"Little Sister. Did you guys clear the dungeon?"
"Just call me Aika."
"Huh? Why? My classmates are not here, right?" Karna was confused. The only reason they had pretended not to be siblings was because of what Aika had told his former classmates. It was only logical for them to drop the act when the other two were not around.
However, logic would sometimes lose to emotions. Aika pouted.
"Ok. Whatever you say, Miss Aika. So did you clear the dungeon?"
"I died trying to save you."
"Oh." Of course, Karna was happy that his adorable little sister had tried to save him. But now he had no way to contact the other two. Although there was a party chat system, Karna had been kicked from the party when he got killed. It was a part of the game. If there was no way to contact Chiyuri and Shoji, Karna didn't mind letting them have the loot from the dungeon. It was not like he could change anything even if he complained to Aika. There was a more pressing problem at the moment anyway.
"Aika. Can you open the main menu?"
"Lemme see… nope. I can't. Does that mean we can't log off?"
"Exactly."
Which meant Karna was not the only one affected by the bug. If it was a bug many players were facing, then the game admins would notice sooner or later.
-There might be a forced logoff or some announcement by the admins.-
"Aika, do you feel cold?"
"Yes. I was just about to complain."
-So it's not just my imagination. What the heck?! We're not supposed to feel the cold inside a game-.
The two sat on one of the stone benches at the central square, waiting for the log off button to appear. The weather was indeed cold but their beginner armor was surprisingly warm. Karna was lazily observing the people walking by when he noticed something strange. All the passersby were NPCs. There was not a single player.
It was easy to distinguish the NPCs because all of them wore clothes that people in the medieval ages would wear, unlike players who were equipped with armor and weapons.
-Other players must be busy leveling- thought Karna. It wasn't strange that a lot of people would try to progress as much as possible at the start of a new game, especially since Xion was the first of its kind.
Even though there was a lot of work put into Xion Online, the NPCs were not AIs. They were programmed to do things that made them seem like real inhabitants of the online world. There was a pattern to their movements and speech. Some NPCs give quests and can speak longer lines but even then, they would only say what was included in their program.
As Karna was looking around, he saw a young female NPC. She seemed to be carrying some food ingredients in a basket.
-Grocery shopping?-
Just as she passed by in front of Karna, she turned to look at him. Their gazes met.
-She looks so real... almost like an actual person.-
"Yuu. What are you looking at?"
"Oh. I was just wondering how the game devs made the NPCs so realistic."
"Heh. You sure you're not just looking cause that female NPC has huge knockers?"
"Definitely not." Karna nodded. Even if he was trash as a human being, he was determined not to become perverted trash at least in front of Aika.
The two siblings waited. Thirty minutes. One hour. There were no announcements by the admins, much less a forced logoff.
The sky was turning dark. It was almost night in Altean City. The time flow in Xion Online was the same as the real world so an hour inside the game was also an hour in reality. The timezone of Altean City and the timezone in Japan were different though. The fact that it was nighttime in Altean City meant that Karna and Aika had spent the whole night in the game. Karna started to feel uneasy about the whole thing. Various scenarios popped up in his head.
-What if Aika and I are the only ones affected by the bug? What if the admins never realize the fact that some players are trapped in the game? The nutrient fluid can last us a month or so… Which means we will die if we remain in the game longer than a month. And why are we feeling the cold in the first place? Heck, I'm even starting to get thirsty.-
"What's wrong Yuu. You look like a fish drowning on land."
Karna's negative thoughts were interrupted just like that.
-Should I tell Aika? It's just my baseless worries… probably...- His hesitation lasted only a second. He explained his worries to Aika.
"Does it matter though?" asked Aika after the explanation.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Even if we're trapped inside the game, you'll figure something out, right?"
Karna didn't know where Aika's confidence in him was coming from. He didn't even think that highly of himself. If his little sister had high expectations for him, he had to try his best to live up to them.
"Okay. First, we need to collect information. Access the situation and act after we know what's happening."
"Fumu… I see." Aika nodded. The expression on her face was as if she was hearing divine revelation.
With his sister acting as goofy as always, Karna felt stupid for being so worried. It was only because of his belief that as an older brother, he had to be serious especially in situations like this.
-Well, at least Aika is with me.-
⧫
Karna could feel his head spinning from all the information he had gathered over the last two hours or so.
The first thing he had done after leaving the central square was to talk to the NPCs. He had made a shocking discovery; the NPCs were not NPCs. Their speech and movement patterns were too complex for mere NPCs programmed to perform only simple tasks.
They could hold a conversation easily and had real personalities; yes, they were actual people. And Karna also got another realization while going around the city. He could feel thirst, hunger, and even pain. It just wasn't possible even in a DIVE game.
