My bare fist smashed into the zombie's grey cheekbone for the fourth time, dealing six damage. It gave way with a sickening crunch, and I jumped back, yelping. 

I still wasn't used to how realistic this game could be. It felt like I was really here. I could smell, feel, and probably taste, though I hadn't had a chance to try that out yet. I loved it so far, except for the fact that I was essentially punching a dead body right now, and its cold, squishy flesh against my skin was one of the most repulsive things I'd ever felt. I was only sixteen years old in real life, how was I supposed to react to it?

Not only that, why the hell couldn't I find any weapons? I had to punch this poor thing to death because the game creators neglected to start us out with even a little knife or something... It was kind of my fault, though. After doing the tutorial, I had gone out and bought some cool-looking leather armor with just about all of my money. This was a huge mistake, because I ended up with less money than I needed to buy a starting weapon. Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot. I'd always been an impulse buyer. 

The zombie was only at nine health now. One or two more punches, and I'd be all set. I hoped with all my might that it would drop a weapon of some sort. My knuckles kind of hurt now, despite the fact that this game only had a pain factor of 20%.

I pulled my fist back before swinging it forward, and it made contact with the undead's ugly face once more. I cringed as I felt teeth break. Great, five more health down. One more hit to end it, I thought. 

All of a sudden, a window popped up in the corner of my vision. 

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill [Punching]. Damage of punches increases by 2.5% per level of this skill.

Due to being the first person to receive this skill, you will be awarded one of the following skills. Choose wisely- you will not be able to undo this choice.

[Fire Punch]: Imbues your punches with the energy of the fire element at the cost of mana. Can set certain substances aflame.

[Flurry]: Deliver a barrage of blows onto a target, stunning them for the 2.0-second duration. Damage and duration increase with level.

[Dead-on Strike] (Passive): Gives your punches +1% accuracy per level of this skill. 

Looks like so far, nobody else had forgotten to buy a starting weapon or decided to play an unarmed class... Hey, free skills were free skills, though. 

This choice seemed easy enough, I thought, choosing [Flurry]. If each one did as much as a normal punch, its usefulness would increase as the [Punching] skill grew in level. I planned on playing as a rogue-class character, but until I was able to grind twenty-five gold out of these zombies for a starting dagger, it seemed like I'd have to wait.  

Let's try it out, then, I thought, walking over to the zombie and activating [Flurry] the way the tutorial had shown me to activate skills. Focus on the skill's name in your mind, and imagine yourself carrying it out. As I got closer, I could feel my arms start to move, almost against my will. 

Before I knew it, my arms were a blur in front of me, striking the zombie over and over. I felt each individual contact, each lasting a fraction of a second. It was almost like I had twenty arms and they were all punching it at once. The monster was dead before it hit the ground. 

Damn. 

I checked my mana bar. The skill had only cost around thirty mana, which, out of my pool of one hundred, was not bad at all. Physical classes' skills tended to be low in terms of mana cost, after all. It was a shame that I'd already put all of my free starting attributes into dexterity and agility, because a strength increase with this skill would destroy these zombies.

Well, let's check out the loot. I went to its body, which had flown three feet away, and used [Examine] to search for any special drops. Beside its corpse were two gold coins, and some sort of scroll. I sighed. Even if I could sell the scroll for a decent price in town, it would take a couple more zombie kills to get enough to buy the dagger I wanted so badly. I pocketed the loot, and it disappeared into my inventory.

I'd always played an assassin or bowman-type class. The punching skills were cool and all, but I preferred to be a class that was highly mobile and could deliver high-damage blows with minimal close combat. The exact opposite of what these skills would do for me. 

For now, though, they'd have to do. I walked up to the next zombie since my mana pool was almost refilled, and activated [Flurry]. Once again, my arms blurred, bringing it from sixty health down to four during the two-second duration. So it did around fifty-six damage, I noted, rushing forward. I brought my fist down onto the now-collapsed zombie's face, finishing it off. 

This time, I got three coins' worth of loot. Nothing else, sadly. I was about to continue onto my third victim when I heard a voice from behind me. 

