A/N: Enjoy!
Almost didn't made the self-imposed dateline of Wednesday evenings. Tried writing other Fanfics but I lost motivation when I decided chapter length over regular posting of them. Now I just post them, editing on the fly if I can't check them in time. Feel free to point out my mistakes in PM (especially if its minor).
Quick word and spoiler: I recommend watching 'Log Horizon' anime if you haven't. It's good. I'm also mainly using LH as a reference for this fanfic. Finally, I haven't exactly hide it in previous chapters, but take note that the characters will continue to refer to known knowledge based on real life in a very spoilery way for their situation. Games will come in too.
Day 1:4 - Robotic, Scrutiny and Schizophrenia
[Discovered 'Inventory']
[Added 'Key Item: Wallet (Basic)']
[Discovered 'Key Items']
[Discovered 'Lien']
[(Collapsed) Several Key Items acquired]
[Functions Unlocked]
"Three Chicken Burgers."
"Thank you, Sir. Will you be paying by Lien or Credits?"
"Um, Credits."
"Please scan here." Beep. "Thank you! Please come again!"
Rather than returning the 'VBC Bank' card into the secured safety that is his now-existing wallet, Dusty scrutinises the details of it as he makes his way back to the playground beside the stand, where Sivitri and Fiona are waiting, a paper bag swinging in hand. The red-coloured card is almost identical to the one real life banks use: It has Vale's signature symbol beside the bank's name, a string of numbers, issue and expiration dates, security code, magnetic strip, a chip and—most importantly—his avatar's apparent full name?
'Dusty Memphos'.
He slips the card into a pocket then rubs his eyes. He is almost certain of the surname's origin, but since the other two had pulled up their own wallets the moment he did when he volunteered to get some food, he wants to get their inputs about this.
The playground is devoid of life, save for theirs. His companions are waiting under a tree's shadow, cast by the descending sunlight of a late-afternoon, early-evening time, sitting on the carved stone bench long enough to seat a family and, as Dusty guessed, is still checking out the 'Key Items' the game system…or the 'World?'—has so helpfully provided. Both of them notice his approach when he crunches a dried leaf on the pavement. Dusty pulls out one of the burgers, wrapped in a piece of paper, and tosses it to Sivitri sitting at the further side, before handing Fiona the second burger when he claims the seat beside her. The former nods in thanks, the latter mumbles a gratitude.
Sivitri wolves down his burger in seconds. "Damn, that's good." His stomach roars. "I didn't even notice how hungry I am until now. How much was it?"
Dusty, like Fiona, is taking his time with the meager food. But that was unintentional. He swallows his small bite. "I don't know, the guy didn't say." He pulls away and sees the tiny bite. "I paid with a bank card instead, which works, but I didn't take the receipt." He shrugs and tries to eat again.
"Alright! I'm going to grab another one or two. Be right back." Sivitri gets up and jogs to the burger stand at the roadside.
Fiona is still checking a green card as she chewed her food. The burger successfully pulls her attention from the card for a comment. "It's tasty. I thought it would be tasteless like an anime I watched before." She continues to eat.
Dusty pulls his food away to see another tiny bite. This time he realises that something in his mouth was interfering with his burger. "Like 'Log Horizon'?" He comments. He holds the burger with one hand and sticks the tip of his other hand's finger into his mouth, feeling up his teeth.
"Yes!" Fiona looks excitedly up, then oddly at what Dusty is doing. "What's wrong?"
"I think I have fangs?" Dusty is definitely feeling sharp canine tooth—two pairs, in fact, one pair on the top and the other on the jaw. He absentmindedly rubs his wet finger on his jeans, then recalls something and reaches for his wallet. Fingers fly though the motion of pulling it out, opening it and taking out his green card. The small text of 'Kingdom of Vale Identification Card' is written at the top of it. Details are stencilled on it—
Name: Dusty Memphos
Race: Faunus
Species: Monkey
—along with several other particulars about his avatar. Dusty blinks. "I totally forgot about that."
"What?" Fiona leans over to read his Identification Card (IC). "You played a Faunus character? Isn't it difficult with the disadvantages?"
