The sudden shout from another large player who had just arrived caused Deneb to immediately straighten up, and given how loud the voice was she decided that it wasn't anything to be embarrassed flinching over. Despite her silence as the others spoke, however, the ninja was quietly taking in all of the information that people were spitballing at one another, one piece at a time.

There were far too many things to address at this point, starting from the mechanics of the world to what had and hadn't changed, but the one thing that stood out to her was the brazen announcement of a name and profession from the Ganondorf-lookalike.

"I... Will politely decline giving any personal information," she stated, her eyes drifting away from the group for a moment before she sighed and looked back at the group (which, as far as she could tell, had grown larger since she had last spoken).

"Well, if we're going to be gathering information, I suggest we split up," she began, fiddling with the menu as her gaze darted around rapidly. Soon after, a friend request would be sent to every other person present, and the ninja took a step back so as to not be crushed by the overwhelming atmosphere of the group.

"Under the pretense that we are splitting up, though, I would recommend that we all keep notes and make sure to contact one another reliably. I believe the memo function does still exist, though, so you can use that rather than wasting time and resources with paper," she said, closing her eyes to think before nodding. "This should be enough for now. That comment that the dragon over there made does strike me as important, however. If we presume to use Inarrel as a base of operations, then its safety is paramount. If anyone else wants to handle scouting the region for any changes rather than worry about setting up infrastructure or more down-to-earth information gathering, you are free to follow."

With the same sort of attitude and tone she used to explain a raid to any first-timers, Deneb stood by the others, back straightened and eyes forward. Even though she (as Jun) was no great orator, the way that everyone seemed to be taking the whole situation did feel a bit off to her. It was fine to be enthusiastic about the 'what-ifs' of the world, but if the slated update had gone through and there was an unknown end-game raid implemented near the town, well...

There'd be problems. Lots of problems.

@Anza@DocRock@Rabidporcupine@Bone Father@Saarebas

By this point, there were so many people talking, Viri couldn't keep track of them anymore. As minor revelations and eager suggestions were flung back and forth with wild abandon, a chorus of voices deep and high mixing amidst a menagerie of strange and colorful figures, she tried to pick out the key points.

Map and inventory. More functions that had been carried over to this world from the game. By this point, it seemed best to assume that anything a player could do in the game could carry over to the new world, which led to some intriguing possibilities. Can we control volume? What about cheating— will 'bots' and 'hacks' have carried over, or can they be replicated? It was reassuring, at least, that the dragon man in particular seemed to know a lot about the game's background story; that could come in handy when it came to positioning themselves within this new world.

From the sound of it, food and drink here worked more or less like they did elsewhere, and would probably be just as necessary for health and survival. 'Danongorf' seemed set on seeing to that need. Following his initial suggestion came volunteers for his cause, along with some other possible courses of action.

Viri's train of thought was suddenly interrupted as a screen suddenly flashed into existence before her eyes. A... friend request? Tentatively, she reached out with one finger and prodded the [ACCEPT] button. The screen flashed, now showing a green check mark next to the name 'Deneb' and a small thumbnail of the associated avatar. So this is how the game functions work in this world...

"So," she said, managing to get a few words in amidst the flurry of conversation, "what I'm hearing is that we want to divide into primary groups, to handle our immediate concerns? One to hunt for food and make sure we don't go hungry, another to scout the landscape for possible clues or problems." Using the libraries was a good suggestion as well, but trawling through whatever texts they held seemed less urgent than observing the immediate situation, the lay of the land.

"In that case," she said, walking to Deneb's side, "I'll follow you. My character isn't much good at hunting or physical labor, but I'm interested to see if there are any exceptions to our current knowledge— places this world differs from the game we knew." The mention of safety struck her as important as well. If she really did have all her character's former abilities, then her talents would be well-suited for safeguarding against threats and keeping everyone alive.

@PKMNB0Y@DocRock@Rabidporcupine@Bone Father@Saarebas

---

Yjarl's thunderous voice was silenced just as quickly as it erupted from him as it was greeted with a kind, but very prompt request that he control his volume. "Oh I'm sorry, just happy to see that there are other people. Well I mean people people you know?" The blue giant said as he dawned a friendly grin and looked over the group. Normally he wouldn't of just barged into the conversation like he did, but given the circumstances they were all in Yjarl felt like it was for the best that he made sure he was involved with other people in the same trapped in a different world boat. By the look of things this conversation had been going on for a bit even before he had arrived, sending a slight sense of guilt to Yjarl's stomach that he quickly managed to push aside and recompose himself. What he could gather though was that they were all talking about how this new world work as compared to the real one. Everyone putting in their two cents of how it acted just like reality, just with a few added game features like virtual menus. Luckily, or rather unluckily, Yjarl had managed to come to these same conclusions through his bumbling.

