[IC] The Gamers (A Videogame Themed RP) (Reboot)

[Renose]

Why did it happen? It was impossible to say. It just happened. Two days ago a small group of people found their world mysteriously changed. It wasn't the world around them that changed though. No, instead it was something else. They themselves had changed. Upon waking up on that fateful day these people would discover the names of people floating over the heads of those around them and, if they looked in the mirror, themselves. Next to these names also were the letters LV and a number next to that. Most people would have 1, but some may have had 2 or 3 for some mysterious reason, these people seeming a bit tougher than the average person, but not by that much.

Still though nothing else in Neo Tokyo or even in all of Japerica didn't change. Everyone still went and lived their ordinary lives despite how much this small group of people changed. Did their lives change though or did they just change? You would have to ask them their take on that. On the surface though no. Nothing would have changed for them other than being affected by this mysterious phenomenon. In fact, despite having it affect them their lives would continue to function as normal unless they strove to make it otherwise. Still, if everything else around them was normal then there really would be no reason to.

---

Those two days came and went rather quickly. Whether they investigated and found out more about what they may or may not discover to be a strange power would be besides the point. As this group lived out their lives around noon suddenly in front of each of them appeared another alert window with a small ding. Anyone else around these people would be unable to see the window or hear the sound that the window made as it appeared. Bright blue in hue, flat like paper with an exclamation mark on it. On the window in black text said the following, "The Quest 'Others like Me?' has been created".

Two buttons were below the text. One read 'Accept (Y)' and the other read 'Ignore (N)'. If they really decided to hit the 'Ignore' button they would be able to go about their days as normal. For the more adventurous or curious sort that hit 'Accept' button would see another window appear. It seemed to tell the details of the 'Quest' that had been created. It was also a bigger square than the smaller rectangular window that showed this 'Quest' being created. This larger window read the following.

Others Like Me

Others Like Me

Issued By: A Passing Thought

Sometimes in the world there exist multiples of the same thing. There could possibly be more of those with <The Gamer> above their heads, or in this case more of those who are <Gamers>. Whether this is true or not is uncertain, but perhaps going to investigate could be very beneficial. Its not like there is much else to do at this point anyway.

Reward: 4 EXP, Possibly more information on <The Gamer>

Failure: Not finding out more about <The Gamer>

Where would one start though? It was hard to say. The city was large and even though would be above the heads of others like them it would still be incredibly hard to find people like each other. There were a few good places to start like the large mega mall Septemberes or maybe other larger places of people gathering like Neo Tokyo U where alot of students attended. Of course, there was a chance of finding people in the streets around the Entertainment District of Neo Tokyo where alot of shops and clubs as well, Septemberes being the centerpiece of the district.

There was also the Port Island District, which could only be accessed from the main part of Neo Tokyo by train or a bridge since it was an island near Neo Tokyo and considered to be a part of Neo Tokyo. This was the more residential and school district of Neo Tokyo as it was were Neo Tokyo U was located as well as a large number of residences. Of course, there were other areas not on the Port Island District that were residential as well, but the Port Island held some of the more larger residential areas. Neo Tokyo was one of the largest cities in not only Japerica, but the entire world. It would be hard to find other people with above their head even if it was floating above their head.

Still though, no sense in not accepting the Quest and not looking. After all, whatever was going on certainly was something completely out of the 'Normal', if such a thing even truly existed in the world.

[Omnial]

Day 1

*ping!*

"Damn alarm clock, where is the snooze button..." Lucian flailed his arm around aimlessly, hoping to turn of his alarm, "I just want five more minuites..." He rolled over in his bed. It was too warm, and too early to get up just yet, he didn't have class till 10 after all, iWait...I didn't set an alarm... he thought to himself, his body naturally waking up against his will. "Fine! I'll just start my day early I guess..." He moaned to himself as he pulled himself out of bed, scratching himself, he walked to the bathroom, and past the mirror. And that was when he noticed it...

<The Gamer>
Lv 1 Lucian Bonhert

The hell is this? He got closer to his mirror, and so did the bright words above his head. This isn't normal... His expression was that of confused, but he decided it was best to not ask questions, he had after all pulled a few all nighters cramming in study, it must just be the effect of a lack of sleep, too much studying, and not enough video games...yeah... that must be it.

Deciding to continue his day, Lucian got himself together, slicked his hair back and put on his tie, and made way for his class early. When he stepped outside to see other people with similar tags above their heads, except with it saying student, and usually around the same level, a few being one or two above himself. "Maybe I need a day off today..." He had just stepped outside, but seeing this made him question how much he would get out of his classes, so he put his bag back, and left.

Is nobody else seeing this? Did I hit my head last night? Wasn't I just going to ignore all this and try to relax today? He let out a sigh and looked to the ground. "Well...at least some things are turning out good for me today." He smiled, bent over and found a 1,000 Yen bill. Guess it is my lucky delusional day? He pocketed the money, and continued on his walk to the park, where he found his favorite tree, and sat under its shade and pulled out his favorite book. The rest of the day past quickly, or so it seemed.

Day 2

*Ping*

Why did I even buy an alarm clock? again he flailed his arms around hoping to hit it, but his eyes opened a bit this time, he thought he saw a box, but it vanished as his hand touched it, was it even there to begin with? Puzzled and confused, he pulled his covers higher, and stayed in bed.

2 hours later, his real alarm went off. So, he went on with his usual routine, but this time he decide to check the mirror first, hoping to not see anything other than his own messy bed head.

<The Gamer>
Lv 1 Lucian Bonhert.

It was still there. This is kind of weird...based on my good nights rest, and a day of nothing game based, nor stress, I guess I am either completely gone, or this is indeed, a game tag, but in real life...

He didn't even finish getting himself in order this morning, he hit his computer up, closing the window of his game, clicking the x on all of his messages that popped up, "You up for 5 v 5 tonight?" "Hey you there?" "Doooooooood?" None of them were important right now. He went to Google. What on earth would this be under? seeing things? Games becoming reality? Puzzled as to what he should even be trying to look for which would describe what was going on, he tried a few searches, coming up with mostly non sense, games, parental rants about gaming, murders, role plays, nothing that he found to be useful.

Maybe the library will have something in the psychological department? yeah because clearly I have gone mental. He leaned back in his chair, guess I just have to get used to it?

He tried his best to go about his day, but found it hard to pay attention in class.