"Not very terribly for me. I had more time to play this game."
The disadvantages of being a Faunus PC rather minuscule for Dusty. For starters, reputation standing with different organisations is one of the few things highly important for players to succeed in RNO as access to certain aspects of the 'End Game' are locked behind those standings. Faunus-PCs begin with a lower reputation standing with all major cities except 'Menagerie'—though the city has not yet been implemented in for OBT—and 'White Fang'. Faunus-PCs also earns lower reputation points and even loses them over time, until the Faunus-PC reaches maximum standing with the reputation. It is then 'soft-locked' and the weekly decrease of point halts. However, certain actions that negatively affects the standing will cause Faunus-PCs to once again gain the weekly deduction.
There are several other disadvantages as well, including higher fees and bills, lower open-world Mission rewards and even some Missions are locked out when dealing with Human-NPC clients. While troublesome, these few disadvantages can be overcome simply by spending more time playing the game.
As for the advantages of being a Faunus-PC, players can gain favouritism with the 'White Fang', if they so choose to, but only the Points are implemented and none of the rewards yet. According to the roadmap, the Faunus-only organisation will open access to several unique cosmetic items and Missions. Faunus-PCs also gain an unique ability, based on a chosen trait, as well as permanent night vision, which its uselessness for the game had been complained about by players since the start from a game play standpoint.
"It is not too bad, all things considered." Dusty takes another bite out of his burger. "Just troublesome at times."
Fiona reaches out for his IC in a 'May I?' gesture, which he reciprocates. It seems she is comparing with her own, then she pulls out her wallet for another card in light-blue with white stroke lines. "Do you mind if I borrow your Hunter License Card too?"
"Sure." Dusty passes her the requested card.
Sivitri comes back shortly after, bearing gifts of drinks and salty sides for Dusty and Fiona. She also asks for the same things from Sivitri and receives them. Silence befalls them as they eat their fill and Fiona checking out her deck of identifying cards. As Dusty watches what she is doing, Sivitri taps her shoulder. "Can I ask you something? It might be personal…"
Fiona puts away the cards. "Yes?"
"It's about earlier, at the hospital…"
"Oh." She turns away from Sivitri, a sad look adorns her features.
'the hell, mate? Don't just randomly ask something like that!? Dusty frowns at Sivitri, who returns a I know what I'm doing frowning, narrowed eyes. Dusty bumps her shoulder. "It's fine if you need time…"
"No, it's okay." She sniffs and shakes her head, then stares absently at her card sitting at the top of the pile in her hand. "She is my close friend from secondary school."
Dusty shifts in his seat.
"She introduced me to a lot of different manga, anime and games. She is kind of a geek." Fiona smiles at her memories. "We just kind of 'clicked' together at the start and it never went away since. Even after we went our separate ways because of our career choices we still maintain contact." She pulls out her handphone—Scroll—and unlocks it, then stops, stares at the screen and realises what she is holding.
"What is she like?" Dusty asks.
"She's socially awkward, but she seems to be doing better these few years. She said she's a Streamer now and have an audience. I just—" Fiona sighs. She taps the 'Contacts' option, which opens up to a drop list containing only a single name: 'Doogee (Offline)'. "How did this happen? What's going to happen to us?"
Neither men knows the answer. Sivitri looks up at Dusty. "Hey, bro. Do you still think if they'll…" He tilts his head in the direction of the Hospital.
Dusty shakes his head. "I don't know. We can only wait and see."
Silence comes again as the time drags on. Fiona keeps her Scroll away and nods at the two of them, a I'll be fine small smile plastered on and returns to the cards. Sivitri pulls out his Scroll not long after, rapidly tapping the screen for whatever reason. Dusty spares another look at his companions, then succumbs to the need of Scroll-check as well.
EuGeNiSia (Offline, 8 hours ago)
Fey (Offline, 4 hours ago)
Linen (Offline, 4 hours ago)
Ren (Offline, 1 hours ago)
Yoonie (Offline, 1 day ago)
Just as he thought briefly, none of his friends are online. He wonders if Mei-Ling and Eugene knows of his condition yet, as they are his fellow countrymen. If he is being stuck in a game world, his real body should be in a coma.