"If we're sticking with just our character names you all can just call me Yjarl, it is a real time saver. If I would of known I was going to end up as my character one day I would of gave him a simpler name." Yjarl said with a slight chuckle. Though by the looks of things he wasn't the only one with a slightly funny name, he really apricated the obvious Ganondorf word play. In the middle of his thought about names he heard a slight ping before a screen popped up in front of his face, sending a slight jolt through his massive frame. "That is going to take some getting use to." He said half to himself as he read over the text. It was a friend request, it seemed that this world was definitely more game like than he expected. Yjarl tentatively reached out one of his massive fingers to press the accept button, half expecting it to simple go through the screen. As he clicked the button a small chime played as it showed the friend request was expected. "Man all of this is pretty trippy."

As he moved his attention back to the group it seemed that the majority wanted to start splitting up into smaller teams to start trying figure things out. The Orc character proposed that Yjarl join up with him in a small hunting guild of sorts to help supply food. "That sounds awesome! I'd love to lend a hand." Yjarl said as a large grin found its way onto his face. This was the type of quest Yjarl did all the time even before he was sucked into the game so he felt like he could slip into this role with no problem.

@PKMNB0Y@DocRock@Rabidporcupine@Bone Father@Anza

Indy had fallen silent after the others started talking, allowing them time to do what they needed to. It was only after all had seemed to, for the moment, quiet, that he decided to remark again. But first, he took in everyone again, processing all the folks around. Plenty of able bodied players. The given friend request was accepted, and the Artificer smiled gently.

"Alright, here's what I can do. I'll head to the library, read up, or head to the King of Chef's place first. Be an excuse to go exploring somewhere I haven't been before. Plus, I'll have to take inventory of what we all have."

Before anyone could possibly freak out at the idea of Indy going through their stuff, he lifted a hand, to stop them.

"I'm a lore junkie from the outside, so I know a fair bit, but there's a chance I don't know stuff. As for our stuff, if we're to protect the city, I need to know what we can bring to bear, and what I need to build as an Artificer. We're in the late middle ages, early Renaissance, if I remember the tech and culture level right. That's not including the new update, which, if it pushed us to the Enlightment, or even further, has its own worries."

He paused, thinking to himself, before resuming his words.

"Beyond being a lore junkie, I was a history student in the outside, transfer from the United States. Took some classes on ancient warfare, so if manual crafting works, and we can craft stuff without needing recipes, then I'm going to need Emerald Ganondorf here's castle, and all the crafters we can find. To build siege weapons, defensive weapons, and the like. If anyone here is secretly an engineer, come with me, we'll have to put our heads together."

It was quickly becoming apparent that perhaps Indy's reasons for being an artificer had less to do with say, the wealth it could bring, and more the desire to learn. After all, being an Artificer meant learning loads that might be overlooked by a casual player. All that said, he was clearly thinking long term, if he was discussing defenses and the like.

"Atop that, I'll need someone good in metalurgy. We know what the modern world is like, so we should try and improve our production tech base as fast as possible. But I think we all have the general picture. We need intelligence, so those who want to go ranging for information, good luck, some of us should go find other players, and calm them down. We'll also need teams to farm materials, be it combat oriented or resource gathering from the environment. Good luck, everyone."

Throughout this, his voice had been charismic in a sense, but not purposefully, more like it just was...there. Indy wasn't one to like leading if he could help it, but he could lead if the need arose. He was more...the behind the scenes type of guy when it came to group running. Either way, he'd decided to follow their version of Ganondorf around, and there was more he wanted to discuss one on one with the other, but it could wait till they got to the castle, if they went straight there. He'd have to stop by the Guild and tell Meg he was traveling to another guild's place, due to them losing their Artificer, and wanting to help. But enough of that, his desire to learn was getting the best of him. He'd try to do the friend request thing himself, so everyone present would, hopefully, after a few moments, get the pop up from the Artificer...

@Saarebas@Anza@Bone Father@Rabidporcupine@PKMNB0Y

@Bone Father@DocRock@Saarebas@PKMNB0Y

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good." Kai said, nodding at Shinons offer. "But, and this is just a possibility, do you think we could negotiate over a few of the pelts and heads every now and then? I get why you want to keep them, but a lot of monster pelts can be turned into armour and weapons, and the same goes for the fangs and stuff like that. Only if you agree, of course, and you'd obviously get first pick if you hunt it without the rest of us. But anyway, yeah! Welcome to the gang!"

He then turned to Yjari, his grin growing wider as he sent the giant a thumbs up.

"Nice! Glad you have you on the team! Especially with the first hunt I've got in mind!"

And then he looked to Indiana again.

"Oh, if you could, I'd appreciate it if you could come to Edenkyte first." He said. "I want you to come take a look at our workshop, see if there's anything you think we could borrow from Heavens Door. We were working on putting a library together before all... this... So yeah, you can use that if you want. We also have a few golems I made. It's gonna suck with how long it took to get all the stuff for them, but I shouldn't really need them to defend the fortress from adventurers anymore, so we could probably deconstruct about... let's say two of them. That should leave you with twenty pieces of Adamantine. And we do have a mine, along with a mining team, so I'll let them know to help you get whatever you need."

