Blue boxes appeared in Valerie’s sleep, the beginning of her pseudo-lucid dream and the retreat from her ruined memories.
Known bio-signature detected.
Assessing status: Healthy, Sated, Hydrated.
Synchronisation: 100%.
Access granted.
Welcome back, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
Would you like to continue from where you left off in your most recent experience 2 years, 4 months ago: 'Zoos of the Past'?
YES/NO
No. I'd like to do something else, please.
Affirmative, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
Would you like to try out our Recommendation For The Day: ‘The Avalon Project: Ascension Bound’?
YES/NO
If not, we'll continue onto our entire catalogue where you can choose freely.
Oh, the game I was watching earlier… Sure. Yes, please.
Excellent, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
Loading 'The Avalon Project: Ascension Bound'
We hope you have an amazing experience!
Dreamtime Session beginning!
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A uniform shade of red was all she could see, sometimes blinking into darkness before returning back to red. Valerie felt a cool, windy breeze upon her skin, her back resting upon what must have been the softest bed in existence.
She opened her eyes.
She faced a great, blue sky. Wispy clouds floated by in the distance, as a bright sun peeked through a dense canopy of leaves. The winds shifted the leaves and branches of the tree ever so slightly, hiding the sun temporarily before it returned, bringing back its shining radiance. Turning her head left, she realised that she was surrounded by trees, and that she was instead lying on a bed of grass that was softer than anything else in the world. Birdcalls echoed throughout the land she found herself in, along with the gentle coursing of a river far off in the distance.
Rivers, leaves, trees, birdsongs. Natural wonders from a bygone era.
There were no birds anymore above-ground in actual reality. Or any other type of bird, for that matter. Vultures, maybe, but they were heard of by only a few, and nobody really believed those who claimed to have seen them most of the time. Nobody liked to brave the desert during the day when the vultures were most active and searching for food, anyway. According to what they claimed, they said that vultures get snappy, and their sharpened beaks can close faster than you can blink and rip your entire arm off.
Noticing that she was getting off-track, however, Valerie slapped her face and returned to the game’s world, her face feeling the actual weight of the slap, which only amazed her more. The senses of the game were incredible, no doubt because of the state-of-the-art FullDive Pod she was in. But just the juxtaposition of graphics between Reg’s VR Pod and this one was like night and day. It was just that good, and she didn’t even mention the smells yet, the land before her smelling like the compost she made back home with Mom.
Wait... Valerie paused. If there's seeing, touching, smelling, hearing... She smacked her mouth together.
“There’s taste in this game too?!” she shouted incredulously, a flock of birds flying away from her revelation. Valerie threw her hands over her mouth to prevent her from shouting any longer, though that couldn’t stop her from being baffled and astonished.
She’d known that the game was popular because of its realism, but she must’ve been not paying attention—or ‘ADHD-ing hard,’ as her friends called it—because not once did she ever hear about there being VR taste receptors. How had she not known this before?! She would've played a lot more with her friends if she'd known! Shaking her head to herself, Valerie then placed her hands back onto the grass beside her for support. “An honest-to-God forest,” she said softly so as to not scare off any more birds. She brushed her hands against the soft grass she sat upon, the tips of the grass that reached for the sky gracing against her fingertips. “I didn’t know I’d see the day. Now I see why everyone plays this; it’s practically just real life, but not underground and claustrophobic, and more like life and happiness and trees and grass and actual proper birds—oh my God, Mom would’ve loved this game—and are those apples?! I haven’t had one in—"
—The grass beside her shifted, as if something was just there a moment ago. Valerie shot up from where she sat, turning to face where the noise came from once she was a few metres away.
From where she stood, she saw a tiny animal with large round eyes, like a plushie’s, with puffed-out cheeks to match, with which it stuffed something into.
"Is that a green chipmunk?" Valerie squinted, staring hard at the creature before her. It had the cheek pouches, so she was certain it was a rodent at least. It was most definitely not one she'd seen before, especially with its green fur. Maybe that Zoo thing she tried out a long time ago missed a few? Well, the zoo experience didn't really have an aquarium either, so it wasn't that big of a collection...
Noticing that she was getting side-tracked, she returned her focus to the features of the mysterious animal, squinting hard before 3 blue popup boxes suddenly appeared in her vision.
New Spell Learned!
Spell Learned: Identify
Spells, huh? This is definitely an RPG, then… I wonder if Reg and the others played this game.
