Chapter 1: Our so Called Challege

There were no classes in Rei online, only weapons and their corresponding masteries. The higher you mastery you got for a certain weapon, the more skills you'd be able to use with it. Using a weapon increased its mastery, it was quite simple.

The game gave every player an item called the "Book of Beginnings". It had a description of every weapon type in the game. Swords, axes, polearms, hammers, bows. Most having its own tree of subclasses. Upon use of the item, it would allow you to choose one weapon as your starter weapon.

I chose a one handed sword to start off with. I played the Beta, so, I understood the basics of most weapons after experimenting with them. I knew this time around, I would go straight for dual wielding swords. It wasn't the safest fighting style to go with, though, it was the best for me. Shields weren't my forte in the Beta and I normally took quite long to defeat enemies. Granted, that may have been because it would take me more towards a tanking role, but either way, dual wielding was more challenging and rewarding. It took all of my focus.

Gathering the money to buy a second sword wouldn't be difficult at all. I simply needed to grab the first quests offered in the game and once I had completed them, I would have more than enough money to get me going.

The first quests were nothing too special. Go talk to this NPC, then that one, once you do that, go out and kill some wolves outside of town. Very typical actually.

I opened up my menu to check the time. Something felt off about it, but I thought nothing of it. I sighed upon seeing it was past six, between visiting my brother and searching for him in game, I had probably also lost my chance to play with Sasha. She always had things comes up. Though, I didn't see it as reason to call it quits.

She had probably played a bit and was ahead of me, and I did still want to shake off some rust. I decided I would play up until I had two swords at my disposal.

I went outside the town, off to hunt the wolves for my quest. I noticed that there very few people out in the fields. Thinking about it more, I had noticed that the town was quite crowded with players, which may sound typical for a game that had just launched. But, the ratio seemed off. Very off.

Despite that, I began killing wolves. Of course most people who would play this game wouldn't receive any training with actual weaponry, unless they took kendo or something similar. Which I happened to take when I was younger, though, it was probably so long ago it wouldn't help me much now. The game's engine, the Generator Engine assisted player's movements while keeping them in control of their own body.

It allowed anyone to have graceful swordsmanship, if they so pleased. Even a fourteen year old like myself could make wolves seem absolutely hopeless with a sword in my hand.

In the middle of my quest, someone approached me. He was a bit taller than I was and already had an off-hand item, a shield. His hair was short but shaggy.

"Hey, you seem pretty capable. Mind if we party up, just for a little?" He wore a big grin on his face as he rubbed the back of his head.

He seemed polite enough, and even though I didn't care much for partying up, even in MMOs, I didn't have a reason to reject him. I decided to accept his offer.

I sent him an invite, "Sure. It'll let me finish this quest up a little faster, at the very least." I told him.

"Hahah, thanks. Name's Tet." He replied.

"Mine's Alexan."

Doing the quest with him, I had realized this was probably his first time playing the game. I ended up spending a lot more time with the guy than I had expected. Mostly, I ended up teaching him how skills worked.

"You know how most MMOs have hotkeys?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but, how are hotkeys going to help me here?" He frowned.

I tapped my temple, "They're all up here. Imagine the skill you want to utilize."

"Makes sense... But, that won't help too much with skills I'm not familiar with." He looked over his sword.

"Hm, good point." I realized I could do this efficiently because I was familiar with all the skills I currently had. "Skills don't control you though, you control them. You can more or less bend them to your will as long as they fit the situation you're in."

He faced a wolf, focusing for a moment before his sword began to glow blue. With a single slash, the wolf bursted into brightly colored particles.

He spun his sword once in his hand as he stood up straight, "I think I could get used to that."

"Say, you just started, but, you got a shield. How is that?" I was curious, I didn't really know any way to get a offhand, or any additional gear much quicker.

"Oh, my friend just tossed it to me. She's a little ahead of me in the game, which is why she's not here."

"Huh, well, If you need more help," I opened up my menu once more. "You can check the cash shop. There's a booklet with info compiled by beta testers for the new players." I went the cash shop option.

"Eh? I've never heard of something like that in an MMO." He followed my lead.

"I think the main reason is that they found it difficult to incorporate a proper tutorial into the game. So beta testers, like me, figured some of this stuff out."

"Ahhh, you're a beta tester. That makes a lot of sense! You're a real help."

"Thanks," I nodded at him before looking to the cash shop. I saw that the booklet I had mentioned was the only thing in the cash shop. "That's weird."

"Not much of a cash shop if the only thing in it is free." Tet muttered.

"It's very weird that there's nothing else in here." Even the beta had a few items in the cash shop.

He closed out the cash shop, the booklet now in his hand. "Wow, you can download this too, so I don't have to read it in game." He glanced at the time, "Which is good, since I have to head out for a bit."

"Ah, well, good luck." I told him.

"Thanks, but, uh, weird question." Tet seemed concerned.

"What is it?"

"Where's the logout button?"

That was a weird question. I looked towards my own menu. It should've been the very last option at the bottom. Yet, it wasn't there. I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. Is that what seemed off about the menu all this time?

I checked options, yet again, there was no logout button. I checked everything, even things where it'd be absolutely stupid game design to the logout button. Inventory, mailbox, skills, stats, even back to the cash shop. There was nothing.

"I'm headed into town." I told him. Surely other players had figured out where they placed the logout button. I headed there with a brisk pace.

"Wait for me!" Tet followed after me.

I don't know how long we spent asking other players where the logout button was. Night had fell by the time I had given up. Were we stuck here? Were Sasha and Xaniel stuck as well? No, I had yet to see either of them. I figured Sasha logged off and Xaniel never got the chance to come on. It was probably for the best, at least they wouldn't be stuck inside a game.

With that thought in mind, I didn't care for much else. I left the party I formed with Tet.

It was at that moment, I received a message in my mailbox. Upon opening my menu, I saw that it was midnight. The message was from "Tadakiro Tanaka". My eyes widened.

"The creator of this game?" And of the Interceptor as well. But, what caught my attention even more was the short message.

"Beat the game if you want to go back home."