*Thud* ** *Thud*
"Hey! You in there? Why didn't you wait for me."
Someone was knocking at the door, though Derrik could probably guess who it was. At the moment he was taking a bath in his pitifully small apartment, and wasn't feeling too accommodating to certain annoying young girls.
So, he just ignored her.
There were only 3 hours left until the game launched, and he wanted to dive in as soon as possible, not that he had a real goal or anything like that in mind, but who wouldn't be enchanted by the idea of living in a fantasy world. Until then, he wanted nothing more than to be left alone.
He opened the mini fridge by the bath. Yes there is a mini fridge in the bathroom, and sighed as he let his body go limp in the steaming hot bath water. He took out a stick of moose jerky and started gnawing on it.
...The sight of him eating in the bathtub was pretty sad. Like pathetically so.
'Shaddap you damn narrator!'
Well it wasn't as if Derrik had any qualms about his lifestyle. Especially after highschool, Derrik found that no matter what his choice in life, his parents would support him financially. Already giving him a monthly allowance comparable to the pay of a small family doctor. Having little ambition as he was already financially well off, and no higher purpose in mind, Derrik did what any normal person would do. He became a total moocher! But contrary to what you might think, he didn't become a party animal like those college kids you always hear about. In fact, he found it tedious to have to deal with people all the time, as get-togethers were nothing more than a "who has the biggest dick" contest half the time.
Serious girlfriends were also non-existent for him as most found him to not put enough if any effort into the relationships, while the others that would've taken him anyways seemed a bit too desperate for his tastes. His antisocial behavior didn't make him many friends over these past 5 years, as he gradually became more and more isolated, passing the time with online games and stories.
So how did he end up in a tiny little apartment? A few reasons... First and foremost is that he seriously didn't want to clean anything if necessary. Secondly, he didn't want to completely cut himself off from other people, so he moved into area near a university, so he bumped into a lot of young adults regularily. And lastly, although he had money, he didn't actually want to spend it excessively on things he didn't need.
So he ended up with a cramped space with the bare necessities, a stove, a fridge, and a bathroom. It was so cramped, he had to move the bed out of his room to fit the new capsule.
*Thock**Thock* *** *Click*
The door slammed open as Panini huffed and puffed into the room.
"I WAS YELLING FOR YOU FOR HALF AN HOUR!"
Barely looking up from the tub in the next room, he asked,
"How did you get in?"
"I let her in." From behind the angry little yordle, was his apartment manager, a kindly looking old man with a swanky looking moustache. "She was bothering the other tenants, so I decided to help her out a bit" And with a cheeky grin totally befitting of a senior, he dashed away.
"Say....can you grab my clothes from my closet?"
Absolutely no shame.
With her face slowly turning a brighter and brighter shade of pomegranate, whether from embarrassment or rage, Panini stiffly walked towards the closet and picked some clothes at random before throwing them in the bathroom and slamming the door.
Sighing, he pulled his naked body from the bath and started drying himself off. Looking at the clothes strewn about the floor, he begun dressing himself. he also amused himself somewhat with the fact that no matter what she picked, it wouldn't change how he looked at all.
He bought most of his clothes in bulk and in the same color, so like a true NEET or anime character, his entire wardrobe consisted of black sports shirts, black socks and grey sweat pants.Some of his neighbors thought he didn't shower or change since he literally wore the exact same thing every day.
"So what do you want babe?"
Leaving the bathroom, he saw Panini turn into a brighter shade of red...by now it was obvious...that it was not embarassment...probably with all the veins popping out of her forehead.
"What do you mean what do I want! I saved you a spot! I thought you'd at least have the decency to wait for me!"
"Maybe it was because I didn't want to wait 6 hours while you were creating your character"
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu Fine! I'll stop bugging you about it, anyways let's go to my room, we have to pick our names and starting locations. Her color palette started to return back to normal.
"Say wha-?"
"We have to choose a name and starting location on the computer before we can play the game."
"What sort of shitty planning is this!"
Not counting the insanely long wait times for character creation, they also had to go on a computer now? The PR group for Nyxramas did not provide any details to the game itself, preferring to stay vague and mysterious. In all honestly, it sounds as if the game was a scam in itself.
"Well, Nyx didn't release a map, but people would complain if they were put too far away from their friends, they can pick and choose the same starting area so they don't have to cross an entire world to meet up.
"..."
"You were going to play with me right?"
Oh shit....
"Well, we probably have different races, so the starting areas we can go to are probably different"
Nice save.
"Dummy, that's why we check the starting areas before hand, so we can see if we have any that overlap!"
"Fine fine, you're the boss, now let's go to your room"
Satisfied that she won, she dragged him by the hand, and they lumbered towards her suite, which oddly enough was straight across from his. Her suite was slightly bigger, but for the most part it was the same except for a table with a laptop beside her capsule.
