Login 7: The New beginning and The New End
We planned to log in from my apartment, so Tomonari had to take a temporary leave to retrieve his game equipment from his place. He still was feeling a bit uneasy about the AIDA incident, so he insisted logging in with me over at my place. Once we were ready, together we logged into the world.
-Eternal City Mac Anu-
Our PCs warped inside the dome by the Chaos Gate. As soon as we did, I gave a long sigh in relief. Kuhn, in the game but possibly also in real life, looked at me curiously. I smiled and said, "Even though we were here only yesterday, it feels like it's been ages since I've logged in. It feels good to be back to this familiar place."
Kuhn laughs, "Yes, it does feel like it's been awhile. When you come across abnormal events, it feels a little strange to come back to the normal settings of The World." Kuhn paused for a moment to check on something. "It looks like Silabus, Gaspard, and Haseo are all online right now. Shall we pay them a visit at Canard's Home?"
"Sure," I agreed, "but let's pass through the Central District. Gaspard might be at the guild shop." We moved outside and walked to the fountain area where the Central District and the guild shops are located. When we got there, I didn't see Gaspard nor Silabus or Haseo around. "They're not here?" I wondered.
"They might already be at the Home. Let's take the shortcut and head on over." Kuhn points over to the green warping device behind us. We used it to quickly warp over to the mercenary district. But when we reached the door to the Home, I couldn't use the Canard Key Gaspard had given me when I first joined the guild.
"What's going on?" I tell Kuhn that I couldn't access the guild. He starts to think something odd is going on and says he'll try sending a short mail to Silabus. I wait patiently as he prepares to send it and wait for a reply. It doesn't take long for him to come back, and when he does he's laughing. "What's wrong?" I ask in confusion.
"Oh," Kuhn chuckled trying to compose himself, "it's nothing to worry about. Have you checked your email recently?" I thought for a moment to remember, and made a motion in the real world slapping a hand to my forehead, which nearly knocks off my M2D. Tomonari, in the real world, laughs at this.
"Shoot, I forgot. Among all of the commotion happening recently, I haven't checked it since the time I first logged out of The World. Was there something I missed?"
"Hmm, I would advise you to check it yourself right now, though I think it'll be okay if I just explained it for now. A new server opened up in The World, along with a new root town. You know how Mac Anu is the root town for the Delta Server?" I nodded and he continues, "The Theta Server that just opened up has a root town called Dol Dona, a town similar to Mac Anu. There's also a previous server that opened up before it, the Omega Server, with the root town Lumina Cloth. I'll explain about that server later, but going back to Dol Dona…"
"Wait," I interrupted him for a minute, "there was another server that was existing besides Mac Anu? I didn't hear anything about that!" I was beginning to feel agitated for my recent lack of knowledge on The World.
Kuhn gives a little shrug, "You mentioned earlier you haven't been checking your emails recently, right? CC Corp would've sent you a notification about it via email. And if not, Silabus or Gaspard would've told you about it." I tried thinking back to all the times I've spent in The World. Though each memory was significant in one way or another, I haven't really spent as much time playing as Andante as I hoped.
"This is…unbelievable. Of all the times I have logged into The World, I-" but Kuhn quieted me down.
"Hey, it's not that big of a deal. We all can't commit all of our time to The World."
"But…even I'm a worker at CC Corp…"
"You're still new, so there's still room for improvement," Kuhn assures me. I nod, remembering what I had decided when Andante was born into The World. Take things slow, one step at a time. "Anyway," Kuhn continues from our earlier discussion about the Theta Server, "the reason why you can't access Canard here is because the Home has been moved."
"Huh? Moved?"
"Yes. I could explain it to you, but I think it's best to head over to the new Home located in Dol Dona of the Theta Server. You can warp to Dol Dona by using the Chaos Gate functions to change servers." Kuhn leads me back to the Chaos Gate and showed me how to change servers. I now noticed when he opened up the server menu that there were three servers to choose from. Delta, the server we currently were in now; Omega, for Lumina Cloth; and finally Theta, for Dol Dona. We warped from there and in a moment appeared in a completely new town.
-Celestial City Dol Dona-
Unlike Mac Anu, the Chaos Gate was located out in the open instead of inside a dome. In front of us was a huge gate that players would appear and disappear around it. It must've been the door leading to the rest of the town. The town's map indicated that this town was smaller than Mac Anu. Instead of being separated in different districts, Dol Dona only had the Chaos Gate, town shops, and the Home where Canard must be.
