The young man smiled with eyes still closed as he felt a soft tap on his shoulder and then Mantam's sweet voice warning him about Cynthia. He knew very well but now that someone had told him he'd have to act on it. He couldn't blame Mantam though. The way she'd said it so sweetly had softened him. Then again, he was already pretty soft to begin with.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and smiled at Mantam, giving her a small wink before rising. "What's this about Cynthia going full commando? Wouldn't that feel awkward?" The Ki Brawler joked, hoping it was going too far, but knowing that Cynthia was used to the teasing by now.

He was chuckling at himself when it started, when everything started. He'd heard the news a few moments ago but hadn't really believed it. Now, he didn't have a choice.

---

A few moments ago... while everyone was outside.

"Breaking News!! There are a few players who currently cannot access their logout buttons! Please, tell us everything." The news anchor asks, turning to the small girl next to her. Surprisingly, she was rather calm about it.

"Well... I mean... When I pull up my menu, the log out option isn't there. My entire group can't log out right now. We don't know what to do." She told them, her voice sounding a bit desperate.

"There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't find your log out button, please send a message to us here at PNN. That's Paradise News Network!" The young man told the screen before turning and logging off himself.

---

Now

"Hello fellow adventurers, pilots, mages, etc etc. I think it's due time that I explain your situation to you. I have a little proposition for all of you." He begins, his face masked in blackness. A man had appeared on Prince's screen, blocking out everything except for the man's face. The most odd thing about it was the fact that he was not a part of the game. In fact, he looked very real, a man sitting in his office with papers surrounding him, most of them filled with calculations. If one were to look closely enough, they'd see a small picture frame with the man and two little girls standing at his side. The man was the only thing in the screen that was completely blanked out.

"If you can discover the secrets I have placed through the game, then I will give you all of my vast riches and you shall live like a king!" He began, holding up his arms in a flashy manner. "However, there is a high price to pay for failing. Die in the game, and you'll find you won't be waking up any time soon. If your family members decide to try and remove you from your game device, you will die. If you attempt to leave the game in anyway, via hacks or other means, you will die." He continued, turning his head slightly as if looking at something in the distance.

"I won't be handing out any clues so... This is all I offer you. Good Luck." He finished, the screen blipping out as the characters returned to the reality of the situation. In each of their inboxes is a small book icon labeled, "Book of Life" The man hadn't even introduced himself...

Prince blinked for a moment, not really able to fully grasp the situation. With a quick motion, he pulled up the game's menu and sure enough the log out option was missing. He pushed the menu away and looked around the room to gauge everyone else's reactions to the news.

Mantam smiled at Prince's jape. "If only." She said sarcastically to the thought of Cynthia naked. Mantam found the joking to end rather quickly as her vision was consumed by an unfamiliar face. Her first thought was that she had been hacked. Due to the uniqueness of Paradise hacking could have some pretty disastrous effects, and although the security was supposed to be very tight, people always found a way. However, she quickly found out to her horror that this wasn't the case. The man spoke of tantalizing riches, but the words hardly registered in her mind. What did register was "However, there is a high price to pay for failing. Die in the game, and you'll find you won't be waking up any time soon. If your family members decide to try and remove you from your game device, you will die. If you attempt to leave the game in anyway, via hacks or other means, you will die."

Mantam's face quickly turned to shock. "This is some kind of practical joke, right?" She said, with a forced laugh tailing her sentence. She quickly tore open the menu, and moved for the logout button to find that there was no such thing. Her head began to swim, This can't be real, there's no way this is actually happening. But she could feel it. The way that man spoke, he was telling the truth. No ordinary hack would have the ability to project a message like that, let alone remove the logout button. I could... die? I can't leave? I don't want to die... I don't want any of this. "There's no way this is..." She felt the words caught in her throat. She couldn't handle this. This was no joke. No game company would make a joke like this, there would be too much backlash.

This was real. She knew it. And she couldn't handle it. She closed her eyes, and when they opened again she found herself advancing rapidly towards the ground. Mantam passed out.

Cat was very interested in Raijin's relationship with the new girl, Cherry. It was clear that they knew each other. Just here, or in real life? She wondered what that was like, knowing someone in real life, and playing with them here. It must be nice. A dark mood seemed to settle over her. While she had had what one could call friendships, they had never lasted. People just didn't seem to understand it when she went into a depressive mood, or wondered what life would be like if her parents had survived. One rude, nasty little girl had gone so far as to say she should be over it, they died years ago. But that wasn't the point. She had had to grow up knowing that she didn't have parents, listening as kids proudly stated that their dad was a police officer, their mother a doctor or some such. And she had just been able to say her Uncle was an IT specalist. And then see their pitying looks.

