One of Dantes’s core memories was when he and his entire class planned a small trip to the forest nearby. A protected conservatory area perhaps. He could not recall the exact reason, but this was back when he used to live in the more rural parts of the country, so maybe the forest was more important to them. Anyhow, throughout the trip, there were two major encounters — one with a deer, and one with a flying squirrel. Both were exciting experiences he had never forgotten and ever since then, Dantes had held a deep appreciation for nature and especially forests. Their bounty and beauty had left their imprint on him — or at least they did.
The positive connotations of the forest were quickly being overwritten by its horrors within the dark Avangarden. Every twitch and shiver, miniscule movements of the wind, the quietest sounds. In this hypersensitive moment, Dantes forgot all about the girl and immersed himself fully — even forgetting this was all a game and he could remove his headset at any time.
Then he let out the most honest, ear-screeching scream of all time as Vergiln’s hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder. Dantes in turn frightened Vergiln, who let out an equally terrified scream.
After awakening the entire area to their presence, a flock of birds escaping a nearby tree, Dantes finally returned to his senses, ceasing the air horn. He quickly covered Vergiln’s mouth as well.
How had she sneaked up on him? There was definitely something up with this user.
However, it was far too late. They were surrounded by Lvl 3 wolves in all directions.
Avangardian Wolf (Lvl 3)
HP: 200
ATK: 50
PHYS RES: 15%
“Hopefully they are not the pets of the slime”
One, two, three, four… This was bad. Surrounded by six wolves, the two had no way out.
“Oh no… Why does this keep happening…?!”
“Get yourself together — come on, I’m the healer here! Can’t you do anything?!”
“I’m just a live tester…” said Vergiln, “I mean, I guess I have this…”
The girl revealed two swords, both jet black and decorated with gold. They had the feeling of a regional boss super-rare drop item with its red-golden aura. It seemed to be a fairly late-game content, something a normal player wouldn’t have access to.
“A live tester? You mean you’re testing unreleased stuff on a live server?!”
“Y-yeah…”
“Then why were you being jumped by SLIMES?!”
“Look! I’m not good at video games okay?!”
“Give me that!”
Lvl 50 Required.
…
What?!
“...Come on! You just have to swing these around at these wolve— ouch!”
An enemy jumped at Dantes and bit him on his arm. Everybody’s Tower included simulated pain, limited hardware-wise to extremely safe sensations such as pinching and slight pressure. Bit ironic considering the microwave rumour... However, he was still surprised by the realism. Dante proceeded to bonk the wolf on its head, which successfully knocked it away.
“See! Fighting hurts you know… I just want to go to the city…”
“You want to go to the city?! Fine! I’ll help you get to te city if you help me get rid of these monsters!”
“B-but how…?”
“...Come here!” said Dantes as he grabbed both of Vergiln’s arms from behind, “Follow my lead, okay?”
It was a bit difficult as Vergiln’s avatar was a head taller than Dantes, but he began to weave the blades through the beasts’ guts. The duel-wielding improved the reactibility and each slice cut through as smoothly as butter. As expected, the swords dealt massive damage around 20K per hit, instantly killing each wolf in contact. In a matter of seconds, the matter was dealt with in a swift matter. I mean, manner.
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“W-wow…”
“See? Not so hard, is it?”
“...Thank you.”
Dantes began to rethink Vergiln’s value to a potential party. In concept, she had access to yet unreleased content — powerful weapons, armours and spells most likely. In addition, Vergiln could hide her display name and level, both game-changing abilities. Finally, from the weapon warning, she was either over Lvl 50 or had some special privilege to bypass Lvl restrictions. Either way, she would be a powerful ally to have… If she knew how to play the damn game, of course.
“...Look, I’ll guide you to the city, but under one condition:” said Dantes, “I’ll teach you how to play the game, and you join my party.”
“Join your party…?”
“It means that we’ll be working together to do quests and bosses and stuff. Much better than being solo, don’t you think?”
