When Joe opened his eyes he saw a small medieval-looking village around him with players with nametags above their heads in rickety old clothes, with a constant stream of new players pouring in and looking around confused and stunned by the realism of this game world. After the players got over their shocked state, they began to rush toward the main NPCs that were already over swamped with players.
[system notification: welcome to starting village 2304]
After that, Joe started to look around with his face already being covered by his mask, not for the regularly important NPCs but for a few NPCs that will be important to him, at least until he heard a voice ringing out in the sky.
[Full server announcement: the alternate realm system has now been updated to support cross-platform communication]
[Full server announcement: the alternate realm system has now been updated to support cross-platform communication]
[Full server announcement: the alternate realm system has now been updated to support cross-platform communication]
After the first announcement rang out, everybody stopped confused about the meaning of the announcement or that maybe they misheard something as to why there would be a server announcement let alone a full sever announcement when it hasn't even been 20 minutes since the world reset. Most people were confused by what it meant so went to the forums to ask about it, however, when they opened the forums they noticed an 'ARS player' above their previous posts and their new ones and were asking what it was about. Some observant players however in starting village 2304 noticed that the server announcement triggered only a few seconds after a person equipped in nice-looking leather armour wearing a white mask and filled with light blue where the eye holes should be, with something written above where the right eye should be spawned in. As he was the only person with decent armour and a mask directly after spawning in they assumed it had something to do with him, looking around to try and find that person again everyone was confused as he was no longer there.
In Cardashia all the guilds and government departments were stunned by this event, and what did it mean, all the guilds and Bureau of Otherworldly Affairs or similar were trying to gather as much info as they could on the changes and the cause. Finding that only people from starting village 2304 had theories on what caused the change, any agent in or near that starter village was immediately sent to investigate. However, there were 3 people who already knew exactly what this was about. Joe himself who started this in the first place, Jeremey who put two and two together only to have more questions about how the mysterious man managed that, And Cleveland Lancaster who had a smile on his face after he heard the news, 'so he was telling the truth after all' he thought to himself while watching a clip from someone in that village who caught him on camera, ' man in the mask huh, fitting alias then, and it makes sense why you want to stay hidden in this world with doing that, though I still don't understand what you said before. But I will keep your secret for now.' Cleveland thought while sipping his coffee.
Joe who had long cast invisibility since the server announcements made his way around the side of the village where none of the other players were, to his surprise finding the shop he needed. A bakery and food vendors. From what he read, the food here gives players no buffs or any advantage in the game so most don't come around here because they have other things to be spending their limited coins on and why waste money on something that doesn't give you benefits, don't get it wrong lifestyle players with the cooking occupation and many other in-game restraints and bakeries can make food that provides buffs, but just not in smaller settlements as they don't have the ingredients to make those sorts of dishes, so people get told to avoid them as to not waste their money, which now Joe is taking advantage of as he dismissed his invisibility.
The villagers somewhat used to the players by now were only a bit startled by the masked figure appearing out of nowhere as he continued to walk down the street. He walked up and into a small bakery that was only a couple of buildings down the street from where he was. As soon as he walked in a bell rang and the baker immediately knew that they had a customer.
"Hi welcome back, have you seen all the outlanders around today, I hope none of them come over here and start ruffing up the place, there are always a few of those children that think it's funny to play adventurer and then come in buy goods and then get mad for no reason." the baker stated half scared and half in fury before turning around and seeing that it was an outworlder, and immediately started to back peddle, "I am so so sorry, I didn't mean any of that ---"
"Calm down. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything, and yes the outlanders can be real pricks sometimes, believe me, I know," Joe said without his voice modulator active as there were no cardashians in the area.
The baker somewhat startled by this outworlder's maturity and remarks asked curiously, "So what are you doing here then?"
"I'm here to buy food, I know that the food is is just regular food, no need to worry about that," Joe replied remembering what they said just before, "I just need to buy some food."
"All you outworlders are the same, you say one thing one moment and do the opposite the next," the baker replied letting out some of their built-up frustration.
"Well that may be true, but I'm not an outworlder, in the way that you see them at least. Apparently, if you look closely you should be able to tell the difference," Joe stated trying to defuse the tension.
The baker was startled as they didn't notice before as all the outlanders emit a certain faintly coloured aura that was usually mid-light-ish blue colour, but upon looking at his, his was obviously a rich green colour, the baker curious about the difference asked," So why is yours different from all the others?"
"Did you hear that announcement from the sky?" Joe asked.
"Yes," the baker replied questioningly.
"Yeah, that was me from coming to this place with my own version of what the other outworlders have," Joe answered.
"So you come from a world different from theirs?" the baker asked hazarding a guess.
"Of sorts," Joe replied, " I did come from a world different from theirs, but I was suddenly transported there yesterday, out of the blue. So after finding my way around a bit, I decided to make myself an aid for navigating the mess I've found myself in, and part of the plan is to use that aid to bring myself food for my body in that world from this one."
The baker was shocked to hear what this person has been through stammered," O-oh, so that's what you wanted the food for, I completely understand now. Though labelling you in with the others then would do you a disservice, let's call you a lostworlder then, as you have lost your home."
"Ok then," Joe replied with a smile under his mask, the baker still able to tell.
"So let's get you some goodies then," the baker replied in a more cheerful tone," So how much of what and what do you want?"
"well probably 3 to 4 days worth," Joe replied, " and mix it up so I can have some variety," Joe said in a cheerful tone."
Upon hearing his request the baker started pacing around their shop picking up all sorts of goods, from bread to muffins to pastries and so on, and after putting them all in some paper equivalent bags handed them off to Joe, "5 coppers please."