So the game gave hrr a chance to have friends who knew nothing of her past. She wouldn't have anything ruin it. She watched Hazard storm off. What was wrong? doesn't like authority figures? Are his parents strict? Or does he just have trouble with those that assume command? another puzzle to solve. She hoped that eventually she would be able to solve all these puzzles that were piling up in ner head, and then offer her friends some help. Yet right then, as the group seemed to break up, Cat felt out of place. Like she was standing on the edge of everything. She didn't know what to do.

would she be left behind again? Would she be considered too much work, and would they leave her? She didn't think she could bare it, not again. This was her last escape, if it happened here...how would she cope? And then....and then the news cast came on, telling them all about the missing log out button, the dying, and the rest.

Her first thought was for her family. Her cousins, uncle, her Aunt, oh, god, her Aunt. Fragile, and quite, her Aunt seemed like a vase, that would at any moment. How would she cope with this? Her uncle generally could handle her Aunt, but Cat knew that she had come to consider her as a daughter, and she knew her Aunt would fall apart, utterly and complete, as if it were her own children trapped in the game.

A rare and powerful Fury rose in Cat. They couldn't do this. They couldn't trap them in here. It just wasn't humane. Surely something could be done. Surely they could get out, with their lives? She didn't givr a damn about money. But she did about her friends, her family. Her hands, unnoticed, curled into fists, and she spun about as if she could just make a way out. "You can't do this!" She yelled. She didn't need to check her menu, to know her log out button was indeed gone.

Cynthia was about to answer the pilot's question when the man appeared on the screen. Once everybody's vision returned, it was obvious that she had been effected the most by the event. Gone was the bravado and iron she had possessed moments before, replaced by a trembling, sheet white shadow. As she slumped to her knees, she mouthed the words "What have you..." over and over, seeming to have lost the ability to rationalize what was around her. She was in a trance that she could not shake off, a mist of disbelief covered her mind.

With a quiet demeanor about him, Prince walked over to Mantam and picked her up, carrying her over to the couch with relative ease. He took in a long sigh and he looked down on her and then turned, looking at the others. It wasn't that it didn't effect him, it did, he just didn't feel the same way everyone did, obviously. He... wasn't that scared. The biggest fear he had was losing everyone in this moment. Losing himself wasn't a fear, he didn't fear death. Losing his real life, well... he'd stayed in the game long enough already.

With a small chuckle, a smile appeared on Prince's face. "Well, I suppose a new place will definitely be in order now since we'll need more places for everyone to sleep." He spoke, his voice sounding odd in the stark silence of the area. The only noise was the news channel still going.

Another sigh escaped his lips as he turned to look at Cynthia, his smile gone. He took a few steps outside, towards her and wrapped his arms around her small frame, resting his chin on her head as he pulled her toward his chest. He had no kind words to offer her, only this. With his head still free to look around, he looked around at the others outside, a soft yet weak smile on his face.

Raijin had been about to comment on Cherry's reaction proving her nickname, when the message came on his screen. After it ended, he fell to his knees, disbelief on his face. Then a low growl, that quickly rose in volume with his anger. What gave this guy the fucking right to pull this shit!!!!!!! He gripped the grass in front of him, thinking of his sister, thinking of never seeing her again. He didn't care about living in here, he despised his real life anyways. He couldn't leave her like this, he couldn't die like this.

He wouldn't die like this. This guy wanted him to find the secrets, then he would fucking find them. He got up, motioning to Void to follow him to the cave. He didn't bother to check his menu, instead turning to Prince, who was currently comforting Cynthia. Unsurprisingly, Prince seemed rather calm about the situation, if understandably silent and grim.

"Prince, any ideas for what we should do now, while everyone else comes to term with. . . with what just happened. Any ideas of what I could do, or should we all just stay here while everyone recovers?" While he spoke, he checked for the gift the man had alluded to giving them, locating and removing this "Book of Life" from the inbox and materializing it into the world.

