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Now that Paul thought about it, it was no surprise that someone else was playing the Virtual Reality Game everyone else is playing right now—the one with dozens of sales and millions of players!
But still, it was surprising how Jese reacted about it.
“I also play that!” he said. “Ah, it’s so nice to know other people that’s playing the game…”
“That was surprising, do you have to yell like that…?” Chris sighed. “Um, well yeah, we play it together. In what Realm are you playing anyway?”
“Me? Oh, I’m in Fantasia! I started as a half-elf character!” Jese said. “I’ve been trying to rank up my Spirit heart after I’ve been stuck at Tier 3 for a while now. Apparently I need to contract a new spirit, but that’s taking a while; they always run away from me.
“Oh, is that so? Even when you’re an elf?” wondered Paul.
“Only half-elfs, because they had better, more balanced stats than pure elves…” said Jese. “I went for a mixed class of physical attacks and magic, but I’m not the best using anything other than big hammers… But it’s been working so far!”
“Huh,” Chris seemed to grow a bit more interested. “My character has a fairy bloodline because his father is the Fairy King, but we are on Obscuritas instead; how’s Fantasia as a realm overall?”
“Eh?! W-What kind of character background is that?!” Jese panicked, gasping. “I had no idea something like that could be made!”
“Ah no, I didn’t make it; we both chose randomized characters,” said Chris. “You can get anything, but there’s a chance they can have great backgrounds and stuff, which no player can get through the normal character customization option.”
“T-That’s a thing?! I had no idea! And to think I spent hours customizing my character to look a bit like me but not quite like meeee…” Jese cried, feeling betrayed by the game. “Ugh, what do I do now? S-Should I delete my character so I get a randomized character?!”
“I don’t think you should do that; you’ve worked hard on your avatar already,” said Paul. “So calm down, Jese; I think you should continue with the one you have for now. I was wondering what’s your Trait and Flaw and all of that, but I guess we should reveal more of who we are…”
“I guess so,” Chris nodded. “I’m an Incubus character; I got some good archery skills, illusion magic, dream magic, and all of that stuff. I can fly indefinitely, which is a big plus to avoid most damage too!”
"Oh, that’s pretty good,” said Jese. “Incubus huh…”
“And I am a Vampire,” said Paul. “They aren’t available, I know. It came with some awful flaws though, but I’ve worked through them using equipment I’ve been making.”
“W-Wait… Incubus and Vampire, huh…” Jese nodded. “Haha, it’s kind of a funny coincidence you’re like the two famous Players, Vlad and Alitheus, who are like in charge of a whole territory already! I suppose it’s not too rare to pull a vampire from the random generator?”
Chris and Paul looked at one another for a second, as if considering if they should tell him the truth or not…
“Well, yeah, we are those,” nodded Chris with a straight face.
“I didn’t know we were that popular; we just upload videos,” said Paul.
“Pfff…!” Jese almost choked on his own drink as he gasped in disbelief. “W-What?! Really! Are you really them?! I need some proof; I can’t really believe something like thaaat…?!”
Chris and Paul pulled out their phones, showing Jese the App for the game that allowed them to see their in-game profiles, inventory, and do “off-line” item trades and purchases.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“No way!” he cried. “You’re really them?! Oh my gosh! I-I can’t believe this…”
“Calm down,” said Chris.
“At the end of the day, we’re just two players playing the game anyways,” Paul said while shrugging.
“J-Just two players?! After everything you’ve accomplished!?” Jese sighed. “You’re too humble…”
“Well anyways, we told you who we were,” said Paul. “So I was wondering what’s your character’s flaws or special traits?”
“A-Aah! I… yes, of course…” Jese nodded nervously. “Um, well… I couldn’t really decide what to get, so I ended up leaving it to the Trait and Flaw Gacha.”
“So you can actually choose that too, huh?” Paul rubbed his chin, nodding. “That’s interesting…”
"Yeah, instead of having power over what you can decide, the game does it for you with a chance to get something that customization alone can’t, though it’s not as good as what full randomization can give,” said Jese, nodding. “And well, my flaw was… Um, it was as if the game was mocking me.”
“What was it?” wondered Chris.
