[IC] Aincrad: Remastered Edition (MMORPG Roleplay, inspired by SAO and Log Horizon)

[NightmareInd]

Sam was in the back of the class. He was excited for what would happen this afternoon. He didn't know if any of the others in his class knew it, but he didn't care about them anyway. It wasn't like any of them cared about him either. He just focussed on his homework, and even though being impatient he did his best to fill in the answers as correct and formulated as possible. He cared much about his progress at school, and saw any question as a challenge. He didn't want to dissapoint anyone around him, but being so focused on school had it's downsides. Being picked on by almost everyone, was maybe the most obvious one.

As the schoolbell rang, Sam cleared up his stuff, and made his way out of school, towards his home. It wasn't that far away, he could walk it in a few minutes. Once at his home, he greeted his mom, and went immediatly upstairs to his room. There was his computer, a screen, and a helmet. He booted up his computer, which took just a couple of seconds. He then layed down on his bed. He put on the helmet, and saw on his visor that it was almost 5:00 PM. Right on schedule... He thought. He closed his eyes, and pressed a button on his helmet. It started beeping a bit, and he layed his arms next to him on the bed. With every beep, the noise seemed to get higher. A few beeps later, a white light appeared before him. A blue screen popped up and floated in the air and Sam thought about his nickname and his password, which then got projected on the blue screen. He thought 'okay', and the button was pressed. He was now logged in, and a menu popped up with possible applications. He thought about the one almost on top with a picture of a floating castle, named Aincrad: Remastered Edition.

A new screen popped up with a black background, with the title of Aincrad: Remastered Edition, with beneat them the buttons Play, Options and Shop. Shop was for DLC's ofcourse, which didn't come out yet. He thought about pressing the Play button, and it got pressed, wich took him to a server menu. The first server just got online, and so he joined it. He got to character creation, choose his look, his skillset and his starter loadout, then got teleported into a town square, wich was introduced to 'N1ghtm4r3' As the Town of beginnings. He wasn't the first one to join the server, but by far not the last. He got an option for a tutorial, and knowing you could get bonus items and experience by following it, he accepted the quest line. First mission was about moving towards a spot on the minimap, and getting used to the new body you had. He followed the quest, into this whole new world...

[Crimson Raven]

Kincaid spent the whole school day, in various classes, staring out the window, half listening to the teacher drone on about this or that, their voices eventually settling into the wa-wa-wha of a Peanuts cartoon. Outwardly, he looked bored, but inwardly, he was exited about the new VRMMO that he was now a proud owner of. Aincrad: Remastered Edition. After what felt like an eternity, the school bell rang it's nostalgic chime for dismissal. Kincaid quickly packed and was the first out the door. His home was within bicycling distance, so he grabbed his bicycle and flew down the sidewalk.

When he got home, his family wasn't home yet. He put his bike away and hurried upstairs. he turned the lights on in his room and booted up his computer. As it was booting up, he got the clunky-looking helmet out and plugged it in. The computer started up and he quickly checked the time. 4:59 PM. Perfect. He took off his glasses, put the helmet on and laid on his back on his bed. He spent the last minute starring at the ceiling and the built-in clock. It hit 5:00. Kincaid blazed through the start-up sequence. The avatar creation took some time, as he made certain that he liked the look, and the equipment. Soon, he was ready. He thought 'OKAY' and Araris appeared in Aincrad. The game immediately introduced him to the Town of Beginnings and offered a tutorial. He took it, as it offered prizes for completion, usual he would skip the tutorial, preferring to figure it out on his own. Araris looked around, taking in the graphics. It was amazing. There were many others logging in, and wandering around following their own tutorials. Not one to socialize, Araris immediately headed out to the surrounding fields for some combat.

[ClocktowerEchos]

The clock ticked on, the teacher refusing to end his droning speech on 14th century British Social Laws or Mean Value Theorem or the boiling point of C₃Ai₆K₂NiCu₁₂, something like that. Whatever he was speaking about however, Alice had already knew about and was bored about it. Also mocking the rest of her advanced class who were all furiously scribbling notes and smudging their work, Alice leaned back in her chair and was on her laptop doing some searching. You could almost feel the animosity the class had against her if they weren't worried about the molecular composition of secondary proteins.

Instead of spending the most of her time doing homework or copying notes or rubbing her face in a textbook, she had been diving into every little bit of a new came that grasped her interest. For the past few months, she had been scouring the internet for news, updates, leaks and promotional things about Aincrad Remastered Edition or ARE. Meticulously taking detailed notes on developer interviews, hypothesizing about how in-game mechanics would work based on trailers and articles on Shotaku, even going as far as to estimate what the in-game economy would be like after seeing several screenshots of menus and more interviews, the prodigy had everything down to a science and had already created an elaborate plan that would allow her to do everything at a timely efficiently. Hell, she already figured out what her character would be like after seeing a dev walk through of character creation and more promotional material.