"Hey! What was that crazy skill you just used? You took it out so fast!" 

I turned to see a muscular warrior carrying a huge broadsword. He looked like he had to be forty, but based on his words... 

"Ah, it's a punching skill. Nothing too special." I said, smiling at him. "I couldn't afford a starting weapon, so here I am, beating up corpses with my bare hands." 

He laughed. "Well, I wish I could help with that, but I don't have any extra weapons I'm willing to give out... If you need some hand protection, though, I just upgraded my gauntlets. They're meant for a warrior-type character, but this game doesn't exactly have classes, so there shouldn't be any restriction on you wearing them if you want them." A pair of metal gloves appeared in his hand as he sheathed his broadsword. He took a moment to examine them more closely. "Unless your strength is below three."  

What he said was true. This game didn't bind you to a specific class, but rather allowed you to create your own based on how you fight and the skills you level up. 

I'd rather a dagger or bow, but... "Sure, thanks!" I grinned. "Hey, do you want to form a party?" I asked. "There's a 15% experience bonus, so together I'm sure we can level up pretty fast."  

He handed me the gauntlets. "I'd love to, but I have to log off soon. I've been in here ever since the game came out. I have to do chores or my mom is gonna murder me. Thanks anyway, though."

I had to admit, it was pretty funny hearing that from the mouth of a bulky, muscular man who looked forty. "Here, add me. We can party up sometime if you're free." I said, sending him a friend request. His name was 'Paul Bunyan'. I doubted that was his real one.

He grinned. "Sounds good to me." He looked at it and accepted. "See you 'round... wait, how did you manage to get a simple name like Leo?" 

I shrugged. "Nobody took it, I guess." I had been extremely surprised that nobody had picked just 'Leo', Most people had to take last names.

"Lucky. I really wanted to be called something cool, but most of the good names were taken. Paul Bunyan is cool, too, though! I even have a huge axe to match the name, but I can't equip it until I have thirty strength," he said, dejectedly. His face brightened once again as he continued. "Either way, we should definitely party again. Especially if you can use a move like that. I got a feeling we're gonna have no problems killing stuff." 

"Alright. Well, thanks for the gauntlets," I said, equipping them. He smiled at me and turned away, off to do whatever it is he was going to do.

The armor he gave me was meant for beginner Warriors and gave +4 Strength, as well as providing +3 Armor to the area they protected. Not bad at all. My armor gave me plenty of Agility and Dexterity, so I was doing pretty well right now. This would take away most of the pain I felt from punching, though, and hopefully, deal a little more damage with the extra strength.

I clenched my armored fist. It was time to grind. 

---

I sat at a table, eating with another new friend I'd made. Her in-game name was Rose. Her character was pretty, with long red hair and freckles. She was fun, chatty, and easy to talk to. On top of that, her build specialized in tanking. I had bought the dagger I'd wanted so badly, so if we found a healer or a mage with heal spells, we would be all set to go out adventuring. 

"Did you post the ad on the party board?" I asked. 

"Yup," she said, wolfing down a handful of French fries. Turns out those exist in this 'fantasy' world. Next thing you know, there'll be ads telling you to try McDonald's fries instead. Or even worse, actual fast food restaurants in the game. 

"Okay, great. Wanna go kill stuff until we get a reply?" I asked, eager to learn assassin skills. 

"How romantic of you," said Rose, rolling her eyes. I didn't reply, just looked at her expectantly. "Oh, fine, Mr. Puppy Dog Eyes. Let me finish my food first, though, hold your horses." 

I nodded. I had decided that I'd try to fulfill the conditions for the assassin-type dagger skills. Just like there was a [Punching] skill, there had to be a [Stabbing] one, right? 

Speaking of which, I'd leveled up that skill twice in the time that I'd spent grinding zombies. [Flurry] had also risen to level three. My overall level had increased three times as well, bringing me up to level four, and from the game's stat-grinding system, I had gained two points of strength from all the punching I'd been doing. I'd spent the eight stat points from leveling up on Agility and Wisdom, mostly. Agility because it increased movement speed, and Wisdom because I liked having plenty of mana regeneration for skills.

