Reality Break Ch. 02

The girl pulled back her arm with a dagger in hand. Her eyes remained stalwart, keeping a monotone expression on her face as she found the perfect moment to throw.

Most players would attempt to toss at the area where the enemy would soon go, leading the target. The girl aimed directly for Ripfur, despite him continuously backpedaling thanks to Glass' persistent offense. And with special skills like these, there was an automated process that assisted players in their aim. Yet to Glass, it seemed as if the girl was performing the throw with her own skill, as if she knew how to throw daggers like some sort of ninja.

The dagger wheeled threw the air upon release. Before Glass or Ripfur could realize, the dagger found its way into the gnoll's ear canal. It moved fast enough to have no need of leading the target, it had reached ludicrous speed.

While there was a health counter for NPCs, if you hit them in a critical area, like the brain for a humanoid, instant death was achieved. Not only was killing a boss via critical spots incredibly tough, considering their stats and skills, doing such with only two people was an awesome feat.

"Wow, you actually got him that easily. Seriously, who are you?" Glass had to know.

"I wasn't designated one."

"What does that even mean? Everyone's got to choose a name when they first play this game. Mine is Glass because I love glassware."

"I... See. What is an acceptable name then?" The girl tilted her head as if baffled by the very concept of names.

"You really don't have a name, do you? Well, tell me about yourself. If we brainstorm, we can probably think of a decent name for ya!"

"I know that I was given a purpose before entering Rebellions."

(A purpose?) "What do you mean?"

"I... Do not know, yet."

"Well, that's not much help. Well, you're fairly pretty..."

"I'm... Pretty? What does that mean?"

(She's an odd one.) "You look attractive, especially for the Human race in this game. Though I can't say much, considering I'm very new to this game myself. Let's see... You have such beautiful hair, a vibrant red too!"

The girl stroked her lustrous mane. She seemed to take Glass' word to heart even though he couldn't tell through her bored expression.

"I got a good name for you- Scarlet. It's a normal name that takes into account your great hair!" Glass played with the girl's, now known as Scarlet, hair. He felt compelled to braid and see what the magnificent locks looked like while at its best with any assortment of hair products.

Glass, realizing his odd behavior, retracted his hands and tried to act more like a man. He was betraying his true nature by playing with Scarlet's hair, though she didn't seem to mind or care.

Scarlet bored her gaze through Glass and asked, "Why is it that you are a male... Yet your profile suggests you are a female?"

What?

"Ah, uh, what are you talking about? You can't play this game without playing your own gender after all. You're female after all, right?" Glass frantically tried to refute and escape the reality behind the question.

"I am not female. Nor am I male. I am a virus."

Three solid statements and three impossible statements.

"A virus... Just what are you talking about?"

"I am a virus designed to perform a certain function, which I have yet to understand. I am not a player, I am an AI, Artificial Intelligence."

Glass didn't even know what to think. What Scarlet was said had to be impossible. There was no possible way that such a declaration could be true. Yet he could clearly see nothing but realistic truth in her voice. "Wait, just WAIT a second... An AI? We may have VR technology, but there's no way we have any artificial intelligence!"

"My existence proves otherwise."

"An intelligent virus, should've called you Vira or something..."

"Why do you show concern?"

"Well, a virus is supposed to perform some sort of malicious act. Yet, there's no way I can see you do anything malicious of the sort. I don't see you screwing up the NPCs or messing with the environment. So far, you're playing the game like any normal player."

"I have the same capabilities as any player. Though in the end, I am a virus."

"Nope!"

"Huh?"

"You're Scarlet. A Human Ranger who just helped me kick the ass of a level twelve boss named Ripfur. I don't know or can't tell if you really are some sort of AI, but you're definitely Scarlet to me!"

"Ah..." Scarlet's eyes wavered, though they tightened up again quickly.

"Hey, I know, join my party with me and Blossom! You're really strong at this game, you'd be a fantastic help."

"I guess." A nonchalant answer came to Glass.

Glass took Scarlet's monotone in stride and enthusiastically bobbed his head. "Well, I'll have to ask Blossom if it's alright, since she's in the same group as I. I'm sure you'll be fine, however."