Sitting on a cushion nearby, she flipped open her laptop and logged in to the Nyxramas Gaming Website. She shoved her laptop into Derrik's hands.
"You go first, I'll watch."
Entering his capsule number and case sensitive password, the entire interface of the website lit up.
Welcome to Nyxramas, Please choose your Nickname
Choosing your characters name! The bane of all RPG players. The hardest hurdle that must be passed before beginning your adventure. Like seriously...it's the hardest part.
Some players liked to use actual names like Jerry or Kato, while other's liked titles like Ice Queen or Bloody Rose, but Derrik had absolutely no clue as to what he wanted his name to be. Nothing feminine nor boring, and it couldn't be a male name since he was playing as a girl character.He wanted a name that had significance, but he had no idea what he was going to be in the game. Heh...Que Sera, Sera....whatever will, be will be eh? Suddenly he found his inspiration for his name.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Player Name: Mon Que Sera
It sounded like something you'd call a latino dancing girl, but no matter. Thinking on it, Derrik thought that this was was definitely the right choice. Although from different languages, the bastardized term could be translated into "My Whatever Will Be". Bootleg poeticism he called it.
Sounds like a term that girls would use to describe their crushes. Hue hue.
Race Demi-Human: Shadow Demon Variant Confirmed. Please Select Starting Location
"Ooh that sounds fancy." Panini exclaimed.
"Indeed" Derrik smirked inwardly, as Panini had no idea that he was a girl, but just then the screen flared blue again, and both of their faces froze in surprise.
Under starting locations, there was only one option available
Plains of the Shadow Butterfly
Elven Empire: Eltaor
"Well I guess we don't have to cycle back and forth between our locations at least" Derrik clicked on the location, and the screen flared blue once more.
*Ping*
Location confirmed. You may now log in the Nyxramas in approximately 2:11:01 hours.
"Well that was kind of half-assed" Derrik sighed.
Panini snatched the laptop and "Hehe my turn"
After the screen flared blue once more she typed in.
Player Name: Phantom Teddy Bear
Derrik just stared at her.
"What...."
"I'm not calling you Phantom Teddy Bear" He said flatly.
"But whyyyy, you have a long sounding name" She whined
"Just no!"
"Fineeeeee" She editted her name"
Player Name: Phanto
.....This naming sense.
"...Ok I take it back, call yourself Phantom Teddy Bear"
"NYUUUUUUH, It's not that bad of a name!"
Player Name: Phantom Teddy Bear
"I guess I'll just call you Fanny in game then"
"That makes me sound like a mob-bosses girlfriend!"
Unique Race: Ancient Guardian :Battle Bear Confirmed. Please Select Starting Location
He stared at her again....."Just what the heck have you been doing!"
She grinned sheepishly, "Remember that guy who helped us at the Nyx Terminal?" After Derrik nodded affirmative, she continued, " Well I took so long, that people were getting really mad at us, and he was begging for me to hurry up...Well I didn't feel like it since I wanted to try modifying all of the races, and he told me he'd give me a special one if I'd just finish faster.
Indirect Extortion! Derrik didn't know whether he was impressed or exasperated with how Panini got her special race. And damn, that Bob character really doesn't give a rats ass about his job.
They looked back to the list of starting locations as their eyes widened in shock. There were thousands upon thousands of pages each filled with dozens of locations, just what the heck did that guy do!
"....Wow....."
But the oddest part of it all was
Cave of Goblin King Harold
The Savage Lands
Hot Spring Cavern
Orc Kingdom Dudestia
Man Bear Pig's Lair
The Land of Dreams
All the locations appeared to be caves! Panini typed into the search bar for the Elven Empire, and the amount of locations narrowed down to just a few thousand....Yeesh.
"Which one should I pick?"
Now even without knowing the map of Nyxramas, anything with Empire in it's name would have to be pretty huge, so they couldn't just decide willy nilly.
"Hrmmmm...maybe try searching for a cave with butterflies" Derrik suggested being unable to come up with any better ideas. Panini typed it along with her search and sighed in relief as she found only 2 locations
Mating Grounds of the Shadow Butterfly
Elven Empire Eltaor
Butterfly Graveyard
Elven Empire Eltaor
One of the locations contained the word butterfly, but one was obviously in the same area as Derrik's character. Both sounded equally bad to Derrik, but Panini had different ideas...."The butterfly graveyard seems pretty scary, it's pretty lucky that we have such good locations. She clicked the location and blue light flared.
Location confirmed. You may now log in the Nyxramas in approximately 2:08:01 hours.
"Great, we still have 2 hours, wanna go grab something to eat?" She bounced up and down, and without even waiting for an answer, she started dragging him out the door, obviously hyped to be able to play so soon.
Derrik only had to stifle a laugh....oh baby you have no idea what's coming to you.