Chapter 5: Wrong place wrong time

For several seconds Ellen couldn’t see or hear anything. Until she noticed a small concentration of light was forming in front of her. As it grew in size, Ellen heard a soft ringing sound. The sound kept getting louder, until it felt like there was a siren going off in her head. At that moment the light enveloped her.

Once again everything turned dark. Ellen then slowly opened her eyes. She had to blink several times to adjust to the light however, this time it was a natural light; sunlight. Ellen could hear the sound of rustling leaves and feel the soft grass underneath her.

Ellen tried moving, when she suddenly felt a horrible pain rush through her head. She waited till the pain slowly went away. Ellen carefully sat up, while lifting a hand to her pained head. Ellen looked around; she was sitting on the ground, in a mossy green forest.

“What was that?”

“I’ve never experienced that kind of pain in a game before, especially not before a fight.” said Ellen while whispering to herself.

Ellen looked down at her hands. She was relieved to see they were human hands.

“Thank goodness I’m not an orc.” Said Ellen while letting out a sigh

The game producers had announced that the player’s character, in Last Game would portray ones inner self.

“Well it can’t help to make sure”

“Open character interface!”

Status WindowName:???Alignment:???Level:1Class:??Race:??Gender:femaleTitles??Fame:0Infamy:0-Health:300 / 300Health Regen:0.5 / SecMana:300 / 300Mana Regen:0.5 / SecStamina:150 / 150Stamina Regen:0.5 / Sec-Strenght:5Agility:5Vitality:5Intelligence:5Wisdom:5Leadership:0Luck:5-Attack:5Defense:5Elemental ResistancesFire:0Water:0Wind:0Earth:0Light:0Darkness:0

“How am I supposed to specify my name?”

“And how come my race is unknown?” said Ellen with a frown.

Ellen closed the character interface, she then called out.

“Inventory!”

“Fingers crossed I have a god sword.” Said Ellen sarcastically.

       Items: 5 loafs of bread, 2 canteens of water, wooden sword          

“As expected, just the usual starter goods, might as well equip the god sword,” Said Ellen as she reached her arm out through the transparent screen, pulling out a wooden sword

When Ellen had equipped her weapon she properly looked around. She was standing in a clearing, in what seemed like the middle of the woods. She then remembered most games had a map.

“Map!”

No interface appeared this time.

“First they try to kill me with migraines, and then they tell me to find my way in the woods without a map?”

“I’m going to sue those developers.”

Ellen had only been logged in for several minutes. However the forest was now rapidly getting darker.

“I’ll have to decide what direction to start walking, and fast!”

Ellen decided to head towards the sunset, which was south.

After half an hour of walking, the sun had almost set. Ellen continued her fast pace as the last rays of light disappeared from the woods. After another ten minutes of walking, Ellen could hardly see an arm length ahead of her. To make matters worse she heard a rustling noise not far behind her.

“Monsters are stronger at night, and I can’t see a thing…” Whispered Ellen, while pondering what to do

She didn’t have much time to think as the rustling got louder. Ellen decided the best option was to keep moving. She continued walking with her arms spread out in front of her. The rustling behind her had stopped, however now she heard a growling noise.

The growling got louder and soon Ellen came face to face with the monster.

It was a wolf like creature. As it stood on its back legs, the monster was twice Ellen’s size.

Ellen drew her sword, although she knew she didn’t stand a chance.

The creature leapt forward and smacked Ellen against the nearest tree.

       Attention! you took a critical hit!          

After the monsters attack Ellen checked her health bar, it had depleted by over half. The pain was unbearable and Ellen could feel her earlier headache coming back. The monster opened its large mouth and headed straight for Ellen.

Ellen closed her eyes, when she opened them there was a message.

       You have died!          

        As your character is only level one, there will be no death penalties. As the player has not set a spawn location, the player will be redirected to the nearest safe zone.       

Ellen was once again enveloped in a bright light. This time she didn’t appear in the woods, but in a city.

Another message appeared.

       This is your first time in Whitestone City +100 fame            

Ellen appeared in what seemed to be the central square of a large city. Although the city was dark Ellen could see how beautiful it was. The city was located on a large arc above the vast ocean that was crashing against the cliff underneath. As the cliff reached higher, the buildings got taller and steeper. At the very top of the cliff there was a large white stoned, blue tilled palace.

Ellen hadn’t noticed it in the woods, due to the urgency of the situation. However now she noticed how cold it was at night. The ocean winds were freezing. Ellen then properly took a look at what she was wearing. She was wearing a sleeveless leather chest piece with a thin fabric pants and a pair of sturdy brown boots.