Day 3

*Ping!*

Habitual as it had become, he heard a ping, he swung his arms, and continued to sleep. Got up, but this time, the box was still there. He lay in bed staring at it. Quest? He stared at the box, then noticed that it had options. To accept or not to accept? reaching forward to his ignore button, he paused, In some mmos the easiest way to get a level is to do quests...and it has no time limit... He thought to himself, then moved his hand over to accept it. Taking in the details, he finally closed the information box. "Neat I guess..." But how would he find these people? Then it dawned on him. A gamer plays a lot of games, the safest way to find a gamer, is to go where there are games!

Lucian got himself ready, threw on his red shirt and a black tie, I'll just head over to Septemberes' second hand gaming store. Most real gamers do play the older games anyways, He looked over to his Playstation, sitting beside a Nintendo 64 and Sega. "Yup" he reconfirmed it to himself, and left for the store.

Boarding on the train, he rode from the Dorms of Neo Tokyo U, all the way into Septemberes. He hated riding at such a peak hour, and he decided that he hated it even more now that he was forced to see all their names. He wished he could turn it off, but he also knew he need to be searching to see if he could find one that said gamer as well.

He arrived at Septemberes and then just loafed around the store, hoping that someone would show up eventually. He knew the odds would be slim, but seeing how big the city was, it was one of his better chances, aside from making a blog and hoping that he didn't find a bunch of crazies.

[snowblzr]

There were two days before it happened. His first quest. But the two day prior were still important.
The First Day
It started off quite late. It was already the afternoon when Timothy woke up that day, but he got up and opened the blinds to let in sunlight. He turned around to walk to the bathroom but he paused, turned to face the window again, and looked straight down. Down on the street, where along with the bustle of people, were their supposed names. Not only that, but a phrase at the end of their names, "LVL" and a number one or two. There was another one with three, though it semmed like those people were rare. Just from that, Tim just knew that it would be that kind of day, one full of adventure and exploration. Although, no matter how hard he tried, he never found anything out about this phenomenon. Not even when he googled it, or consulted his books. All hope seemed to be lost when he even went outdoors to try to ask people if they had a clue to what was going on. As the sun sank, so did Tim's hopes and excitement. He just concluded that he was daydreaming it all, probably due to all the MMORPGs he was playing recently. Right before he gave all hope and went to bed, he hopped on the computer, and a reminder appeared "Midnight release of Absolute War! Get it!!!!!!!!!!". Timothy had no desire to spend the night outdoors getting the new game, especially in the Absolute War series, they were so over-rated for FPS games. He would just get his pre-order tomorrow, he paid extra for the store to keep a copy for him.
The Second Day
The second day flew by. Tim tried to ignore all that had happened yesterday, including the game's release. He concluded that it was just a very expansive dream, and he'd eventually wake up. Except he didn't. At the end of the day he went to bed, sure, that something would happen tomorrow. Possibly, that he would wake up.

---

On the day of the first quest, Tim passed through the day, like he rode the bleak train. It was slow but nothing important happened, until of course, the quest.
Timothy was already on the way to pick up his game, when it appeared. He was taking a walk, and the notification sounded. He looked around him to see if anyone else noticed the quest, but they trudged along as if they were NPC's of a game. After accepting the quest, the hurried his way to Septemberes, where he would get the game, and wait around the game store for an hour. If no one came, he would then walk to the cyber-café a few blocks away, where he would normally see some MMORPG players play and eat snacks.
He trudged towards the entrance of the second-hand game store, first, for no reason, but upon turning the corner he noticed a tall man, in formal-wear. It was a bit odd to see someone this formally dressed up in a second-hand game store, but this person did look a bit familiar, maybe they had been in the store together before. That wasn't the oddest thing. The <The Gamer> tag was. It hadn't taken him much time, and he already found someone. He approached the person and began to say, "Hey... have you been seeing these weird name tags above peoples heads?"

[Valeric]

It was 5am in the morning. Sasha's room was dark, illuminated only by the unearthly light of the PC monitor, the only sounds were her occasional grunts and the furious clacking of her fingers against the keyboard. Through the small opening in the curtains the sky was beginning to light up. It was a strangely serene scene, as opposed to the intense battle raging on within the screen.

Sasha's online avatar weaved through an epileptic barrage of energy bolts to deliver the final blow to the raid boss. The dragon screamed and collapsed like a falling tree. She slumped back into her chair as the victory theme played from her headset. Her shirt was damp with perspiration.

"They're really trying hard to kill us. That boss was way too difficult!" she said seemingly to herself, but at least a dozen other people heard her voice over the internet.

"Yeah, but we made it anyway didn't we?" a disembodied male voice whispered through her headset.

"Wouldn't be possible without you, seresu," commended another. Seresu was short for 'selestial', her online handle. In the world of Dungeon Busters, it was a name that garnered awe.

"Everyone did well too! I'm totally exhausted. Gonna hit the sack, g'night guys," Sasha announced before logging off. Her desktop returned to the screen. She climbed out of her seat and stretched languidly. A shower, then bed, she decided.

When she came out of the bathroom later, clean and fresh, there was someone standing in the corridor. It was her father, getting ready for work. The man saw her daughter and smiled. He was however hesitant about approaching her. Ever since she had stopped being a little girl, Mr. Matsu had not known how to connect with Sasha. Sasha, like most teenagers, didn't really know what to say either.

"G-good morning, father," Sasha said, feeling guilty about the fact that she stayed up the entire night playing Dungeon Busters. She tried to shimmy into her room but her father began to speak.

"Good morning, sweetie. You're up early today."

"Uh yeaaah-" her eyes caught something strange, and she looked up. Above her father's head, was a floating white text that said "LV 1- Matsu Nakamura". Sasha's jaw dropped. What on earth was that?

"Have a good day then. I've got to run. Big meeting first thing in the morning today," her father said, his tone almost apologetic. As he walked down the corridor the floating text followed him like a neon sign glued to his head. Only when he disappeared from sight did the text disappear.

Sasha knew she wasn't hallucinating. All thoughts of sleeping disappeared. She quickly dressed, pulling on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. In the kitchen, her mother was preparing breakfast. Her eyes widened, surprised that Sasha had made it for breakfast. Sure enough, her name and level was displayed above her head. Crazy. She must be going crazy. This must be what I get for gaming too much.

