[IC] The Gamer Squad: Escape The Mainframe

[fer1323]

@Peaceless@NightmareInd@MechonRaptor@Eklispe@alexfangtalon@Fabricant451@Crossfire

Marona trys out the few things that could remember from her Game mastery. After meeting up with the others and walking though the door, Marona is greeted by the oh so familiar music. Marona says "Yeah. I am a giant fan of death and despair." Marona draws her bow and cycles to her explosive arrow. " Aliron, I agree with you. I suggest Aliron and David be in front due to being more resilient by the looks of it. Sam and Alex is close behind to support the front line but also have a chance get to the back in case of a flanked ambush due to them to be more agile. the rest in the back taking out all the threats that those with melee cannot get to. Any objections?"

[MechonRaptor]

Amethyst's own training area consisted of two different areas, one that appeared like a futuristic mechanical setting, filled with dozens of gears and pipes around the place, along with it being littered with various mechanical monsters, prime for sniping. The other side was a bit more medieval; a forested area filled with alien wildlife. Both of which, upon closer inspection, looked very familiar to areas within the game Xenoblade Chronicles... Which made sense to her. Regardless, she soon found out that, upon crossing over the gap between areas, her weapon and her appearance changed as well.

When they finally reunited, she appeared to be slightly exhausted, yet had no, if at any wounds. She was still regaining her breath as they entered into Dark Souls, her eyes widening in horror at the realization of the game they entered. She knew exactly what they had just walked into, and while she took notice that her rifle was now a bow, and her rather futuristic appearance was now replaced with a blue haired archer outfit, that wasn't the important issue. If this was indeed that video game... Then someone was definitely going to die. Or we all were.
"Well... I suggest we stick together now... Dark Souls is notorious for how hard it is, along with how its catchphrase essentially says you'll die, and it isn't kidding. If we go into this without a proper plan or a semblance of an idea of what we'll do, we're certain to die."

[Crossfire]

David selected a shield and battle axe for himself, he kept the weapons locker screen on the spear, just in case he needed to shift to a dexterity-based weapon. He sadly had no idea how to figure out what kind of stats they had loaded into the game with, so they had to play it by ear.
"Ok, so we're agreed on this plan? So, I've spent way longer than I care to say trying to master these games, and honestly, they're difficult, but not as bad as the general public makes it out to be. We should be fine if we each play our roles properly. Those of us with them, shield up. You see something big, roll or run back. Most enemies are weakest in their back, so maneuver around them if you can. If this truly is the beginning of the game, we'll only be fighting hollowed soldiers for the most part, until we reach the top of that tower wall. Let's give it a go guys"

The group proceeded up the hill towards the entryway to the Undead Burgh zone, a few hollows were easily dispatched by David and the rest of the front line. Before too long they had reached the nexus of the area. A crossroads of rooftops, passageways, and if this world followed the rules of Dark Souls, a bonfire safe zone.

"Ok everyone, I remember this place well, it's actually a good grinding zone, and the perfect place to get used to combat. We're gonna have about 8 hollows around us, easy to take out. One on a raised platform has a crossbow, might want to get rid of him quick. The rest are pretty standard. Up across from the bonfire room are some undead soldiers who'll toss fire bombs, you archers should probably tackle those guys, they can be slightly annoying if the fight gets drawn up above. Once we've cleared it out, we'll use the bonfire and experiment a bit, see how well this digital world constructed the game. Ready, set.... charge!!!!"

[Peaceless]

The large worm coughed at the word "charge". He was having a hard enough time to keep up with the group, His movement being a slow series of squeaks along the floor. But when a skeleton warrior leapt at one of the tanks, he suddenly remembered another option, though maybe not at the best of timings.

HUP! The worm exclaimed, as he jumped over the heads of the charging frontline. The huge leap took him off-balance for a few moments, but he managed to regain composure in time to move out of the way of an arrow, that clinked against the stone ground and shattered. With an exhale, he chucked a small ball of fire in a high arc towards his assailant, completely miscalculating the flight path and hitting the wall to the skeleton's side. The ball exploded, sending embers in all directions and singing the edges of the skeleton's ragged clothes - which seemed to only make him angrier.

WHOOPS

[Eklispe]

Aliron was thus far pleased with himself, the first lone hollows they'd found had proved match for them and had given Aliron a feel for their attacks as well as his own capabilties relative to them. At this rate he wouldn't even need Link's legendary arsenal. To his surprise Will lead the 'charge' by recklessly carneering forward and proceeding to miss with a fireball. Shaking his head Aliron ran after him, mostly to protect him from the two hollows closing in on him. They both leapt forward to attack and Aliron met them with his shield, blocking one and parrying the other with ease. He swiftly took advanatge of the hollow trying to recover and kindly removed his head for him with ease. Aliron grinned, these hollows were too simple, he couldn't wait for a real challenge.

