The transition felt so quick that it felt as if nothing had changed. But, as Airi could quite clearly see, everything had. No longer was she sitting in her computer chair, anticipating the loading screen to reach the end, when suddenly...

"...You know, I might be more surprised if Michael didn't force me to read those older series..." she trailed off, glancing at her outfit before bringing her hair closer to her face. A light blonde. Okay. She got the idea of what just happened to her, and though she wasn't panicking, a small sweat drop seemed to form at the side of her forehead.

"...But I still can't help but freak out just a little."

Biting her lip to prevent herself from letting out any sort of noise, Airi--no, Melia--took a deep breath to calm herself.

Okay. She was her character now. Last she checked, she was in Araldyne, relaxing in the town square on a small bench before the maintenance hit as she was busy discussing with people online about what Lucent Co. Ltd., would be adding the next morning. To be fair, she should have seen it coming, but the possibility of it all happening was so far-fetched that she hadn't even considered the possibility. But even then--!

"AAAAAAH!"

Melia immediately jumped backwards, an instinctive reaction if anything else, when the scream broke out. She (and many others; some NPCs, some not) turned to the source to find a female character crouched over in a fetal position. Well. That took a lot less time than she expected.

"...Well. That didn't take very long." Melia mused to herself as more and more people seemed to be popping up by the second. "I should... Probably leave before this place gets loud enough to summon a demon looking for some fresh souls or something. Though, given the amount of people, it shouldn't be too hard to take out..."

With that in mind, Melia gripped the scabbard of her katana firmly in her left hand as she left the town square, the grin seeming to stay constant as she moved further and further away.

---

It didn't take long for her to leave the center of the town, and thankfully enough the people on the outskirts of town seemed to be taking the news with a bit more dignity, and even a few with glee. Melia's mental state was shaken, yes, but not to the point of temporary mental instability. Maybe it had something to do with her Willpower skill; she assumed that was the case, else she might be just as much of a mess as that first girl.

"Okay, first and foremost..." Melia trailed off, testing around randomly for something that might give her information. Waving her right hand around in seemingly random directions, she managed to catch something to pull up a sort of... Interface from the bottom right corner of her field of view. So it was like those conceptual VR games before they were a thing...?

Scanning through all the menus (stats, skills, inventory, friends list, and map) in front of her, Melia let out a sigh of relief; at least something here was somewhat familiar. She was always used to viewing the city from above, after all; a map would come very much in handy from here on out. With the map to guide her, Melia followed the streets towards the city's western gates. Her destination, of course, was easy to pinpoint; Rolu Mountain. After all, it had been inaccessible before the patch went live; it didn't hurt to check what was actually up there... Assuming she could, of course.

---

The outskirts of the city were, as expected, barren of players. It was likely that the panic in Araldyne was engulfing the city at the moment, but as she was right now, Melia would likely be unable to quell the chaos on her own. Even if other players weren't as crazed as those were, calming the entire city as more and more people jumped in would easily consume the next few days.

That wasn't good. They needed information about the world right now; what threats there were, the state of the world, how similar it was to UE... And the only way to do that was to be proactive.
...
So why was she here, bisecting the wild wolves that were prowling around the outskirts of the town? She could just as easily avoid them, but at the same time...

"...It just feels so... natural using this. What the heck? I've never even held a baseball bat in my hand, much less a sword!" she cried out in confusion as another wolf fell victim to her blade. "Not to mention... WHERE ARE ALL THESE WOLVES COMING FROM?! The spawn rate here was miserably low after this place got upgraded from a trading post!"

Logging in felt normal. At least, it felt normal right until the moment that it suddenly did not. The dark-haired brunette had a rather rough day, and she just wanted to unwind playing some Untold Eternity. Maybe take up the Red-Hand challenge or something like that, that'd be a good way to distract herself. Or the new content, see if she could find anything super-difficult to take on in that. And hey, her little sister was going to be on, wasn't she? That meant that she also had the option of helping her sibling out with one of the harder early-game dungeons or something... Of course, these thoughts fled her mind when she was, abruptly, no longer in her room.

The Araldyne town square... was not an image on her computer screen. She was standing in it. Eyes wide, the brunette looked down at her lightly trembling hands. She couldn't manage to articulate any words. She couldn't fathom how something like this had ever happened. Her avatar looked mostly like herself, with only a small tattoo under her left eye as a difference between them. She'd been a little proud of doing such a good job of copying her real-life appearance at the time. For a few more moments, the girl stared at the world around her, at the other people who were popping into existence out of no-where.

"What the... what..." she trailed off for a few moments, shaking hands held out in front of her. Then...

"WHAT THE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL?!" cried Yukimura Fujiko, turning her head to the sky and yelling her confusion to the heavens. Her right hand flew to her left side, grasping the hilt she suspected was there. And indeed, there it was. Spark Blade, just as it had been ever since she won it for beating the Black Cairn of Hidgorod at such a low level. Except she'd never actually felt it before. Fujiko was at a loss. The situation was so bizarre, so out of no-where, so unlikely, what else was she really supposed to say about it beyond questioning what the hell had even happened?

At least, that was what was on her mind in the initial few moments after appearing in Araldyne square. One thought cut through everything else rather quickly.

"... Kirika!"

The girl had not been in Araldyne's town square when she'd last logged off. And she'd been logging on...!

Shoving past someone else who had newly appeared, Fujiko called out for her little sister.

"Kirika! Kirika-chan!" she called, "Don't worry! Onee-san is coming, it's gonna be okay! And if anyone tries screwing with you I'll kill them so just call out if you hear my voice!"

There was no response, even as Fujiko kept running through the town. If anyone was screwing with her...!

