simplyy re-spawn."
That didn't make her feel better. "Okay teach me the basics."
"Even if I wanted to, I can't teach you more than the basics. For some reason, the game had been shallow in describing how to fight, like they wanted us to figure it out ourselves as the game progressed. In my opinion that's better. It somehow makes up for the fact that there is no magic in the game.
"Anyway, the basics is quite simple. If you want to attack, all you have to do is take an attack position and the game would complete it for you."
"The game would complete it for me?" Nessa asked "Isn't that like cheating?"
"Not if everyone has that advantage. Now watch closely."
Luka held his sword downward. He pushed his left leg back a bit and then the sword started to glow. A second later, he charged and sliced Nessa's right shoulder.
Nessa wanted to scream but she couldn't. Why wasn't she screaming? She should be screaming right?
Luka answered the question for her. "You can't feel pain in this game."
That seemed to make Nessa relax. She tapped the air in front of her and her HP along with other player stat appeared in front of her. That slash alone had reduced her HP by 70% but she noticed that the bar was slowly getting filled.
"Now try an attack move." Luka ordered in a condescending tone.
Nessa gave him a look that seemed to say: 'Talk to me like that again and I'd kill you so you can't respawn.'
Luka swallowed.
Nessa tried taking an attack stance. The easiest one she could think of. She held her sword with both her hands and lifted it towards her chin. The sword glowed green and faster than should have been possible,
she charged at Luka.
Luka charged too and hit the ground at the last minute, clearing Nessa off the floor and forcing her to eat some grass.
"You can also switch stance mid attack to a defense one. Well I think that's enough practice let's go the game is about to begin."
"Go," Nessa said as she stood up, "I'll catch up."
Luka didn't think twice. He brought out a green gem and teleported to the arena the battle was starting. The moment he disappeared Nessa realized she didn't know where the game was going to begin. She decided to keep practicing until her brother came back for her.
As she practiced she noticed that she could indeed switch stances mid attack. She learnt the stances she needed to parry several attacks and much more.
Thirty minutes later, Luka returned. His clothes looked like they had been burned or something. "I haven't had this much fun in years. I can't wait for tomorrow's game. Alright let's go home."
Nessa tapped in front of her and a menu appeared. She clicked on the player menu and searched frantically for the log out button.
"Have you found your log out button?" Nessa asked.
"You can't even find a simple log out button." Luka tapped the air. "The log out button is in the…why is the log out button not in the player menu?"
"Calm down," Nessa tried to persuade her brother. "It's probably just a glitch in the whole system. They would probably fix it within the hour. In the meantime let's spar."
As they sparred, Luka got more and more scared. Not because there was no log out button but because his sister seemed to be getting better than him at the only talent he had. It wasn't fair.
Luka jumped and swung his sword down at Nessa but she rolled away and got to her feet. She took an attack stance and just as she was about to charge she felt a tug in her stomach. A very light sensation like she was floating and then she was no longer in that scene with the grass and blue sky.
Now she was in what seemed like a town. There were buildings and roads and street lights and every other stuff that should be in average town. Nessa turned right and she saw Luka but she noticed her and Luka weren't the only people around. There had to be at least fifty thousand people and they all had the same confused expression.
Silent murmuring filled the air.
"What just happened?" Nessa asked her brother.
"Seems like some kind of forced teleportation. I bet they're about to give us a message and apologize for trapping us in here for the past hour."
With Luka's tone of voice, Nessa knew he had a hard time believing what he had just said.
Suddenly the sky went black. It almost seemed like there was some sort of eclipse. Almost immediately an orb of light descended slowly from the sky.
Who knew it was possible for there to be silence amongst a crowd of 5000 people?
"Attention players," The orb seemed to be talking. "Welcome to Marth."
Nessa was trying not to think that the voice in the orb was familiar.
"My name is Avery Peterson," the orb continued, "and I'm the one and only person who controls this world."
"Principal Avery?" Nessa yelped.
"I'm sure by now you all must have noticed that the log out button doesn't appear in the player menu. That is by all means not a mistake. I repeat, it is not a mistake but indeed a feature of the true Marth Universe."
"Marth Universe?" Nessa asked Luka.
"The name of the game," he replied.
"You are all currently unable to log out of Marth universe," the orb pulsed. "so you shouldn't bother hoping to get out."
The murmurs were getting louder.
"She's joking right?" Luka asked.
"Calm down." Nessa assured him. "Even if she isn't, we just wait for someone to switch off the Autopad in the real word.
"I know most of you are thinking that someone could just switch off the Autopad in the real world," the orb pulsed making Nessa's heart skip a beat. "if that happens a powerful wave would be emitted from a transmitter in the Autopad, frying your brains or worse."
"She's joking right?" Luka asked again, the very same question everyone else was asking themselves.
"Sadly it is possible that a player's family and friends would attempt to forcibly remove the Autopad. If that is the case I'm really sorry for their deaths." The voice in the orb cracked.
"You cant be serious," Someone yelled from the crowd.
"As proof of what I had just said, 146 have already died as a result," the orb paused. "147..."
People started throwing weapons at the orb but none of them reached. There seemed to be some sort of force field around it.
"As you can see it's not my fault. I spread warnings around every major news channel in the world." The orb sighed. "However, normal methods of re-spawning would no longer work in this world. If your HP hits zero your player Avatar disappears forever and then..." The orb paused "...the Autopad fries your brain. Look on the bright side there is a way to survive all of this and return to the real world. All you have to do is complete the game."
"But there are fifty floors in Marth..." someone said from the crowd.
The orb continued "The game is only completed when all fifty floors are cleared and their bosses defeated. The rules to the game are simple and have been handed to you already."
Suddenly there was a pop up notification and Nessa opened hers. It was a book. She clicked it and then the book suddenly materialized out of thin air and fell into her arms.
"All the rules that you need to know are embedded in that book. You have ten minutes to read yours."
At this point, Nessa's heart was pounding against her chest. There was no way Principal Avery was joking. If there was anything she knew it was that the Principal lacked a sense of humor.
Nessa guaged the book. She could finish it in ten minutes. She started reading.
Luka on the other hand was too stunned to even think. This couldn't be happening. It definitely couldn't.
Ten minutes later the book disappeared from Nessa's hand as well as from the hands of every other person. Nessa had just finished the book before it disappeared and she had just one word to describe the book. It was fair. There was something in the last page that bugged her. Something she had a theory about, but no this wasn't time to be thinking.
"I'm sorry, if you didn't get the chance to complete the book, but I'd give you a brief summary. There's no getting out if this world until you defeat the boss on the 50th floor.
"Until then you would live regular lives. You can't feel pain in Marth doesn't mean you can't die. As a last feature, magic was added to the game but I'm sure none of you know how to use it. So my final advice attend the Academy."
This seemed to bring Luka back. "There's school in Marth too? Mum if you can hear me unplug my Autopad immediately."
Nessa smiled sadly. If Luka was joking it meant he hadn't given up yet. She had been scared that would be the case.
"Anyway," the orb boomed one last time. "I also have one more advice, defeat as many monsters as you can. It gets you items you could trade for money."
With that the orb disappeared and the sky regained it's color. Nessa couldn't understand or tell if Principal Avery had been serious about dying in the real world.
What she knew for certain was there was no way to get off this world unless the final monster was defeated. She silently swore, more for Luka's than her sake that she was going to kill that final monster, if it was the last thing she did.