Fluffles awoke in the void, similar to when she first entered this game. "Welcome back," the orb announced, appearing before her and causing Fluffles to jump back in surprise. She forgot about this annoying thing and glared at it.
"I don't like how you startle me every time," Flufflues growled and scratched at the orb.
"Refrain from attacking the system," the system help announced and floated upwards. The void shifted to a large skybox with six planets overhead. They were hazy, and hard to know anything about them except that they were round. Fluffles was on top of a glass platform with sky and clouds everywhere, even below her.
Fluffles looked up at the six planets. Two of them were visible, one was black with multiple lights around it, and the other had smog all around with it emanating green light. Representing the two planets she visited, Urban and Steampunk.
"Would you like to play your current character or play a different one?" The orb asked, tearing Fluffles away from her thoughts.
"Different?" Fluffles asked, not understanding the choosing of a character. She just wanted to go back to the game and continue with the people she met.
"If you play a different character, it will delete the current one, Fluffles. Is that alright?" The orb asked. It floated an inch away from Fluffles' face, and when she tried to swat it away from her, it returned. It refused to give any personal space as if making a statement the only way it could.
"No, no, I don't want to delete me. I want to go back and play with the others," Fluffles stammered, "I also want you out of my face as I value personal space."
The orb slowly backed off as the character named Fluffles appeared before the cat. The rob didn't say anything else as the glass broke, causing Fluffles to fall into the sky.
Everything faded as Fluffles lost consciousness, only to awaken back in the church. The game used respawn points as the login points for characters because they didn't want characters that accidentally logged out stuck in a monster-filled area without their party.
Fluffles got up off the old bench of the decrepit church only to fall and eat a face full of dust. "Two legs, four legs, this switch is difficult," Fluffles coughed and complained. Grabbing onto a bench, she helped herself up and slowly walked towards the entrance. Once she felt used to being on two legs again, Fluffles jumped out the door, almost knocking over Cynthes, who happened to be waiting for her.
"Hey-" Fluffles started to speak before looking at her tag, noticing how Cynthes was level 25. "You're a higher level than me now," Fluffles stated, a bit shocked as she expected everyone to still be around the same level.
"I've been here all day. I tried to avoid over levelling and happened to discover something fun," Cynthes smiled as Fluffles' eyes went wide. The sight of a scaly stone face smile looked horrifying, like a monster having found a meal to devour.
Before asking what Cynthes found, Fluffles took a look at the UI, seeing no one else from her friend list online. "What did you find," Fluffles asked, her eyes glancing at the horrifying smile.
Cynthes stretched out her hand, showing a pair of dice, "gambling, it's surprisingly fun. I've never done it before, and it's surprisingly fun."
"Gambling? I've never heard of it. Though, I think I remember almost choking on those squares," Fluffles took the dice from Cynthes, rolling them in her hand.
"Oh, Doctor0 is online. She'll appear at the church as well," Cynthes announced, looking into the church.
"Where? I don't see her?" Fluffles returned the dice and started walking into the church, but Cynthes stopped her.
"You won't see her inside since the church is separated for each person to avoid crashes. We could go in together and not see each other." Cynthes explained as Doctor0 stepped out.
"Of you two are already here?" Doctor0 waved them before looking over to Fluffles with a smile, "you ready for your shot?" She asked, petting the cat.
"I don't want a shot, you horrid doctor!" Fluffles growled lightly, moving her head out of Doctor0's grasp. "I did not give you permission to pet me!"
"But you didn't say I couldn't pet you," Doctor0 joked, looing over to Cynthes, also noticing her level increase.
"So we're still waiting for Detrix and Ashfire," Fluffles pointed out, "let's head to the pub while we wait?"
"Might as well," Doctor0 agrees as Cynthes also nods.
"You know, I never actually looked at the book you guys were reading here," Fluffles stated, looking at the menu.
"It's the menu, you pick something from there, and the NPC will get it," Cynthes explained before realizing something. "Fluffles, you been reading the quest log and other things in the menus, right?"