"Uh, you aren't seeing floating words above our heads, are you?" she asked out loud. Mr. Matsu gave her a blank stare.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"

"Nevermind, it was a joke."

She slowly chewed her rice, lost in thought. As a gamer, she automatically recognized it as name displays used in many MMORPGs and online games. That did not tell her anything at all.

After finishing her breakfast, she surprised her parents a second time by heading out. Sure enough, everyone she came across had a level and name displayed on their heads. Not everyone was the same level- the highest she saw was a large man whose attire literally spelled yakuza. He was level five.

"Hahah, so, do I have stats and stuff?" There was obviously no buttons to press in her "HUD", so maybe there was another method. Voice activation? "…system? Stats? Status? Status… window?"

A blue screen popped up. On it was her basic information and a list of statistics ripped straight out of a game. Sasha stared wide eyed at it, but by now she was getting quite used to all these unbelievable things. After trying a slew of other keywords she managed to find that there was an Inventory, Skills, Quest, and a Talent window. Nothing else worked, but there could be keywords she missed.

Curiosity satisfied, she returned home. As hard as she tried, she couldn't figure out how to gain exp points or receive quests. As an experiment, she asked her mother for errands. It didn't work. Puzzled, she went back to playing Dungeon Busters. Sasha did not manage to find anything out in the next day either.

In the following afternoon, she stirred from sleep to a blue panel. It read, "The Quest 'Others like Me?' has been created," followed by two buttons, "accept", or "ignore". Sleepy eyed, Sasha pushed in "accept" without further thought.

"Uh… should I have done that, I wonder."

She called up her quest window. There it was, a single ongoing quest. And it was a very peculiar quest at that. It urged her to search for other "Gamers", presumably other people like her.

"That means, I'm not the only person with this insanity?" she thought out loud. Like any good netizen she looked to the internet for information. However, nothing substantial turned up from her searches. Finally she decided to post on 2ch, hoping that someone on the forum might know something. With that done, she moved her cursor and double-clicked on the Dungeon Busters icon.

[Omnial]

Looking over to the man addressing him, Then spotting his Tags, Lucian concluded that he found one of the other gamer. "I'm not sure what you are talking about Timothy Epnet, you sound a bit like a crazy level one Gamer to me." He chuckled then stood up and walked over to him. "It sounds a little strange," He held out his hand to shake Timothy's "But, sometimes the truth is strange. I'm Lucian, as you can probably read." Well, here is one of the other 'Gamers', but based on the fact that the quest said others like me, and I haven't received any kind o notice stating my quest is complete, like I would in a game, I am guessing that there must be at least one or more of us left to find...Damn this would be easier if I could read the details o the quest and see how many there is...

Lucian ran his hand through his slicked back hair, then began to speak again. Not meaning to, but sounding more like he was in an interrogation, "So what do you know about this 'Gamer' power. He made air quotation marks with his hands as he spoke. Maybe one of the Gamers knows what's going on?

[snowblzr]

Lucian said
"I'm not sure what you are talking about Timothy Epnet, you sound a bit like a crazy level one Gamer to me. It sounds a little strange, but, sometimes the truth is strange. I'm Lucian, as you can probably read."

Tim took Lucian's hand, and greeted himself, "Yeah, I'm Timothy Epnet." He chuckled at the thought of having to repeat his name to someone who could read it. In a way, it reassured him about his position in this.

Lucian said
"So what do you know about this 'Gamer' power?"

"Psssssht. I probably just as clueless as you are. I never could figure anything out since... two days ago? It's been some time..." He couldn't think of anything interesting from the few days, and it suddenly hit him. The quest. It never got completed, it must have meant that there are more gamers. Then he got an idea.

"Hey, how about we walk around the mall, looking for more gamers? There are bound to be more," he said. He motioned for him to follow as he exited without even waiting for an answer.

[Dingo]

Day One: Summary

Rainer woke like any other morning, getting himself ready for morning training. It was in the bathroom mirror that he first encountered it; The light blue text floating over his head which read "Rainer Hinotane LV 1" with the title <The Gamer> floating just above it. For some reason, the gravity of the situation didn't fully click with him and he, somehow, took it in stride, making his way to his dojo in an almost surreal daze. He notced the names of other people floating above their head, the only difference being the lack of a "Gamer" title like his.
At one point, he even started calling out the names of people as he passed them by, watching them respond and playing it off as a mistake. These were people he had never met before in his life, and he knew their names. It clearly wasn't a hallucination. At the dojo, things weren't much different, save for his 3rd Dan instructor apparently being Level 4 with the title <3rd Dan Martial Artist> floating where Rainer's "Gamer" title would have been. Nevertheless, Rainer continued his training, finding that his technique was a bit better than usual and that training was going even better than normal. After a diligent day of intense training a window suddenly appeared in front of his vision, apparently observable only to him. It was light blue and rectangle and read as thus;

The Window

Diligent Martial Arts Training has increased your STR and DEX by 1.

It was hard to say what was going on with this apparent Stat boost, which seemed to work in with the video game theme that the world had apparently undertaken, but Rainer did actually feel slightly stronger than he had at the beginning of the day. Making his way home, Rainer searched for anything about what was happening online, but found nothing. Eventually, he made his way to bed, no closer to finding an answer.

Day Two: Summary

A much less eventful day, Rainer tried unsuccessfully to convince a TV Station that he was some sort of psychic, partly in hopes of finding some answers or someone in a similar situation, the other part of him intending to at least make some money off his new situation. No matter what he said, though, he was brushed off by the station, leaving him to do little more than continue his online search into the phenomenon. No new information could be found, however, and Rainer once again went to bed with more questions than answers.

---

The new window, or 'Quest', had caught Rainer off-guard. He had no idea how to close the window in front of his vision without seeming like a crazy person, so he instead settled for pretending to brush a fly away while hitting the Accept option. He was sitting in the Septembres Food Court, casually eating when he had received the quest, but it had definitely caught his attention. At the very least it meant that there were others out there seeing what he saw with the title of "Gamer" over their head, just like him, and he was being encouraged to seek them out.
But that raised another question.
Encouraged by whom? Who had sent him the quest? Why did they want him to find others? Was it an elaborate trap? Nevertheless, Rainer was eager for answers. Perhaps there was a reason he had received the quest now, in Septembres of all places. Did this unseen Quest Giver know where he was at that moment? He supposed a mall complex would be the best place to spot someone with a "Gamer" title, but where? There were certainly a few gaming stores around, perhaps they would be the best place to start? After all, if Rainer was looking for a "Gamer", what better place to look than in a store full of them?

