Reality Break Ch. 01

One thing he did notice that most of the attention he was getting was coming from the female players. If he looked over in the direction of one of these female players, they would immediately shy away or turn a shade of red. Perhaps they felt somewhat sick or hot?

Still, Glass felt somewhat uncomfortable among the numerous stares in his way, so he set forth to explore more of this place. He moved towards the direction of the hamlet, more specifically, the edge of the cliff the town was situated on. He strolled through the quaint village, meandering about in no particular set path. He found himself greatly enjoying the sights the town had to offer.

The streets were paved with simple cobblestone that allowed easy access for carriages or other wheeled implements to easily access the streets. There were lampposts on every corner and every several meters on the longer streets that would illuminate the streets at night. Various plants were growing around the area, with most of them being lovely and delicate morning glory that draped over the walls of most buildings. Thistle plants grew on some of the grassy areas along with several other types of dazzling flowers accentuating the harmonious beauty of the village. The atmosphere of the place in general was quite pristine, as if no sorts of corruption could penetrate the area.

Even as Glass walked along the streets, he managed to turn female's heads, many of which tried to hide their pointing fingers and stares. He looked in the direction of one of these females, apparently a Dark Elf player, who blushed and moved her gaze away. Glass had no idea what her problem was, but he ignored her.

Eventually, he came to the cliff the town was situated on top of, only to find his breath taken away. He stopped in front of a fence designed to keep players from accidentally falling off, though if one wanted to, they could jump off, or if they were a Hawkman, they could glide off of the cliff. Still, what Glass saw completely destroyed what expectations he had of this world, or more accurately, it completely halted his mind, forcing him to gasp and stagger at the sheer beauty of the sight.

What he saw from the cliff was a magnificent city bathed in the golden sun. It was squished in between two cliffs, both of which had towns, one of which Glass was currently in. Glass couldn't see the end of the cliffs, though he assumed the city stopped at one point. It was as if the famous Hanging Gardens morphed into an entire city. Staggeringly pretty greenery adorned almost every building's rooftops, many of which even had full trees. On one side of the city held an inspiring temple that resembled a mix of a mosque and a church. Several colossal statues stood guard at the entrance of the temple, both with giant stone weapons. Off in the distance, he could see one Hawkman making the jump and glide into the city, eventually landing on one of the many gardenesque rooftops.

Glass wanted nothing more but to enter that city, but how? He couldn't glide like a Hawkman. His eyes eventually traveled to a gondola that without doubt had the function of taking players down form the cliff villages into the city. Perhaps that was the only way non-winged players could enter the city. No matter, that was the only viable option Glass saw.

He trotted off towards the gondola with a bounce in his step, clearly enjoying himself. There was a small line for the gondola, thankfully it wasn't terribly long or else it probably would have taken quite a while for Glass to enter the city. Taking a spot in the line, Glass waited patiently.

Once again, several female gazes turned towards him, for reasons Glass couldn't fathom.

Unbeknownst to Glass, a single female player got in line behind him with the sole purpose of following the handsome High Elf player. The reason why all these female players were staring at Glass was the same reason that one girl was getting in line, all because they have never seen such a handsome player. They figured he was some sort of model that perfectly conjoined feminine grace and masculine virility. And because a player's character was supposed to be closely modeled after the players themselves, all of the female players figured they stumbled upon perfect specimen of a man. Still, they had no idea of knowing that Glass was actually a female in real life as there had never been a single player in this game that played a character opposite of their gender.

Glass was completely oblivious to the numerous female players' piercing gazes. He had no idea that he was so handsome to the numerous girls and women of this game. While he previously greatly admired his character's body when he was female, he could not fathom that the reason behind all these stares was for that reason. In fact, Glass felt somewhat perturbed, the constant staring made him fairly uncomfortable.

Eventually the line came up to him. Glass found himself standing in front of a human character, most likely an NPC, asking for the fare to the gondola.

Wait, fare? What fare? I've got no money...