---

Kirika opened her eyes.

"... Wh... what?"

The young girl blinked several times, rubbing her eyes and looking down at herself. She was... wearing her clothing from Untold Eternity. Otherwise she looked the same ... Wait, no, her... her hair was different. When Kirika reached up to feel her hat, her hair was different... and she felt ears! And... and a tail! Those were definitely not things she usually had! ... Well she usually had ears, but not fluffy dog ears! And this was definitely area she'd left off in! She'd been 'grinding' on the low level enemies in this area on advice from her older sister. And, well... Fujiko had told her to do it, so it must have been good advice. She said they were at a good level, they'd give her a decent amount of EXP without being too hard to deal with. And yet... now, well... well this was weird! It couldn't be VR, VR needed a lot more stuff! You didn't just log into VR and not know it! ... At least, as far as Kirika knew.

... But now she had fluffy dog ears so those were cute but still! This was crazy and strange!

".... U-um..." Kirika looked around, trying to get her bearings a bit better. It was definitely the plain she'd left her character in previously, only now... real and all. She didn't even remember the place's name, and now she was actually physically there!

"... Uwah, I... er..." her fingers traveled to her back nervously, feeling... that staff her big sister had given her, there like it was on her character.

"... Waaah I'm my character and the game is real this is really weird!"

((A collab between Wolfmaw and TD))

---

Agnès was excited for the new patch, and had spent the entire night waiting for the launcher to tell her that the game was ready. Logging in was normal, but when she selected her character and entered the game, there was no loading screen or anything of the sort. Instead, there was a nigh instantanious change in scenery around her. She found herself standing in a wide plain, at the bottom of a wide cliff. The cliff itself had a large and intimidating entrance carved out of it, but said entrance was devoid of people. While she was confused at first, after confirming that she was literally in-game, Agnès--no, Amelia--became ecstatic.
"Hehehe. It seems that my consciousness and true self have finally merged into their complete form. But first, I need to run some tests to see if my powers have fully accepted my new soul."

Excited to try out magic for real for the first time in her life, she focused her mind, trying to picture what it is she wanted to happen. And then, as if by instinct, she found something deep within her. Bringing that newfound sensation to the forefront of her mind, she fired a grey "bullet" of pure energy towards a random point on the cliff. It hit exactly where she wanted it to. Smiling, Amelia brought her hand up to her mouth and gave a little chuckle.
"Huhuhu, it seems that I have no problems using my skills, but I should run more tests to be sure."
Strangely, all the fatigue that she had felt after waiting all night for the patch was gone, and so she went at it for the next hour, using her Magic Alteration skills. When she finally stopped to take a break, the surrounding landscape was completely ruined, with giant burns, craters, large clusters of ice, and walls of metal littering the entire area.
"Fuhuhuhu hehehehehe AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Excellent! Everything is in order! Watch out, forces of evil, and fear the dark! For I am coming for you!
... Right after my trusted mentor arrives."
Speaking of which, where is he? After looking around for a couple seconds, she spotted somebody, materializing seemingly out of nowhere. The newcomer, wearing a full set of dracolich armour and a longsword with a dragon skull where the guard should be in hand erased all doubt. It was him.
"Aha! There you are, Master Lorand! I've been waiting for you." A wide grin spread across her face as she waved towards him.

---

Dave was simply sitting there, watching some youtube videos, waiting for the game that he had played to completion to finally update. The game he was waiting for was the popular MMO Untold Eternity, which had become his new favorite game these past two years. While he rarely got overly excited about things, he couldn't contain himself tonight. The game was finally getting some new content, which was something that he desperately needed. While watching his video, he heard a little 'ping' sound that signified that the game was done updating. He immediately began to log in to the game after closing down his browser. He input his info into the log-in box, pressed enter, and then things got weird. Rather than the loading screen he had been used to, it feeled as if everything changed around him seemlessly.
The next time he looked around, and the scenery had changed dramatically. He looked around, and he knew for sure he was no longer in his room. He was just there, standing in an open field, right next to a giant white cliff. Looking around more, he noticed various deformities in the landscape, like craters. Yeah, there were a lot of those. He looked down at his body, and saw that he was wearing Dracolich armor, and that's when it hit him. He was left saying "What the....." as he realized he was INSIDE of Untold Eternity. And then he heard words that sent a very bad chill down his spine. He heard the excited words "Aha! There you are, Master Lorand! I've been waiting for you." and immediately, his spirits dropped rather low. Of ALL the people he had to be stuck in a video game with, it was his, well, 'pupil' Amelia. The person who never stopped asking him questions, role played in game, and even called him 'Master' for god knows what reason. Well, it wasn't so bad, she was a genuinely nice person, but he would have preferred to meet her later. He let out a heavy sigh as he turned to face the excited fairy. He looked straight at her and said "Well, fancy coincidence meeting you here, huh Amelia?"

---

Amelia crosses her arms, keeping her mischievous grin.
"Not at all, Master Lorand. After all, this is the area where we last left off to go about our other lives in the alternate reality."

"Yes, we did log off here before, but I guess this means that were stuck together for now. And I believe that we are no longer in your 'alternate reality', we're here now, inside of a video game." Lorand stated, still brooding over the fact that he would probably be stuck with this girl for what seemed to be the rest of his days. Refocusing his mind, he looks back up to the girl and asks with slight hesitation "Well, I have no ideas. What should we do?".

"Odd that you should ask that, Master Lorand. I was going to be relying on your guidance on this." After all, it was under Master's tutelage that Amelia was able to aquire the power that she currently held.