Standing from his table, Rainer took his soda in hand and started making his way to the nearest games store. He didn't have far to travel, as it wasn't too far from the food court. The journey paid off almost immediately, however, when Rainer saw two titles reading <The Gamer> over the heads of two strangers, one by the name of Lucian Bonhert and the other being someone by the name of Timothy Epnet. The two appeared to already be in conversation, which caused Rainer to hang back slightly.
If they already knew each other, it could possibly be a trap to lure out other Gamers. After all what was the point of a game if not to defeat adversaries and progress further? This clearly had the looking of some sort of RPG with a Levelling system as well as Stats, who was to say that this wasn't intended to be a PvP game? Rainer knew better than to log into a PvP server and expect Peace, Love and Understanding. It was called PvP for a reason.

With that in mind, Rainer hung back at the entrance of the store, hoping to stay concealed enough that the Gamers couldn't see him or his "Gamer" title. He had a feeling that it would be a little bit safer to eavesdrop first and get an idea of these two Gamer's allegiances and intentions.

[Jester Acharis]

First Day

On the first day, Zahira awoke with a splitting headache and a plethora of embarrassing memories to carry to her grave. She wasn't usually one to drink herself to passing out, surprising as it might seem, but last night had been different - even if still an accident. She'd been spending time at a local bar after a particularly taxing day at work, when a guy her age had taken a seat next to her. And boy, it had not been any guy, it'd been a total cutie of a man! Of course she had needed to try and show off her liquor holding skills - or, as it turned out, her lack of them. Luckily her best friend'd been there to drag her back home before she'd done anything irreversible, but not before she'd drank enough to adamantly try and claim that the decorative horse statue in the bar was her pet cat Cedric and needed to come home with her.

Long story short, she owed her friend one, and she was never drinking again. Especially since she hadn't managed to get the guy - or the statue - after all. All she'd brought back was a headache and a stomach that tried to take every opportunity it had to empty itself over whatever stood in front of her at the moment.

Somehow, she still managed to get herself up from her bed in the end and exhort herself enough to get to the bathroom. And it was when she looked at the decorated mirror in front of her that she saw that for the first time; a peculiar text, floating just above her head and proudly declaring her name, as well as the word "lv 1", whatever that meant. She thought nothing of it at the time, passing it off as just the hallucinations of a hangover woman, and just continued to go about her morning as usual, every now and again breaking into sobbing fits over having embarrassed herself in front of a hot man the way she had.

She was late from work that morning, but through profuse apologies (ones delivered with enough volume to startle neighbours all the way across the street) she had somehow managed to keep her job. Perhaps it was the desperation on her face or her boss just desperately needing workforce, she didn't know. But there she was again in a minute, changing into work gear and accepting her first request for the day.

And that's when it happened again; no sooner had she received the details of her first order, when text popped up into her vision again, this time written in a strange window straight out of one of those games the boys used to play back in middle school.

window

The Event Quest: 'Busy Delivery Day' has been created and accepted.

She blinked once and she blinked twice, and the second time around the text had disappeared, only to be replaced by what seemed to be a better detailed explanation of what she saw earlier.

window

<Busy Delivery Day>

There are alot of deliveries to make today. Make sure you make it on time for each one and do your best at this new job of yours!

Time Limit: 30 minutes for each delivery

Reward: Possible Tips for each successful delivery, 4 EXP, Praise from Boss.

Failure: No tip, disapproval from Boss for each late delivery, possible firing if too many are failed.

She squinted.

"Event... quest...? Time limit..." She mumbled to herself, eyes wide and confused. "Rewar - ah!" It was then that she stopped, her simple mind easily impressed. "Ah, so the reward is praise! And, and exp. I don't really get it but exp... that's the same as points...? Like, karma points! So then-"

"Zahira, the food's getting cold!" She heard the booming voice of her employer and quickly snapped out of her thoughts. Almost stumbling, she turned around.

"Ah, yes, sorries, going right now mister, sir!"

And as she did, the window disappeared as if never there.

The next window wouldn't appear until the very evening, when Zahira was returning home from work with a skip to her step and a hum on her lips. Not only had she received a lot of tips today, she had gotten positive feedback from her boss, and that surely meant that her score as a human being had gone up, too. Tomorrow, she'd need to call her friend and tell him about this. And he said she was a hopeless case!

The last window informed her of a mission accomplished, as well as exp earned, and Zahira figured that perhaps these drunken hallucinations weren't such a bad thing after all.

---

Second Day

... Until she realized they were still there the second day.

A look in the mirror still showed her name and her "LV", whatever that meant (loveliness vector? Lonely... uh...) and fun as it that had been yesterday, it was just a little nerve wrecking today. What if she had drunk enough last night to permanently destroy brain cells and make her stupid?! She called her friend early in the morning to cry to him about the matter, and with a sigh and a groan she'd been convinced she couldn't get any stupider no matter what. So, relieved, she hung up the call and headed for work.

Once there, she figured the only way to make sure she wasn't being a silly-butt about this all was to simply ask. So she did, from her coworkers to the customers staying in the shop to eat, from random passersby that mostly ran away at her frantic approach. It didn't matter who she asked though, as the reactions were pretty much the same throughout; everyone raised a curious brow, shook their head and offered no answers for her to carry home. Some offered delightful smiles and chuckles, though, so at least she had brightened up someone's day...? Then again, some had told her she was being weird. At that she would panic and try to wave her hands and explain away her point, and she would receive more chuckles and smiling faces in response - even if neither was what she was really looking for.

With a sigh, Zahira slumped down on a chair in the few spare minutes she had from her deliveries. Nobody saw what she did... what was-

She couldn't finish that thought when another window appeared, directly followed by another.

window

A Skill has been created through a special action. Through the continuous effort to gather information the Skill to better obtain information through talking to others; <Gather Information>, has been created.

window

(The picture would be here) Gather Information (Passive) (LV 1: 0/100 EXP): Helps you better talk to people when trying to gather information. +5% to all attempts at Negotiation to gather information from people.

Levels up through any form of attempt to gather information from people, whether successful or unsuccessful.