Or just maybe, everything here is just an extended, crazy dream.
"Hey guys," Sivitri's sudden raised voice almost made Dusty drop his Scroll, "check out your 'Skills', under 'Character' section. Tell me if you find something off." Dusty and Fiona looks at each other, then they do as Sivitri said.
Since the discovery of his Scroll, the main menu is accessible from the electronic device. It takes two taps to get out of the contact list to the main screen, which appears to be similar to the main menu holographic window when he called out for it earlier. Only [Options] remains grey in colour, inaccessible to him. He hits [Character].
[Status]
[Skills]
[Abilities]
[Equipment]
[Return]
This is the first time he has access the [Character] menu, though it is not the first time he seen it. The set up remains similar to how it looked back in reality as a game.
'Status' would go into the numerical value of the PC's physical aspect, which is also the screen for PCs to allocate growth points that ultimately made each PCs different from each other—unless everyone follow a guide and made them the same, in a numerical-sense.
'Skills' would be the physical capabilities of the PCs at using weapons and their own body. Everything a PC can do physically has a skill name and a tier of power, which is all catalogued here. Unlike 'Status' and 'Abilities', all skills can only be improved by continuous training and grinding of them.
'Abilities' would be where Aura and Semblance powers are kept. While the numerical value of Aura is mainly increased in the 'Status' menu, certain aspects of Aura can be specialised through this menu, such as Dust usage and defence capacities. A PC's Semblance is also evolved via tree-like branches through this menu, giving PCs a little more personalisation to their Characters.
'Equipment' would be the armours and weapons PCs will put on. At this point, Dusty wonders if it is obsolete, since he can physically touch and pull at his clothing. But…maybe…he can see what kind of status a piece of equipment will provide if he checks here next time.
He taps [Skills].
A long drop down list fills his screen. Dusty blinks.
There's nothing to see here.
Every skill in the game has a tier of power that forces PCs to need to work for getting to the highest stages of areas or Missions. 'Auto-Attack', 'Auto-Fire' and 'Auto-Cast' have five tiers each, with each tier needing to reach maximum level before the PC can start working on the next one. Each tier reduces the chance of an attack failing—either with a 'miss' or 'glancing hit'—when the PC faces a higher tier Grimm or other PCs. To actually achieve reaching the highest tier, the PC needs to spend a lot of time working on it. Which results in, by the end of the OBT, many PCs focusing on only a single aspect, whether prefer to fight in Melee, Range or Dust- and Semblance-based fighter.
Case in point, Dusty's 'Auto-Attack' is currently listed in tier 5 but only twenty-two percent trained, while 'Auto-Fire' sits in the middle of tier 3 and 'Auto-Cast' is almost untrained. And he had been playing this game since the middle of December, four months ago.
Doesn't seem like there's anything different here…
And then, there are Weapon-class Masteries that PCs have to train, in order to properly use a certain type of Weapon-class—such as a sword, spear, hammer etcetera—at higher tier contents. If the PC is untrained in the way of their equipped weapon, their attacks will simply 'miss' or 'glance off' of strong enemies.
Hmm, what did he wanted us to find?
Finally, the rest of the list contains passive skills that do not quite fit into the generic skill list: 'Aura Unlock'; 'Cooking'; 'Driving'; 'Faunus Trait: Chomp' due to his Race, Species and chosen physical trait; 'Fishing'; 'Huntsman's Psyche'; 'Semblance Unlock'; And finally 'Survival'.
I don't see anything.
"I don't see anything."
"It's there!" Sivitri vehemently insists. "See carefully." Dusty Scrolls back to the top and starts reading once again.
And then Fiona yelps. "Wait, I think I see it? 'Huntress's Astute'? 'Contemplate and accurately assess through situations'...Was there such a passive before?"
Wait…no. Huh?
"I got 'Huntsman's Mind'." Sivitri reads the description. "'Calmly and logically thinks through situations'. What does that even mean?"
That's not it.