He paused for a moment after he finished speaking, wondering if he should mention Astra. After all, she was pretty unique even in the game, being created through a combination of their last Artificier and his efforts. Said Artificier, MagnetManFred, had also been the highest level player in the guild by far, sitting at the high-end of 87 compared to everyone elses 45-60 range. In essence, she was split three ways between sword, golem, and NPC, and he hoped it wouldn't seem too crazy for the others.

Then again though, keeping secrets from his guildmates would only make things difficult, and they all seemed trustworthy.

"Well, right now, other than my armour and cooking stuff, I have... Oh, seventeen recipe books. Forgot about those..." He said, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw them. "But that's not what I was going to say. My shortsword, Astra, is a little... unique, I guess? Astram say hi."

"Greetings. I am Astra,a blade golem created to serve Master Danongorf."

"Me and Manny made her using both normal npc creation and our character skills, so she's a little unique, but yeah... Oh, and before I forget!"

He quickly scrolled through his menu, sending friend requests to everyone, along with a message that showed the guild forts location on the map.

Once the groups had sorted themselves out (for the most part), Deneb gave a quick nod and a quick 'good luck' to the rest of the players before beginning to walk towards the town's eastern gate. It was a bit odd that more people hadn't joined along to explore and scout, but if infrastructure was a higher priority, there would be no complaints from her.

"Oh, I should do this before we leave," she remarked, casually sending a party request to the healer as she passed through the walls proper. There was a part of the ninja telling her to turn her head back and check physically to see if she was following, but if the party function worked like she was expecting then that wouldn't be necessary.

If it didn't... Well, she could skip over trying to see an indicator on the minimap and just turn around then rather than wasting time otherwise.

"Let me see if I remember properly... There are two stable mid-level dungeons situated to the northeast and southeast from here. The capital is further north, but that shouldn't be any worry while we're trying to secure the town. The only worrisome location near the town, then..."

"Viridian... Was it?" Deneb finally asked, stopping in place to examine the map she had laid out in front of her. "I'm going to head further east. It's off the main roads, so I'm expecting a lot of uneven terrain. Have you ever gone hiking, by any chance?"

It was a fair question, given that the ninja's shoes right now weren't exactly fit for traversing any sort of rough terrain. A change of shoes would be nice, but that would require leveling up a bit more...

@Anza

Ping! Ping! Ping! More requests kept popping up on Viri's little screen, replacing one another at fast as she could accept them. She made sure to look each one over before hitting any buttons, but there was nothing strange or suspicious in there, just more 'friend' links from the group at large and a party request from Deneb. The ninja girl wasn't wasting any time, it seemed.

She took her leave, and Viri moved to follow, offering a little wave of farewell to the hunting-and-infrastructure group. Even if they weren't all working directly together, to see this much cooperation so early on had raised her spirits. Yes, the situation was strange and possibly dire, but at least everyone was taking their own small steps to deal with it. The thought made her smile, if only for a moment.

Now a little more used to her avatar's long and slender legs, she quickly caught up to her party leader and peered over Deneb's shoulder at the minimap.

"Viridian... Was it?"

"Um." She paused to consider. "Well, yes, but that's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it? Call me Viri." A short nickname would be easier. And sounded cuter. Not that that last bit mattered. "And I've been hiking, but..." She glanced down at her body, and her clothes. Pretty shoes, thin legs, and hair long enough to trip over. Not an ideal combination, though at least she still had her staff to lean on.

"...but that was back in my original body, with proper gear, so I'm not sure how it would work out now." She frowned, staring into space. "Everything's carried over from the game, hasn't it? So 'attributes' might be one of those things. And my character's a support, so my endurance and stamina didn't get much focus." She bit her lip, still thinking. "Hmmm. If I can figure out how spellcasting works, I should be able to temporarily increase those?"

@PKMNB0Y

He nodded. What the other said regarding going back to the base first made sense. The promise of a library, a mine, and a variety of other factors had him internally excited, some of it visible in his eyes, but he did try to keep it restrained. The mention of Astra, followed by her voice, made Chris smile. The thought of learning how exactly she'd been made might help them later down the line, incase they tried to make new NPCs. If that was even possible now.

"Pleasure to meet you, Astra. Yeah, I'm good with heading to the fort first. We can talk more on the way, if we don't just teleport there."

Admittedly, Chris wasn't sure how far they'd have to travel, as the lack of rapid travel beyond magic to take one back to the heart of their guild(which might not work for him, given his status as a different guild member from the others), made things...difficult. The thought of Leonardo Da Vinci's works came to mind, such as his flying machine. Admittedly, it was probably beyond his own understanding to build, but the basic concept was there. He'd probably need to level a bit more, and then try to build a Mechanical Construct, something he'd read about, and idly, he wondered if Astra counted as one of those. Perhaps a Folding Boat too would be good down the line. They were a long ways from the technology base needed for certain key aspects of the original world...but enough of that, he'd worry about building faster means of old world transportation later.

"Ready when you guys are, also before I forget, let's not dismantle the golems until we're sure we won't need their strength. Push comes to shove, we can shove say, a stone golem into a catapult, and use that as a projectile, if they're cool with it."

