Suddenly, Felix was brought into a room of pure light. He had his eyes shut tight due to the intensity of the light rays hitting his eyes. Like waking up in the morning, it took his eyes a long time to get used to the light. After a couple of moments, he opened his eyes wide and felt nothing of it. Assuming he was going to go blind, he hesitated to look away from some bold grey interface in front of him.
Though it was floating in midair, the opaque interface displayed a lot of sliding bars and options for Felix to click on. Options such as gender, upper half, torso, lower half, and even clothes.
When Felix clicked on the face option, he saw a couple dozen options pop up with styles of faces, facial hair, the option to change his hair, and many more. Once he saw this, Felix knew exactly what was going on. Though his situation doesn't make any sense, he remained calm and riddled with this interface.
Felix was brought to a highly detailed character creation interface. When he selected an option, a model of a character appeared in front of him, and from there he could fiddle around with its features.
After making a pale, short, beautiful, well-built, nicely curved, and light blue-haired female, he was given the option to choose his class. The hair he chose for the character was long, straight, and curly. It resembled the hairstyle his ex-girlfriend had with minor modifications.
For the short period of his summer break, he has been playing MMORPGs every minute he had, and in every MMORPG, he always went with the sorceress, which inspired him to do the same here. He ignored any of the de-buffs or benefits that the class gave him and went right for the option.
Once finished the character creation process, he pressed a green button that made the opaque interface suddenly disappear from existence. With the interface's sudden disappearance, Felix was exposed to the blinding white light once again, only this time, his body gradually began to feel all weird.
With his eyes shut tight, Felix blindly walked around while keeping his hands out front. As he walked and waved his hands up around, he suddenly felt the rough and grainy texture of a brick wall. Lowering his head and slowly opening his eyes, he laid eyes on a black concrete floor which helped his eyes regain their senses. Going from there, Felix raised his head to the sky and stared at the empty light blue abyss above him.
Felix confused: [I'm outside..?]
He lowered his hands and looked to his right, and to his surprise, he saw a quartz water fountain in the center of a plaza.
Felix: [There was never a...]
Suddenly, a mother and daughter came walking towards the water fountain and stared at it like it was some statue.
Felix's eyes widened.
These people weren't human. Creatures standing on two feet with green scales covering them from head to toe. They had hair and physical features just like a normal human, but the reptilian features they displayed like a lizard caught Felix off guard.
He let out a small exhale but then noticed his voice had been altered.
Felix in a higher voice: [What..!]
He flinched and looked at his hands.
Just as he began to tremble in place, he took a better look at his body. He lifted his clothes to get a better look at his skin, took a look at his attire, and even made sure he still had his masculine features. Those, along with everything else, were gone.
Felix was freaking out silently. He was stranded in an alleyway with a body he didn't recognize. While he frantically looked around, a man on the other side of the alley was glaring from the corner of his eye. Felix didn't notice until he begins to hear the voices of civilians fade into existence. He looked out of the alley and saw people of various races walking around the quartz water fountain.
People with the ears of cats and the body of a human, tails of lizards, and snouts of dogs. These were demi-humans and they seemed to have been happy to be around. Felix thought he was going crazy until he began to notice barely visible options from the corners of his eyes.
A map on the top left, a red and blue bar in the bottom center above a couple of empty round slots, and on the bottom right there was a circle slot like the ones below the bars, but it was a lot bigger and had some kind of image greyed out within it. On the top right there was a yellow bar with some information below it, to the right of the bar was a shining gold number, "LV" in short text above the giant "1". Focusing on these options would widen them up and give Felix the option of interacting with them. Instinctively, Felix focused his eyes on the map and was shown a screen of pure grey. After being noticeably disappointed, he closed his map and clamped his small pale hands together.
Felix excited: [I MADE IT! LET'S GOOOO!]
-
After a bit of searching around his peripherals, Felix came around the information tab. From there, he learned a few things about his current situation. The character he created in the empty white void was now the person he was now. In other words, he became the character he created earlier.
Felix: [I...]
Felix clenched his hands, raised his head, and shouted:
Felix in his girl’s voice: [I'M AN ANGEL!]
His wide purple and blue eyes began to sparkle as his excitement grew.
