Aya's character Yvlena loads to greet her in the world of Moon Valley. The elf runs around, moving past other players and NPCs as she does. The AI was so impressive she could barely distinguish the two, her only means of telling apart the other players were the name tags that circled above their heads like an indicator.
The NPCs had no such thing even as they converse with other players, it all felt so lifelike. To think technology had progressed so far.
"This game is incredible." Aya says smiling as she gets cozy to play some more. Her little elf runs all around the idyllic town before she realizes she doesn't know where she's going.
"I wonder where I should go, Bloom Haven is only a starting town after all. Maybe I should get some Items?" Aya says to no one in particular. Pretty soon a message pops up on screen getting her attention.
[Newbie starter kit]
[Open?]
[Yes/No]
"Let's see what we have here." Aya says clicking on the box that appeared to be a wooden chest. The wooden chest opens with a chime and a pop revealing the items Aya had acquired for logging in for the day.
[Yvlena Acquired
Cotton Tunic x1
Magic ring x1
leather boots x1
Starter Sword x1
***
Health Potion x5
Mana Potion x5
***
Moon Points x1000
Moon Gems x50
Gold x10]
[Login tomorrow for another bonus!]
Aya grins. After some trouble quipping all her items she checks her stats again to see if the equipment improved them even a bit so she could start searching for quests.
[STR]:15
[DEF]:9
[DEX]:14
[AGI]:12
[INT]:13
[WIS]:10
[CHA]:5
[LUK]:5
Continuing to move through the town she finds herself in the small trading area of the small town.
All around her, the sounds of merchants invite her to come take a look at their various wares, from weapons to armor and the like. Aya approaches the first shop she sees. Observing its brick and wooden structure, she could tell this was one of the equipment shops you would see in most rpg games.
She walks in, pushing the door open and causing the bell above to jingle softly.
The NPC standing at the flat, dark wooden counter greets her enthusiastically, throwing his hands up in the air at his new customer.
"Hello." Yvlena says to the tall, plump, dark haired shop keeper. The man greets her back quite happily.
"Hello there Yvlena." he says using her character's name. "It's so nice to have someone in the shop, what can I do for you today."
From the indicator, she reads his name and status.
[NAME: Bernard
RACE: Human
OCC: Merchant]
A menu pops up with a chime.
[Buy/Sell]
Aya had no Equipment to sell to the man so she clicks the buy menu to see what she would be able to purchase from him.
'Maybe better defense for one.' she thinks.
The basic items menu comes up but unfortunately, it seems there was nothing for her currently. Aya looks through the staves, swords, wands, and daggers she realizes she would need a class to buy any of these.
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Currently, she had none.
"Is there an in-game player guide or something?" she asks pulling up the status screen, and scrolling through her stats until she reaches the bottom just beneath the log-out option.
[Help]
she clicks on it, scrolling through again until finds the information she wanted to know. An animation window pops up.
"Hello player, so you want to know about classes." the little fairy mascot says fluttering about on her screen.
"Classes or Occupations are unlocked when your player avatar reaches the prerequisite level. Within Moon Valley that level is 5. You can begin leveling up with your starter weapon just outside your beginner town." the fairy says.
"Good luck adventurer!" the fairy mascot says, closing out the animation window. Aya nods, thanking Bernard, she leaves the store to find the nearest forest.
"Come again soon!" Bernard says as she leaves the store.
Selecting [Map] from the menu, Aya soon pulls up a heads up display showing all the areas available to her within the game, two new areas spring up, Bloom Meadow and Bloom Forest. The girl grins.
"Leveling up will be easy peasy." she says running through the town again, passing shops and their merchants all the while taking note of which area they were located.
If she needed more weapons in the future or even merchants to sell more loot to, she knew where they would be.
Finally reaching the entrance of the town, she's met with a large 10 foot wooden gate protected by two guard NPCs who stand overlooking the coming and going of the other players and even fellow NPCs.
The moment she steps towards the gate they turn to face her.
"Halt, who goes there." The first NPC guard says holding a hand out in front of her.
"An adventurer?" Yvlena replies, hoping she had given the right answer. The guard looks her up and down then after noticing her starter sword lets her through the great wooden gates
"Good luck out there." the second NPC guard says to her. Aya from then on wonders how hard it could really be to kill some in-game enemies.
Walking forward, her system tells her that she was now standing within the Bloom Meadow. Suddenly a window pops up to give her some info.
[Congratulations on reaching the starter Meadows within in your area, you are about to encounter some common enemies.]
[Would you like some assistance?]