Fiona snaps her finger. "That's a 'Gamer's' ability. From a Korean comic which a real life person gain a Game Protagonist-esque power. Does that mean we have some form of Gamer's ability for being trapped here?"
"Bro, what about you?"
Nothing. Shut up!
Dusty slams a wrist to his forehead, with his hand holding tight on his Scroll at where he saw the same passive skill. The noise in his head…"Hunt—'Huntsman's Psyche'. I have a voice in my damn head."
"What?!" Both his companions yell, with Fiona pulling his Scroll—which only succeed in just pulling his whole arm—to read the text. "'Observes and psychologically thinks through situations'. And now you're hearing voices that don't exist?"
Well I tried. Dusty thought the entity in his mind just shrugs. 'Entity' sounds stupid. Just call me David. That is not you that's me! Nah, you're…you know what? What?! Never mind. I'll just shut up now, good luck pretending to not be insane!
Dusty feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up to see Fiona watching him worriedly. When had Sivitri stand up and hovering over him? "Will you be alright, Dusty?" She asks.
Dusty sighs. "Yeah, I'll be fine." As long as his head voice remain silent. It's zipped!
"So you have schizophrenia for your new passive skill." Sivitri laughs. "I feel ya, bro."
"It's not good to laugh at someone else's misfortune." Fiona admonishes the Brunet, slapping his shoulder. "How did you know something was wrong with us?"
Dusty is interested in that too.
Sivitri loses his grin. "I just thought that…it seems strange that you had gotten over the thought of your friend. And I caught Dusty speaking to himself a few times."
"I did?"
"You did just earlier as well, when we were looking at your Scroll." Fiona confirms. Dusty palms his face, feeling embarrassed. "You didn't yell or speak out. You just mumbled to yourself." Fiona hums. "So your real name is 'David'? I suppose that don't sound like a coloured name for RWBY's lore."
Sivitri nods. "Finally I just recall that I, too, had just seemingly gotten over watching someone died in front of me." He shakes his Scroll. "My thoughts are compartmentalising themselves. I don't think I really like it all that much. I feel like a robot, I think?"
"But now we know we all have new issue surrounding our situation, thanks to you." Fiona holds up a hand, cards pinched between her thumb and index finger. "And about that…'Huntress's Astute'? It's not the full reason I act this way." She looks at the Hunter License Card, her own at the top. "I'm a policewoman in life." Dusty blinks in mild surprise. "I had a partner and some of my fellow officers killed in altercations in my time. I learned quickly that I had to keep functioning despite that or the situation will deteriorate even further." The smile she gives once again is filled with sadness. "I've already cried for her when I'm still confused. I can continue to mourn for her later. But right now…" She brandishes the deck of cards in her fingers into a fan. "This is more important. I believe these ICs of ours use information from the game's Account Creation data."
Dusty dives right in for the sudden change of subject to get away from his not-schizophrenia Gamer skill. "I had thought it was weird when I saw my Account Username in full on my debit card. What about the Hunter License?"
Fiona spreads out the cards on her thighs. "Your cards are the ones with obvious differences. Take a look." Dusty and Sivitri lean in to read the details.
Kingdom of Vale Identification Card
Name: DUSTY MEMPHOS
P.N.: #920910.65456
Kingdom of Vale Identification Card
Name: FIONA LI
P.N.: #870622.220186
Kingdom of Vacuo Identification Card
Name: SIVITRI
P.N.: #900101.83729
"—and here—"
Hunter's License
Vale Headquarters
Name: Dustilicious
C.N.: 2018DEC1101838
Hunter's License
Vale Headquarters
Name: Fiona Lily
C.N.: 2019JAN2283511
Hunter's License
Vacuo Headquarters
Name: Sivitri
C.N.: 2018DEC2145209
"Isn't that our Personal Number used for adding friends based on Account?" Sivitri points at the latter set of numbers on their IC. "What would be the first set?"
The numbers on his card look familiar. If Dusty swaps the numbers around in sets of two… "Date of birth? I think it goes by Year, Day then Month?"
"You're right." Sivitri hand-hammers his palm. "I only just changed the year and made my account."
Dusty shrugs. "I cheated too. That's just a random date I repeated on every game account creation."