"Well, I guess we'll go to the city first. Just see what is actually going on here." Lorand states as his shoulders sink slightly, as he now knows Amelia literally is going to follow him wherever he goes now. Without another word, he quickly took off toward the nearest city on foot.

"Ah, wha-? We're leaving already?" Amelia charges off after the man she dubs "Master", trying to keep up with his sudden, fast pace.

After noticing that Amelia was trying to catch up with him, Lorand decided that he would have a little fun with her. Almost instinctively, he summoned his mount, Rummahl, and took off toward the city at lightning speed. Let's see how fast she can run. Lorand quickly set his course for the nearby city Araldyne, and decided to go to the nearest bar. He was curious how the alcohol tasted.

What? What is this? A trial of some sort? Amelia slows down her pace. Lorand would sometimes do this to her back when they still existed in the Alternate Reality. Running off without a word and leaving her to fend for herself. She's not sure as to why he'd present this challenge to her now of all times, but she's sure that he's leaving in good faith for her.
"So that's how it is, huh, Master Lorand? Huhuhu, I won't dissapoint."
Thinking back, in several of her quests, she contacted an organization called The Hidden Mystics of Garrandale. Garrandale is a city north-north-east of Araldyne, and the Mystics, as suggested by the name, are a hidden organization based in Garrandale directly opposed to the vile Assembly of Silence. Such an organization is bound to have informants and spys that can aid in her journey.
"Then, I guess it's decided. To Araldyne! Then, to Garrandale!" Draumatically, she sets her course, and starts walking.
Staying on course to Araldyne didn't prove to be much challenge, considering that the great warg Rummahl didn't exactly try to hide its tracks. However, along the way, Amelia noticed a small, lost looking beastkin girl wandering about the plains. Tsk, tsk, Master Lorand. I know you were in a hurry to accomplish whatever it is you set off to do, but you can't just leave such a small girl all alone. And so, she changes her course and walks up to the beastkin girl.
"Fear not, small one! For I, Amelia have arrived, and shall hear out your troubles!" Though she calls her "small one", in truth, Amelia is not much taller than the beastkin girl.

[[A follow up from me and Wolfmaw's post]]

While Lorand had originally planned to go into Araldyne, he quickly changed his mind when he heard the infernal noises inside the city. The place was in a riot, with people running all over the place, screaming their heads off. He would try and calm the other players down, but he doubted that his word would mean much. So he decided that rather than listening to the screams of the collected players for any longer, he'd head to one of his old hang out spots, the small inn outside outside of the west gate of Araldyne, called the Wagon Wheel. The whole reason he hung out there was because it was not a very well-known location, and he could hang out with friends in private or just get some quiet time. He hopped back on Rummahl and swiftly headed toward the inn. When he got there, he simply sat down and ordered a drink from the bartender NPC, who for some reason had a bewildered and surprised look in his eyes. Lorand didn't know why he was looking at him like this, but he simply ignored it and enjoyed his drink.

While drinking, his mind drifted off a bit. He actually thought about what that silly girl Amelia was doing, and if she had actually followed him. However, his thinking was interrupted by a sound coming from right in front of him. It was the bartender, who was garnering for his attention. The man asked "Your name is Lorand, right?". Lorand, more than a little bit shocked, simply answered "Umm... yes. That is my name. But how do you know my name?". The question seemed a little silly, but the fact that the bartender knew his name piqued his curiosity. The bartender responded "Well, you come around here pretty often, so I just happened to pick it up while eavesdropping." Lorand was rather intrigued by the response. This meant that the NPCs had a capacity to remember events before the recent patch. This means that he probably is, all in all, pretty well known by now, considering how he has completed every quest in the game up until the new content. The bar keep left as he was saying the words "Well, enjoy your drink sir." and left Lorand by himself once again. After some more thought about what he had discovered, he decided he would relax in the Wagon Wheel for a little bit.

---

Marcus had went to bed early the previous night so he could wake up early so he could start the patch download as early as he could. For the first time in a long time he was truly excited about something. He had spent the whole morning prepping snacks and drinks, and scheduling bathroom breaks. He had just finished making queso when he heard the alert on his computer go off that the patch was done downloading. "Holy crap that was huge!" He thought when he saw the size of the file. "No wonder it took so long." Marcus' inner ten year old then laughed at the possible "That's what she said" joke before sitting down and anxiously signing in to his account. He was awestruck at the new layout as he clicked to log into his Level 5 Dwarf, Jethro.

That was then things started to get really really really weird. His office seemed to faze out of existance before his body suddenly felt weightless before everything suddenly went dark. Marcus then opened his eyes as he jolted back into consciousness like waking up from a falling dream. His breath erratic he took in his surroundings. He was sitting on the ground in what seemed like a cave. It what looked to him what the inside of The Killigan Family Mine shaft whould look like if he were actually there, but that was impossible. Wasn't it? He then lifted arms that weren't his, watched fingers move under his command that weren't his, and feel facial features that weren't his. At least they weren't supposed to be his. He then stood on legs that weren't his, and that's when he officially freaked.

"I'M FUCKING JETHRO! WHAT THE HELL!" Screamed the dwarf when he realized how short he was compared to what he used to be. His voice echoing in the cavern causing dust to unsettle and fall from the cave ceiling. In the real world Marcus was a little over six feet tall. Now, Jethro is just barely over four feet tall. Although he is wider, thicker, and heavier than he used to be somehow it all seemed natural. He just couldn't get over how short he was now. That would take some time. So with it all starting to sink in he reached over his right shoulder to grab what he had equpped. If he remembered correctly he was farming ore for a quest and had his pickaxe equipped.