"Huh," Fluffles ignored the question and went through the menu before stopping at an odd item, "fish sticks? I've eaten fish; I love it, but never a stick of fish. Excuse me; I wanna try the fish sticks."
"Fluffles?" Ashfire interjected as she realized it and became curious about the subject.
"Yea, I can read it. Why do you ask?" Fluffles wondered.
"How can you read? Playing, alright, I could accept that to a point since I can play, but reading?" Cynthes was perplexed by this unexplained situation. "Like, what do you even see when you read."
Fluffles gave a confused look shrugging her shoulders with her hands in the air, "It's read to me in my head. The words themselves are familiar but foreign," Fluffles did the best trying to explain what the system did for her.
Cynthes and Doctor0 looked at each other with surprise, "I'm going to go look at the features of this system when I get a chance tomorrow," Doctor0 stated.
The NPC brought Fluffles the fish sticks as she looks the breaded food with confusion, "these don't look anything like fish, barely even smell like it too," Fluffles complained as she poked the food.
Doctor0 sighed "here," She grabbed one of the sticks and ripped it in half before placing it back on the plate.
Fluffles picked up one of the pieces and sniffed it before stuffing it into her mouth, "it's pretty good," Fluffles smiled, her cheeks filling up like a chipmunk, "owh, the otters came on," Fluffles said with a mouth full of food.
"Swallow before speaking," Cynthes giggles, enjoying how Fluffles acts like a kid sometimes.
Fluffles swallows her food and nods, "the others are on, Ashfire and Detrix. That means we can go had in the quest and continue the story."
As Ashfire and Detrix met up with the others, they looked at Cynthes' level. Fluffles, Ashfire, and Detrix were level 20, while Doctor0 was 21. If Cynthes didn't amuse herself with some gambling, she'd be at a much higher level.
"We're all gathered, and I've finished these delicious fish sticks. Are we ready to go?" Fluffles asked everyone.
"Give me a minute, long day at school," Dextrix gave an exhausted laugh as she sat down at the table.
"What's wrong?" Fluffles asked as she went up to Detrix, taking her hand and putting it on her own head. "The human I live with enjoys petting me when she's exhausted."
"I don't think it's the same here," Detrix responded as she pets Fluffles, "but thanks for the attempt."
"The teachers were just angry at us since we ended up late," Ashfire explained but shrugged uncaringly. "It's just school, so who cares."
"My parents would," Detrix pointed out, glaring at Ashfire for stating something this obvious. "If I'm grounded, I can't be on here."
"My bad," Ashfire admits and sighs.
"Let's change the subject. What do you think the next quest will be like?" Fluffles asked.
"Wouldn't it be more Urban monsters? The pseudo-undead were a nice change from werewolves and vampires." Detrix admitted.
"Why don't you go, Fluffles. We don't have to be there when you hand it in since the character IDs are linked to your quest." Doctor0 pointed out.
"Oh, okay," Fluffles pulled herself away from Detrix and went to hand in the quest.
"Here you go," Fluffles said, handing over the converter she got from the quest.
"Ah, so this is what they were researching. Honestly, I have no idea what it is, and without the scientists, we don't have any data. I want you to learn more about this object," The quest-giving soldier stated.
"How do we do that?" Fluffles asked, having learned NPCs aren't much for conversation.
"Take the teleporter and head to the Eldritch world. Only they could create something so bizarre," The quest giver stated.
Fluffles would give the solider a puzzled look, "Eldritch, not Steampunk? It looks very techy with gears," Fluffles pointed out, turning the device around as she looked at it.
"The outer layer could be from Steampunk, but changing people into monsters sounds like Eldritch horror, so please begin your search there." The quest giver stated.
The only experience Fluffles had with Eldritch horror was Cynthes' design. She couldn't prepare for how strange an Eldritch world could be, especially one designed to look appealing to the players starting in that world.