Identify, LVL 1
Description: "Who needs to jot down notes for identifying stuff when you can just magic the info out of your ass?" – Anonymous
Spend Mana with the intent to learn information about anything that can be perceived through the five innate senses to activate this spell.
Having knowledge of certain Identifiables will reveal secret Qualities about them, allowing you to tap into said Qualities for added benefits for slaying and harvesting or creating something out of it.
Entities, monsters, fauna, and some flora with a higher level cost more Mana to Identify, increasing by 5 Mana per level above this Spell's Level.
Target must be visible to the Spellcaster and must be very detailed to the Spellcaster's senses at the moment of the spell being cast (e.g. being up close, being tasted, being smelled etc.), or be a large Identifiable for vision-based Identifications (e.g. mountain, tower, Treant).
With every level that this spell increases by, less Mana will be spent on its casting (down to a maximum of 10 MP per cast, maxing at Level 5).
Mana Cost: 15 MP per casting
EXP Gain: 1 EXP per casting, per unique Identifiable
Current EXP: 0/100
Valerie chuckled at the description of the spell, finding it to be uncannily similar to what Reg would've said to a T. He'd always been really into all of these gamey things, and he for sure had said something like that before.
Oh, right! The chipmunk! I must’ve inspected it!
Quickly toggling through the blue popups, Valerie finally got to the one she wanted to see.
Identified: Rinto Cheeker, LVL 2
Description: A species of cheeker native to the region of Rinto. These elusive rodents make use of their Nature-infused mana to change the colouring of their fur, making them harder to find with the naked eye. A cheeker’s saliva also brings out pleasant flavours in foods that are otherwise bland or contain bitter compounds, often becoming a useful pet for most culinary Classes and restaurants; the Rinto Cheeker has the distinct ability to turn any berry it stores in its cheeks into a sweet jam-like substance.
Once tamed, the Rinto Cheeker can find and store nuts and berries for you within their cheek pouches. The food that they find will have a higher chance of being a higher rarity the higher level they are.
1 EXP Gained.
Complete Character Creation by touching the World Tree.
"So it changes colour like what some implants already do…" she said, impressed at how similar the magic of the chipmunk was to the stuff some people already had in reality. Though she herself never saw the appeal of such implants, Paulo was more than ecstatic when he was finally able to change the skin on his body to any colour he wanted, inviting everyone he knew to a rave that he hosted in the apartment they all shared just so he could show it off.
“Good times,” she said, her sadness returning to the fore as she recalled the times the four of them—her, Aimee, Reggie, and Paulo—all spent together as a found family, just having the best of times together.
The squirrel suddenly scuttled away, distracting Valerie from her brooding enough for her to get her head back in the game, heading down the tiny hill that she had woken up on, bounding in the direction of where a massive tree with a wide and circular canopy—exceeding the height of any skyscraper Valerie had ever seen before—stood proudly, all manner of fruits growing on its wide branches. The fruits themselves were also ginormous in size, closer to the size of an average apartment room than any fruit she’d seen before, and each fruit had their own respective shape and colour.
"Oh. That tree.” Valerie took a moment to rub the wetness away from her eyes, then smiled with determination as she refocused on the tree. “Inspect, if you kindly would!" Her mind was abuzz with wonder and amazement at how beautiful it was. The following blue pop-up turned all of that on its head, however.
Identify failed due to lacking MP caused by the Target's Level exceeding yours by 999!
MP refunded.
Please head towards the World Tree.
This notice box only exacerbated her curiosity despite her inability, fortunately, forcing her to sate such an inclination by making her way to the World Tree. The distance between her and the tree, however, was large, with a dense forest in between, so it would take her quite a while to make her way there.
But Valerie was nothing but filled with free time.
I can practise my spell while I make my way there, at least! What about this grass here?
“Inspect, please!”
Identified: Bedgrass
Description: A type of grass that rivals the softness of a bed.
Bedgrass can be used for Resting, increasing Health Regen, Stamina Regen, and Mana Regen by 5% when at rest.
No EXP Gained.
Complete Character Creation.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Oh. No EXP? Do they need to be animals to give EXP?
Valerie, wondering how intricate this ‘EXP’ system was, knelt down on the soft bed of Bedgrass and dug her hands into it before pulling hard. A clump of roots followed her destructive wake, a creepy crawly skittering away from the sudden reveal but not before Valerie could Inspect it.
