Sorry if this chapter may seem boring and long! I just wanted an introduction since I thought the first chapter seemed a little forward in action. Anyways, thanks for the support guys! I got so excited when I saw eight reviews, six favs, and fourteen follows (even though this really was a drabble) :D I don't think this chapter will be likeable though aha...
**This is how Mikan finds the game, GAKUEN ALICE, so it goes back in time!*
Disclaimer (if anyone does this anymore): I do not and will not ever own Gakuen Alice.
Chapter 2
How did this all begin?
Mikan wasn't much of a gamer herself. In fact, she wasn't anything close to a gamer. She'd never thought she'd be a person who stuck to the computer screen for almost the entire day. Computer potatoes, she used to call them.
And now she became one herself.
It was pretty much the first week of summer when she had attended physics class, listening to the teacher eagerly drone on about formulas and how they applied to real life. She would fall asleep for four hours, walk home, do the homework, come back the next day, and repeat.
Mikan regretted how she planned out her last summer of high school. It was boring.
But it was only a few days later that the physics teacher called in, announcing that he had broken his leg and required a surgical operation. A substitute was called in, but because of his record, he wasn't allowed to stay; eventually her school announced the cancellation of the physics course and dropped everyone out. To some, it was shock and dismay; others, it was the true beginning of their summer as they happily walked out of the classroom.
Now Mikan was free with nothing to do. All of her friends had gone on family vacations, and her own parents were gone on business trips.
She slept, ate, and completed summer homework.
One day, however, (it was a beautiful yet scorching Thursday afternoon) when she was scrolling through the latest news, an intrinsic ad popped up in the corner.
GAKUEN ALICE, MMORPG game! Join in on the fun!
MMORPG game? She blinked a couple of times, immediately drawn to the ad rather than the political article.
A game?
MMORPG?
Mikan then blinked again, suddenly focusing the art style that was shown in the ad. It was cute...anime-ish...and likeable to her tastes.
Out of curiosity, Mikan clicked on a new tab and entered the name, Gakuen Alice, into the Google search bar. She pressed the first link that came up and was redirected to a fancy website. Characters decorated the borders, and updates of the game were posted in the center. A community and a Facebook tab were to the right. And right below it were names (she guessed they were players' names) that were ranked. Only the first five popped up.
1. Flame - Level 91 - Duelist
2. xKirito - Level 89 - Duelist
3. RuPyon - Level 88 - Guardian
4. TobyIllusion - Level 80 - Sorcerer
5. IloveKrab - Level 80 - Necromancer
And only the picture of the first-ranked person, Flame, showed, depicting an avatar dressed in a black overall paired with a dark, wind-swept cape. He had tousled, jet-black hair as a smiling cat mask covered his face. In his hands were two gigantic swords, both heavily baroque on red-black-white designs.
His name was much more original than the other duelist's, xKirito, Mikan thought as she scrolled back up.
Now her attention was drawn to the giant red button, reading Download. Something inside her moved her mouse on top of it.
.
She really wanted to try this game for some reason. Not because she wanted to look as cool as the Flame character...
.
Ok, so maybe she did, she sheepishly admitted to herself.
.
She had never tried gaming before too...She just remembered all the warnings her parents had given her. It was like a drug addiction, they had said. It was a waste of time.
.
Maybe she'll be turned off?
.
But if this game was really good, she might get addicted to it...her grades might be affected for senior year...
.
.
"Oh what the hell," Mikan muttered.
She clicked on it.
OuO
"Are you serious?" she exclaimed, watching the bar load on the new pop-up window.
The file had finally finished installing after one hour. Just as she was about to celebrate, something new popped up, reading PATCH files, 0%.
"And I was getting so excited too," Mikan muttered.
OuO
Mikan hobbled back, her hands filled with random dishes she cooked while she had waited in the remaining hour. She almost dropped them when she saw a new window pop up in front of the PATCH, but to her relief, it read, 'Installation now complete.'
Without a moment's delay, she flew into her chair, set the dishes aside, and double-clicked the new icon set on her desktop; it was designed with one of the game's characters: a cool-looking girl with a purple ponytail and icy-blue eyes.