It seemed that ARE had a very advanced economical system (not that it surprised her that much) with players able to dry up or saturate items and cause prices to fluctuate. The base of the whole system was the simple supply-and-demand of real life with its own twists so in theory she just had to create something that would always be in demand at any level and could be sold at high prices because of a certain lack of supply for it. Narrowing down the choices to a few ventures, Alice took more detailed looks at anything and everything available to concluded the blacksmithing would be the most profitable. Weapons were always in demand from those who couldn't make high quality blades or loot it from dangerous dungeons they could only dream of completing.

"All according to keikaku." Alice grinned as the bell rang and the classroom let out a heavy breath of relief. Her classmates tiredly slumped back and shuffled toward the door, the teacher reminding them of their homework and their essay. More pained groans escaped the room as Alice casually leaned back in her chair to gazed into the setting sun. She couldn't be bothered by simple things like homework and school, she had other things to do.

Packing her laptop and books, the Nordeire dashed out of the room and subsequently the school as a butler awaited her arrival. Within minutes the luxury car was rolling down the roads and Alice was once more on her laptop, counting down the time remaining until launch and making final preparations. Everything had to be perfect for a girl such as her, "Sebastian, how much longer?"
"It should not be too much longer miss, a few minutes at worse." Alice's loyal servant weaved skillfully weaved between several cars with his head turned Alice.
"Is everything ready?" the girl asked as she checked for any last minute news articles relating to ARE.
"It as all as you requested it to be miss."

As her last thoughts were wrapping up, the diver stopped the car outside of the luxury condo which she had her own personal room in. The glass elevator shooting her up into the sky, Alice walked out on to the 15th floor where Sebastian opened the door. Breezing past the well stocked room of all manner of decorations she had chosen by herself, she went straight to her room as her butler travelled to the well-stocked if not over-stocked kitchen to prepare some food. This was her personal living area, her parent had given it to her when she started school. It wasn't like they would be home if Alice didn't move out, they would always be busy or off in some foreign land doing whatever CEOs and actors do.

Sitting on her bed, she clutched the VR helmet and looked at the digital clock, it was T-minus five minutes. Five minutes until she would enter a realm reborn, the world beyond, the floating castle of Aincrad Remastered Edition. It wouldn't be beyond her to say that she was feeling more than just giddy at the hope of it even if it was concealed well. There was a certain romantic, adventurous spirit inside of her that was just ticking down the seconds until five o' clock.

"Make yourself proud." Alice whispered to herself as she slipped on the helmet and laid down on her bed. In what seemed like forever, ARE finally started as the girl went through her plans again. The start up sequence finished quickly and Alice was introduced to the character creation menu. Hair like this, don't forget the red streak. Eyes a bit wider and touch up on the nose, she went through the character creation screen quickly with nothing slowing her down.

With a breath of fresh air, the Town of Beginnings welcomed her into the tutorial which she promptly skipped over, already figuring out how to move and throw rocks at pigs. Whatever reward would come at the end of the tutorial she had already concluded would be useless in the grand scheme of things. Walking out of the general store, her starting two-handed sword on her back, she stretched. It amazed her that humanity managed to recreate the world itself in all of its realistic glory. The town felt alive with NPCs that behaved like humans, the market with vendors trying to outbid each other, the smell flowers of a nearby park drifted into her nose; Alice felt the need to give a letter of approval to the developers for pulling off such a feat.

Dashing over to another store, Alice found the giver of her first quest. It was a simple one, kill a few animals and bring back their hides as proof and she would receive some nice gold and a few simple items for her troubles. Heading out into the wilderness gate, Alice, or now Dead_Ringer, pointed her sword towards the sky and watched the light bounce of like mirror. After this she was going to immediately buy supplies for her blacksmithing venture and climb her way to fortune and fame. Its what her parents did so it was only fair their child followed in their foot steps.

[Damiann47]

School was typical as always nothing more than him siting in a classroom, then memorized whatever information was in the lesson, then read from some textbook, same old story. Something was different that day, thankfully, ARE was finally launching after what seemed like forever, and Darrel was sure to be right there... just had to wait until 5:00. For the entire week he basically stopped paying attention in class, rather wanting to spend his time day dreaming about the possibilities of what could be out there, way out there in the world of ARE. He learned about this ambitious game through Internet chat circles, forums, and web articles, the normal ways honestly, from quite a few months back.

The more he found out, the more hyped he became, not only was there supposed to be a vast map with varied environments, there were also rumored to be features like playing mapping and player made books. On top of the fact a majority of the content had remained under heavy wraps, well all that made ARE into an explorer's paradise far as he was concerned. Darrel toyed with the idea of keeping an in-game journal of what he will find, if not that than an actual physical one will do, still he knew he wanted to record the adventure in it's entirety.