“Ugh… It’s called {Piggy’s Craving}, and it… well, it makes me feel hungry all the time in the game, so I’m always eating; it’s weird, and I hate it!” said Jese angrily. “My character has a massive satiation meter that I need to fill, or I begin growing weaker too!”
“Ppff…” Chris giggled a bit to himself, but after detecting Paul’s gaze, he stopped.
“It’s awful, I know; my Flaw lowered my stats by ninety percent at the beginning,” said Paul. “It was freaking horrible; I also couldn’t give more than three steps before suffering full body paralysis for a couple of seconds, so I had to work around using magic equipment with flying spells to lift myself up.”
“O-Oh wow! That’s smart,” said Jese. “But I don’t think my problem can be solved with equipment…”
“Hmm, maybe if I could create some sort of elixir of satiation that fills the meter instantly, you won’t be forced to eat so much,” said Paul. “Though, I mean, it’s nice to eat, you don’t like eating?”
"Oh, I LOVE eating my snacks, but even then, the flaw is too much, and it’s mocking me…” sighed Jese. “B-Because… Um, well…”
"Okay, we get it,” nodded Chris. “What’s the Trait? It has to be something freaking good for that flaw, right?”
“It is kind of good,” nodded Jese. “Kind of, I’ve not been able to use it yet because it requires something special I can’t get yet…”
“I see, so what is it?” Paul yawned.
“It’s… it’s called Love Between Realms,” said Jese. “It lets me teleport between Realms with no penalties!”
“EH?!”
Paul and Chris gasped in disbelief.
Wasn’t that the best Trait ever made?!
The ability to move across Realms, something that was very restrictive, if not impossible, as of now!
Every Player was pretty much locked inside their Realm until future updates, and it felt as if every Realm was like their own Server because of this.
Yet… someone can actually move through them?!
"Okay, that sounds busted if you use it well, but what’s the condition?” asked Chris.
“I’m wondering the same,” said Paul.
“I need to add to my friends someone from another Realm,” said Jese. “I haven’t been able to do that because everyone I know is playing in Fantasia… And I’m kind of afraid of starting conversations with total strangers from other Realms. I’ve sent random friend requests to people I see in the leaderboards, but they always get rejected.”
"Wow, really, everyone’s an ass, I guess,” said Chris. “Kind of hard to believe, why would they just reject a friend request? I mean, most would, but there’s bound to be some playful people that don’t give a damn, right?”
“Maybe there’s something about being unable to make friends with people from another realm yet,” said Paul. “Perhaps it gets automatically rejected after some time of being ignored? Maybe… But how about you try it with us then? Might as well, right? An opportunity like this can’t be wasted.”
“Wait, already?” Chris complained. “At least we should wait a bit before we add someone else.”
“Calm down, it’s ok,” said Paul. “This opportunity shouldn’t be wasted…”
“Wowowow, really?!” Jese asked while crying. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it! The two most famous players of Fantasy Story Online are requesting to be my friends?! Uwaah!”
He was going completely batshit insane, and it was a bit cute too.
“So let’s try something,” said Paul. “Let’s send each other friend requests and see if it works like this, when it’s mutual.”
“O-Okay!” nodded Jese.
The two sent friend requests to one another almost at the same time, and they saw the request in their phone app!
Then, they hurriedly pressed [Accept Friend Request] and the deed was done.
A big message saying: [You have befriended [Player: Ermelinda Clearvalley] appeared in the app.
“It worked… And this name is cute, Ermelinda?” wondered Paul, laughing a bit. “Oh wait, your character’s female, I see.”
“Y-Yeah…” Jese looked elsewhere embarrassedly. “I… uh, well, I like playing as girl characters… they’re cuter.”
“Hahah, okay,” laughed Chris. “Sure, that’s the reason, hm~?”
Chris teased him, implying something else…
“T-There’s no other reason, ok?” Jese covered his face in embarrassment. “Um, anyways… Let’s see each other in-game then! I’ll try using my Trait once I log in today… and see if it works.”
“Okay then,” nodded Paul.
“Ah, add me too! You can’t just add him and not me; come on!” Chris complained.
“A-Ah, it would be an honor!” nodded Jese adorably.
It seemed that at the end, the duo had made a new friend after a series of small coincidences.
One that held the power to perhaps change the entire game forever…
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