When Marty activated the program the next day the five of them found themselves standing in the same location they had been when they left Carria the previous day. Unlike before they didn’t pass out so to them everything happened in a single flash of white light.

“Alright party what is our plan for today?” Marty asked.

“Fighting our way to the nearest city and getting into contact with the guilds would be a good start,” Emma suggested. The guilds usually offered the best quests plus there were benefits to joining them. The journey to the nearest city wasn’t that long so the difficulty would be entirely based on what trouble they ran into on the way there. There was one slight problem they had to address before heading out however and that was that Greggory wasn’t with them. He had been in the middle of the forest when the timer expired last night so they could only assume he had spawned there when they loaded in today.

“Should we wait for him?” James questioned. There was a map inside the book Marty had given them. It showed them their own location on the game world although not the location of others. It should be fairly obvious to Greggory where they were heading anyway. Heck considering they had no idea where he was it was possible he was closer to the city than they were. They agreed to leave him behind and set off for the city using a path through the forest to get there.

Marty was leading the pack with his keen ears scanning the surroundings. As he was now an elf his hearing had improved. However he had yet to how to distinguish between wild animals, and a goblin raiding party. Suddenly the group was ambush by number green skinned goblins. Their ambushers were more organised that the goblins loitering in the fields. Armed with sharp spears and old armour they posed a threat.

“Ambush, let’s kill them all!” Marty yelled. He aimed his bow as the green skins rushed them. Emma had adopted a sword and shield fighting stance although the cheap wooden round shield she had started with barely offered any protection. She also had a hard time moving her body with her heavy armour but it could have been worse. Clement’s large breasts and taller statue caused him to tilt of balance after his first spell missed and a goblin pounced onto his back. Marty’s first arrow hit a goblin in the chest but only stunned it. His longhair obstructed his vision and blinded one of his eyes due to him not being used to it, this left him wide open to attacks. James small body was physically too weak for close combat fighting. He swung his sword but couldn’t even pierce the goblins armour with his weak arms. Emma swung her sword fiercely and slew goblin after goblin. Attacks came at her fast and often but weren’t aimed well so the goblins spears failed to penetrate the armour she was wearing. One by one she cut them down and when the last goblin fell she realised that she was now completely alone. Surrounding her was the belongings of Clement, James and Marty but they themselves were nowhere in sight.

“Did they all just die?” Marty said that if one of them died their body would be transported back to the cabin and fully healed. This was a game so death wasn’t permanent, but evidently it was only their body that was returned to the cabin and nothing else. The task of hauling all their crap back to the starting cabin fell upon Emma so she took what she could and headed back.

Meanwhile in the cabin her friends had also just learnt about the flaw in Marty’s respawn system. They had all respawned without anything meaning that all three were stark naked. Since they were all teenage boys at heart all attention was on Clement.

“How’s it feel having to carry two watermelons on your chest?” Marty teased. Clement didn’t respond. Instead he wrapped himself up in the bedsheets. Feeling inadequate James had both his hands against his own breasts.

“Maybe I should have made mine larger.” Then again this was already strange enough. “Hey Marty is there any way for us to get new clothes?” Their chests only had weapons and armour.

“No. We only have what we started with. Anything else we need to find in the game world.” Marty wasn’t sure where to look. James was sitting naked exploring his body since he had time. He had his legs together at least hiding his private area. Marty suspected that if James got some privacy he’d inspect that place as well. Suddenly James feline ears twitched.

“Someone’s coming,” he announced. Not a moment later the door was booted open and a towering figure entered the cabin.

Emma arrived back at the cabin to the sound of Greggory emptying his lungs with laughter. After the others had mocked him for failing to find a cat he was going to enjoy the fact three of them had died to goblins to the fullest. They were all relived when Emma entered the cabin carrying their clothing and gear with her.

“Knock knock idiots,” Emma greeted as she entered the cabin. She quickly tossed the three backpacks she had been carrying onto the floor for them to sort out. “So how was death?” She mocked.

“Painful, I don’t recommend it.” While the three of them were fine now they still all remembered the pain from being stabbed, bitten and beaten to death by the goblins. The goblins had been kind enough to kill them quickly but it did raise the fear of the pain a slower death could cause. Marty would try to do something about it later when he was back in the real world. In the meantime he threw off the bedsheet and fished his rags from his bag.