Time passed and Darrel stepped though his bedroom's door, good news is he didn't expect anyone to be home until much later so there was a lesser chance of something interrupting him. The time was 4:58, there wasn't any time to waste so as such he jumped right to his computer, helmet and all. He sat there, staring intently at his smartphone's screen willing for the minutes to tick over... 4:59... 5:00! He had been anticipating this moment for what seemed like the longest time, he wasn't waiting any longer. Headgear on, back on the bed, he was ready to go! Ready to face his destiny.

The boot sequence was mercifully short, after which he launched ARE. Soon he was taken to the character creation process, he held back on randomly throwing someone together, he didn't need some ridiculous avatar. Darrel explored all his options, and while he didn't blitz though, he didn't painfully agonize over every little detail as so many other gamers fell prey to. Kytel was created, and then for the first time he entered The Town of Beginnings.

Kytel blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the sudden change in lighting, just like a real human's. Almost imminently he was captivated by the city that stretched before him, it looked so full and vibrant with life, filled with so many places to see. This was one tiny section of what's offered in ARE, and despite how impossible it already seemed, there was in fact many more worlds within this world, this thought alone plastered a grin on Kytel's face, he was going to have fun here. A few minutes later the tutorial quest automatically popped up, now he wasn't a newcomer to games so he really didn't need the knowledge, besides he was itching to start exploring, but what stopped him from denying the tutorial all together was the idea that if he did so he'll never know it's contents. To be an explorer wasn't just about discovery, it was also taking in all the experiences that came along. With his mind made up, Kytel accepted the tutorial and started to make his way through it.

[Rekaigan]

Rarely did anyone interact with Kazuma without them having a special reason, like borrowing his notes from the previous class or trying to copy his homework. He was seen as a diligent student, but this wasn't because he wanted to be, it's because he had nothing else better to do in school. As a mute, people found it awkward to talk to him, let alone greet him, because they would only get silence and a brief gesture of greeting. He had been the target of bullies before, since he was an easy target due to his ability to speak or lack thereof. It seems that some girls in class has taken a special interest in him, seeing him as more of a dress-up doll rather than a person, due to his feminine appearance. Luckily he was able to avoid these girls for the majority of his school life. Everyday seemed the same. But today, he has something to look forward to. He recently purchased a VRMMO going by the name of Aincrad: Remastered Edition. Remastered? he thought to himself. It didn't really concern him very much, but it was odd. As the school bell rang, signalling the end of class, Kazuma left in somewhat of a hurry.

As he walked through the front door, he rang a small bell that was next to door. It was the only way he could signify that he was home. But instead of waiting for his mother to even finish greeting him from the living room, he raced up the stairs into his room, throwing his bag randomly into one of the corners in his room. He stared intently at the VR helmet which sat on his bed, he gently picked it up, slipping it onto his head as he laid down in bed. 5:00pm on the dot. The game had already been configured, but he has yet to create his character.

He logged in, the system recognizing his account immediately as it should. The character creation menu came up. He scrolled through the options for Male characters, but he couldn't find any looks that he actually liked. He wanted a character who looked similar to him. Which meant, he needed to make a Female character. It'll be more fun this way anyway.. He thought to himself, smiling inwardly. Messing with people is something he did in his other MMOs, since he used gender ambiguity and never used voice clients, not that he could use them anyway. He had heard that Aincrad has an inbuilt voice system, which worked even if you couldn't speak in real life. Fortunately, he had read on the forum that it corresponds to the sex of your character. Helpful.

He had finished creating his character, it was very much in his likeness, except for the red eyes and..being female, with the name 'Raeki'. Her eyes were greeted with the sight of the Town of Beginnings. Moving and attacking were quite easy things to grasp, so she decided to skip the tutorial. After grabbing the first quest to go slay boars, she moved out of the town, seeing a great deal of other players swinging their weapons and firing magic about the field. Unsheathing her sword, she tested the weight and balance. It was easy to swing and maneuver. Magic this time, a basic fireball, simple enough.

What she really wanted to test out was the voice component. So she made an elongated "Ah~" as if she was singing. It worked. A female voice which sang considerably well. She smiled to herself in triumph whilst some other players had stopped for a moment to look at her, not that she cared at all.

