When Sasha put his helmet on he once more returned to his inner world, the space between spaces he’d set up as his own. “Computer, set preferred game to open at startup.” That should make things simpler.
“Confirmed.”
“Computer, set Plastikos Online to be the preferred game.”
“Confirmed. On startup, this unit will open straight to Plastikos.”
“Computer set OBS to open, and start recording, on startup.”
“Confirmed. On Startup, this unit will open Plastikos and start an OBS recording session in the background.”
“Good.” Sasha said, nodding. This would really be a lot easier than anything else. With a sigh, he leaned over and clicked on the button that sent him to Plastikos. When his eyes opened he found himself not in the staircase he’d left from, but instead in a small room.
“Computer, Start OBS Recording.” He said, checking his eye’s corner. Of course it required him to start it this time, but in the future he’d no longer have to say so before beginning to record. Looking around, he vocalized his concern. “This isn’t where I left from. Is there a spawn mechanic or what?”
The room was a secluded cell, with rough walls covered in some form of plaster. Some of it was peeling, where he saw that behind the plaster the wall was made of simple stone. Brown stone, though much darker than the beautiful stuff he saw before. There was no furniture in the room except for the straw mat he was laying on, covered in a warm and comfortable blanket.
The blanket was scratchy, made of some wool fabric, reminding him a whole bunch of the times he’d gone to summer camp. He was glad he had fur covering himself, because skin contact with the thing would be hell after a while. It did leave him with a different problem, static. Normally, the hairs of his arm might go up because of it, but instead Foney’s fur poofed, completely disregarding everything. Coney had been sleeping in nothing but his underwear, and getting his robes back would take first priority.
Looking down, he felt that he could feel his body in ways he couldn’t in most other games. Hell, even forestry online had drawn the line for realism somewhere. But he could feel things that he shouldn’t be talking about on stream. “Look, guys, If you wanna watch people dress and undress I’m sure there are streamers for that… Now where’s my stuff.
Climbing to his new large feet, Coney stretched. Every muscle in his body moved differently, it wasn’t just a normal human body scaled down. “They [put so much effort into this. This isn’t like Sonic, or even Forestry, this is a game that is extremely realistic. Even when it comes to feeling alien to human experience, it’s totally realistic. Sure, I’ve played non-human avatars before, but this takes the cake. I really don’t feel like my normal self, I feel… new.” His clothes ended up being at the foot of his bed mat, where he’d easily missed it earlier. It was almost like they were hiding, teasing him, but that was assigning way too much agency to some laundry.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Putting on the robes was nice. He hadn’t appreciated last time that they were soft and comfortable, but the devs could have been real assholes and made it feel like the blanket he’d left lying on his bedding. If his underwear was made of the stuff, he would not be comfortable, that was for sure.
Grinning, Coney left his room and looked around. The hall was entirely made up of identical cells, all of which had no door and a simple window. The doors were just a piece of cloth, blocking sight of a room. The walls continued to be plastered stone, with little adornments. “I wish I knew if this realism is standard.” He said as he walked down the hall. “I mean look, not a single instanced zone. Big player cities must be crazy, at least they will be.” He shrugged.
To be fair, that level of realism might be kept. The quest system seemed to allow people to have wildly different starts, even without instruction. It was in human nature.
Walking down the hallway he found himself in a shared living space. There seemed to be one on each of the floors, and this building had three, at least as far as he could tell. Whatever the case may be, he just needed to move on. The room was filled with other Novices, and he tried to flag one down. Just before he tried a taxi whistle, one of the novices came through.
“Coney right?” The boy asked. He had blond hair and robes identical to his own. “I have a message for you, and a warning.”
“Okay, what’s the message?”
“It’s simple, two of the Masters ask to see you. Isidore and Lawrence. Apparently they waited for hours for you, and you never showed up?”
“It’s not like that, I got trapped doing lines and-”
“It doesn’t matter. Go talk to them.” He leaned in with a conspiratorial whisper. “Go to Isidore. Lawrence is going to be really mad at you, but might mellow out in a few hours.”
“Right, Isidore. Where do I go?”
“This time of day? He could be anywhere, but check the field first.” Coney shrugged, it was better than just winging it. “Lawrence on the other hand will be down underground, presumably trying out his own stock.”
Coney nodded, and then began to walk away. “Oh, and one more thing.” The older boy said. “I don’t know if you know this, but… If you want to learn about your friends and enemies, try out the Scan Skill.” Coney nodded and immediately tried it on him.
Thadius Pain - Human / Monk
Skill Unlock: Lore Scan - Learn basic information about a person or thing, based on all the stories told about them.
That wasn’t much, but hopefully he could learn more over time. Maybe when he got a combat skill, something not utility based, he could get out that way. But for now, he learned the basic lesson in this group. Coney made his goodbyes and looked around to find
“Oh, Coney.”
“Yeah Thad?”
“I’m really glad you’re here.”
Coney felt his chest warm, and his cheeks. That was just about the nicest thing anyone said to him since he’d started the game. “Yeah?” He asked. “Why’s that?”
“Because you’re a beast-kin. The masters are going to watch you like a hawk.”
“Ah… Well thanks anyway.” It was motivated by selfish reasons, but Coney didn’t begrudge the human what he was doing. It was something he’d done before, and backhanded compliments were always fun. He went outside and tried to look around.