Game Start
"Are you sure you'll find her there?"
"That's where she trains, of course!"
"You're ditching the tutes with me for her?!"
"Yes!"
Kristoff's jaws dropped, "Can't you find her via the buddy system or something? How does that even work anyway?"
Anna shook her head, "The tutorial will teach you. And she said to meet her instead, something about she didn't like using too many chat systems? I don't know."
Kristoff huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine," he shunned the girl off towards the portal. "I'll meet you when I'm done with the tutorial. Now go."
"Add me when you're taught it, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah…"
[Are you sure you are ready to go?]
Anna nodded excitedly, "I was born ready!" She exclaimed, squeezing her fists tightly under her chin, almost jumping, eager to enter the new world.
Her world was engulfed in white and she covered her eyes for a moment, opening them again only when she felt the bright lights were gone.
[Welcome to Arendelle Harbour]
Waves crashed against the stone walls and seagulls squawked as they flew pass. Anna inhaled the salt-filled air. It's so real. She had to remind herself otherwise. How far technology had advanced. She looked sat by the stone edge and kicked her feet playfully in attempt to catch a drop of seawater on her feet. When the waves retreated, she could see herself in the reflection, brown hair, green eyes, and slightly chubby cheeks. There were no freckles function, nor could the fatness in her face could go any lower when she talked to the avatar earlier. Although she frowned at the fact her feedback was ignored, yet again, by the GMs, she had decided to let it go. She had grown to like her new look.
She then heard coins jingle at the back of her mind. Literally. "Bag, open." She said. And an almost opaque titanium grey list popped up before her. At the bottom, it said: 850 gold. She double tapped the equip compartment and then picked out the wooden sword and shield from its boxes.
She glanced around the harbour, to realise there was nobody around, just as she had expected. Since it had only been one hour since the release of "Victoria", at least ninety percent of the players had to be going through the tutorial in Beginner's Land. Anna, on the other hand, was one of the ten percent: the beta players. Somewhat intimately familiar with the game after fiddling with it for a month, she knew the best training maps, what had the best drops, and hidden maps… but most of them had to wait. As a level 1 in Arendelle Harbour that meant pretty much everything was off limits for her. Quickly, she run up to the city gates and entered the next portal.
"Red snails," She smirked to herself. The grass beneath her feet crunched as she took her steps closer, alarming the four feet tall slimy shelled creatures. "Low attack, high defence, low speed, level 3. Weakness, the eyes." She recited to herself as it almost matrix-slowly turned itself, to be slashed by a wooden sword.
As the eyeballs fell to the ground, the deceased monster turned into blurry data before dissolving into thin air. A couple of coins fell along with it and a red snail shell and she walked over to pick them up.
It was a trick she learned from someone during her beta here, apparently monsters had weaknesses so sometimes one's levels did not have to match them to be able to kill them. Which was why she knew most beginners were going to stay on that island for a while… There was a quest she recalled suffering through, collecting twenty of these shells… She shuddered at the thought. Thank Christ that saint passer-by had told her about that shortcut.
Before she knew it, Anna was the only level 10 beginner on Arendelle Island, making her way down to the Job Masters to be granted the skills of a swordsman. Yep, a Swordsman.
She could totally imagine it, within two days, maybe four days top, she'd be the first player to advance to the second job; a Fighter. And everyone would be begging before her for training tips and help to level up quicker or to complete quests. She smirked to herself until she realised something…
Maybe not.
She would probably be faster than her. She was, after all, always two levels ahead of her, somehow… Determined, she clenched her fist tightly and ran off into the distance hoping she would be ahead this time.
After pouring all her ability points into her Strength ability, Anna found herself in a house within a canyon of Koori, kneeling before the man with tattoos all over his chest and a red feathered war bonnet, bowing her head eagerly. She never needed to do it, but she loved getting into her role. That was the best part about Role-playing games, right? Role-playing?
"By the power bestowed upon me, Ahnna, I declare you one a Warrior." The man said as he tapped his spear on both sides of her shoulder. Sometimes she wondered if she never bowed what the man would've done… would he have tapped air?
…Weird.
She felt a bright light shine like a Christmas star on her head and trumpets blew in the background as a crowd cheered around her even though there was nobody.
[Congratulations on advancing to your first job.]
