Bright silvery eyes, almost completely white, flicker over his appearance in reflection of his own actions. Unruly white hair with specks of dirt almost as if he rolled around in it, a plain black shirt, and black jeans with a few holes in them that contested to just how worn out they could be.
This was not what he was supposed to look like. This was not Esther Frost.
He was a normal-looking young adult male with short curly brown hair, olive skin tone, and greenish-blue eyes. Not only that but also broke a college student that took to wearing the comfiest pajama-like outfits he had in his wardrobe because in reality that was all he had. Everything else whilst he was busy paying off college debt and currently going to school was completely out of the question because he also had to worry about a roof over his head and providing his stomach with food to keep him going.Β
Lifting his hand and running it through his now unruly white hair, he watched as his reflection mirrored his actions unsure how to feel about this. The most logical reasoning his brain managed to put together was this was merely a dream but, "...I doubt that." he mumbled.
He could remember clearly the last thing he was doing was studying extremely late at night in preparation for midterm exams running on a multitude of cups of coffee and cans of energy drinks but anything after that was a blur. Perhaps he fell asleep despite the amount of energy and coffee he drank. But that didn't explain how he had woken up hereβ¦next to a river in the middle of what appeared to be a forest.
His gaze switched from his reflection to looking high and low for a possible answer to his question when suddenly, despite being utterly alone, a robotic-like female voice spoke.Β
[WELCOME TO FRENASIA, πΎπππ]
He flinched. A few seconds passed before he responded awkwardly, "Uh, hello?"Β
[YOU HAVE BEEN SPECIFICALLY CHOSEN TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS GAME. WE HAVE PUT TOGETHER A TUTORIAL TO HELP YOU GET USED TO THIS WORLD. TO PROCEED WITH THE TUTORIAL PLEASE PRESS ACCEPT.]
Accompanied by the robotic female voice a white square, ones you'd normally see appear in a video game, appeared in front of his eyes. It read:
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO START THE TUTORIAL?]
Below the question, there were two options; Accept or Decline. There was a small temptation to press decline just to see what would happen but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea.
Holding out his finger, he hovered unsurely over the 'accept' button before closing his eyes and pressing it. He waited for a few moments with his eyes closed as he anticipated something to happen but it never did. Slowly opening one of his eyes he eyed his surroundings and only when he saw that nothing had happened did he fully open both his eyes and focus on the new large white and red system screen in front of him.
[YOU HAVE BEGUN THE TUTORIAL!
MAIN QUEST: DO NOT DIE OR YOU WILL BE STUFFED INTO A COOKIE SUIT!
EXP: 150
INFORMATION: WELCOME TO FRENASIA, THE LAND OF FREEDOM! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW YOU GOT HERE AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. YOU MUST SURVIVE AND FIND SHELTER BUT OH NO! A WICKED WITCH IS AFTER YOU YOU MUST ESCAPE OR ELSE YOU'LL BE STUFFED INTO A COOKIE SUIT AND FORCED TO BE A COOKIE!
ADDITIONAL REWARDS: ???, RANDOM SKILL BOX, GOLD LANTERN SWORD]
With a furrow of his brow, he searched around him and found no supposed 'wicked witch' that the white panel filled with text was talking about. Looking back at the panel, he gave the thing an unimpressed look. "What wicked witch? Also no offense but this tutorial already sounds kind of stupid. What do you even mean when you say 'forced to be a cookie'?"
This entire situation was still a bit hard to completely understand but when he talked he wasn't expecting the female robotic voice to respond to him.Β
[UNABLE TO PROVIDE πΎπππ WITH THE INFORMATION HE WISHES TO KNOW.Β
REASONING: YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CORRECT CLEARANCE LEVEL.
YOUR CURRENT CLEARANCE LEVEL IS: RAT]
His eye twitched. "Are you insulting me?"
[OF COURSE NOT πΎπππ]
Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and decided to leave it be. Rather he focused on the fact that clearly, the thing could hear him and talk to him which meant that it had something to do with what he was doing here. Not to mention previously it said he had 'been chosen to partake in some sort of game.Β
Unwillingly, might he add.
