"Welcome."
Who? What? Where?
"Please select your starting weapon."
A cold female voice said; I waited for it to speak again for some kind of context, but after 10 seconds, I got bored of waiting. Where am I? In front of me, there were 5 weapons. A basic metal sword paired with an arm-strapped wooden buckler with a metallic frame, a Boar spear, a Morningstar mace, a recurve bow with a sheaf of arrows, and a slick stick carved with etches of words I don't understand. At the top, a grey crystal snuggled on the wand, supported by a wooden frame.
I, being the absolute genius I am, have already thoroughly analyzed the clues left for me and have deduced that this is, in fact, a dream. This dream feels kinda funny… where's my body? Despite the fact I could feel my body move around inside this space, I couldn't see it. How interesting... What kinda VR game is this? If it's really a cool new VR game they put us all to sleep for, I should just play along. But who would do that? Who would knock out a random class of 300 just to have them play the latest VR game? Whatever. I want my games! Right, so a weapon… the sword is the obvious choice. I have the most experience in it, and the bow and arrows require too much experience that I don't have to prove effective consistently. The mace- "You have selected Sword and Buckler."
Hang on, lady. I haven't finished my internal monologue, where I explain why the sword is the best option! AI these days, I swear. The space around suddenly flashed a brilliant white that would have immediately blinded anyone if this were real. Next thing I know I'm lying down sprawled out on a grassy patch of earth with my head facing the sky. This is unlike any VR game I have ever seen. Usually, it's cartoony to avoid the uncanny valley, or it tries to be realistic and fails in some way or another. But this is beautiful. I sat myself up. A smooth breeze of wind ruffled my hair, and I shaded my eyes from the sun's blazing stare. The entire class was positioned in a clearing amidst a forest clearing in the same order we were seated as we had in the classroom. One by one, a lot of students rose up from their sleeping positions, confusedly looking around, including Hana and the rest. There was about a minute of silence as we all looked around. Some stood up and walked around a bit, but ultimately, they all went back to their original positions.
"Is this… Real?" Someone said
"No way it's real, this isn't a novel!" Someone else chimed in
I leaned over to Hana "What goin on?"
"Hell, if I know," She responded
"H-how do I quit?" A girl asked timidly
"Why do we all have weapons?" Another person questioned
Then, the professor spoke up, "Students, this has got to be some kind of prank. Let's just wait until help arrives."
"I don't have any signal on my pad."
"I-I don't either!"
Everyone rapidly checked their cellular devices, but nobody had any signal.
"W-we must be in a game show or something!"
"Sure is a shitty gameshow."
"I have a dog at home alone!"
Hopeless banter continued for a while until someone started walking away.
"Fuck this!" The young man said, throwing his weapon and, walking into the woods "I'm going home!"
"How do you know which way is home?" The man paused, not turning around
"It's better than starving in this shithole of a forest!" About a quarter of the class stood up, and also started going their separate ways, some with their weapons, some without. Friend groups and solo students quickly disappeared into the forest surroundings despite the professor insisting they stay and wait for help. About an hour passed, and we sat around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for a host or somebody to show up. Some people started crying uncontrollably, others were coping, using what was left of their phone's batteries, and about a handful of students were assessing their situation, swinging and testing their weapons. while Hana and Renho were walking around the forest edge while Bean and Skela were already ticked out, playing with flowers they picked up around the field.
"Yellow beats green," Skela said
"Uhhh no? Green is a healthy color. It heals my flowers."
"Yellow is better, idiot."
"Whatever, I have this cornflower, and since it's blue, your yellow flower is defeated, AND I get to draw another flower."
"Just because a flower is blue doesn't mean it's a cornflower. Get off of Craftmine sometime."
"Oh yeah? What flower do YOU think it is, genius?"
"Well, obviously, it's a violet-"
I decided to stop listening, in fear of losing even more brain cells. Seriously, how do you get this ignorant? Instead of wasting away, I joined up with Renho and Hana. They were crouching around the base of a tree, supposedly staring at something.
"Scooch," I asked, tapping their backs.