Karna could feel a headache starting to scream in his head. Another phenomenon that was not possible in Xion Online.
"Uh… Miss Aika. It seems we are in some sort of weird situation."
"I can see that brother. Do you suppose we are in another world?"
"Sounds ridiculous but that is one of the possibilities, little sister."
"I told you not to call me sister."
"So you can call me brother but I can't call you sister?"
Aika nodded.
Karna could only sign. His messed-up life just kept getting more complicated with each passing day.
⧫
Karna's and Aika's guess that they were in another world was indeed correct. Although similar to the Atlean City inside Xion Online, the new city they found themselves in (also called Altean City) was slightly different. For instance, the real city was surrounded by a stone wall tens of meters high that served as protection from the mermen living on nearby islands
It was only natural because unlike in the game, Altean City had very few adventurers who could protect the city in the case of monster attacks. Apart from Karna and Aika, all the other people inside the city were also real inhabitants of that world; not Xion Online players. Most of them had no special abilities or powers. Needless to say, regular people did not stand a chance against demihumans such as mermen.
Mermen— just like most demihumans— had much better physical abilities compared to humans. Nonetheless, Atlean city could defend against their attacks successfully every time because they would always come in small groups. Their civilization was much more primitive than humans' so even if they came in large numbers, they didn't have the necessary equipment to help them scale the walls or break down the gate. However, mermen were dexterous creatures. Using their webbed hands, they could even scale the stone walls if given enough time.
Thus, it wasn't enough to just have walls. There was also a group of people tasked with defending them, namely the City Guard. Even though they had a fancy title— City Guard, they were just regular farmers holding weapons. The Reneruth Kingdom could not spare soldiers to serve as guards in places other than their capital.
The City Guard's main duty was to patrol the city walls and to sound an alarm when hostile creatures were spotted nearby. Of course, they were also expected to defend the city walls until reinforcements from inside the city arrived. Other duties of the City Guard included maintaining(cleaning and fixing) the city walls and guarding the city gate.
The city walls were fairly thick. It was even possible for two people to wall abreast along the top. The gates were also sturdy. It was all for the sake of defending against demihuman attacks.
Flanking the gates were stone staircases that led to the top of the walls. There were three men to each side, keeping watch. After every half an hour, two from each group would walk around the whole perimeter of the walls. This would effectively separate the group of six men into three pairs and made sure that no guard would be alone at any point while guarding or patrolling.
Six men exchanged yawns while keeping watch. Even though it was the middle of the night, light posts lit with Magic Light kept the place bright. That said, there were still some swatches of darkness on the walls further away from the gate.
One of the guards holding a spear yawned loudly. The other guards replied with yawns of their own. It seemed that the yawns were quite contagious.
"Brrr… It's quite cold at night." the guard with the spear said to the fellow next to him.
"Yeah. It sucks to be stuck here on a cold night like this. I wish I could go back home right now."
"It's the worst thing to work as a guard in the winter. Working in the summer is much better. No need to worry about mermen attacks either."
"That's true. I wonder why they only attack in the winter."
"Who knows what goes through their heads. Maybe it's because it's harder to catch fish in the winter."
"Could be. At least they haven't come this year."
"Yeah. Maybe they won't be coming anymore this year."
"Wait. Quiet." The third guard who had been listening at the side suddenly shushed them.
"What's wrong?"
"Did you hear something?"
"I thought I heard something. It must be my imagination."
"Don't go scaring us like that."
"Sorry sorry."
Clang... Just then, all three guards heard a loud sound from below the wall.
"... Hey… look over there."
One of the guards pointed into the darkness. Everyone turned to look.
Something was moving in the darkness. No, not something. There were many shapes slowly shifting closer to the walls.
"What is that?"
It was rare but sometimes merchants would arrive at the city during the night. The guards couldn't sound the alarm just because they saw something approaching the walls.
Somewhat frightened, the guards waited for the shapes to enter the light.
"S-sound the alarm!" they heard one of the guards from the other side of the gate shout. At the same time, one of the shapes came into the guards' view.
Covered in blue scales from head to toe and with a head that looked like a fish. It was a merman. However, unlike the mermen that were usually clad in simple loincloths, this one wore an armor. Covering a large part of its body was a huge wooden shield. It looked like heavy infantry.
"What the heck… is that thing?"
More shapes approached the walls. More mermen in similar armor.
"An army?"
The guards were frightened out of their wits. There were hundreds of mermen even in just the areas where the light reached. They looked at the sea of human shapes still wriggling in the darkness.
"A hundred mermen?..."
"No... There's got to be at least a thousand..." That statement was like a bucket of cold water thrown over them. They scrambled around to pick up their weapons. Soon, the alarm sounded, shattering the silence hanging over the city.