They mentioned something about a skill, whatever that meant, and seemed to both be positive. The second window displayed a small Sherlockian hat.

Zahira almost fell back in her chair at the text, but bizarre as it was, she couldn't help but feel a small stroke of pride pound in her chest. Basically, the text was telling her that she was smart, right! It had the picture of whatshisface's hat and all! And that guy was smart, right? So, so she was like a detective too now! She rather liked the thought. Being proud enough to forget how nonsensible the situation was, the easily excitable girl jumped up and went to tell her boss she was smart. In response, she got another package to deliver shoved into her arms.

She figured it was her reward and was just about to start eating, when a coworker pushed her out the door and back into work.

---

Third Day

All Zahira had wanted on the third day - which coincidentally was also her day off - was shop.

After all, when the world gives you lemons and crazy, bizarre windows appearing out of nowhere, you shop your heart out until you don't really mind anymore. Or, well, that had been the plan, anyway. And for a few hours, it had gone rather smoothly; she had woken up and gotten to the mall without much trouble from this Gamer thingy, and if you didn't count the names she still saw above people's heads, nothing strange had happened to deter her from her money spending funtime. But, like all good things, that peace had to come to an end eventually.

She had just exited a shop and began her descent on the escalator, when a yet another window popped up in front of her.

"Aww, phooey, I thought it was over!" She exclaimed before she realized it, turning many a head to peer at her with surprise. Immediately, Zahira blushed, doing her best to avoid the gazes. Oh. Oh, no, no, now people thought she was weird again! Stupid window... And it wasn't disappearing like the previous ones, either.

Blinking, the girl leaned in to read the message again. "Others like me... investigate... AH!"

Heads turned again, but this time, Zahira didn't care - or notice, for that matter.

"There are others! I'm not the only one! I'm not crazy! Ah, maybe, maybe then, this is a quest from heaven to help me find my prince! That would be so cool, oihh~!" Blushing at her own thoughts now, the girl spun around on the step she was standing, almost falling down on whoever was unfortunate enough to occupy the step beneath her.

Her balance regained with a sudden show of acrobatic skill, the girl sped down the escalator and jumped off, fist pumped in the air. "I'm going to do it!" She exclaimed, only to realize that the window was... still there. Her excitement dying down a bit, she blinked once more, confused.

"... Uh... I get it already, Mr. God. Thank you. Um...?" Unsure, she waved her hand in front of the window, but found nothing happening. Then she noticed the buttons. Oh, duhh! With a quick flick of her finger, she accepted the quest and sighed in relief as the window vanished. Okay, now, back to her mission! Where could she find these gamer people? Gamers were usually people who never left their home or took care of their hygiene, right? The ewwie people at school. Her prince wasn't... one of them, was he?! But then, she was part of the game too, and she wasn't like that. Ah, her head was starting to hurt from thinking now..

As she absentmindedly wandered around the mall, picking at her brain for ways to search for others, she eventually ended up bumping into someone just a little ways from the mall's gaming centre.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't-," the girl began, only for her eyes to fall on the Gamer tag floating above the brunette boy's head, next to a name 'Rainer Hinotane'. "... see you..." Her eyes travelled down to his face, and she noticed the boy she'd bumped into was... pretty cute. She blushed, staring. "...t-there..."

[Renose]

A half hour later after posting her thread on 2ch there would be several replies. Most of them all told her that she was either crazy, had 8th grader syndrome, played too many games, or tried to play along with her by saying they saw weird stuff as well. They were mostly trolls vying for attention so none of their comments had any meaning. There was one reply though, the most recent one that appeared thirty minutes after the thread had been posted, that seemed alot different than the rest. This reply seemed alot more calm in its nature and wasn't posted by someone who had a ridiculous username.

The person's username was 霜 (Shimo, which means Frost). Sasha, from her experience in Dungeon Busters (if she kept up with who was top ranked that is, if not then she would not know), would recognize this username as the same username of the person who was one of the top ranked players of the game, famous for using ice magic, the name being written in the exact same way as it was in Dungeon Busters, with just a single character. It was a very simplistic username. The reply, however; would probably be more interesting to Sasha, much more interesting indeed as it read the following.

"So, I take it you received that Quest as well? In its light blue window. To think there are other Gamers out there, Others Like Me". The person capitalized what normally shouldn't have been capitalized, the 'Others Like Me' to signify that he/she knew the name of the quest. The next line of Shimo's reply read as thus. "Head to Septemberes, other <Gamers> will be there as well. perhaps they will be able to enlighten you with new information".

That was all there was in the message. Whoever this Shimo was, it was highly possible that they were a Gamer, especially since they knew about the Quest, which wasn't included in Sasha's post. So either she could believe this Shimo person, or play them off as yet another highly accurate troll.

[Valeric]

After another session of frantic key-mashing later and a measure of virtual currency richer, Sasha came back to check on her 2ch thread. It had garnered a small response, and most of them were easily dismissed as irrelevant trolls. However, one reply caught her attention as soon as she read it. The message used several key words such as "Others Like Me" and "<Gamer>" that would have been very unlikely to be used without knowing what she was talking about. It said that there were going to be other "gamers" at Septemberes. Another curiosity of the reply was its username, which was similar to an acquaintance in Dungeon Busters.

Sasha cocked her head at this, pondering her choices. After a moment she decided that there wasn't any way around this. If she wanted to know the truth behind this mystery the least she was expected to do was move her bum. She changed out of her pajamas, checking herself out in the mirror before leaving. For someone who stayed at home most of her time she was unusually vain and took some care of her appearances. She didn't look the part of a shut-in NEET that she actually was. An idea popped into her head at that moment. Rifling through her desk drawer she unearthed a small cylinder. It was a pepper spray, given to her several years ago by an uncle. She opened her inventory and pushed it against one of the blank slots.

Sasha felt something give way, and when she pulled her hand back the pepper spray was no longer there. Instead, there was a flat icon of it within one of the boxes. Sasha grinned at her genius and left the house, not bothering to tell her parents where she was going. Their apartment was near to the entertainment district, so five minutes later she was already encountering hordes of people along the sidewalks. Just last year she was still hanging out with her friends at Septemberes, but now that they had gone their separate ways she didn't have much reason to visit the mega-mall.

