North American Broadcast Corporation (NABC) newsroom

Oct 25, 2046 03:00 AM EST

The reporter still smiling but looking more tired sits under the bright lights and wishes she could go home already. When the on-air light turns green she says, “Thank you Ivan that was an excellent report. I’ll make sure to wear extra clothes tomorrow, that cold front sure is dropping temperatures.” She looks over to where her producer waves her hands and points to a new prompt. Sitting up straighter she reads, “Just in. Breaking News. Siarra Inc.’s much anticipated online game Esper Online: The 15 Thrones has hit the market with a bang, report show nearly 50 million log-ins in the first 3 hours. But there seems to be an issue. Reports are coming in that many players are enjoying the game so much they are refusing to log out. We are starting to gather reports that some concerned parents and loved ones have attempted to use the neural ER gears external forced shut down. There are unsubstantiated reports that some of these attempts have failed to force the desired shut down. We have contacted Siarra for a comment on this new turn of events, but we have not received a reply yet.

Here at NABC we would like to remind our viewers to not attempt to shut down an active Neural Connection by removing power supply or disconnecting Network access. At this time we would suggest if a player does not log out from within the game and a forced external shut down fails, then contact your neural gear’s manufacturer technical support, for further troubleshooting”

Azriel

The moment I hit confirm the world was just suddenly there. I found myself in a large central market area of a once nice looking town. The buildings that line the square were well made but showing age and poor repair. They all looked like they had seen better times. The suddenness of the town’s appearance took me back for a moment since I was expecting the previous swirl of colors. Lien’s voice brought me back quick enough, “That took you long enough. I was just sitting there in blackness while you played with yourself.” She looked around the city center for the first time. The square was large enough that maybe 20 large shops, taverns, and Inns lined the square. In the center where we stood there was a large summoning circle built on a raised stone platform. The Moon was bright and full illuminating a number of closed shop stalls. Even so there were a number of players milling around. I could see some frozen players. But here most were moving. The most activity seemed to be around another platform with three NPC’s all titled Auctioneer.

Lien was talking again, “I didn’t get a server prompt. Did you drag me to some shitty American server?” The High Elf girl was glaring daggers at me and I finally had enough of it. “I did not ask you to come. I did not make you join a group. This was your idea. If you don’t like it then leave. I am more than capable of soloing at this stage.” Truth be the game devs had made it where any player could solo at any level with the right build. A Group could get EXp faster, but at the cost of sharing rare drops and coin. A prompt flashed.

Quest Completed!

Exit through the World Gate!!!

Rewards: None

Quickly swiping the pointless message away I saw Lien smiling at me. “What?” I was becoming more and more sure this girl was crazy. “I thought you American men let your women walk all over you?” Taken aback I stuttered, “Us… Some do… but ugh see I’m single.” She actually laughed at this, “A man willing to stand up for himself is considered undesirable. You Americans are backwards.” I was not about to tell her I was single because outside of ER I couldn’t really talk to girls. I locked up every time a pretty one smiled at me. Then again I couldn’t let the jab at my country go unchallenged. “Hey, don’t you guys still practice arranged marriages? Shouldn’t a woman of your age be married and serving her husband? So what is wrong with you?” Lien’s laughter stopped immediately, “My fat slob of a husband is asleep. He doesn’t know I play online. This is my time to do with as I please.” She turned and stomped down the steps to the plaza. I chased after her, “Umm. I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything by that.” She shook her head, “Think nothing. Just do not bring it up again.”

We walked in awkward silence searching for the town gates. As we did, I watched the local chat. Many people were asking about or reporting quests they found from local NPC’s. Most were Gofer quests. Go for this item and take it to this other NPC. Those I passed point blank. One was to help a NPC guard his lamb. The player said you had to wait around for an hour in which nothing really happened. I could do that one alone later. But there were two that caught my eye. One was too bring 12 rabbit pelts back to a leatherworker in town. The other was to collect Kobold ears from a local kobold mine and return them to the guards.