He began to giggle to himself as he hopped around on his new small feet on the tiles on the ground. The demihumans and average humans outside of the alleyway gave him odd glares while walking past. Even the market man that has been watching him felt embarrassed. Felix lowered his head and started thinking to himself.
Felix: [I'm in a video game now, which means all my prayers weren't for nothing. I'm living the otaku's dream!]
While celebrating to himself, the thought of his friends also vanishing came to mind.
Felix: [Oh, that's right! If I'm here, that must mean that the others are here too, but maybe they're also different characters! If that's the case, finding them would be literally impossible. Not to mention the possibility of them not leaving the restaurant before the portal closed…]
When Felix raised his head, he noticed the butt of another person suddenly teleport out of nowhere and begin to fall. Felix was quick to notice this and quickly moved out of the way before any casualties could occur. The person crashed onto the ground and caused small dust clouds to move away from the collision.
The person who landed began swearing and stroking his pants.
???: [Wow, what a way to help another person out.]
Without offering a hand, Felix watched the random wizard get up on his own. He stared at Felix for a good minute before looking around and carelessly observing his surroundings.
???: [Hey, nice to meet you.]
He sounded careless and nervous at the same time.
???: [My name is Sean.]
Looking at his body, it was quite easy to verify that it was actually Sean. It was as if he completely skipped the whole character creation option and went ahead and chose the wizard class.
He was wearing a leather green robe and wizard hat. With a grey t-shirt underneath and his body form staying the same, it was undoubtedly him. This guy was Sean Soukone. He had the same black hair in a bowl cut, narrow dark brown eyes, and careless expression riddled all over him.
Felix: [Sean. Oh, hey my name is...]
Felix lowered his head and tried thinking to himself as quickly as possible. A name for this new female character. He wasn't given the option to create a name when making the character, so he had to come up with one on the spot.
Felix raising his head: [Faith! My name's Faith. Nice to meet you too.]
He tilted his head and smiled brightly. A sudden pop-up appeared in the center of his vision with the text:
Name Set!
The name Faith is the name of a girl that used to go to his school, the name of a dead character in one of his "never gonna be released stories" folders, as well as a name he always had in mind for his first daughter. Felix knew he was talking to the Sean from his friend group, but didn't want to expose his position for some reason.
Sean: [Faith, huh? Mind telling me where I am?]
Faith: [Did you get amnesia or something from that fall?]
Sean scratched his head and chuckled. He wasn't even sure to begin with. One second he was in a rundown Chinese Food place, then the next he was looking at demon and walking lizard-men.
Faith: [This is obviously...]
The girl turned around and looked at the area once more. They obviously weren't in Winooski, and not even she could figure out where they were.
Faith: [I'll be honest with you, I don’t know where we are.]
Sean stared at Faith for a moment before putting his hands in his pockets and sighing.
Sean: [Of course you would choose a girl.]
Faith: [Figured me out already? What gave me away?]
Sean: [Your lack of information. If this works like every other game, the map should tell us…]
Sean opened his map and stared at the empty gray screen in silence. When he closed it, Faith and Sean stared at each other with narrow glares.
Faith: [And just like every other game, it's black 'till we explore.]
Just before they could start another conversation, a second person came falling from the sky and landed behind Sean. He was dressed somewhat like Sean, but his apparel was slightly different. His robe was green-blue and he had a light blue t-shirt underneath that had a big green cross printed on it. Unlike Sean's robe, he came with a hoodie of the same color and pattern. He was dressed like a low-level priest.
Sean turned around to look at the Parker look-alike and moved aside to let Faith see as well. As the newly arrived character rubbed his head and groaned, Faith began to analyze their form. Though they looked a lot like the Parker in their friend group, the only features about him that changed were his body weight and lack of glasses.
??? frightened: [What the?!]
Faith: [That's the same reaction I had!]
Faith walked up to the Parker look-alike and let out her hand.
Faith: [How're ya doin' Parker?]
Parker: [Thanks…]
He took Faith's hand and used it to raise himself up.
Parker: [How do you know who I am?]
The brown haired man turned to the green wizard.
Parker: [Sean, where are we?]
Sean: [A video game world, but I don't recognize which game it is.]
Sean turned to the merchant who was keeping an eye on them, but once they made eye contact, the merchant quickly turned his head back.