Suddenly, her screen turned pitch-black. After a few seconds, it flashed into a bright screen, and words faded in, reading GAKUEN ALICE 2015. She started to click her screen randomly, in hopes of skipping the introduction.
Only the title however was skipped, and she groaned when she saw a mandatory video for new players begin.
After about eight screenplays introducing each character in GAKUEN ALICE, Mikan landed on a server page (and finished her lunch). Two worlds were open to her choice: Prometheus and Kronos.
Her mind flashed back to the number one player on the rankings list.
Flame.
He would have chosen Prometheus if he was some pyro-fanatic, right?
.
Mikan obviously didn't know whoever played his character, but she knew she just wanted a chance to see the legendary number one of this game. Maybe he was just one of the stereotypical couch potatoes huddled in his room all day at the computer.
.
But really, who was she to judge this Flame person?
The brunette sighed when she looked at her own surroundings: a dark room with piles of dishes stacked on her desk. Maybe she wasn't any different from him.
She clicked on Prometheus server and was directly transferred to a character-design window, where she spent almost twenty minutes perfecting the way her avatar looked: blue long hair, fair skin, and cat-like hazel eyes. After about another five minutes deciding between the playful-yellow or the regal-blue outfit, she went with the latter and paused at her name creation.
Mikan, she typed.
-Sorry, this name is taken-
The brunette growled, even though she wasn't surprised. Someone had good taste. Her forehead furrowed into wrinkles before she ended up tying again.
Hazel.
-Sorry, this name is taken-
Kittykat
-Sorry, this name is taken-
After about another five hundred "-Sorry, this name is taken-" she ended up with HazelOrbz. Something about HazelOrbs seemed too simple to her (not to mention, it might've been taken), so she decided to replace the "S" with a "Z". After nodding in agreement with herself, she clicked OK.
The screen suddenly flew into a direct battle. A masked man stood in the center as his aura flamed a purple glow. And not to her surprise at all, eight characters with different weapons surrounded him, each with a determined look to defeat the mysterious middle-man. She whistled when the sky turned dark and dramatic lightning flashed in the background, not to mention the equally-dramatic music paired up with the scenario.
Which hero shall you choose to defeat Persona, the ultimate evil? A dialogue planted itself at the top.
Mikan snorted at the cheesy line.
At least the antagonist's name sounded kind of cool.
She pressed the arrow between each character, oo-ing and ah-ing at the skills each class demonstrated when she landed on them. The brunette went back to the top to look at the stats and descriptions.
The first one was a duelist, as the Flame person was.
Fast and deadly with critical hits, a duelist places itself as the top attacker. A mountain of combos remain at his hands, waiting to be unleashed onto his ultimate foes-
Nope. Mikan clicked past the duelist. As cool as the character looked, she was ultimately drawn back by the close range the duelist had, not to also mention the arthritis the combo-smashes were waiting to give to her fingers.
The next one read brawler as the white-haired avatar wiped and slashed the air with his wolverine-like weapon. Mikan however didn't bother with the description since she knew it would be a close-ranged character with that type of weapon.
Ronin, the third class read. A beautiful girl with a long, purple ponytail elegantly swung a sword. It hit Mikan that it was the same character as the icon for GAKUEN ALICE. Her weapon resembled a katana, just fancier and more heavy-duty. Out of curiosity and awe for the character, Mikan read the description.
Through clashing blades with opponents, wielders of the Tachi are able to raise their soulblade and then unleash an immeasurable power in the midst of battle; cutting down all obstacles and creating a path to victory...
"Wow," Mikan gaped, admiring the girl.
She almost clicked CREATE when her eyes fell to the Melee (hand-to-hand combat, in other words) label the Ronin had. She sighed disappointingly. Almost reluctantly, Mikan pressed the arrow to move onto the next.
She passed through the next five: Gunslinger, Guardian, Necromancer, Archer, Sorcerer, and Bard.
First, Mikan cancelled out guardian. As much as she was attracted to its well-built defense, it seemed hard to move around in. She wanted something lighter.
An archer was too light for her as well as the gunslinger (though it was a bit tanker). She now wanted something a bit heavier. Her lips pressed together into a line. Maybe a healer would be nice to help around in? Even though bards have low defense, their healing might be useful.