Hazard had only just gotten to enjoy the music that Mari had put on before the man on the news piped up about the missing log out option. Out of curiosity, he pulled up his own menu and realized that his... as well as all the others around him... were gone. "You've... you've got to be kidding..." he said in a silent breath, the cigar falling from his mouth and hitting the ground. He watched as Prince carried over the knocked out Mantam, the pressure of the situation taking hard toll on the poor girl. His heart sank as he looked over at Cynthia, all of the commando was gone, she seemed like a scared young girl... and it damn near broke his heart to see her this way... he much preferred her hard ass self than anything. He tried to think of something to say... a joke... something... but with the way it was, he was speechless. But he knew that panicking was not on the to do list, he needed a level head, not just for him, but his friends.

He swallowed the knot in his throat that had formed during the silence and sighed. Unslinging his rifle, he set it on the ground and made sure the weapon was at full ammo, as well as counting how many other rounds he had... twenty... not a whole lot to be honest... After some rummaging, he pulled out a coin bag of about twenty coins, walking over to where Prince was hugging Cynthia and setting it next to him.

"Well guys, sitting here isnt going to get us anywhere. Consider that my first of many donations." he said as he looked around at the others, the jokester holding a serious gaze, "You heard the guy, we only got one life in this game now, and the only way to ensure we survive, is to level up as much as we can, as quick as we can. I understand were shaken up... so am I... but damn me if I lose this game now, and damn me twice if I see any of you guys lose."

Giving a confident smile, he held a thumbs up to Prince, "Im with you all the way buddy, youre the leader of this group, so get to leadin!"

Caroline's tremors slowly subsided as Prince held her, and eventually the color returned to her face. She placed her hand over one of his as a silent gesture of thanks, then slowly stood up.

"Everyone," she said, inhaling deeply to steady her voice. "Everyone, listen. By your reactions, I assume you all saw the same thing I did. While I cannot promise that this is a joke, or that we'll all be safe, I want you to remember that you are not alone in this. We are a team, and for better or worse, we're all in this together. Don't be afraid of what he said, because if you are afraid then that fear will dull your reflexes, nothing can prove more dangerous now than descending into hysterics."

She waited a moment for her words to take hold, then continued. "Now, this is a shock to all of us, but we must make a decision as to what we will do about it. I propose that we continue forward as we were, playing the game as it is, both because it might be the safest way to escape this and because if we would try to drive forward too fast, we run the risk of exhausting ourselves and falling prey to stronger foes. Does anybody have a counter proposal?"

"Sounds good to me, though I do have a question. Should we make a quick supply run to the nearest town, to stock up on supplies, like healing items for example. Also, I say thay we bring Cherry with us, as I doubt any of us could leave her to fend for herself in these circumstances. Besides, we need her expertise as a pilot." Raijin wanted to make sure they were prepared for anything, and a supply run woyld probably be the best thing to do.

"Also, anyone have any clue about this 'Book of Life' thing we seemed to have been given?" He had pulled it out of his inventory, and he brought it up to show everybody. "I assume we all got one."

Cattypea listened as the others spoke, clearly discussing what they were going to do. Her fear was, because her level was lower then theirs already, that she would be seen as a burden. She didn't want that. She bit her lip, looking down at her hands. She could finge tiredness, wait for everyone to go about what they needed, and then go out to train...but....

She sighed heavily. "You missed the hidden message in what he was saying" she said softly, closing her eyes "he didn't tell us how we get our. Is it merely winning the game? Do we assume that is what it will take to get out? How do we do that? Or is it something else entirely? Questions, that we need the answers to. And if it's just gathering the secrets, how many secrets are there? How many do we have to find? Do we each have to find them? Or can we as a group collectively find them? In that case, would it be easier to split up, or stay together? Maybe split up some of the time, find secrets and return, sharing them. Of course, that way is more dangerous" she said, again sighing. "I will do what ever is required of me"

She bit her lip again, her ears flicking, tail twitching lightly. "I realise I am only level four, while most of you are level five...I need to level"

Smiling at Cynthia, Prince simply watched her talk to everyone. He looked over at Hazard and grinned. With a few steps he was over by Hazard's side, a hand on his shoulder. Leaning in, he whispered to his friend, "I wouldn't call me the leader so loudly around Cynthia." He pulled back a few seconds after, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. "But thank you! I'll create a bank account for the group so we can start saving up for a better place." He told Hazard after grabbing the money he'd placed down.

Prince pulled up the Menu once again and scrolled down to the Bank option and pushed. Within seconds, the Banking tab pulled up with a small money pouch avatar, smiling and waving at him.