“Hey,” I started but Lien cut me off. “I saw them. You grab the Kobold ears. I’ll get the pelts then we meet at the East gate and share?” I smiled, “Sure. See you in a bit.” We split up and both went to where the chats said we could find our respective NPCs.

10 minutes later Lien and I were in the plains outside the city walls. The rabbits were all level 1 through 3 and had no agro ranges. I simply walked up to a young rabbit and examined it.

Young Rabbit

HP 100%

Mana 100%

Stamina 100%

It’s name showed white which meant it should be an equal level challenge. With a shrug I swung my staff at its head.

You hit young rabbit. Damage 8

The rabbit lunged at me snapping its teeth. I easily stepped back out of the way.

Young Rabbit misses you!

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I spun my staff around in a circle and brought the other end down on the rabbits head.

You hit Young Rabbit! Damage: Critical 15

The rabbit lunged at me again, but I was too slow to move and its teeth punctured my shin!

Young Rabbit Hits you! Damage: 30.

“Oh holy shit! That hurts, you little fucker DIE!”

You miss Young Rabbit!

Young Rabbit misses you!

You hit young Rabbit! Critical! Damage: 21

Young Rabbit hits you! Damage: 35

With that last bite my life bar dropped to 115hp. Thinking to myself, “This little beast has taken out a full third of my life.”

You hit Young Rabbit! Damage 9

Young Rabbit Dies

5 EXP gained

Looking down at my dead foe the only emotion I could come up with was amazement. My legs hurt tremendously from the bites and scratches. Blood ran down them turning the grass black in the night air. This had never hurt so much before! Sure in the past I could feel the combat, but it was more like someone hitting you with a pillow. Now I could swear I had felt the little teeth ripping and tearing. I bent to search the body. Only to find nothing on it. Groaning I began to stand and heard a cry from behind me.

Lien! I had totally forgotten her! Spinning around, I saw her in combat with a Rabbit.

Young Rabbit

HP 62%

Mana 0%

Stamina 80%

She was feebly swinging her mace. Glancing at her life bar I saw she had only 48HP left. Then the rabbit hit her and half that disappeared. Without thinking I began casting. A second later a small ball of fire flew from my outstretched arm. The ball was the size of a baseball and looked just like if you lit a ball on fire and flung it. The flames flew quickly Illuminating the area briefly before hitting the rabbit. Its remaining life went down to a fraction then disappeared completely when Lien landed a final strike.

10 EXp

Lien collapsed to the ground crying. I rushed to her and knelt down. “Oh Goddess,” she cried “It hurts!” I placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her torn, bloody legs. They were worse than mine. To my amazement as I watched the wounds started to heal. Then my mind caught up. We were out of combat auto ReGen had started in.

After about two minutes our wounded legs were fully healed, even the blood had disappeared. I helped Lien to her feet. She was still trembling and mumbling to herself. “I’m guessing your not used to the new pain thresholds either?” She shook her head. “Did you get new equipment?” Again she shook her head in the negative. Odd, I thought. Could this just be programing? But the sensitivity levels should have been based on the hardware. “Maybe you should turn your realism down some.” I suggested. Lien sniffled, and nodded. A moment later she said, “I can’t find it.” “Huh? It should be…” I trailed off myself. There was nothing where the realism, gore, adult language, and maturity settings use to be. Lien wiped tears from her puffy eyes and said, “Something else is odd.” “What’s that?” I asked. “When you attacked the rabbit, did you activate an ability to do so? Or for casting your spell for that matter?” I thought about it. I hadn’t I just did the actions. Lien continued, “I just knew how to use my mace. How to swing and where to aim. I had a moment where I felt the handle slip in my grip and automatically readjusted my attacks for the extra distance.” My mouth felt dry. I had been the same with my staff, and the spell… Even now, I could tell you the exact motions and words you would need to say to cast any of my spells. I just knew it! Like I had been studying them for ages. Panicking slightly I started searching my display for an action bar. I couldn’t find one. Looking in my options there wasn’t anything I had turned off either, it just wasn’t there. “My action bar is gone,” I croaked. Lien nodded, “Mine too.” Our gazes met. In unison we both exclaimed, “THIS IS AWESOME!”

