My head is still filled to the brim with thoughts about that girl. All the questions keep on lingering around as the gears ran in my brain. This obsession has jumbled my brain into the edges of madness. It was unhealthy.
I needed to take my brain off of her.
She's a girl, she cried, she's interesting. That's all I know right now! There's no logical reason for me to keep thinking about her! So, stop thinking about her!
*Clap!*
With just a clap, all the thoughts about that girl funneled down into the archived section of my brain. It's unlikely that I'll see her ever again, so I'll waste no time on thinking about her.
Sigh
Now that that's over, I wanted to continue my journey in this game. But where do I go now?
I have weapons and maps, but what do I do with them? What is the goal of this game? There are no levels, no stats to grind. There aren't points I can assign to my attributes, nor are there skills I can unlock. There are spells I can discover, as told by the tutorial, but where do I even start searching? What am I supposed to do in this game?
"Celeste, what do I do now?"
I waited expectantly for her response. But all I heard was dead silence. Thinking that I might've said it too silently, I tried asking again. "Celeste? You there?"
There was still no response. The voice I expected to hear didn't come to answer my question. It was strange. Why isn't she responding?
…
Ah… she's only here to help me do the tutorial
Well… that's disappointing. I kind of hoped that she'd be an AI that I can talk to whenever I'm bored or need help. The loneliness dawned on me as I stood there in the middle of the streets, alone. Sure, she was a robot, but she was fun to talk to when I had her.
Without an AI to guide me, what do I do now? What do I want to do? I don't know.
Yeah, I better just ask someone for help
At a time like this, where I have no clue what to do, I'd usually use the global chat and ask for help from the other players. But since I haven't figured out if this game has a global chat or not, I guess the only way to ask is to talk to someone directly.
Socializing in a game is not as hard as doing it in real life. The words come to me naturally whenever I'm behind a screen. But I am my character right now. I feel, see, and hear everything my character does. It feels exactly like real life, except with more magic and fantasy elements. Even just thinking about talking to a stranger ingame makes me feel mega anxiety. I've never felt so nervous talking to someone ingame.
I could, of course, logout and search it up online. That would be a waste of time though. And in one way or another, I'll reach that point where human interaction is inevitable anyway. Doing it now will properly prepare me for my future interactions with other people. So, I tried pushing through my fears.
----
The street I was at was bustling with people and looked very busy. Everyone looked as if they have more important things to do than help a humble beginner. Some of them carried multiple bags that was full to the brim. Some of them were wearing armor, as if ready to battle the next monster at any time. I couldn't just disturb them willy-nilly.
It was hard finding someone to approach.
But eventually, I saw a lady who looked like she was walking casually. She was wearing a striped shirt and jeans-like pants. Her hands were in leather gloves. On her eyes were circular, shining, harry potter glasses. By the looks of it, she was probably just walking around for fun.
So, I took the chance and approached her.
As I stood there in front of her, my chest tightened with introvert's anxiety. This would be my first time talking to a real player ingame. All the nerves were tensing in my body.
But I pushed on and called for her attention. "E—Excuse, ma'am!"
My hands shook as those words exited my mouth. The words came out as if I have never spoken to people before, shriveled and jittery.
"Yes?" The woman answered in a soft tone.
"Uhmm… I—I'm a new player and I was just wondering if—"
"Oh! You're new here!" She cut me off.
I didn't expect her to answer so ecstatically. "Y—yes. I want to ask about—"
"About what you're supposed to do, right?" She once again cut me off. "Pfft! Don't worry, you're not the first person to ask that question."
I was caught off guard by her eye to eye grin. I've never met someone so excited to help me before. That made me even more nervous to say anything to her.
But she carried on and said, "Follow me, boy! I run a shop near the Social Hub, we can talk while we walk."
There was no other choice but to follow her.
----
"Uhh… The Social Hub?" I asked as I walked beside her.
"It's a place where people hangout and relax." The woman answered. "What's your name, boy?"
"Hallowell."
"Ah. Nice name you got. Mine's Elith17, Elith for short. Nice to meet you, Hallowell." She generously shook hands with me.
"Nice to meet you…"
I walked alongside her through the busy streets. It was a trip of town exploration for me. As we walked past buildings and people, Miss Elith gave some fun facts about them.
"Have you walked around this part of town yet?" She asked me.
I shook my head.
"Well then, I've gotta tell you about the cool bits then!" She pointed at one of the buildings as we passed. The building was brown and had empty holes where there should be windows. There was a clock on the highest level of the building. It was like a mini Big Ben "This," she said, "is one of the Wise Clocks of this town. Do you know what a Wise Clock is, Hallowell?"
"No…"
"Perfect! You see, the days in this world pass like days in real life. The time it takes from midnight to midnight is 24 hours. Those clocks keep track of time for this city. You'll see 4 of them in this town, one in each cardinal direction relative to the town center."