"What would you like to do today, Mr. West?" It asked. Glad for the privacy, Prince smiled at the creature. All anyone would see, would be Prince smiling at something and they'd probably assume it was the Bank Avatar.

"I need to open a shared group account." He replied.

"Will it be for a new Guild?" It asked.

"Not currently. We're still just a party." He replied.

"You should consider making or joining a guild!" It told Prince while it turned around to grab a few papers.

"That costs money though. Are you going to give me the cash needed?" Prince asked jokingly.

"Certainly not, sir! I'm an AI!" It replied, coming back with all the necessary paperwork. Prince filled it out quickly, putting down the name of everyone in their party. When everything was said and done, he had a new option under the Banking Tab. "Shared Account" He opened it and placed the 20 copper coins and placed them in the account as well as the 123 gold from his account. It was all he had. He never spent money on new gear or anything of the like and found most of his food on his own. The only time he ever went out to eat was with the group and he often ate very little. He was money conscious and saved like a clam protecting their pearl.

With a sigh, he closed out the menu. "If anyone has any more donations, there's now a shared bank account we should all have access to. We'll be saving up to buy a better place. Which a good one will probably cost us in the hundreds of gold. I'll start looking in a bit to see about what we'd want. If everyone could put in as much as they like to put in, that would be great." Prince announced, smiling widely.

After that was done, he walked over to the back of the couch and leaned on it. With a quick motioned he pulled up the menu again and pulled his inventory, pulling out the book. He shrugged at Raijin, giving him an apologetic look. "As far as I can tell, it's just a book. It has some weird writing on it though, just not a whole lot of it..." He began, flipping through the pages of the book. Each page had a minimalistic amount of words on it and all of them were foreign to him, as if they were an unknown language. And... each page had different style of writing, as if another different language. Again, another shrug from Prince. He quickly closed the book and dumped it back into his inventory.

"I'm sure it will come into play eventually." He calculated. "I think we should do exactly what Cynthia suggested. After all, we need all of us to have graduated so we can get off this planet and begin our search and hope that somewhere along the line, we find something." He told them, sending a small smile to Cynthia.

Hazard thought about getting a supply run and thought it may be a good idea. Considering they were a little low on what they already had, it wouldnt hurt anything, especially if this new... threat was real... "Well ill be sure to send half of all the coins I get in the future to the account, wanna build that up as quickly as we can if we wanna get a decent place. I was sure I saw a real nice guild manor for like, a couple grand in gold. Kinda impossible, but hey! Goals people!"

He turned to Cat and smiled "I can help you level up if a couple wanna join us" he offered. "We can send a few to make a supply run and I can take Catty and a couple others out hunting. Itll just be some slow xp gains until we can start something big, but its a better start than nothing." He reslung his rifle and walked over to Cat and stood next to her, crossing his arms as his signature smile came back as he waited for a response.

If reasured catty that Hazard spoke, offered his help. It made her feel as if she wasn't about to be given the boot, and that made her feel a million times better. She smiled and nodded, "thank you" she said softly, "I'm patient and now it appears I won't be able to get back to my uncle, Aunt and Cousins, so, have all the time in the world" she said, slight bitterness entering her tone without meaning to.

She sighed, remembering her staff, and darted into the cave to go retrieve it, returning in moments, to stand with Hazard once more. "I appreciate the help. Safety in numbers and all of that stuff" she managed a smile, looking about at the others

Cynthia nodded at Raijin, saying "I'll go with you. I need to make a call. Those of us with family better make a call too, sooner rather than later. Tell them you're alright and warn them NOT to try to take out out of the game themselves, in case that part wasn't an idle threat. I don't want to lose any of you to good intents." She eyed the group, then turned to the Pilot.

"Well then, Cherry, I suppose you must be in this with us too. Feel free to join either group, safety in numbers and all that, and watch out for PKers. I'm assuming not everybody in the game knows what's going on, or there would be something more than a small newscast about it." She looked back at the cave and her thoughts went out on a tangent.

"If we're not going to use this as home base, we should use it for something. Storage, a hideout, something. I'd hate to just let it go." With that, she turned toward the direction of town and walked to the edge of the clearing, waiting for whoever was coming to join her.

"I could use to keep any other beasts I captured. So, who are you calling if you don't mind me asking. I'm calling my foster sister."

Raijin followed Cynthia, stopping only to toss Prince a coin bag.