"Make me," Renho responded. Oh yeah, Renho and I don't have the best relationship. Some call us rivals, like Red and Blue or other iconic rivalries. When my sister first met her, I was against them being friends, but my sister had a will of her own, so it just happened anyway. Now, I'm forced to tolerate her.
"Make my balls fit in your jaw."
"Onii…" Hana chimed in, unamused.
"Sorry," I said as my sister scooted aside to give me some room to couch down.
They were staring at a black mushroom thing. It looked the same as a common brown edible fungus, except it was black. Shocker.
"I say Itaru should bite it first," Renho said, raising her hand as if she was casting a vote.
"Why don't you do it?" I refuted, "You're clearly more experienced in mushroom-shaped things." I then felt a sharp nudge from my sister followed by a clearing of her throat.
"Sorry," I said again. Of course, I didn't mean it, but I felt inclined to say it.
After a moment of silence, Hana picked up a nearby stick and started poking it.
"It won't explode," I informed
"How do you know?" Hana asked
"Does it look explosive?"
"..No"
"Does it look like it can move?"
"..."
"Does it look like it can threaten you?"
"Ugh, fine!" Hana murmured, swiftly plucking the black mushroom from its roots. "It looks normal," She said, observing it in her hand.
"Shocker"
"Shut up," Hana said in an annoyed tone, shoving the mushroom in her pocket.
After strolling around a bit more, we saw a student running out of the forest edge.
"Town… There's a…" He said, panting on his knees. A few students rushed to his aid, helping him calm down. A crowd formed around him as he rested on the grass. Finally, he spoke once more, "So, like, I was walkin' right, and suddenly, poof, the forest ended. And in front of me was a river. Past the river was a damn big city thing."
"Ah, finally!" The professor said, "Can't wait to drink some coffee."
"Problem, sir..." The guy said, "It's... like... medieval."
"... Come again?" Heh, that's what she said.
"Yea, like, it's one of those fantasy game towns, like straight out of anime."
"..."
Silence fell upon the crowd once more as people were computing what the guy had just said.
"Is it, like, a theme park?" Someone asked
"Nope, like, no cars, parking lot, road, none a that. It's just… A walled town."
"Awe fuck."
…
It started to sink in a lot of students that nobody was going to come for us, and people started panicking. A girl shouted, "M-MY DOG! WHERE ARE WE? I NEED TO FEED MY DOG" and started to sob.
A few of her friends tried to calm her down but to no avail. Similar shouts began to erupt and there were cries and screams everywhere. It took like 30 minutes for the chaos to die down. After the ordeal, the professor spoke up again.
"Well.." The professor said, "Lets uh, let's go to it and see where we… are…"
Everyone seemed to agree with the professor, so we all took about 5 minutes to prepare to head off. I went back to Bean and Skela, who were still sitting on the ground playing with flowers.
"Combo attack! Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red! Completely beats your purple thing!" Bean exclaimed
"My flower grows a flower gun and shoots all your flowers," Skela countered
"Damn!"
"Alright, kiddies," I interrupted, "Playtime is over, let's go."
"But-"
"No buts, let's go." I dragged both of them by the collar to the group while they wailed in disapproval. I still have no idea how they got into college, much less the most prestigious college. As I was about to scold them for being babies, a loud screech could be heard from above my head. It sounded like a breaking Flux Train, so I kinda hoped it was. Some kind of modern technology, at least. But… It was completely foreign. Thin, white, the head of a lizard. It looked every bit like a dragon except it was smooth, like a snake, with no arms, no nothing. But somehow, it was flying. It was high up in the sky. From the ground, it looked about as big as an airplane.
"What the shit is that?!?" Someone called out.
"Whatever, it doesn't affect us." A girl chimed in.
"That thing isn't supposed to fly, though?!?"
"Well, Mr. Biology, how about you call it down to study it?"
"Calm down, everyone," the professor spoke. "She's right. It doesn't matter right now, sure, we're in a weird world, but instead of bantering uselessly, let's focus on survival".
Clearly, this wasn't Earth. But if this wasn't earth… Where are we?