Sean: [It looks like an MMORPG, so Felix is going to be our best resource here.]
Parker turned to Faith and looked at her as she stood smugly and nodded her head.
Parker: [Is that Felix?]
Sean nodded.
Parker: [You went really in-depth with it, didn't you? I chose to skip it after using it a little bit.]
Faith: [You could skip it?]
Sean: [That's what I did. The option was as bright as daylight, and that's saying something.]
Faith irritated: [I DIDN'T SEE THE SKIP BUTTON!]
Parker: [Yup. That's Felix.]
Faith: [What's that supposed to mean?!]
Faith crossed her arms and pouted. Parker rolled his eyes and turned over to Sean to start a conversation about their situation. They left Faith out of it. She watched them talk to each other while playing with her new long blue hair.
Parker turned around and looked at Faith after finishing his conversation with Sean
Parker: [Felix, let me get this straight,]
Faith stopped playing with her hair and looked at Parker in his brown eyes.
Parker: [We're in an MMORPG world right now.]
The sorceress nodded.
Faith: [A world of pure imagination.]
Parker: [So you also had to choose a class?]
Both Faith and Sean nodded.
Sean: [I chose to be a wizard.]
Faith: [Sorceress.]
Parker: [Druid.]
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
He started to talk to himself like he had someone responding to him in his head. Faith wanted to ask if he was alright, but felt like she would be disturbing something.
Parker: [What about the others?]
He asked as if he was talking to Sean and Faith. Neither of them replied thinking he was still talking to himself.
Parker: [Hello?]
Sean: [Oh, you were talking to us?]
Sean pointed to himself. Parker nodded with a sigh.
Faith: [I was the first one to enter the portal, so who knows where they could've gone.]
Sean: [Yeah, he got here before me and I went second, so who knows when the others might arrive.]
Parker sighed to himself.
Parker: [I went in right after the two of you disappeared, so that might mean that the others will show up pretty soon. Do you think they'll spawn here?]
Faith and Sean nodded.
Parker: [So we wait for them.]
Faith: [If they don't show up anytime soon, we might as well start adventuring this new world on our own. Gotta find a way out of this place sooner than later.]
Faith began making her way out of the alleyway.
Parker: [I'm not leaving here without everyone else.]
He crossed his arms and sat down.
Parker: [No man left behind.]
Faith stopped just before leaving the alley.
Sean: [We will wait a couple of minutes. If they don't show up, we have to do things on our own.]
With a groan, Faith accepted and joined them.
-
They all sat down in the alley. The peeking vendor finally got on Faith's nerves and caused her to make a reaction. It's been several minutes and the peeping vendor just made her more irritated.
Faith shouting: [We've been waiting for hours!]
She fell on her back and looked at the bright blue sky. The two bright yellow stars in the sky grabbed her attention.
Faith: [Maybe the portal closed before they entered. Those three have never been the type to do things on impulse.]
Sean looked to the top left of his map, where a clock sat, and counted down the time using military time.
Sean: [It's only been ten minutes.]
He looked back at her.
Sean: [Let's give them a few more.]
They sat for a couple of seconds until Faith caught the shop owner giving her another look. She stood up and walked up to him with her hands crossed.
While looking at him, she noticed a transparent rectangle above his head that stated his name in a light gold shade, health in green, and stamina in blue.
Faith: [That's pretty convenient. The Peeping Tom is a shopkeeper.]
Sean: [Peeping Tom is a bit much, don't you think?]
Faith: [He's been watching us this whole time. I can't think of a more fitting name.]
The shopkeeper smiled and clasped his hands together.
Shopkeeper: [How may I help you?]
In front of Faith popped up a larger rectangle with all sorts of items. Faith jumped with a squeal and raised her hands in a defensive position, blocking all paths to her face and chest. Sean and Parker looked her way with narrow glares. Faith opened a single eye and looked at the two before fixing her posture. The shopkeeper didn't seem to have any reaction. He remained with his hands clasped and a smile that felt fake.
Faith cleared her throat and started to look at all the options the Shopkeeper had to offer. To the others, she was scrolling through the air, but to her, there was a whole list of items to be bought. She felt like she was using Amazon on her phone.
Parker: [What are you doing?]
The sorceress stopped scrolling and looked through the interface to look at the others.