She then pointed at a shop near the river bridge we passed. "That's Carmen's Shop. She has the best assortment of equipment you can find in this corner of town. She sells weapons on the first floor and armor on the second. I can vouch for the quality. Well, I've never bought one. But one of my friends sold his soul to the shop, so there must be some good stuff there."
Her random expositions continued on and on from there. She told me about this workshop where young blacksmiths are trained. Next was this mall building that apparently sells potions and materials for alchemy (without telling me what alchemy is). Then this shack which is owned by an old man who sells fishing equipment. She went on and on about a lot of the buildings throughout our trip.
I could only nod as she explained things to me. She told everything so enthusiastically that I didn't want to disturb her. Yes, I was delighted to get the exposition. But I also have other questions to ask to her and it kind of bummed me out.
Apparently, my expression had turned a little too sour, so much so that she noticed. "What's wrong, boy?" she said.
"Well… I just… I have questions I wanna ask, but it's fine if you wanna continue the story about that building."
"Oh… no no no. I'll let you ask away, boy." She somehow got more excited.
"Okay… Uh. If you don't mind me asking, what do you do in this game?"
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Well, I don't think this is what you expected but, I told you I have a shop yeah? I run a drink shop near the Social Hub. Every day, I make drinks from noon till evening. Excluding weekends, of course."
"You make drinks?"
"Yeah… Is something wrong with that? Oh, were you expecting something more interesting?"
"Ah, no, it's fine. I didn't expect a player to be a bartender in an MMORPG game."
We share a giggle at that little joke.
Still, I had more questions that just popped up. "So, do you not do quests?"
"Nah, I tried quests before, but monsters really hurt when they hit you. I don't enjoy getting hurt, you see. Instead, quite a lot of us do normal jobs that don't require killing. You'd be surprised how little questers there are in this game."
"Ah, I see."
"You can ask the others what they do in the game if you're still curious."
"Others?"
She pointed at a fountain down the street. "That's the Social Hub. A few of us players like to relax there. They're usually friendly enough to talk to you at any time."
As we exited the street, we were met with a beautiful clearing with a fountain in the middle of it. Bricks tiled the ground in a circular pattern, centering at the fountain. There were chairs and tables all around the fountain where people sat and chatted. Though some people still preferred sitting on the fountain edge.
Every building that bordered the fountain were shops of many varieties. There was obviously a weapon and armor shop. There were 2 different monster themed shop. There was a paper shop, for some reason. And finally, I was pointed to a European-looking shop.
"And this is my shop!" Miss Elith said as she proudly presented the building.
Her shop had a sign above the entrance reading "P-Elithra of Drinks". Bad pun.
Flowers of different colors decorated the windows. An orange light shined through the building, giving it a cozy feel. It looked like a café.
"What do you think?" she said.
I pulled out two thumbs-up and smiled at her. She seemed delighted.
"Alright, Hallowell. There are people around here that are sure to help you if you need help. You can ask them anything you want," She said as she opened her shop. "I'm gonna go sell some drinks now. Come here when you need a drink, okay? Also, if you just wanna talk then you can come over any time."
We exchanged goodbyes as she entered her building.
----
『That went well didn't it?』
"Ah!" I was startled as the familiar voice had suddenly returned in my ear.
『Why are you so surprised?』
"Heyy… Celeste. You're back."
『Of course! I am your guide after all』
Yeah right. You didn't respond when I asked for guidance just a few moments ago.
『I wanted to see how far you could go without me』
"Right. I forgot you can read my mind."
『As your personal guide, I encourage you to ask the other players about what they do in the game. It might give you useful insight on what role you should play in this world.』
"I was getting to that."
----
There wasn't a lot of people in the Hub. A few groups of people here and there. Some duo dating on one table. Someone's reading on another table. It felt like I had walked into a park unknowingly.
I thought a good start was to ask some of the groups. This way it wouldn't feel like a one on one and I don't have to talk as much. Luckily, there were a few potential groups I could approach.
First off, there was a group sitting on the ground near the fountain. They were a group of 5, all wearing basic fantasy clothing. There was a piece of cloth on the ground which they circled around. A lot of weird looking loot was on it. If I had to guess, they just came back from an adventure and are discussing their loot.
The second group I saw was a trio. They were leaning on the fountain's waist level wall while facing into the fountain. The trio consisted of 2 girls and a guy. Maybe they were doing a date or something, I don't know. Games can be weird sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if he has 2 girlfriends ingame.
Finally, there was that couple who looked like they were dating. They were just chatting with each other while eating a cake together. I think that's cute.
After thinking about it, I couldn't decide which one to approach. I needed help from my AI for this one. "Celeste, which one do I—"
『The trio near the fountain』
"… Alright."