It wasn't there. He could feel the weight of it. but the hilt wasn't there. He looked over his left shoulder. There it was. Did the game seriously take into consideration he was left handed? In fact in the real world Marcus was indeed left handed naturally, but he grew an affinity for being ambidextrous for video games. Scoffing he grabbed the pickaxe and hefted it from it's sheath. Oddly enough it felt right, no, completely natural in his hands. Then he remembered the racial bonuses he took into consideration when he picked his first skills. Dwarves have natural affinity to hammers and because of their ancient history being know as miners have an innate knowledge of the craft.

It was then he had an idea. Stepping up to the node he had last been working on Jethro took a swing at it with his pickaxe. All of a sudden a tune he recognised started playing in his head. It was the tune to the rhythm minigame you played to mine. As it appraoched the first verse a tiny light started to appear on the node pulsing to the beat of the song. When it grew brightest Jethro struck it in time to the tune. He loved rhythm games. It was the second reason he chose mining. So swinging and striking and digging along Jethro bobbed to the beat until it was over and a hologram box popped up in front of him. It startled him at first then he realized, how else would they impliment the menus?

He reached for the box when he remembered the game probably registered him as left handed for the menus too. So he switched hands and opened the box. Another interface appeared reveiling what he dug up. A dozen chunks of iron ore, a few chunks of copper ore, and a small raw piece of quartz. He placed them in his bag then returned his pickaxe to his back. Another prompt appeared that said his quest was complete and gave him directions to who he needed to turn the items in to. Jethro accepted the prompt and it dissapeared. He knew where that was. Warehouse district, Aberlyne. He was nearby. Kiligan Mine was in the foot hills outside the west of town. Finally figuring out how to manully access the menus Jethro switched weapons for just in case he ran into trouble along the way and summoned Twinkle, his boar companion. He pet the young female on the forhead before heading off to the city blissfully unaware of the awaiting chaos.

---

Emily was kind of excited, sure she wasn't a huge fan of MMORPGs but this one was interesting, and she couldn't wait to check it out and see if the patch was as awesome as it sounded. Relaxing back into her chair she waited for what felt like hours for the patch to go through. And when it finally did, she waited anxiously as the progress bar loaded.

What happened next, stole the breath right out of her chest.



She was not in the game, this was not, could not be possible. Breathing deeply, she looked backwards, and sure enough it was the shop she dropped the loot from grinding at. She was Aberlyne. But that was impossible, screaming she fell to her knees. What the hell was going on.

Looking around wildly, she was freaking out. Jumping up she ran out of town and into the nearby forest.

---

Hours later, once she had exhausted her stamina running and fighting, she found herself near some mountains. Not knowing where she was, she fell to the ground in a heap and waited for the world to make sense again.

With a pile of wolf corpses at her feet, Melia let out a huge sigh and wiped the few sweat drops that had formed off of her forehead. It was likely just a pack of wolves that had attacked her, but the fact that they were roaming close to the city probably meant that something more was amiss about this whole situation than she entirely anticipated. After Araldyne had moved up from a trading post into a town, players left and right had worked to clear out the area and deal with the mobs as the NPCs did their thing. That also meant setting up guards to patrol the area. So then why...?

"...This is too strange," she said to herself quietly as she flicked the blood off her katana (was there ever blood in the game? She didn't think so...) and sheathed it back into its scabbard before looking around. The chaos in Araldyne seemed like it would persist a while longer, which meant that, more likely than not, she would be better off looking elsewhere for the moment for relatively-calm people.

"Now, where could I go for that, though...?"

Pulling up the minimap with a few motions of her hand, Melia glanced at the area from above. She was just outside the western gate, which was a few miles off from the base of Rolu Mountain. The journey would take a while, and since she wasn't sure if this was a 'death game' or not, decided against heading there straight away. After all, throwing her life away in a situation like that would be... Incredibly stupid.

Off to the side, though, there was one location that piqued her interest; that little inn, the 'Wagon Wheel' or whatever it was called. If there was any place just as reliable to gather information from in RPGs when compared to bars, it'd have to be inns. Of course, that was assuming the NPCs didn't just spew stock phrases in her face, but at this point she'd take all the knowledge she could get.

---

The walk over had taken about fifteen minutes, mainly because Melia had figured out how to use her 'Flash Step' skill after the first ten attempts or so had resulted with her face-first in the ground (thank GOD nobody was watching). The inn, rustic as it was, seemed to be relatively lively even at this hour. Whether it was from panic or actual joviality, well... She'd find out soon enough.

Carefully opening the door, Melia was relieved to find that the inn/bar (how convenient! Two bird with one stone!) was simply lively. Though most of the people there seemed to be NPCs given their clothing of choice, there was one person that caught her attention; she had seen him many a time on the various endgame raids during her last few months of play. Swiftly moving to take a seat near him, Melia flagged down the barkeep for a simple cup of water with ice before turning to the man clad in armor. Though she usually wasn't one to be proactive, now was a good a time as ever to start.

"...Lorand, right?" she asked, looking him over. "That armor seems... A lot more intimidating in person."

"... Ah...?"

Kirika blinked several times when... it was a fairy girl, that was certain, spoke to her. For a few moments she fidgeted awkwardly. Normally she wasn't so shy around people, but, well... this whole situation was crazy, and weird, and... what was she supposed to say to foreigners again? Unless she could tell what they wanted, she didn't know any languages very well aside from Japanese. She had some extremely basic English knowledge, but her ability to speak it was absolutely not a strongsuit. For a few moments she hesitated, her ears twitching slightly, unconsciously, as she shuffled her feet.