Indeed, one obviously should pay a fare when it came to public transportation, and apparently with game money that was called cogs. The coins resembled miniature ornate cogwheels, hence the slang name for the money. On the main menu, which any player can pop up at any time, there was a banking type system in which players can deposit their cogs and withdraw whenever needed. Basically, say you had one hundred cogs in a bag, you pressed the deposit button and the bag of cogs disappeared. And then if you wanted around fifty cogs back to pay for something, you would put in the amount you wanted and press withdraw and a cloth bag would appear in your hand with the amount of cogs you wanted. Because of this annoying process, many players carried around a bag or two of cogs on their person, though they were susceptible to pickpocketing, which was actually allowed in the game.

Still, in this case, Glass had no idea what cogs were or that he needed them to pay for the gondola fare.

The again asked for money with a tone that resembled a grumble and forced happiness at the same time, "Th' fare is ten cogs, pay and you can go down in th' gondola. No hagglin'."

Glass rubbed his head before talking out loud unintentionally, "Ah damn... I don't have any money."

Fortunately, a savior was found in the female player that was behind Glass, "Here you go! Ten cogs for the fare." The girl said as she passed a bag that must have contained ten cogs.

Glass nodded his head thankfully and passed it on to the fare taker. The NPC counted out the cogs just like an actual person would do and placed the money in a box nearby before pointing a thumb behind him at the arriving gondola. The person who gave Glass the cogs gave ten more to the fare taker and followed Glass into the gondola. For some reason, there were no more people in line to take the gondola and that made Glass and the generous female player the only occupants of the slowly moving cabin.

Glass made his gratitude known to the female player, "Ah, thank you very much for that money. As you can probably see, I'm brand new to this game."

The female player was a fellow elf, though a member of the Undine race. The undines were apparently what you could call the aquatic race, like the Hawkmen are the flying race. This particular undine had skin with a pinkish blue hue, she had fin like ears, glossy hands and lips, a well proportioned body, and all in all... Quite a pretty person. Glass had no idea whether this person was just as attractive in real life as in this game, though he decided there was no point in judging people by their looks in a VR game.

The undine girl spoke with a rosy voice, "Really, it's no problem! You looked like a new player so I just wanted to help out. May I ask your name? I'm Blossom."

That is quite a flowery name that really seems to suit her, that was what Glass though before he replied amiably, "My name is Glass. So, how long have you played this?"

Blossom seemed somewhat excited as blood rushed to her head, for reasons unknown to Glass. She was talking to probably the most handsome and beautiful male player she had seen yet. If she could, and she did, Blossom would attach every positive adjective to Glass possible. With vigor, Blossom answered the question put to her, "Well, 'Rebellions' has been out for roughly a month... So I'd saaaaay, about three weeks now? Though due to certain... Complications, I've been unable to play the game seriously until several days ago and I haven't spoken to many people so far. That's why I am, um... Somewhat excited to be talking with a brand new player that has yet to play very much. Even so, I'm not terribly experienced in this game yet, I haven't done many of the serious events and boss fights. I've only trained against normal creatures and players."

And that was the truth. Blossom had already fought a variety of creatures, and several bosses. She had even fought a couple players with the wins mostly in her favor.

Glass, upon looking up the available public information about Blossom on his screen, noticed several things. The first was that she was level nine, she was a base mage class, and she apparently loved strawberries. When you know a player's name, you can look up their public information they set to public. Which among the possible bits of public information are a player's level, their class archetype, their base stats, their money, their guild or group affiliation, and various bits of personal information. Glass had yet to set his public information so it was all set as the default private information.

Glass found himself continuing the conversation, "Well, I literally just started playing this game like thirty minutes ago, and I've yet to fight anything. It's... I really can't fathom how majestic the places are here."

Blossom prodded Glass for more information mainly because every new player's public information started out as private, "So what's your class? What do you do outside of the game? Do you like strawberries?"

"Rogue, though I don't want to be stealthy... I'm in college. And yes, though I prefer raspberries." Glass found himself matching the quick pace of Blossom, who seemed enthusiastic when talking to him.