[alexfangtalon]

Alex hung back and took shots as necessary. He really didn't feel like wasting any arrows. When he heard David mention the fire bombers, Alex swiftly moved past the hollows fairly easily until he came close to the bombers. He raised his bow and took shots at the hollows taking the aggro so that any other ranged fighter could finish them while he avoided their attacks.

[MechonRaptor]

Amethyst was playing extremely cautious compared to the rest of them, making sure each shot counted while keeping a considerable distance away for a ranged fighter. She didn't want to get overly cocky, and with how diverse their group was, she was also watching their backs in a way. After all, she realized early in her training that she had very... interesting ways of healing someone, and so she would make sure that they would make it all home safe. This in turn made her notice Alex taking aggro of some hollows, picking up on what he was attempting to do and aiming at one of them. Steady, precise... She felt compelled to do so. Even if she didn't see herself as the leader, she still saw that it was her duty as a ranger and as a medic to bail anyone out if they got into trouble.

[Crossfire]

Realizing that the team held an overwhelming advantage over the hollows, he spend what felt like the next several hours teaching anyone unfamiliar with Dark Souls the intricacies of the franchise, especially how simple it is to grind out an area like this by 'resetting the world' at a bonfire. With his knowledge of the game and his team's ever-growing experience, David led the group all the way through the Undead Burgh, and up the tower towards the wall overlooking all of Lordran. All that remained was the boss, the Taurus Demon, that patrolled the wall.

"Alright everyone, gather up" he said as he stepped to the front of the group "Beyond this gate of fog and smoke is our first real challenge, the first proper boss fight. So here's the plan....."

But it was all for naught, for just as the group stepped beyond the gate, psyched up and confident in their plan to steamroll the Demon, they found no challenge awaiting them. Instead, on the far side of the wall, they saw the great beast slumped and defeated, heaving its last breaths, kneeling in front of it, they made out the shape of a human, glowing a deep blood-red hue. It moved swiftly, cutting the Demon's throat and absorbing its soul. It stood and turned towards the heroes, gave a snarky wave, and vanished into thin air.

"What the..???" David frantically tapped at the device on his arm "Navi, what the hell?"
"It's the Default. It appears they have an avatar in a separate rendering of the game world, and they discovered the best way to impede your progress would be to use the invasion mechanic to steal the soul you need to progress"
"What are our options here?"
"If they claim the key construct before you, they will have a clear advantage going forward, and all of your efforts to this point would be rendered futile. Scanning. . . Complete. I can harness the game world's natural corruption to move you towards the second challenge. Of course, it appears that the missing soul will be necessary as you move towards the third challenge... Analyzing.... I've found a fragment of code that may be of service. You will be able to obtain an item to invade the Default world as they have yours, by tracking down the avatar and defeating it, you will be able to reclaim the first soul"

David turned to the others "What do you think guys?"

[Eklispe]

Aliron had been looking forward to fighting an enemy that provided more of a challenge only to have it robbed as they got there. Talk about a KS. Aliron listened to Navi's explanation and shrugged, "Well it seems to me we won't be able to progress as some point due to this meddler so we'll have to take him out sooner or later. What's more if we try to continue he'll likely interfere once again. We should take care of it as soon as possible." It was the most logical course of action to take. Plus there was no way he would stand a chance against the entire group, in Dark Souls fighting two of anything was challenging, more than that was just hell.

[Peaceless]

William The Worm was too distracted to pay attention to David The Knight. He has been staring at a small floating screen that described his 'character' for quite a while now, at an obvious loss about what to do. One of the biggest problems he always had in these games is getting his levelups wrong in the beginning, making the first few chapters a living hell.

And he never started with a Pyromancer before. Maybe he should have. At this point, his aim with arching fireballs was just as good as the archers', and he kept melting the proverbial faces off his targets. But his mana would run out early, leaving him with no tools to fight. This would probably need to be the first issue he adressed. After an additional thought, he raised his magic and faith to the values he guessed would be needed for the next spell, and put the rest of the points into wisdom. At this level, it almost doubled his mana and added another attunement slot he had nothing to put in at the moment.

After finalizing the changes, he looked at his friends questioningly. They seemed to be in thought about something he missed, and having no real way to express himself, the worm simply waited for the next person to speak.

[alexfangtalon]

Well, this was a problem. The fact that the enemy was able to get into their game and impede their process was not good. If theey could do this what else could they do. The group needed to do something about this but going to the Default world may be dangerous, "Navi, what do you know about the Default world. I'm not entirely against the idea of going to the Default world but if we don't know what they can do it won't be safe. I also think we should only go there if we can assure that when going there they won't realize it. We have no idea what their forces are like. We need a plan."