"Ai... do notto no... eigo!" she managed, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. It was a little embarrassing, and especially in this situation, where talking to someone was really important! But hopefully the fairy girl could help somehow in spite of this? She hoped so...

---

Gah, it was just too loud here! Grumbling to herself, Fujiko shoved through several people who had recently appeared, stomping off to find somewhere it was more likely Kirika could hear her voice. This wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. Kirika was last in one of the early areas, grinding away at monsters, but if she had come here... There was no question of it, Fujiko had to find her and she had to find her as soon as possible. She was alone, and probably scared, and in this place... what if she got hurt? What would that even be like here?!

"Kirika-chan! It's onee-san, you don't have to be scared!" she called. And if someone was messing with her little sister... She had the Spark Blade. It'd be a good time to try it out in this... weird mashing of real life and Untold Eternity, wouldn't it? If Kirika couldn't hear her, though... there was a bar up ahead. Maybe someone in there had seen her! Fujiko sprinted up to the bar's door, grabbed it, and wrenched it open without even a moment's pause. Who gave a crap about being calm? Not in this situation. Not when Kirika might be in danger!

"Oi oi oi!" she called. Her hand traveled to the collar of the first person she saw, and she pulled them closer to her, staring them directly in the eyes.

"If you've seen a little white-haired beastkin mage girl with a bladed staff and a hat then tell me right now because she's my sister and if you've seen her and you don't tell me I'm going to show you what real pain feels like!"

Perhaps attempting to question people under such a severe temper was not the best idea.

---

Amelia blinked when she heard what the small beastkin had said. Well, that certainly makes my job a lot harder. BUT! A little language barrier will not stop me from helping this little girl! A cool wind blows across, causing the grass to sway silently as Amelia tries to think of how to try calm the girl down. She could tell that the girl was nervous about something from all the fidgeting she was doing. Suddenly, she points at the girl, and begins to say something, but she quickly lowers her hand and starts scratching her head as she figures out what to say.
"Ka-, ka? Kaa... kuu... Ah! こわいで, eh, de-できないで...? Uhh, あたしが... ehh... ki- kii- kimii, uh きました? Yeah!"
She points at the girl again, brimming with confidence.
"こわいでできないで! あたしが きました!"
Honestly, Amelia doesn't know how to speak Japanese. Like, at all. Fortunately, she was able to pick some things up from watching anime. However, it's not like she's ever taken a class, so she could only just barely manage a sentence, and even then the grammar was broken as hell. But, despite the absolutely awful attempt at speaking Japanese, Amelia crosses her arms and a confident smile spreads across her face as she waits for a response from the beastkin girl.

---

Lorand had simply been sitting there in the Wagon Wheel for quite some time now. He had been contemplating this whole event, and how and why it had transpired when he heard someone ask him "Lorand, right?", which was all he heard. He had a certain talent for phasing out any unnecessary noise, but he couldn't really ignore the mention of his name. Without saying anything at first, he turned toward the source of the voice. It was another player character, a girl with pink hair who was wearing Japanese clothing of some sort. Upon closer examination, he noticed the person in question was very high level themselves. Finally, someone possibly competent. After a delay, he responded to the girl "Yes, that is my name. Why do you ask?"

But just as the girl was about to answer, he heard a bit of a commotion outside, loud enough to get past his selective hearing. all he could really hear was some very angry sounding girl screaming like a banshee. Whatever was happening out there, it most certainly was not peaceful, and it would probably be a good idea to intervene, even if it is troublesome. As such, he looked at the girl from earlier and said " Why don't we save the introductions for later? We should probably calm down that situation outside first. Wait here one second." Without even waiting for a response, Lorand got up from his seat and started going outside.

What he saw when he went outside was about what he expected. Another player character was grabbing the collar of a NPC and yelling right into his face. This one was another girl, this time in a much more westernized outfit. To Lorand, she looked like a pirate. Either way, this person was considerably lower level than him, and he didn't feel like trying to reason with them, so he took a much more direct approach. He simply walked up, broke the two apart, picked up the small girl, dragged her into the bar and sat her down at a table. The girl in question was resisting Lorand's actions quite admirably, but he was strong enough that it didn't really matter. Before going back over to the high-level girl from earlier, he asked the Bartender "Give this little girl something that'll knock her right out for me, will ya? I'll pay for it." He then managed to get back over to the pink-haired girl, and simply asked "So you know me, but who are you exactly?".

Before Melia could follow up her question from earlier, Lorand stood up and, seemingly without reason, picked up a rowdy guest to the bar and... Plopped her down right next to her before ordering her a drink. Wouldn't alcohol be one of the worst things to give someone that angry, though? And the way she was treated by him...

The Japanese shouting she heard was coming from this girl; there was no question about that. But given that the girl seemed quite irritable, Melia assumed it might be best to try and calm her, at least before she continued to discuss anything with the armor-clad player to her left.

"Hey. Threatening people isn't going to help, especially when almost nobody else can understand Japanese," Melia stated calmly in Japanese, looking at the girl before calling off the bartender pouring a drink. Given the way she was acting, alcohol of any sort would likely cause them more harm than good... Especially if it was likely going to be her that had to disarm the angry girl. "You should have access to the friends list if you mess around with the stuff at the bottom right corner of your field of vision. Try contacting her through that instead of trying to raise hell. Please."

With that said, Melia sighed and turned back to Lorand, hoping that a rage-filled swing wasn't coming at the back of her head. Given that she had now clue how pain would register, it was probably best to hope for at least that much.