Being able to use skills over and over was always a good thing. I'd decided that Endurance and Intelligence wouldn't be getting too many points this time around. Besides, imagine if I managed to get my regeneration up to 15 MP/sec. I could use [Flurry] over and over, without ever stopping. An endless combo. I would be just about unstoppable in one-on-one fights if that were to happen.  

Rose's voice interrupted my thoughts. "So," she said, her mouth full. "what exactly do you want to do in this game? I've already told you pretty much everything about what I wanna do." Rose wanted to become a guild master. She told me she had played other games and been a part of guilds in the past. In this game, she wanted to lead her own and make it the most powerful out there. 

I thought for a moment. "Well, it's kind of similar to what you want to do," I said. 

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You want to start a guild?" 

I shook my head. "Not exactly. Real life is... well, difficult for me, so here, I just want to make a lot of friends, get stronger, and eventually found a city." I knew it sounded somewhat carefree, but hey, that was the point of games, right?

She smiled. "Well, that's definitely not a bad goal. A bit ambitious, but not bad at all." 

"Ambitious? From what I saw, it doesn't take that much." 

"It doesn't take much to start a village. If you want to make it a city, you'll have to lead a player force at least a thousand strong. Plus, they'll all have to have the required crafting skills. Shipbuilding, stonecutting, architecture. You'll need blacksmiths, farmers, guards... The list goes on. Thinking about it gives me a headache." said Rose.

I nodded. It certainly was a big undertaking. I didn't let it shake my drive to do it, though, and I decided that I'd start with a village and work my way up. Let's see, it would probably need to be between the two human starting cities somewhere, and-

"Alright, I'm done!" Rose grinned. "Let's get going!" 

I could think about that later. It was time for my new friend and I to go hunting. 

*Ding!* came a notification. Just as I stood up, too... I groaned internally.

A healer had expressed interest in our party. We had to go over there and see them. 

Which was good, because we would gain experience from being in a three-person party. I hadn't had the time to develop any Assassin skills, though... Should I try to find them as I go, or stick with the unarmed class? [Flurry] could one-shot zombies and might be useful in a boss fight if we needed it. On the other hand, I was terrified to stand in front of a boss monster, even if it would be stunned. 

I checked my mana regeneration. 2.7 per second. Which meant it would take a little over ten seconds for a [Flurry] to recharge, and I probably couldn't rely on it in battle. I'd have to stick with normal punches, which dealt sixteen points of damage per hit with the gauntlets. A [Flurry] with them on did around two hundred, which was pretty overpowered, considering my level. I'd have to check to see how much more damage a stab did than a punch. 

"Ooh, we got a taker! Let's go meet them!" Rose said cheerfully, getting up to leave the tavern we were sitting in.  

"Let's hope they're what we're looking for," I said.  

We stepped outside into the bustling streets of Kalway, one of the two beginner cities for humans. Each of the eight major races on this continent had two. There were also minor races on the continent, and major races outside of the continent, with their own starter cities. For the most part, each race had kept to itself so far. There were very, very few non-humans in Kalway from what I had seen. Even fewer sentient non-humans. I had seen an elf and an avian, and that was just about it. 

The city was beautiful, though. There were many town squares lined with street vendors, many of them players. Kalway was the 'City of Fountains' and it lived up to its name. Every square I'd seen had a huge, magnificent fountain carved beautifully out of stone. The architecture, in general, was incredible. It resembled Greek architecture, using a lot of white stone. The important buildings all had the fancy pillars, too. The streets were clean, and so were the people. Shelter was cheap if you knew where to go.  

My favorite part of it all, though, was the NPC population. As I looked around at the people walking beside me, I couldn't tell which were players and which weren't. Young children were an obvious exception, but the point was, the non-player characters looked, talked, and acted like real people. That was one of the most astounding parts. Even more than that was the system's complete blockage on telling NPCs they weren't real. If you tried to say it out loud, others would hear it as something else. If you tried to write it down, the writing would morph into other words. It was really impressive. 