And with Scarlet being senselessly pulled along, Glass took off for the southern hamlet beside the Sandy Oasis town. A desert-like town made of mud bricks and rough stone, Sandy Oasis was a warm city filled with fantastic sights. It was set between two cliffs, where two other smaller towns were located with gondolas to take you down to the main city. However, due to annoyances in the city, Glass and Blossom decided to make the southern hamlet their meeting place.

Ten minutes of brisk walking eventually led the two to the hamlet and an inn called the Lion's Fang. Thanks to the sensory implants a VR system had, Glass could fully taste the simple, though delicious, dishes.

However, breakfast, lunch, or dinner was not the main purpose for his visit.

When Glass walked in with Scarlet close behind, many eyes, especially from the female cliente, focused on him. The High Elf didn't really feel the weight of the gazes so he nonchalantly walked in and towards a corner booth.

All of the female players, and a couple guys too, marveled within their minds of the sheer oppression Glass' player model. Extravagant looks, slender body, and silky hair all resounded within the patrons' minds. If Glass bothered, he could have eavesdropped on some of the whispers that soon came from everyone's mouths.

"Is he a model or actor?" "He has to be... Sooo handsome!" "He's so hot!" "Right!!!" "But... There's a girl sitting with him, she's really pretty too..." "Damn, he's taken?" "I so would've asked him to drink with me." "They look really good together." "I really want that guy all to myself!" "Haha, at least share!" "It says he's already in a group, probably with that girl." "I'd leave my guild in a heartbeat and team up with him..."

This and that, along with a few curses from some of the male patrons, could all be heard through the bar. A waitress with the usual barmaid outfit came forward to the booth Glass and Scarlet sat in and took orders.

Glass asked for some water for he and Scarlet as they were only waiting for Blossom.

Eventually, a familiar frantic face came in and fled over to Glass.

"Uh, hello, Blossom. Meet Scarlet, she should join our group."

Blossom immediately sat down and drank out of the glass of water that was poured for Glass without knowing, much to his distress, and sighed. "I tried talking to you through private chat so many times! Each time, it said, 'This player is not available at the moment.' But it didn't say you were offline or declining to talk to anyone, so I thought maybe it was a glitch. Just where did you go?"

"Huh? I also tried chatting to you through private chat when I was walking over to the Lion's Fang. I didn't get the same message as you though, I just got some sort of 'Error' sign each time."

Glass had already speculated that maybe this was the result of Scarlet, but he quickly declined the thought. An AI virus was still too fantastic of a thought for him. Even so, it didn't mean there was something wrong with Scarlet herself. And there was a single lingering feeling in Glass' mind that told him that Scarlet was telling the truth.

Blossom smiled through her shiny Undine skin, "It doesn't matter I guess, we could still find each other all right." She frequently shot looks at Scarlet from time to time, wondering whom this player was.

Glass asked if this Scarlet could join the group, and Blossom wasn't against the idea of expanding their group at all. It was just the fact that Glass had asked if such a pretty girl could join that irked her most of all.

"Well, I guess it would be ok... After that failure with the Alpha Wolf boss, it would be prudent to get a larger group. What can you do, um, Scarlet?" Blossom tried to keep an open mind.

"I guess I am a ranger with an Elevation Shift and Long Throw skills." Scarlet glanced at Glass who only nodded before answering.

"Elevation Shift? That's a rare skill."

"Don't worry about her skills, I met her when I was ambushed by a gnoll boss! We actually managed to kill it thanks to both of her skills."

Blossom opened her eyes widely. Slaying a boss, with only two level tens, was quite a feat. They had to have had a large amount of luck to even hope to have a chance of winning. "You're not kidding? Did you get any loot?"

Glass frowned and rubbed the back of his head, "Nothing special this time, though we both managed to level up to eleven." He added in with the point of his finger.

"Well, that's good. It's too bad you guys didn't get any loot from it, but gaining a level is always good."

The three talked some more, though the conversation never got around to the true identities of both Glass and Scarlet. The cause of this was Glass previously saying, "Scarlet, please don't tell anyone that you know I'm a girl outside of this game. Also, don't go around saying that you're an AI or a virus for that matter. Whether it's true or not, you can have big problems with the admins."

