When Krofts vision cleared he was standing in the middle of a street of a bustling town. A wooden wagon passed by on his left and street vendors were selling fruit on both sides of the road. There were other people there too though and they were dressed in the same white outfit as him. He did a full turn around and took in the sights. It was one of, if not the most generic looking RPG town of all time. There were evenguards in leather armor and swords to their sides patrolling the street. Kroft turned to look at the others in white and to his surprise they weren't octopus monsters, or cyclopes, or even goats, but humans. As if to answer his pondering gaze a message appeared before him.
BEEP
{You have been transported to a starting area befitting your species}
Kroft nodded his head and the message disappeared. He looked towards the other people clad in white and then made eye contact with a blonde haired man with blue eyes. He walked up to Kroft and introduced himself.
"Hey man, I'm Andrew. Pretty crazy shit right? First we go through a battle like that and then we are transported to another world. What's your name?" He said in a charismatic tone.
"Yo, I'm Kroft. Nice to meet you." Kroft responded in a similar tone, surprised at how well Andrew was in this situation.
"Look, we just got to this place and those guys over there and myself are planning to stick together. You in? We don't know what the hells gonna happen and we think strength in numbers is the best solution." Andrew explained as he pointed to a group of five people that were together in a circle talking.
Just like Andrew and Kroft they were all wearing a white pants and a white shirt. Kroft thought about it for a few seconds. If these people did just survive through the initiation like he did that means they are unbelievably skilled or as unlikely as it might be as lucky as himself. He thought about what it is they might want and could think of nothing sinister that they could gain. From a game point of view he was a newbie and so were they. All of them didn't have anything so it's not like they could rob him. What he inferred was that it was powerful people wanting to stick together with other powerful people so that they could optimize their chances of survival, but what they didn't know was that Kroft was the weakest person here most likely. The only reason he really survived was through pure luck. After thinking all of this through, Kroft finally responded.
"Yeah, strength in numbers seems like a good idea." Kroft agreed with Andrew and Andrew's smile bloomed.
"Great! Head on over to the group, I'm going to go see if anyone else wants to join." Andrew pointed to the group of five as he talked.
Kroft walked over to the group of five but no one said anything when he arrived. It seemed that 90% of their world's population being wiped out took a toll on them.
The group had three men and two women. Five men technically in you include Andrew and Kroft. One man had a scar leading from his lead to his noise that made him look like a veteran warrior of sorts. He had gray hair and a look in his eye that made it seem like he was just looking for a reason to fight. Another man had brown hair and green eyes, his face was expressionless which fit strangely well with his skinny body. The third man was very short and stubby. He had a thick mustache that complimented his rose colored hair that sat atop his head. The two ladies were very similar looking to each other, so much so that you would believe they were identical twins. They had blonde hair streaked with brown and a skinny body to go with it. If you were to look at them you would think they were some of the most average people you have ever met, well that is if they weren't standing right next to a carbon copy of themselves. Kroft finished scanning the group and they came to a simple greeting of a head nod. He didn't ask for their names and he didn't tell them his, well except for Andrew. Speaking of Andrew, he arrived back at Kroft by himself.
"It seems nobody else wants to join us. Their loss, who knows what's going to happen." Andrew told everyone as he looked around the group. "Anyways we sh-" Andrew was cut off as a man materialized out of the air behind the twins and stabbed one of them in the stomach. The man had a look of bloodlust in his eyes like he still hasn't left that bloody battlefield yet. The twin who was stabbed fell to the ground silently and bled out, surprisingly though the other one didn't seem to be concerned as she lifted her hand towards the attacker. Before she could do anything though the man's head fell to the ground. Behind him was a guard sheathing his sword.
"We do not tolerate senseless violence in this city." The guard said clearly and then walked away like nothing had happened.
Kroft stood there without saying a word. He didn't even see the guard move, how quick was he? He maintained his poker face as the dead twin's body turned to dust. Then to his surprise the woman split into two and the twins were standing there liking nothing had ever happened.
So it was one person all along. Kroft thought to himself. I knew there was no way for two people to look so alike. No one seemed to be phased by any of this as Andrew continued speaking from where he left off.
"As I was saying, we should gather as much information as we can about where we are at. This seems to be a semi-safe place with the guards around but I would much rather leave here and return back to Cordis."
So we are from the same world then, Kroft thought to himself as Andrew named the world that he came from. It was only a speculation but Kroft thought that perhaps Cordis wasn't the only world involved in this crazy game, but it seems that his guess was wrong.
" I agree." the small man with rose hair threw in his opinion to Andrews' plan.
"Let's meet back here in a month then." The other man who had a veteran look to him chimed in this time.
"Yes."
"Yeah"
Finally the other man and the duplicating women also agreed and all eyes turned to Kroft.
"A month? Isn't that a long time? I was thinking you were gonna have us split up for a couple hours." Kroft questioned the group as he looked among them.
"Hahahaha, you're very funny. But now is no time for jokes, do you agree?" Andrew laughed.
Kroft realized another thing now. He was thrown into a place with the most powerful people of Cordis. How old were these people? What did they consider a month to be? Is a month to them what Kroft would consider an hour, a minute? Kroft decided he needed to be on edge with everyone he met and avoid conflict at all costs.
"Ah yes, I was just joking." Kroft answered seriously, attempting to play it off as a joke. With everyone being on the same page they split up and went their separate ways, intending to meet again in a month's time.
Kroft wandered the streets of the city and looked around. From everything that he could see it was just like an MMO RPG of his old world. He remembered playing a lot of them when he was in highschool to escape the boring life of school work.
That screen did say it was a game and it has the applications and menus to go with it. Does that mean there are quests? There has to be starting quests right? Kroft thought over everything in his head as he walked down the street. Where would I find a quest?
As he questioned himself the answer popped into his head. He walked up to a vendor at the side of the street and asked him.
"By any chance could you point me in the direction of the notice board?"
Yes! A notice board. It was a board where townsfolk, guards, anyone would post their problems and then people would solve them for money or other rewards. There were quests always piled up on notice boards in games and if Krofts prediction was right then this city would have one too. Fortunately Kroft was correct and the vendor explained how to get to one of the notice boards. Kroft thanked him for the information and wandered to the location the vendor told him about. When he got there he wasn't disappointed as there were notices piled up all over the board. The requests were automatically translated into a readable language. The requests weren't sorted by ranks or restrictions, just the rule of if you could do then you could get the reward. Kroft scanned through the requests and was surprised by how difficult all of them were. The quests were mostly massive like recruiting for a war with a neighboring kingdom or the need to clear out a griffon that is terrorizing a merchant route. These were insane, there was no way he would be able to complete any of these and the realization that he was way in over his head hit him again. This game was meant for the top 10% of Cordis and Kroft was nowhere near that yet. He definitely planned to get there but his plan was to gain the vast knowledge that the magicians of Cordis held and advance through his studies. Now that he was thrown into this chaos he felt like his luck was 1 instead of 10.
"Why couldn't there have been just a couple hundred more years until this happened? Shit, I would even settle for a few decades, then at least I would be a little more prepared." Kroft cursed while he skimmed over the quests on the board.