As he processed his thoughts and his current situation he felt a small chill go down his spine. A few seconds later he could pick up footsteps that were slowly getting louder. Blinking, he turned around to investigate where he could hear the footsteps coming from. A lady with long straight black hair dressed in a long dark purple dress stepped out into the clearing he currently sat within and looked at him with an evil grin. At that moment, his brain randomly thought back to the 'wicked witch' and he tensed up.
'πΌπ π‘βππ π‘βπ 'π€πππππ π€ππ‘πβ' π‘βππ‘ πππππ‘ππ ππππ¦ π€ππ π‘ππππππ ππππ’π‘?' he thought to himself, eyeing the black-haired lady cautiously.
The lady spoke, her voice soft and kind contradicting the evil grin decorating her lips. "Are you lost, dear?"
[THE WICKED WITCH HAS SPOTTED YOU, BEWARE!]
The robotic female voice sounded through my ears and what she said had me immediately standing up. Slightly tripping to get up, I stepped farther away which resulted in the wicked witch moving that much closer to me.
He didn't know what to do. He had no sword or any type of magic, at least he didn't think he did, to defend himself. Not to mention he didn't even know his stats or whether if he died he would respawn. It's been so long since he managed to find time to play video games between college and his various part-time jobs that he was incredibly rustyβ¦not to mention this was like some virtual reality stuff.
The only thing he could truly do is run.
So he did.
"Nope!" He practically screamed as he turned around and ran through the river without care for getting soaked. The wicked witch had seemed to immediately run after him as he could hear those footsteps that now made him incredibly nervous. She began to let out a loud crackle and with each step he took, it seemed to only get louder causing his already racing heart to beat even louder.Β
As he ran he pushed himself despite his screaming muscles crying out for mercy and his lungs begging for air. He didn't want to become a cookie suit!
[AT YOUR CURRENT SPEED YOU ARE EXPECTED TO LOSE THE WICKED WITCH IN ABOUT 10 MINUTES. WE SUGGEST THAT THE πΎπππ HASTEN HIS SPEED TO LOSE HER FASTER AND NOT DIE.]
"Wow, thanks for the advice! That does wonders for me."Β
[YOU'RE WELCOME. WE ARE GLAD TO BE OF SERVICE.]
As he continued to run he could feel himself slowing down and his lungs burning with a need for air.
He was running out of time.
Quickly scouring around him as best as he could whilst running he could see something off to his right that could potentially help him. It was an abandoned house. His mind began to for a small plan that could help in losing the wicked witch. Looking behind him just to check, he mentally took note of the distance between him and the wicked witch. She was about five trees behind him which wasn't that far considering they were both running.Β
Redirecting his attention forward, he abruptly turned forward to the abandoned house which seemed to throw the wicked witch off as he could hear a loud thud of something hitting the ground.
[πΎπππ HAS A 78% CHANCE OF SUCCEEDING IN HIS PLAN.]
"Still a chance," he mutters, mostly to reassure himself, as he quickly runs into the abandoned house.Β
Slowing down, his lungs struggled for a bit as they sucked up air greedily and his legs ached something fierce begging him to take a rest. But he couldn't. Quieting his breathing after a few moments, he crouches down and takes cover behind the few pieces of covered furniture that were left in the dusty abandoned house. As he slowly makes his way towards the back of the house with the back door in mind he could hear the wicked witch's footsteps walking and soon the front door opened. Slightly urging himself to speed up he notices the backdoor he was looking for and approaches. With one last look behind him, he cracks the door open and slips outside, closing the door behind him. To further throw the 'wicked witch' off he begins to run in the same direction as where the clearance he had woken up in was.
Once he had returned to the clearance he was hit with relief. Slumping back onto the ground, he scoffed when he was greeted with another panel and the robotic female voice.
Β [CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE TUTORIAL! YOUR REWARDS WILL BE SENT TO YOUR MAILBOX.]
"Great thanks," he said. "Whoever created this is terrible. That wasn't even a tutorial! More like a horribly written side quest in a video game!"