[Dingo]

The jolt from the collision startled Rainer slightly. Most of his attention had been focused on the two strangers in the store that he'd neglected to pay any attention to the rest of his surroundings. Turning to face the girl who'd bumped into him as she began to apologize, he quickly found himself distracted yet again. The girl was quite petite compared to Rainer with a small bow tied into her long, dark hair. She looked up at him with green eyes and that was all Rainer noticed from that point on. The girl could've pulled a knife on him at that point and all he'd be able to give the police was "She had green eyes."

"Woah…" Rainer mumbled, before he could stop himself, "Um, I mean, that's okay. I was kind of distracted, anyway…" The girl was definitely cute, there was no denying it. From the looks of the text floating above her head, her name was Zahira Siefert. Even her name was cute! "Sorry, I'm Rainer…" He said, holding out a hand. He felt like there was something he was missing here, staring him in the face, but he couldn't figure out what. Looking the girl up and down, he started to pay more attention to her besides her eyes.
She wore thigh-high boots that ended in heels, giving her a little extra height, a denim mini-skirt and a pink tank top. The Gamer title over her head was the same blue as her name and she had a slim, yet curvy build that added to her looks. It was then that Rainer did a double-take.

"Wait, you're a Gamer?" He blurted out. The girl would undoubtedly be able to see his own Gamer title at this point, yet Rainer had no idea how to proceed. Was she supposed to be some sort of cute Femme Fatale? Maybe this was a game that required them to form a party and she was their Blue Mage? Rainer was even more lost at this point than he was before with absolutely no idea what to think.
"So…" He said eventually, "I guess you got the quest too, huh?"

[snowblzr]

Tim turned his head to check to see if Lucian was following him, but something better caught his attention. Just outside of the shop he was in was a couple. Or, at least he assumed so, by the way they looked at each other. The man's name was Rainer Hinotane, and the lady was called Zahira Seifert. Yet the most important thing, the thing that caught his attention the most, was that they were both gamers.
Tim strolled to them, and upon passing the enterance of the game store, said to Rainer, "Hey, I found some other gamers! Didn't even have to look too far!"
He turned to focus his attention back to the couple, and, trying not to intrude on their conversation, asked, "Rainer Hinotane and Zahira Seifert? Nice to meet you. I'm assuming that, since you're gamers, you've gotten the quest to find other gamers?"

[Omnial]

Tagging behind Tim, Lucian spotted the assumed couple. Tim spoke before he could though, probably a good thing as well. With Lucians biased opinions, he was already judging the two. Rainer and Zahira...Which one of the two is the real gamer, which was just jumping on the train? He eyed them both up, from top to bottom, not even trying to hide the fact of what he was doing, his facial expression showing a bit of uncertainty. "Well...that's two more gamers," Damn this quest, how many more did hey have to find? And why was someone who has attractive a gamer?

[Jester Acharis]

It took Zahira a while to realize she had been talked to as the girl had, in her usual airheaded fashion, already drifted off to her own little fantasy world regarding the stranger, complete with princes on white horses, dragons, swords and what have you. It wasn't until a hand suddenly penetrated her field of vision that her daydream vanished in a pop and the girl returned back to the present with a jolt. Her eyes shot back up into the boy's, and she had to do her very best to keep herself from drifting off again as he spoke. He apologized and introduced himself, and the latter action made Zahira's smile falter just a little.

O-oh... if the boy introduced himself by name, did that mean that he... didn't see names like she did? Had she made a mistake of some sort? As surreptitiously as she could, the girl glanced at the tag floating above his head. Surely enough, it did read Gamer. Then did he just not see names like she did? Did he have some other sort of ability? The boy was staring at her too... a-ah, wait, he didn't have like... an x-ray vision or anything, did he?! Blushing at the thought, crazy as it was, Zahira took one careful step away, just in case. T-this was way too sudden, she wasn't ready to show that much to-

"Wait, you're a Gamer?"

Zahira raised her brow, a bit more relaxed again, her crazy fears of x-rays forgotten for the time being."Uh... um, yes...? Ah! I mean, not a gamer like... like a nerdy gamer or anything! I take showers like normal people, and I don't lock myself in my room, or, or, anything!" She rushed to explain, not wanting his image of her ruined from the getgo. For some reason she couldn't fathom, people tended to get negative views on her rather quick.

"Quest?" She repeated just then, realizing she'd been asked a question. "Oh! Oh, yes, I did! I was supposed to find others, so I looked, and then I found you, just like the quest promised, so I completed it - in a few minutes!" The girl beamed, happy, hands on her hips as if to illustrate how proud she was.

Just then, a voice calling out her name alerted the girl to the presence of others. Curious, green eyes wide and head tilted, she turned to the direction of the voice and instantly saw two men approaching. Both of them had a Gamer tag floating above their heads, but once again it wasn't that Zahira paid attention to. No, rather, she was going over their appearances. They both were around her age, both wore glasses, and neither looked like the stereotypical gamer she'd feared to encounter - although the scrawnier of the two did look a bit geeky. The other one, though... he was tall, wow! And, judging by his attire, he was also rich. Zahira found herself staring again, head already hurting from conflicting thoughts. Wasn't the quest supposed to find her a prince?! Not multiple! Ow, now what should she do?!

"Mr. God, o-one would have been fine," Zahira mumbled to herself, eyes cast low now that she didn't know where to lay her gaze. Figuring that either way, it would be rude of her not to say anything, she drew in a breath and shouted, eyes closed and using perhaps a bit more volume than was necessary: "N-nice to meet you all!"

[Renose]

"Oi, are ya gonna stand there and talk or are ya gonna buy something?" The manager of the store, who seemed to speak with a pretty heavy Kansai dialect, looked at the small group of <Gamers> converging in the entrance of the store. If the group noticed they were somewhat blocking the way for other customers, so the Gamers would either have to move to a different part of the store or just leave the store, the latter being better since talking about stuff like floating names and random quests in public, even inside of a old game store, would probably get them some suspicious looks.

After leaving the store, regardless of where they were planning to go, the group would notice something odd suddenly. This was Septemberes, one of the largest stores and biggest hang outs in all of Neo Tokyo. There was one problem though. One, there were no lights on. It was still around noon and thus pretty bright out in the courtyard that the Gamers entered when leaving the store, but still, it was pretty strange. All of the shop windows appeared dark, as if all of the stores were closed. What was more was that there was no one around, which was the biggest of problems as after all, it was Septemberes. Even after the store seemed to close there was still someone around. Now though... there was no one.