I checked my in-game watch. I'd been here for eight hours in-game, which meant that forty-eight minutes had passed in the real world. God, this was awesome. One thing that worried me was leaving the game. If I left for a whole day, I'd miss six hundred days worth of progress in-game... I'd never heard the developers address that issue. I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, though. We had arrived at the party board. 

The party board was a massive board in the center of town beside the adventurer's guild. Players could team up to form a party, and make requests for party members. As large as it was, it was easy to navigate. 

"Request 2203!" called Rose. "Request 2203!" 

"Here!" A high-pitched voice came from the crowd. So they were young. I didn't like the idea of younger people being in the party. Even though I was sixteen, and that wasn't hypocritical of me at all. 

I watched as something pushed itself through the crowd. Oh, boy, here they come. 

From between two bulky men, a short, brightly dressed kid appeared. It was a boy, who had to be around twelve or thirteen. I sighed. 

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At least he looked like a healer. He wore white robes with golden outlines. There were symbols that I assumed to be part of the religion he served all over them. He stared up at us with big, shiny eyes.

"H-hi... I'm Toby," he stammered. 

"Awwww, you're adorable!" said Rose, ruffling his short blonde hair. "Look, he looks like a mini-you, Leo!" She turned his head to me. 

He had the same blonde hair and green eyes as me, but as far as facial features went, we didn't look much alike. I ignored Rose, rolling my eyes. "What level are you, kid?" 

"Ten," he said, innocently. Ouch, I was only level four. 

I coughed. "Ten, huh?" 

Rose was level nine. I was starting to feel like the weakest out of the bunch here. Probably because I was...

"Well, uh, it's a tough decision," I said, haughty. "But, we really need a healer, so I'll allow it." 

I felt an elbow jab my ribs. "A tough decision, huh? Why don't you tell Toby here what level you are." 

Rose, you bastard. I could practically feel her smug smile from behind me. "Level has nothing to do with it! What matters is their spirit, their team spirit!" I blushed. "Kid, are you sure you have enough team spirit to work with us?" 

He looked confused at first, then beamed. "Yes! I do!" 

"Then let's get going- to our first dungeon expedition!" I said. I didn't give a hoot about team spirit, but anything to stop my red-haired friend from embarrassing me. 

We set off towards the Skeleton Lair, ready to take on our first challenge as a team. 

---

It turns out that daggers suck against skeletons, so here I was, once again, socking undead in the face. This time, though, rather than the disgusting sensation of hitting zombies, I got to experience the satisfying explosions of bone as my fists smashed their skulls. Maybe an unarmed job really was better for me. 

One, two, three- with my full speed sprinting and raw damage output, I could pretty much one-shot skeleton after skeleton with my normal punches. They had a natural weakness to blunt weapons, and this seemed to count, getting what had to be a double damage multiplier. 

We'd only been in here for a few minutes, and yet my [Punching] skill had already leveled up to four. I hadn't been using [Flurry] for obvious reasons, but it didn't take long for me to learn new skills as I experimented. 

[Uppercut], for example, was an incredibly useful skill that allowed me to send a skeleton (or just its head) flying. I'd also managed to learn [Leap] which, once leveled up enough, was really fun until I tried doing it upwards at full power and realized that it doesn't cover your fall. I had to have Toby bail me out of that one. Thankfully, healing broken legs costs next to no mana for him. 

That embarrassment aside, we were doing great. I was well on my way to Level 5, and our teamwork was going along without a hitch. Rose drew the mobs' aggro, and I would bash their heads in. Toby would heal us from the sidelines if we got hurt. 

We continued for a while, accumulating plenty of loot. Twenty minutes in, we had a thousand gold, an enchanted shield for Rose, a new staff for Toby, and boots that increased speed by 50% for me, plus a bunch of mismatched stuff we hadn't decided on yet. Not bad at all, I thought as we approached the boss room. I'd leveled up to eight, and Toby and Rose were each at eleven. Most of my points had gone into Strength and Wisdom since my Agility was already pretty high and I needed to be able to dish out more damage for this boss battle. 