“I better look for an inn or something.” Said Ellen determined

Ellen started heading up the slope. Without the wooden signs hanging outside the shops, Ellen couldn’t have been able to differentiate the shops from the houses. So far she hadn’t come across a single player or NPC.

After several minutes of walking, Ellen heard human voices, coming from one of the nearby buildings. As Ellen headed towards the white building the noise got louder. The front doors were wide open and as Ellen came closer she could see people sitting at tables eating and drinking together.

When Ellen entered the inn, the man behind the counter looked up and shouted.

“Your kind isn’t welcome here!”

Ellen looked back outside, there was nobody behind her. She then pointed a finger at herself and looked at the man with a frown.

“Frowning like that isn’t going to change what you are, you scum!” said the man now shouting at the top of his lungs.

The talking stopped, everyone in the inn turned to look at Ellen. Before Ellen could reply she felt an invisible force push her back. As soon as she was outside a blue screen appeared in front of her.

       You have been denied access to Fair Maiden inn!            

       Your fame with the citizens of White Stone has decreased by 50          

Ellen was shocked.

“What have I done to deserve being called scum? I’ve even lost fame!”

“If I try entering another inn and I get barred again, a bounty might even appear!” said Ellen as she shook her head

Ellen decided the best thing to do was to log out. She headed away from the inn and logged out in a secluded alleyway.

Ellen was back in her room. She lifted off her helmet.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She then checked the time. It was five minutes past four in the afternoon. Ellen quickly did the math.

“The time in game goes four times faster.”

“I entered the game exactly fifteen minutes ago. That means I’ve spent an hour in game.”

“If it was around eight o’clock at night in the game and I want to log back in at around eight in the morning…”

“Then I need to wait another three hours real time. However dinner’s at seven so I’ll have to wait till after dinner.”

Ellen decided to spend her three hours until dinner, doing research about the game. She tried finding a map of the world, she couldn’t find one anywhere. In fact she couldn’t find any information about the game. The players were all in the game after all.

Three hours had passed, Ellen went downstairs for dinner. Miranda had served three plates of rice with chicken. The third person hadn’t arrived yet. Ellen chomped down the food, thanked Miranda and headed back to her room.

Ellen went into her room and closed the door behind her. She then heard a door down the hall open.

“So Mr. Cool is hungry huh?” said Ellen thinking back at his outburst in class.

Ellen turned around and opened the door, Mr. Rude was already at the stairs.

“Hey!” said Ellen

The guy stopped.

“What’s your problem?” said Ellen while waiting for him to snap back at her.

The guy didn’t reply, he then continued walking down the stairs. Ellen almost wanted to run after him, but decided not to. She walked back into her room and slammed the door behind her. She then walked over to the bed and put on her

Virtual reality gear. Ellen re-entered the game with the words.

“Dive mode activate!”

Once again everything turned black.

Ellen slowly opened her eyes. She was no longer in a dark alleyway. She was looking up at a white ceiling. Ellen sat up on the bed. She then noticed she was lying on a soft wooden bed. She also noticed the room smelt like flowers.

“Where am I?” said Ellen mostly to herself

“Ah so you’ve woken up!” said a female voice.

Ellen looked to where the voice had come from. There was an old lady standing at the door opening.

“I found you lying on the floor in a dark alleyway missy.” Said the lady with a soft smile

Ellen couldn’t understand how a lady who seemed almost eighty years old, managed to carry her. However the fact that Ellen had been carried around, when she wasn’t online shocked her even more. It meant her character body stayed in the game, even if she logged out.

“That explains why there were so many people in the inn.” Whispered Ellen to herself

“So what’s your name missy?” said the lady

A blue screen appeared in front of Ellen.

       Kira the florist wishes to know your name!          

       Attention! The name given will be registered as your character name, this name cannot be changed!            

Ellen closed the screen.

“My name is Ellen.” Said Ellen as response

“Ell…ef? Was it?”

“Sorry missy at my age I’m quite deaf, could you repeat that for me?”

Although the old lady had misheard Ellen’s name she quite liked the sound of Ellef.

“Yeah let’s go with that.” Said Ellen with a nod

“My name’s Ellef!”

Another blue transparent box appeared.

       Congratulations! You are now named Ellef!          

Ellen closed the screen, satisfied.

“My name's Kira, I run this flower shop.”

“I’ll have to get back to work, however feel free to rest as much as you want!”

The lady turned around and headed for the door. Ellen decided to stand up, and follow the lady out of the room. The room Ellen walked into was the store seeing as there were several bouquets on display.