Scarlet had agreed without hesitation, though her reply seemed mechanical in a way. Things would get annoying if their oddities behind their identities were public knowledge.

"Well, if we're going to get more members in our group, we really need a type of healer. Just about any will do. And considering that copies of Rebellions are still being sold by the thousands every day, there's no end to the new players. So we'll have plenty to choose from."

Scarlet remained silent and monotone, but she paid attention. Glass did the same, but hummed under his breath.

"Since I just invited you to the group, Scarlet, there are three of us in the group. We can have four more players join us until our group is maxed. Obviously, the more players we have, the more enemies and bosses we can take on, but we'll have to divide up the money and items. We'll be fighting stronger enemies, and with the help of a group, we'll definitely win. Heck, with a group, we can probably enter a tournament or two for some big rewards!"

"Well, how do we go about recruiting people for our group?"

"I learned there are a couple ways. There are several NPC guilds, which are completely different from player guilds mind you. There's the Mercenaries' Guild for players who want to hire out their skills for players, groups, or teams. An Adventurer's Guild for players looking for a stable group to play with, we'll probably head there." Blossom moved her head around, as if trying to slosh up some ideas from the bottom of her mind. "And another viable option is to head to an arena. People often go there to fight for money against monsters or other players and many groups and guilds go there for recruitment. Because of that, the arena has been known to be a good place to show off to prominent teams. There isn't one in Sandy Oasis though. So we'll have to go to Castle Port, it's the biggest city in Atarea."

"I like the sound of that! Sounds like a fun place to go to!"

"Well, Glass, in order to get there, we need money for public transportation. We have enough for tickets and little left over for the two of us, but we'll need some money to get Scarlet a ticket."

"Is that so... You don't happen to have any money, do you?"

"Money?"

"Cogs, that's the currency in this game."

"Oh. Cogs are currency, I see. Yes I do have some."

"Really? How much? Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have all we need for three tickets."

"How much is required?"

"Around three-hundred cogs for a single ticket to Castle Port." Blossom answered, curious to see how much Scarlet had.

"Ah, that is good. I only have two thousand cogs. We won't run out then."

"Two thousand cogs? I see... TWO THOUSAND COGS? R-r-rich!" Blossom seemed normal at first, but then slammed her webbed palms on table and reacted loudly.

Glass also widened his eyes, but not to the level of Blossom's outburst considering he didn't know himself how many cogs one needed to be called rich in this game.

"Is that not enough?"

"No! That's more than enough! We could make the trip to AND back, all three of us! And with a teammate or two if we're lucky!"

"That's very good then." Scarlet never flinched once or opened her eyelids wider than what they were when initially entering the inn. Even in front of Blossom's reaction, she remained strangely monotone and quiet.

The people around in the bar were completely the opposite. Of course everyone would react when someone yelled out loud a large quantity of the game's currency.

Noticing everyone's stares, Blossom shyly sat back down and suggested, "Uhm, let's go out and train as a new team for a little while."

Glass snapped his fingers as he checked the current time. "Ah, I promised to meet someone at eight tonight. It's going on seven and I want to be ready."

Blossom, slightly depressed, asked, "You're going offline... When will you be back on?"

"Well, I've got classes tomorrow as well, so I guess around four."

"Ah yea, you said you're in a culinary school... You should try cooking in the game some time!" The Undine tried to brighten up her mood.

She never liked it when Glass went offline. As she had no choice but to keep playing and live in the Rebellions world. It was extremely depressing for her. However, whenever Glass was playing with her, she always was happy and having fun. Not only because of his good looks, but he was her first true friend in her forced reality.

Scarlet stared at Glass with unblinking eyes. "You... Will be offline, Glass? What does that mean?"

Blossom looked at the ranger, confused at the odd words. Glass coughed and said, "It's when a player goes out of the game. Don't worry. Just enjoy yourself here. Ah, Blossom, I need to tell something to Scarlet in private for a moment."

"Eh, what? Ah, all right..." Blossom was left hanging at the inn. "Wait a second! At least pay for the tip!" Blossom couldn't complain for long, as she was the only one to actually order something that required money.

...

"If you really are an AI program, then you obviously can't come out of Rebellions. So I guess you'll have to live here." Glass rubbed the top of his head as he considered the predicament.

"I see."