Identified: Pillbug
Description: A.k.a. Roly-Polies by everyone, this isopod is also a good early ingredient for newbie alchemists.
Bake until completely dry then crush into a fine powder for maximum effect.
No EXP Gained.
Traveller, please stop Identifying everything you come across, and please head towards the World Tree.
Valerie leapt to her feet with a gasp, her earlier wonder replaced with surprise. "Alchemy!" she exclaimed, before reaching down to grab the Pillbug hurriedly. A blue pop-up appeared the moment she tried to pocket the little guy, however.
Inventory Not Yet Accessible!
Walk towards the World Tree to begin Character Creation.
You can Identify and store items in your Inventory as much as you want later, but only once you complete making your character.
I’m begging you. Please head towards the World Tree.
I'm begging you? I'm?
"Who're you?" Valerie tilted her head to the side, a bit put-off, and pointed a finger at the blue pop-up box. She knows that the game's meant to have NPCs that act like real humans via the use of AI tech and from the donated memories from the brains of those who transferred their consciousness to the digital world, but she didn't suppose the game's alerts and pop-ups would utilise the technology. At least it had some personality, she supposed.
I really have no idea what this game is about, huh? Welp, it’s fun so far, at least!
No response came to answer her question, however. Shrugging inwardly to herself, Valerie kept digging through the dirt, finding a wriggly worm. Excitedly, she identified it.
“Inspecto patronus, or something!" She didn't quite remember the phrase that her mother would blurt out every now and then for no apparent reason, but she knew it sounded something similar to what she said.
Identified: Nightcrawler Worm
Description: "A wise fisherman always brings a couple of these along." – Legendary Fisherman Terryn, Leviathan Slayer
Used for fishing and taming. Mainly attracts fish, but can attract other animals as well.
No EXP Gained.
I can't communicate with you directly because I'm limited to the System. Also, you're wasting your Mana since you're not getting EXP from doing that, so stop Identifying things and just get on with it.
"Oh, that explains why you didn’t respond,” Valerie said, crouching above the little patch of overturned, “Wait… Why don't I have unlimited Mana...? Oh, look! There's a weird-looking plant!" Placing the wriggly worm back onto the soil and covering it with the Bedgrass she uprooted, Valerie walked a short distance towards a plant of some kind.
Inspect!
Identified: Dragontongue Fern
Description: "Dude, I'm not lying. That stuff stings like a bitch. My asshole still burns, man." – Anonymous
A common alchemical ingredient. Just don't use it to wipe after nature’s call.
No EXP Gained.
If I tell you why you don't have unlimited Mana and answer one of your burning questions, will you then go and complete your Character Creation?
Valerie earnestly shrugged, herself unsure whether she would. Now that she could see it first-hand, she was far too curious about how forests worked as an ecosystem to be completing any type of quest, no matter if it was as simple as creating a character. “Maybe,” she responded, walking towards a cluster of beige mushrooms with a variety of yellow spots on their caps.
That looks gross, she thought. Inspect, good sir!
Identified: Raymond's Skirt
Description: "Raymond, you drunk shit, *hic*. Y'listen to me, m'kay…? Pee on the skirt-mushroom." – Great Hero of the Era of Darkness, speaking to his Eternal Servant, Raymond
Alchemical ingredient for concocting poisons. Don't eat these.
No EXP Gained.
…
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Deeper within the forest proper, Valerie stopped suddenly after seeing a vine lashed around a struggling Mallowbird, wisps of dark-green energy floating away from the Mallowbird and being absorbed by the vine.
Identified: Constrictor Vine, LVL 1
Description: A coiling vine that seeks to strangle whatever brushes against its fine hairs, sapping the invader's lifeforce via intrusive Natural energies, strengthening the Constrictor Vine.
Once tamed, the Constrictor Vine can be used as a rope for any number of uses, as well as to support you during battle.
No EXP Gained.
If you’re lost, you can just admit it. No one’s judging. You’re only getting further and further away from the World Tree if you keep heading that way.
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Valerie looked down at her stomach which had just begun to growl.
You are now Hungry.
Health, Stamina, and Mana regenerate slower by 10%.
Thankfully, there were plenty of berries around.
Identified: Jumbo Berries
Description: A tasty berry.
Sates Hunger by 5.
No EXP Gained.
It has been six. Fucking. Hours. Are you getting off on this shit? Fucking sicko. For the love of all that is holy: please, just select your race already.