Blossom blessed her luck, she just met an extremely pretty and handsome player and she was becoming his friend, maybe they can even group up together? Just as she was about to ask, fortune turned her way.

Glass wasn't sure why Blossom was so flustered, perhaps she was tired? Still, he was thankful to have found such a nice person, especially in a type of game where you can keep your anonymity and still resort to merciless bullying or hate like in real life. He wasn't well versed in the type of language used by the players but he still asked politely, "If it's at all possible, would you mind showing me around the place?"

Score! Blossom praised various deities in her mind from Yahweh to the almighty Odin. "W-Well, how about I add you to my friends list and we group up? It'll be easier to keep track of one another if we do that." Blossom counted the seconds that went by until Glass replied.

Which he did, and quite eagerly at that, "Yea, sure! Though I don't know how to do that yet. I guess I pull up the menu?"

What Glass was talking about was the main menu that any player can pull up in front of their face mentally. It will only show up on the player's screen and no other player will see it. It gave a list of options: a log out button, a vague map, guild/group button, friends list, player database for looking at a player's public information, and an inventory because it would be impossible to carry everything one would need comfortably.

Just as Glass was about to go to the friends list, a notice showed up asking if he wanted to become friends with Blossom, which he accepted before he even noticed.

Blossom smiled amicably, her moist lips revealing a set of crystal white teeth. "Super, alright, now let me send a group invite. Groups let people see where their party members are at all times and we share items and money more easily if we weren't in one. Also, a group is permanent until it is disbanded, though I hope we won't have to do that soon."

Glass immediately accepted the group invite just like the friend request. Once he did, he noticed that a cartoonish face that resembled Blossom appeared on the vague map in the main menu.

They continued to talk about various things until the gondola reached its end, landing in a seemingly normal part of the city. Though Glass could still see that breath taking sights still, it obviously seemed rather lackluster when compared to the view from the cliff, but that was to be as expected.

Before the two walked five meters away from the gondola, an event happened.

A small group of people, who were obviously players, walked up to Blossom and Glass. A Changeling, who must have been the leader of the group, walked up to Blossom and began a conversation, "What's up, Blossom? Been a while since I've seen you. Seriously, come around here some more so I can talk to you."

Blossom, who was clearly annoyed, rolled her eyes and blandly said, "Look, Demonz (the player's name), you're obviously too douchey and sad to attract many women, and the same goes for me. Please die in a fiery plane crash. I'm currently busy at the moment if you haven't noticed."

Demonz turned his oversized cranium towards Glass and did his best to look menacing, "Really? This is a bloody level one noob (online slang for new player). You're really going to waste your time carting around this weaksauce?"

How very eloquent.

On a side note, Glass, with Blossom's help on the gondola, had set his public information to show his levels and class archetype, which was currently set as a rogue and level one.

Glass wasn't sure how to take this Demonz fellow's words, as this was his first time conversing with a type like this in a game. While he had a suitable repertoire of insults and comebacks when he was Glasie, this was an entirely new situation. Still, he improvised, "Hey, leave her alone, she obviously doesn't like your behavior. And this 'noob' here can obviously tell the difference between us, and it's not in your favor you tanned Guido." Demonz here reminded Glass of the people whom he found extremely annoying, basically the type of people who applied fake tans and still went out with their 'bros' to go to the beach for some tanning.

Demonz look perplexed, "I'm sorry, what did you just call me?"

"My bad, apparently my comeback was too cultured and refined for your insecure and miniscule brains." Glass deliberately used large words to confuse the less than educated player.

Completely ignoring Glass, Demonz turned back to Blossom, "Still, despite this little annoyance. Come join my guild and we can have some serious fun then, if not, then stay out of Archangel's territory, namely, this city." He then looked down on Glass, "And we better not see you around here, you're definitely on my shit list. I won't go easy on you even if you're a level one."

Then like some wannabe gang, Demonz led his posse into the city.

"That was... Unpleasant." Glass commented.

