Title: The Cyber Café
Summary: An inquisitive young game programmer by the name of Alfred F. Jones walks into an old cybercafé for entertainment and finds an interesting game.
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: Hetalia Axis Powers and the 200 Phenomena in the City of Calgary are the creations of Hidekaz Himaruya and an unknown author respectively. I am merely a writer taking creative liberties.
In China Town there's this cybercafé in the same building as The Kingfisher. It's small and cheap and old. The walls are still decorated with Diablo 2 and Quake boxes. The computers are a bit behind too, but that's not really what the patrons go there for. Go in, buy some time, and load up Heart of Wit. It's an Asian MMO, the kind with graphics that look like Gaia online. Make a free account and wander into the City of Wit.
The City of Wit will be inhabited by a half dozen players. All of whom will be talking in what looks like Asian script of some kind but is actually hyper stylized English.
After your eyes adjust, you'll realize that the player character names are the names of people you know in your everyday life. Most will ignore you, but occasionally they'll give you quests or challenge you to a duel. The quests are simple. Kill five dragon hatchlings and we'll give you a gold ingot. That kind of thing.
Whatever you do, never accept a challenge to duel and always do the quests. Names aren't the only thing that crosses over between the game and reality.
Alfred ducked into a small, dingy shop.
Well, at least he did it an unnecessary justice by calling it a shop - it was one of those old cybercafés, obsolete and yet somehow managing to survive with the ultra-modern times. Still, Alfred liked old shops like these. They had interesting old games and were cheap to boot.
He handed a passing man he hoped was the owner a wad of bills and sat down at an old computer. The dirty old mouse moved deftly over the mouse pad as he checked the games and saw only one game, one he had never heard of before.
Heart of Wit. Snappy title, hey, Alfred chuckled to himself and loaded it up. The graphics reminded him of Gaia Online, but so far so good. He made a free account and meandered around for a while before finding a place called the City of Wit. Walking through the streets, he saw a couple of characters talking in a strange writing that seemed Asian and yet looked familiar.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Nope. They were speaking in hyper-stylized English. Alfred grinned, impressed. He would have to search around for that font. It was exotic and would draw people in. Not to mention it was awesome and heroic.
Once his eyes adjusted, he began to recognize the names. Matthew…Francis…Arthur, Ludwig…whoa, there's even an Antonio! What coincidence! Alfred read what they said, but it was of little interest to him. Occasionally someone would give him a simple quest, and offered him a reward if he finished it.
After a while, Alfred was practically yawning in boredom. The graphics and font were cool, but the storyline was way too simple.
Then, the blond character who looked suspiciously like Arthur (and had his name) challenged him to a duel.
Finally! It was time to see how the battle was structured.
Alfred accepted.