Quickly checking her items, gold and skills to make sure the previous bugs found in the beta were fixed once and for all, she added her first skill point before rushing out the stone building.
Now, to find her. She smiled confidently to herself.
Thirty minutes into running through maps after maps, Anna leaned against a rusty steel pillar in a construction site. The background theme song had changed from a soft tribal one that made the map feel deserted (which it was) to some shady jazz tune one would imagine hearing at a bar. She slashed a five foot orange mushroom hopping towards her without even looking before sitting down to rest her tired feet.
Level twelve now, she that level 6 mushroom could do nothing but scratch her considering her job and abilities. She didn't even need to care for its weakness to kill it.
After her short break, somehow, she truly had no idea how, she managed to climb up the pillar and stretched her hand upwards, meeting nothingness, blurring the ceiling right above her head.
She smiled brightly to herself before making a jump, to hold onto the edge of the portal and pulling herself up.
[Foley Square Hidden Street: Behind the Construction Site]
With both hands still on the ground-slash-ceiling, she tried to push herself up with one arm, noting to herself again, to feedback about the lack of creativity for that particular map name…
Before she turned around, she heard a monster squeal, and maybe inflating itself before dissolving into data behind her.
"You found me." Someone said.
"Elsa!" She quickly climbed with her newfound strength and tackled the girl to the ground, or rather, tried to.
In a flash, the girl was standing behind her. Curse rogues and their speed, she clearly pumped her ability points into all her Luck!
In another flash, another purple octopus died behind her and the balloon wheezing sound echoed in her ears again, causing her to shudder. She hated that sound, it gave her the creeps that an octopus was like a balloon in this game. The moderators were probably high creating that monster or something.
"Careful," the blonde girl said. Her hair was a bright sunny yellow and she had blue eyes. Her cheeks were slightly puffier than hers. A gust of wind blew past her as the girl ran on to attack another monster close by. "Not that you'd die anyway, considering the armour you got on," she teased.
Anna pouted at her words. She loved her armour! Even though they were only level 10 but they made her feel like a warrior! She blew a raspberry at the girl, "At least I'm not deceiving people with your noob beginner clothing!" Unlike Anna who bought her armour, the blonde was still wearing her white tank top and blue mini skirt that was given at the start of the game.
It didn't make sense, really… She had no idea what possessed her to say that.
"I bet you're level 14 already."
"Nope," the blonde smirked, sneaking to the back of a monster from a pile of steel tubes and stabbing it on top.
"What?! Els!" Suddenly, she was touched by an octopus from behind and she felt a burn at her elbow, causing her to flinch. Anna ran to a slope and hid there, watching the blonde kill another. "Wait, aren't these…"
"Yup." She said easily stabbing another level 18 octopus on the head.
"Els, status info." An opaque white profile with a username, job, level, and list of equipment appeared before her.
She thought she had almost cut herself another 5hp for slashing her chin when she felt her mouth rest on her blade.
"Level 15?! Are you kidding me?! How are you always so fast?!" She was so tempted to throw her blade at the blonde when she heard her laughter, she kind of growled. "Oh come on, and here I thought I actually caught up to you!"
"I never knew this was a contest," Els said easily, continuing her killing streak.
"You really need to slow down."
"Why?"
"Because I want to be at your level," Anna tried. It really wasn't a competition, she knew that, but she really wanted to win.
"Then start killing."
"I'm not a rogue, I can't do silence." She deadpanned.
"Party?" Els asked with a smile, pointing at her. "Ahnna."
Her eyes brightened up immediately upon the girl's suggestion, jumping out of her hiding spot. "Yes!"
"Usual?"
"Usual."
Training with Els, during and after the beta, never changed. The rogue would bait the octopuses, and bring them to Anna. A stab would usually cut their lives by half. But when one were in her party, one would then notice when she activated her skills, allowing her to damage enough at the octopuses' weak points to kill, but it consumed a lot of mana. That was where Anna's job came in: to deliver the finishing blow with her attacks.
An hour later, Anna received a message, sending her jolts from her ears.
Maybe that was why Els did not like the multi-chat system.
"Anna, I'm on Arendelle Harbour now! How's it going for you?!"
"Kristoff!" The blonde turned to Anna, raising an eyebrow. It was either the whisper system definitely still needed fixing or the rogue was really sharp to have noticed. "I'm at Foley Square now, have you decided on your job?"