"I humoured my friend when she asked me to join her after the New Year, when they added another server." Fiona points to her string of 'P.N.' numbers. "They changed the algorithm for new accounts after that."
"Is 'C.N.' 'Character Number'?" Dusty strokes his chin with a finger. "No, that's not it. 'Creation Number'?"
Fiona does the chin-stroke gesture as well. "I don't think so. It would be strange for receptionists or any other Hunter-handling jobs to ask for your 'Creation Number'."
Sivitri hammers his hand again. "'Certification'!" He taps his head. "License card is basically certification document to do your job. If I recall right, even the receptionist say something about being 'certify' as a Hunter after you completed the tutorial."
"Right!" Fiona snaps her finger. Dusty agrees with Sivitri's assessment as well. "But how do we explain the difference of our names? Especially you." She directs the question at Dusty.
Working name versus Real name. Dusty palms the side of his skull. "Fake names for separating our social life from work life." He have to agree with his backseat driver that it is a good reason for having alternate names. "I mean, the Syndicate—Criminals, Thugs, Gangsters—they are an actual organisation entity we can grind rep points (Reputation) with. A fake name shouldn't be unbelievable for any Hunters that regularly frequents known Syndicate areas, like Junior's nightclub." He shrugs. "Like hiding our true identities."
Fiona and Sivitri looks at each other, then nods. "That could work," the Policewoman checks out his license once more, "but we should probably try and find out if something like that is legal. Which reminds me…" She pulls up Sivitri's cards and points at the Brunet with them. "What exactly does your name represent?"
"Huh?" Sivitri tilts his head, not understanding the question
"Colour names." Dusty attempts to explain the lore of RWBY-verse naming system. "Simply put, there was a 'Great War' about eighty years back, before the start of the anime that this game is based on. The result is that everyone is now named after a colour, sounds like one, or references one. Take me for example, 'Dusty' is the grey crap that settles on places. And 'Fiona' is…" Dusty stares at said woman, who is looking back, trying to recall what her name meant. He gives up after five seconds. "…is it a flower?"
"No." Fiona shakes her head. "It's 'white' or 'fair'. I added 'Lily' for my character name in case someone reporting me to the GMs (Game Masters) without even attempting to look up the reference of my name." The duo turns to Sivitri again. "So what about yours?"
"Not directly a colour reference." Sivitri rubs his eye. "It's a reference to a Magic: The Gathering card: Sivitri Scarzam, a creature of Blue and Black Mana. But is colour-name actually important?" He leans in, desperate. "I remember seeing so many players with random names!"
"I…don't know?" Fiona glances at Dusty, but he does not know if that will fly as well. He shrugs at Fiona.
"They loosen the name-rule since CBT (Close Beta Test) so they can get more players and stress-test the servers, then carried it on for OBT, but has stated that they will enforce the name-rule in the released version." Then he addresses Sivitri. "I think for safety's sake in our situation, we should try and get your name changed."
"How do we do that?"
"The Cash Shop sells Renaming Certificate." Dusty accesses [RemNet] on his Scroll, where the [RNO News], [BBS] (Bulletin Board System), [Cash Shop], [Support] and [Return]. There is no response when Dusty taps the grey button of the Cash Shop. "Shit, I can't access it." He gets the same result when he tries to access the other two greyed out options. He hits the News, which opens to show several messages, then views the latest and last update.
By: [GM]Graphite
Subject: OBT Shutdown
Date: 3/2/19, 1926 +8GMT
All Hunters of Remnant, the final phase of RemNet O has finally come to an end. The servers will shut down at 0300, +7GMT for the next 2 months for an overhaul and software updates. Bug fixes will commence and new contents will be added. During this time, certain features will not be available from our official website.
Armoury
Auction Site
Bulletin Board System
Cash Shop
Hunters may still access the official forums for the latest information.
All Character Data will be reset and lost. Hunters who supported the game will receive RNOC through their Account along with their support tier gifts when the game is available. Your character names will be reserved in your Account and you will also receive a Renaming Certificate. Remember Hunters! The 'Naming Rule of Colours' will take effect on the start of the official release. PC-Police and PC-Guards will be able to catch Hunters who violate the rules.