Ace broke in to our revelries, “umm mi’lord. The rabbit has vanished.” Looking down he was right the body was gone. “Damn it,” I said. Lien laughed. “Well let’s not do that again.” I nodded in agreement. I turned to look for another rabbit. Behind me Lien asked, “So you have the HP of a warrior. I am guessing you have the ability to use that pig sticker at your belt, and you can cast spells. What the hell type of class are you and where can I sign up?” I turned to her smiling, “I’m a Magi. You know that. We are a secret order. If I told you how to be one, then it wouldn’t be a very good secret. Would it?” She laughed, “Fine be that way. If I beat you to having all my pelts first you have to tell me.” I agreed.

An hour and half later I picked up my last pelt. “Done,” I said. The rabbits were really horrid prey. They dropped nothing but Grey loot and not very much of that. Lien swung her mace missing her foe again. “Damn it!” she growled. “I still need 3 more. I’m a freaking Acolyte. I’m not supposed to be killing things alone!” I smiled at her and cast Magic missile at her rabbit. This spell looked like an invisible ball of force. You could just make out the outlines as it rushed to impact its target. I had decided I liked it better than the Fire Arrow. Even though the Fire Arrow did more damage, I had missed my target using it a couple times. The Magic Missile on the other hand did less damage, but it seemed to strike a foe every time. This particular bolt went wide around Lien’s back to avoid hitting her. Then swung around to impact upon the rabbit with a nice WHOMP! The rabbit let out a death knell and collapsed to the ground. Lien turned to me, glaring. “I wish you would quit doing that!” I smiled and her glare melted in to a smile. “But I’m just trying to help.” I said in a less than sincere manner.

Ace came around me, “Mi’lord heard you say you were not supposed to kill things alone. He nobly came to the lady’s aide!” I glanced at the boy, unsure if he was joking or not. He thumped the butt of my Staff on the ground, sending rabbit pelts swinging wildly. The glare on his face showed he was serious. I stifled a smile, and tossed him the last pelt. He grabbed it out of the air and began to tie it to the staff. I walked over to Lien, sheathing my sword as I did. The staff was okay, but if I really wanted to kill things in melee the sword won hands down. Lien grunted and stood from looting the Rabbit. “Here catch!” I barely prevented getting hit in the face by a boot.

You have found:

Old Rusty Chain Boots (grey)

Quality: Poor

Durability: 10/ 20

Weight: 2 lbs.

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Feet: 3 Armor

Restrictions: None

They were Grey items but they provided armor. Looking down at my bare feet I sighed. “What about you?’ She pointed to her feet, where she already wore a pair. Sitting down I placed them on my feet. “You would think the stupid rabbits would carry socks with their boots.” Lien laughed, “Yes because I’ve seen so many of these things wearing boots.” Standing up, I tested the feel. They would work, but first trip in to town I was going to do something about them. I just hoped the programmers did not think about making blisters a part of the new in-game experience. I pulled my backpack off and reached in, “Well since we are trading gear. Take this.” I pulled out a Shabby Rabbit cloak and tossed it to her. She examine the cloak, curling up her little button nose, then sighed. “I guess every bit helps.” I nodded pointing to the one I wore.

We spent another 15 minutes killing rabbits together. I stayed back casting as she smashed the poor darlings. Finally she bent down to loot a body and said, “Done!” “Thank goodness! I think this quest has the worst drop rate ever!” She nodded, “The drops and EXP are bad.” “Shall we go turn it in, and empty our bags at the vendor? Or keep going to the kobolds?” Lien paused looking in her bag. “I’m half full of trash. Let’s vendor and see if we can upgrade gear a bit.” I nodded, “Did you get the extra Gold from the character creation quests?” She gave me a glare, “What do you take me for a noob?”