"I still have questions to ask…" Kaneki trailed off, hand outstretched uselessly, before tipping over.

He hit the ground painfully, as expected. Groaning, he rolled into his back, shading his eyes from the bright sunlight. He was laying on… a field of grass? Kaneki yanked some blades of grass out of the ground, squinting at it suspiciously. It looked normal enough. Certainly not the man-eating plants Hide said there would be, but he suspected Hide was just pulling his leg. Again.

Kaneki pushed himself up to a sitting position, surveying his surroundings. He was in some sort of clearing, surrounded by trees. The scenery almost seemed to give off a cheerful vibe, a welcoming atmosphere. There were even birds chirping cheerfully in the background.

"Welcome to Gaiasphere!" a voice exclaimed loudly from behind Kaneki.

Kaneki then attempted to whirl around, completely forgetting he was sitting down, and ended up in a heap of limbs. There was a pregnant pause, before the clearing was flooded with the sound of giggles.

Kaneki's shoulder slumped. What was wrong with the people in Gaiasphere? They needed to stop sneaking up like goddamn ninjas on innocent, unsuspecting players. He untangled himself and glared balefully in the vague direction of the culprit.

Said culprit was doubled over in laughter, giggling uncontrollably. Upon closer inspection, it was a pixie girl, about thirteen years old.

"I'm so glad my pain is amusing to you," Kaneki said dryly, scrambling to his feet. He dusted himself off, huffing in mock anger.

"I'm sorry!" She huffed, reigning in her giggles. "It's, it's just that I've never seen anyone who managed to startle that badly! Um, let's start over. I'm Clover, your guide player."

"I'm Kan- I mean, Kafka," Kaneki corrected awkwardly. "Nice to meet you. What do you mean by guide player?"

"From your customer record, it doesn't seem as if you've played many games before, so I was assigned to help you with your tutorial quests. It's fine if you don't want help!" She added quickly. "I just thought, maybe you would have a little trouble, so I wanted to help out."

"No, no, I'd love the help!" Kaneki said. "I really have no idea what to do."

"I think we should start a party, just so we can keep track of each other," Clover suggested, fingers fidgeting on her clover-patterned dress. She ducked her head shyly.

"Good idea," Kaneki began, "Except I don't know how."

"Oh, just say 'menu' and it'll pop up. You can also set a unique gesture later on, but it's personal preference."

"Menu," Kaneki muttered. With a soft ping, the menu popped up. He poked at it cautiously, and it smoothly transitioned to the party window. Tapping 'Make Party', he glanced over at Clover. She seemed to be psyching herself up, whispering and nodding to herself. She noticed his gaze and stiffened, turning pink.

"S-so! Have you figured it out?" Her words came out slightly stilted. Kaneki resisted the urge to reach out and ruffle her hair.

"Yes, just send a request to you, right?"

Accepting his request, she turned and beamed at him. "You're picking this up really quickly! Good job!"

This time, Kaneki couldn't resist the urge to pat her on the head. He smiled kindly and said, "It's because I have a good teacher! I'm glad you helped me."

She blinked at him in surprise. Finally, she released her nervous grip on the hem of her dress, and cautiously grabbed his hand. "We should start heading over to the first town! It's this way."

Kaneki, letting Clover tug him onto the path, vaguely felt like he was forgetting something. He shrugged, guessing it wasn't too important.

Kaneki glanced around, taking in the scenery. He could see small paths branching off from the main road, some small, and some large. Only a few appeared on his map, though. Those roads tended to have signposts accompanying them, so perhaps they led to dungeons?

Closing his map, Kaneki once again marvelled at the realism Gaiasphere projected. The air was fresh, and the breeze even carried different scents. If he listened carefully, he could make out the excited voices of other players. The animals had their own subroutines, and all the sensory input he received, though artificial, had yet to clash with 'real life' information.

The environment was impressive, but more impressive was the player characters. When Kaneki had ruffled Clover's hair, what he felt was not only the expected fine strands under his fingers, but also the warmth of her body, and the minute, natural movements that constantly accompanied the body. Instead of leaving the sensation at just the basics, the developers of Gaiasphere were careful to include anything and everything a person might experience. Kaneki could see why Gaiasphere was such a popular game, now.

Kaneki snapped out of his musings as they arrived at a quiet-looking village. The players that were milling about didn't have fancy equipment or gear, so Kaneki guessed that this was a low-level area. He stepped through the gates, and immediately was confronted with a message.