"Ah... Well, my criticism of your methods can wait. You can call me Melia. You've probably seem me around on a few raids before; more often than not, I'm playing melee DPS against the bosses, so I tend to see you as much as you would me... I'd hope. By the way, I never got to thank you for saving me on that Verax run; mission would've been lost if you didn't tank that spider web for me. Also netted me the silk needed for a durability upgrade on this ribbon, so thanks for that, too." Melia stated, a smile on her face before her drink arrived. With a quick sip of that, though, the light-haired girl's smile turned a bit bitter as she remembered the situation at hand.

"Well, I wish I could've done so under different circumstances, though. It's a lot more significant when you realize that we're all here in our current states, after all... And it sounds so much more petty when you realize that, as far as we know, their lives are our lives now. You saw the mess back in the city, right? Or heard it, at least? Everyone's in a panic, but nobody's got a clue as to what to do."

Sighing she shook her head and took another sip from her cup. The cold crispness of the water felt... Fresh, much cleaner than what tap she would drink otherwise. So it wasn't simply an illusion after all...

"On that note, though, loitering around and freaking out's one of the worst routes of action to take. I want to go head out and gather information, and since the friend list network exists, that information can be spread rapidly from person to person. Someone else can compile it, but first, what we don't know should be explored. Rolu Mountain's first on my list, but I'm not quite sure what's been added. You got something to deal with first? Or would it be fine to go explore the area with me, first?"

"... Eh...?"

All Kirika could do was give a rather blank expression in return. She was certain that had been an attempt at Japanese, but it was so confusing and poorly worded, not to mention the bad pronunciation, that the young girl had absolutely no clue what was attempting to be conveyed. Her ears twitched lightly as she tried to parse just what she had heard from all the gibberish and confusing nonsense. Don't have the ability to be scary...? Kirika never exactly thought of herself as particularly scary, that was for certain. Gripping her staff with both hands, she looked down for a few moments, then looked back up. This girl was trying, so... so she could try to understand!

"I won't be scary!" she said, firmly, before pausing a moment. She should say it in English if she's trying her hardest to understand, right? After all, this girl was trying to speak to her in Japanese, and she clearly didn't know it!

"Ai... notto sukarei!" Kirika declared triumphantly, a confident look of success upon her face.

---

To say that Fujiko was angry when someone suddenly picked her up and placed her at the bar was an understatement. The brown-haired girl was absolutely furious, silent with disbelieving rage. Who the hell would think that was a good idea? When she was sat at the bar, she had a good chance to see what his level was. That high? No, she didn't care. He was interfering with her trying to get to her sister. When the bartender, who now seemed to be a real and rather surprised person instead of an NPC, brought a tanker of some kind of alcoholic drink over to her, she proceeded to swat it to the ground.

In fact, the only thing that stopped Fujiko from letting loose was when the pink-haired girl spoke to her, in Japanese, telling her the man in armor didn't understand(indirectly) and how to contact her little sister. For a moment, relief soared through her heart, and then was promptly crushed.

"... That would be great," she replied, rising to her feet once more, "If I hadn't had her turn off her notifications to avoid some bastard bullying younger players until the mods or me could lay into him."

Fujiko jerked a thumb towards the man.

"If this asshole touches me again, I don't give a damn what his level his, I'm going to find some way to hurt him," she added. To be honest, she didn't know how that would work, but hey, there were places you could stab someone that wouldn't kill them, right? Regardless, her reactions were quite a bit harsher due to her concern for her little sister. "Now screw that, have you seen a little white-haired beastkin girl? Dog type, mage, she has one of the bladed staffs and the beginner mage gear!"

---

As Jethro walked down the mountain path he noticed the unusual spawn rate of the local mobs. What was usually a tawdry walk in the hills was now an epicenter of wolves and carrion birds. Trying his best to stay in the middle of the road Jethro just couldn't pass up the chance for free experiance. So keeping an eye out for any straglers Jethro finally found his target. About a dozen yards or so behind it's pack a solitary grey wolf became Jethro's pray. "Okay Twinkle we have to take her down before she activates her Call For Family. Ready? GO!" Ordered the dwarf to his boar companion. Running into the nearby field the wolf was patroling Jethro and Twinkle charged in. Twinkle landed the first blow a devastaing gore into the ribcage of the canine. The wolf then whipped around snapping it's jaws latching onto Twinkles neck. "Oh no you don't sweetheart!" Cried the dwarf has he swung his hammer down with a sickening thud onto the wolf's back. The wolf released and shuffled back. It lowered his head flattening its ears and growled bafore taking a big breath. "Nope can't have that. You just hush your pretty mouth." Said the dwarf setting up his back swing as the first of the wolf's howl began to leave it's mouth. Before it could finish it was cut off by a gnarly crunch as Jethro struck it with a nasty golf swing attack. The canine fell over dead then disintgrated in an explosion of data. The menu popped up in front of him showing him what he had looted. Just the usual. Wolf pelt, wolf meat, and a wolf tooth. He got a small boost in experiance and Twinkle gained her first level. Nothing special. So the two of them moved on continuing to grind out some experiance. They were about half way to Aberlyne when they came across a female human in black wielding a scythe on the road. Scythe wielder? Must be pretty high level. Thought the dwarf. Approaching her he smiled and waved. "G'morning mon cherie! Don' tell me a pretty ting like you is stuck in teh game too. Awful shame, but what you gonna do? Anyway, where are my manners? My name Jethro, Jethro Roranson here, but back home It's Marcus. Pleasue to meet you! So, what's a high level gal doing in these parts?" He asked after introducing himself. His accent was thick with french creole background.

