One week later, Twilight Town

The eternal twilight of the sun shinned down on Shifu as he examined his shop. A simple brick and mortar stand he had been grinding night and day to purchase. Following Day Zero, when all the players of KH:O had been trapped in the game, the Tram Common of Twilight Town had become a central hub for purchasing weapons, armor, and potions. Additionally, the mobs had stopped spawning after a majority of the players had reached level 5, causing Twilight Town to become the main hub for all the players. Many had purchased small residences to sleep in, while others saved up their munny for future worlds. The Sandlot had spawned a dueling arena for players to test their hands at PVP. Some store fronts were empty and allowed for players to buy them, unlocking 3 new skill trees, Weapon Synthesis, Armor Synthesis, and Item Synthesis. Shifu had always been an item maker in the MMO's he and his friends played so it seemed natural for him to start up a shop in this game as well.

"Now it just needs the finishing touch" he thought to himself as he started typing into a screen prompting him to name his stand. Less than a minute later, a green neon sign appeared against a dark blue background reading Potions o' Plenty. In the once vacant window, a Moggle appeared.

"Kupo… I am your Moogle, I run your store while you are not here. If you want to do synthesis while you are on a quest, just bring it up on your menu and it will be transferred here! If you ever want to see how your store is doing while you are logged out, feel free to download our mobile app!" A screen of flavortext read.

"You know, that mobile app would be great if I could log out of this damn game." Shifu said to the expressionless white creature. He rolled his eyes and deposited his current materials into the Moggles inventory.

"Congratulations! You have been given 3 potions for depositing synthesis materials. Your potions are also 10% more effective when crafted!"

Shifu sighed and quickly crafted as many potions as he could and stored them in the shop inventory, only keeping a handful for himself and setting their price at 8 munny, 2 less than the NPC shops. He then patted his Moggle on the head and made his way towards the Old Mansion. A few days ago a system-wide message had been sent by a User only called MisfitJester, saying that the first boss had been found and he was holding a meeting at the Old Mansion in Twilight Town. Players had been searching for the first boss ever since it had been discovered that the pathway to the next world, Disney Castle, had been mysteriously opened. The players who went through the door found a world full of enemy mobs waiting to be dispatched. Many players were also waiting to see if the Keyblade wielder would present themselves.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this Misfit is the wielder." Shifu mused as he walked through the crack in the wall of the Tram Common and into the Forrest a slight breeze chilling him. He equipped a simple grey jacket to wear over his red shirt.

"Not often I've felt a chill like that, almost makes me think it's from the real world" he thought. Many times, he could've sworn he heard his true name. Once it was late at night after a long grind through the mobs, another time it was when a Soldier heartless had gotten the better of him and for a brief second he could've sworn he heard his name and felt the cheap covering of the hospital bed he was probably laying on. He shook his head as he walked through the clearing and onto the grounds of the Old Mansion, its gates bared by a large lock and in front of the gates a gathering of players in a half circle, in front of them was a man with light brown hair and a thick short beard standing on a makeshift stage of boxes. He was clothed in a grey long-sleeved shirt and blue pants on his left arm seemed to be an armored bracer. Shifu pushed his way towards the front of the crowd as the man held up his hand to get everyone's attention. Just as Shifu pushed his way past 2 men, one in a blue hoodie and one wearing a grey t-shirt, the man in the center began to speak.

"Thank you all for coming, I am MisfitJester the one who called you here." He began before he was quickly interrupted.

"If you're a jester, tell a joke!" a voice cried from the crowd.

"Even trapped in a MMO, you still have an empty friendslist." MisfitJester retorted. The crowd gathered burst into laughter and a series of oooh's and quickly quieted.

"Now, I'm going to get this out of the way before I continue, I am not the Keyblade wielder." He said, holding up out his hands as two yellow and red glowing sword blades sprung from his hands, seemingly made of pure energy and crackling with lightning.

The crowd became a discord of voices.

"Wait, there are LIGHTSABERS in this Game?!"

"They're called Ethereal Blades and according to the datamine from the beta they disqualify you from gaining a Keyblade."