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Identified: Witch's Cloak Lichen
Description: A dark-grey lichen that awfully resembles a certain Calamity-inducing Witch's cloak. It's almost like she burst into spores the moment King Rathnir slew her, vowing to contaminate the freshwater people hydrate themselves with as her last hurrah, or something…
A mushroom with dire consequences. Ingest if you want to reset your entire Avatar's save file, essentially having to recreate a new character from scratch.
Tastes oddly like cinnamon.
Could be used for alchemical purposes, if you're crazy enough to attempt it.
LEGENDARY ITEM FOUND!
No EXP Gained.
YOU JUST FOUND A LEGENDARY ITEM. BUT YOU MISSED OUT ON THE 1,000 IDENTIFY EXP, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN STORE IT, YOU FUCKING IMBECILE, I FUCKING HATE YO–
Valerie toggled the notice box away the moment this System character-person began swearing once more.
This wasn't the first time she had been sworn at by the System. Not at all. It must've been the fifth time she's been cussed at if she remembered correctly. She felt much happier, though. Making them mad for hours on end was really cathartic for some reason, albeit a bit morally questionable, though she really didn't intend to. She was just really curious about all the game had to offer, so she wanted to be thorough with the World Tree area. Waiting for her mana to regenerate to keep identifying things did take some time, however, but it was well worth it in her opinion.
Welp, not like she was going to play this game after she settled into her new home in Avalon.
Speaking of Avalon; the train must be close to its destination.
Another blue box appeared in her vision, along with the sounds of a victory trumpet blaring in the far-off distance, coming from the direction of the World Tree.
MYTHICAL TRAIT ACQUIRED!
System Error: User has no Avatar
Resolving…
…Fail
System Error: User has no Avatar
Resolving…
…Fail
System Error: User has no Avatar
Resolving…
…System Manual Override: Success
A crunchy, discordant noise sounded through the forest, coming from where the World Tree was. The ground underneath Valerie began to collapse, losing its integrity as a wave of energy cleaved through the trunks of the large Redwood-like trees, its ghastly aura turning the rich, dark soil into lifeless, coarse sand; turning the bountiful forest into a flawless recreation of New Earth; turning the fleeing animals into maggot-filled carcasses with bare sinew and bone.
And now it neared Valerie.
"Shit."
Like those grisly videos of a deer in headlights, Valerie stood still, accepting her death in the virtual world.
You have died from [Unknown Causes]!
No set Spawn Point.
Respawning in Vaelynwood (Tutorial) Respawning in The White Lands.
WARNING!
Player Valerie is LVL 1. The White Lands are intended for LVL 200 players and above.
You are severely under-levelled.
Would you still like to proceed?
YES/YES
Uh-oh, Valerie thought. She waited for a few minutes for the blue box to change one of the possible choices, but nothing happened and it was beginning to seem like she couldn't do anything about it. No, please?
Sorry!
Option "No" is not applicable!
WARNING!
Player Valerie is LVL 1. The White Lands are intended for LVL 200 Players and above.
You are severely under-levelled.
Would you still like to proceed?
YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YESYES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES/YES
Welp, they’re pissed off big time. Yeah, sure, I guess.
Affirmative, Player Valerie.
Manifesting Player Valerie's Avatar: Valerie, LVL 1, to The White Lands!
"Hello?" A voice pinged directly into her mind. It had come from the FullDive Pod, through the comms on the outside of the VR device.
Scrambling to answer, Valerie woke up—
Dreamtime Session Disconnected.
The Session will continue upon your return.
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—And proceeded to bump her head against the tempered glass window of the FullDive Pod, the sore bump on her head from earlier feeling the sting. A steward stood in front of the Pod, stifling their laughter with a faux smile. Massaging the pain and embarrassment away, Valerie exited the pod with a stretch, feeling refreshed, and taking a glance at the session info before the Pod closed.
Dreamtime Session duration: 6 hours, 26 minutes, and 9 seconds.
Session's Most Played: 'The Avalon Project: Ascension Bound' – 6 hours, 25 minutes, 43 seconds.
We look forward to your return, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
"Good evening, madam," the steward said, any hint of a lack of professionalism gone. Valerie turned to face them as they continued. "We are nearing Avalon City in about two hours and our trip's scheduled dinner is being served as we speak. We advise eating before continuing with your Dreamtime Session, lest the tri-hourly Status Assessment kicks you out during an important time.”