He fell silent after that, indicating with a hand gesture he was ready to leave with Kai. He'd have to figure out what other items could be used to form contacts. Like if Sending Stones were a thing, he'd never made them if they were, but with NPCs as a factor...they'd be useful. A good multitasker is a scary person.

@Rabidporcupine

@Rabidporcupine @Anza@PKMNB0Y@DocRock@Saarebas

"I don't mind handing over pelts and heads I've already collected from monsters of the same species, but my goal is to collect at least one of each to keep as trophies. But sure, I'm definitely up for negotiations. Speaking of which, I have a pelt from a white stag if you're interested in it, not really a high level monster, but it is pretty rare so you could probably make some quality leather armor or a cloak from it, or you could just sell it. Either way, you can take a look at it if you're interested!"

Shinon found this arrangement to be more than acceptable, she had found a source of income for her hunting expenditures besides simply selling them to NPC's for market value. With actual players, she could negotiate prices... although now that this world had become real, was it possible that NPC's would accept haggling now? If that was the case, then Shinon would have to try it out at a later date, but for now she would focus on closing the business deal she had in front of here.

"Also, if we are sticking to character names, please call me Shinon. If we're splitting up to handle certain tasks, you can leave the scouting and gathering of food to me. I was a professional hunter back in the old world, so I know how to handle the wildnerness... well, forests and woods mostly, and mountains as well, but other than that I can't say for certain I'll be able to safely scout out more of the landscape. While I do scout, however, I'll make sure to hunt animals to gather for food and I'll be sure to take notes on what I see. I'll be sure to sell their pelts and heads to you as well!"

Shinon direct that last bit of information to hew newly established business partner. She was going to prove her usefulness to the group, that was certain. She just needed to stock up on arrows and rations and she would be all set to handle this world's wilderness... however, she needed to stay clear of areas with higher level monsters, while she could take down low level to medium level beasts without too much of a hassle, bigger and stronger monsters would prove to be more difficult on her own, thus she would need to be careful where she wandered.

She'd logged on just a little while ago, to meet up with friends and go on a dungeon raid. Not a literal raid, but they were going to run one of the dungeons, as sort of something to build up for the hype of the new expansion coming out. The mysterious nation of Klein... in the past, there had been both enemies and allies from the secretive theocracy. Their preachers were sometimes seen travelling the land, as well, as NPCs. There was a merchant from Klein as well, a little nun girl who was always happy to spread the holy joy of... high-priced items. High quality, rare items, but high-priced items none the less. She was popular, but also rumored to not be a very good nun due to her price-gouging. At the same time, she got a lot of fanart, and there was a mission where she actually fought with you as an ally and used powerful holy magic, which lead to a lot of fun lore speculation...

Basically, Megumi was excited to see what the rest of Klein had in store. One theory was that Klein had been taken over by an extremist faction, and that they were actually going to fight powerful bosses composed of the nation's military and inquisitorial arm, the White Scripture and the Black Scripture.

But theories were theories, and Megumi wasn't going to buy into wild speculation until she saw it first hand! She wasn't stupid, after all.

Indeed, leading up to the... event, she'd simply been waiting for her friends to log in and meet up with her. When she did this, sometimes she'd admire her character creation skills with pride. After all, her in-game avatar did look a lot like her real self, just more fanciful! It was something she was a bit smug about, though if she'd ever made a second account she would have made something quite a bit different from her real-life appearance.

And then it happened.

Megumi was no longer in her home, in her room. She was no longer wearing normal clothing. She was dressed as her in-game character. She was her in-game character.

And this... this was the square she'd been intending to meet with her friends at...

"... Wh-wh-what? No... no way, this... this only happens in anime! There's no way something so weird and stupid could happen in real life!" she shouted, mostly to herself, somewhat frantic. Raising one hand, she winced as she pinched her cheek. It had to be a dream, right?

... No, no it wasn't.

Somehow, she had been transported into the world of Emerald Odyssey.

The pride she had in her character creation skills became thankfulness: She was basically the same as she'd been in real life.

Perhaps if she'd known this would have happened, maybe she would have made her avatar taller and more mature...

Megumi shook her head, clutching her staff to herself.

"O-o-okay, so... so... m-maybe... other people... er..."

Trembling slightly, the small girl looked around... gaah, she didn't want to let anyone see her scared! She didn't just want anyone acting stupid or anything like that!

But... what was she supposed to do?

After taking a moment to compose herself and get the better of the sudden excitement brought on by the realisation that she'd just been transported into her favourite game, Hina stopped to assess the situation.

Immediately it was obvious that this wasn't just a part of the newest expansion, Emerald Odyssey wasn't a VRMMO and even if it was Hina was pretty sure no modern technology could create this kind of experience, certainly nothing commercially available, which left a number of possibilities open including, magic, aliens, the will of some mad god or some other conspiracy Hina was yet to consider.

Lifting up one of her cloaks sleeves, Hina watched to red mist begin slowly rising from her arm before quickly pulling the sleeve back down as a wave of lethargy washed over her and noting that while in the game her cloak would have protected her effects of sunlight simply as a result of being equipped it now needed to actually be in the path of the suns rays to take effect.