"Yeah, I'm going to be an Archer. I just checked the map and I'm guessing… it's five minutes away?"
Anna nodded to nobody in particular, "Sure, I'll bring Els along." The blonde turned her back again, as if on cue. "We're going to Aria Hills," she told the rogue.
["Krist0ff" has sent you a friend request. Accept or decline?]
Anna grinned and accepted it with a nod.
Els nodded and asked, "You got the teleporting rocks?" Holding one out for Anna.
"Ye-yeah— Hey! That was one time I forgot!" She exclaimed, realising the blonde was teasing her again.
Gripping her aquamarine crystal tightly she whispered "Aria Hills" into it.
The same blinding light from earlier after her login flashed and then she felt herself land on soft wet grass coating bricks.
"Anna!" Els could out from far away. The town was filling up with people quickly she wondered how long they had stayed in that hidden map. From the forming crowd, she spotted the blonde shyly dodging and occasionally nudging her way through and apologising to everyone she touched. When she finally made it, she bent down to catch her breath.
"So, who are we looking for?" She asked.
"Tall guy, yellow hair, big build, long legs."
"Name, Anna," Els deadpanned, her eyes twitching from the run earlier. For a rogue, she surprisingly couldn't last long running when it wasn't training related… "By the way… why is everyone here? I see a couple of betas arou—"
"Anna!" A male voice shouted, shoving through the crowd. "That was fast, were you close?"
"Nope, you'll learn as you play." She waved her hand to the side and then pointed to the blonde. "Kristoff, this is Els. Els, this is Kristoff. Els, Kristoff's new to the game, he just arrived from the Beginner's Land."
The two blonds shook hands and then the taller one of the two coughed. "So… Hill Aria."
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Els asked.
"Wait till you see Maglary," Anna beamed. "I think the magicians' home is the beautifullest. It's green, and all. Hurry hurry! Let's go get your job advancement, I wanna watch, hurry!" She jumped eagerly, pulling Kristoff to the House of Archers.
It was a cottage made of bricks and hay. The chimney had really cutely shaped clouds puffing out of it. Childish, but it gave a peaceful feeling, maybe calming for anyone nervous about their job advancements, Anna guessed. Koori's House of warriors didn't have anything but thick smoke surrounding the entire canyon. Not the least bit relaxing.
Walking into the door, expecting it to open as they walked, Anna's head was met with the thick wooden door, and then knocked the back of her helmet against Kristoff's chin. "Hey!" She kicked the door.
"Maybe it's archers-only? You weren't allowed to help me with my job advancement when I was level 30 nor could I help you, remember?" Els suggestd.
"Alright…" The brunette made way for Kristoff, but it still did not open. Kristoff then tried pushing the door open but to no avail.
"Maybe it's a glitch…" Els muttered to no one in particular. "Let's head back to the marketplace, maybe someone knows?"
The other two agreed and headed over to the marketplace. As expected, it was crowded… with beginners unlike during the beta period. Haystacks laid everywhere, Els hopped to the top of the tallest one, pulling Anna up to squeeze on the small space. "You can get attention from here."
Just before the swordsman could, the sky darkened as if the sun had suddenly disappeared and the annoyingly chirpy background music came to an abrupt halt. Gasps echoed, followed by numerous repeated questions like, "Was this part of the game?", "Wait, this didn't happen during the beta.", "What's going on?", "Wicked, is this some boss event game?"
A white light gathered behind the thick grey clouds covering the sky, shining down onto the top of the barn, revealing a huge person standing on it. Obviously, that was not part of Hill Aria… The man had a white hood shadowing over his face.
"Welcome, everyone to Arendelle. I thank you for arriving at Hill Aria's marketplace. I hope you have enjoyed your stay."
Anna could still hear some questions about the boss event, but she highly doubted it. She did subscribe to the game site and as a beta, she had been informed that the benefits were that she would be informed of impromptu events. This was not it. She narrowed her eyes at the hologram, if she was lucky, maybe she could catch a hint of whoever this hacker or prankster was.
"I hope you have noticed that the logout function has been removed."
What?!
"Log. Options. Out."
[Out, denied.]
"Log, options, out! Log options out! Log options out!" Her heart thumping in her chest, her eyes widened and held her head between her hands as she felt as if her brain was having a meltdown.
