by Phoenix Grey
"Is it your health? Has it not fully recovered yet? I brought this healing potion, just in case." His voice full of concern, the man reached into a small pouch at his hip and extracted a corked vial with red liquid inside.
"My health is fine," Will barked, focusing on more pressing matters. "How do I get out of the game?"
"Out of the game?" The man quirked his head back in confusion, his hand easing the potion back into the pouch.
"Yes. This." Will gestured to everything around them. "I know what this. I know what youare. I need to take the damn headset off. What screen do I pull up to call a supervisor to come help me? This shit is broken and I'm stuck." His words bubbled out unabashedly with the heat of his rising blood pressure. Maybe he would get fired for cursing. At this point, Will wasn't sure he cared. No one had prepared him for this. At least, he hadn't remembered any special training for the re-release of Radical Interactive's VRMMORPG.
"Hmm." The man scratched his jaw. "Maybe putting you in the barn wasn't such a bad idea after all. I'm not sure you're quite all here."
Biting back the urge to curse again, Will said as calmly as possible, "I'm perfectly fine. I just need you to help me figure out how to contact a supervisor."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about. The only one in charge here is me."
Will massaged his temples, trying to calm himself down. There was no way that his boss would allow him to stay inside the game past his shift. Someone would come to save him eventually. Maybe it was just better to play along for now.
"So we're inside The Realm on Crescent Island," he rehashed what the man had already told him, trying to see if he could recall anything else. It was strange how long it had taken him to even figure out he was in a game. Had the hardware malfunctioned?
"That is correct," the man replied.
Will stared blankly at the open barn door for a moment, wondering what awaited him outside. The man was mostly blocking his view, but Will could see what appeared to be another building several yards away. A sparse bit of grass sprawled between the two structures, with hens roaming freely, scratching and pecking at the dirt.
Excitement was slowly taking over Will. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around how everything looked and felt so real. It was like he had woken up in a different world. If everything out there was as immersive as everything inside of the barn, he could easily see that Radical Interactive had a new hit on their hands. This level of programming would absolutely blow the gaming world away.
The man coughed to get Will's attention. Will's mouth snapped shut like a venus fly trap. He hadn't even realized he'd been gawking rudely, just staring off into space as if the man had ceased to exist. "If you've recovered," he began, "there's work to be done. But before I set you to repaying your debt to me, we should probably make formal introductions...if you can even remember your name. My name is Mahnan, but everyone calls me Manny. What are you called?"
The second that Manny finished speaking, a translucent screen popped into Will's field of vision. The word 'Name' was at the top with a blinking cursor beneath.
This must be where I select my character name.
When he was gaming in his off time, Will always went by the name Synful, or Syn for short. It wasn't exactly work appropriate, though. At Radical Interactive, he'd never had to choose a handle before. He'd always just been William Galvan. Pre-programmed into the system when he used his login credentials, it had popped up automatically on every beta he'd ever worked on.
It would be easy enough to just use his real name. But that seemed lame. This wasn't like any beta he'd ever done for Radical Interactive before. And while he didn't remember the rules of this particular beta, Will could only assume that if his handle hadn't already been pre-programmed, then part of his testing duties were to select a name of his choosing.
Will took a few moments to think it over while Manny stared at him expectantly, if not a bit impatiently. Maybe he wasn't an NPC(non-player character) after all. NPCs usually had limitless tolerance for players bumbling while they tried to figure things out.
Will's eyes flicked back to the open barn door. In the backdrop, he could see the blue sky stretching on for miles, limitless like all of the possibilities of this new world.
A small smile crept across Will's face as he said, "My name is Azure." The letters were typed out as he spoke, and a box appeared asking him to confirm. Will agreed, and his response was recorded. The screen disappeared.
"Well, Azure, when you feel up to it, I have a task for you to complete. Dark sprites have been tainting our crops as of late, and I need them dealt with. It shouldn't be too difficult of a task for one such as yourself." He looked Azure up and down, assessing him. It was evident that he thought Azure to be weak, and rightly so. At level one, there probably wasn't much he could accomplish without getting himself killed.
"How am I to go about dealing with them?" Azure pulled himself up from the straw. Pieces of it clung to his peasant attire. Absentmindedly, he brushed them away.
"My son Uden will equip you with a weapon for the job and teach you how to use it. You can find him in the shed next to our house." Manny nodded in the direction of the shed.
Just then, a notice popped up.
Quest: Meet with Uden
You owe Manny a favor for saving your life. He is sending you to his son Uden to learn how to dispatch of the dark sprites plaguing his crops.
Difficulty: Very Easy
Success: Speak to Uden
Reward: Starter Bow, Bronze Arrows with Quiver
And it begins, Azure thought with a zing of energy. His first quest.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE REALM – Day 1
Providing no further instructions, Manny left Azure alone with his wonder. Everything felt so surreal to him, and he took a couple more minutes surveying his surroundings before forcing himself to his feet. He opened and closed his hands, digging his cropped nails into his palms—a sensation he'd typically taken for granted. It was like every nerve and cell holding him together was real, not just a series of 1s and 0s generated by the headset.