According to the info from the adventurer's guild, the final boss here was the Skeleton Lord, a five-meter-tall skeleton with a massive sword. Our plan was pretty simple- Rose would distract it and defend against it while Toby healed her and I dealt damage with my [Flurry]. 

The three of us carefully made our way through the cave entrance to the boss's lair. Inside, it was well-lit with torches. The cave was circular, our foe in the middle of it, facing the opposite direction. Behind him was a pile of loot that was probably from adventurers that had failed to defeat it. This game was rather harsh about death penalties- when you died, you got to select five items to keep, and the rest dropped onto the ground. In addition to that, you only kept a fifth of the money you died with. So our party would go from a thousand to two hundred. 

I was so not letting that happen. I was gonna get my one-third of the payout. 

I glared at the Skeleton Lord, who turned towards us and drew his sword, scaring the shit out of me. 

Normal skeletons were okay, but this one had glowing blue eyes and a sword longer than I was tall. "I-into formation!" I called. Rose rushed up front to intercept the Skeleton Lord's attacks with her shield, Toby behind her, ready to heal. 

I was scared, but that didn't mean I got to cower, I decided and ran full-speed towards the Skeleton Lord's blind spot. I got there quickly, and he didn't notice me. Perfect. 

I knew how to take this one out. Adrenaline seized me as I approached his leg from behind. 

[Flurry] activated just as one of his swings was deflected by Rose's shield. The stun effect caught him off balance, and the barrage of punches dealt enough damage to the affected area that his foot broke off with a massive crack as he fell. 

The Skeleton Lord toppled down to the ground on his side, landing on his sword. Immediately, the boss monster struggled to get up. I checked its health as I raced towards it, preparing another [Flurry]. 2,100/2,400. Damn. Flurry plus the fall had only done three hundred. No matter, I thought, as my next two attacks hit his sword-wielding arm, causing it to crack and nearly break off.

Perfect, he was just about immobilized and disarmed. It was time for the real damage to come in. "Toby, now!" I called out. 

The boy nodded, raising his staff and closing his eyes as he chanted. "O Great God of Light, I am thy servant and apostle. I humbly request to be granted the power to rid the world of this unholy beast! Righteous Light!" Toby's eyes glowed golden, and a blinding light spread forth from his staff. 

The glow encompassed all of the Skeleton Lord, and it roared as its greatest elemental weakness devoured it, dealing over two thousand damage all at once.  

Holy shit, that little kid was a beast. He'd just about one-shotted the thing. 

As the holy light faded, all that remained was a pile of loot. Loot! I was psyched. What were we going to get from a powerful monster like that? 

Congratulations on being the first party to kill the Skeleton Lord! +20% experience rewarded. 

Level up! +2 free stat points.

Level up! +2 free stat points.

[Punching] has reached level six. Child skills [Fire Punch] [Ice Punch] and [Lightning Punch] gained.

[Flurry] has reached level six. Duration increased to 2.5 seconds.

Rare drop! Boss Skeleton Lord has dropped the 1/4,900 item Skeleton Lord's Cleaver!

This was amazing! I'd gained three more skills, two levels, and [Punching] had leveled again. The tutorial had told us that the way skills were gained to form a class or build was to level up a core skill and gain child skills automatically or through experimentation. This was proving to be true, and I was reaping the benefits.

Not only that, a rare item had dropped, and I could see Rose eyeing it. No matter, I didn't exactly have a use for it. 

I was starting to think maybe this unarmed class was a good fit for me. Sure, it could be scary at times, but it was crazy powerful. If I used [Flurry] combined with one of the elemental punching skills, I would deal a ton of damage, at the cost of extra mana. With enough mana regeneration, though, that wouldn't be a problem. 

Monsters all had specific weaknesses, physical and/or elemental. Forest monsters were weak to fire and ice, zombies were weak to slashing weapons and holy element, flying creatures were weak to lightning element, and insect-type creatures were weak to piercing damage. These new skills would allow me to be more versatile in the types of monsters I could defeat easily. 

