Chapter Two: Hyrule Online

Professor: Here's the second chapter for ya! Hope you enjoy, but I still don't own anything.

The response was immediate.

"We can't kill him!"

Mr. Dragmire shook off their concerns, "It's a game, remember? This is to save his life, not end it."

"So he won't really be injured?" Wendy worriedly asked.

"Of course not."

Team Natsu gave a slow sigh of relief as they were quickly reminded of this fact.

Mr. Dragmire turned to the boy again, pointing out the IV this time, "We had to hook this up just to keep him alive, but his body can't take much more of this."

"Why not just send in your own people?" Gray asked, "Other beta testers?"

"We tried. He kills them. He's become the most powerful player there, in an incredibly short time."

"How is that possible?" Lucy spoke up, looking in wonder at the boy.

Surprisingly it was Erza who answered, "He thinks it is reality. In reality, you do what you have to do to survive."

"Exactly." Mr. Dragmire nodded.

Team Natsu fell silent, thinking the situation over. Erza looked at the sleeping boy. What had happened to make him think it was real? What had this game done?

She met the eyes of her teammates. That was the answer. Turning to the CEO, she said, "I think you need to tell us about this game."

"Hyrule Online is a simple game. Pick a character and defeat the bad guy. It's set in the land of Hyrule, created by 3 goddesses. They left a sacred power that the bad guy wants. The goal is to kill him, of course.

"The Hero, in this case, our beta tester, is set along his quest by the Great Deku Tree to gather the Spiritual Stones for the Princess so they can get the Sacred Power before the Evil King, the bad guy. The Evil King in this game is a powerful sorcerer called Ganondorf who hails from the desert. It is there that the Gerudo live. He is part of that secluded race, their leader actually. Sadly, the plot goes that the Hero fails and gets locked away for years. So the only way to stop the Evil King is to gather power from the Sages and the Master Sword.

"There are two ways that the game can play out from here. Solo mode, and multiplayer. Solo, you have NPCs, non-playable characters, acting as Sages. Multiplayer, you travel with people you meet in-game and they act as the Sages. One Sage from every race in the game. To unlock the power of the Sages, you must clear out the Temples in each region of Hyrule. That's where the Hero will be heading. Understand so far?" Mr. Dragmire finished the short explanation.

"I take it that we'll be playing multiplayer?" Gray asked.

He nodded and gestured to the door at the back of the room. They followed him through it where they found more of the game systems set up and waiting for them.

"When you enter the game, you'll have to find him as quickly as possible. I suggest splitting up to cover more distance. Choose different start locations. None of you will be able to choose the 'Hero' character though, because you can't find him then. There's only one Hero."

"Anything else we should know?" Lucy piped up, examining one of the systems.

"Yes, there is. Multiplayer mode allows party members. Be careful who you invite to join yours. You can't remove them and you can't harm them. One-time-decision."

"Yeah, yeah, old man," Natsu grinned and punched his hand, "When do we get to go in? I'm getttin' pumped!"

Mr. Dragmire sighed in annoyance, but ignored him, "I've set up chambers for your cats as well. They'll be given different characters choices of course though."

"Aye sir! Thanks!" Happy said, spotting the game systems for him and Carla. They were like tiny versions of the ones for the humans.

"Is there anything else we need to know?" Erza asked.

"Get in, find him, kill him, get out. Simple as that." Mr Dragmire gave her an unnerving smile.

"And you're sure he won't actually be hurt by this?" Wendy asked again.

"Of course," he reassured her.

"Ok," she mumbled.

The group nodded in agreement and began to climb onto the beds and hooking up the system.

"Your magic will present itself differently based on what you choose during the set up. But, as Mages, it shouldn't be too hard for you to adjust." he told them.

"Remember, try not to choose the same starting points." Erza called out before the NerveGear began to turn on.

It wasn't until the game systems had started booting up and Team Natsu was losing consciousness that he realized his mistake. Desperately he tried to fix it by yelling, "The Hero is a Kokiri named Link!"

Their heads being covered by the NerveGear like it was, Mr. Dragmire couldn't tell if any of them had heard him. Well, finding one Hero in that land couldn't be too difficult for so many of them.

Professor: Ok, might have to go rewrite this chapter at some point. I just don't like how it turned out. But at least we get to move on with the story! And I promise, the chapters will get longer in the future!