"Yea, sorry about that. Still, thanks for sticking up for me. He's been on my butt every single time I enter this city, which I need to in order to sell stuff and trade for supplies. Still, if we can't enjoy the city because of him and his guild, then let's go and enter the wilderness and fight your first enemies!"

While Glass was slightly depressed at the fact that he wouldn't be able to tour the city with people like Demonz were around, it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the other places and scenery. Besides, he could always come back here and explore another time. "Alright then, I'll follow you since I don't know where I'm going."

"If you check your map, you should see seven continents, right? Well each of them are based off of the continents of Earth, thus we are now in Atarea, the continent based off of North America. And this city, Sandy Oasis, is literally an urban oasis surrounded by a large forest with some mountains. This forest is where we'll fight some low level enemies for you start off with."

Glass obediently listened to Blossom's explanation of the basic geography of the current area, he was quite interested.

The two walked a straight line out of town, following a pathway that went along the edge of the cliff so as to avoid any of Demonz's friends. The gondolas were one of two ways to enter the city, excluding gliding in if you're a Hawkman, with the other way heading out the main entrance of the city. The main entrance poked out through the cliffs, which had an archway overhead where travelers could walk across from one cliff to the other. They kept a steady pace as they made their way to the edge of the pine forest with unusually large trees.

Soon, Glass' first NPC enemy was in sight, a basic wolf.

"Alright, wolves are pretty easy enemies to fight, just make sure they don't pounce on you and push you to the ground, if that happens, I'll intervene. Though I bet it won't!" Cautioned Blossom as Glass pulled out his shortsword.

It was strange, as it was the first time Glass had ever held a weapon in his life. Even back outside of VR, as Glasie, he never held an object with a threatening intention. It was quite exciting, he felt himself getting that anxious feeling telling himself to not embarrass himself in front of Blossom.

!!!The wolf howled and sped off towards Glass with the intent to attack its prey. It jumped for his neck with its fangs outstretched. Glass just barely managed to dodge, falling to the ground as he did before picking himself back up again. The wolf inched closer and Glass slashed his sword several times when the wolf got too close. He imitated what he saw in the movies and crouched down low, patiently waiting for the wolf to get close. Sure there were probably easier ways to fight, but this is what Glass came up with at the spot.

By a random bit of misfortune, Glass tripped over a rock as he was pacing around. He expected the wolf to attack then, but unexpectedly, right when he hit the ground, another a second wolf jumped right over him, aiming for the Glass that was still standing before he tripped.

"Shit that was lucky..." Indeed it was, a second wolf was about to attack him but he tripped and managed to dodge the unknown attack.

Before the wolf could turn around, Glass stabbed the creature in the stomach with his shortsword, instantly ending the NPC enemy's life. The first wolf jumped up and attacked by pushing Glass to the ground, but his sword was in a position where the force of the wolf pushed itself onto the tip of the sword, ending the second NPC enemy's existence.

"Ooooh! That was cool! You were pretty lucky there." Cooed Blossom as she clapped her hands as if congratulating an opera performance.

"Yea, I didn't expect that second wolf. Still, I fought my first two enemies and won! Sweet." Glass cocked his head to the side, "Eh? I gained a level?"

"Yea, a player always gains a level after killing its first enemy. Though you slew two this time, so you're already on your way to level three." Informed Blossom, she knew quite a bit about this game.

"So what do I get in leveling up?"

"Well, depending on what stats you were focusing on, you gain an increase to your base stats, check to see which ones increased. If you were doing a lot of melee fighting, carrying around heavy stuff like certain armors, or if perform lots of demanding priest spells, you get strength. If you were running around and doing lots of exhausting stuff, you gain endurance. Depending on your dodging and movements and reflexes, you get agility. If you focus on your senses and do allot of aiming for ranged attacks, you get perception. If you work a lot with spells, casting and what not, you get focus. Luck is the only unchangeable stat except if you equip luck boosting items." Blossom continued to speak with the fervor of a monk's sermon, "Also, depending on what skills you create, they will get slightly more powerful. I don't really know how to explain all the technical details, but say that if you were in a large battle, your level won't matter that much when compared to a one on one fight."