"I just sent another short mail to Silabus telling him we're heading over to the Home," Kuhn informed me shortly after we had warped in, "shall we get going?"
"Right." We both walked away from the Chaos Gate to the door leading to the rest of the town. In Dol Dona, guild shops and NPC shops are located in the same area instead of different districts. As I was scanning the area around, a familiar voice called out to me.
"Andante!" I shifted my gaze over to my left and saw a familiar beast PC standing behind one of the guild shops. Gaspard was waving over to us at my guess Canard's new guild shop.
"Gaspard," I smiled and waved. Kuhn and I headed over to Canard's guild shop where he was standing. "So the guild shop is here now huh?"
"Yup! I heard from Silabus you didn't know Canard had recently moved. Sorry…"
"Eh? Why are you apologizing? I-I was the one who was careless…and didn't know…"
"Are Silabus and Haseo at the Home right now?" Kuhn asked.
"Yeah, and they're both waiting for Andante to come, so you better hurry."
"Okay then! Let's head over to the Home. It isn't too hard to find, since this town mainly only has one path and it's indicated on the map." We waved goodbye to Gaspard and finally made our way to the Canard. This time, when I used the Canard Key, we were immediately transferred in. My eyes widened when we arrived with surprise. Canard was no longer a small guild I once saw in Mac Anu. It had grown 10 times larger, with much more decoration and lights. It was like our very own mansion. As we entered, Silabus and Haseo looked up from their conversation.
"Andante! Long time no see," Silabus greeted. I couldn't help but smile when I have now seen Silabus and Gaspard are doing just fine.
"It looks like your doing well," Haseo also greeted me.
"Yes!" I brightened, "It seems that I, uh, really seemed to have missed a lot." We all exchanged smiles again. Then Kuhn suddenly coughed and spoke up.
"Now that Andante's back with you guys, I think it's time I head out on my own. I've got an errand to do myself, and though I'd love to stick around I should probably get this errand done first, heh heh." We all looked curiously at Kuhn.
"I hope it's not your illness again," Haseo exclaimed with a sarcastic tone.
"Illness?" I asked. Kuhn's face was turning a little pink both in the game and in the real world when I slipped off my M2D for a moment.
"N-No, of course not," Kuhn laughed weakly, "honest! I just received a short mail from Pi. Anyway, I got to go, see you later!" And with that Kuhn suddenly ran out of the Home. It seemed pretty strange for his PC to run out when the real player was still sitting in front of me. I still slipped off my M2D again for a moment to see if he planned to run out for real. But Tomonari was still sitting across from me where he always was, although his face looked a bit embarrassed.
Turning my attention back to Haseo and Silabus, I was about to ask them about Kuhn's so-called "illness", though quickly erased the thought. Even though the PC Kuhn was no longer around us, the real Kuhn was still near me. I had to be a bit careful about my words. I think he also thought the same thing. I wanted to ask him about what his illness was, and also who this Pi was also. But like Silabus had mentioned before in Haseo's case, I shouldn't get to nosy about other people's schedule, even if we should know each other pretty well by now. I'm just going to have to be patient until Kuhn, or Tomonari, tells me himself. So instead I asked, "So what's this about Canard's Home change?"
"Oh, I guess we haven't explained it to you yet," Silabus remembered, "Haseo, why don't you explain it to her?"
Haseo, who at first wasn't paying much mind to the conversation, suddenly stuttered, "Huh? Why me? You know it as well as I do."
"But you've had most of the experience. I've only managed to give a little support. Plus, you're our guild master Haseo. Consider it as part of your duty, because you know Canard is here for-"
"Yeah yeah, I know. Canard is here to support newbie players of the world," Haseo reminded himself with a sigh.
"How about this then," Silabus offered silently noticing Haseo's irritated mood, "I'll start off, and as I go through the explanation you can help us with all the details. Sounds good?" Haseo merely nodded, surely wanting to get this over with. He knew however it'd probably take a while because they want to explain it carefully so that I would understand it easily. So I had to do my best to understand every word they say, otherwise making their explanation wasted.
"Now that you know that there are now three servers open in The World, you know how there's the omega server?"
"Yeah," I remembered when Kuhn was showing me the server change back at Mac Anu's Chaos Gate, "I've heard the root town for that server is called Lumina Cloth."
"Well, Lumina Cloth is a special town unlike Mac Anu or Dol Dona. It serves as the arena."
"Arena?" I asked.