"Verbal command: retrieve 5 copper coins" Joe stated as dark blue clusters formed on his hands and in the same fire and wave type motion spread upwards from the top of his hands getting progressively lighter blue until the object revealed itself from underneath with the blue disappearing after the second they took to materialise and dropping the slight distance into his hand, the baker was slightly panicked seeing this so Joe explained," you know-how outworlders have seemingly endless room in their back-packs or the usage of storage stones," to which the baker nodded," this is my version of that, that is free from any of those limitations and can access from any place, even from world to world."
"So that's how you plan to feed your other body," the baker replied feeling enlightened.
"Yes," Joe replied," Verbal command: stow bags of food"
The same blue flame or wave type motion engulfed the bags he was holding with the wave of blue getting progressively darker and vanishing into thin air as it moved down the bag, being completely gone within the next second.
"Thank you" Joe replied, starting to head out to leave.
"Wait just a minute," the baker replied while turning to frantically write down a note," show this to the other vendors and you can get some discounts, it might not be much but it can definitely help."
Seeing this kindness Joe asked, "You said that the outworlders come and rough up the place,"
"yes, do you have something to help with that then?" the baker asked curiously.
{quest received (1)}
"I might do actually. and a way to protect the whole street while I'm at it without disrupting normal services." Joe replied ignoring the notification for now.
"That would be amazing." the baker said.
"But I will need to see the owners of the buildings, just to designate them so that you all have the max freedom in the control of this," Joe replied thinking of the future.
Both stepping outside the baker shouted, "project out-control is being set in motion on vendor street," the shout was loud enough that everyone on the street could hear but not many else. soon after all the business and building owners were in front of the bakery with the other villagers walking around outside of them, the baker said with excitement," this lostworlder has a solution to our outlander problem."
Some of the people there asked what they meant by lostworlder, but they said that they would explain later. So asked this 'lostworlder' what he poses that he would do.
"Well put a dome of protection around the buildings specifically and giving you both mass and specific control over functions and who can enter and exit, in other words, who can enter the building, specific to every building and that is why all of you are here," Joe replied.
"And why would you help us, your one of them aren't you?" one of them said accusingly.
"Well first off, I'm not one of them with that being part of why they just called me a lostworlder, secondly if you actually look at the aura I give off then you can see that it's green, not blue. And lastly, If you have to deal with them every year then why wouldn't I help if I could." Joe remarked.
The others actually looking at his aura this time saw that he was telling the truth, and seeing the glare from the baker to not ruin this chance, they all voted and unanimously agreed.
Upon all of them agreeing Joe sent them to their shop fronts before casting the spell with some temporary features attached,"verbal command: link to BMS, cast dome of protection, 1500% power, transparency 100%, shape equals visual location data, ownership sub-transfer to designated targets, strip clearance requirements, blacklist; beasts; ARS players"
After saying all that 750 units of mana poured out of his burst mana store, amusing all the spectating NPCs at the luminescence pouring from this person, almost heavenly. The mana rushed to where all the buildings on the street were, becoming invisible as it surrounded the buildings leaving a faint mark of the creator consortium on the ground where he cast the spell.
{quest completed(1)}
So after Joe cast the spell, he instructed all the building owners on how to use their segment of the dome and explained that the mana in the area may be up to 20% less than the surrounding area as it is used as a way to recharge and maintain the dome and that as of right now if the explanation that he was given before was right, then the barrier should be worth 75,000 regular mana thus block way over 150,000 damage even before considering the recharge factor.
And in doing so started to get to know the people on that street and was especially thanked when they felt the warmth of the environmental control passive meaning that they no longer had to feel the winter cold.
So after all that the shopkeepers heard his story and wanted to help him out and gave him a variety of produce, food and dishes from their shops and said that if he wanted to buy from them in the future that he could get a 50% discount. Joe thanked them for the food as the lingering smells hung in the air of all the different foods that joe could tell that he would enjoy eating later.
"Verbal command: display quest log" Joe spoke finally getting around to the quest that he received and compleated.
{properties | user-visualisation & equipment | messages | inventory | spells and abilities | QUESTS}
{quests
ongoing(0) | COMPLEATED (1)
[Aid vendor street with the outworlder problem (completed),
description: every year those that live on vendors' street constantly getting harassed by the outworlders, find a way to stop the outworlders from harassing vendors' street.
Rank: N/A
Time limit: 3 days
Reward: gain the vendors' trust and respect, 200 exp]
}
upon seeing that, Joe switched to the properties panel.
{PROPERTIES | user-visualisation & equipment | messages | inventory | spells and abilities | quests}
{properties:
user id 0 Alias': (no alias given)
level: 1
experience: 200/1000
user-type: admin
user-clearance: omega
hp: 100/100
SMS: 1000/1000
MMS: 600/600
BMS; 956/1200
EMS: 200/200
Attributes;
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Endurance: 10
Vitality: 10
Spirit: 1
Luck: 15
unallocated attribute points: 0
Titles;
(no titles recorded)}
Seeing the experience bar saying 1000 rather than 500, Joe frowned for a second before thinking to himself,' different system, different rules. If that's the way that it's going to be then I'll need to get on the grind then.' With Joe remaining completely unaware of the calamity unfolding in the ARS forum only one system call away.
It was only now that Joe set off to see the village chief to see what quests he might be able to get from them, as it has to be something or else they would not have been so swamped earlier, However, was stopped by one of the vendors as they said, "Emily has gone off to tell the chief what you have done for us and to meet you here so that she can get away from the outworlders for a while, as she seems to have been swamped as soon as the outworlders started appearing."
" Ok then," Joe replied giving a small nod in understanding, as he had just created a player free area that the villagers could use to get away from them.