As they finished putting in their information they stepped forward into a bright light and were suddenly standing in a lush field, large trees in the distance and it was all green and lively. The area around the portal had large stones fallen all over, as though this use to be a temple of some sort at one point in time. All screamed, laughed and showed so many forms of joy that they even teared up at the thought, they had made it to the game world that they had all been dreaming and hoping for.
A quick glance around showed they had all changed slightly, such as Art now in black cotton clothing with white metal armor against his chest, shoulders, arms and thighs. His appearance didn't change except for the fact that his ears poked out of his hair now, as though he was a half elf. Fenix was dressed in beast garbs, a wolf fer draped over his shoulders and wrapped his body, his bottoms looked like bear furs and his eyes were more yellow with an animalistic look to them. Razah was in black Egyptian like robes with a large witches hat a top her head and a large staff in hand, while Vixen was in sleek leather armor and a dark forest green clothing under neath it. Meekle, oddly looked dressed in normal garbs, though not of their time, they didn't seem as fancy as the others did. He did however hold a short staff or wand of some sort in his hand.
Then there was Tophuu who looked much different, though still having flashy hair in a bright green color, that seemed much more natural, her body was much more male than it was on the other side.
"Woah, Tophuu. You seem different in some way?" Art questioned, "Yeah, your taller and much more--"
"I am a guy, yes. This is how I prefer myself." Tophuu said nervously as he opened up to them. "I have always felt more like a guy."
"Oh, why didn't you ever say anything?" Fenix asked.
"What was the point in a world where nothing mattered, but we made it here, so, I would like to be who I have always wanted." He was nervous and worried but they all gave him a big smile.
"Hey, you are always one of us, guy or girl, whoever you decide to be." Vixen ruffled his hair and Art gave him a nudge with his shoulder before putting his arm around him.
"Yeah, we are family Toph." Tophuu also had jawbones clenching at his wrists, and armor that seemed to be made out of monster hide, just a bit more durable than leather. The cotton cloths underneath were a green color stained in blue splatter.
"Okay, but can we talk about why you all look so awesome and I look like a villager?" Meekle finally speaking up.
"I don't know, you have kind of that barbarian type of look?" Vixen stated.
"So, his normal self." Art joked and laughed. Within a moment of the words leaving his lips Meekle punched him in the arm.
"Not cool dude."
"Sorry, sorry but did you have to punch me in my injured arm." Art said as he rubbed at his arm, it was then he noticed the pain from cutting it was gone, he looked to Meekle and his head wasn't bleeding any more. He pulled his shirt sleeve up checking his arm. "Hey, wait. I don't have that cut anymore." Meekle felt at his head and was a bit confused but it seemed as though all their wounds were gone as they entered into this world.
"Maybe it's a system precaution or something like that?" Razah stated, lifting a brow as she did so.
None of them had answers to these things but they didn't have much time to figure it out as they heard screams and could see people running towards them.
"Help us, please." The man said, pulling a girl close behind him. "Me and my sister were helping deliver some supplies to the nearby village when we were attacked by monsters. They have been much more active as of late." He pointed behind them as they reached the group. "You are adventurers, are you not?" He assumed by the way that they were dressed and the weapons each had.
"Right, we can help." Art shrugged to his friends his lips clenched to the corner and his teeth showing a bit. He pulled the sword from his hip and walked forward as three monsters hopped over towards him. They were large, about the size of a dog, but with frog bodies and shark like face and mouth, the rushed in chomping at Art as he swung his sword.
Without much knowledge of what he was doing it seemed as though he had trained in swordsmanship, he would describe it later as images flowing into his head telling him what steps to take as well as how to swing the sword. He slew two of them quickly and they turned into digital squares that fell to the ground and stank into it. Tophuu ran up. "Wait, this message just popped up in front of me. Some kind of alert with details of what to do." He put out both of his hands and called out, "Capture Net." The jaw bones on his wrist suddenly opened up and a light shot from them and turned into nets that wrapped the creature up and slowly tightened over it till it vanished into thin air.
"What, that was cool Toph, how did you do that?" Art turned his head towards him with a confused look on his face.
"Well, after you got rid of the first two, a transparent blue screen popped up alerting me that I could catch the monster and how to do it. It was kind of like a manual or something." He shrugged a bit and then smiled, "Come forth HopChomp." One of the jaws dropped and a small ball of light flew out and grew till it burst, sending the light away and leaving the monster that he had just captured. It ran up to him and nuzzled against Tophuu's leg.
"Okay, that's pretty awesome dude." Fenix said as he crouched down beside it and examined the creature. It seemed much friendlier than it did just before, when it was attacking them.
"We thank you for saving us." The two interrupted while giving a slight bow to the group. "You see, we are delivering a shipment to the village here, we are actually from the city to the east of here and well, we got attacked and ended up all the way out here. As you can see the village is just north of here. If you would be so kind to accompany us we will obviously pay for your service." They bowed to them again and smiled as they awaited the answer of the group.