[Crimson Raven]

Araris arrived at the field. He felt the wind blow through his and he could smell the various flowers that grew there. There were only a few players here, he was one of the first to arrive. A less pleasant smell came his way and he saw a group of boars up wind. "Alright. Time to test combat." He said. He approached the three of them, debating whether to fight one at a time or take them all on. He made up his mind quickly. A fighter's grin spread across his face. In a familiar practiced motion, he drew his one handed sword from it's sheath on his back. He broke into a run, and with a shout, crossed the remaining distance in a straight thrust that ended at the middle most boar's side. It squealed in pain, and reared. It's hp dropped to half. Immediately, the two other boars turned on him. He was hit by both one after another. He retaliated by a by a overhand cut followed by a backhand uppercut at the one on his right. Boar A managed to wheel around for a charge, but Araris evaded it and countered with a thrust to it's side as it passed. Boar C came around and ran in. He blocked it with his sword and gave it a swift kick in the side. Araris found himself laughing at the fun and exhilaration of being in an actual throwdown fight. He used the momentum of his kick, to spin and plant his fist into the face of boar B, who had tried to blindside him. He turned his attention to boar A, who's hp was in the red. He held his sword over his shoulder and finished it off with a massive overhand cut. Boar C managed to land a blow that staggered him slightly, but he recovered quickly enough to duck to the side of boar B's charge and deliver a slash to the entire length of it's body. It fell over and burst into multicolored polygons. Boar C ran at him, but this time, instead of dodging, Araris met it with three precisely timed strikes. That was enough to finish it. It staggered and fell, then bust into polygons. Araris checked his spoils from the window that popped up and his hp. He saw that it was low and healed himself with a quick healing spell. That was fun. Lets do it again. He turned to the next group of boars and charged in.

[NightmareInd]

N1ghtm4r3 walked through the city. He just finished the first part of the tutorial, which learned him how to move and open some menu's. He walked further into the city, until he got into a shop. There, he found a quest giver which he saw on the minimap. The quest was about getting some hides. Sam smiled. He choose the Hunter gathering skill, which means he got double the crafting items. His smile faded as he read that the hides were quest drops, which meant it would still take the same amount of time as normal. He shrugged it off, thinking it would give him extra experience anyway, and walked towards the wilderniss gate. Once there, he saw a lot of boars, and people fighting them. Looking at the gear they were carrying, a lot of people were having swords or maces, but it seemed like he was the only one with a Dagger. He shrugged this off as well, then went into a field.

He walked towards a boar which was on his own. A tutorial HUD popped up, asking if he wanted help with this fight. He tapped yes, even though he didn't really need it. He read the manuel, and a lot of forums about how it was done. A smaller screen popped up and a friendly voice explained. "First, find a monster apropiate to your level. The levels are displayed above a monster's head when you look at them." He looked straight at the boar, and saw it was level 1, just like most common monsters on this floor. "Some monsters are hostile, others neutral and others even timid towards players. Hostile monsters have a red icon above there head, neutrals have an orange icon, and timids have a blue icon." Sam looked at the boar, which had an orange icon. "Hostiles will attack you on sight, while neutrals will only attack you when attack them or one of their allies. Timids will always try to get away from you, even when engaging in combat with them." The screen dissapeared and a new screen popped up. "To attack, you can just hack and slash around you. However, if you wait a bit before attacking, and channel all your power towards your weapon, you can get a power attack which does much more damage! Try it out on the monster!"

N1ghtm4r3 took out his dagger, got into fighting position, and faced the boar. The boar wasn't paying attention to him, as it was neutral like it was described to be. N1ghtm4r3 focused on his dagger, and it started to glow. He dashed for the boar, slashing it while passing it. He stopped his motion by landing on the side of a tree, whaited a bit for his dagger to glow again, and as the boar faced him this time, already a bit of health reduced from it, N1ghtm4r3 dashed for it again and slashed it again, stopping his motion this time with a roll. The boar squeeled, and turned to face him again, down to 1/3 of its health already. He turned around to the boar, which was charging at him, and focused his dagger again. As the boar came closer, N1ghtm4r3 made a small turn to the right, avoiding the attack, then turned a full circle and stabbed the boar in the side. The boar squeeled again, then dissolved into a few bright lights. N1ghtm4r3 looked at a new popup, and saw he got a hide from the boar.

He accepted the loot, and looked around him. A few people were looking his way. Then he noticed a new popup from the tutorial. "If you are hurt from a battle, you can use potions to heal up again." N1ghtm4r3 looked at his HP bar, which was still full. Easier then I expected. He thought, looking around for other boars. He would farm a bit more to complete the quest, then move on to the next village so he could get an upgraded dagger. He would need to get a ranged weapon as well, but they wouldn't be available untill the second floor.