"My donation, half my savings from this and my previous account. I'd say that's about 50 gold coins. The rest will go towards the supplies." Raijin waved towards the others, Void following behind him.

Well damn...

"Well damn."

The announcement turned automatically turned off her speaker-- no one touched her tunes. Still, she realized the gravity of the message, and petty anger over needing to rest a musical device seemed innappropros, all things considered. That didn't mean she... he -- they, Ness and the persona of Marinette, freaked out, Marinette simply blended in the background noise of the other reactions with a shrug. The threat of death was the thing that scarred her the most, but even that failed to break through her poker face. She tried to handle it coolly, that was who Marinette was, perhaps with slowed actions, she picked up the cigar Hazard dropped with the announcement and puffed away as the rest of her party dealt with the news.

Mantam fainting even made her chuckle a little.

Well damn.

The two words perfectly summed up her reaction to the news. Marinette recognized the possibility that it may have been a hoax-- or some in game event-- something though, her intuition, told her it was something more serious though, and if that was the case, she really didn't have much of a choice. No point in raising a fuss.

She was Marinette, the free-running freelancer-- protected by Marinette the Loa! She'd be fine.

...still... might wanna sacrifice a pig or two...

Marinette took the cigar out of her mouth and exhaled from her nostrils, "Well damn..." She parroted herself, she approached Hazard and Catty, a smirk rising on her deadpan face, "Looks like we'll get those team fights now... Should've been more careful what I wished for!"

Letting his staff materialize at his side from his inventory, Prince went over to Hazard and Cat with a smile on his face.

"I hope you don't mind letting me join you. I need a bit of leveling as well. With the two of us, I doubt it'll take very long." He explained, standing to the right of Cat. He made pains not to get too close to her, or anyone here. Why, he didn't understand. He just noticed that he was doing it and he didn't feel like stopping. If what that man had said was true, Prince's Paradise was even more fragile than he'd once thought. If he could split himself into and go protect both groups, he would. But for now, he knew where he needed to be and where he WOULD be every night from now on.

He was just sort of late on the ball. Nothing like the end to make you run a bit faster to keep it everything going. Prince suddenly felt like a gerbil, desperately try to run on his little wheel to keep the dream going, to keep the facade of happiness alive.

Prince turned his head to Hazard with a smile. "I'm in your hands, Hazard-Sensei." He joked, chuckling to himself softly.

Catty smiled, reloef flowing over her. She wasn't going to be alone, training. She preferred not to be alone, but would have gonr out by herself if need beshe was glad that wasn't the case. She was glad that she was given help, instead of being considered a lia ility.

She did notice how Prince seemed to stand as if he were a part of them, but not. It was almost like he was afraid to get close. As if one of them might stab him in the back and leave him for dead. She frowned, and looked around at everyone.

what are your real lives like, to have made you immerse yourselves in this game? What made you what you are? questions she figured that she had plenty of time to answer now, she figured. "Thank you" she said to both Prince and Hazard, but was puzzled at Marinette statement. "What do you mean?" She asked "what did you wish for?"

"What do you mean?" Catty asked, an inquisitive expression on her face, "what did you wish for?"

Marinette was lucky the make-up she wore prevented anyone from seeing the character blush, "Well what had happened was..." Scratched the back of her head, ruffling her hair a little, embarrassed in retrospect, her smile became more and more sheepish as she stalled to think of something to say.

"Well, Cats, if we're going to be completely honest, I actually kind of wished we did something like this... I certainly didn't wish for THIS," She gestured around the world, holding up the Book of Life as if it was the cause of all of their problems, "But I did find myself wishing we went out and did something that this..." Marinette placed a finger on her lower lip as she paused to think of the right word, "Galvanized us to go out and do-- which is recklessly fight monsters."

"I guess I just..." She found herself lost just looking at the Book, considering the implications of it's existence more seriously, "I guess I wished we'd go do some impressive impossible challenge, or whatever-- I still do-- so in a weird, sick way, this is kind of exactly what I wished for..."

Hazard had no problem whatsoever with Prince joining the two of them, "Hey man, the more the merrier! Just dont nap while were out" he said jokingly. He looked over at Mari as Catt asked what she had meant, then went on to explain what it was the Esquen had wished. "Its funny, I used to wonder what it was like to actually live a life like this, seems like now Ill get to figure that out firsthand. But hey! At least Im not alone! I got you losers!" he said with a laugh, placing his hands on his chest and beaming a smile to the group.