Faith: [Shopping for potions!]
Parker: [Shopping?]
He stood up and walked up to Faith
Parker: [You're wagging your finger in the air while making weird faces.]
Faith: [You don't see the shop?]
Parker shook his head.
Faith: [Fascinating.]
Several more minutes passed in silence. Sean stood up from his spot and walked up to Parker with a not-so-patient look on his face.
Sean: [We've been waiting for almost half an hour and none of them came. We might as well get going.]
Parker turned to Faith trying to get her attention, but she was so caught up in the shop that she didn't notice him.
Parker: [Fine, we'll go around this place and see if they find us before morning.]
Sean: [And if they don't?]
The druid slipped his hands into his robe's pockets and turned his head. His eyes narrowed as he thought of a response, and ended up concluding,
Parker: [They either didn't enter the portal or probably died before coming here.]
Sean agreed with Parker and started walking ahead. Faith didn't notice them walking away so Parker tugged Faith away from the shopkeeper and dragged her across the floor.
Faith: [Wait! He had so many goods!]
Parker: [You don't have a dime, dumbass. Stop wasting your time.]
-
While being dragged on the yellow sandy-like pathway, Faith looked around and noticed the people in the marketplace were giving them weird glares.
On the other side of the plaza, two guards dressed in shining white armor were amongst the crowd staring at Faith being dragged.
Royal Guard 1 whispering: [I'm telling you, that isn't the princess. Her hair is much shorter than that!]
Faith turned to where she was hearing the voice coming from. The two guards had what looked to be an article of bright pink clothing underneath a set of shining silver armor. On one side of their waists, they had a long piece of white cloth sticking out of their armor that had the letter 'L' written in cursive and colored hot pink.
Royal Guard 2: [I know, but an order is an order. If the Paladin wants it done, we gotta get it done quickly.]
They started to make their way to Faith and the boys. While their armor rustled with every step, Faith grew more confused to see them actually making their way toward the boys. She got up and started walking with them.
She walked up in between them.
Faith alarmed but quiet: [Hey guys, two people in armor are making their way towards us! 12 o'clock!]
Sean: [There are no guards at 12 o'clock.]
Faith: [6 o'clock, then!]
The two boys stopped in their steps and turned around, noticing the two tall guards making their way toward them. Parker seemed unphased, but Sean and Faith couldn't hide the sweat that started seeping down their foreheads.
When the two guards made their way, they looked at Faith and started to whisper to themselves. When they finished, one of them cleared their throat.
Royal Guard 1: [We're going to have to ask you to come with us.]
He sounded hesitant and not at all demanding, however, he did try to hint at him being a part of the Royal Guard by lifting his white waist cloth a bit.
Parker: [Sorry, did we do something wrong?]
The second guard gave Parker a disgusting glare. One that made Parker squirm and lower his head. The guard grabbed Parker by the shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the huge castle none of the boys had seen before.
Sean silently walked up to Parker and whispered, [Did we break a law already?] Parker shrugged as he got pushed forward by the guard.
Faith: [I'm sorry,]
The sorceress was walking without anyone touching her, but the guards kept a keen eye on her.
Faith: [Why are we being arrested?]
Royal Guard 2: [Arrested? What are you talking about, Your Highness? We're bringing you back to the castle. These harassers are going to be the ones that will be arrested.]
Faith silently: [Your Highness?]
Parker elbowed Faith's shoulder and gave her a glare that signaled her to not speak.
The two guards took the three of them to an enormous white and gold castle gate, and from there they saw two other guards wearing the same apparel. The guards spoke to one another for a moment before the black steel fence gate separating the castle from the public began to rumble and rise. Faith watched in awe before the guard holding Parker pushed him forward and walked toward the castle entrance.
As they walked up to the castle, they noticed how enormous the castle was. From the quartz and gold pattern plastered around the front door to the white brick surrounding it, the building was nothing short of luxurious... and outdated. The five of them were walking on a yellow brick road surrounded by a bright and colorful flower garden. Within further inspection, Faith noticed people the size of toddlers holding wooden watering cans over bits of the garden and feeding the flowers with just enough water.
Royal Guard 2: [We were told to take Your Highness to the Paladin, so we'll handle the harassers later.]
The first guard nodded his head as the door to the castle was opened from the other side.