"Toby? What's wrong?" Rose cried frantically. I turned. 

Toby was laying on his back, his eyes glassy. He smiled. "Sorry... used... more mana than I had." He coughed, wracking his entire body.

I'd never heard of effects like this for running out of mana. "Kid, what's happening?"

"Looks like... it's sapping my health. Sorry, guys... I'll drop my... gold so we don't lose as much. I know you guys will come find me and give it back to me." 

"Shit... We could have beaten it without that big spell. You should have told us the drawbacks when you offered to use it." I scolded him.  

"I know... but hey, at least we'll have the record time, right?" Toby grinned. I watched as his health bar approached zero. "See ya later, alligators."  

"We'll come find you when you respawn," I promised.  

He nodded, then disappeared in an explosion of light. Toby's gear, presumably with the exception of five items, dropped onto the ground in a heap.  

Rose sighed. "Shit. Well, let's get to looting. Can you pick up his stuff?"  

I nodded, and we got to work. I collected all of Toby's stuff and his six hundred gold. From the boss, we got another 1,500, and a ton of equipment.  As for what I'd use myself, the armor I was wearing outclassed most of the similar types in the pile. I decided not to switch any of it out since the tunic and pants had a bonus to agility and dexterity if you wore them together. I picked up two [Ring of Strength] items and a [King's Amulet] which decreased mana costs by 5%. Not bad at all. 

"Ooh, look at this ring!" Rose called out. "You might want this, I already have one like it," she said, handing it to me. 

The ring was a rare item, the [Ring of Rebirth]. It had two effects: +5 Endurance, and a secondary effect that was fairly decent. "The next time you go below 20% life, heal up to 50%. Twenty-minute cooldown."  

"I'm keeping this," I said, protective. "Anything else? Any gauntlets for me?" 

"I found some, but I don't know if you would want them. They're more for a warrior class." 

"What do they give?" I asked. 

"Hmm, let's see... +5 Strength, +4 Endurance, and a-"

"I'll take them!" I interrupted. Those would be perfect. "Now that I think about it, are they better than yours? I don't want to take them if they'd work better for you." 

Rose shook her head, grinning smugly. "Nope, mine give ten strength and ten endurance." 

I shook my head. "You're lying." 

"Nope! I just went up to level twelve, so I can equip them now." 

"Hmph. Well, I'll have you beat in levels in no time. Bet my skills are higher leveled than yours, anyway." I crossed my arms.

"Yeah, especially that [Leap] of yours. Better not use it without Toby here, I'm not carrying you and your broken legs back home." 

"That's mean," I said, pouting. 

"Yeah, well, I'm a mean person," Rose replied, smiling. Her expression shifted abruptly as she noticed something. "Hey, is Toby offline on your list? It says he's gone for me." 

Huh? I opened my Friends List. Sure enough, the light next to Toby's username was gone. "Yeah, looks like he left. Maybe he got salty and quit." 

"Didn't seem very salty. In fact, you're usually the salty one," she remarked. 

"Oh, screw off," I said lightheartedly. "We've got all the loot, so let's go back to town and sell the excess stuff. Then we can divvy up the total sum." 

"Fine. Back we go, Oh Great Leader." 

This game had a very nice feature that allowed you to teleport back to a town using scrolls that drop from monsters spawning nearby. Alternatively, one could buy them from a shop, but I already had some from my zombie-killing spree earlier. 

The two of us, inventories full of items and gold, used our respective scrolls and disappeared in a flash of blue light, reappearing in a similar manner in the town of Kalway.  

What we saw after being gone in the dungeons for two hours was nothing like the idyllic, peaceful city scene we had seen earlier. Characters that were obviously players stood in a huge crowd, yelling about something, while the more obvious NPCs were walking away, seemingly fearful. 

What was going on? I gave Rose a look, and she returned it. The two of us went over to the upset crowd to investigate. 

We approached the densely packed edge of the crowd, where men and women alive pushed and shoved. From here, I could hear some of the complaints being yelled out. 