[Rekaigan]

Gathering Boar hides was quite a mundane quest to begin with, but since the combat was so different from other games, it was far more than just a fetch quest. She had decided to actually do the quest rather than hum to herself as she continued to test the vocal systems. Spotting a lone Boar, she focused energy into her hand, conjuring a floating flame from her left palm. She unsheathed her sword in case the Boar closed the distance after her magic. She used a throwing motion with her left hand, flicking the fireball at the Boar, hitting it square in the side. The spell had caused a decent amount of damage, about a third of it's health. She quickly flicked her eyes to check her MP, nearly all of it was used to power that spell. "I figured as much.." She muttered to herself as she prepared her sword for close combat. But what she didn't know was that the Boar has a Charging attack. The boar galloped at her, catching her completely off guard. She barely managed to block the head on collision, but it threw her back, causing her to stumble and take some damage.

She clicked her tongue in disgust. Did she really just get hit by such a telegraphed attack? She was probably just too distracted with her Mana usage. Oh well, all a learning experience. She chuckled to herself. The boar came in for another attack, but this time she was prepared for it. She swiftly sidestepped the headbutt before focusing her energy into her sword, planting her foot into the ground and she pushed forward, impaling the boar in the side of the head with her glowing red sword. A critical. She grinned at her luck, a random critical at this level? Hardly ever see that.

As the boar shattered into tiny polygons, the loot popup appeared suddenly, showing her the loot and exp she gained. She dismissed it, before looking at her HP bar. 1/5th missing. She shrugged, walking back to town to turn in the quest items. She figured that she might be able to find more spells in the next town, possibly upgrade her sword too. As she walked back to town, she rethought her fighting strategy. Casting magic at the start of the fight was a fair idea, but she should probably follow-up with sword skills to try end the fight as soon as possible. It was risky to play that way, but you don't get rewarded if you don't take risks, right?

[Damiann47]

The tutorial wasn't anything special, Kytel didn't know what he expected but at least he didn't have to wonder what could've been. Menus and screens were easy enough to use, and actually intuitive to navigate through. The line of not-so-helpful help messages eventually guided him to his first task, although he was disappointed to learn it was a simple kill quest, technically he was suppose to pick up some boar hides but really it was a kill quest in nature. A quick glance at his map showed the location of the open field, then started his short trek onwards.

A field wasn't much to look at, nor were the boars really; what really caught his attention were the variety of players seeking their own batch of hides. Everyone appeared to be the same, all wearing nigh identical basic armor sets, although slight changes in color scheme helped to set them apart. Now what really separated one from the next were their weapons, he saw a healthy number of different arms, some wielded the ever popular swords, some had maces, others used spears, and a few lugged around hefty greatswords, much like his own. As much time he could spend just watching people go about their questing, Kytel had to get started himself.

He found an isolated boar, far enough from it's friends that he was confident in not pulling more than just the one, combat didn't handle like any other game so he wanted to take it easy at first. Kytel thought about how he wanted to open up, even if this was the lowest of mobs he still found himself strategizing as if he were about to get into a real fight, VR games really did have this impressive sense of realism. Kytel pull his weapon from over his head, it was light enough to hold with single handed, but swinging a two-handed sword with one hand was a stupid idea. He held out his free hand, he had some magic to use and he wanted to figure out how it worked, thankfully the tutorial was actually useful for teaching how spells worked. He took a deep breath then shouted.

"Uv!"

A cyclone of magical runes swarmed all around him before quickly landing on a single one, which he assumed represented "Uv" then all other words disappeared. From his hand burst forth a sizable ball of blue energy, seemed it had a decent drain on his MP meaning he wouldn't be using this spell too much, at least from the start. The energy ball smashed into the boar, it squealed with what sounded like a combination of annoyance of pain, obviously it didn't like that. The beast started to charge Kytel, in response he gripped his sword with both hands, ready to slash out soon as the thing entered his weapon's reach. When he thought the boar was close enough he swung from the side, but soon realized he struck too early; the blade swished through empty air. With no way to stop the boar it collided with him, he stumbled back and the boar was now behind him ready to attack again.

He took some damage, but not a lot, looked like he just lost an inch of health, this was probably his defense aura taking effect, neat. This time Kytel knew what he did wrong, it was a case of misjudging his sword's length. He gathered his strength for a sword skill, another technique successfully taught by the tutorial, then stepped forward as the boar attempted to run him down again. Kytel leaned into a trust, probably not what you're meant to do with such a weapon such as his, but it felt natural. This time he landed a hit, sword skill and all, then the mob prominently exploded into fragments; it was already injured from his magical attack, and a greatsword had decent base damage to begin with.

One boar down, Kytel accepted his loot that being a single hide. That was seriously fun, maybe grinding out a few more hides would be pretty tolerable after all.

[Crimson Raven]

Araris kept fighting boars, long after he had enough for the quest; he fought until he ran out of MP. By then he was loving combat. Once his MP had run out, he sheathed his sword and headed back into town. He found the quest, accepted, then completed it by handing over the boar hides. He sold the rest of his loot, deciding that the money was more useful then the items. He browsed the shops for a bit before deciding to blow most of his cash on an upgraded sword. He sold the old one, and stopped to think about what to do next. All the fields around here are going to be over-hunted soon. My best bet is to get some distance from this place and find a good hunting spot. However I will run the risk of finding something too strong to handle. He grinned. Oh well, that won't stop me!