A hairy man in a butler uniform greeted the two soldiers and Faith as they walked inside. The inside of the castle was even more amazing than the outside. With large white pillars that had a streak of gold evenly scattered around the place, large windows that let light in and gave a very beautiful view of the garden just outside, a beautifully sculpted image of a sword lying in the middle of the place, and well-designed floor and ceiling patterns that seemed to have a story within them, Faith couldn't help herself but to stare.
The guards took the three to the right of the plaza and through a door into a long corridor. Everything in the corridor had similar patterns to the ones in the plaza, but it still awed the new adventurers. Sean even came to the point that he couldn't hold in his smile and giggled at the view. He was always a fan of luxurious places and wished to have some of his own at one point.
The guards brought them to a room labeled "Paladin's Office" which was where they heard a familiar voice.
Before the door opened, Faith had a gut feeling she knew who was there, but couldn't be too sure. The semi-high masculine voice that never went any deeper than it was, and the tempo and range of the voice was similar too. The person behind the door could be none other than the other American within their friend group, and as the guards opened the door, Faith's gut feeling stood corrected.
Standing on the other side of the door was none other than Zack Chagnon. Unlike before they left, Zack was equipped with light silver armor. With clean armor and a pink-gold "L" in the center of his chest plate, the three of them assumed Zack to have somehow made it big in less than an hour. Attached to his right shoulder was a plate that had a symbol that resembled a tornado in pink. He had a large sword in a sheath attached to his waist that had a similar pattern to the one on his right shoulder, only this time it was more scattered apart, like three separate waves. It sort of reminded Faith of the wind symbols in the zombie game mode in 'Call of Duty ®: Black Ops 2™.' He looked like he had been in this world for a while and that the entire castle belonged to him.
Faith's joy overcame her body and caused her to uncontrollably run for the head officer.
Faith shouting with joy: [Zack!]
She gave him a big hug and smuggled her face onto his chest.
Paladin Zack flustered: [Princess!]
Zack attempted to gently push Faith off of him.
Paladin Zack: [We can't be getting friendly like this anymore! People – no, scratch that, your father might get the wrong idea!]
Parker: [Zack?]
Faith released her grasp on Zack and watched him as he turned his head to Parker and Sean.
Paladin Zack to the guards: [Who are these two?]
Royal Guard 1: [They were dragging the princess across the floor by the arm, sir.]
Zack very slowly made his way to Parker and Sean. He looked both of them in the eye before making a greater inspection. After looking at their body fat, facial features, and height, he turned to Sean and hugged him with the same strength Faith did to him.
Paladin Zack overjoyed: [I missed you so much!]
Everyone in the room looked at Zack confused, including the man getting hugged. He had never felt more uncomfortable.
Royal Guard 1: [Sir, that is one of the people that was dragging the princess.]
Zack: [This guy over here,]
The paladin released his hug but kept his hand on one of Sean's shoulders.
Zack: [He would never do anything to harm anyone!]
The two guards hesitated to respond.
Royal Guard 2: [Do you know him or something?]
Paladin Zack: [He's a good friend of mine from back home.]
He released Sean's shoulder.
Paladin Zack: [You can take the princess back to her room and the other guy to the cells.]
The two guards nodded and both grabbed one of the others separately.
Sean: [Hold on, Zack.]
Sean grabbed Zack's shoulder.
Sean: [The guy is Parker Kane and the girl is Felix.]
Zack turned to Parker and began to slowly walk up to him with his armor clinging on every step. Parker grew nervous as Zack stood in front of him with a narrow glare.
Zack opened his arms and wrapped them around Parker as the guard released his hand.
Paladin Zack: [I couldn't recognize you because you lost a lot of fat, but,]
Zack released his hug and looked at Parker with a single tear coming out of his eyes.
Paladin Zack: [I'm glad to know that I'm not alone here anymore.]
Faith: [That's sweet and all, but I'm still being called a princess and being held by a guard!]
Zack wiped his tears and told the guard to release his friend.
Paladin Zack: [Felix, you chose a figure that looks a little too similar to the princess, so I'm not holding it against the guards for assuming you were her. Also, why am I not surprised you chose to be a girl?]
Faith: [I have never seen a princess in my life, so–wait what do you mean–!]