Well, no one for long anyways. Suddenly about not too far from their current location, about twenty yards in front of the group to be a little bit more precise, several strange creatures appeared, about four of them to be exact. Above their heads the Gamers could see bright red text instead of the light blue text that appeared over people. This text read Imp Lv. 4. These creatures seemed to be about half of their size, but the Level 4, for those who knew what the 'Lv. 4' meant, meant they were probably somewhat strong.

Still though, this presented the group, and the one other Gamer who was now off to the side of the small group of Gamers, a choice. Either run or fight. Either way, things were now pretty dangerous as these creatures didn't look too friendly as they began chittering and giggling mischievously as they looked at the small group of Gamers. Still though, despite this being a potentially harrowing situation all of the Gamers would feel somewhat calm, no streaks of immense panic or fear going through them if that would have been their normal reaction to these monsters appearing. They would be calm and able to analyze the situation normally with a clear head.

[Valeric]

Sasha passed through the main entrance of Septemberes into the busy interior. She glanced around, noticing the stares of the shoppers on her. Even in her casual attire, Sasha's flowing blonde locks and striking foreign features attracted a lot of attention. She wished she had remembered to wear her hoodie. The girl had never relished nor shunned such popularity, but it was hardly wise to stand out when she was getting into a potentially dangerous situation. Deciding it wasn't worth worrying about, she continued to search the mall for any clues.

Her wanderings eventually brought her to the inner courtyard, a wide open-air area within the mall. It was lined with shops on each side. She was about to head towards the center when the lights abruptly went out. Sasha jumped and looked around frantically. What chilled her wasn't the power outage, but the oppressive silence that suddenly surrounded her. There was not a single soul around her, except for four figures standing in the middle of the courtyard. Their appearance didn't appear human in the least.

"Okay. What the hell are those?" Sasha muttered under her breath. She took several wary steps back. The only reason she had not turned and bolted was the fact that the creatures hadn't noticed her and she was too curious for her own good. Remembering she had stored a can of pepper spray in case of an emergency, Sasha carefully called the menu up and retrieved it. The small plastic can gave her a small sense of security.

A few tense moments passed in absolute silence. Nothing happened. The creatures milled about idly, as if they were having a gathering within the courtyard. Above their heads were the text "Imp LV4". That meant that this phenomenon was undoubtedly related to the gamer mystery. The gamer in Sasha was immediately excited at the prospect of combat, but her rational side held her back. There were four of them, and they were higher leveled to boot. She had literally no info on how this "game" worked, and if she "died"… Sasha shook the morbid thought out of her head. It was very sensible to be careful in this situation.

She caught movement on the edge of her vision. On the store to her right, there were several people. Sasha squinted at their names, and grinned. At least two of them had the title <The Gamer>. So the forum reply wasn't a lie after all.

All of a sudden, she was moving before she knew it. To hell with sensibilities and rationality: this was a game presented to her, and she wasn't about to abandon it. Carefully she approached one of the Imps until she caught its attention, then assumed a defensive pose. She didn't know much about combat in real life, but she figured what she learned from gaming shouldn't be too far off. The first thing she needed was information. What were these creatures?

"Good afternoon!" she hailed, grip tightening on the pepper spray.

[snowblzr]

Timothy could sense the lights turning off. Even through its subtlety, he could sense it. The silence was pressing too.

Tim was so baffled as to why everything was empty, apart fropm them, his new friends. He took a glance out the window to spot the high noon sun, but it was plagued by some... Level 4 Imps? This wasn't a great sight, especially since he also spotted a girl. A gamer, in fact. She clenched a bottle and held it in such a heroic posture. It wouldnt be too great, he assumed, the can was small and imps orobably wouldn't be hurt if she wacked them with it, so Tim had to start on his act.

He opened one of his pockets, and pulled out two pipe-like objects that were spiked at the ends. He had only used these for self-defense once, and even then, he had mistaken the attack at him for his grandfather meeting him. It was a really bad day. He wasn't suprised when he made it in with these, he had lined the inside with material that usually blocks metal detector signals.

He went to the nearest exit, crouched behind it, and waited, then ran up to the girl. He stood by her side, and noticed how good-looking she was, and started to become nervous of the fight.

[Dingo]

Before Rainer could react, the two other Gamers had noticed him and Zahira standing in the store opening. He barely had time to register their questions and reactions of the newcomers before the store manager called them out for loitering, causing the group to begin to move. Cursing himself for not being more attentive and becoming too easily distracted, it wasn't long before Rainer found himself standing not too far from the mall courtyard, where it quickly became apparent that the lights in the center had all gone out. Not only that, the only people he could see around him were the Gamers he had just encountered.
Suspicion crept into his mind. This wasn't how he'd wanted things to play out at all. Was this the beginning of a PvP Battle? Isolate the Gamers and then have them brawl? It was with that thought that the new, red floating text caught his eye, floating above the heads of several small creatures, positioned in front of a new stranger, an attractive blonde, foreign looking girl, clutching what looked like a can of soda in her hand. In Rainer's mind, it seemed almost like a surreal scene where the girl was offering the creatures, apparently Level 4 Imps, a beverage. Looking closer at the girl, he could make out her name in the blue text as well as her Gamer title.

Perhaps this wasn't a PvP situation, perhaps it was an 'Adventure Party' scenario after all? If that were the case, this new girl, Sasha, was clearly facing off against superior numbers with a lower level. Depending on the 'game' they were playing, that could be the difference between plot advancement and a Game Over screen, and if that were the case, what would happen if they got a Game Over? Did the die? Did they have lives?
Surprised at his cool composure in the face of this new situation, Rainer found himself coming to a decision. Looking over his shoulder to call out to the other Gamers, he called, "I think she might need a hand!" before jogging away to place himself beside the girl.

"You okay?" he asked as he positioned himself at her side. The 'Imps' were bizarre, red, horned creatures. Looking them up and down, Rainer focused on his training, all with a surprisingly cool head. The horns could be a problem if they rammed him and they had cloven hooves for feet. If they were anything like other hoofed animals, like a horse, cow or goat, they'd pack quite a punch if they landed a kick, possibly able to splinter or bruise bone. Their teeth seemed sharp, too, capable of delivering a nasty bite.
How would he approach this? If he got in close enough, he could prevent them from kicking out at him, but then that left him to deal with the horns and teeth. Perhaps he would benefit from keeping his distance? A flying side kick or jumping back kick would probably work best, not only to keep back from the creatures, but also to continually push his opponents back and keep them at a distance with the force of his kick.