"Sure, why not." Razah said, stepping forward and looking at everyone, "Right, I mean we are going to head there anyways." With a shrug she started heading in the direction of the village and everyone else agreed with nods and followed. It was quite fantastical to them all, even just the grass and wild flowers were a beautiful sight to them who grew up not able to see these things, at least not healthy living plant life. With each step, the crunch of the grass made them smile more, the fresh air filled their lungs and made them dizzy.
Soon they found themselves approaching the village, formed of many different buildings made of wood and straw, some made of stone and brick, dirt roads that passed through showing the commonly walked path. There were shacks set up throughout the village with many selling different types of food and drink, some sold items that they didn't totally understand yet, other than the basic health pot. Then the largest building which stood in the middle of town was an inn, though it only had two rooms in it, it still was larger than all the smaller houses.
"Thank you adventurers for your serves in getting us here safely. I can see bright futures for all of you." He held out a bag of coin to Art and dropped it into his hand, it disappeared and a quest complete screen popped up in front of him, it had a rounded boarder to it and announced the quest and reward in all gold and it lightly sparkled. They received eighty silver coins for that quest and as soon as they saw how much it was, all of their stomachs growled. It felt like it had been days if not longer sense any of them ate, which was pretty accurate for them. They went to one of the stands and ordered food, which came out to about forty silver pieces to feed them all, there were no objections and so they got the food and ate.
"Digital or not, this tastes so good and I actually feel like it is filling me up." Fenix said as he bit into a slice of steak and munched down on a baked potato that was still steaming and covered in melted butter. They sat at a small wooden bench, all shoving the food into their mouths like there would never be another meal again.
After the meal they decided to split up and look around the village and see what was there. They talked to the locals, who didn't have much to say other than simple greetings and the shop owners who all said the same exact thing every time they tried to talk to them, it would seem they were all business.
"Oh hey, so when are you two heading out?" Art asked as he ran into the brother and sister they had saved.
"Ah, thank you adventurer for all the help earlier. We are happy to have met such great people and we are excited to one day read of your amazing adventures."
"Hey, don't worry about it, we were happy to help any way we could. So, what kind of items were you delivering to the town?"
Ah, thank you adventurer for all the help earlier. We are happy to have met such great people and we are excited to one day read of your amazing adventures." The man repeated himself and no matter what Art said it didn't seem like they had anything else to say. He was pretty freaked out as the man started to repeat himself again Art backed away and he stopped and simply went back to working at his cart. It was disturbing to him, it would seem that all the others had the same outcome as they met in front of the inn and discussed.
"This town is creepy, it's like they are all robots or something, but only programmed to say one or two things." Fenix scratched at his head, perplexed at this thought.
"Some of the people don't even talk, they just say things like 'greetings' and then keep on their way." Vixen shivered at the thought of a town full of robots, that would make it too much like home for them.
"Well this is a game right, maybe that's just how it was set up?" Razah tilted her head and lifted her shoulders as though it didn't seem all that strange when thought out.
"Yeah, but still, that was a weird experience, trying to talk to someone and they just repeat the same thing over and over as if you're not actually there." Arts skin crawled a bit at the thought and then he looked to the inn, "Let's just get some rest for now guys and then we can figure it out later? I am exhausted and really would love to lay down in a bed."
They all agreed as it was an intense battle to get to this world and a lot of new things weighing on them sense they got there. They walked in and were greeted by the lady at the front desk.
"Hello there travelers, it is nice to see some new faces. If you would like a room that will be a hundred silver for the night." She gave a smile and tilted her head kindly waiting for their answer but it dawned on them that they only got eighty for bringing the two safely to the village and already spend half of that. Panic rose in all of them as they tried to figure out just what to do about it, they could sleep outside but there were monsters about and they had no idea how to protect themselves if a bigger one showed up. Art started to panic a little and turned to them.
"What do we do? I don't even know how to look and see how much money we have." The lady rocked side to side as she was doing before they got there. "How do I open my menu?" Art questioned as he started moving his arms around. They all followed suit, trying to open their menus but it seemed to be no luck.
"Maybe it is voice activated." Fenix suggested with a, "Open menu" A menu opened in front of him, with stats, items and weapons all there to choose from, as well as a customize page so they could change the colors of their menu as well as other minor things. At the bottom was a number with a symbol of some sort next to it. He pondered on this and the rest opened theirs, all of them had a number around one hundred next to it and they all breathed a sigh of relief, not wanting to admit how badly each one of them wanted to try sleeping in a bed, something they hadn't done sense they were children.
"Will that be a party pay or single?"
"Party pay please." Meekle gave her a nod with his answer and she then handed him a single room key and waved her hand to the door on her left.
"Please, enjoy your stay." They all thanked her and bowed as they walked past into the room. They weren't sure why they bowed, but it's what everyone else was doing to them when they bought something or helped someone.
