The Art of the Game Part I
Saturday
Chapter One
I sat on the living room floor in my little apartment, my messy blond braid falling over my left shoulder as I bit on the end of my red pin. My green eyes staring intensely at the paper I was grading in front of me. All around me on the floor was a sea of papers, some were bleeding with red ink as if a major artery had been ruptured on to the paper, others were clean with a good grade on top and then some were in between. I had woken up early in attempt to grade the huge stack that had made a home on the kitchen table. I feared that the papers would soon get to comfortable sitting there. I took in a deep cleansing breath. All the thoughts came rushing back into my mind over the past year as I placed the paper down in the graded pile. I was a twenty two year old living in Japan. Moving from Colorado to Tokyo, Japan at the age of twenty one was kind of spontaneous thing I did randomly. I got a packet a month before I graduated from college and here I am sitting on my living room floor in Japan grading papers. It is truly how crazy life works.
There was a sudden knock on the door interrupting me from my thoughts. I stretched my arms out over my head. I guess I need to get up and answer the door. Maybe it's the delivery man bringing me my warm delicious food. My stomach growled at the thought. I patted my stomach in reply and ran to answer the door. I was a little too excited for my food. I opened the door to reveal a smiling Kiri. My face dropped.
"You are not my pizza and bread sticks." I wined. She waved me off and walked into the apartment. I looked at the big tote bag she was caring. What could be inside that? Food? At the thought my stomach growled again.
"I brought ASO and nerve gear. You are taking a break from your job and we are hanging out. I demand it! I have not seen you in two weeks." She said as she took out this helmet looking thing and a game.
"Kiri, I have to get all of this grading done so my students can have their grades on time and I have a beautiful pizza with my name on it" I said while gesturing to all of the papers on the ground and then my stomach which had a mind of its own right now.
"Just give me an hour. Trust me I was a beta for this game and I helped design it." She said as she turned on my computer and started to work her magic. Kiri had a degree in computer science so I trusted her touching my beautiful gaming computer. It was the only thing that kept me sane some days when I came home from work. Teaching children how to speak English was no joke. It was hard. Rewarding… but tiring… She handed me a helmet thingy and instructed me how to use it. I lay down on my couch and did what she instructed me to do while she put her NerveGear on and laid on the other end of the couch.
"Kiri you really need to wash your feet" I said laughing.
"Just shut up and play the game" She said sticking her tongue out at me. I closed my eyes and turned on the game. A keyboard appeared in front of me with a screen asking for a username. I typed in Zoe Nielson. That was very creative of me using my real name, I thought. I laughed at myself. I was the person who named my cat gray after his gray fur.
Appearance was next. I picked a black cold shoulder shirt with a white skirt that had green accents on the hem. I paired it with thigh high black socks and simple black shoes. I choose to keep my bright blonde hair and facial features the same.
A start the game icon appeared before me. I pressed the blue button and before I knew it I was standing next to Kiri.
"You made it! Now it is time for you to level up! I can't have a beginner in my guild, you may be my friend and all but I need to toughen you up". She said leading us out of the town down a dirt path. After three minutes of walking we encountered a wolf.
"Kiri, I don't even know how to access weapons… Do I even have a weapon?" I stated. Like how was I supposed to beat this wolf? Tackle it to the ground and be a bad ass?
"Silly, I have an extra dagger for you" she pulled up her main menu and before I knew it a silver dagger was being waved in my face. I took the dagger from her and examined it. It looked pretty solid for a beginner weapon.
"I bought it while you were creating your character" She stated nonchalantly. I got in a fighting stance and charged the wolf. I ran my blade through the wolf like it was butter. The wolf froze and shuddered.
"That was too easy" I said while I got a leveling up notification.
"You will not be saying that when we face the bosses missy" Kiri said with a smirk.
"Whatever can we go into town? I really want to explore this world. The graphics are really good." I said while taking in the beauty of this world. She nodded and we continued to walk down the dirt path to the town we just came from. As we were walking and talking about Kiri's love life, which is a total disaster, she has no luck with men. We spotted two other players walking just ahead of us. I saw the look in Kiri's eyes and knew the exact thing she was thinking. Boys.
"Hey! You up ahead of us, would you mind if we joined you guys?" Kiri yelled smiling and winking at me. The two guys turned around and waited for us to catch up.
"Hey! No we don't care if you walk with us. My name is Klein and this is Kirito." He said pointing to the young man dressed all in black. Klein was super cute in my opinion. I blushed as bright as a tomato. Keep it together girl, he could be a five hundred pound man shut in who never gets out of the house. My face returned to its normal color after these thoughts.
"Hi there, my name is Zoe and this is Kiri" I said. Kiri's smile was so big as she started to flirt with Klein. I swear that girl would flirt with a tree if it would show affection back to her. Klein was a little taken back but smiled and flirted with her. My heart dropped. Kirito and I just walked in silence.
"Kiri where are we headed?" I asked. I needed to ask because the last game we played she led me into a den of zombies just so I would catch up to her level.
"Well Ms. Grumpy Pants, we are going to the Town of Beginnings. Where did you thing we were going? Somewhere with zombies?" She said smirking. I stopped in my tracks after she said this.
"Knowing you yes" I said sticking my tongue out at her. The two guys started laughing at our little display.
"We are going down the path we just took like twenty minutes ago Zoe. Do you really not trust me?" She said glaring at me.
"You're the one who led me into a den of zombies in the last game we played. Don't blame me for your previous actions. Actions speak louder than words my friend" I stated with my hands on my hips.
"So are you guys betta testers or newbies like this girl" Kiri said pointing at me.
"I am a newbie" Klein said
"I am an ex beta tester" Said Kirito
"That is totally awesome!" Kiri said jumping up and down in front of Kirito.
"What floor did you get to? What level are you at? Do you like the game?" Kiri was asking Kirito a thousand questions a minute. He just stared back at her puzzled.
I leaned over to Klein and whispered "She loves this game a little too much" I giggled as I saw Kiri and Kirito talking over gaming strategies in front of Klein and I. It continued this way until we reached this so called Town of Beginnings. I still thought a zombie was going to pop out of nowhere on me knowing Kiri.