---

As Lorand listened to Melia talk, he thought about if he had seen the name before. It definitely rang a bell, but he had played with so many players at this point that he hadn't put in much effort to remember their names. After all, there were some people he partied with that he NEVER wanted to know the names of. Players who were far worse than his friend Amelia, and being that bad at an MMO should be an achievement in it's own. However, what little he did remember of her was positive, if he was remembering the right person. Because of that, he actually listened to her proposal intently.

After hearing what she had to say, she saw where she was coming from. No one actually knew what was going on in this new 'world' they were in, and some investigation would have to be done. He decided he would help out this person. Besides, he had been extremely bored for the past hour and needed some actual competent people to work with for later. Out of curiosity, he took out the map and noticed that the mountain had indeed been unblocked as she said. This sent his curiosity rampant, he really wanted to see what the hell was up there as well. When Melia was finished, Lorand promptly turned to her and spoke.

"Sure, I have nothing else better to do. I'll help you out."

While all this was happening though, he still felt a rather brooding presence in the room. While not as upset as she was before, the girl he had brought inside was still clearly enraged. He even felt quite a bit of this rage targeted at him, even though he couldn't make eye contact. That probably wasn't a good idea right now. Still, he did feel a little bad about dragging her in here like a rag doll, and decided he should do at least something to make that up to her. Seeing that she probably didn't speak English, he once again looked at Melia and spoke again.

"Also, why is she so angry exactly? We should probably solve this problem before we go exploring, and I do feel like I owe her a little apology."

---

Wiping her tears away Emily...no...Laurel Greenethorne started to berate herself. "Is this all you're made of? One silly little thing happens and you fall to pieces? What happened to being a strong independent woman and all that? No, this is not ok. Time to grow some ovaries.

Getting up Emily...again no Laurel, gotta remember she's Laurel now. And Laurel is definitely a strong independent woman. Her last name is Greenethorne. Thorn is in the name, obviousy that means she's not some wilting lily who falters in the face of...whatever the hell this is.

Heading towards the road, she noticed a heavy amount of wolves spawning. 'This is the heaviest spawn rate for monsters I have ever seen' she mused thoughtfully. Approaching the beasts, a pack of wolves headed right for her, picking up the scythe, she swung it with surprising skill, unbidden a word came to her lips, "sweep" and she swung the blade through the group of them, feeling it bite into them, left a feeling of power in her very bones.

Finishing out the swing, she brought it back and cut one of the beast in half. Continuing her barrage of attacks, she quickly cleared the field. Excited she laughed loudly. Jumping around she headed down the road.

Waving and smiling the dwarf approached and introduced himself. "G'morning mon cherie! Don' tell me a pretty ting like you is stuck in teh game too. Awful shame, but what you gonna do? Anyway, where are my manners? My name Jethro, Jethro Roranson here, but back home It's Marcus. Pleasure to meet you! So, what's a high level gal doing in these parts?"

Shock spread across Emily's face, the dwarf had a creole accent...say what now? This man is a character all right. listening to him talk was an interesting experience, but she caught on to what he was saying.

"Do you know what's going on? Because I'm honestly so lost right now." Blushing she ducked her, "my name is Emily...wait...my name is Laurel Greenethorne, my real life name is Emily. And am I a high level character? I think this was my brother's account. So I don't know how to do anything or check my stats"

Shrugging her shoulders, Em...Laurel waited patiently for his response, rocking on her heels.

---

Alright! First contact: success! It seems that this small girl is not completely clueless about English, but "I'm not scary"? It could still use a little work. Completely unaware of the misunderstanding that has been set in motion, Amelia continues to rack her brain for what little Japanese she has picked up from the various anime she had seen throughout her life. But as she is somewhat lost in thought, she hears the distant pattering of paws. Lots of them, but not quite as heavy as Master Lorand's mighty warg. Must be some low-level wolves. How foolish of them to confront me. I doubt I'm even going to have to use my specialty. Amelia lets her confident smile drop into a more serious expression, and tells the little beastkin girl to wait.
"まって."

The wolves finally enter her view, about six in total. This should be no problem for me to handle. If I recall correctly, the monsters around here should be around level 5 or so, reaching about level 9 at maximum. The main problem is this girl. I haven't tested my powers out in actual combat yet, so I don't know if I can properly cover for her. Regardless of her worries, Amelia knows that she still has to try regardless. She holds out her right hand, palm facing skyward, and, like a fountain of grey energy, unleashes a torrent of normal, unmodified magic missiles. Thirty of them to be exact. Five for each wolf. Each of them flying either up or outwards in a random direction before arcing towards their respective targets. Oho? Targeting is much easier now than when I had to use the Conduit to control my body. I merely imagine which target is which, and the spell automatically locks on for me. How convenient. Amelia can't help but smile at this realization, and figures that the matter of protecting the girl is no longer an issue.

One of the wolves pounce towards the girl, but is quickly beset upon by the magic missiles, and each part hit explodes into gorey chunks of meat and bone. Each of the other wolves meet a similar fate, as they are all thoroughly ground into a meaty paste by the magic missiles. Upon seeing this, Amelia's smile once again vanishes, and is replaced by a look of pure confusion. Well. That was unexpected to say the least. Normally the bodies dissapear upon death. Regardless, the problem has been dealt with, and so Amelia turns towards the beastkin girl once more...
"あぶないです. いくわよ." ...And tells her that it's dangerous and that they should get moving.

"Er... Well, the region here was meant to be accessed by those who were level 20 and up, so I'd assume that she wouldn't be here if she's wearing the beginner set. So... I'm sorry, but no, it's likely I haven't seen her at all. My apologies." Melia stated, bowing in apology before taking a moment to go over that which had been stated earlier. "But... Given your comments, I can kind of estimate her level of strength. There's only a few areas where she could be, assuming she isn't in the beginner town or either of the two villages nearby...