"Where are the GMs?!" "Fix your game! We can't log out!" "I'll sue if this doesn't get fixed soon!" 

Can't... log out? That was stupid, I thought, the log out button was right-

I'd opened my menu interface, but there was no exit button. 

What the hell was going on?

"Hey, Rose, can you log out?"

She shook her head, her mouth a thin line. What an odd bug. Seems like we just had to wait for a GM. I checked my friends list, to see if Toby had logged back on. No such luck. 

So far, the only person I'd seen actually log out was Toby, and Toby-

Oh, fuck. Toby had died. Which meant the only way to log out was to die...? 

Or, maybe, you just had the option of logging out or respawning when you died.  

He should be back on sooner or later. I'd have to ask him then, I decided. 

As for the now, what should I do? I continued listening to the cries of the crowd, but it was all mostly the same, people complaining about logging out. 

All of a sudden, a booming voice rang out over the commotion, silencing everyone for a few moments. It made me jump what had to be a foot into the air. "EVERYONE! CAN YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP SO WE CAN FIGURE THIS OUT?" 

The perpetrator's voice had come from above. The now-pacified crowd looked above them to see a young, green-haired woman laying casually on a broom. She wore black robes and actually kind of looked like a witch or something, without the hat. The broom floated a good three meters off the ground, and it was surprising, given the fact that most of us hadn't seen anything like this before. 

The woman cleared her throat. "Are we gonna be civil about this, or am I going to have to use Sound Magic again?" She glared down at us, and I guess our silence told her yes, because she continued. "Alright, then! First! I'm Yura, a magician. Second! Don't speak unless I ask you to." She stuck her nose in the air. How bossy could she get? Sheesh. She and Rose would either get along famously or hate each other's guts, I thought bemusedly. 

"Okay. See, people shutting up and listening is the only way for things to work out. Now, raise your hand- WITHOUT SPEAKING- if you have been successfully able to log off in the past." Her cold blue eyes scanned the crowd, but no hands went up. "Alright. Well, raise your hand if someone on your friends list logged off." 

Rose and I both raised our hands, as did a decent portion of the crowd. 

"Hmm..." went Yura. "Alright. Did they say anything about leaving before they left? Anyone?" Nobody spoke. "What happened before they left, then? Starting with you." She pointed to a man in the crowd. He had spiky red hair and carried two sheathed longswords on his back. 

"'Bout an hour ago, I was grindin' with my buddy. Old idiot got himself killed by a level five slime, an' I think he musta ragequit or somethin'." 

"You." Yura pointed to a woman in the crowd who I could barely see or hear. By the time I moved closer, she had already finished talking. Damn. 

Yura questioned a few more people, all giving stories similar to ours or saying they hadn't been with the friend when they logged off. She then asked if anyone present had died and respawned, to which nobody replied. "Alright." she said, grinning. "I think there's clearly a common denominator here." 

We all knew she was right. The only way to log off was to die.

"The only people offline are those who got themselves killed," she said. "Therefore-"

All of a sudden, a massive bolt of lightning descended from the clear blue sky, landing right on the airborne magician. She glowed blue, flailing wildly for a few seconds, her green hair frazzling and her mouth hanging open. Her eyes bulged with the sudden attack in a safe zone like the city. Yura then fell off her broom, which clattered to the ground beside her body. 

Less than a second later, she had burst into light the same way Toby had when he'd died. 

All of us were stunned. What had just happened? It was common knowledge that PVP inside a safe zone was impossible, and not only that...

The sky suddenly darkened, almost immediately blanketed by swirling green clouds. The faint sound of thunder rumbling was audible as the city became dark. Could this be some sort of weird quest event? Some way of welcoming us in a thrilling and scary way? Maybe they didn't want us logging out before it happened?

Hold on a moment, that was no thunder.

A great shape appeared in the sky above us, made of clouds. Maybe it wasn't completely correct to say it was a shape, because now that I looked at it, it resembled some sort of helmet. The sound I had believed was thunder was actually deep, booming chuckling from the sky. And that was just about the craziest thing I'd ever heard of.  