Paladin Zack interrupting: [I could take you guys to the princess if you want. She's always wanted to know what my real-life friends look like.]
As Faith made her way to Parker and Sean, she saw an empty seat beside them and sat down comfortably. Spreading her legs and resting her chin on her palm, she seemed to have no sense of manners.
Parker: [Zack, sounds like you're friends with the princess.]
Zack nodded.
Parker: [Just how long have you been here?]
Zack: [As you can see,]
Zack walked up to his desk and adjusted the nameplate on his desk to be facing his friends. Zack took a seat on his desk and smirked, [I'm the Paladin of this kingdom.] The nameplate had the title "Paladin Chagnon" written in gold like it was pressed into the plate.
Zack: [I've been here for over a year now, and gained the title during New Year's.]
Faith surprised: [Over a year?!]
Zack nodded.
Sean shocked: [Daaaamn! So you know most of everything about this place?]
Paladin Zack: [Not quite. I'm Paladin because I became the strongest in the kingdom and have the most honest heart out of the other candidates. I also happened to have befriended the royal family, gained their trust, and became the Royal Guard head officer.]
The three of his friends stood frozen in awe. Astonished by his accomplishment, Faith started to clap slowly.
Royal Guard 2: [He's also the strongest Paladin in the Northeast.]
Paladin Zack flustered: [There's no need to—]
A loud girl shouted Zack's name from the hallway. Her voice was obnoxiously high; like she was doing it on purpose, but her footsteps grew louder as she came closer to the door.
Paladin Zack: [Princess?!]
Zack shouted. The girl shouted again and pushed open the door to Zack's office.
A girl who looked way too similar to Faith came walking through the door. The only difference was the length of her hair and the white and pink dress that reached a little above her toes. They had the same hairstyle, eyes, facial structure, height, and even bust size. It was almost like Felix had chosen a preset when in actuality he created his model from scratch. When the princess stood beside Faith, it was like Faith was the lazier older twin.
The princess looked at Zack with large stars in her eyes.
Faith: [Who's the overdramatic beauty?]
The princess calmed down and turned to Faith with a "royal" glare then looked shocked. Faith turned to Sean and Parker while pointing at the princess.
Faith: [Get a load of this.]
She began to chuckle.
Faith: [This is awesome.]
Zack sighed and walked in between the both of them.
Paladin Zack: [Felix, this is Princess Hilda.]
He pointed at the shorter-haired, more fancy Faith. He then pointed to Faith and her lazy attire.
Paladin Zack: [Hilda, this is Felix.]
Princess Hilda: [Felix? Is that actually her name?]
Faith with a forced smile: [Do you have a problem with my name, German?]
Princess Hilda irritated: [Excuse me?!]
Hilda frowned and forced her hands onto her hip.
Princess Hilda: [You fucking bitch! Do you know who you're talking to?!]
Faith took a step back.
Faith sarcastically: [Woah, the German is getting hostile.]
Hilda flinched and the veins in her head were almost visible.
Sean disappointed: [You're already getting on bad terms with the princess of the kingdom, Felix. Are you trying to get yourself killed?]
Faith rolled her eyes and stood up beside Sean and Parker then crossed her arms as she turned to look at Zack and the princess.
Paladin Zack: [Don't take offense to anything Felix says. He tends to be a nutcase sometimes.]
The princess looked up at Zack.
Hilda: [Nutcase..? That means crazy, right?]
Zack nodded.
Hilda: [How does that apply to her? It makes no grammatical sense.]
Paladin Zack: [When someone calls another person a nutcase, they're calling them a crazy person. The word is a noun and isn't used much, but it felt right at the moment.]
Hilda curiously: [If it's never used, why is it a word?]
Parker: [Not to interrupt your grammar lesson, but you came here for a reason, right?]
The princess turned to the three and then whispered into Zack's ear. He giggled then whispered back.
Parker: [Their whispering makes me feel like they're talking about me.]
Parker said quietly.
Faith: [The German might be talking about you, but I highly doubt Zack would be backbiting like that.]
Zack and the princess giggled again then Zack cleared his throat, put his hands behind his back, and seriously looked at Faith.
Paladin Zack: [The Princess is interested in the three of you, and would like to get to know you through some tea. What do you say?]