He searched around, talking to every NCPs he ran into for any hints or information. He was in luck. A certain NCP noted that the western paths were dangerous, and another said that wolves were running ramped to the north. Araris consulted his map. Looks like we are on the south edge, so, east is the way to go. His mind made up, he sprinted for the east gate. He exited the town, liking how the game easily flowed from town to field. As he though, there where so many players logging on they were killing the boars faster than they could respawn. He casually made his way across the field, occasionally taking a detour or two to look for anything. He really wanted to explore the whole field, but he decided it would take too much time. Eventually he left most of the players behind, and entered a new area.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Dead_Ringer walked back towards the Town of Beginnings, he inventory full of hides and plants she picked up along the way. It seemed that many a boar and even a few wolves were contempt knowing their sacrifice would fuel a highly successful business venture. As according to plan, she would complete the quest and sell what ever was remaining to a specialized materials merchant which she would then use the money to buy metals for blacksmithing.

Manically chuckling her way past the gate, drawing some startled looks from onlookers, DeRi walked towards the main market. DeRi was a shortened form of her name that made her sound a bit more approachable. It was important in business to be both approachable to costumers and partners and intimidating to others when the need arises; Dead_Ringer unfortunately only achieved one of these requirements so a second nickname was needed.

As the newly christened DeRi made her way into the crowed market stalls, she pushed past people with similar goals in mind. Spare hides and furs traded hands for gold, lucky players who managed to find a new weapon were begging to have it be refined and sharpened, people who clearly hadn't gotten used to the controls were bumping into anything that moved and some that didn't, it struck a familiar cord to Alice, recalling memories when her father once brought her to the stock exchange. All the hustle and bustle, the movement and the profits, Alice had to admit that she was throughly enjoying the game's atmosphere at this point.

Taking in the sights, she almost wanted to burst into Disney song, almost. Seeing the sign of the store that's the corner stone of her plans, she excitedly dashes towards, only to be halted by someone else who ran into her, "Oi! Watch where you're going!"

[Damiann47]

Many boars later netted just enough hides to wrap up the quest, well actually just four more was enough it wasn't exactly hard. Kytel was heading back to town, he did gather other miscellaneous loot from monsters, however he planned on holding onto the items, besides vendering these off wouldn't amount to much money anyway. He gotten used to his new body, actually it felt just like his real one but with a few differences, mainly a innate ability to fight he certainly didn't know how to even throw a punch in real life.

Kytel had a basic plan laid out, turn in this quest, finish up the tutorial which he was suspecting was reaching it's conclusion, then it'll be time to start wandering about. What's best about open worlds is how a player can pick a direction and eventually he'll run into something, quests weren't always needed to see interesting sights out there. He found himself taking in the scenery more closely while on his return trip, the developers outdid themselves when they created the game's assets; everything had fine details, and nothing was the same... it was quite incredible.

He reached the market district, Kytel was pretty sure the quest giver was just ahead, so with this in mind he picked up the pace, going into more of a light jog rather than a full on sprint. There was even more to look at here with the myriad of stalls where NPC and even the rare player alike peddled their wares. Still jogging Kytel got distracted by a nearby stall, although with his attention now divided he wasn't aware of where he was going anymore, which turned out to be a poor decision on his part... meaning he smacked right into another person. What he first learned was this person is a she, the biggest giveaway was her feminine voice, and she didn't sound so pleased, rightfully so.

"Ah- hell, sorry about that, got distracted by uh... something, so yeah my bad!" Kytel rubbed his neck while launching right in an apology with his eyes closed.

[Ermine]

It didn't take long for Angel to get home from school; she lived right across the street (her parents chose this house because of that). While she knew it would be just as long of a wait either way, she felt like she was being sort of ripped off in terms of time; she had nothing to distract her from her new game once home, and was worried she'd miss it. But at least she knew she'd be done with her homework. As soon as she entered her house, she had her homework out, and had already started by the time she sat down.

By no means was she a good student, she just did her homework and deliberately only got adequate grades (despite the fact that this all came to her naturally). It was better to get it out of the way than to have to deal with a stressed teacher, and it was better to not get a perfect grade so she wouldn't get too much attention. However, today she didn't filter her answers in her homework; she was too distracted by the ARE. The distraction was enough to get all the right answers, and despite having homework for all of her classes, she was done in under half an hour. The fact that she had almost an hour left until the game went online was not lost on her.