"You have plenty of cogs, so you can probably live in a luxury inn back in the Sandy Oasis if you want. Or you can stay here. Just remember, send a mail to this address if you need help..." Glass wrote down his email address on a slip of paper.

For convenience, all papers holding information were catalogued in a memory bank exclusive to each player. Glass handed the slip to Scarlet, which disappeared into a hundred different flakes that flew into the wind as it was saved to Scarlet's information index.

"Ah, thank you."

"Even if you're a virus AI, you seem just like any other player. I don't know what you were programmed to do, but you can call on me whenever you want." Glass flashed an immaculate smile that was improved upon exponentially by his dashing looks.

Even though she was only a generated AI, Scarlet couldn't help but break her monotone expression and blush just barely under her eyes. Perhaps it was a part of her programming, Scarlet couldn't tell nor cared. It was something different.

"Ah, t-thank you."

"A repeat, huh? Well, I'll be on a soon as possible tomorrow."

Glass patted Scarlet on the shoulder and proceeded to log off. The girl looked around, surveying her surroundings before overhearing a commotion nearby. A distressed scream notably pierced the area, a scream belonging to Blossom.

Investigating the predicament of her new teammate, Scarlet moved towards the source of the sound: in the middle of a large circle of players. Scarlet didn't know anything about the general culture of the players, so she waded through the crowd until she saw the center.

What she saw was apparent, but she asked a Hawkman player beside her what was going on anyways.

"PvP duel! Between that chick Blossom and that one Archangel guy that hangs out around here!" The Hawkman player replied enthusiastically with a turn of his head before focusing back on the ensuing battle.

Indeed, Blossom and a member of Archangel were engaging in a Player versus Player battle. Observing like some sort of Triad group, the player named Demonz, as well as his friend, stood by. The two, as well as the one fighting Blossom, were all members of the guild that officially ran Sandy Oasis, Archangel.

Guilds, clans, tribes, or whatever an association of players called themselves, could, if they gained enough notoriety and power, run various territories. Archangel had quickly gained power and numbers large enough to gain sovereign rule over the large city and the area around it including small villages and outposts.

At this moment, Blossom was pushing back the Archangel member drastically. Her opponent, named Cuisinart, was a level 14 Dark Elf mage, apparently of the Nightblade classification (cross Rogue and Mage).

"Wind Step!" Cuisinart unleashed his Wind Step ability, which allowed the user to literally walk on air. It had charges, which increased to its max amount of charges when left alone. The Dark Elf jumped up on the air, high above Blossom's head and raised his sword.

Blossom smirked and said, "Zephyr Launch" She sent a gale spiraling from her hand aimed at the ground. The result was Blossom launching herself in the air, as high as Cuisinart, and with a lightning bolt charged up in her other hand.

"Eat this!" With a cry, Blossom shot the bolt directly into Cuisinart's head.

The pain was instant to Cuisinart, who flew back down, recoiling from the pain. Eventually, the Dark Elf recovered and looked around for his opponent. "You're still up there?!" The player cried as he saw that Blossom was still floating in the air, holding onto a massive bolt of lightning.

"If you can't handle that level of pain, or even dodge a single lightning bolt... You obviously can't stop my Lightning Rod's attack!" Blossom said arrogantly, but correctly as well.

True to her words, Blossom was absorbing a large bolt of lightning from the sky, thanks to her Lightning Rod skill. Holding on to the bolt like a fireman's pole, Blossom slid down the pole like a fire-woman herself. As she moved down with increasing speed, the massive lightning bolt flew down with her and struck Cuisinart with magnetic precision.

You could practically see Cuisinart's skeleton as electricity coursed through his flesh and bones. His health was already considerably low from Blossom's constant lightning bolts, but her final attack from her Lightning Rod skill put the icing on the cake.

Blossom had received some damage of her own, it was near impossible to not retain full health after a PvP duel, but she showed clear superiority with her health still above three-fourths of her total health points. "Almost every single time I see you, you try to pull lame flirtation attempts in order to get me into your guild! Just stay away from me, Christ!" Blossom exclaimed.

Demonz showed an annoyingly confident smile, "Someone as cute as you should just come along nicely... Let me guess, that one jackass High Elf from the other day seduced you or something?"