They entered the room, it was nice but small, it fit three beds into it and they just shrugged, it was more than they had ever had and split it off, two to each bed and they were more than happy. They all examined the beds in their own ways, some pressing it with their hands, others slowly crawling onto it and feeling it with their body and then there was Tophuu who bounced up and down on the bed with laughter.
"Yo, we got beds." He shouted as he bounced and enjoyed himself. Meekle shook his head but none of them said anything, letting him enjoy himself for the moment before they all went to bed. With the sudden shift of them all laying into the beds it seemed to turn into night, it was dark outside and yet bright from the moon in the sky. Art went to the window and looked, in fact there were two moons in the sky, this took his breath away as his eyes shimmered at the sight. The realization was truly setting in that they were in a fantasy world just for them, though he wished those of the game world would act a bit more normal, still he had no reason to complain as he found his way back to his bed and went quickly to sleep.
Resting was amazing and at down a jingle went off through the whole village, the sun rose up and the music slowly went away as they all woke. Their first steps out the door were seeing many people already up and about, working. One man walked past them and nodded.
"Good day adventurers, I hope the morning is finding you well. We wanted to give you thanks for helping the supply runners deliver our cargo to us, so there is a fresh meal awaiting you at the stand." He waved his hand the way of it and the person manning the stand waved at them.
"Hey all, it's ready for you." He shouted towards them with a friendly smile. Already they could all notice the change, it wasn't like it was yesterday.
They went to the stand and thanked the man for the food.
"No problem, you are all welcome here any time." He said with a big grin over his face as they all walked to the same table as yesterday and sat looking around. Everyone was much more lively, it wasn't as quiet but in a good way. They could hear people talking and chatting, people waved morning to them and bowed in thanks for their help yesterday.
"What if the AI system updated itself to our wants and needs?" Fenix was intrigued by the overnight change in the world and was all too excited to figure out just how it happened. "I mean, we are the players sure, but this was a highly developed system, I mean it's in a pocket dimension, so why not be able to self update to the need of the player. We wanted a more realistic effect, for the people to act more like real people and then we went to sleep and the system updated for us." He was amazed and simply freaking out over the system and continued on, though none of them understood the rest he said as he went into talking about the system and the AI in detail, leaving them all confused.
"So, are you saying what ever we want or need we can wish for and sleep and it will happen?" Meekle questioned in wonder as he tried to understand.
"No, more like it can change its will. Which means it can update itself, but giving us anything we want would be cheating. However, this wasn't something that will help us through the game, it will just give us a more realistic experience to it, allowing the people of the world to think and talk for themselves rather than have basic commands." Meekle didn't really keep up with it but he understood enough that they couldn't really use it at will to get what they wanted. "The only problem is we don't know how far the update will go to make this world as real as possible."
"What does that mean?" Vixen questioned, her voice shaking and quiet.
"Well to be honest, I don't know what it means. If the update continues trying to make the world real, that means that it can effectively make death real for us." All of them shaking a bit at the thought and yet it wasn't all that different from real life. Art was the only one who didn't seem worried about this and was already excepting that this was his life and would be till his death. The others didn't feel so sure about this.
"Well we always have the portal if we wanted to leave, right?" Razah looked to Fenix as though he had all the answers for them but he shook his head before continuing.
"The portal is only open as long as the switch is turned on and has all the power it needs. Most likely it is closed by now, the military would have detected it and shut it off to save power, that is if the mech soldiers didn't destroy the whole building when they realized we were inside." These were things they had never thought about, they assumed they would be completely safe in this world and to find out they weren't sent shivers down their spines.
"Guys, its fine. We have more chances in here than we did out there. Even fatal wounds won't kill us in here, we have a health bar and the system won't go against that." Art told them all but as much as they wanted to be relaxed by those words, it was still nerve wracking to find out. Fenix on the other hand was still lost in his own world thinking about the system itself and enjoying how advanced and powerful it real was, shaping and warping its own reality.
They were soon snapped out of the shock when they were approached by the traveler from yesterday that had asked for their help.
"Hello there, I am glad to find you all in good health. Yesterday was quite a scare for us and we are meant to head back to the capital city today." He explained to them as his sister pushed him forward.
"Go on ask them."
"Yes, of course. Well, you see, me and my sister were hoping that you would accompany us to the city, as hired protection we would be willing to pay you for your services." He bowed and hoped for a quick answer but they were all looking at each other with fear, unsure how safe it would be to leave the village.
"Of course we will." Art announced for them, taking the role as party leader. He waved his arm for them to get up and agree, trying to get them all to calm down.
"You know what, why the heck not." Tophuu jumped up and danced his way over to them. "I am with you Art." The two travelers looked pleased and leaned to look past the two at the rest of the table. Hoping they would also agree.
"Fine, I can't leave you two to do this alone, you'd get yourselves killed for sure." A slight laugh escaped Vixens lips at her own words and the rest of the table laughed at the dark humor, agreeing with her words, as the two of them could be block headed when left alone together.