"Who fucking cares?! LIGHTSABERS man, Lightsabers!"

"Who has the Keyblade then? Kayaba said they had been chosen."

"Kayaba also said we could log out of the game before it launched so I'm not gonna trust him on a whole lot!"

This chaos continued before multiple bolts of the Thunder spell crashed around the crowd and they all looked back at MisfitJester. He lowered his hands.

"Thank you, now before we turn back into an angry mob. We found the boss in Traverse Town, unfortunately it wiped the party that discovered it. It's a Darkside. Now, we are attempting to plan a raid and all of you are needed." He said exasperated, arms crossed. "Any who wish to join, come to the Train Station tomorrow at noon."

"Dude, this is an international server, what Timezone?" someone called out from the crowd.

"Eastern Standard." MisfitJester replied

A few grumblings came from the crowd as MisfitJester looked them over. "Now, anything else?"

After a few moments of silence, Shifu spoke up "I just opened up a shop in the Tram Common, it's called Potions O' Plenty. My prices are lower than NPC prices and if you bring the synthesis materials for what you want, it will be half price."

MisfitJester nodded, "Thank you…?" he trailed off

"Shifu." Shifu replied.

"… Like the Master in the Kung Fu Panda movie? Cool." He replied amused.

With that Shifu rushed back to his potion stand ahead of the swarm of players that followed him and spent the coming hours creating potions and ether. By the end of the cue he had earned quite a few skill points in his crafting tree, which cut down on time and materials required for the items, also the ability to create Hi-potions and elixirs, along with minor effectiveness increases. He sighed as he set his status as away as his moogle appeared in the shop window and he brought up the menu for shop expansion. He selected the expansion for a bed and dining room and sighed as the 10,000 munny he had made lessened to only 2,500. A cloud of data removed the walls of his current stand and added a small dining room/kitchenette and an upstairs portion where Shifu assumed a bed was, along with a door to separate the shop front from the rest of this now residence. He walked through the door and closed it behind him. It wasn't long before he had flopped down on his new bed and felt sleep take him.

Kingdom_Hearts_Online

Shifu woke with a start as he heard his alarm going off, he had set the tone to the low health alert from the game, because if anything would wake you up, thinking you were being attacked would do it. He sighed as he stood and went downstairs to eat some breakfast. He sat down at the table and summoned the eggs and tea that he had in his inventory and brought up the community hub on his menu, which then displayed Trending topics, a chat feed, and trending livestreams. Shifu usually watched the livestreams during breakfast, as players in other timezones usually were out level grinding or talking about theories or easter eggs they had found. A couple players were still hung up on The Man in the Black Coat, who had been seen during Kayaba's Day Zero announcement and not at all afterwards. Most people figured it was an easter egg or hint at a future event, some were also saying that it might be the Keyblade Wielder of Darkness.

Today however, most of the streams were talking about the upcoming raid, it was number one on trending topics, streamers were sparing at the Sandlot to loosen up. Some streamers were still talking about the Darkness tree bug though, apparently people who had tried to join the Keyblade wielder of Darkness by taking skills in the tree hadn't noticed a gameplay change. Shifu sighed as he mused on some of those clips. He himself had started taking points in the Light tree, which had only granted him a few resistances to Dark damage and more XP from low-level Heartless kills. Presently a small alert appeared before him, catching his attention.

Raid meetup in one hour.

Shifu sighed and finished his breakfast, and went to head out the front door as he heard voices on the other side. Opening the door, he saw a number of players lined up outside his shop, all with their menu's open. As some of them noticed him, they gave a nod or a "hey, your prices are great! Thanks!" He nodded back and gave a few polite "you're welcome's" as he made his way towards the Sandlot. When he finally reached his destination, he saw quite a few players sparring in the center, their weapons clashing, spells being cast at one another. A defeated shout drew Shifu's attention as he saw a fighter slump to his knees, his Lances fall to his side as his opponent reached out a hand to help him up.

"That was a good fight." The winner said.

"Fuck you." His opponent spat, standing up by himself and swatting away the hand, storming off.