"No, no, no, no!"
"No, this is not a glitch. Once again, I welcome you to Arendelle. Now I shall explain the rules…"
Beside her, Anna heard Els whispering something, the rogue was speaking so quickly, and her voice was shaking as badly as her trembles she couldn't tell a word apart from the other.
"Hey Anna, what's all this? Are you betas part of this?"
Anna shook her head, not trusting her voice.
"Is Els okay?"
Seeing as the blonde couldn't speak for herself, she didn't know what possessed her, so she tried, "N-no."
"As players of Arendelle, you have been chosen to participate in a study. As you know, mankind on Earth is running out of natural resources. The purpose of this study is to learn whether or not humans are capable of living entirely in the digital world without the need for such physical resources. In case some of you are not aware, it has been three hours since the opening of Arendelle."
"So you must be wondering, what about your physical bodies? Do not worry, your vis-helmets are programmed to inform the ones you stay with how to take care of your bodies. And no, this test is not permanent, however, if it is, I hope you are honoured to be the first two thousand three hundred and seventeen users thus far to experience virtual life. To make the game as realistic as possible, unbeknownst to the betas, I have installed a hunger, thirst and bowel system, and a circadian rhythm. Your avatars will be adjusted to who you are in real life as well, as to observe whether there will be any effects on social interactions between humans." It was only then that Anna realised that there were a few unfamiliar buildings in Koori she had seen earlier with a bed sign on top of their portals… Eager to meet Els, she had forgotten to check them out.
"Eh-he-he," she forced a laugh, "You're not some creepy pedophile right, Els?" She turned to her left nervously. Knowing Kristoff in real life, she need not worry about him. Els on the other hand… had disappeared. "Els?!"
"And do not worry, for this study is as long as it takes for you to complete this game's goal. Your goal is to reach the maximum level, 200, and complete the last quest as an Arendeller, which I estimate, will be five months. The quest will only be open then. In the meantime, do enjoy your stay in Arendelle."
As soon as the man in white hood disappeared, the sky cleared, and slowly, it filled with cutely shaped clouds that belonged to Hill Aria again and the chirpy music returned as if the past ten minutes did not happen.
She turned to Kristoff, whose face was slowly pixelating itself bit by bit and turning into who he truly was, Anna spun a quick three hundred and sixty degree to look for the female rogue. Anna hated to swear, living the childish gamer stereotypes, but Fuck that rogue was really too fast. For the first time in forever, she hated the warrior class, she hated her heavy metal armour clanking as she ran, and she hated the weight of her metal shield weighing on her hand.
"Els!" She called out, mentally thanking the GM for the HP bar over her party member's head. "Els, stop! I said stop!" She shouted over and over feeling her cheeks pixelate her freckles as she watched the blonde run into another map. Stripping herself of her armour as she ran, she finally only caught up when the blonde ran into a hidden map.
[Aria Hills Hidden Street: The Forbidden Orange House]
"Go away, Anna!" There Els was, hiding in the corner of a house of the boss monster of the map.
"Did you really think the Orange Mushboss is really going to stop me? When we've fought this before?" Anna asked, rounding the corner of the cottage with nothing but the given undergarments, light blue-striped white boxers and singlet and a white bra.
"I mean it, Anna, don't come closer!" The rogue ran to the other corner of the building.
"I'm frikking naked here, I'm just as fast as you! Stop running!" She yelled, catching the blonde, no, white-haired girl's hand?
Els turned to yank her arm back but to no avail. How could a mere rogue beat the strength of a swordsman? She glanced at her hands and back at Anna, and the redhead could tell there was something Els didn't want her to see. If Elsa was surprised to see Anna's true self, her eyes revealed nothing. Nothing but begging, pleading, and a lot of fear. Els tried to yank her hand out of the Anna's and with the other, she selected her Use component of her bag.
Anna looked down at the hand. Round burn marks littered her pale skins, and at some parts she would see a few short scratches, or maybe even clawed marks on Els' hands. Just when she finally met those cold blue eyes again, a tear fell, from what looked like Els being apologetic, and the teleporting rock in her hand, "I'm sorry Anna, goodbye," and Els was gone.
A/N: If you notice any mistakes or could guess where this game was adapted from, lemme know. It's 4am now, idek. Not even whether this is going to be multi-chaptered or not.