The change in this aspect of the game sparked even more questions for Hina as to what else had changed and how. What other changes where there to the way skills and abilities worked? How where skills even used now? Could a player train and improve independently from the skill system and could they be taught other classes skills? Did the NPCs now behave like people, where they conscious and where they aware or oblivious to their true nature? Had flavour text become literal and for that matter had the lore become literal, from memory there was some pretty epic level stuff in there? Most importantly how much more fun would it be to experience Emerald Odyssey in true first person?!

Even through some of the more worrying questions that came to mind, like those on death & respawning, Hina quickly found herself getting worked up with excitement around her own speculation, coming up with countless ideas and theories she vowed to test as soon as she got the chance. But first there where some more pressing matters, namely other players and securing a means of attending to her basic needs.

Eyes scanning about the town square Hina's gaze soon locked on to a trembling girl clutching a staff, who from her demeanour and the fact that she looked vaguely familiar, Hina guessed was probably another player she'd seen around some time before. Moving forward to stand in front of the girl Hina paused for a awkwardly long moment thinking of how to introduce herself.

'Hello, my name is Hina... No... Good Morning, will you be my friend... even worse... maybe as Chisuikoumori... perfect.'

Finally coming to her decision Hina closed what gap was left between her and the girl with far more confidence than she was normally capable of, striking a pose she deemed befitting of Chisuikoumori's character and silently willing her thaumaturgy spell to go off, which to her relief trigger causing her hood to fly back and her eyes to shine a brilliant red.

"Greetings, I am Chisuikoumori, greatest amongst vampires and Blood Knights."

Hina began to feel her face burning up as she suddenly became aware that interacting with real people in Emerald Odyssey now, was incredibly embarrassing, even while acting as Chisuikoumori. After pulling up her hood up to hide her face and hoping that the blood mist concealed her embarrassment Hina continued on, albeit with a little less confidence than previously.

"I'd like to inquire as to whether you current circumstances coincide with m-my own."

It had become Hina's turn to begin trembling, though she hoped the girl would fail to take notice.

@VitaVitaAR

Jared awoke with a start, bolting up into a sitting position with a disoriented yell, which tapered off into an agonized groan as he suddenly became aware of how sore he was. He reached to massage his aching lower back, only to be met with a muffled clang. Jared frowned. Then he noticed the sunlight intermittently gleaming through the foliage above him as it shifted in the wind. He was under a tree on a grassy rise, no sign of his apartment or downtown Tokyo, just rolling hills and fields with the occasional stand of trees, the walls of a town nearby, and a pleasantly warm breeze. He raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.
“Not New York, but I’ll take it.” His voice was different, he noticed. He also became aware of a weight on his shoulders when he shrugged, and something was poking him in the back of the head, and he still hadn’t figured out what made the clang-oh, full plate armor. And he was wearing a hat. And he had...a sword? Big one too.
“Cenadin. It’s Cenadin. I’m Cenadin?...Must be dreaming,” he mumbled. Everything seemed awfully clear and coherent for a dream, but that was still the best explanation. Alternatively, he’d been pulled into Emerald Odyssey, but that seemed highly unlikely.

Jared stood up, the aches in his body fading away rather abruptly. He set off down the hill at a steady lope. His movements felt free in natural, despite the weight of the armor, and most undreamlike. He broke into a full sprint down the hill. Still free and easy, not the running-in-waist-deep-water effect of most dreams. He stopped at the base of the hill as movement caught his eye, a slow moving brown something in the grass. A pig-no, a boar Jared corrected himself as he saw the creature’s tusks. As he looked at the boar, a yellow reticle popped up around the boar. Level 37 Boar-Neutral, it said, also displaying a red bar. That didn’t seem very dreamlike either.

Well, if he was Cenadin, dream or no, then he should be able to...he took a running start towards the boar and jumped. Luminous wings appeared above his shoulders and pulled him into the sky, then shifted and sent him hurtling down at the boar. “GET WREKT SCRUB” he yelled, and punched the boar directly across the face, even as the wings dissolved into golden motes that blasted into the boar. The unfortunate pig slid backwards a few feet and collapsed.

“Neat.”

The possibility that he’d somehow been sucked into the world of Emerald Odyssey as his character was beginning to look more and more likely. He had been playing last night, prepping for the update... The sword poked him in the back of the head again and he sighed. The model for that particular sword had always been a little janky in the game.

Jared-or Cenadin maybe, it seemed strangely appropriate to think of himself that way-set off into the fields at a leisurely pace, thinking things through. He had a few town portal scrolls on him, but he wasn’t sure heading into that area would be a good idea, not before getting his bearings and figuring out how to defend himself properly. Another boar trundled across his path, largely indifferent to his presence, though it ambled away from him as he got closer.