[You have entered Reedtown! Recommended level: 1-10]

"Does this happen every time?" Kaneki asked, closing the window.

"Hm? Oh, your 'entering town' message? It only pops up the first time you enter an area." Clover seemed distracted, glancing over her shoulder.

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, nothing really! It's just that pixies and other fairy classes have higher vigilance than humans, and combined with my class, I get a little jumpy sometimes. It's the strangest thing, but I feel like something's about to happen."

"Wh-" Kaneki was cut off by a body ramming into him, knocking him over. Over Clover's shout of surprise, he heard a more familiar voice.

"Hey! Ka…Oh wait, what's your username? Whatever, I was trying to make a point. Hey! What took your lazy ass so long? Do you know how long I had to stand there, alone? Standing alone looks stupid! Think more about others, you good-for-nothing!"

"Naga," Kaneki cringed because that sounded weird, calling Hide by such an odd name, "You're sitting on me."

"So I am!" Hide leapt up nimbly. He offered his hand, which Kaneki took gladly. Seriously, twenty minutes into the game, and he's fallen over twice.

"Are you two… acquainted?" Clover cut in, looking quizzically between the two.

"Yeah," Kaneki affirmed. "Um, it looks like he wants to talk to me for a bit, so would you be fine with waiting a while?"

"Okay, I'll wander around town. When you're done, just send me a PM." Clover waved, heading towards a nearby shop.

Hide elbowed him. "Are you a human?"

Kaneki turned to Hide, confused. "Yes? Is this a trick question?"

"Of all the different things you could be! You stick with human? I am so disappointed," Hide said, shaking his head.

"At least I don't have cat ears on my head."

"How dare you! I'll have you know that I'm a caipora!"

"You say that like I know what that means," Kaneki quipped.

"Obviously, a fox-human hybrid. Tsk, tsk. What would you do without me?" Hide gestured expansively. "Oh wait, I still don't know your username."

"It's Kafka."

Hide gaped, before erupting into uproarious laughter. "Oh my god, you nerd, you named your avatar after that what's-his-face author's book?"

"Hey, your name is a fictional creature that isn't related to your avatar's race at all. I think I win the name game." Kaneki crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows.

"… Quiet, you."

Hide paused, seemingly messing around with his game menu. Kaneki still thought that looked weird. Poking at an intangible object was just…bizarre. Voice activated commands, party systems, what else did Gaiasphere have?

A system message appeared in front of Kaneki, startling him. He managed not to jump and peered at the display.

[Naga has sent you a friend request!]

[ Accept / Decline]

Kaneki tapped accept, smiling faintly at the triumphant music that played briefly.

"Okay, so now that we're friends, I'll go hang out elsewhere while you finish your tutorial quests. Try not to miss me too much!"

"… See you later."

Scanning the building around him, Kaneki looked for Clover. Didn't she go into that shop…? No? How about this one?

After affirming that Clover was not in any of the nearby shops, he sat down at the most distinctive feature he could see: the town's well. Sitting well away from the crafty vendors weaselling new players out of their money, Kaneki turned his attention to his game menu. Private message, private message, where was the PM menu? When he finally found the menu, he composed a quick message to Clover.

[From: Kafka]

[To: Clover]

[Subject: I'm ready to go]

[Sorry for making you wait! I didn't expect my friend to be here. I'll come to where you are, or maybe you should come to where I am. I'd probably get lost. I'm at the town's main well right now.]

As he clicked send, an amusing little animation popped up, of a little paper airplane flying into a mailbox. It was… surprisingly cute, and didn't really match the rest of the game interface's sleek design.

Kaneki idly began messing with his inventory. As far as he could tell, to equip armour, he just…tapped on equip? It seemed like the armour would swap out with whatever previous armour he had. Kind of weird, in his opinion. At least he wouldn't have to make a fool of himself with the more complicated-looking armours.

"Hi!" Kaneki looked up, spotting Clover making her way over, waving.

"… I just realized I forgot to tell you about the party chat!" Clover shook her head. "So basically you can talk to your party members privately. The option's in the party menu. Sorry."

"It's fine," Kaneki reassured, "Now I know where the PM menu is."

"Oh, right, menus." Clover sat down beside him. "Have you seen your stats yet? It's going to be very important during your time playing Gaiasphere."