Her dad was the only one home with her, since he worked at home to make sure someone was always there for her, and neither had yet said a word to each other. Having so much time left, the least she could do was distract him from getting any work done. She walked into his office. "Daddy? Are you busy?" Without waiting for an answer, she plopped down next to him. She proceeded to tell him, in excessive detail, about her day, until it reached 4:57. "Okay, I'll be playing my game. I'll leave it in time for tonight, k? Are you playing, too?" On his confirmation, and a second confirmation that he wouldn't actually show up in-game and identify as her dad, she went back to her room and quickly donned the helmet. When it reached the right time, she logged in.

She took her time making her character. As soon as she saw the option to be another race, she immediately went with it. So, Padurii or...no, Padurii. Definitely. After some time, she finally finished her character, and was in the game. She had chosen a name she used in pretty much every other game: Distrugerea_Inger, "Destroying Angel," a play on her name and the name of a mushroom. As soon as she reached the Town of Beginnings, she came to a sudden realization. Why am I the only non-human I see? No matter where she looked, so many people were humans. I didn't think the race menu was so hard to find... When she finally noticed the option to do the tutorial, she agreed. Immediately, she was dismayed combat was so important to everything, at least right now.

She took her time playing around in the menu, discovering that with her choices, she ended up with a free spell. She looked over the details carefully before beginning the combat portion of the tutorial. Apparently, she'd missed the memo that spamming Attack on boars was the only thing people could do in this game, so instead left the town, heading east, to find something else to harvest. It was some time before she reached sheep. So...only thing I can do right now is fight it...but there have to be better ways to...oh! Right. Spell.

She held her hand out in front of her, and as she spoke, "Alok," symbols spun around her, stopping on a total of four. Okay, so some kind of substitution cypher... She was less than impressed...at first. That is, until a skeleton popped up out of the ground. "Oh, hi there! I think I'll call you Malachi." She reached out and touched the skeleton's "cheek." Entering combat stance, she led Malachi to the sheep and, left hand behind her back, started slashing away with assistance. She would have to do this quite frequently until she gained the ability to gather wool without killing. Or trade for it. She wanted to start a business in-game, after all, and how would she get anything done if she had to spend so much time doing meaningless tasks that weren't crafting? She was starting to despise this game already.

[Rekaigan]

Raeki thought about whether or not she should just keep grinding exp from boars or keep moving to the next area. She figured that she could find some spell books in the next town, which meant moving east of the Town of Beginnings. She figured that she could just slay boars as she walked along the path, but since there were so many players logging in, there were absolutely no boars around. As she walked toward the next area, she was kind of distracted by all the new players. Some of them couldn't actually handle the boar's attacks, which made her giggle to herself. How cocky of her.

However, this made her think about the next area over. It's highly likely that the monsters there would be a lot stronger than the boars, but with her new fighting strategy, she was sure that it wouldn't be overly difficult. And of course, there'd be less people around. Less people meant that she could get a good hunting spot to herself, but that also meant there was nobody around to party with, which seemed kind of boring. So she decided that she would invite the next person she met in the next area to her party, no buts. Particularly unusual for her to act this way considering she never does it in real life. But this a game where almost anything goes. As she walked through the gate to the next area, she spotted someone. He looked capable enough. So she strode up next to him, "Hey there, would you like to party up? It'll make things easier for us when we're hunting here." She inquired, giving him a cheerful smile. Before he could respond, she decided to send him a party invite message, which came as a popup.

---
@Crimson Raven

[CallMeChaotix]

As Kyle waited at the school bell to ring. He thought about his new VRMMO. He's been wanting to play it ever since school started. A loud ring caught Kyle's attention so he ran out the classroom as every other student did. His friend, Ryan ran to him and said "Did you hear about that new game for the VRMMO, Aincrad: Remastered?" Kyle responded with a "Yes, I got the game with the VRMMO." Ryan looked surprised at this and said "Cool, man.." Kyle sighed and walked out of the school to his parked motorcycle. He putted his helmet on and drove to his house, excited to try the new game.

A couple of hours later, the game downloaded finally. He puts his VRMMO on, and then his mind was inside the virtual world. A black screen showed then a couple minutes later the Aincrad: Remastered main menu screen showed. He then went to the sign up menu. He named himself Dragonwing because he thought it sounded cool and then he customized his character and got his loadout the way he wanted it. Another black screen showed after he chose the option to go into the game and just like that, he was looking at a virtual world with players walking around, dueling, hunting and some just talking and walking together. Kyle knew he was going to love this game.