“Jesus these won’t do,” he complained pulling out hole filled rags soaked with his blood. His body may have been fine again but his clothing definitely wasn’t.

“Well you need something.” Emma was doing her best to avoid looking at the naked elf crouching in the middle of the cabin. While trying to avoid looking at Marty her eyes fell upon Greggory. She realized he wasn’t wearing the clothes he had started with. He had a clean white shirt and around his waist was a pair of very tight trousers.

“What?” Greggory asked noticing her gaze.

“Did you steal someone’s clothes?” She immediately accused thinking back to what Greggory had said previously.

“Yeah so what? It’s not like those people are real.” Even after speaking with the townsfolk Greggory still didn’t see them as anything more than a computer programs that resembled people. Emma rolled her eyes and dropped the matter knowing there was no point in arguing. She decided not to warn him about the fact that the owner of the clothes would be on the lookout for them and would spot Greggory the next time he went into town.

“So how about heading to that city now?” Greggory suggested. “But if more goblins show up then let me and Emma handle them.” Considering what had just happened it was a good suggestion.

“I died because I tried to fight up close with a bow. I forgot that in reality that doesn’t work. I’ll be smarter next time.” Marty pulled a sword from his locker and put it in his bag. He wanted to get good with the bow but unlike in games it was unless at point blank range. If his enemies got closer it would be best to stick to slashing and stabbing. The party geared up with more armour this time and headed out towards the city. Like before goblins had set up an ambush along the main path. This time however the entire party was brandishing swords and shields. James still couldn’t get past their armour, but with his brute strength Greggory didn’t suffer the same problem. Wood was splintered as he aggressively swung his blade. Hs aggressiveness ultimately caused the sword to break, so he used his fists to finish the combat. With Greggory and Emma taking the vanguard the goblins were swiftly fought off. They get completely massacred like last time and nobody died.

“Onwards!” Greggory declared trampling over the muddy remains of his enemies.

Two women clad in the armour of the city guard stood by the gates of Lurne. Today been a boring day with nothing out of the ordinary to distract them for their boredom. That changed when they spotted the odd ball bunch of adventures pretty quickly. It was a human city but elves weren’t uncommon, cat girls however were especially rare to see as they historically hated large cities, and with this city being the fourth largest in the human territories it rarely got feline visitors. They watched the group closely as they passed through the gate and entered the city.

“Man there is so much to do; I don’t even know where to get started.” Greggory was looking around with excitement although worryingly a lot of that excitement was directed at a lot of the city’s women. One guardswoman was glaring at him suspiciously after noticing what he was doing.

“I was wondering…” Emma began. “Is it just me or all the guards women?” Emma pointed out and the others all looked around and confirmed her observation. There were plenty of guards keeping order but not a single one was male. Typically the city guard had a 4:1 male to female ratio.

“Yeah… it’s almost as if ‘someone’ installed a mod to make all the guards female.” Marty directed his acquisitions at James.

“This is just how I like to play the game,” James responded.

“Why did you even have a mod to turn all the guards into women?” Emma questioned. Greggory was keeping out of this and letting James take the heat. It was probably a bad time to mention he had also put that mod on his memory stick.

“It’s a fantasy game so what’s wrong with modding it to my tastes?”

“Look I’ll double check things when I get back to reality and see what else we’ve added.” Marty tried to diffuse the situation. “Evidently I should have imposed some restrictions on the mods you guys could bring. It’s only cosmetic so don’t worry too much about it Emma.” It was the prospect that there might be other questionable mods that was worrying Emma. There wasn’t much she could do about it right now so she just sighed and questioned her poor choice of adventuring companions.

“Where should we go first?” Emma asked and was met with a mess of words that sounded like general store, the guilds and tavern all mixed in together.

“Let’s split up and meet back here in an hour. There is a clock inside the book I gave you.” Marty’s suggestion made the most sense. They all had things they wanted to do so split up to go do them.