"Holy shiiiiiiiit," he said with a long drawl, hopping from one foot to the other. "You guys have really done it this time." He gazed up at the tawny roof, filling his nostrils with the scents of the barn. If he weren't careful, he'd forget he was in a game. And for some reason, that didn't bother him one bit. His greatest fear at the moment was being pulled out of it. Of the experience being ruined by his job.
Azure could still remember his first beta testing project at Radical Interactive. It was for a program they had developed to help dental assistants practice cleaning teeth. The first time he'd entered the virtual reality dental office, it had seemed absolutely magical. But after having to repeat the experience of cleaning an AI patient's teeth over and over again for two weeks straight, the luster had worn off quickly, and he had begun to hate it. There was no reason why the same thing wouldn't happen here. At any moment, his boss could wrench him away from the game only to force him to repeat the same scenario repetitively until Radical Interactive felt it was perfect.
Azure had seen no flaws in his interaction with Manny. Perhaps there could have been a better tutorial. He would definitely make a comment about his confusion when he was brought into the game. But if Manny was an NPC, he passed Azure's Turing test. I mean, he still wasn't 100% sure that Manny was an NPC. Though he'd have to have been to be able to give Azure a quest, wouldn't he?
Please don't pull me out of the game. Please allow me to see more.
One thing was certain; he would definitely be picking up his own personal copy of The Realm as soon as it hit the retail shelves.
Maybe that's premature thinking, Azure told himself, trying to calm down a bit. He'd only experienced such a small part of the game. Hell, he hadn't even ventured outside yet. For all he knew, he might not even be able to walk through the barn door. There was only one way to find out.
Azure made his way to the door, sliding
it open and peering outside. The sun warmed his face, the door giving birth to a view that made him feel transported back in time. Manny's house was a humble structure, reminiscent of the peasant dwellings that Azure had seen in many games before. To the left of it was a small wooden shed. Trees rose up to the right of the property, providing a forested backdrop. They circled around and could be seen beyond the shed as well. A field of wheat lay over the land like a blanket to the left, which Azure could only assume was Manny's crop. It extended beyond his field of vision, so he couldn't tell how far it went or if there were other things planted. The rendering of everything around him was every bit as impressive as the inside of the barn. Crisp summer air blew across his face, bringing with it a pollution-free scent, something that Azure wasn't used to from having lived in the city for most of his life. It was both refreshing and exhilarating, and for several moments he merely stood there basking in the purity of it all.
Manny had disappeared off somewhere. It still intrigued Azure how unsettled the guy had seemed by his behavior. That was something else that made him believe that Manny might actually be a person instead of an NPC, though he had disappeared awfully quickly. Almost as if magicked away. Could he have really walked so fast that he would have been gone by the time Azure reached the barn door? This was his beta tester brain thinking. No matter how much he wanted to enjoy everything around him, he was still very much in work mode.
“Well, I suppose I should go find this Uden guy,” Azure said to a hen that had made its way toward him, its head bobbing as it clucked, pecking at the dirt every few feet. The hen ignored him, going about its business doing what hens do as if Azure was only an inconvenient obstacle in its way.
He took a deep breath, gazing across at the shed. It looked aged compared to the other buildings around it, the boards making up its siding taking on a gray hue.
Crossing the few yards it took to reach the door to the shed, Azure marveled at every footfall, watching wisps of dirt kick up around his shoes. How long would it take him to get used to this—these little things that normally seemed like nothing to him at all?
He opened the door to find a man sitting on a wooden stool at the back of the shed. Various tools were hanging from hooks on the walls to either side of him. Barrels were stacked up behind him, probably holding grain and other perishables. The look he gave Azure was more bored and annoyed than anything else.
“It's about time you showed up. I was going to leave if you dawdled around much longer,” the man said in a smooth baritone, making no attempt to stand.
“Are you Uden?” Azure asked, taken aback by the rudeness he was receiving.
“Who else would I be?” Uden held his hands out to his sides as if to call Azure an idiot.
Azure instantly disliked him, not just because of his unkind welcome. There was something about Uden that immediately rubbed him the wrong way. He had almost an otherworldly look to him. Where his father had been tan, Uden's skin was alabaster. His shoulder length black hair was slicked back away from his face revealing big green eyes and sharp features. Azure could only assume that Uden's mother was some raven-haired pale beauty, because he had none of his father in him. The two men couldn't look any less related.
Azure thumbed back towards the barn. “Your father said—”
“I know what my father said,” Uden cut him off, standing abruptly. “My father said to teach the brutish idiot how to kill sprites.”
Brutish? Never in his real life had Azure been called brutish. He was tall and lanky with a medium build. Not exactly an intimidating guy. Now he wondered what he looked like in the game.