“Wonder if I can taunt...OY DICKNUGGET” he yelled. The yellow reticle around the boar promptly turned red, the boar squealed and charged him, catching Jared in the midriff and knocking him flat on his back. He let out a loud whoop as he went down, but was able to quickly right himself before the boar could charge him again. “Oh you are BACON my friend” he said at the irate pig. It charged again, and Cenadin drew his sword and held it over his head, imitating the animation which had accompanied Sacred Armaments in the game. A sword of light lanced down from the sky, exploding onto the boar’s back. It’s red bar shrank to almost nothing, and it abruptly turned and bolted off towards the road. Jared set off after it with a yell; “Get back here bacon!”

The boar was partially concealed by the grass, but Cenadin could keep track of it well enough. It burst out of the field and onto the road just outside of the town’s gates, giving the pursuing paladin a clear line of sight. A small icon in the corner of his vision seemed to indicate that Righteous Leap was available again, so he jumped after the pig, the wings once again bearing him aloft then driving him towards his target. This time, he stabbed out with his sword, neatly impaling the pig and killing it before the golden motes from the wings even reached the animal.

“Git Gud,” he declared triumphantly.

It was then he realized he was not alone. Two women-which his HUD identified as a ninja named Deneb and a cleric named Viridian-were on the road just beyond the town gate, looking at him oddly. Two guards at the gate, which his HUD did not provide names for, were also staring. He tried to pull his sword free from the boar to lean on it casually, but it was caught on something and refused to come out all the way. He tugged it more, causing the pig’s corpse to flop around awkwardly, until the sword caught an artery and a small spurt of blood caught Jared in the face. The sword came free at the same time, causing him to stumble back a few steps while he tried to wipe the blood away, though he only succeeded in smearing it around with his gauntlet. At last, Jared was able to plant his sword between the cobblestones and lean on it. Real casual.

“Sup.”

@Anza@PKMNB0Y

Megumi did not entirely expected to encounter another player particularly quickly(though maybe she should have?). It didn't seem like the place was filled with players... no, it looked like it was mostly NPCs... what were NPCs now exactly? If everything was real, didn't that mean the NPCs were all real people now too?

The small girl was snapped out of her thoughts when she was approached by another girl, also one who wasn't particularly tall, who immediately distinguished herself from the NPCs by, well, introducing herself like that. Almost immediately, the reason that the girl looked rather familiar clicked in Megumi's mind: She recognized that name. In fact... hadn't they both done a quest at some point together? Even if they hadn't it was undeniable that she knew of the vampire: A roleplayer with a habit of doing side content before progressing through the game normally, who outleveled the early parts of the game as a result.

"... If you're Chisuikoumori-san... how are you taking this so easily?!" she cried, suddenly, without realizing how weird it would seem to any of the NPCs, given they were all people themselves now, "You're still roleplaying, what kind of idiot-"

She paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. As irritated as the seeming calmness(though she now realized the other girl was shaking) was, now wasn't the best time to explode at the first player she met.

"... N... nevermind," she said, waving her hand, "I'm... my screenname is... was... DokanMeguMegu-san."

@TheMushroomLord

With the healer's response in mind, Deneb took a moment to quietly evaluate their options. Neither of them had footwear nor equipment that was suitable for traversing the hilly terrain that they were planning to explore, and as far as she knew there were no readily-available buffs for dealing with things as petty as walking. While the lack thereof was been useful in the game proper, a lack of any real way to mitigate fatigue might make things comparatively... Difficult.

"Viri, then. I would recommend you at least change out of those shoes, if possible," the ninja stated, a mildly annoyed look on her face as she glanced at her own feet. "I optimized my inventory a few days ago, so I don't particularly..."

When she caught sight of the fool swinging away at a few of the boars a little whiles away, though, Deneb quietly put that matter at the back of her mind. As far as things went, the two of them as they were now—a cleric and a ninja—were far too squishy to be checking anything out without a tank of some variety. Given how nobody else seemed to have followed them out, though...

"...Hello," she finally managed to say after the player in front of them (at least, she was fairly certain it was one given the hat) finally managed to stop acting like a buffoon. While his proficiency with his weapon left something to be desired, it wasn't like she could talk much either; with no combat experience to speak of, it would be a wonder if she could fight at all.

"Well, a tank couldn't hurt," Deneb thought to herself, shrugging as she sent out a halfhearted party request to the paladin in front of them. She had taken the opportunity during the awkward silence that followed the pose to scan over his class and level, and ignoring the name that only made partial sense due to her marginal exposure to Western media, the player in front of her could probably act as a meatshield for Viri if necessary.

"If you want to join us, we'll be heading east. Haven't a clue what we'll find or how much trouble it'll take us to finish scouting the area, but our goal right now is to secure the town and get things sorted out. You're free to decline and head into town, though; there are a few people trying to get some player-run infrastructure set up, so if you don't feel like playing bodyguard you're free to check in with them and help out."

With that in mind, though, testing her capabilities on the boars present instead of attempting to fight blindly against what could possibly be far more dangerous opponents further away from town didn't seem like all to bad a prospect.

"Maybe we can detour for a few minutes to test the waters..."

@Anza@Ozerath

"Inventory... oh, right!" It took Deneb's mention to remind Viri about the item storage in the game, which logically should have carried over with the rest. With a frown, she pulled up the menu screen she'd used to accept the friend requests and started poking around, eventually spotting the button marked 'Inventory.' After a slight hesitation, she poked that too, opening up another window.