Marty arrived at the bristling town square and looked around at the crowds that had gathered there. One particular group of street performers had mixed music, singing, dancing and magic into a spectacular show that had the audience’s attention captured. A young urchin was squeezing through the crowd with his pockets slowly filling up as the pockets of those around him became lighter. He made his way towards Marty having spotted the tree elf from the crowd hoping to relieve him of some precious elven treasure, but when he actually reached Marty he was severely disappointed. The elf couldn’t even afford to clothe himself, the chances of him having anything of value were zero. The boy pushed past to find a better mark to relieve of his or her valuables. Marty continued to listen to the music admiring the beauty of the song. The street performers had been present when he been in this city digitally but had an annoying habit of only playing the same songs over and over again. The song he was hearing now was completely new to his ears.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I better get a move on,” he whispered. He couldn’t stand around all day when he was broke ass poor and needed desperately to get clothes. Fortunately he knew someone in the city who offered a very beneficial and relatively easy quest.

Meanwhile James had just walked into the store he had been seeking. The owner wasn’t exactly pleased to see the shabby looking cat-girl enter and hoped she wasn’t here to steal. The city barracks had supplied all the stores in town with a guard who was silently watching James’s hands.

“Hello good sir,” James greeted. His way of speaking was nothing like what the shop keeper had been imagining.

“Hello miss,” the shopkeeper replied with a strong hint of uncertainty in his voice.

“I want to sell some things to you. You buy anything right?” It was a rule in RPGs that general stores would buy anything someone wanted to sell for a far lower price than it was actually worth.

“This IS a general store. What are you selling?” James opened up his bag and began to fish out items and place them on the table. He pulled out all the spare equipment that Marty had given him, most of which he never planned on using such as the staff and bow. The shopkeeper picked up the cheap bow and examined it confirming that it was incredibly low quality.

“I’ll be honest this stuff is junk, did some adventurer give it to you?” It wasn’t uncommon for adventurers in the city to pass down their old weapons and armour to less experienced adventurers.

“No, I found it all. Anyway is it worth anything?”

“Not really… for all this I’d give you 50 coppers.” It was better than nothing although James wasn’t going to just accept the initial offer.

“What can I get in store credit?” James asked.

“Store… Credit…?” The shopkeeper had never heard the term before.

“Well instead of giving me copper coins which can be used anywhere, you give me credit with the store which can only be used in this store.”

“Why would I do that?” The shopkeeper still didn’t get what James was suggesting.

“Well if you give me copper coins you’re losing money right? But if you give me store credit then you’re losing absolutely nothing. You literally write a note detailing the value of said note, sign it and give it to me as currency.”

“And this helps you how?” There had to be a catch.

“Well the idea is that you give me a little extra for my goods when I ask for credit instead of coins. Again you aren’t losing anything. If you paid me in copper coins and I died, you’ve still lost copper coins. But if you paid me in credit and I say died or lost the note, you’d lose absolutely nothing.” The shopkeeper was beginning to see the benefit of what James was suggesting.

“Yeah that makes sense.”

“It’s a win win situation.” James had him. The shopkeeper was already pulling a receipt booklet out from under the table. When James left the shop he still didn’t have a penny on him but what he did have was a dagger that was actually sharp and a new shirt and skirt. He would have preferred to get trousers but skirts were way cheaper and it was pretty hot so it was nice to have the extra cooling area. Now he only needed to find somewhere to change as this city didn’t offer much privacy.

Greggory checked nobody was watching as he pressed in the belt of a stone statue hidden in the corner of an old graveyard. The secret button triggered a mechanical sound as the ground behind the statue opened up revealing a stone staircase.

“Sweet,” he whispered descending the stairs that took him straight to the hidden den of a group of criminals known as Vega Gang. They were an unofficial thieves’ guild as the guild office refused to recognise such as group as a guild.

“Hello friends,” Greggory announced as he pushed open a reinforced door. Naturally dozens of weapons were immediately trained on him as he entered the cleaned out tomb that was now home to the notorious group of criminals.

“Who the fuck are you?” The guild’s entrance was a closely kept secret but was shared with a player’s character once they proved themselves. That required a series of quests however so Greggory skipped that part and came straight here which you couldn’t do in the game.

“Hey relax, I come in peace.” Greggory slowly reached behind him and pulled out a bag of money he had swiped from a merchant stall. He tossed it towards the woman he knew was the groups second in command.

“Paying for your life?” She questioned.

“No, I’m paying my joining fee.” It was suspicious. The woman known as Dia picked up the coin bag and inspected it.

“Stolen goods so I guess you’re a thief but you need to be more than that to join us.” Dia looked at Greggory. He was strong, he was a criminal and he had somehow figured out the location of their hideout but there was one problem

“We are an organisation of rogues. We rely on being unnoticed but you… you stand out in a crowd like a sore thumb.” Greggory was easily the tallest and large person in the chamber.