"The arena is a place where players can fight against players under certain rules. It seems like its PKing, since majority of those who favor the arena are PKers due to the high competition of one's own individual strength, but it's different," Haseo cut it, "CC Corp allows the arena to be a place where players can get a new challenge while keeping The World safe and stable. Of course, not all intentions come out good. In the end, power over one another is what matters at the arena." Haseo quietly made a motion to himself forming a tight fist in one of his hands.
Silabus continued, "In the arena, there are three different tournaments that open up for players to compete in. The prize is huge, but the title won in the tournament is bigger. You see, each tournament has what everybody calls an emperor. The emperor is the highest skilled player in each tournament, and there are a total of three in all. Haseo here entered the demon palace tournament even though it was his first time and conquered the tournament by overcoming a PC named Endrance, the previous demon palace emperor."
"I-I wasn't alone though," Haseo muttered, "You and Atoli helped me out."
"Oh, but you were the one who did most of the support Haseo, and I didn't even get to help you against Bourdeax." The two of them started rambling on about who helped each other the most. It made me laugh a little, seeing how these two get along so well despite their bickering.
"Anyway, thanks to Haseo winning the tournament, Canard got a huge bonus by being able to move to a larger Home as you can see. He's also now the demon palace emperor," Silabus finished up.
"Wow," I looked at Haseo with awe, "congratulations. It's a shame I missed the whole thing."
"Don't worry about it. It wasn't anything worth seeing. The arena is just for showing off your own skills, and I rarely have any interest in that." Haseo almost sounded a bit uncomfortable with the topic of the arena. Maybe he didn't enjoy all of the attention he's getting.
"Since we're now done explaining about the arena to Andante, how about the three of us go out to an area? I'm sure Andante's been wanting to get out and explore more of The World."
"Yeah, that sounds great. I've probably gotten a little rusty on my battling since the last time I logged in," I answered. And Haseo seemed to be in a better mood today, so everything should be fine. We formed a party together in the Home and outside used the green warp device to immediately transfer over to the Chaos Gate. As we were letting Haseo choose the area words, I entered a private chat with Silabus.
"So has the arena been pretty much the only thing you guys have been up to?"
"Well, it's mostly Haseo who's been working in the arena. I've only managed to give him a little support, and had to drop out in some of the battles."
"Huh? Why's that? Did Haseo kick you out?"
"No no, it's nothing like that!" Silabus quickly told me, "there was just a little incident that happened before and…" Silabus looked kind of down all of a sudden and I felt bad for suddenly talking about it. I was about to tell him to forget about it, but the transfer kicked in and our conversation was cut short.
-Theta Falling Girl Illusion-
The area we warped into looked similar to the place I was in during my last log-in. It was the same kind of shrine dungeon, but the level of the dungeon is a little higher than last time.
"This area's going to get a bit rougher than the last area we were in," Haseo informed me before we started, "so be on your guard. Silabus and I will be doing all we can to support you in the battles." I froze in silence and stared surprised at Haseo. He suddenly got uncomfortable being stared at and muttered, "What? Is something wrong? If the area is too hard for you to handle we can pick a different one. I just thought you'd want to try a challenge since your levels aren't that high-"
"Ahaha," I stared giggling and then it burst into laughter. Haseo and Silabus were now both looking at me with surprise. "S-Sorry," I let out trying to compose myself, "It just strikes me odd how nice Haseo is to me all of a sudden. I didn't know he'd be willing to do this much for me."
Silabus joined in giggling as well and Haseo became even more uncomfortable. "T-This is just to make up for the other day! Anyway, if you're fine now, let's move on!" Haseo started walking, grumbling on the way.
"Wait up!" both Silabus and I call after him. We caught up to him in time just as he was about to go up to the first enemy. We pulled out our weapons and began to attack. I hadn't really upgraded much of my equipment, so my stats weren't nearly so high to do any major damage. But in a quick thinking strategy I distract the monsters mid-battle whenever Silabus or Haseo needed heal on HP or SP. My feeling of being a burden has long ago lifted, and I was able to be as much help as I can.
I had gained quite a few levels by the time we reached the final floor. When we were sure that we had gone through all of the monsters we headed over to the beast statue. There in front of it was the dungeon's reward. Haseo opened it and smiled. Before Silabus or I could ask what it was, Haseo turned to me and used the gift function. A pop up showed on my screen alerting I had received an item. It was a higher-level armor, but thanks to the levels I gained I was able to equip it. Once I did, my stats increased dramatically.
"Haseo, this is…"
"You're reward for coming with us. I'm sure Silabus doesn't mind if I give this one to you. It can help your PC's stats in battle," Haseo said giving a small wink to Silabus who smiled back.