Her eyes widened as she saw what was on display there. "Uh oh—"

She looked up at the ninja, only to see a big man in heavy armor come roaring down out of the sky to slaughter an innocent pig. Running it through with his blade, he stood victorious, insulted its skill, and then proceeded to get blood all over the place while trying to retrieve his weapon.

Viri stared, open-mouthed, not quite sure how to react. One hand went to her chest, and she took a deep breath, trying to string her thoughts together again.

"...oh my!"

Deneb was already taking care of most of the talking, which was probably for the best, since she still wasn't sure what to think of this boisterous stranger. She waved shyly at him over the ninja's shoulder. "Hi!" With Deneb rapidly going through basic info and negotiations, she didn't want to interrupt, but it was only polite to offer a greeting, no?

In the meantime... She'd better take care of the inventory thing before Deneb turned around. Specifically because she had, well, a lot of stuff in there. Jewels, rings, necklaces, potions, armor, weapons, cosmetics... she swiped with her hand, scrolling through the list, trying and failing to find an end to it. Oh dear. I should probably have cleaned all this up at some point, shouldn't I?

Blushing slightly, she tapped on two pairs of sturdy-looking boots, which materialized at her feet with a quiet pop! Then jabbed at the button to close her inventory, quickly hiding the window.

"I... I found us some shoes!" she said, trying her hardest not to look embarrassed.

@PKMNB0Y@Ozerath

The moment Megumi spoke up Hina seemed to sink back impossibly far into her cloak as her embarrassment dialled up to 11. Half convinced that her legs where about to give out beneath her, Hina willed her inventory panel into existence and with a few swipes of her finger had equipped her mask to conceal her face.

"Y-you dare..."

"... I'm s-sorry, I... I'll s-stop i-if you want... y-you can just call me H-Hina..."

Hina's voice rapidly shrank as she spoke until it was barely a whisper and she wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but instead let out a shaky breath, blinking away her tears from behind her mask (actually how was it she could see through her mask? Another question for latter).

'Why did I think acting like myself would be better? This is so much worse...'

Stopping herself from burying her face in her hands Hina instead extended a shaking arm in what might have been a motion for a handshake had she not immediately withdrawn the arm.

"D-do you know w-whats going on... w-what's the plan?"

@VitaVitaAR

"..."

Perhaps she'd snapped a bit too hard? Normally it wasn't something that she'd think about, but normally people didn't cry... and nothing about this situation was particularly normal at all, was it? For a few moments, Megumi fidgeted, before taking a deep breath. She wasn't used to apologizing to people, either, but now this girl was shaking and possibly crying(it was hard to tell behind that mask) and this situation was way too intense to leave her like that.

"... L-look..." Megumi began, looking away as she did, clutching her staff tightly in both hands, "I'm sorry, it's just... er... I just... showed up here! It was weird hearing someone still roleplaying and all... i-it's not like I care or anything okay?! Just... d-do what you want..."

Still fidgeting, she kept looking away.

"... You're the first person I met since I showed up here, I don't think there's a plan..."

@TheMushroomLord

Light shone, but Minoru had no intention of waking yet. Rolling in her sheets, she smeared her eyes against her pillow, grabbing as much darkness as she could. It had been a long time since she had such a pleasant, light dream, and now, all she wanted was to bask in that pleasant warmth again. Her alarm was set for 6 AM, and it couldn’t be past that yet. She’d get up after it rang.

Time passed as she laid there, becoming more and more restless as minutes ticked away. Napping longer was good. It was even great. But what if she fell asleep and then couldn’t wake up even after the alarm rang? What if she forgot to set the alarm last night? It wouldn’t hurt to look at her clock, just to gauge how much she could commit to sleeping longer.

She rolled over and opened one eye carefully.

There was no clock. The walls were wood. The sun shone soft. No cars sounded outside. Her cheap curtains were missing from a window that was much larger than what she had before. There were bright, beautiful flowers bundled up in an expensive vase by the window, and her bed was so much larger than the cheap, DIY twin-sized bed she purchased two years ago.

Minoru’s first instinct was to jump up into a sitting position, pulling the sheets up over her body. Where the hell was she? Whose bed was this? Did she have clothes on? Yes, thank god for that. Didn’t recognize them, but…what did she even do last night? Think, think. Drinking, but she remembered coming home later. Wait, why didn’t she have a hangover? Was this kidnapping? Her phone, oh god, she needed to Google maps her way out of this cabin and get to work. Her eyes scanned the room, and she spotted a wardrobe easily enough. Scampering off the plush bed, Minoru stormed towards the wardrobe and practically tossed it open, hoping for…

“Oh, this is bad.”

This could be the actual worst. These weren’t the clothes of some muscular lumberjack. These weren’t even the clothes of some off-grid hippie. These were child-sized clothing that looked like they all came from a cosplay photoshoot, from frilly coats to fabulous hats to gorgeously colored cloaks to amazingly cute shorts to a whole bunch of things that Minoru definitely could NOT wear on the Tokyo line. Hell, that wasn’t even her first concern. Her first one would be…did she end up sleeping with a minor?