"Yeah," Rainer mumbled to himself absentmindedly, "Hanging back from them seems the safest option at this point."

With his mind made up, Rainer dropped in a closed fist forward stance, placing his feet at a ninety degree angle perpendicular to his body and at roughly the same width as his shoulders, centering his gravity. It was strange, as out-of-the-ordinary as this situation was, Rainer found himself a cool and composed as if this were just another training session and he was preparing himself against a sparring partner.

[Omnial]

Well this day was just getting weirder and weirder. This group of gamers looked nothing like what Lucian had come to expect his fellow gamers to look like. They truly looked like a bunch of misfits in his opinion. It was a good thing that he didn't really care about what others though, as he knew that their unique group would surely raise a few brows as they walked together in the mall.

After a short time Lucian also clued in to the changes in his surroundings, When did all the people vanish? did they step into some kind of trap? He was used to setting things like this up when DMing. An area that was too quiet usually meant something bad was going to happen shortly, and sure enough, they found something.

"What are those?" As a few of the group seemed to prepare themselves for a fight, Lucian was more curious as to what on earth the Lv 4 imp was. "An imp?" Staring profusely at it, he watched them communicate to each other, grin, chuckle and repeat, "I have a bad feeling..." Yet he was thinking rationally during this whole time, that was another thing that threw him off a bit. Okay, so we have two go getter melee types, a go getter blonde chick, myself and missy over here. I know that I am pretty useless in the physical department, and would likely get in the way up close...What could I do to help? Distraction? Draw agro? Pffft, yeah right! He looked like he was in good shape, but he probably had less stamina then everyone else, and even though he was a man, he knew that most physical work, and with that fighting, was a no go for him.

Standing straight up, he put his hands in his pockets and felt some jingling. Coins? Yeah, he had some change in his pocket. "So I am assuming that you guys want to fight these things right? Well, lets get the preemptive strike then!" He pulled a heavier coin from his pocket and flicked it as hard as he could at the closest imp, if he had any luck it would do more than just annoy the imp.

[Renose]

As the humans began to move the imps all turned to face them, the four of them looking at Rainer first as he took a combat stance. They growled at him, but suddenly one of the humans flicked a 500 yen coin at him.

---

Coin Flick (Projectile Roll): 50 - 4 Projectile Weaponry = 46

Imp Dodge: 50

---

As Lucian hit the beast in the head with the coin a window suddenly appeared in front of him, light blue like all of the others that have appeared before him before. Of course, none of the other Gamers could see Lucian's window, so they would have no idea that it appeared. The window read as thus.

What it says

A skill has been created through a special action. Through irritating enemies by flicking coins, the skill 'Coin Flick' has been created.

After that window soon disappeared another one appeared in front of Lucian, this one in light red now instead, explaining the new Skill he just unlocked.

Coin Flick

Coin Flick (Active: 0 MP) (LV 1: 0/100 EXP): Use any coins you have on you to flick at an enemy. Upon successful hit the Irritated Status may be inflicted. Irritated Status may also be inflicted even if you miss. Works best on enemies that are quick to anger. Higher chance to hit with coins.

Level up this Skill by using it.

The coin got an imp in the head, making the beast that got hit growl at Lucian and chitter angrily towards him. Suddenly, annoyed and pissed off, the beast that Lucian had the misfortune of hitting with his 500 yen coin, which he would have to retrieve later or be down 500 yen, suddenly charged at him angrily, appearing to be quite annoyed by his attack. Thus the attack was rash. Even so, it would still definitely hurt if Lucian got hit by the creature's claws, which were now barreling towards his face as the creature had charged him.

---

Lucian Dodge: 14 - 3 Dodge = 11

Imp Claw Attack 1: 44

Imp Claw Attack 2: 59

---

Luckily the imp wasn't exactly sneaky in its approach, especially since it was chittering and growling angry as it charged at Lucian. Given the short distance it was charging from, the Gamer was able to dodge the uncoordinated claws of the Imp despite having very little athletic ability. Which was a good thing, as the claws of that Imp looked pretty sharp and despite its small body the beast looked to be quite strong physically, at least compared to Lucian anyway.

As Rainer took a martial arts stance in front of the party before Lucian did his coin flick he would find one of the other Imps, the other two seeming to hang back for now, still chittering to one another as if trying to observe the prey before them, also charge at Rainer. Unlike the one who charged at Lucian this one didn't appear to be as agitated. It was probably charging because it wanted to sink its claws into some human flesh.

---

Rainer Parry (Fisticuffs): 39 - 16 Fisticuffs: 23

Imp Claw Attack 1: 29

Imp Claw Attack 2: 75

---

While Rainer didn't have the advantage of the Imp being agitated his own martial arts training, plus the short distance the beast charged from, would give him enough to be able to block the both of the beast's claw attacks, his blocks hitting the beast's arms so that the Imp could not claw him, the imp now being quite close to Rainer while Rainer was able to keep his stance.

Right after Rainer blocked these attacks he would suddenly see a window appear in front of him, it reading as thus.

What it says

A Skill has been created through a special action. Through diligent martial arts training and now real firsthand fighting experience, the ability to be in a stance to better employ martial arts techniques, 'Closed Fist Forward Stance' has been created.

Right after this light blue window appeared, it disappeared, and another light red window appeared explaining the skill.

Closed Fist Forward Stance

Closed Fist Forward Stance (Active) (Lv 1: 0/100 EXP): While this skill is active, you gain +5 to Parry all attacks while unarmed and +5 to all Unarmed Strikes made from this stance. You are at a -10 to evade Projectiles though. You also have a +10 to resist any form of knock down and your Unarmed Strikes all do 10% more damage while in this stance. Getting hit has a 75% chance of knocking you out of this stance.

To Level Up: Parry while Unarmed. Attack while Unarmed. Get a Critical Strike while unarmed.

Just like Lucian's two appearing windows, these two could only be seen by Rainer since they were for him. Still though, the there were now two imps in very close proximity to the group with two more still hanging back. The group would either have to counterattack now, or try and make a run for it to get away. Their choice.