Her arrow landed back on Bard as the cute, tiny-built avatar danced her fingers across a harp that was apparently her weapon. Instantly, green swirls flew and wrapped themselves around herself and the other classes.
It would seem nice since she was new to the game anyways. The brunette felt a bit bad for not looking at necromancer or sorcerer, but (as she watched the clock) Mikan had already spent three hours preparing her avatar. She hastily clicked CREATE and the screen flashed black.
For the sake of their world, the eight heroes battled the infamous Persona... the white text dramatically began.
Mikan frowned and held down the 'Enter' button, watching the texts quickly fly by.
A few more videos popped up too, but the brunette managed to skip them after discovering that the 'Esc' button did the trick.
"...Ughh," she groaned, face-planting her desk as she smashed both the 'Esc' and the 'Enter' button.
Finally, the screen flashed into a white-screen, nearly blinding Mikan's eyes. She snapped her head up and found her avatar in a quaint village.
The brunette cocked her head.
What was she supposed to do now? Maybe she shouldn't have skipped all of that.
Her left hand searched around on the keyboard, which wasn't a good idea. Her screen immediately froze for five seconds before tons of pop-ups blocked her view of everything.
Item, Quests, Equipment, Shop, Stats, World Map...She grudgingly clicked X on all of them before testing each button one by one.
For starters, Mikan knew how to move her avatar now. 'W' was forward, 'A' was left, 'D' was right, and 'S' was back. That was simple enough. Her left thumb flicked the space-bar as she watched her character jump in response.
Progress.
Eventually, she figured out the rest, realizing it wasn't hard. Literally it was 'I' for item, 'E' for equipment, and pretty much stuff that began with the first letter. It was only Stats that differed, being on the 'L' button as the period button stood for 'World Map.'
And her skills were on the 'K' button. She opened it, finding a simple beginner skill, which she dragged around her screen. She then noticed a bar that ran along the bottom of her screen, which contained the numbers 1-0, each being an empty box. Warily, she pressed on her skill again and dragged it over to the number '1', squealing in delight when the skill locked on.
Mikan pressed '1', watching her avatar blaze out green swirls from her harp. So that was her main attack for now.
Her right arm accidentally knocked her mouse to the side, but because of that, the brunette realized the mouse controlled the angle of her screen around her avatar. She moved it around again, smiling when she now saw the right view from her character.
This was definitely progress. She walked around, testing her keys and feeling comfortable in the manipulation of the keyboard and the mouse together.
Eventually, she discovered a black quest box that sat to the right of her screen, reading Aftermath of the Battle: Talk to Beethus.
What kind of name was Beethus? She frowned while hovering her mouse over the quest. As Mikan did, the text flashed white. When she removed her mouse cursor, it went back to a grey color.
She hovered over it again and clicked the text, gasping in surprise when her character moved by itself and followed a sparkle-dusted path. Her hazel orbs followed her avatar, who eventually landed next to an old-looking man named Beethus.
A dialogue box appeared in the center of the screen with Beethus's face next to it.
Beethus: Hero! You've returned after so many years!
Mikan cocked her eyebrow. She had no clue what was going on after skipping everything. Her thumb repeatedly snapped the space-bar and the dialogue moved on, eventually landing on an either 'Accept' or 'Decline' choice. She pressed 'Accept.'
The quest box changed from Talk to Beethus into Defeat 10 Walnuts, 0/10.
Walnuts.
What was this game making her do?
Regardless, she did the same thing as she did previously, hovering her mouse over the quest and pressing it when it flashed white. Her character ran until it stopped in a meadow, surrounded by (indeed) walking walnuts. They passed by her as if she was no threat.
Mikan used her mouse to left-click one monster. A red arrow now pointed directly down on the walnut's head, indicating that it was the one she had chosen. She pressed '1', watching the attack flare green swirls onto the monster.
To her horror, it shrieked in response, whipped around, and ran towards her avatar.
Like a madman.
"OH MY LORD!" she yelled, smashing the '1' button and holding the 'S' button down to back away from the frightening walnut.