Ellen was quite grateful the woman had brought her here. Although the city was a safe zone, Lying somewhere in a dark alleyway, doesn’t always attract the best kind of attention. However in this situation it ironically did.

Ellen would have wanted to pay the woman, however she didn’t have any money. She decided to help the lady.

“Mam I feel like I owe you for helping me!” Said Ellen determined

“Oh of course not sweetie, hearing those words is enough.” Said the old lady with a smile

“Is there not something I can help you with?” said Ellen with a sad smile.

“Well… I’m not sure if you youth find flower arranging extremely exciting…”

“But I guess if you want to, you could help me arrange a few bouquets.”

Quest: Miss Kira would like you to arrange bouquets for her customers.

Reward: Affinity gain with Miss Kira

Note: depending on how hard you work the reward might increase

Will you accept this quest?

Yes/no

“Yes I accept!”

You have accepted the quest.

The old lady’s eyes began to sparkle.

“Here are the requests.” The old lady handed Ellen a sheet of paper.

There were several names written down along with descriptions. The old lady started to give a small explanation.

“These are the names of the customers that have requested a bouquet.”

“Along with their names they have written a description as to what, color, theme, or mood they want the flowers to portray.”

“It is up to you to decide what flowers to arrange. The flowers are all gathered in the back. If you need help I can come and help you.”

“I’m currently working on a wedding arrangement, so your help is much appreciated!” said the old lady with a smile.

Ellen looked at the first name on the list:

Adele: “My best friend is going through a hard time right now; would you please arrange a bouquet that’ll cheer her up?”

Ellen headed to the back of the shop. There were several crates filled with flowers, of all sizes and colors. The flowers looked nothing like the ones she’d seen in real life. The flowers reminded her she was still playing a game.  It wasn’t the first time Ellen had played a virtual reality game, however compared to Last Game those games were child's play.

Ellen then focused herself on the quest, she asked herself.

“If Anja were going through a hard time what kind of bouquet would I give her?”

Ellen knew that Anja loved red however this wasn’t Anja. Ellen had to think back.

“What flowers would I not give to a sad person?”

“Well as an amateur I know that roses symbolize love, but this isn’t that kind of love.”

“I think it’s important she gets a lot of big bright flowers, flowers that anybody would be happy with…”

Ellen walked towards the crates with the larger flowers.

“Friends are something to treasure, so I think golden colors should suit this occasion perfectly.”

Ellen Gathered several gold, yellow and yellow brown flowers. She used a golden ribbon and tied the flowers together.

Quest update:

Bouquets made 1/3

Ellen once again looked at the sheet of paper.

Kenneth: “I would like a nice smelling bouquet of flowers, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, Thanks!”

Ellen once again entered the storage room.

“He said he didn’t want anything too fancy, so I’m not going to go for big flowers in this one.”

Ellen walked over to the crates with the smaller flowers. She started to pick several flowers to smell them. She decided to go for a bouquet with little white cup shaped flowers that had a sweet scent, and four leafed blue flowers. The blue flowers almost smelt like vanilla.

Ellen headed back to the counter and wrapped the bouquet with a blue ribbon.

Quest update:

Bouquets made 2/3

Ellen picked up the sheet and looked at the last customers request.

Hans: My daughter always loved pink flowers, will you please arrange a bouquet for her?

Ellen noticed the man had written the letter in past tense.

“Has his daughter died?” said Ellen with a sad whisper.

She decided not to rush this bouquet. Ellen gathered the most pretty looking little pink flowers that she could find. When Ellen was finished she headed to the counter and tied the bouquet together with a pink ribbon. A familiar blue window appeared.

Quest update:

Bouquets made 3/3

For having carefully arranged several bouquets,

Dex +1          

        To receive your reward show the bouquets to Kira.        

Kira was working in the room next to the storage room. Ellen entered the room, on a large wooden table lay a collection of white flowers in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Kira looked up from her work.

“Ah have you finished the bouquets Ellef?”

“Yes, would you like to see them?” said Ellen pointing back at the counter.

Kira stood up and walked to the counter.

“These are beautiful!” said Kira with wide eyes.

“This last one is especially pretty!” said Kira while picking up the pink bouquet

“Yeah I think so too…” said Ellen with a serene smile.

         Quest complete

Reward: gained + 50 fame with Miss Kira          

“Thanks so much Ellef!” said Kira with a smile

“Not at all!” said Ellef

Ellen turned for the door.

“Oh before you leave Ellef!”

Kira walked into the storage room. Several minutes later she came back with a cloak in her hands.

“Ellef it would be best to hide those ears of yours!” Said Kira while handing Ellef a dark red cloak

“The people here aren’t too welcome towards elves.”