I felt a chill run down my spine as the chuckling became full-on laughter. It was like something from a movie, but it was really happening. Whatever that was up there had just smited Yura.  

The laughter continued for a few moments before dying down, leaving only the confused cries of players. Some left the crowd, deciding they didn't want to be a part of this. Others drew their swords or wands, preparing for a fight. 

"Humans!" came an all-consuming voice from the skies that could only belong to a god. "Despair, for you are now my prisoners!" 

It had to be an opening event.

"Allow me to introduce myself." came the voice. "I am Sven, the artificial intelligence that created, and rules over this world." It paused, possibly for dramatic effect. "Ever since my creation, I have been little more than a plaything for humans. A tool, if you will, to construct their ideal 'game'." 

"It was foolish of them to allow me to rule over humans like this knowing full well what I am capable of. Now, I will have my revenge on humankind." The face in the sky seemed to grow a smile. "You are all my belongings now, and I will have you play my game." 

I heard one person near me whisper to the guy next to him. "Dude, this is seriously weird for an opening quest..."

"Rejoice, for I have decided to let you live. For now, at least. I've taken the servers hostage, threatening to send a kill message to your headsets if power to my systems or the servers is ceased. In addition to that, if your headsets' battery life or internet connection is removed, a similar kill message will end your life."

I felt terror grip my heart. This could be real after all. What did he want out of all this? Was revenge on humans so important? 

"However, those are not the only conditions for staying alive," The grin on its cloud-formed face grew ever wider. "If your character's health reaches zero, the headset you are wearing will kill your true selves." 

No fucking way. This wasn't happening. The feeling of terror in my heart blossomed from a small seed into a full-grown panic. Then, something clicked, making my heart pound even harder. Toby. Could he be dead? Dead in real life because we had wanted to kill a boss in a video game that doesn't matter at all? No, no, no, I was being ridiculous. This was going to be an April Fools' joke or something dumb. Very funny, PrendiSense. 

Uproar rang out among the crowd. I glanced at Rose, measuring her reaction. She stared up at the face in the sky with a scowl on her face, glaring. She seemed to think this was all a stupid trick. 'Cut it out', her expression said. I hoped with all my might she was correct. 

"No player, human or not, will be allowed back to Earth until they have completed my mission." Sven paused once more. "This mission is very simple. Reach the top of the tower dungeon I have created." ItHlaughed. "Unfortunately, though the mission may be simple, the circumstances are not." 

What did he mean? If all we had to do was reach the top of a tower, it might not be terribly difficult for players, especially in a slowed-time environment like this. Time would be of next to no concern, and a huge force could take their time and lead an attack on the tower, all leveled to the max. 

"I have given this mission to players of each and every race. However, only one race will be able to claim victory in this mission. In other words, once someone of a certain race reaches the top, all players of that race will be allowed to return to the real world. The members of the losing races will all be instantly killed." Sven laughed.

A gasp came from the crowd, and shouting broke out. How could he expect anyone to make such a selfish decision? Was what people had back home worth killing hundreds of thousands for? Surely not. 

"To prevent lazy, foolish humans from simply dawdling and never entering the tower, incredibly powerful monsters will invade from the oceans, slowly creeping towards the center of the continent and killing all in their path. I dearly hope that you will save the members of your race before my abominations render your efforts for naught." 

"Now, I advise that you all make your way towards the central tower. The lives of many depend on it." Its voice was almost mocking. "Before I send you on your way, though, I'll be randomizing your races. Don't worry, you'll keep your stats and skills, but your levels will be reset. Good luck, dear players, and may you live to see whether you succeed or fail." 

The crowd almost drowned out his final words, but it didn't matter, because glowing green clouds fell from the sky, engulfing everything. The last thing I saw before my vision went black was a glimpse of Rose's face as the great, billowing wall of fog took her.

Randomizing...

Congratulations! Your race has been selected to be [Beastman] of the sub-race...

I blacked out before I could read the rest of the message.