Oh, right. I completely forgot it did that.
"Thanks for waking me up. Nearly lost track of time in there,” Valerie said with a chuckle, quickly moving to take her luggage bag out of the compartment it was stored in, dragging it to her side.
The man nodded once she had gotten ready. "No problem, madam.” He stepped out of the cramped room’s space, pointing at the direction of the back end of the train, and directed her to the dining cubicles at the back. “If you would kindly please follow me.”
Valerie followed suit, looking forward to the pre-war cuisine that she was told about in the full brochure. She’d had enough of all-you-need-in-one shakes for ten lifetimes, so a change of texture was practically a godsend in and of itself.
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Reggie, having to message his Guild Leader for directions to their Adamantium mining site, accessed his System to get to his Socials tab.
His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets the moment he saw a certain someone on his Friends list who was just playing almost 40 minutes ago. Hurriedly taking off his VR helmet and stumbling out of the VR Pod he was in, he turned to face Aimee sitting on the sofa opposite of him, her own VR helmet donned.
Quickly reaching over the table between them, he hovered his hand above her head. “Yo. Aims.” Reggie began slapping Aimee’s helmet over and over again, the short woman glaring back at him as she took her helmet off to see what he was pestering her for. “Val’s playing—”
“—I don’t wanna hear you even say her name around me, Reg,” Aimee interrupted, returning her helmet to her head and pushing Reggie’s hand away from where it was above her.
“Yeah, man,” Paulo added from where he lay on the mattress on the floor, blowing out a puff of smoke in his mouth. “She fuckin’ left us for fuckin’...” He scratched his head with the hand holding his blunt. “Man, what the fuck was that place called again?”
“Avalon,” Aimee answered with a hint of disgust in her tone. “Land of the fucking pampered. The people there are just like the fucking mindless droids in this goddamned city…” Aimee sniffed at the air, her hand suddenly shooting towards Paulo. “Gimme that, I need a hit.”
Paulo grinned a fanged smile and obliged, handing over the blunt after one last deep puff and Aimee following suit.
Reg shook his head with a slight headache, his lung implants working overtime to purify the smoke that was entering his body through the secondhand exposure. “No, you guys don’t understand. She’s never played the game before—it listed her as being a Level 1 Human, so obviously fresh to the game—but she’s at a Level 200 area. Two-fucking-hundred.”
“Bullshit,” Aimee said, but from the sudden movements of her haptic-gloved hands, she was obviously checking to see for herself, a moment passing before her hands stopped mid-air. “You weren’t kidding… Holy fucking shitballs...”
“Holy fucking shitballs,” Reg agreed, just as surprised as her. “And it even says that she’s using Avalon’s latest Pods too. Lucky sonuvabitch, that one is.”
Alarms suddenly blared in the far distance, likely coming from the inner city with just how quiet it was, before abruptly ending.
Huh. Must’ve been a false alarm.
Paulo giggled. “You think she ate one of those synth Avalon execs out or somethin’?” Paulo joked, his head lolling around, his high-as-fuck smile showing off his fanged teeth. He looked to be half-asleep, truth be told. “Y’know… To get that far into the game or some shit?”
“What the fuck, Paulo,” Aimee said, the previous hint of disgust from earlier now less of a hint and more of a fact. “Just shut the fuck up, dickhead.”
Achieving his goal of teasing Aimee, Paulo giggled deliriously once more before falling asleep, leaving Reggie and Aimee the last two awake in the apartment.
Reggie and Aimee just sat on their sofa chairs, both of them just absorbing the surprising turn of events. Aimee more so, but that was to be expected. Reggie guessed that she was probably worrying for Valerie, but he genuinely believed that Val would pull through. She always did, anyway, no matter how bad it got.
“You go, Val,” Reggie murmured as he imagined what the hell that girl could be up to, failing to hide his smile. “Make us proud. We miss ‘ya big time, kid.”
And not even a second after Reggie thought those words in his mind, a familiar blue box appeared in his mind unprompted.
AVALON INDUSTRIES
We hope you enjoy your Dreamtime Session!
“What the fuck?” Reggie and Aimee said in unison. Paulo was startled at that exact moment, having clearly been woken up by what Reggie assumed to have been the same thing that popped up in his mind.
Then all three of them suddenly fell asleep, in unison with the rest of the world.