Thank you, everyone, for your support for this game and joining us. We'll see you in 2 months! Take care and Good Hunting.
"Ah, right. News said they closed the cash shop for the transition." Dusty informs his companions.
"Crap." Sivitri rapidly taps his Scroll, which Dusty assumes that he is checking the last news himself.
"Here." Fiona is tapping her Scroll too. "Graphite said 'PC-Police'. Maybe we can go to the police station and get a name change."
Dusty grins and stands. "Alright, that sounds like the best option right now. Let's get there and see—" His Scroll suddenly beeps, cutting him off.
Actually, all of their Scrolls beeped. They glance at each other, then turn to their Scrolls again.
Exiting the [RemNet] menu, Dusty sees that he has received a notification under [Scroll]. Tapping that brings him into the home screen of his Scroll, which works exactly like a handphone in real life. There is a new message in the inbox, so he opens it.
Dusty blinks in surprise. The message is from Beacon Academy.
From: Beacon Academy
To: (a)HuntersBeacon
Cc: (a)ValeCouncil, (a)ValePoliceForce
All Hunters and Hunters-in-Training—with exception to those currently assigned on patrols and guards—are to report to the foyer of Beacon Academy immediately.
—
Ozpin
Headmaster
Beacon Academy
Dusty stares and rereads the terse message again, then looks up to his companions exchanging glances.
Uh oh.
A/N: Thank you for reading! First review! Bigger thank you!
A little bit longer than the first 3 chapters. Minor look into the primary plot. Everything else is info dump for world building and character building.
Reputation - 1st literation (addendum)
More organisations that has a Reputation Standing attached.
Kingdom of Vacuo - Associate (PCs hailing from Vacuo start at Well-known)
Shade Academy - Associate (PCs hailing from Vacuo start at Well-known)
Syndicate - Neutral
Menagerie - Distrust (Human Race), Friendly (Faunus Race)
White Fang - Hatred (Human Race), Friendly (Faunus Race)
More to come
Auto skill Tier/Level - 1st literation
Tier levels are an arbitrary way used to keep players within a certain level of content. At the beginning, players can only effectively combat against Grimm nearby of Sanctuaries, which are the weakest. As players travel into or accept Missions that goes further and deeper into the Wildlands, Grimm creatures will become stronger and tougher to fight. Ancient Grimm (A.K.A. Boss-tier Grimm) have their own unique status that made Auto-Skill relevant. If the PC is untrained, they will not be able to contend in what players called the 'End Game' content, the last and hardest areas and Missions.
Coloured Names - 2nd literation
[Game-sense] Game Devs have loosen the Name-Rule for the reason of Stress-testing servers. This loosening began during Close-Beta Test and carried on throughout Open-Beta Test. In two separate posts (beginning and closing of OBT), they have confirmed that the loosened rule will be enforced upon the Released Version. To begin the enforcement, all Character Data during CBT and OBT will be purged.
A Cash-Item called 'Renaming Certificate' can be purchased and used to change the Character's name.
[Current Situation] Due to Cash Shop being unavailable, 'Renaming Certificate' can not be purchased. There may be a possible way to change a names at a Police Station.
Character: Race & Species - 1st literation
[Human] Considered the beginner race for any players starting out the game. Humans come with a balanced starter stats, no advantage or disadvantages. NPCs trust Humans naturally, but certain affiliated organisations may have second thoughts about Human PCs.
[Faunus] Considered harder to play. Faunus has permanent Night-Vision passive skill (though widely considered useless for the game at its current state) as well as an unique 'Species Trait'. Vendor items cost 15% more during purchase, 20% lesser when selling and may even be refused service while under a certain level of Reputation Standing. Every in-game Week, Reputation Standing for non-Academy and non-Faunus Organisations will receive a decrease to the current points, which gets frozen upon reaching the Maximum Standing with the Organisation.
[Species] Each species available has several unique 'Trait' that may be obtained upon the start of the Tutorial, depending on which physical trait is chosen during creation.
Monkey - Agile Type.
More to come