He noticed how most new players like him were grinding EXP from boars. It took him a little while to figure out how to equip his weapon and then he hits a boar with his sword, only tipping the boar off, he realizes he is swinging the sword wrong and then he gets rammed by a boar the attack of the boar depleted a little bit of health but it still hurted, a lot. He noticed the blood in this game glowed a light red as he saw a cut on his side leak it. He raises his sword up while crawling back from the boar and he pulls it down onto the boar's forhead, killing it instantly. Dragonwing gets up, panting while slicing and dicing more boars. Realizing that these animals were easy and he leveled up a lot. At one point he leveled up to where boars would take forever to get him to level up again. So he heads to the Town of Beginnings.

He sees a female player called inviting a guy to her party. Dragonwing does like being alone but not all the time. He walks to Raeki and asks her a question "Hey, can I join your party?" Dragonwing smiles awkwardly at the two players. He wonders what this game is truly about. He also wonders if this game can even lag. He does want to go play with other players. He just can't find any. Dragonwing is kind of lonely in real life. He doesn't want to be lonely in a video game that is an MMO.

[ClocktowerEchos]

"Just watch were you're going! You could have hurt me!" DeRi pouted, she knew that towns were no kill zones, but that was beyond the point right now. This man had just blocked her path and wasted her precious time, as much as she wanted to fume and rage at him, she had to keep composure.

"Tell me your name!" DeRi demanded, ignoring the crowd that began to look at the two and the girl little girl yelling at a guy, "Surely no simple NPC could have forced me to the ground!"

@Damiann47

[CallMeChaotix]

Dragonwing saw Dead_Ringer yelling at the other player so he walked over. "Hey, what is the problem?" He asked a player next to him. The player answered "I don't know. I just came over here to see why she is yelling at the guy." Dragonwing shrugged and walked on his way, looking for other layers he could party up with. As he looked around the Town of Beginnins. He saw a lot of new players like him. He thought he heard some players talking about dungeons and new monsters in updates. Dragonwing thinks, can there be better gear then this? So he walks up to another player and asks "Hey, do you know an easy way for a low level to earn some better gear?" The other player says "Beat it, newbie." Dragonwing is a little offended but he walks off and just sits down. Maybe this type of game isn't for him. He definetly needs help with a high level player. Yet, the only ones he found just tell him to screw off. Dragonwing looks in the menu and logs off.

It's 9:45 PM now. As he takes off his VRMMO helmet, Kyle wonders about how many players like him are treated. If he even finds a player like him being picked on. He'll help them out. But for now, it's just him. He sat up and looked at his phone. Nothing, Kyle sighed with relief knowing he didn't miss any texts from a friend. He breathes in and out, frustrated from the outcome of today. He logs back on, hoping something will be different when he joins back, he is calm and collected now. He thinks he can go for it again. He respawned back in the Towns Of Beginnings. Still looking for someone to party up with.

[Damiann47]

@ClocktowerEchos

Well... this was happening to him now, she was really overrating to a simple mistake, not that he'll say as much to a complete stranger's face. "Hey now, let us calm down a bit, again I should apologize because it was my fault, and I did bowl your over after all."

Kytel pointed down the street in the vague direction of the quest giver. "I'm just coming back from wrapping up that, sort of stupid, boar's hide quest." He then held a hand to his chest. "And... uh my name is Kytel." He may have been practically submitting to the girl, but solving this diplomatically was probably the fastest way to resolve things.

[CallMeChaotix]

Dragonwing drops down from a hill, how did this get out of hand for him? There was three mistakes that he done. 1. He tipped off a bear. 2. He tried to kill it. 3. He didn't kill it. Dragonwing jumped off the hill when he landed, rolling over he lost a little health. His rib hurted a little from that fall. He runs back to the Town Of Beginnings, yelling "SOMEONE HELP ME!". Fortunately when he made it to the town, the bear walked off. He is having a very bad day. Man, he is starting to hate this game ALOT.

As he holds his rib, he limps to the Town of Beginnings, at this point he is too tired to move anymore. So he collapsed in front of the town, it's not like he was sleepy, he just didn't want to move. That would make his wound from the bear fight feel worse. Okay, maybe he was a little sleepy. He could just take a virtual nap there. His long, white scarf hanged over his body, covering most of it besides his head. This is the worst day he has ever had in a video game or in life. He slowly gets up look at the croud and smiled awkwardly "..Hello..?" Yep, this had to be his worst day ever, he can't feel humiliated when he is playing a computer game but when people are actually standing there showing their actual reactions like they do in real life burns him up. Everyone laughed at him.

[Crimson Raven]

Araris stopped and looked at the girl. He raised an eyebrow, "Just like that? You come up to someone you barely know, and ask them to watch your back in combat, and expect then to trust you to do the same?" He said incredulously as he shook his head. "I am not sure if you are insane or just naïve." He sighed. "What the hell, lets form a party, although this will only be temporary. Rules are: Exp and money will be evenly split, whoever gets an item keeps it." He stated as he pressed okay to form a party.

@Rekaigan