Obligingly, Kaneki opened the character stats window.

Lv. 1 Kafka

No Title

[RACE] Human

[CLASS] None

[PROFESSION] None

[STR] 10

[DEX] 10

[INT] 10

[LUK] 10

[VIT] 10

[AGI] 10

[WIS] 10

"Is there a reason why my stats are all the same?" Kaneki asked.

"Your race is human, right? Humans are chosen because of adaptability. They can pretty much be any class they want, if they work on their stats a bit," Clover explained.

"What class are you?"

"Oh, I might as well show you my stats window. Then you can see stat builds and other stuff at the same time."

"Couldn't I just select you in the character menu to see your stats?"

"The character selection window only shows you stuff like my level, fame, and general things like that. Also, it's really, really rude to look at someone else's window without permission! You have to remember that!" Clover pretended to shake her fist at Kaneki, laughing quietly. Kaneki laughed along, noting that rule. After all, it wouldn't do to be rude. Even accidently. And Kaneki was pretty sure that he'd probably be beaten up, knowing this type of game.

Quickly, Clover brought up her stats window and motioned Kaneki over. He shifted closer, glancing over her shoulder.

Lv. 19 Clover

Good Samaritan

[RACE]Pixie

[CLASS] Shaman

[PROFESSION] Crafter Lv. 3

[STR] 12 (9 + 3)

[DEX] 28 (15 + 13)

[INT] 46 (31 + 15)

[LUK] 30 (23 + 7)

[VIT] 20 (14 + 6)

[AGI] 20 (10 + 10)

[WIS] 35 (20 + 15)

"A shaman? What's that?"

"Oh, the game lore is that a shaman is a person highly attuned to Gaia. We can sense danger and in higher levels, shamans can cast really strong spells. We don't have a lot of physical attack power, but we work well in a party. We can cast a lot of buffs, and we do a lot of support! So don't underestimate me!" Clover puffed her cheeks out, looking as if this was something she'd said many times. Kaneki laughed and ruffled her hair.

"I won't! I'm glad to have you protecting me."

Clover looked surprised, before smiling back.

"We should probably start you on your first quest. When do you log out?"

Kaneki checked the time. "Just under an hour and a half. I was planning to just start the game before dinner, then log on again when I slept."

"That gives us plenty of time to finish the first few quests! So, do you see how some of the NPCs seem to stand out a little more than the others?"

Kaneki looked in the direction she was pointing in. Some of the NPCs seemed to be doing simple, mundane things, but there was one that seemed more… in the forefront of things, rather than a background character. He nodded, and said, "That one by the armour shop seems like he's expecting someone. Is he one of the quest NPCs?"

"That's right! You might have to pick through a few dialogue options, but why don't you try asking him for a quest? I'll stay here, so if you need help, just call me over."

Kaneki walked over to the NPC in question, catching his attention.

"Hello! Are you new in town?" The NPC asked, smiling warmly.

"Ah, yes. My name is Kafka." Kaneki replied, only stumbling slightly over his name.

"Welcome, Kafka! I'm Bruno," The NPC continued. "I'm always happy to meet new travelers, and give them a few pointers."

"It's nice to meet you, Bruno. I'm definitely a new traveler, and also in need of a little help," Kaneki confessed.

"Oh, it's fine, we all start somewhere. In fact, here, have a few free potions!... Is what I'd like to say, but all mine got stolen by some animal…" Bruno trailed off, furtively glancing around, before leaning closer. "I think… it was that woman's cat. I've hated that cat since day one. It drives me crazy! It knocks over my stuff, steals my lunch, and now, it's stolen my potions. That's the last straw!"

Kaneki nodded sympathetically, looking at the cat. "How about… I get those potions back for you? I'll… spray the cat with water, or something. It'd teach the cat a lesson, and you'd get your potions back."

Bruno looked delighted. "You would do that for me? Thank you! I'll give you some of my potions as a reward, for your trouble."

[You have received the quest: Get My Potions Back!]

[NPC: Bruno]

[Reward: 10 Basic Health Potions, 10 Basic Mana Potions, 200 EXP]

[ Accept / Decline]

With a sense of accomplishment, Kaneki tapped accept.

Thank you to everyone who left a review! I'm afraid I'm a rather slow writer... I hope you'll stick around, though!