"Of course I don't mind! It's all right to give it to Andante, she deserves it!"
"Y-You…you guys are giving me too much credit!" I countered. But I was happy that they thought of me this way.
"Ahahahaha!" someone suddenly laughed with a piercing high-pitched voice. We all froze and turned around to see three PCs walking over. But they didn't look like they were here to reach the beast statue. They were smiling so broad and crookedly like they had found the best treasure in The World, but we had already opened up the treasure box at the beast statue. Plus, they all were carrying their weapons out and swinging them around. In other words, it was a party of PKers.
"Interesting," one of them perked, "yes, indeed you do deserve it. And allow us to pass on our praise!" Suddenly one of them darted forward and lifted his blade, an enormous axe, coming at me. I was too slow to process what was going on, and then Haseo had pulled out his weapon, a heavy blade, and guarded against his attack. Silabus had also come to my side with his sword ready.
"Rgghh, Andante, you've got to run!" Haseo yelled to me. Another had come forth around Haseo, but Silabus guarded against him. Only I who had not yet pulled out my sword was left un-busy along with the one who had first spoken.
"But-" I protested.
"Just GO!" The Chaos Gate was only a few feet away, and I could make it while Silabus and Haseo were distracting the PKers. I stumbled away and started running to the gate. The third Pker, who had been waiting for this moment as if it was part of a plan, took this chance to come forth and head straight at me. Haseo, realizing late of his plan, attempted to throw off the Pker he was dealing with, but the PKers got the better of him and pushed him back first. Haseo fell back with a tumble dropping his sword, and was pushed back with so much force he collided with Silabus. Both of them fell against the dungeon wall. The two Pkers walked over to them and dug their weapons at their feet, blocking their path.
"You don't have to struggle, Terror of Death," one of them whispered to Haseo, "we won't be PKing you or him today." He jabbed a finger at Haseo and then Silabus.
"But," the other went on, "you'll get to experience the greatest show of a lifetime in The World. And guess what? Your little buddy over there is the main STAR!" Haseo and Silabus both looked passed the two PKers at once with horror to where my PC was pinned against another wall by the third PK, who wielded a large scythe.
"N-No…no…this c-can't…ANDANTE!" Silabus cried with agony feeling helpless of being pinned here to just watch.
"Arghh, damn it!" Haseo screamed trying to push his way past the PKers. But he was useless without his sword that had been pushed away from him, along with Silabus' blade, when the two PKers had both of their weapons and big enough PCs to block him.
On my side where I was pinned by the scythe user PKer, my body couldn't move. I had frozen in fear, even though I still had a chance to bring out my weapon. Why, I wondered, why can't I fight back? What is holding me back that is making me weak against this one PKer? No…it's not the PKer that was holding me back. It was fear; fear was holding me back. All of the times I had previously encountered PKers were in safe zones in the towns, they couldn't PK even if they wanted to. But here, in a dungeon, they were free to attend to their own desires. Fear, the fear I once pushed away with confidence and strength, had built up in the darkness behind my back silently. Finally, when I had least expected it, it came forth in the form of a PKer, who is one to gladly perform its wish to come true.
To PK the PC, my PC, Andante…
"Now then," the PKer pinning me against the wall started, "shall we begin the reward ceremony? Since you're the star, the one in the spotlight, I'll let you choose how you want this done. We can do it slowly, or cut it to the chase, with just as much of a filling appetite." He hissed every word like acid and was tracing against my PC with the sharpest tip of his scythe. My heart was beating very slowly I could feel every thud it made against my chest. I almost couldn't breath or speak a word, because the PKer's face and his scythe clouded my entire mind.
"…." My PC remained speechless. The PKer was suddenly beginning to grow impatient, but he kept his cool and smiled.
"Well, since we have a delightful audience, I suppose we shall take it all in…slowly." He had moved away just a couple inches for a moment turning to give a small glance at the group on the other side. I followed his gaze to see in a blurry vision Haseo trying to reach me while Silabus was frozen in his place with horror. No, I thought in my mind, I don't want them to see. I don't want them to see me like this!
The scythe, which bore a fresh shining blade attached to a black handle with red lines that spun and were traced around it, finished tracing my PC's body at her chin. It came back and away for a moment, as if giving the one who will meet its blade a full view before the cut. The PKer then lifted it up high, and with a mocking laugh sliced in one elegant but villainous swing diagonally at Andante's body.
My gaze moved from scythe to the dungeon's ceiling. Then, Andante turned ash gray.