The walnut had died after the second hit. But because Mikan had smashed her button, her avatar automatically directed its attacks towards the nearest monster, which ended up being five other walnuts. All screeched, and Mikan found herself running away from five angry walnuts. And stupidly enough, she ran through a patch of the monsters. She watched in horror as the walnuts (five now increased to twenty) chased and threw sticks at her bard, draining her HP bar down and down by high-stacking intervals of five.
Immediately, the borders of her screen flashed a dangerous red, indicating her low health bar. She instinctively kept smashing her attack button until her ring finger cried in tiredness.
Mikan expected her death, but instead her HP bar filled (despite the sticks the walnuts were throwing at her). She turned around with her mouse and saw only one walnut that remained from all of her attacks. Unsure, she clicked her attack again, watching the green swirls wrap around the monster and killing it. As it died, her HP bar went up by 29 to 39.
So her avatar could steal HP from monsters.
Cool.
However, the moment was ruined when she saw a stick fly out of nowhere and towards her avatar. There was another walnut that had remained, which Mikan didn't see.
"NO..NONONONONONO!" the brunette yelled again. She desperately clicked '1', only to see her avatar non-responsive. "WHAT?!"
Her hazel eyes then traveled to a bar below her health. Mana 0/100, it read.
"NO!" she yelled for the third time. She watched helplessly as her health was knocked down to 4 and bit her lips when the walnut readied its stick for the final blow.
Well, at least she finished her quest, she thought as her eyes read Defeat Walnuts, 10/10, completed.
A bright blue lightning however shot down on the monster, and it puttered to the ground before hitting Mikan. The brunette blinked. Someone just saved her ass in the nick of time.
She re-directed her mouse to face a male avatar, who wielded two claws.
Oh, a brawler, she thought, remembering the wolverine-like weapons. Mikan refocused her angle on the player. He had white hair that was swept to one side, and his green eyes seemed to pierce through the screen.
A dialogue box then appeared above the player's head.
DarkBrawlerx0: You're welcome.
She paused, staring at the screen, before she started frantically walking in different directions.
She didn't know how to chat.
Helplessly, she saw the player talk as she tried to communicate with her avatar's actions.
DarkBrawlerx0: ?
DarkBrawlerx0: What the heck are you doing..
DarkBrawlerx0: ...entertaining...
DarkBrawlerx0: ...
DarkBrawlerx0: Wait.
DarkBrawlerx0: ..Don't tell me...
Mikan watched the male avatar.
DarkBrawlerx0: You don't know how to chat.
The brunette smashed her space repeatedly, trying to jump as if she were nodding. She saw the guy doing a facepalm action in response.
DarkBrawlerx0: ...If that was a yes, just press enter.
She followed his direction, pressing enter and finding a sudden black chatbox that appeared at the bottom-left corner of her screen. Her mouth gaped open as she typed.
HazelOrbz: Woah
She saw her avatar's name and her text in the chatbox, watching it float up and disappear from other players' chats.
HazelOrbz: WOAH..THERE'S A CHAT.
DarkBrawlerx0: Are you new or something?
HazelOrbz: Yeah!
HazelOrbz: Thanks for saving me! OMG.
DarkBrawlerx0: Ah.
HazelOrbz: This is so cool asdfghjklas.
Mikan pressed enter again, seeing now that the black background of the chat disappeared. Only faintly - if she squinted - could she see the words that were exchanged between her and the male.
DarkBrawlerx0: ok, you're welcome again.
DarkBrawlerx0: bye.
She blinked, watching his character run away.
HazelOrbz: Byeee...
Seconds after she typed though (rather sadly), a new lavender box popped up at the bottom: DarkBrawlerx0 invites you to his guild, ALICE.
Her face stretched into a wide grin, even though she didn't exactly know what happened. Before she could say something, the brawler typed.
DarkBrawlerx0: Just in case if you need help.
DarkBrawlerx0: Noob.
HazelOrbz: Thanks!
The brunette cheerfully replied, watching their conversation disappear from the other chats.
But she paused.
What exactly was a noob?
The end of chapter 2. That was long, whew. I didn't know how to end it so...TADA~ If some of you are Aura Kingdom gamers, you may have recognized some of its controls :D And no, I don't play anymore aha. Anyways, happy reading. It's almost 1 AM again, and I needa sleep.
~blessifier