“Exactly. You lot lack brute force and sometimes you need it. Just give me a chance to show you what I can do, you won’t regret it.” He might just make a nice addition to the group but she needed to test him first. She didn’t have anything planned though so had to think something up.

“Meckan,” she spoke to a man to her right. “If I remember correctly you have a delivery coming today. I’m changing your orders, have him do all the work and just stay hidden and observe.”

“Hey I’m not a delivery boy,” Greggory complained.

“If you want to join us then you’ll do whatever I tell you to do. Do you still want to join or should I cut your throat right here?” The answer was obvious. While Greggory was happy committing petty theft it was no way to get rich. With these people help he could really hit the big bucks.

“Just point me in the direction of what you need done.”

Unlike the others Clement didn’t wonder off alone and instead stuck with Emma as she walked through the front door of one of the city’s most established guilds. Burning Sun Warriors was the name of the guild whose symbol was a sun rising behind a shield. In terms of respect this guild was top of the chain. It had a strict code of conduct which outright forbid its members from killing humans or other intelligent races unless completely necessary. Committing any crime could get you kicked out of the group and nobody was allowed to show weakness at any time. The strict rules discouraged a lot of applicants and those that did sign up had to go through tight screening to prove they were the right material for the group. In Emma’s eyes it was the absolute ideal group to be a part off and she wasted no time requesting an application from the front desk.

“Here you go.” The clerk handed Emma the form with a smile. The clerk acknowledged Clement was there but didn’t say anything to him. As Emma filled out the form with a quill Clement looked around at the impressive artwork and treasures that made the front office look like a museum. One particular piece was a massive tapestry showing a group of knights in red and silver armour charging into a horde of twisted black shadows. ‘Battle of Red Rapture’ was embroiled across the top. Clement remembered that being mentioned in the games lore books although couldn’t remember the specific details other than it had prevented the world from being destroyed five hundred years ago.

“And done.” Emma was about to pass the form back but quickly pulled it back as she noticed a mistake. She quickly scribbled out her real name and replaced with it her character’s name.

“Welcome Beauty,” the clerk said reading aloud Emma’s name. Clement looked quizzically at Emma while she avoided his gaze as she was a bit embarrassed about the name. She wished she had chosen something better but what’s done is done. Soon a senior member of the guild descended the stone steps to the side of the welcome desk to greet her. It just so happened today was a recruitment day and he would be putting prospective guild members through their paces.

* * * * *

The wheels of the cart squeaked loudly as a lone figure pulled the wooden cart across the overgrown forest path. He couldn’t believe he had been roped into doing the work of a horse and was questioning if all the effort he was going through was even worth it.

“I bet they are watching me pull this dam thing laughing,” he hissed under his breathe. He was right about being watched but it wasn’t by his employers.

“I thought you said you wanted me to make a delivery?” Greggory whispered to Meckan who was behind the ivy covered tree next to him.

“I told you it was a delivery job, the job being stealing the delivery.” They were both pressed behind thick trees watching the cart moving slowly along the path below them. Greggory had been wondering why he was brought out into the middle of nowhere to make a delivery but now he understood what his mission was.

“Just kill that guy and steal the cart right?” Greggory asked ready to go.

“Sure.” Meckan didn’t care how Greggory got it done. The moment Greggory got approval he made his move. He jumped out from behind the tree and charged down the slope with his stolen wood axe ready. It was immediately apparent to the man pulling the cart what Greggory’s intention was. He immediately ditched his cargo and began running but he was tired and Greggory had a fresh pair of legs. The chase lasted only 30 seconds before blood was spill across the road and the man’s cry for mercy was silenced by Greggory ruthless axe.

“Mission complete.” Greggory wiped his axe with the man’s shirt then began searching through his pockets.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so heartless… you’ll fit right into our group.” Meckan gave him a pat on the shoulder then moved over to inspect the contents of the cart. “All good. Help me move this.”

“Back to base?” Greggory questioned getting in position beside Meckan.

“No, we have an associate outside of town who handles stolen goods. He doesn’t ask questions and in return neither do we.”

“Sounds like my kind of crook.” Greggory continued his shady dealing while his friends undertook more noble pursuits.