[Crossfire]

Navi's voice chirped to life.
"The Default are running an undercurrent program to display a Game World identical to yours. However, it appears the Default are leveraging their viral properties into an advantage. Infecting NPCs to bypass them. However, in doing so, they have rendered themselves unable to overpopulate the world with player avatars as I have"

"I agree with Aliron" David said "We need to take the soul back sooner or later, may as well be sooner"

"I will force the game to move ahead to that stage. Constructing a fog gate on the far side of the tower. Please step through when you are ready"

[Eklispe]

"Good, let's get going then." Aliron said briskly and began walking towards the gate. Waiting around would do nothing and Navi explained that they wouldn’t expect anything in the next place to be much different from here. He was eager to progress and honestly somewhat looking for a challenge. Things should be interesting when they invaded. He remembered watching a bit of dark souls pvp, it was quite intense when you combined the brutality of Dark Souls with the intensity of fighting other players and all the diverse strategies involved it become quite interesting. Dark Souls had always seemed like one of the most interesting games to experience in VR. Look at that was this was a unique opportunity.

[Peaceless]

The worm silently observed the exchange. If this was anything like the PvP he'd experienced - a salad of glitches, cheaters and general imbalance - they would find out very soon what it meant to die in this world. Then again, being in a team was always different, and so far coordination has been pretty good.

With slight reluctance, he began squeaking his way towards the gray gate. His health was full, his mana almost full. He wouldn't be any more ready to what lay on the other side than he was now.

[Crossfire]

@Peaceless@fer1323@Fabricant451@alexfangtalon@Eklispe@MechonRaptor

"Well here goes nothing" David said as he stepped through the gate. There was a moment of pitch darkness, followed by a strange crackling sound as the world began to re-render in front of his eyes, having played all the games to near-completion, David knew something had gone wrong. He was standing in a dark stone chamber, dilapidated and worn down with time. An ancient room with a bonfire lazily casting shadows on the wall, mixing with the dim moonlight shining through the cracks and holes in the high-vaulted ceiling. A doorway to his right led out into the night, on his left, a stairway leading down. This was the final bonfire of Farron Keep, a short run away from where the Abyss Watchers, a core boss of Dark Souls 3, waged their everlasting battle. Looking behind him, he saw that Jaz, Sam, and Alex had loaded in behind him, but the others were nowhere to be found.

"Navi, what happened? Where's Aliron and the others? And why are we here?"
"It appears that the corruption is much greater than anticipated. The attempt to transfer you all en masse was more than the system could bear. I am logging this data for future reference. Scanning. It appears the others arrived at the correct data shard, they will shortly enter combat with the Skeleton Lords and their army of the dead, upon victory, they will receive the orb, and be able to invade the Default. I suggest you push forward. Defeatng the Abyss Watchers and taking their souls will provide enough energy to power a jump to the final boss, the keeper of the first Datacore Key. Additional scans show the route forward is clear, a fortunate side effect of the game corription...... oh."
"What's 'oh' Navi?"
"It appears the overwhelming corruption on these data shards have infected the background programs I have been running, your abilities will be blocked, and avatar protection has been disabled"
"What are you saying Navi, what avatar protection"
"In most of these digital realms, avatar protection is a failsafe program that prevents data from falling through a crack in programming, such as a failed loading state. I reverse engineered it, and applied it to each of you to ensure a continuation of data, a respawn if you will. However with the infection of that program, I fear player death in this corrupted stage may be permanent"

The words hit David like a ton of bricks. Up until now this game world had been all fun, sure they had some setbacks, and everyone was wondering how the hell this had happened and how they were getting home, but it was enjoyable to physically experience their favorite games. Now, faced with the possibility of real death, David was paralyzed. He hardly heard Navi's next words.
"I will relay this message to the other players and attempt to repair the program, however, the data shard's corruption may prevent me from restoring it until all avatar's have been removed. Please do try not to perish"

[Eklispe]

Aliron appeared at the base of a set of stone stairs leading to a white wall of mist Aliron looked around to se that the group was diminshed in size. "Hm? Navi where is everyone else?" After a few seconds of silence Navi helpfully responded. "The curroption caused the transportation to seperate you. You can still continue going forward to defeat the Skeleton Lords and retrieve the orb, allowing you to invade the default. Also I have already informed David's group but if you die here you will likey die for good." Aliron shrugged. Well it was unfortunate that they had been split but he honestly wasn't too worried about it. He walked up the mist wall and looked back with a confident grin, "Well, are we all ready to go then?"

[Peaceless]

Die for good. The words seemed to paint the entire world in a different color. The game was very frustrating as it is, with progress constantly being on the line if the player makes the wrong move. But this wasn't about progress anymore, was it?

William looked upwards. The world was spinning, every nook and cranny threatening with an unseen enemy ambush. They had just started, without any good abilities or equipment, and the start of these games always made a point of killing the player numerous time until they understand it's part of the process. But now, their entire future was on the line. His entire future was in the hands of this foolhardy link wannabe.

With a squeak that seemed to loud for him, William The Worm took a step back. And another. He shaked his head. He is not going in there.