A weird sound caused Maru to sit up on the cot. Out of nowhere, a person was standing in the center of the tent. Maru stared for a moment in the barely lit tent, trying to make out the person. It was Tulla's character!
"Tulla!!" Maru screamed as she moved off the cot and practically leaped onto Tulla's character, who did not move. "Oh my gosh, Tulla.. you don't know how happy I am to see you!" There was no response. Maru waved her hand in front of Tulla. Suddenly, Tulla started to wave her hands around. Then she drew her sword. Maru instinctively took out her dagger. Even though her mouth did not move, she could hear Tulla's voice.
"Who the hell are you?! Why are you at my spawn point?! If you want to steal my shit that level two dagger won't do you any..." Tulla was screaming at her. Maru felt proud that she could tell the level of her dagger without using an appraisal spell. However, this was not the time.
"Tulla!! Tulla, it's me, Maru!!" Maru quickly spoke. Tulla was quiet for a moment.
"Maru??? Did you start a new character??? Ohhh, I know. You're trying to play without the jerk knowing. Smart girl..." Tulla answered. "Wait...how come, no stats are coming up for you?" Tulla asked as she sheathed her sword. Maru also put her dagger back in its scabbard.
"Yeah, about that. I'm not sure what exactly is going on. Last I remember was my fight with Takeshi, and then I thought I fell asleep with my headset on. However, I have no menus and no life gauge. I'm not even my own character..." Maru started to explain.
"Wait, your fight with Takeshi??? Maru, that was..." Tulla began. Suddenly, her character disappeared. Maru could no longer hear Tulla's voice. A sigh escaped her lips. Great, thought Maru. Tulla's internet seemed to have spurts where it would not work right, which usually led to Tulla not playing for a couple of days. She did not even have the chance to tell Tulla that she thought she was stuck in the game. So there would be no sense of urgency for Tulla to try to come back. Maru sat back down on the cot and tapped her foot, praying that Tulla would reappear. It did seem like she had tried because her character appeared again, but then she was gone. After a while, Maru got tired of waiting and went back to sleep.
Morning finally came. Maru decided that while she waited, she would go and gather herbs. First, she would need to craft a basket. Usually, in the game, it would only take some sticks and fallen brush from cutting down a tree. Or you could craft a pouch from animal pelts. However, Maru did not have the tools necessary to do either. Plus, she wondered if the game mechanics would still work for her anyway since she was technically more like an npc now rather than a player. A sigh escaped her lips. She stared down at her feet. While looking at her clothing, Maru decided that she could just use the excess fabric from her tunic to carry the herbs by holding it up. Good enough, she thought. Maru headed out into the woods by Tulla's base camp. Foraging was going surprisingly well. She had found 3 rare ingredients so far, and all were in abundance, which was even rarer. Maru was bent over when she heard something coming towards her. She stood up and held her hand over her dagger. Quickly, she spun in a circle and held the dagger at the person's neck. It was a dark elf player. In fact, it was Takeshi's character!
"Kyomi?" Maru heard Takeshi's voice say. Maru put away her dagger and hugged Takeshi's character. Unlike Tulla's character, Takeshi's was more lifelike as he pushed her away.
"Takeshi, it's me!!" Maru yelled. Was his character blushing? It must be his setup. Or was he also stuck in the game? But how come he looked like his character. Maru saw herself earlier in the reflection of the river and looked nothing like her character. If anything, she looked like a non flawed elf version of herself. Though her dark hair was much longer now.
"Maru?" Takeshi asked. Maru nodded and was going to start explaining. However, before she knew it, he had spun her around and had his sword to her throat. "So you thought you could go on without being caught playing by switching your character? Let alone the fact that you left me standing alone in that damn cafe last week!?" he yelled. Maru gripped at his arm.
"Takeshi, wait! Listen to me for a minute, please?!" Maru begged as she tried to maneuver out her dagger. Finally, she got it and was able to quickly get it between his blade and her neck. Maru flung her head back into his face and pushed forward with her dagger at the same time, allowing her to escape his grip. Then she spun to face him, still holding out her dagger. "Takeshi, please, it's not what you think!" Maru began again. Out of nowhere, a swarm of woodland elf soldiers surrounded her, standing in between her and Takeshi. Maru stared at the crest on their armor. It was the royal guard! Why would an npc army stand between them? Their job was to protect the...
"How dare a dark elf approach Princess Kyomi!" yelled the general of the army. Princess Kyomi?? Kyomi?? The valley was named after the princess? But the only people here were Takeshi and herself. Takeshi stared at Maru like he was expecting her to explain. Maru tried to move toward Takeshi, but the general stopped her. "Princess! Please! Don't go any further!! He's a dark elf! He can't be trusted!" The general pleaded. Maru still pushed by.
"Why do you keep calling me princess?? I'm not the princess!! On top of that, no harm will come to me!" Maru tried to think of a reason why Takeshi would not hurt her. She knew that the general would not be satisfied with her just saying so. "He won't hurt me because... He's my friend!" she blurted out. Takeshi's character's face turned surprised for a second, and then he crossed his arms when Maru looked at him. Friend? She could not even believe that it came out of her mouth. Not in a million years. The general came in between the two again.
"Princess Kyomi, please, I know you have been gone for many years. The dark elves are no longer our allies! They believe that your death will bring all the realms peace!! We also saw him with his sword at your throat! I'm ashamed that we didn't make it here sooner, princess! " explained the general. Maru was surprised that the friend part was all he got from what she said.
"Listen! I'm not your princess! And we just had a misunderstanding, that is all! He won't.." Maru was cut off by Takeshi disappearing and reappearing behind her, holding his sword at her throat! Before she knew it, he had used a teleportation spell. The two of them were now at a camp.
"It won't take them long to find us, now explain, Maru! What is going on? Did you weasel your way into a dev job?" asked Takeshi. Maru stared at him, confused. A developer job? She had never thought about becoming a game developer. Though it would be a satisfactory replacement since she would not be allowed to game again. That is if she had not become stuck in one! Maru shook her head.
"No! All I remember was our battle, and then I woke up here... like this." Maru answered.
"Our battle was a week ago... when did you wake up?" Takeshi asked.
"Yesterday... it's been a week?!" Maru exclaimed. How could so much time have passed? In game time was obviously faster than the real world time. So Maru had assumed it had only been a short amount. But a week??? Maru's head was starting to hurt again. "I can't bring up any menus to log out or anything. I also have no health bar..."
"You have a health bar. However, there are no other stats. Just the name Kyomi." Takeshi answered.
"So I'm the princess in their eyes. And I'm not an npc... and I can die in the game. However, if I die in the game, what does that mean for me in real life? Do I wake up, or is that just the end?" Maru spoke softly. Takeshi stared at her with a facial expression she could not read on his character. There was noise coming from outside the camp. Takeshi peered outside the tent.
"It's them. Look, I don't know why I'm even going to, but I'll go look into it on my side. In the meantime..." Takeshi said as he placed a bracelet on her arm. "Try not to die and keep that bracelet on so I can teleport to it!" Takeshi said as he shoved her out of the tent. The soldiers surrounded her and searched the tent, but Takeshi had logged out already.