The winner shrugged with an apologetic look on his gaunt face, and he looked over at Shifu.

"Hey, you're the potion guy! Shifu right?"

"Yeah…" Shifu replied cautiously, "And you are?"

"Illian, call me Illian." The man replied as Shifu looked him over. His gaunt face gave way to a slender frame covered by a black leather jacket and black pants with a white shirt, a silver longsword in his gloved hand. Shifu figured he had been playing as close of a Leon look-alike as he could manage before Kayaba had revealed everyone's true faces. Illian smiled at Shifu "You want to spar? We've got more than enough time before the raid."

"If you want to, but I think you'll find I'm quite the firey competition." Shifu smirked as he reached out his hand. In a swirl of flame, his claymore Horoscope appeared, fire shimmering off of its ridged red tip, and the two curved black blades that jutted out from its white shaft. Illian shook his head as he opened his menu and sent Shifu a duel request. "Why is it all the guys with claymores and lances think they can beat me?" he smirked as he readied his weapon.

Shifu hefted his claymore and accepted the duel request, a timer began counting down from 30 seconds. As it ran to zero a bell rang and Shifu leaped at Illian, his claymore over his head. Illian just held out his hand and said "Stop." Suddenly, Shifu's body locked up as he became paralyzed, his momentum carrying him straight to where Illian was waiting, delivering two strikes with his sword to Shifu's chest. Shifu hit the ground, going into a roll and standing as the paralysis waned, he swung wildly with his claymore. Illian narrowly avoided the blow and as Shifu turned to face his opponent Illian cast another Stop spell on him, slashing wildly into Shifu's vulnerable form. Shifu internally gritted his teeth "Fucking Stop spammers." He thought. In PVE battles, their methods were very effective, but in PVP it was just annoying as hell. As the spell waned however, Illian was still within Shifu's personal space. Shifu smirked and commanded, "Fire, Defense!" A swirl of flame surrounded Shifu, slamming into Illian and throwing him back, his clothes covered in a red glow as he began to take burning damage. At level 12, Shifu had been given the option to specialize in a certain type of magic each promising different benefits, he had chosen Fire. Shifu used this as an opportunity to follow up with a series of swings, each connecting with Illians body and leaving large red gashes. Illian crashed into the ground with Shifu right on top of him, his sword just managing to deflect a slash from Shifu's claymore aimed at his neck. Illian grimaced as he cast stop this time and used the precious seconds it afforded him to stand back up and get some distance between him and his foe. Shifu glanced at his health bar, which was now teetering between the yellow and red, once it hit red he would loose. When he was able to move again, he raced after his opponent, leaping into the air to bring his claymore down on his enemy. As the blade began to fall on Illian, Illian quickly sidestepped and delivered a quick slash to Shifu, ending the duel.

Shifu's health restored to green as he panted heavily, he dematerialized Horoscope and rose to his feet, looking at Illian, who was wearing a shit-eating grin. Shifu gathered his breath before saying "Ok, that was a cheap way to win."

Illian smirked, "As far as I'm concerned, I went easy on you."

Shifu was about to reply with a choice string of curses, but was stopped when a guild invitation appeared before him, reading Do you accept the invitation to the Council of Light? Shifu cocked his eyebrow and looked at Illian "What's this?" he asked.

"Christ, I really hope you're not that dense. It's a guild invitation. You're a good fighter, you're a great potion maker, and you seem to have a good heart, at least based on the fact you're offering your potions pretty cheap." Illian replied. "We're a pretty small guild right now, it's only me and MisfitJester."

"Wait, I thought that he said the Darkside wiped an entire raid group." Shifu responded confused.

"Well… it did, the group was only two of us and the bastard killed us in one hit. We figured that it would sound better if he didn't get into specifics."

"So… you guys pinged the entire playerbase, just because you needed a raid group." Shifu deadpanned.

"…Yeah, pretty much." Illian replied. "So what do you say? Will you join our guild?'

Shifu looked at the invitation in front of him, sighed, and pressed accept "I hope this isn't a mistake." He thought.