With that said, Melia opened up her minimap and began to manipulate what was in front of her. The northern region had considerable land for agriculture, which was mainly in part due to all the plains and rivers that came to and fro from them. The most logical regions would be...

"Here and here. If she isn't in town, then it's likely that she'd be around here on some sort of request from the townsfolk nearby. Because, you know, quests. Worst comes to worst, I'll help search with you."

With that statement completed, Melia turned to Lorand and, without a break in tempo, explained the dilemma at hand. The fact that a ten-year old was in this game might actually have been a more pressing matter; since it wasn't known if people could die or not, there was still the possibility that the first life could be lost... Which would, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, cause all hell to break loose. Until either possibility could be ascertained, it was of the utmost importance to keep as many people alive as possible.

"So, um... With my explanation, we might have a bit more of a problem on our hands if we let a child experience death. I don't think it'd sit very well with any of us, so I'd recommend we go and help find this girl's sister before scouring the mountain. I've already narrowed down the possible area she could be in right now," she explained, showing him the map in front of her. "If we use a mount, the travel time shouldn't be drastically long, and since the region is well known, it could also help give clues as to how the world has changed recently..."

"Oh, right! She also said that if you touch her one more time, she'll try to find a way to hurt you. I don't know how she'd be able to do that through your armor, but she seems to be really irritated over your earlier actions. Maybe it would've been better to let me diffuse that situation earlier, but I digress."

---

After hearing the explanation of the small Japanese girls anger, Lorand couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.

"Oh, so she's going to hurt me, is she? She sure is a fiery little one."

The statement she made, all in all, was absolutely ludicrous, but he could tell that the girl was totally serious. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing though, in fact the girl's determination was a virtue if anything, even if it was directed the wrong way. Either way, she would probably calm down if they found her little sister, and if she didn't, he wasn't really scared of her anger. If she actually did try and hurt him, she would hurt herself because of the ring of thorns, and even one strike of Lorand's sword would probably bring her to critical health, not counting the DoT.

Either way, he could think about that later. For now, they had a little sister to save. Lorand pulled up his own map and looked at the area that Melia had described. He turned and spoke to Melia.

"Well, if this is the area where that girl's sister is, it shouldn't take us too long to get there. In fact, it might not even take us-"

Lorand very suddenly stopped speaking, as he realized something that could potentially be a problem. Plain and simple, Amelia was in the area. This was frightening to him because Amelia is not someone you would want taking care of small children. Even through the helmet, it was obvious that his expression turned to one of horror as he imagined the bad influence Amelia could be on a young kid. She would probably make the girl just like her, some who constantly role plays and doesn't acknowledge their actual existence. Lorand could deal with one Amelia, but he definitely could not deal with Amelia plus a pint-sized version of herself. He gave Melia a very grave expression and just said.

"We need to leave. Right now. That girl's sister is in a type of danger you couldn't even imagine."

After that, Lorand started packing up his stuff and got ready to ride towards the girl's sister at max speed.

She didn't exactly get what was going on at this point. The older girl's Japanese was so broken it was hard to understand. When the wolves appeared, Kirika hesitated only slightly before stepping forward. Sure, this was... real now, but if it was like the game she could take them! ... And before she could, the other girl rather violently killing them all. That was... unexpected... and gross and kind of freaky. Kirika stared blanky at the rather gory remains of the wolves, shifting her her feet and clutching her staff. The girl said... something else kind of broken again.

"... Er... o-okay..." she said, finally, guessing she meant to go somewhere else that had less enemies. What did that mean exactly? After a few moments, something dawned on Kirika. What if her big sister wanted to find her? Maybe, if the other girl was trying to take her somewhere, it would be somewhere that her big sister could find her more easily! Trusting strangers was bad usually, but this situation was quite a bit different than usual.

"Habu tu... rouku onee-chan!!" she said, hoping it came across correctly. That would mean that the other girl could help her find a place Fujiko could get to her too!

---

The pink-haired girl reminded her of a few important facts. Chief among them was there was no real way for Kirika to get here on her own. At least, provided this was still like a game, which it... seemed to be if there was some kind of menu you could contact people through just like in the game, and if everyone still had levels. She folded her arms when she heard the bigger guy chuckled, giving him a rather intense glare. Hurting a player who was several times your level be too far off hurting a boss that was several times your level, right...? But she choked back her anger, barely. This wasn't the time for that kind of thing. Not at all.

"I'm going then," she said, flatly, rounding towards the door. She didn't exactly know what the big guy was doing now, but if he wanted to come and stopped acting like an absolute ass then maybe it'd be fine. "I showed her those spots, so if she's still there I can find her."

---

@OneStoryToMany

Jethro raised a brow in confusion. Wasn't it obvious what was going on? His confusion turned to delight as she continued to mention she didn't know how to work the menus. He smiled then chuckled before he spoke again. "Well, it would seemed we were sucked into the game and put in the bodies of our avatars. Imagine my shock when I woke up in a dwarf's body when back home I'm over two foot taller. Anyway, pleasure to meet you Laurel. I assumed you were high level. Scythes take an exotic weapon profientiency. A mid game skill if I remember right. Menus are accessable by a swipe of your writing hand, like so." He explained as he showed her how to do it. The prompt screen popping up in front of him. He accessed the friend list and clicked "add nearby player". He then clicked Laurel's name. A prompt then popped up in front of Laurel asking if she would like to accept Jethro's request to be friends. "Since we're both technically new, care to be friends? No use in trying to survive this crazy place without one. Not when we don't know if we respawn or not." He said trying to be as encouraging with his words as he could.