“Y-yeah!”
“Then come on, let’s go to the city before midnight, kid.”
“I’m not a kid but… Okay!”
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Now that he had a better look, Vergiln was indeed very tall for a woman. She must’ve been around 6 feet or taller — her avatar was taller than Dantes in real life! She of course towered over Dantes’s avatar, which held a much more average proportions, perhaps even on the smaller side of things in some aspects. But Vergiln… was huge. Big. Massive, in more ways than one.
Anyhow, such topics would better be left avoided. Everybody's Tower was a game for everyone after all. For example, Vergiln had a dark-purple hue for her hair and dressed mostly in black. She must’ve been a caster or a necromancer from the look of things, her robes being the most obvious indicator. However, she could wield duel-blades, was duel-classing a thing in the works? Such an update would be a blessing for Dantes. Healer-caster or healer-assassin did not sound so bad.
Would a tester even be allowed to join a party? Well, there was no harm in trying.
"So... how did you become a tester anyways?" asked Dantes.
"Um, my dad is actually one of the head developers of the game, and he asked me if I wanted to try it so I did. The game is a lot scarier than I thought though..."
"Scary? Don't you have PG settings turned on?"
The PG settings. They were on by default and required a parental control password or just the user password to uncheck. With the settings enabled, blood, bones and even some monsters were censored, and the videogame aspect was greatly exaggerated in order to reduce immersion. For example, the models used would be more colourful and cartoonish, and the NPCs looked like typical background characters. The UI took up more space as well, to guide the user better. While the PG settings had some combat advantages, Dantes immediately disabled it the moment he could.
"P... G settings?"
"Well, it's probably on then."
The two finally entered the city. Though the moon was high, Cadra never slept, and the streets were still bustling with life and passion. Such was the world of Everybody's Tower. Before anything, Dantes sent a friend invite to Vergiln.
"Did you get my friend invite?"
"Y-yeah."
"If you have any questions about the game or something, just send me a message, alright?" said Dantes, "Don't forget our promise! I'll be inviting you to my party soon!"
"Y-yeah! Goodnight!"
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If it wasn't obvious already, Dantes despised parties. He would never go to a party willingly, even if the risk was low and rewards high. People equated work, and work equated pain. A pain in the ass, that is, but not in that way. To him, parties were like swimming. Sure, it could be fun if going with friends, but he had no friends, and he hated swimming. He probably would hate parties even if he had friends. Dantes simply was disgusted by loud music, pools and bright light. Not drugs though, he loved drugs. If only he could get his hands on them... Games were like drugs. To him, at least. A form of escapism, a way to unpack the day's load.
Parties in games were different. They were focused and goal-oriented. It was for mutual benefit, not for socialization and mingling. In all his years of gaming, he had been in many silent guilds and parties, everyone simply doing what they were supposed to. In Everybody's Tower, that would be impossible. It was just like real life after all, and in real life, small talks were inevitable.
Dantes preferred the silence. The serenity. More people in his garden meant less peace, and more chaos.
However, he needed a party. He was just a healer, what would he do without others?
Dantes opened the direct messaging function. For some reason, players were able to message others without being friends, and his inbox was already full of spam and scams from other users. Of course, the global chat was destined to be a cesspool even with heavy moderation, and even opening the chatbox had the chance of crashing the game -- Dantes did not know if that was the case, but he could not risk it. The internet often revealed the dirtiest aspects of humanity, and he was no janitor.
After entering the friends tab, he saw that Renegade had left a message for him just five minutes ago:
"We're about to go on our first hunting quest but we're still missing a healer, wanna join?"
Below was a party invite. A simple click-and-play.
However, before he could press the button, the sky began to turn a bright purple-pink -- texture not found. Then a storm of clouds accumulated over the city, the thick vapour descending as low as the spires of the cathedrals. All music stopped and the NPCs began to despawn, and soon enough, Dantes was transported to a dark loading zone -- something he had never seen before.
It seemed that a game was about to begin.