[Yes/No]
Aya clicks the yes button allowing the AI to guide her on the first steps of the battle. A horned rabbit appears before her character ready to attack.
[Press X to attack] Aya does so jumping at the creature and dealing damage to it. The rabbit leaps at her dealing -2 damage to Yvlena, the elf blocks the attack while the rabbit leaps back into starting position.
[PC battles are carried out with a turn-based system, VR battles are real time]
Aya takes note of that, wondering when she would be able to fix the Icarus gear. It would be so fun to play in this world and feel like she was really in it. But for now, her computer would suffice.
Aya persists, defeating the rabbit with ease.
[Congratulations, you have completed the tutorial]
Aya releases a sigh of relief, raising her arms above her head to stretch and crack her back from sitting so long.
"That wasn't so bad." she says, moving her mouse to continue on in the field. A screen pops up on her computer.
[Basic Quest
Defeat
Horned Rabbit x5
***
Rewards
Moon Points x500
EXP x50
Bronze chest]
Aya gasps, reading the information on screen, her first quest and it seemed pretty easy too! All she needed to do was find some more Horned rabbits and she had no doubt they would be in the meadow.
Yvlena walks through the grass plains of the meadow until she finally encounters another horned rabbit. On seeing her the creature moves to attack swiftly, headbutting Yvlena and causing -3 damage.
"Grrr, oh no you don't!" Aya says, pressing the attack button and taking down the enemy with ease.
[Horned Rabbit 1/5] the screen says. Aya nods, impressed with herself, this was her first time with an MMORPG and she didn't think she was doing too badly.
[Yvlena Acquired
EXP:5/30
***
Rabbit Fur x1
Rabbit Meat x3
***
Moon Points:10]
'I'll be a top player in no time.' she thinks, scouring the meadow for more horned rabbits. She spots two and quickly runs up to them before they could attack her first. Within moments both Horned rabbits go down to her sword.
[Horned Rabbit 3/5]
[Yvlena Acquired
EXP:15/30
***
Rabbit Fur x2
Rabbit Meat x7
***
Moon Points:20]
"I'm almost done with the quest." Aya mutters, wondering what would be in the bronze chest after she had completed it.
The newbie starter kit had helped a lot, so a bronze chest would definitely have something out of value. Aya continues her rabbit hunting, spotting two more rabbits in the meadow and attacking first.
Her starter sword wipes them out with ease granting her more loot.
[Horned Rabbit 5/5]
[Basic Quest
Defeat
Horned Rabbit x5
***
Rewards
Moon Points x500
EXP x50
Bronze chest
***
Quest Complete]
[Yvlena Acquired
EXP:30/30
***
Rabbit Fur x2
Rabbit Meat x7
***
Moon Points:20]
[Yvlena is now Level 2]
NAME: YVLENA
RACE: ELF
HP:120
MP:70
CLASS:????
[LVL: 2]
[EXP:50/70]
[Base Stats]
[STR]:12
[DEF]:7
[DEX]:14
[AGI]:14
[INT]:11
[WIS]:11
[CHA]:6
[LUK]:6
Resting her back against the chair, Aya checks her phone, Her eyes widen at the sight of the time 1:22 am. She sits for a moment in shock, and without bothering to check her inventory or items she quickly logs out cursing as she let the time escape her while playing.
"I have to be careful while playing, the game sucked the time away from me. How did four hours just disappear?" she asks herself as she goes around switching off the light in her tiny apartment. She jumps into bed, pulling the covers over her head and closing her eyes.
Though she tries to fall asleep, a smile grows across her face at the victory of her first quest, albeit a basic one.
She couldn't wait to check her inventory tomorrow, the bronze box would surely have something good for her.
Right now all Aya wanted to do was focus on sleeping, but her eyes continued to drift toward the PacBook, tempting her to play. She bites her lip, turns over in her bed, and forces herself to face the other side of her apartment wall.
"I'll play tomorrow, I have work in the morning," she tells herself, despite that her mind persists but Aya is determined to call it a night. Eventually, the girl falls asleep, dreaming of the lush plains of Bloom Meadow.
----------
Else where a mysterious occurrence had begun. Within the dusty halls of Lumos Incorporated's archive, a single computer comes on. The screen lights up much to the interest of the only archive keeper within the room
"Odd." the attendant on duty says. Dragging his creaky office chair towards the dusty desk and leaning forward to inspect the device. A system prompt launches allowing a series of programs to run before the man's eyes.
He let it play, knowing it was futile to stop it, this device had not come on for 13 years and only now did it begin loading data.
Soon the text disappears, leaving only one message on screen.
[Yvlena Protocol Engaged]