Ignoring Uden's jab, he walked over to the one small window casting light into the shed to try to gaze at his reflection. The person who stared back at him was a stranger. His mop of dark hair had been replaced by a cropped military style cut, longer up top but short on the sides. His features were angular and...for lack of a better word, more manly. His dark eyes were intense and inquisitive.
I'm a lady killer, he thought gleefully, giving his new visage a sly smirk before looking down at his body. He hadn't noticed it initially, but he was definitely a lot more muscular than in real life. He could see how Uden would perceive him as brutish. Suddenly, he didn't hate the word so much, resisting the urge to flex his biceps in a totally douchey way. He could only imagine how Uden would look at him if he did.
Ah, fuck it. Let's test it out.
Azure brought his arm up and flexed, admiring the thick curve of his bicep.
“Are you kidding me?” Uden rolled his eyes. “What are you, a fucking princess?”
Whoa! There's no way this guy was an NPC. All of the NPCs in the VRMMORPG's that Azure had played before were GA(general audience) friendly. He highly doubted that Radical Interactive would try to break the mold by creating a mouthy NPC. But then how was this the guy who was supposed to help him with his quest? Was he being tricked? Manny had told him that Uden would be waiting in the shed, and this guy claimed to be Uden.
“Excuse me?” he asked, surprised by Uden's reaction.
“Did you come here to help or to stare at your reflection in the window all day?” The annoyance couldn't be any more apparent in the man's voice if he tried.
“To help, of course.” Azure turned away from the window.
Uden snorted, raking him up and down with a contemptuous gaze. “I'm not sure how much help you'll actually be, but I suppose you have to pay off your debt somehow. Honestly, this would go a lot faster if I did it myself, but I can't exactly disobey Father, so I suppose I should teach you what needs to be done.” He walked over and picked up a bow and quiver of arrows leaning against the wall before returning and practically shoving them into Azure's hands. “I'm going to take a shot in the dark that you don't remember how to use these...if you ever knew in the first place.”
A notification popped up in Azure's field of vision.
Congratulations! Quest: Meet with Uden has been completed.
You have met with Uden, and though he thinks you're a complete moron, he has agreed to help train you because Father knows best. You have earned 15XP. You have also received the following items:
Starter Bow
Attack: 8
Range: 1
Durability: 8/8
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 1.4 kg
Bronze Arrows with Quiver
Quantity: 15/15
Durability: 1/1
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.7 kg
Azure's mouth fell open as he reread the notification. Someone in the story development department sure had a sense of humor. Father knows best? It seemed like Radical Interactive was letting their hair down and stepping away from their stuffy business applications and writing. Azure was highly amused.
He was less amused by the scowl that greeted him when he pushed the notification away and saw Uden staring at him impatiently. He quickly made a mental note to tell his boss that this Uden guy was not the best welcome wagon for the game. Not that he thought she would care. The game had blatantly told him that Uden thought he was a moron. That couldn't have been coincidental.
“Come on, Noob. I'll show you the ropes.” Uden motioned towards the door before stepping past him and glancing back over his shoulder. “Once you're done primping in the mirror, you can meet me behind the shed for some training.”
Another notice popped up.
Quest: Train in Archery with Uden
Uden may not like you, but he's still going to train you to use the bow. Meet him behind the shed to take your first archery lesson. But don't expect him to go easy on you.
Difficulty: Very Easy
Success: Master the Basics of the Starter Bow
Reward: Archery Skill
Not giving the window a second thought, Azure followed Uden outside. Behind the shed was what appeared to be a small training ground that backed up to the forest. The grass had bee
n weathered away from foot traffic, and there were several small round targets set back against the trees. Azure shifted the quiver of arrows over his shoulder as Uden came to a stop several yards in front of the closest target.
Spinning on his heels abruptly, he asked, “Have you ever shot a bow before, or should I assume that this is all new to you?”
Azure had taken Shiela on a date to an archery range years ago, but he didn't remember much of what he had learned. They had talked about going back but never did. He had suspected that she wasn't really interested in it and had only gone to humor him.
He could pull from his vast experience of playing other games, but he didn't want Uden to have an excuse to ridicule him if he did something wrong. For all he knew, there could be some gimmick to shooting a bow in the game.
“Give me a refresher,” he replied.
To Azure's surprise, the fundamentals were the same as in real life. Everything continued to be crazy realistic, from the care he had to take to nock an arrow, to the pull on his muscles when he drew the bow back. His aim was just as crappy as it had been in real life, too. He missed the target completely on his first shot, his arrow sinking into a tree trunk on the right with a loud thwap! Within a matter of seconds, the arrow disintegrated into dust.
“What just happened?” Azure asked, having sworn he hadn't been seeing things.
“Its durability ran out,” Uden explained simply.
“What does that mean?”
“It means it can no longer be used. All weapons and armor have a durability score,” he informed Azure. “If the durability wears out before you can repair the item, it will return to the earth. These arrows have a durability of 1, so they only have a one time use. Better quality arrows can be used multiple times.”