No. She reached for her throat and felt that strange bulge. She looked at her hands, and realized they were much paler than she remembered, much smaller as well. Fingers combed her hair, coming away with silky silver strands. The memories came back. How cute it was, that limited edition Red Riding Hood outfit. How nice and dainty it was, to be a small cute kid who fought monsters so bravely. How little it made sense now. On a whim, Minoru pulled out the Menu.

…

Of course the Log Out option didn’t work. As expected, none of her friends were online either.

Slowly, she sank to the floor, hugging her knees with her too-thin arms. Minoru always knew the world didn’t need her, but to be shunted into a game she hadn’t touched in five years? That was even worse. Yeah, that’s what it was.

This was the worst.

---

It wasn’t like there was any particular reason for him to get up. No real motivation behind it, no particular drive that propelled him out of his comfy little house. It was just that, after ten minutes or so of crawling into a little ball, his butt was sore from sitting on the hard floor and he figured that it was probably a good thing to look around after all. Even if no one else shared his plight, confirmation that civilization existed was a good thing, right?

Right.

With that, Ewan pushed open the doors of his house and into the blinding light of…nature. Just nature. Nature of the wild kind, nature of the savage kind, nature of the ‘monsters will be here’ kind. Of course. After five years, the developers WOULD have changed the world map a bit, wouldn’t they? So there was no civilization nearby and his house was in the middle of nowhere. It was enough to bring a tear and a chuckle to the Halfling.

Then he picked up a rock and hurled it against a tree, leaving a dent in the bark as the rock ricocheted into the deep grass.

Nothing more to it than to walk, that’s for sure.

When Sachiko had woken up today, she hadn't really expected anything like this to happen. She'd been feeling worse than usual over the past few days, so now she was in a better state she wanted to play some Emerald Odyssey and catch up with Megu-chan. She hadn't expected anything weird or unusual to happen; after all, this was real life, and not some anime or novel. Maybe something like this was popular in those kinds of things right now, but it certainly would never happen in real life, especially not to someone like her.

Thus, she was taken by complete surprise when it did happen in real life, and to someone like her too.

"...E-eeeeh!?"

Had she taken too much of her medication or something? This clearly couldn't be real, after all. It had to be some kind of hallucination or delusion or something. People don't just get sucked into an MMO in real life after all. That would just be ridiculous.

And yet... And yet here she was. The vibrant world of Emerald Odyssey surrounding her, the heat of the sun and the wind gently blowing against her feeling far too real to be an illusion. As much as she wanted to question it, the fact that she was here, in this wonderful fantasy world... In the healthy body of Hasselback, Knight of the Shield... It was too amazing for her to care how it happened. All she cared about was that it had happened.

"I... I'm Hasselback! I'm so... So strong! So fit! So... So..."

It was an odd sight, really, one that made many NPCs turn their heads to stare as a small female knight with green twintails ran about gleefully through the streets, a look of pure undistilled joy plastered onto her face. To be able to run like this... Ah, it was a dream come true! Truely, this was the most wonderful thing to happen to her since... Since she met Megu-chan!

"...Ah! I... I should check up on Megu-chan..." Stopping for a moment, Hasselback pulled up her friendlist. She didn't even think much about it, just assuming that since she's in the game now, she could just... Do it. "Ah, I bet Megu-chan will be so surprised when I tell her I'm in the game! I wonder if she'll believe me though...?"

And so with a smile on her face, Hasselback sent her message...

To: DokanMeguMegu-san

Megu-chan! You won't believe this, but I got sucked into the game world! Isn't that cool? I know it sounds weird and like something out of an anime but it's totally true! I'll still try and join you for the raid though, just let me know where you are so we can meet up okay?

From: Hasselback

@VitaVitaAR

Blinking several times and trying to steady her breathing Hina thought about just what their plan should be. Trying to find other players would probably be a good idea, but meeting new people was scary and they'd probably try and talk to her. On the other hand, working out how exactly the game had changed seemed like a good idea and one that didn't necessarily involve meeting people, at least not yet anyway.

"Umm... i-if there isn't a p-plan... maybe we should t-try to work out how t-the game changed... umm... some t-things, like menus and s-stuff, work sort of how they used to, b-but other seem to have c-changed..."

Hina briefly summoned her inventory panel to demonstrate the similarities before pulling up the sleeve of her cloak, letting the red mist rise up from the exposed portion of her skin.

"B-back before the became r-real, c-creature of the night didn't trigger w-when I wore a cloak, b-but now I need to be p-properly covered by it..."

Hina paused to let the sleeve drop back down before any of the abilities other side effects had time to kick in.

"I-I think t-that some of my other v-vampire abilities have c-changed as well... m-maybe we should learn our a-abilities and possibly find out what else has changed?"

Hina by this point was feeling a little calmer, still way out of her comfort zone but no longer feeling like she was about to faint.

@VitaVitaAR